Hey, remember when we were all really excited that a new Gojira record was coming and the band was in the studio? Well, get out the footstool and prepare to shelve those expectations! The band has trashed part of the new record, thought for a good reason. According to Mario Duplantier in a transcribed interview from Blabbermouth, the band said they started to come up with better ideas and really just want the album to be perfect… so fine. That's actually pretty reasonable.
“The drums are done. Part of the guitars… almost all the guitars are done also. So we need the bass and the vocals at this point. Because… We were supposed to record around February, something like this. But we made a statement of the songs in February, and we thought the songs were not enough good, you know?! So we decided to… ‘Let’s put this song in the trash. Let’s just…’ We were super picky, like [we] never [were] in the past. We worked on each song super long. Usually we have ten songs, and we record ten songs and that’s it.
This time we were so picky that we decided around February to just… ‘Let’s push the limit. Let’s do another song — maybe a better song.’ And Joe brought some crazy ideas, and I brought some cool ideas too, and together we built four new songs we thought were better than the [ones were had already written]. So we pushed the recording process and finally we started in April. So it’s why we couldn’t finish everything — because we had this tour also. It’s a summer tour planned — three months on the road. So we had two options: we can cancel the summer tour, but we didn’t wanna do that. So, finally, we did the drums and the guitar.”
It makes sense. Do you really want to put out a record you're not proud of and have to live with that damn turd in your discography for the rest of your career? The only downside is that Mario's brother and bandmate Joseph Duplantier says the record probably won't be out until early 2016.
“We’re thinking early next year. We were aiming for October this year, but, like Mario said, we had to push the recording. I think the difficulty was… Mario brought a lot of ideas on the table… very challenging drum patterns. It’s less complicated than before. It’s more… I wanna say it’s more straight to the point. That’s what we were doing since we started. We’re getting rid of layers and complicated things, just to keep the core of the idea. There’s always an idea behind a song, and sometimes it gets too crowded.
So we’re trying to keep the core of each idea. So the energy that Mario has, it’s a big signature for our band, Gojira — the drum patterns and the double-kick stuff. And I have my own impulse. So it’s mainly Mario and me composing… I think the fans know that. And one of the biggest difficulties is to come together on these songs and to create something that, okay, we both feel like, ‘This is it. This is the song.’ It took a while to get there. Sometimes, on previous albums, Mario wouldn’t be totally satisfied — like three [or] four songs — and for me, I [would be] like, ‘Eh, this song is just like a drum solo with guitars on it.’ And this time, I think we really found something — a balance. [It’s] very powerful and exciting. We’re very excited about the new record.”
At least we've got something to look forward to for next year? Actually, that and Meshuggah… wait, is it next year already?! That sounds awesome!
