GOJIRA Drummer Talks Upcoming Album, 'Sea Shepherd' EP

Brendan Crabb of Australia's Loud recently conducted an interview with drummer Mario Duplantier of French progressive metallers GOJIRA. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

On GOJIRA's forthcoming four-song EP, the proceeds from which will benefit Sea Shepherd, an anti-whaling organization ,and featuring guest appearances by Devin Townsend (STRAPPING YOUNG LAD),Fredrik Thordendal (MESHUGGAH),Randy Blythe (LAMB OF GOD),Anders Fridn (IN FLAMES) and Max Cavalera (SOULFLY, CAVALERA CONSPIRACY, SEPULTURA):

"The music is ready, but we're waiting on [a] vocalist. We want to release it as soon as possible, maybe August or September. When you ask to put singers on the record, it makes it difficult. If it's just Joe [Duplantier; guitar/vocals] on voice, that makes it easier, but it's not easy . . . The music has been ready for six months, but the people who accepted to be part of the project had a lot of scheduling conflicts. Each song has different vocalists; it will be four very different songs. It's not an album, so we decided to have fun. One is very fast, one is very slow, one has a very rock vibe it's very different to the album."

On the collaboration with by Devin Townsend:

"We decided to invite him because we've known him since a long time, when we shared a stage in 2006. We were big fans of STRAPPING YOUNG LAD, we're amazed by his work. He told us he had a lot of respect [for] and loved our music as well. We wanted to share something and when Joe decided to make the project, Devin was the first guy we decided to contact. He agreed to participate as he was a big fan of GOJIRA, but he was also a big fan of the project."

On GOJIRA's next full-length album which the band hopes to finish recording in October for an early 2012 release:

"We don't have the name of the album or the songs yet, as that usually comes later."

On GOJIRA's forthcoming DVD, featuring live footage with a bonus section entitled "The Way Of All Flesh From The Inside":

"It's to close [2008's] 'The Way Of All Flesh' [touring cycle]. We toured for three years on that. Some shows had some great shots and we wanted to immortalize it. We are also working on a documentary, one hour talking about the three years of the band on the road. It's a way to finish that period. . . Maybe (they'll use) one show, but we have three or four very good quality shows [recorded]. But we have to choose one. Maybe it will be one we did in a small venue in France The atmosphere was fantastic and the fans were crazy. We have a festival one, but that is a different energy. We may decide to put a couple of songs from each show."

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