GOJIRA Frontman Says Band Will Take Six-Month Break In 2010

Ash Curtis of the Less Bright Eyes, More Deicide blog recently conducted an interview with guitarist/vocalist Joseph Duplantier of French progressive metallers GOJIRA. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

On the band's constant touring:

"I think we need a break. Since 2004, we never stopped. Between 'From Mars To Sirius' and 'The Way Of All Flesh', we didn't take a break. Just five days break, and that was five days in my bed! So now I think we need a break, the band needs to do something else for a little bit. In 2010, maybe for six months. After that, we'll compose, we'll feel fresh because for the moment we're a bit… there's saturation. It's a fatigue, but very deep. We need to really think about something else. Even if we love it and every night on stage we're like, 'Arrgh this is our life!' y'know, and after the show we're in the dressing room and we feel good to be playing on stage. It'll benefit to this band to have a break."

On LAMB OF GOD frontman Randy Blythe, who makes a guest appearance on the GOJIRA track "Adoration For None" (from the "The Way Of All Flesh" album):

"He is a big GOJIRA fan and he would get on stage every night and sing a song with us, and I would get on stage and sing a LAMB OF GOD song. I was in America before the tour. I was spending some time there to see some friends and the guys from LAMB OF GOD because we became friends, and he told me, 'Hey, I want to scream on the record, motherfucker!' and I was like, 'No problem.' (laughs). He came to France to record the song just for one week and he slept in my apartment on the couch with my cat. (laughs) It was very funny because I was like, 'Take my bed and I'll sleep on the couch,' and he was like, 'No way! It's your bed, I'll sleep on the couch.' So I took him to the mountains and to the ocean. We live in the southwest of France; it's a pretty nice area. He ate some French food and he said, 'Oh my god, this is amazing!' So, really, really good atmosphere in the studio and we had a lot of fun. He is really easy going."

On the lyrical content of "The Way of All Flesh":

"I'm considering the state of the planet. The fact that we destroy everything all the time as a race. We build, we try to think, and there is good in humanity but there is also destruction and bad things and competition and anger. So this album talks about the idea of death and decay and the fact that we have to accept that part of us. We also have to accept that one day we will disappear. Our body will return to dust. There is a question — what is the soul? I like to talk about the soul remaining in the afterlife. I believe in reincarnation. It's a personal belief that I have, but probably 80% of the planet is into that belief also. It must be something, it means something. We need to consider that we are more than just bones and flesh and blood, y'know, there is something else, there is consciousness and memory and somehow that we remain after death."

Read the entire interview on the Less Bright Eyes, More Deicide blog.