Sanctuary..cz: Hello there. Greetings to Varsovie from frozen Prague. Your concert in Prague is coming up. Do you even feel like traveling on these cold days?
Arnault: Hello! The mountains in front of my window are snow-capped. I think we have an equivalent temperature here. We should survive!
Sanctuary..cz: Last year you released your fifth album "Pression À Froid". What kind of feedback have you received to it so far? Are reviews that important to you or not? Did a particular one upset you for example? Or, on the contrary, did any of the reviews pleasantly surprise you?
Arnault: They are important because they allow us not to be totally invisible, drowned in the depths of the algorithms, and allow us to get feedback from people passionate about music on our work. The reviews are pretty good, in general. But I no longer chase reviews. This time, we do not have a person responsible for our communication, so it’s limited. Only those who really want to review us review us, and maybe it's better that way. For the moment, no big surprises or irritation, but I remember a French review for our previous album (L’Ombre et la Nuit) where the reviewer treated us like beginners trying to copy young bands we even don’t know, even though we were already 15 years old, and our own style for a while... I later learned that the reviewer was in a band himself, and that he was having a sort of jealous attack. Giving us around 1/10 was his little personal revenge. A review which therefore makes no sense in terms of objectivity, but which remains there, on the Internet, for eternity, saying, on the main lines, that we are the worst band in the universe! Why not.
Sanctuary..cz: It seems that are you learning to work faster and more productively with each new record, also it feels like the time needed for a release shortens at your end. Is that our feeling only or is that true?
Arnault: It's true. But it is above all a question of luck, of organization, of money, of place to rehearse, of time. The period between our first album and our third was very chaotic. Today, it's a little more stable. For now, we're managing to keep some sort of rhythm.
Sanctuary..cz: For the first time ever, a woman is not on the cover. Why is that? And why a cat?
Arnault: We had been planning to break away from female figures for a while, but they came back a little in spite of us. As with previous albums, there were no specific ideas during the creative process. We had just validated the title of the album, most of the songs were almost finished, and as I started to track down artists to collaborate with, I came across this photo of Sotiris Lamprou. It aligned perfectly with the spirit of the album, with our state of mind. The connections seemed obvious. Luckily, this Greek photographer was hooked on our music and immediately accepted… And cats are great.
Varsovie - Pochodeň číslo jedna
Sanctuary..cz: The song "Pochodeň číslo jedna" must pique interest of every Czech. Why did you choose to tell a story of Jan Palach?
Arnault: This figure has haunted me for quite a few years, I had read a lot about his journey, particularly about his intimate reflections and the course of his last days. Anyway, I knew I would write something around Jan Palach one day, but that day took a long time to come. Then, I had these images, from testimonies, of people who had literally tried to extinguish the fire on him, one after the other, like in a slightly crazy choreography. Then, I don't remember when, Greg released this bass riff on one of my rhythms. I recorded it and listened to it again at home. Everything was aligned in a sort of click. The theme opened up quite a few perspectives at different levels.
Sanctuary..cz: Arnault, as far as I know, you don't describe specific historical events in your lyrics, but instead you try to incorporate them into everyday themes and settings. Can you tell us a little more about your unconventional approach to writing these lyrics?
Arnault: I often embroider around an historic event in an updated version, I rarely speak directly about a history event. It's true. I start from a tiny element, sometimes, to go completely elsewhere, to develop a reflection, a feeling, a movement.
Sanctuary..cz: Going back to the track "Pochodeň číslo jedna". Exceptionally, very cold synth sounds can be heard here, and overall this composition is somewhat more specific and less melodic. You get from it a feeling of hoplessness. Was it your intention that this particular theme is portrayed so darkly, even from a musical point of view?
Arnault: If the song is cold, I think it is above all determined, convinced, unshakeable, more than desperate. Like this event. It's a force that goes, unstoppable.
Sanctuary..cz: It's probably not a coincidence that the album starts in St. Petersburg and ends in Kyiv, right? People still seem to be unteachable and there is always some idiot out there to make other people's lives hell...
Arnault: That’s right. Even if everything was not originally thought out this way, let's say that recent events have got ahead of us.
Sanctuary..cz: Art has always been an important inspiration for your work. Can you think of any specific works and artists that inspired the songs on the new album?
Arnault: "Perspective Nevski", whose theme is inspired by the final sentence of a short story by Nicolaï Gogol (Nevsky Prospekt), linked to “false lights”, was written a few weeks before the beginning of the war in Ukraine. Strangely, the text sounds like an echo of the situation. Between the lines, but not only. It's kind of a weird coincidence. Concerning "Synesthésie", Synesthesia is a phenomenon in which several senses are involuntarily associated. Among others, Rimbaud evokes it in his poem "Voyelles", Baudelaire occasionally uses synesthetic metaphors and Kandinsky establishes correspondences between colors and sounds. "Artefacts" very briefly mentions Nicolas Ker, a French singer with a tortured mind who died very recently. But he only passes by in the song, like a ghost. "Structure" is a divagation around the emblematic double of Franz Kafka and the vertiginous experience of the character K. in "The Castle". I notice that it's a very Czech album, actually.
Varsovie - Artefacts
Sanctuary..cz: And while we're at it. Arnault, you write book reviews yourself. Are you a harsh critic? Can you look at reviews of your albums with more insight thanks to your own review writing experience?
Arnault: Literary criticism and music criticism are very different jobs, I think. I've done a lot of literary reviews, but in general, they were books that I chose, personally. I was rarely disappointed, but when I was and it was a small author, I preferred not to review. I didn't see the point in destroying people who had little power. On the other hand, yes I could be harsh when it came to established, well-known writers and I found their work bad. Personally, I am always very critical of our work, I don't want to leave anything to chance. I want to make sure we’ve done everything we can.
Sanctuary..cz: Got any interesting book tips from last year? Any recommendations?
Arnault: Last year I read very little. Music and other things took up quite a bit of my time. But this summer I re-read a book that I had already read a long time ago: “Karoo”, the final novel by Steve Tesich, and it is of a very high level.
Sanctuary..cz: Arnault, you write short stories yourself. What genre or topic do you most often cover? Will you have any upcoming book publication planned?
Arnault: I would like to publish a collection of short stories, but I haven't found the time to start yet. For now, I am publishing them in various magazines, to test them and keep the rhythm. Concerning the subjects, it's quite varied, but I tackle themes around communication problems, the omnipresence of fake, the feeling of loss – it's quite different from what I do in Varsovie, there is a lot more humor, even if it's quite cold humor, and a certain touch of absurd.
Sanctuary..cz: Since I got to know Varsovie, there has been one thing on my mind. Without knowing your background or any circumstances, when I first heard you, I immediately remembered the French black metal legend Anorexia Nervosa. It's a completely different style of music, but the urgency in the vocals in French and the charge in your music reminded me of this band. I thought someone from this band must be playing in Varsovie. It was even funnier to find out that no one from Anorexia Nervosa was playing in the band, but that you were recording in the Drudenhaus studio. Do you perhaps like this band? Is it possible that this "resemblance" is the work of the same nationality and cultural background?
Arnault: In reality, the situation is the opposite. My first band, Forbidden Site (just before Varsovie), was a big influence for Anorexia Nervosa and its singer - who is a friend. They even made a Forbidden Site cover on their last EP. And Forbidden Site did its last concert in Paris with Anorexia Nervosa in 2003. Forbidden Site was one of the first “black metal” bands to sing in French. I was already writing the lyrics at the time. And the Drudenhaus studio is owned by Anorexia Nervosa keyboardist where we record all our albums since 2008. This is how everything is linked. The French “dark scene” is quite small.
Sanctuary..cz: Varsovie actually arose from the ruins of the black metal band Forbidden Site. Looking back, how do you remember that time? Can a new metal record capture your interest even today?
Arnault: It was my teenage years, my naivety, my enthusiasm. It was a very strong, intense experience. I was just starting out in music and I was playing overnight with the bands I was a fan of. But it's a very different time. A time without the internet. Difficult to compare. And for me it’s the past. And I much prefer Varsovie which is connected with my more mature adult self. I still listen to black metal or doom from time to time, there are always very good things... I like bands like Mgła, for example. I'm open to anything musically, as long as it's sincere and not done with a view to fashion or to sell at all costs.
Sanctuary..cz: In 2010 you played in Brno and a year later you performed in Prague for the first time. Do you still remember these concerts? It's been quite a long time. Since then, how much have you evolved as a live band?
Arnault: Yes, those are still very good memories. And we had quite a few friends from Slovakia who were present at all these concerts. And it was not the first time in Prague. We also played in Prague in 2007, at the Drop Dead Festival, and that moment was epic. Since then we've had a lot of new live bass players, with different styles. Gilles plays with us on stage since 2021, but I think we play more or less the same way live.
Sanctuary..cz: Thanks for your time and we look forward to seeing you in Prague.
Arnault: Thank you very much and see you soon!
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