KREATOR's FRÉDÉRIC LECLERCQ Brings SINSAENUM Back To Life After Death Of His Father And JOEY JORDISON

By David E. Gehlke

The brainchild of former DRAGONFORCE and now current KREATOR bassist Frédéric Leclercq, the death/thrash hybrid SINSAENUM was initially conceived in 1998, a few years before Leclercq would become a globetrotting musician. His travels brought him into contact with then-SLIPKNOT drummer Joey Jordison, whose shared love of death metal offered the perfect entry point for him to hop onboard as SINSAENUM's drummer. Leclercq (who handles guitar and songwriting in SINSAENUM) also had the good fortune of being surrounded by an array of established veterans, including vocalist Attila Csihar (MAYHEM),fellow vocalist Sean Zatorsky (DÅÅTH),guitarist Stéphane Buriez (LOUDBLAST) and bassist Heimoth (SETH),giving the international outfit a stacked lineup before they committed anything to tape.

Between 2016 and 2018, the band's recorded output came quickly, including three EPs and two LPs, all registering quite well with the cross-section of SLIPKNOT and long-running extreme metal fans curious as to what a lineup of such talent could produce. Then, of course, Covid hit in 2020, slowing down the writing cycle to the follow-up to 2018's "Repulsion Of Humanity". Leclercq's father passed away, and so did Jordison, effectively putting the brakes on the band. But with some help from his friends and new drummer André Joyzi stepping in for Jordison, Leclercq was able to see SINSAENUM's third opus, "In Devastation", to its completion, which is precisely why BLABBERMOUTH.NET got the friendly Frenchman on the line for a chat.

Blabbermouth: When you brought Joey into SINSAENUM, what was the plan? He was still in SLIPKNOT; you were still in DRAGONFORCE. Was it considered a long-term project at that time?

Frédéric: "It was a bit of both. It was a long-term thing, but it had to be fun. It was a nice outlet for all the extreme music we wanted to play. For me, definitely, with DRAGONFORCE, it was not something I could explore. I had all of those songs written for a long time, and I really wanted to do it. Joey was passionate about death metal. We wanted to do it for fun because our careers were already good. Also, 'fun' doesn't mean 'not serious.' If you can do both, it's even better. We wanted to have fun with friends, but also do something that would carry on. It still carries on."

Blabbermouth: How did songwriting work out between the two of you?

Frédéric: "Songwriting was easy; it was like, 'It's good. Let's do that.' Coming from him, I had to pinch myself because he wrote all those anthems. Joey was always giving me compliments; he was very genuine. He didn't put himself on a pedestal, like, 'Do you know who I am?' It was never that. He always said, 'I love those songs. It's cool!' On the first album, I wrote all the music myself. He was like, 'Perfect. Let's go. This is cool.' The second one, we had an Airbnb before he recorded, and the rest of the band was there because we needed to shoot the video at the same time. It was easier logistically. We ended up sitting together and writing some lyrics, and he contributed a part in 'Repulsion For Humanity', the song, the chunky riff in the middle. Other than that, it was pretty much up to me, which is cool."

Blabbermouth: Being a part of DRAGONFORCE and now KREATOR, do you enjoy carrying the songwriting load and everything else?

Frédéric: "It sounds great on paper. [Laughs] It can be a pain in the ass, especially when you're not doing too well and you have to carry on because the band has to exist. At first, it was fun, like, 'Hey! This is great.' Then, obviously, when it comes up in the media, we see who is the most important, like 'New Joey Jordison band features Attila from MAYHEM and also Fred.' You go, 'Come on. Okay. Fair enough.' I remember the first time it came out, I was disappointed, but then people were like, 'It makes total sense.' I had to go, 'You're right.' It took me two seconds to go, 'It speaks volumes.' Also, to be honest, if I heard 'New death metal band from Luca Turilli [ex-RHAPSODY OF FIRE]', I'd be like, 'Really? Maybe it's not good…" When everything is good, then it's fine. When you have to drive the band, you need to fight, not with the label, because our label has been supportive. However, when Joey was working in VIMIC and his management and whatnot, everybody wanted a piece of him. But I learned the hard way. It was complicated at times; it's not his fault. It's no one's fault. Everybody wants what's in their best interest, but it was a fucking pain in the ass. Then, finally, when you have to work on an album, but you don't really care about music because you lost your father and your friend, you're just like, 'Fucking hell. It's on me. I wish I could be in KREATOR or to some extent, DRAGONFORCE.' DRAGONFORCE, at the beginning, I was in the driver's seat. Well, not the driver's seat, but the passenger's seat. We ended up having a wheel with three hands. With KREATOR, I'm in the passenger's seat, which is perfect. I have no intention of taking the wheel and going, 'Let's go that way.' I'm the passenger, and sometimes, I'm like, 'Maybe we go that way.' Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. When you have to drive and everything is dark outside, it can be problematic."

Blabbermouth: That being said, was there ever a time during the making of "In Devastation" that you wanted to throw in the towel after losing your dad and Joey?

Frédéric: "It wasn't even a case of the band being done; it was more like nothing mattered. I was floating when I lost my father. It's not like, 'I'm going to disband and live in the forest.' It's not like that. The priorities change. It didn't really matter to me as much. I saw a picture the other day on the SINSAENUM social media of Stéphane and me in my old house, and we had been working on new material. That was January 2021. It sounds like we were working on new stuff, but it was the stuff I had recorded and worked on in 2019. I guess we were like, 'Okay. Let's try to do something.' I was empty inside, then Joey passed away. You don't think about music at first; you think about your friend. Then, talking about it with the other guys, because it puts the family back together. Not that we weren't together, but you need to call everyone [with the news]. The conversation came naturally: 'The next album should be in his honor.' To me, it was clear that if I had mentioned him instead of my father, it would have turned out this way. That gave me the force to go, 'Well. There's a purpose for this.' In grieving or any sort of breakup, you accept the situation. During all these interviews, I'm talking about my father and Joey a lot. Also, our live guy Fred, who passed away last year, the album is dedicated to him. I talked about it a lot, but that's not what the album is about. The songs are catchy. It's music. It's supposed to be entertaining. Because it's presented that way, people are like, 'Oh, it's a very sad album.' It's not. It has a sad song, but it's like [AC/DC's] 'Back In Black'. The album is not sad, though."

Blabbermouth: Is there any Joey on this record, or is this all you?

Frédéric: "I did all the music, but for the lyrics, we asked external people. I felt like we had reached a plateau with the last two albums in terms of lyrics and subjects and whatnot. Also, I felt pretty dry. I knew that with LOUDBLAST, we asked someone else to take care of the lyrics. I thought, 'This is not a bad idea.' I contacted Nathanael Underwood [ex-AKERCOCKE] and also Mike Heller [RAVEN], who is much better known for being a drummer. He's a good friend of mine. He was like, 'Lyrics? I can have a go at them. I'm good at it.' I said, 'Why not?' I gave them a theme for the demos we had been working on with Sean. Sean sometimes comes up with some random words because some of them stick out. We used that as a template to build something around it. Then we go back and correct things. Sometimes I ask Sean, 'What do you think of this?' It was more of a collaborative effort on the lyric side, but the music is all me."

Blabbermouth: You tapped Andre to record the drums. Can you share how that all came together, especially when it came time to track?

Frédéric: "He was the drum tech on the SINSANEUM tour. He became part of the family. He's someone I've known for a long time. He was working in London, so he's a friend of DRAGONFORCE's. He's also been on tour with DRAGONFORCE, and so when the time came to think about who would play drums, it became obvious that having someone who was from Europe and someone that we knew, but also, we asked, 'Do we want to have someone who is famous but makes it a supergroup?' I mean, there's no shortage of those people. Hell, I know a lot of amazing people. Mike, for one. He's an amazing drummer. We thought about him for a minute, but we felt that working with Andre made total sense because of his connection to us. It was about keeping that 'family' element. Since the beginning, that's something I wanted. I've also asked people who were friends of mine, and I wanted to keep it that way. The fact that the crew became a part of that family is why, like I said, it's also dedicated to Fred. He was doing our lights and was part of our family and went through all the touring shit with us. Of course, Andre is a good drummer. [Laughs]"

Blabbermouth: That was my next question. Joey was impeccable; Andre stepped up to the task.

Frédéric: "Yeah, he's great. On the tour, he was watching what Joey was doing every night. It's not unheard of to have a drum tech. I think Nick Menza was the drum tech before he joined MEGADETH. It does make sense. We thought it was important to keep it in the family, to quote ANTHRAX."

Blabbermouth: I always thought Sean Z. did a nice job in DÅÅTH. He's great on "In Devastation" as well. You have him doing a lot of different styles.

Frédéric: "DRAGONFORCE toured with CYNIC and DÅÅTH in 2009. We clicked on a human level, but also his vocals are like, 'Fuck. I love his voice. That would be so cool for the death metal project of mine that I have in the back of my head.' He was the first choice on vocals. He's phenomenal. He's very articulate, very powerful. He can do all the layers in the world, like black/death, very deep vocals. I think, on this album, we wanted to experiment more. When I started to work on those songs in 2019, he was the one I was getting in touch with for vocal patterns. Those changed because we've changed the lyrics. It didn't work. It worked on certain stuff, and he's still credited in the lyric department since we kept quite a few of them, depending on the song. We would say, 'How about some clean vocals?' 'Last Goodbye' wasn't in shape before my father and Joey passed away, then it turned into something else. It had a purpose. Before that, we already wanted to experiment with clean vocals, which is why on that song and on 'Obsolete And Broken', there's also a clean part. When I started that song, it was just me doing the middle section, so we mixed them up. Sean is amazing, and he's a great performer. He's got great charisma. All around, he's an amazing dude."

Blabbermouth: What do you have in mind for live shows?

Frédéric: "We are doing three weeks in Europe in October. It's been seven years; people are still listening to us. I can see it on the streaming platforms that people haven't forgotten about the band and the name. At least we don't have to start over where people can't pronounce the name correctly. So the name already exists, and it's not starting from complete scratch, but starting from low and building it up again. We're going to take our time. I'm extremely busy with KREATOR. We have a new album coming out next year, so I'm doing what I can when I can. I cannot say, 'We're going to tour the world!' I don't even know if people want us to tour the world. I think the reaction to the first singles has been good. I didn't read anything bad, which is great. [Laughs] I found a comment on YouTube where a guy said, 'I don't like the vocals.'"

Blabbermouth: You fell down the rabbit hole!

Frédéric: "I know, I know, but what does that even mean? 'I don't like the vocals.' Then don't listen to this music, you fucking dick. [Laughs] But we'll do some shows and we'll see. One thing is for sure, we're going to keep making music."

Blabbermouth: We touched upon Steph briefly. LOUDBLAST deserves a lot of credit for being one of the first extreme metal bands to emerge from France. Can you go into your relationship with him and what LOUDBLAST has meant to you?

Frédéric: "They're definitely well-known and respected in France. Stéphane, the first time I met him was in 1995. I was 17 and my band was opening a small festival, and LOUDBLAST was headlining. That was the first time I saw a big band that I loved. We met around that time, but it was brief. I was a kid, and he was already a little older. [Laughs] Then we bumped into each other some years after, and I remember him telling the story, and he said, 'Oh yeah, that's cool.' My career was going somewhere else, and we sort of kept in touch. He remembered who I was and the fact that my parents are from northern France, which is where LOUDBLAST is, roughly, so we always kept in touch. Amazingly, we managed to have LOUDBLAST and SINSAENUM together. First and foremost, he's one of my best friends. We are there for each other. It's great that we have a music aspect, something that we share, but we also share more than that."

Photo credit: Celine Kopp