VOIVOD (Denis “Snake” Belanger) INTERVIEW

October 24th, 2012 by Yiannis

I remember how there was a time in my life when the idea of seeing the Canadian Prog Metallers Voivod live would have seemed like a dream but this October, not only was I to enjoy a one and a half hour live set by the almost original line up, I also got the chance to interview Denis “Snake” Belanger – the band’s charismatic and friendly frontman. During this short interview (shortened thanks to the unhelpful running of the London Tube) and the band’s pre-scheduled sound check, I talked with Snake about many interesting topics such as the band’s upcoming studio album “Target Earth”, Canadian Folk legends and their influence on Voivod’s music, as well as the current state of the music industry.

By Yiannis (John) Stefanis

Hi Snake. It is such a great pleasure to be able to talk to you and I do apologise for being late – just felt the need to put this on the record.

Snake: No problem.

Anyway, you are finally here in London to do a show for us which is a very exciting thing for both me and the rest of your fans in the UK. You have been together as a band for almost thirty years; how does it feel to still be able to play together in places like London?

Snake: It’s really exciting! As a band we have been through good times and bad times with our career going both up and down. The last ten years have been both good and bad as we lost Piggy (note: Denis D’ Amour: guitarist and founding member who died from cancer related health complications in 2005). Piggy died and it took a while for us to get this thing back together but we didn’t really force it – it kind of came naturally…yeah, it’s very good to be still able to be doing this whole thing, you know? I feel really lucky to be still able to do what I like the most and make people happy. This new record (note: “Target Earth” to be released in early 2013): I think that people are going to love it. Of course this is a very interesting moment in our career because this is our first album without Piggy as both “Katorz” (2006) and “Infini” (2009) were basically albums consisting of tracks that we released using stuff that Piggy was composing while he was sick and when he passed away we released those two records. Now, with the new line-up, with Blacky (note: Jean-Yves Theriault: bassist & original member) back in the band and Chewy (note: Daniel Mongrain: new guitarist) doing an amazing job, it’s quite…sometimes I have to pinch myself and say “Ok, this is for real – we are still doing it” (laughs)! That is incredible and the most satisfaction out of the whole thing is felt every time we play and we see people smiling and enjoying the moment. That is the best feeling and that is why we keep on doing it. This is our paycheque more than anything else!

Well you have indeed enjoyed your fair share of success and I guess you could say that the period around the release of “Nothingface”(1989) was possible the most commercially uplifting for the band. Well, one thing that we fans, and I do indeed belong to that group of people, always appreciated about you guys is that throughout your thirty year career you did things your own way! That is the reason why I believe that you are still around and people are interested to see what it is that you have to say as a band. You never played music that could be described as commercial or for the masses, certainly not the type that would help your label make millions of dollars – still, you stuck to your guns!

Snake: Yeah, we never were good in compromising with label demands and stuff or adhering to certain commercial formats (laughs). Even the new single (note: “Mechanical Mind”, released as download and limited 7”) is eight minutes long (laughs) which hardly makes it a typical format. Yeah, music is music and it doesn’t have to fit the three minute rule of the radio, you know? A song is a song no matter how long it is; I mean, even Jack Luminous (note: taken from the 1993 album “The Outer Limits”) was seventeen minutes long! Beethoven was writing thirty minute long songs (laughs). For us, we try to do exactly what we want and it is a very natural thing! We never sit and say to each other “oh, we’re going to do this that way” – music always comes in a natural form with us bringing together each piece of the puzzle and in the end the listener is able to see the general picture being shaped. I think that this is what Piggy brought to the band, that specific concept of creation and we stuck with it during all those years and that is perhaps why people love Voivod. We never make the same album twice, we constantly try to evolve by making something new each time, we try…not try, we just are that way! We never forced anything but people dig Voivod because they can feel the integrity which always characterised the band and that is the most important thing for us; to try to be yourself and not what is popular!

One thing that really excited me when I listened to your new single “Mechanical Mind” was that even though Daniel is now in the band, it is hardly ever possible to detect that Piggy is no longer with you! Now that is both surprising and welcome, of course! I really don’t know how else to describe it…

Snake: Chewy is amazing! I mean, it’s one thing to play Voivod, the old records, but to compose in a Voivod way…these are fu*king big shoes to wear and that was my main concern when we started doing this new record. I remember saying to myself “is it going to sound like Voivod or will it come across as a forced thing of sorts”? The answer to that is “no, it’s not”! I think that Piggy’s spirit is all over the place and I believe that this is because when Chewy started his involvement with music, his first ever show when he was thirteen years old was a Voivod show! It was the day following that show that he bought his first guitar and started to learn how to play Voivod! Piggy was his hero so form the very start what he learned to play was Voivod and as he was very young what he ended up becoming was a Voivodian (laughs). It’s almost like when we played in his little town, we actually put a seed in the ground there and he was one of the trees that appeared as a result and now that the big tree has fallen down it is time for him to take over. It is very hard to describe it but in a way he personifies Piggy. Piggy is almost a part of him…I don’t know how to explain it but he has the same kind of personality too – it’s totally amazing, like Piggy has sent him from heaven (laughs)!

There is indeed an element of respect towards Piggy that does come across is Chewy’s playing which justifies your comments. The new album, “Target Earth”, is coming out in January 2013 through your new label Century Media. Is “Mechanical Mind” in any way representative of the remaining material of the album?

Snake: “Mechanical Mind” is just one song. It doesn’t represent…it represents one part of the album but not the whole thing!

I want to really thank you for saying that, really! It’s the equivalent of saying “be patient, young novice” (I laugh).

Snake: Yeah (laughs). There is another song called “Kluskap Okum” (note: I got Snake to spell that one for me) which is inspired by a native Canadian tribe called Micmac and it revolves around a legend of an entity that is sort of a god and sort of a monster who came to earth in order to kill all the big animals like the Dinosaurs in order to assist the humans in taking over power. When I came across that legend I thought to myself “this is a great concept”. There are many different tribes in Canada however the concept of the Kluskap can be found in almost all of them; some of them say that it is a monster that lives on the lakes and it could be either a good or a bad entity. You could also describe Kluskap as a god of revenge; it is such an interesting entity that has so many different applications. With regards the meaning of the whole word “Kluskap Okum”, Kluskap translates to ‘in respect of’, like when you meet the Shaman or the chief of a tribe you would use that word in order to indicate to them that you respect them. This specific type of mythology put me in a writing mode (laughs). I was so amazed by it; it’s a god but not a god, it’s a monster but not a monster, it’s a spirit but not a spirit. Then the belief is that when you die, you go around the sun and then you return…

…just like in Egyptian mythology! It is interesting to observe how many common elements exist with mythologies of people around the world.

Snake: Yes. Their visions of god and creation are amazing.

I can almost see now Away sitting in a corner preparing all sorts of drawings to support your concepts! With such powerful ideas I assume that he will go crazy preparing the appropriate visual effects!

Snake: Yeah, well actually… (laughs) yeah! It is going to be fun for both him and us. The following year is going to be pretty busy. We might start working on a video soon and I really wish that it is going to work out as it is going to be for the song “Kluskap Okum”. As I mentioned before, all the songs are different so do not take “Mechanical Mind” as the song that will represent the whole album.

Great, that’s all I wanted to hear! Now, as we said before “Target Earth” will be out in January 2013 and at the moment you are doing a month long European tour. What I am wondering is, if the album is to come out in January why are you doing the tour three months in advance? Is this a case of “let’s stir the waters and warm up in the process, reintroducing ourselves to people”?

Snake: Exactly. Our original plan was to release the album earlier but the circumstances were such that we took more time to mix it and do all the things that we wanted to do in the right way. Following that, negotiations began with Century Media who said to us “Ok, we want to do something good with this but to make it happen it is going to take time”. By that stage we had already planned to be out on tour this fall with the new record but it doesn’t matter because what we are now going to do is to warm up with these shows and make sure that the people will get the vibe of the new album so tonight we might play two or even three songs from that one. So, you could say that this is kind of a warm up for January.

I understand that you’ve got your own company called Iron Gang Factory and with the little knowledge that I possess on how the music industry works, I assume that you as a band own the rights to the songs and not Century Media who are going to help you promote your music to a wider audience. We live in an era of fast communication and technology where many band have chosen to follow the road of self-promotion and with record labels suffering as a result. This begs the question: why did you opt to work with a label at this point in your career rather than doing things yourselves and having total control of the proceedings?

Snake: Well, some people may indeed say that artists don’t need labels anymore but I don’t agree with that. I mean, the whole industry has changed and that is indeed the bottom line. I believe that labels do not have the power anymore that they once had but this new “sharing” experience is for the interest of both the parties involved. I think that we do need a label to work with as there are certain things that you really don’t want to have to care about. Certain aspects of our work take a lot of time and effort to do and we really ought to be concentrating more on what we are doing which is to be musicians! We are not promoters, we are not negotiators or lawyers and things that these people do for us take time and require a lot of focus. I believe that the best thing is a combination of the band and the label, having the same interests, working on their own thing in order to satisfy these very interests and keeping the whole thing going. A lot of things have changed for labels these last few years but a lot of things have also changed for us but there is still the possibility to work together and make things happen.

Snake, as you saw yourself, I was given the sign to wrap things up as you also need to do your sound check! It has been an absolute pleasure talking to you – I wish I had hours upon hours to talk to you about all sorts of things but such is life. Thank you very much! I really hope that you will enjoy tonight’s show and may this be the beginning of a new and successful phase in the band’s career and that I get to see you guys many, many times again in the future!

Snake: (laughs) Thank you! We do have a busy year ahead of us so thank you for your wishes.

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