CRYPTOPSY Drummer To Collaborate With Rap Artist

Deadtide.com recently conducted an interview with CRYPTOPSY drummer Flo Mounier. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

Deadtide.com: Would you say CRYPTOPSY has reached its peak with "Once Was Not"? Do you believe the albums have gotten better and better, or do you think there have been weaker points along the way?

Flo Mounier: We just don't want to "top" anything, we just want to make different albums. So it's not like there's gonna be a peak or whatever. I think for the next one we wanna do something that we feel that we've been wanting to do for a long time, but just haven't pushed the envelope as far as the direction. We just want to do something that's different, that hopefully hasn't been done before, and just take it to a level that makes us comfortable playing and listening to it. And I think it's just creating more feeling all around in the music, just making it breathe more. Feeling's the best word; creating a feeling so when you listen to it you get goosebumps and are like "Wow, this is really different," and it just creates an emotion. I think that's what we want to head more towards for the next album.

Deadtide.com: So to follow up then, what do you have to say to fans who just want something more along the lines of "None So Vile"?

Flo Mounier: Well "None So Vile"'s got a lot of groove and a lot of feeling as well. Fans that just want speed I'm not really fond of; I don't like speed for the sake of speed and neglecting music. So fans who want something more like "None So Vile" can just go listen to "None So Vile", haha. I don't want to replay "None So Vile". I wouldn't mind remixing it and stuff like that, maybe making a remix of "Phobophile" or something with a little more violins and strings and stuff like that would be quite interesting. But we'll see what the future holds...

Deadtide.com: Who came up with the idea to do the DVD, "Extreme Metal Drumming 101"? Was it just people asking you, the label, or just something you wanted to do?

Flo Mounier: It's something I wanted to do because I had a lot of people asking me for lessons, and I didn't have a lot of time. And also people were asking me for lessons in Russian and stuff like that, and it's like, well do you want me to do? Fly me down for a day? So basically I came up with a DVD and showed all the stuff that I do to get to the point where I'm at as far as endurance and all that. What I did was a market study on the internet to find out what people wanted to see, so I got their feedback, went with the majority of what people wanted to see on a DVD, and just played it out. Then I just made a section that's just entertainment. So it was my idea, but it was influenced by fans.

Deadtide.com: Would you say there are aspects of the DVD that all drummers can take and learn from?

Flo Mounier: Oh absolutely, yeah. There's stuff for everyone, and it's facilitating speed and a constant in what you're playing, whether you're playing in jazz or rock, when you have that speed and you have that control, everything becomes a little bit easier. So it's definitely not just for metal kids or metal drummers, it's for everyone.

Deadtide.com: Aside from the DVD which was relatively solo, would you ever consider breaking away from CRYPTOPSY and pursuing something else?

Flo Mounier: Yeah, I have projects that are coming up. I actually have a project I'm working on with a rap artist from Regina. It's actually really interesting, 'cause we're going to mix basic hip hop beats and grooves, and make them more interesting, more diverse, and just loop. And we're incorporating some metal into it as well, some metal breaks and some grind, and then coming back to some hip hop. We're just making it more of a unit effort and a band effort, instead of just the artist and the loop that's always repeating and repeating; it kind of gets monotonous at times. So I'm working on that as well, and for now that's pretty much it. I have some other rock thing that I might do in Montreal, with Eric the bass player's cousin, that we've been in and out of for the past eight years. So yeah, keeping busy.

Read the entire interview at Deadtide.com.