GOJIRA's JOSEPH DUPLANTIER Featured In Latest Episode Of 'Tales Of Touring Terror'

Guitarist/vocalist Joseph Duplantier of French progressive metallers GOJIRA is featured in the latest episode of PureGrainAudio's "Tales Of Touring Terror" series. Check it out below.

GOJIRA has spent the last few months in the studio working on the follow-up to 2012's "L'Enfant Sauvage" album for a tentative early 2016 release via Roadrunner.

Duplantier told Ireland's Overdrive about the progress of the recording sessions for the band's new CD. "Usually we compose a bunch of songs — like 15 songs — and then it's, like, 'Okay, we have 15 songs.' You know what I mean? Usually, we're very happy with the songs we have right away and we treat them like kids. It's like when you have a baby and you take care of that baby; you don't think twice — it's just an immediate reflex to protect and nurture. Now it's, like, 'Wait a second. We need our strongest album now. We need something really perfect.' First, we started to act like before and we had these songs and were, like, 'Okay, it is what is it. Maybe it's not the greatest of all time.' Then we really thought about it, and now we're like, 'No, it has to be the greatest GOJIRA album of all time.' So we got rid of all the songs that were not absolutely mindblowing and came up with more songs. It sounds really pretentious to say it's the greatest album of all time, but, to us, it is."

According to Joseph, not having to meet record company deadlines during the making of the new GOJIRA album has given him and his bandmates an opportunities to revisit the material and refine it to make it better. He said: "I think it's very important to give some space during this period of making the album. Having the luxury of being able to listen to the songs with new ears and a fresh new perspective really helps us understand what we are creating and helps to identify problems, like if a composition is too long, or if there is something missing from this song. This has happened with some of the songs on the new album to date, which has been a great exercise for us, and, fortunately, has worked tremendously in our favor, as we have developed the songs to a much higher standard, which is exactly what we are looking to do."

He continued: "We understand that we have to let the new material breathe. For example, we were thinking, 'Okay, this song is way too long,' or 'There is definitely something missing on this song,' and sometimes we even make a complete turnaround decision about including some material for the album, because it just might not be good enough, or happens to be not right for the overall feel of the album."

Joseph added: "Another way we approached the recording of the record is that every song needs to be super exciting, especially when it's our sixth or seventh album. We don't want to make something and be, like, 'Oh, this is what I did, and we're not really that happy with it.' We still have to decide what is really worth being on this record. That is so important to us and taking some distance helps this process."