VOIVOD Singer: 'It Took Us Three Years For Us To Realize That PIGGY Was Dead'

Dave Jaffer of Hour.ca recently conducted an interview with VOIVOD members Michel "Away" Langevin (drums) and Denis "Snake" Blanger (vocals). A couple of excerpts from the chat follow.

On Away's second career.

Away: "Right now, I'm more a graphic artist than a musician. Although I'm still part of many projects, I'm [only now] starting to play a lot again. I spend a lot of time working on an online gallery where people can order prints or commission original art. For the past three years it has kept me really busy.

"I did all the art for VOIVOD. The covers and all the merch. 'Blade Runner' and the early 'Mad Max' movies had [an] influence on VOIVOD. And a little before that, 'Alien' and stuff like that. It influenced my aesthetic, visually, so it turned out to have an influence on the covers of the albums."

On experimenting musically:

Away: "We were pretty impatient in moving on and not repeating the same thing over and over to the point where, [after the first] five or six years, it sounded like it was not the same band anymore. The fact that we recorded a couple of albums in Berlin in the '80s helped a lot. We discovered some technologies, like sampling and stuff like that, around '87, '88, and started to experiment a little more with the sound of the band. It's not like we were sitting down discussing the next move. It was very organic. It just went in a more psychedelic way naturally. There is a signature sound that is pretty apocalyptic because all the albums always dealt with high-tech weaponry and our fear of it. The main vibe over all the albums was a fear of nuclear war, that's for sure."

On the death of VOIVOD guitarist Denis "Piggy" D'Amour:

Snake: "The last three years we were mourning Piggy. It's weird. It took us three years for us to realize that Piggy was dead. I was kind of hoping that I was going to be on one corner, one day, and see him, but that didn't happen."

Away: "It's tearing me apart inside, because I wish he was here. I'm trying to deal with the fact that we are rehearsing for the gig, the Heavy MTL show, and he is not in the room with us."

On the band's upcoming shows:

Snake: "It's going to be really exciting being on stage and playing Piggy's music. I think that's the only way we can honour what he did. To be out there and to play and to make people realize how much he was a great composer and [how] he was so unique. If you're sitting at home doing nothing, it's going to stay dead. But bringing it live and showing the people his talent, it's totally a tribute."