Alcest – interview met Neige
Neige: “During the pandemic I could take some time for me again and reconnect with my inner world. I realized I still wanted to talk about the original concept of Alcest.”
Muziek is altijd een manier geweest om te ontsnappen aan het dagelijkse leven; een droomwereld vol geluiden, beelden en zelfs speciale mode. Met dit interview treden we de verzachtende kunst van de Franse artiest Neige (alias Stéphane Paut) en zijn creaties onder de naam Alcest tegemoet. Langzaam maar zeker ontwikkelden zij zich tot echelons van blackgaze (black metal met shoegaze) en meer. Boven alles is Alcest een spiritueel medium voor transcendentale muziek. Hun zevende album ‘Les Chants De L’Aurore’ luidt een terugkeer in naar het originele concept van de band met zijn opgewekte kwaliteiten.
Vera Matthijssens Ι 25 juni 2024
The new album ‘Les Chants De L’Aurore’ is finalized and comes five years after its predecessor ‘Spiritual Instanct’ (2019). I guess you have a feeling of relief…
Yes indeed. It has been a long time, but we finally finished it and we are very excited to show it to our fans and hear what they are thinking about it. It is never easy for me to free this new music, because you never know if people will like it. It is a bit stressful, but we really put everything we had in our hearts on this album and we are very happy that it turned out like this. People will love it as much as we do.
This time you drew inspiration from the peaceful and harmonious side of your personality. Why did you do that and how did it evolve in that direction?
The last two albums ‘Spiritual Instinct’ and ‘Kodama’ were a little bit darker to what we usually do with Alcest as this was supposed to be a very spiritual and magical and happy project. I thought it would be better to be maybe more connected to what was going on in the world. ‘Spiritual Instinct’ was an album I wrote when I was feeling a kind of burn-out. I was touring constantly and always around people. I needed more peace in my life. I was questioning my own spirituality at that time, because I couldn’t really connect with it anymore, because I was always touring and I did not have enough time for myself, so I felt a little bit lost at this time. During the pandemic I could take some time for me again and reconnect with my inner world. I realized I still wanted to talk about the original concept of Alcest. It was describing this otherworldly place which I think I come from and I consider it to be my home, because when I was a child I had these visions of a place which looked otherworldly. It is like some kind of heaven and I wanted to make music, which became Alcest, but I wanted to come back to this original concept which was on the first albums. That is why the new album is so uplifting, a lot more magical. It is supposed to take you to another dimension, a very; very beautiful and peaceful place…
That’s far away from the reality we face every day of course…
Yes, especially now, everything that’s happening in the world… these are difficult times and I thought: maybe people would appreciate it to hear something that is a little bit more positive.
I think they need that. It is an old saying that during the war everybody went to the movies, just to have a kind of escape from the truth…
Yeah exactly. It is a little bit the same kind of stuff.
I think it is embedded in being human, because it is also a kind of way of surviving, isn’t it?
Yeah if you live in really dark times, it is a little bit too much to listen to really depressing music or watching a dark movie. It is too much, you know. So maybe… I know for me, if I feel really bad, I don’t want to listen to music that makes me even feel worse. I try to feel a bit better and also… during these last years I had been in a darker place in my life. I mean I wasn’t super busy for some personal reasons. So I think I needed to make an uplifting album, even to make myself better and give myself a bit more hope.
When did you actually focus on writing the new album ‘Les Chants de l’Aurore’? How did you feel at that moment?
I think I started at the beginning of the covid-19 era. It was a very special time for a lot of people. Many musicians complained that they could not play concerts anymore, but for me – since we played so many concerts during the last ten years – I was really happy to have some time for myself at home. I had a lot of time to think about what I wanted to do with Alcest and to reflect what I wanted to do with this project. I could take a lot of distance. I wasn’t in a rush and it was very nice to have so much time to write the new album. We could really take the time to make the album exactly the way I wanted it to be. It was very nice. The only thing is: it took a long time, maybe three years that we waited, but I was doing other things at the same time. I tried to spend more time with my family, because since we played so many concerts, I did not see my family very much. So during the corona virus I could go back home in the South of France and see my parents… It was a very pleasant album to make, because of all the time I had. Because even the label, they did not push us or ask to release an album every two years. That is good.
Indeed, because it was a new entrance for you when we were in Berlin for ‘Spiritual Instinct’…
Yes and still everything is very good with NB. You could imagine, since it is a big label, that it would be less personal and putting pressure on you, but it is the opposite. They have very, very good communication, everyone has been so nice with us and they don’t ask us anything we don’t want to do, you know. They let us free, so it is great. We are very happy.
The album should be seen as a whole, as an entity with a beginning and an end. Can you tell something more about that?
Absolutely, yes! We don’t like to release singles. You have heard on the new album, all the songs are very different. The first song is happy, then there is ‘Flamme Jumelle’ which is almost like a pop song and you have ‘Réminiscence’ as piano song, then you have the very progressive song, others are like a movie track. Everything is so different, so when the time came for picking up a single, it is very difficult what song you should choose to show the people the album for the first time. It is really complicated, because no matter what song we choose, it would not represent the album. So yeah, an Alcest album is supposed to be listening to from the beginning till the end and it is almost like a movie or like a drama. You go through many different steps and the first song already feels like a kind of introduction for the album and the last song really feels like a closure.
That speaks for itself with the title ‘L’Adieu’…
I know that people don’t listen to full albums anymore these days; because of Spotify and the young people, they don’t have enough patience to listen to full albums, but for me, I am still very attached to the album format. I think it is a great format and especially for me, we try to make albums that are not too long. Our albums have a length around 40 or 44 minutes and I think it is the best time, because after that, when it is longer I think you loose a bit focus. I prefer the albums to be short, but you can just play them again. So yes, it is still a very interesting format for me and I wish that people would listen to full albums.
On the vinyl format you have room for different things, like you said all different facets from your art…
Indeed, since I listen to so many different styles of music, I could not write in just one style. I need to express many different types of sounds and emotions. Maybe some people will complain, if someone is into metal, he will like the more metal songs and don’t like the other songs that much. I understand that for some people it might seem a bit inconsistent, but for me it is not inconsistent, it is just different sides of the same sound. For example, for me, when I hear a metal album, I tend to loose my attention and my focus very short. Three or four songs of the same stuff, I don’t know, I just loose my attention and I need something else. Most of the albums I listen to there are often many different styles of music on one album. And contrasts. I don’t know, it is just a name, but if I listen to a Cannibal Corpse album, it is always the same song (chuckles). It is a great band, but for me it is just too much. If I was a fan of just one style of music, maybe it would be good to listen to 40 minutes of intense metal, but I listen to different types of music. I cannot listen to ten songs in a row that sound the same, you know.
Even the recording process was different and more DIY, because you were going to a house and I can imagine that this experience is also something you like to go deeper into… I can imagine you go to the house and you are on your own…
Exactly. Me and Winterhalter, the drummer, we bought some studio equipment and we recorded the album ourselves. So it was very nice to be able to spend as much time as we wanted to record, so we could have a lot of different types of instruments. I recorded and played on the piano of my grandmother. It was the very first instrument I played in my life and all my family, everyone has played on this piano. So it was very nice to make it a part of this recording. We had different singers. We had exceptional instruments, like something that looks like a cello but it is another instrument. We could spend a lot of time on the arrangements. As you can hear, the album is very rich in terms of sounds. Working there was a luxury and I think, when we make another album, the next album will surely be recorded by ourselves at this place again.
It gives more freedom and maybe also more inspiration…
Yeah I wanted this album to be really sounding like a movie soundtrack. So that is why it has so many instruments, synthesizers and layers. A very cinematic type of album.
I also applaud that you remained doing some incidental screams on the album in addition to the dream-like vocals…
Yeah, you know… it is a bit strange for me, because I don’t know if I like to scream so much, but I think there are some moments in the songs where it is very much justified. It gets so intense, to add some screaming, it really makes sense, but it is not something really present to do anymore, because I don’t have that anger anymore. So it feels a little bit tough now to scream and I know Winterhalter, the drummer, really likes the screams too, so I said okay, let us put some screams on it. If I was really on my own I am not sure if I would use screams, but everyone loves it so much, you know…
On the debut album they were present and of course, you build up a reputation and people expect it from you…
Exactly. I mean, I don’t do it for people. If I really did not want to do it, I would not do it. It sounds good, but I don’t have the anger anymore. There are many other emotions that I would like to express.
What does ‘Komorebi’, the title of the first song, mean?
It is like a Japanese word. You cannot translate it into one word, but it is related with the concept. So it is the concept of during the Spring, when you have the sun that goes through the leaves in the tree and it makes these type of very beautiful green-ish light in the trees and this is ‘komorebi’. That is what it means. It is very difficult to translate it. It is like the Spring, with a kind of uplifting type of mood and the first song is very uplifting, so I thought it would fit and also I have linguistic Japanese future and I am learning Japanese in my free time.
Wow that must be difficult!
(chuckles) It is sooo difficult, I really don’t recommend learning Japanese to anyone, because if you are like me, when I start something I really like to finish what I started. If I knew that it would be so difficult, I wouldn’t have started it, but now I want to be linguistically well, but it will take years.
When did you start with it?
During corona virus time. Two or three years ago. I did already an exam and I am preparing a new exam. It is very different from music and it is a very different side of my life, what I am trying to do with Alcest. So I think it is important for musicians not to do only music things, maybe it stops being so special when you are busy with only music all day long.
The title is very poetic, the sound of the dawn and that is also reflected in the video and artwork I think, isn’t it?
Everything has been reflected and everything is connected. The album cover, the music videos, the lyrics, the music. Everything is a kind of big artistic entity. I used to draw a lot when I was a teenager, I was suppose to be a painter or something and decided to make music instead, but I still have the need and now I am a kind of frustrated painter (chuckles). That is why all the visuals are so important for me. I am making visual music so to speak, music that evokes images.
And I see that the person who has done the artwork was also involved in the video…
Yeah exactly. It is the same person who made the artwork and the music video.
There are a lot of shows coming up. Wow, you will be travelling a lot…
Yes indeed. A lot of concerts, but this time we will play some very nice venues. I am happy that the band is still growing. Some venues are really big. I cannot believe that we will play a show in Paris at Olympia. It is the most iconic venue we have in Paris. Even Edith Piaf has played there and The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and we are going to play there! I can’t really fathom, because I come from the underground. I am a kid from the underground who cannot believe that we are going to play in such a legendary venue, but it is happening, so it is great…
