GORGUTS Mainman On New Album: 'I Wasn't Interested In Sticking To Traditional Song Structures'

Raymond Westland of Ghost Cult Magazine recently conducted an interview with guitarist/vocalist Luc Lemay of Canadian technical death metallers GORGUTS. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Ghost Cult Magazine: GORGUTS disappeared from the scene almost a decade ago. What happened?

Luc: After Steve McDonald (former GORGUTS drummer) passed away in 2002 I decided to move away from Montreal, because I was done living there. I wanted to be closer to where I was raised and be closer to nature in a way. After Steve's death, I wasn't interested in playing music anymore. I was very content with the musical legacy of the band at that point and I was ready to start a new chapter in my life. I started to make a living out of woodworking. Back in 2006, Steeve Hurdle asked me to join NEGATIVA. I joined his band on the condition that everything would be low key. It was all about having fun playing music for me. After a rehearsal, Steeve pointed out that it would be cool to make a new GORGUTS record to commemorate GORGUTS' 20 years of existence. I was all for it and from that point the idea came to play with John [Longstreth; drums], Kevin [Hufnagel; guitar] and Colin [Marston; bass] and create a new record. The rest is history, as they say.

Ghost Cult Magazine: "Colored Sands" took quite some years to be completed. How so?

Luc: When I decided to put GORGUTS on hiatus back in 2002, we were signed to Olympic Records and they were taken over by Century Media, so suddenly they owned my contract. Although I didn't play music anymore, I had to go through a lot of red tape. Stupid as I was, I signed the new contract without reading the fine print. So when I approached Century Media about doing a new GORGUTS record, they were totally into the idea, but I wasn't happy with the old contract, so I asked them whether we could negotiate better terms to make the contract more up to date. They agreed to, but in the end we didn't see eye to eye on things and we mutually agreed it was better to go our separate ways. Dissolving the contract was a very time-consuming and complicated legal affair. As a band, we decided to push on recording "Colored Sands", regardless of how long it would take to settle the legal affairs with Century Media. While the music was already written, it took me years to write all the lyrics.

Ghost Cult Magazine: "Colored Sands" is a combination of technical death metal and more atmospheric parts. How did you manage to make it all stick?

Luc: It was a matter of adapting to a new musical vision and playing with new musicians. When writing the new record, I wasn't interested in sticking to traditional song structures. At the time, I started to listen to more progressive bands like OPETH and PORCUPINE TREE, so that certainly had a major influence on my writing. I really love Steven Wilson's music, be it his solo work, BLACKFIELD or PORCUPINE TREE. I really love the atmospheric songs on "Deadwing". PORCUPINE TREE's "The Incident" record as a real eye opener for me when I was working on "Colored Sands". I wanted to translate that style of writing into my own music. As you may know, all GORGUTS albums have their own distinct personality; we never made the same album twice. I wasn't interested in making an "Obscura" or "From Wisdom To Hate Part II". The main GORGUTS elements are certainly there on "Colored Sands", but we made our atmospheric side a little more prevalent this time around.

Read the entire interview at Ghost Cult Magazine.