Is that something that you’ve studied?
Not really, but I went to a class by a Tibetan monk in France. It was short, but I listened and took note. It was real interesting because I thought of these things before and felt connected to this idea. I never really studied [it]; it’s just a personal thing that I live.
What do you hope to achieve with this record?
I hope that we sell a lot of records [laughs] because it would be possible to have our own headlining tours: to be able to share our world with people. It’s hard when we are openers, because we have 40 minutes or a half hour and we play only five or six songs, we’ve got to be very quick and it’s not very comfortable. It’s good on this tour because we have a huge crowd every night because In Flames are so big, but that’s one thing that we really want to achieve on this album is to become a headliner.
How did the collaboration with Randy Blythe from Lamb Of God come about?
Lamb Of God are big supporters for us. Randy is always talking about Gojira in interviews and we did 42 gigs with them on the Sacrament tour in the States. They would always treat us so well and take care of us. It was probably our best touring experience. And I became good friends with Randy—we went camping together [laughs]—he’s really interested by nature and so we have this in common. He told me, ‘When you guys record the next album, I want to sing on the record and you have no choice.’ I was like, ‘Okay, that’s a deal,’ so he came to France and stayed for 10 days in my apartment, and we would write lyrics together and we did that song so, it was really a friendship thing.
Is the way you approach Gojira different now that you’re also involved with Cavalera Conspiracy?
Well it’s not taking me too much time because I just did the record with them and didn’t go on tour because I was recording and mixing the Gojira album. It was basically just recording the bass in-studio, it’s really Max and Igor’s band, so for me it was an amazing honor to be playing with these guys since they’re one of my main influences in music. It was one of the best things of my life, but I had to make a decision and Gojira is my number one priority.
The Way Of All Flesh is available now. Catch Gojira on Dec. 7 at Terminal 5 in NYC. For more info, visit myspace.com/gojira.
Photo Credit: Gabrielle Duplantier
