Interview mit Johan von Celeste

Once again, your new album is a bastard between post-hardcore, sludge and black metal. To which scene do you see youself associated with most? Or how would you define your music?
Mostly Black Metal which is a mistake to my opinion, but people need tags which are mainly black, sludge, doom for us. I would define CELESTE as a metal band whom has its proper sound signature.

Your new album sounds like pure rage, hate and aggression – would you agree with that, and what inspired you during songwriting?
Yep that’s pretty much that, I would probably add “despair” to it. Well I’m a grown up now haha, so I don’t feel such feelings that often, so I don’t really use any prism to write my stuff. I honnestly can’t explain why such sound satisfies me… but I really don’t need any source of inspiration; we just write what we’d like to hear.

Essential for this effect is also the sound, which is really aggressive, and in a way sterile (bass drum) but raw at the same time. What was your aim during the mixing – what kind of sound had you in mind and are you fully satisfied with the result?
For that one we totally changed our habits. We did it in a different studio with some people we never worked with in the past. We also didn’t stay 2 weeks in a row at the studio but rather do it through multiple short sessions. We wanted that album to sound much cleaner than our previous releasses, more Hi fi and professional, so less raw in the end. We’re really happy with the result and feel like it’s our best production to date. I think that you can understand much more things thanks to this kind of production.

Musicwise, bad tongues would say that „Infidèle(s)“ is a typical CELESTE-album. Would you subscribe that, and if not: What are for you the main differences between this album and its predecessor?
Yep bad tongues. We’re used to hear such things. Nobody complains about Unsane doing the same thing again and again, but for us it should be different. First of all that’s untrue; I think that most of the people simply doesn’t understand our music, so they don’t understand all the details within it. But yeah CELESTE sounds like CELESTE and no other, and I see that as a huge strenght. For instance, on Infidèle(s) we tried to make it even more diveresed, more melodious and metal at the same time. We’re really proud of it.

The album is entitled „Infidèle(s)“. What is the album about, and who are the infidels you’re writing about?
I’m mainly writing about 2 kinds of infidels. I’m writing about the unfaithful human being and the unfaithful in the religion field. Most of the lyrics of the album have a double meaning.

How important are the lyrics in general for you, do you want to have a „message“ or are the lyrics only “ a special instrument“ in your music?
It’s becoming more and more difficult from an album to another to find some new things to write about, but since they’re gonna come out of my mouth, I try to make them as meaningful as possible. I couldn’t stand singing bullshit. But I don’t really want to spread a message, I just want to write something interesting and beautiful.

The Artwork of the album is a photo of a bunch of women laying on a black floor, to describe it unemotional. What’s the idea behind that picture and how did it emerge?
Well the idea, was to create a pile of dead bodies/beauties. It has some obvious meanings, I’m pretty sure you can guess them by yourself ;)

The picture was created as artwork for this album. Where is the connection between the picture and the music/title/flyrics. In other words: Why is it the perfect artwork for „Infidèle(s)“?
This is the perfect artwork because you can guess at first glance that it’s a CELESTE artwork, and it totally fits to the lyrics and thematic, I also think that it’s really iconic and guenuine.

Are you planning to go on tour with this album, and if yes: are there already any dates confirmed?
Yep We’ll do a bunch of shows in EU maintly on week-ends, and a little tour in Hungary, Ukraine and Turkey. Later on we’ll do another 3 weeks tour in the USA and later on an Asian tour.

What can we expect from future shows – how much of the new album will you play live, and do you plan to change anything in your stage-concept with the fog and the red lights?
We added a very few new things to our live concept, but I’m pretty sure you won’t notice them haha. Concerning the set list, we’re already playing 3 songs from Infidele, and we’ll probably play 2 more later on.

You’ve played over 300 shows now – which bands you did not share the stage with so far you’d love to tour with?
Neurosis, Wolves In The Throne Room, Gojira. We shared stages with them but never toured with.

Thanks for taking time for this interview – lets finish this with a short brainstorming. What comes into your mind first reading the following terms:
Germany: Did too much shows there
Black Metal: Pandas with shitty sound
Fog: On stage not in the audience
Neymar: Will bring money to the French Footbal Sphere
Favorite album in 2017 so far: Newmoon – Space

Thanks for your time and answers – the last words are yours:
Thank you very much for the support !

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Publiziert am 8. Oktober 2017 von Moritz Grütz