Information
Author: Mourning
Translation: Dope Fiend
Line Up
Chris - Vocals
Boub - Vocals
Ugo - Chitarra
Franck - Bass
Alexs - Drums
Brutality, Grind and much passion from France, we are with Trepan'Dead, we revieed their second album "Instinct", let's see what they have to tell us.
Hi guys and welcome on Aristocrazia Webzine, let's introduce Trepan'Dead starting from the line up and then talking about the discography and all your story?
Hi everybody! Well, we are Trepan’Dead, grindcore from France. The band is composed of Ugo, guitarist and at backing, Franck, bassist, Alexs, drummer, and my brother Boub and myself, singers. We have been playing all together since 1998 and after a few splits and demos, we have just released our new album, "Instinct".
Six years have passed since "Obsessional Dysfunctions" and now you came back with "Istinct", the title fitds perfectly the straight album, did you want to make a fast and raw work, like a train?
Yes, we wanted this album to be more grind, more "raw”, and it is clear that all the choices we made in studio were following that spirit, that is to say to give the maximum of instinctive rage, without any concession, to reach a maximum of authenticity. The sound production of "Instinct" had to reflect this state of mind, this will to stay close from a live energy. And actually, I like the idea you launched of that crazy train which destroys everything on its way, it is quite close to the impression we wanted to give.
The tracklist starts with "Reborn" and ends with "H-Bomb", rebirth and final destruction, is this a cycle that continuously opens and closes itself? The last tracks seems like a series of events leading to this direction.
It is true that between the first and the last song of the album, there is a close link which illustrates the idea of a cycle destruction/reconstruction. But to be honest, we didn’t think about that link. We clearly wanted to illustrate and talk about this human ability to cause the best as well as the worst. Humans develop not only their abilities to improve their everyday life but also the ones to destroy their environment and other people, be it by profit, by greed or even by stupidity. That is that notion of instinct that we wanted to show in the cover, in our lyrics: the grim aspect of human instinct.
In the review I said something about "Life Is A Whore", these are words that in some way everyone thought, what's the meaning of this song in "Instinct"?
Life is not always something easy, and depending on the place where you were born, be it the southern hemisphere or the northern one, it can sometimes even be fucking hell! “Life Is A Whore” talks about that, the fact that life can sometimes well and truly be a whore and that in that case it is necessary to keep a positive attitude towards complicated things which can become unbearable.
How was creating the album? Which are the main differences between it and the previous work, both about its human and compositive sides?
"Instinct" was made in three steps. The first one with our former guitarist, Manu, who left the band in March 2011, the second one with Manu and Ugo, which means that we had two guitarists, and then with Ugo only. During that time, our aim was to improve our music to be what it is today. We decided to record as soon as Manu left the band, in order not to be destabilized by his departure. So the plan was to compose the missing songs and to reserve August to record. And that is what we did in 2011, and the album was released in January. We really wanted to record this album as if we were in a hurry, each member of the band only spent two nights on recording, our working method was really specific in order to be as efficient as possible in our energy, to show this instinctive side that you can only hear on stage and which is sometimes absent from some studio productions, when the overall is too calm. That is one of the main reasons why "Instinct" is different from "Obsessional Dysfunctions": our songs sound exactly like we wanted: raw, aggressive and really grind. Instinctive grindcore! As for the human side, it is the album of Trepan’Dead’s new line up and releasing an album is good when you’ve just faced a change of members, it is the turning point of the band’s history.
The grind scene is among the ones that even if changed ang got influenced is still binded to their rootswith passion and didn't sell out, what makes this genre so elitist?
Elitist is not the right word to qualify the grindcore scene, it’s even all the contrary. It is an alternative, underground scene, which, it is true, sticks to its basic components: blast and frenzied energy but it can also vary and offer a lot of sounds. Napalm Death’s type of grindcore, who are the funders, has nothing to do with Nasum’s one, which itself has nothing to do with Regurgigate’s one, which itself does not sound like Blockheads’one, etc... All that is what makes the musical wealth of our grind scene; you can hear a lot of different sound types. And, it is a scene of passionate, motivated people, be it in associations, webzines, bands or above all the audience.
Which are the diamond points of the grind scene of the past and also of the present and why?
Wow, there are too many of them! Well to avoid to give a hundred, I will give examples: Brutal Truth and Blockheads. And both of them belong to the past but to the present as well. That is because they are really efficient and they have the rage.
How are the relations with the other bands of the grind scene?
Quite good, in France we know quite a lot of people and we are friends with a lot of bands. We played with a lot of foreign bands and we also are in good terms with them. Every time we went on tour in Europe, everything went perfectly well, the grindcore scene is really a fucking amazing scene where the concept of “support the underground” is not only an identity slogan, but well and truly a state of mind, an attitude, an engagement.
Ugo plays in Goryptic, the new starting of Heresy with which you made a split in 2002, your ex guitarist Manu plays in Unsu, is there a sort of brotherhood with these bands?
Yes, there is. At least, it is completely true for Goryptic, that we have known for more than ten years, they are real friends. That is why it was obvious for us to have Ugo as a guitarist as soon as we needed one. And he is the one who recorded almost all the sounds of Trepan’Dead (he is a sound engineer) so we knew each other perfectly not only as friends but also musically speaking. Damien, Goryptic’s singer, is also one of our good friends, I love this guy. The fact that Manu is not playing with us anymore does not change our friendship, it is just that we see each other less often than when we used to practice together every week! As for the other members of Unsu, we know them personally a bit less, but more thanks to gigs, and we have fun every time we perform together. The notion of “family” is important for us, I mean in a broad sense which includes a lot of bands, people from the audience who have been following us for ten years...
Do the French fans support the releases of their nations? Here in Italy (but I think is a widespread phenomenon) there is a strong love for foreign music which I really don't understand, sometimes bad albums are appreciated more just for the nation, is it a fault to play a certain genre and not being English, Swedish, German or American?
Well, I’d say that, in France, at least for the grind scene, I think that national releases are generally well perceived. Of course that is if it is good, ahahah. But releases of foreign bands are also really well perceived; in fact it is really a question of quality and efficiency of the released album. AS for our album "Instinct", until now we only had good feedbacks from columns and from the audience. We are really happy about this!
The cd version of "Instinct" is self produced, the vynil one is produced by Douchebag Records, right? Is the underground the slice of audience which will keep alive the physical releases? What do you think about this graduated change towards the digital ones? Isn't the dematerialization of art in favour of a copy-paste a crime?
Yeah, that’s true, the album is self-produced. Then, our friend Sboek, who is the owner of the label Douchebag records offered us to release a LP version. We immediately thought it was a good idea and we let him manage that. Then, I think what is characteristic to an underground scene is that passion has a leading role in the attitudes and consumption of its components and actors. Buying an album is also a militant gesture, a physical way of helping band to live. When one buys a CD or vinyl album, clothes or other stuff, he enables the band to have a minimum activity, the one which is used to invest in new projects or update the other ones. As for the digital aspect, I think it is also interesting to use it in order to broadcast the album and to help with the promotion. As for us, we do not send our album in a digital version for reviews, because our album is a physical object and even if it contains sounds, which is obviously the most important, we want it to be appreciated in its totality. But at the same time, we put some of our sound on the internet and we are going to put our album available for download soon. And to be honest, I don’t think digital versions would kill anything. Look, we all thought vinyls would die because of CDs, but yeah there has been a decrease in production but at the end, it is now trendy again, vinyl releases are getting more and more frequent, and they even give productions a qualitative aspect.
Let's have a blast from the past, if you could choose five already released masterpieces under the monicker Trepan' Dead which ones would you choose and why?
I am not the best at this type of exercise. To make it easy, it is always what we do now and what we will do in the future which will always be the best of what we do, ahahah! But to be honest, we are convinced that with "Instinct" we definitely released our best sound.
How is the promotion of the album going? Do the responses from the critics and from the sales match your expectations?
Well, as I was saying earlier, everything is going very well! When you are working on an album you do put as much energy as money to make it concrete! You own everything until it goes out of your premises, to be listened, liked, criticized... During the first days which follow the release and the first advertising campaigns, you are on the starting blocks. You wait for the first feedbacks and you are relieved when you realized your album is well welcomed! And that is what’s happening for "Instinct". Well, at the same time I still haven’t read your own review, ahahah. But yeah, it is important to have good feedbacks not only on your album but also and most of all, on your live shows. Trepan’Dead is clearly a band made for shows, we love to be on stage, and I think it is where a grind band should be the most efficient and impeccable.
Are you making live shows? Will make some date outside France? Maybe in Italy?
Yes, we make a lot of dates abroad, as soon as our timetable gives us a chance to (because of jobs, families), we organize a tour and go! Europe is perfect to grind! We really hope we will be able to go on tour really soon and I would love Italy! So if some people are interested here, no problem!
Would you like to tell us the next scheduled dates so that our readers may be there?
Well, the easiest way is to visit to our website: http://trepandead.free.fr/ or https://www.facebook.com/trepandead . There, you will find news about gigs, releases, videos, songs...
What do you see in the future of Trepan'Dead?
Well, we are working on that already, we have been composing new songs since the beginning of the year, and we are giving as many gigs as we can! We are still as motivated as we were and music is still something essential in our lives.
Thanks for the time spent with us, the last message for our readers is up to you
Many thanks to you for this column and you attention. Keep rage! And if you are interested in French grindcore, you should listen to: Inhumate, Blockheads, Depraved, SCD, Massive Charge, Untamed, Xaros, Whoresnation, Ratbomb, Infest, Yattai, Nolentia, Unsu, Lardon, Pulmonary Fibrosis, Atara, Anorak.
