Interview mit Johan, Guillaume & Royer von Celeste

Hi and thanks a lot for taking time for this interview! How are you doing?
Royer: Hi! We are fine thank you, exciting period for us with the recent release of our last album, also thank you for your interest for CELESTE.

How are things going with Corona in France at the moment?
Royer: It seems things are starting to calm down a bit for now, but there’s still a lot of people getting infected with the coronavirus everyday. We hope that better times will finally come with a herd immunity of the population.

Your last album came out five years ago – did you fall into a creative hole after that, or was this comparatively long break only due to the label change and their release schedule?
Guillaume: After several albums obviously it becomes harder and harder to find new ideas and to compose songs. So yes, we need more and more time to create. Also right after the release of „Infidèle(s)“ we also needed to take a short break to enjoy our new songs live, without thinking about a new album. But we still started composing „Assassine(s)“ in 2018. But everything went very, very slowly. Because it wasn’t just about composing a new album but pushing out the limits of our music, exploring new horizons. It’s complicated to renew yourself, there are periods of doubt, and inspiration is not necessarily there when you need it. But during the first lockdown we composed almost 80% of the songs. This period allowed us to focus our whole energy on this album, because we no longer had any other distractions. And we were originally supposed to go to Will Putneys studio in August 2020 so we had to speed things up anyway! Because of the pandemic we could not go to the United States, and we decided to postpone the recording and to stay in France to record with Chris Edrich. Thanks to this little extra time we could refine the songs, push them even further, and work on the smallest details. It was ultimately very beneficial. Very sincerely, if we hadn’t postponed this project, this album would not have been the same.

The takes started in November 2020, and we were supposed to have finished the recording sessions in December. But Chris was so demanding with us, that we had to reschedule a recording week in January 2021. We learned a lot working by his side, even if it was sometimes very chalenging. Repeating sometimes dozens and dozens of times the recording takes until having the right one. But the game was worth it! Then it took us quite a while to get the perfect mix and master. The album has been ready since last June, but we decided with Nuclear Blast to postpone the release to have every chance of going on tour afterwards to play it in front of our audience.

Speaking of labels: „Assassine(s)“ is the first CELESTE album that is not released by Denovali. Why did you dare to take this step?
Royer: We’ve been working with Denovali since almost the beginning to release and press our previous albums, but since a while we’re starting to have more expectations for CELESTE. We were almost the only metal band in their roster, most of their artists were more experimental music. So we wanted to have a label more specialized in metal music to have more visilibity with a good communication, an efficient structure that a big label such as Nuclear Blast could provide. A real tool to spread our music since we have more expectations regarding the distribution and the broadcasting and that we wanted to expand the band at the superior step. So we realized that working with Denovali has had its days.

As someone who now knows both worlds, where do you see the differences between a niche label like Denovali and a metal major like Nuclear Blast?
Guillaume: Indeed, these are two incomparable worlds. We will never deny our origins, Denovali was almost the first label that believed in us, supported us and help us to spread our music more widely, in particular by agreeing to put our albums on free download. But after more than ten years of collaboration, we felt a need for change. We had the impression of stagnating and not succeeding in going beyond the stage of a niche group. We are not looking for notoriety at all costs, nor to become metal superstars. We don’t really care about all that. But we were a bit frustrated that we couldn’t reach a wider audience.

Has the plan – as far as one can tell so far – worked out?
Even if it is still a bit early to comment on the results of our collaboration with Nuclear Blast, we can clearly see that the methods of promotion are different and that the media coverage around the release of „Assassine(s)“ is incomparable with our previous album. In terms of monthly listeners on Spotify and views on Youtube it is also a big change. Without denigrating Denovalis work, Nuclear Blast has a real strike force on the digital, and it is essential today for a band.

Also musically I think a lot has changed – where do you yourself see the biggest difference to the previous album?
Royer: Since the beginning of the band, we always wanted to make our music evolve on each albums, it could have been to go through something more dark or violent, or it could have been more melodic or with more sadness, but always thinking to incorporate new ideas in our music. But I think our vision of music and the way we play it, sticks to us and we never really lose it. So yes there’s a new stuff in our music on „Assassine(s)“, with lead guitars, which is really new for us, less black metal blastbeat and it’s also maybe more leanning on sadness atmosphere than evil and violent, but still without losing our essence. We could also mentioned that Guillaume was the main composer in the band in the past, now Johan is also writing songs, which helps diversifiying our music. It’s a new side of CELESTE but it’s still CELESTE, I would say.

While you might have heard many times before that your albums sound too similar, I could almost imagine that your new album sounds „too different“ to some people. Someone is always dissatisfied, right? How do you deal with that?
Royer: According to me, as I said before, there were always an evolution in our music on each albums, but maybe not all the people got it right or saw the subtlety. Maybe because we were always focused to create something eve darker, evil and violent, without breathing, each time, so that’s why things could look a bit similar. But this album sounds a bit different that’s true, because it’s more diversified and less black metal, but more metal and more melodic. Each track has its identity and its music style. But for now it seems the album is very well welcomed. Also we didn’t have had bad critics until now or people being nostalgic of old CELESTE’s albums. We needed something fresh and new to ourselves as well, because we play music for us in the first place. We guess there will have people who won’t like the record but if we are statisfied that’s the most important.

In my opinion it sounds much more sludge influenced, there are more calm, heavy passages … partly it reminds me of Hemelbestormer, Cult of Luna or Gloson, on the other side of groove metal bands, first of all Gojira. Is that music you listen to, or has your listening habit changed, so that could have caused your style change?
Guillaume: Before starting the composition of each new album, we take a litte time with Johan to chat about the main directions we want to work on. For this one we both wanted to mark a significant change with our previous albums. One of our major desire was still to compose a very dark music but much more melancholic and deep than in the past. And I have to say that Johan was really a driving force on that. He was the first who dared to think outside the box at the very beginning of the composition. It clearly opened doors for me, even if we each kept our own sensibility. We also wanted to put more highs and lows throughout the album and within each song, assuming quieter parts. This shift comes more from us, than from musical influences that have evolved in recent years. I never listened to Hemelbestormer or Gloson, and I stopped listening Cult Of Luna since „Somewhere Along The Highway“! Concerning Gojira, I listened a lot „From Mars To Sirius“ and „L’Enfant Sauvage“, but I’m not really into their last albums even if I still admire their talent. I’ve listened to their new album only once since its release and unfortunately it didn’t really make me want to come back on it. I found some very good riffs and had the feeling that they had managed to renew themselves. Even if this new direction is not really my cup of tea. But independently of „Fortitude“, they have always known how to be original. Besides, for me, they especially revolutionized metal with „From Mars To Sirius“.

Also the sound is quite different – maybe it’s the sound that reminds me to Gojira in some way. Was that by purpose and why did you decide to work with Chris Edrich this time?
Guilllaume: I think that the production of „Assassine(s)“ changes the perception of our music quite a bit. Chris really did an amazing job of bringing out all the details in our compositions within a very modern sound. We already knew him by name and we knew that he was renowned for doing a great job, especially live for Leprous and The Ocean.We also really appreciated the mix he did on Hypno5e’s latest album. And we thought that his sound’s approach could match perfectly with our desire to move towards a more professional and modern production. So nothing to do with Gojira!

On one track you also have female vocals. How did it come to this, who do we hear here and what do you learn from this experiment? Will we hear that more often in the future?
Johan: I’ve written this song almost like a post rock song. I knew that there would be a part on which I would not feel comfortable to sing. So I thought about finding someone to do a featuring. And then I felt like it would be even more interesting to seek for a female voice. It was perfectly fitting with the lyrics and the theme of the album. I thought it would be much easier to find someone. It actually was quite a though task. Finally things went quite well with Emily Marks. What I’ve learnt from this experiment is that mixing french and english in the same song is not a problem. I really enjoy the outcome so it’s totally possible that we experiment such things again in the future even if it’s a lot of work and stress.

As a cover artwork you have chosen again a black and white portrait, this time by Mira Nedyalkova, but clearly in the tradition of the works of Martyna Dziekan on „Morte(s) Nee(s)“ and „Animale(s)“. Was that the brief, or at least idea behind it, to return to that style?
Johan: Well I never felt like I quit it. „Infidèle(s)“ is a bit different I agree but it’s still a CELESTE picture. Actually I always work on the artwork with 100% freedom. I have my own style and tastes so you’ll definitely feel a connection between all the artworks but there could be a breakthrough as well someday. As long as the picture means somehting to me, that it sticks to the concept of the album I’m fine with any idea. Maybe the only thing that will stay the same is that our artwork will continue to be made out of pictures I guess.

You kept your „(s)“ in the album title. What was it about this idea that initially excited you so much that you still do it today?
Johan: That’s the same idea which is behind the artwork. Consistency is something that really matters to me.  I’m also doing my best to make CELESTE to be an artistic projet that is recognizable among every other bands. This gimmick of the „(s)“ that we’ve used since day one is part of that creative process. Hopefuly when you cross such title even randomly you instantly know it’s a CELESTE album. That’s the same for the artworks and hopefully for the music itself as well.

Besides the music – did you use the concert-free time to get a new „Corona hobby“? What is your way to spend the free time that we all have now due to the fact that there are no liveshows?
Guillaume: No new hobby, but I had more time to devote myself to those I had before the pandemic: cycling and snowboarding!

Thank you very much for the interview. Let’s wrap it up with our traditional brainstorming – what is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of the following terms?
Last album you listened to: Johan: „Rien Ne Suffit“ by Plebeian Grandstand / Royer: „A Tear In Rhe Fabric Life“ by Knocked Loose / Guillaume: „The Shape Of Everything“ by SOM
Festivals in 2022? Johan: a lot, hopefuly / Royer: Hellfest / Guillaume: Resurrection in Spain
Black Metal: Johan: Not really my thing. / Royer: Body paint / Guillaume: What CELESTE is not.
Converge: Johan: Not really my thing. / Royer: Never really listened to. / Guillaume: A very respectable band with a music I don’t listen to.
A food that always makes you happy: Johan: Beer / Royer: Burgers / Guillaume: Pizza
CELESTE in 10 years: Johan: Still friends and still alive / Royer: Friends / Guillaume: Too old guys

Once again thanks for your time. The last words are yours – is there anything left you want to tell our readers?
Johan: Hopefuly we’ll have a lot of people coming at our upcoming shows. We’ve prepared a super immersive live experience. We really hope you’ll enjoy it !

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Publiziert am 12. Februar 2022 von Moritz Grütz