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INDEX
INTERVIEWS
GUESTBOOK
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1. Hello Mr. Offending. Put 2 copies of your curriculum vitae on the table. Introduce yourself and tell us about your previous musical experiences.
Offending is
a relatively classical death metal band that tends to be varied,
and not mono-directional. We can say our influences rather lie in
old school death metal and 90’s death metal; the current deathcore
or brutal deathcore grind bands do not please us much, especially
at the level of atmospheres that are not as obscure as in the past,
in our opinions.
Personally speaking, I was already playing in
Asmodée since several years before the creation of Offending, and
my meeting with Gropoil (Nicolas Michaud, rhythmic guitars of Asmodée)
inside of Asmodée has lead to the creation of Offending. As well
as Marco and Gelo, he had already played in local thrash/ death
and black metal bands that did few gigs. Finally, Loïc Naud, the
current lead guitarist of Offending, didn’t really have band experiences,
but he was composing music since a long time as a « One man band
» in some kind of avant-garde heavy metal style.
2. What characterizes the music of OFFENDING, what are your influences, and why an engagement would be an asset for our company?
The music of
Offending is meant to be catchy, efficient, varied, dark and intense.
I don’t want to play some brutal death that blasts from A to Z,
because I find it boring after a while, and a blast takes all its
efficiency when it follows an heavier part, etc, etc… That’s why
our influences rather lie in the 90’s death metal and thrash metal
sides (Morbid Angel, Suffocation, Death, Slayer, Sadus, At the gates,
Coroner, Deicide, Cannibal Corpse.....).
To engage us would be
an advantage for your enterprise because in the current situation,
there aren’t many death metal bands without deathcore touches. I
know Act of Gods that particularly follows the
« Altars of madness
» style. Of course there are other bands, but most of the things
we can hear are Bad copies of Dying fetus, Cryptopsy, when it’s
not chaotic grind without ‘real compositions’. (You understood right,
grindcore and hardcore aren’t our thing!!!)
3. You have chosen OFFENDING as a band’s moniker. What does it refer to and what does it attack? There could be a religious connotation in my opinion, but according to the kind of music you play, it’s not really obvious… Tell us more about it!
Offending means to offense or incriminate, I think this moniker fits well to a death metal band. This word can be understood in many ways, that makes the thing a bit more enigmatic, I like this aspect. This word deals with many themes (Monotheist religions including others…) Marco occurs to speak about in his lyrics.
4. I know you needed some time to record your first demo, tell us more about the length, methods and hardwares you used for this matter. Weren’t you afraid to loose a part of spontaneity and the energy of live gigs as you spent a lot of time in studio?
The recording
took about 1 year and a half! In fact it was very complicated because
we changed 3 times of methods and ‘sound engineers’! And with very
small funds (Only two tracks for the drums), few time for each session
(2 hours and 30 minutes for the vocals) and very often sound engineers
had few experience... We’ll say that according to the conditions,
I’m very satisfied with the final result, and
I thank Raphael
(Saël) again for the great job with the final mix.
According
to the conditions and few possibilities of final manipulation,
I
think one can’t say this demo lacks of spontaneity! In fact
nothing at all was done in a real studio during this recording.
5. The cover artwork of this demo is different from the current Death metal releases, it’s quite mysterious, remains esthetical, in a way that’s not too far from Death metal albums’ covers of the 90’s. Who created it, and is there a concept behind this picture ?
It’s nice that you seem to like it, because many reviewers found it to be horrible! I saw this cover as an estheticism of gore. I had the idea of the whole and my father, who is much more efficient with PhotoShop, did what I asked him to do. In fact, the colors are too bright, but there are always bullshits during the printing matters!!!
6. I know you recently played with DEEP VEIN, in their suburb, and there were very few peoples… You aren’t too disappointed? Would you do it again if you could? How do your gigs usually occur, and how do the metallers react?
Obviously,
we would play this gig again because we have too few opportunities
to play live, we can not refuse it! I’m not too disappointed, because
for the first day of a world football cup, in a small town, a death
metal gig can’t attract many peoples.
As a whole, the gigs are
intense and the crowd reacts well, because our style is catchy,
with very efficient parts and some thrash metal that avoids the
boredom. When we build our songs, we often think « Isn’t this part
going to be a bit boring ? Maybe we should change that ?… This part
is too long… », etc etc.
We do not compose with a blastometer!
Some blasts are needed, but we try to use it at the right moment,
so that the efficiency will be totally optimized.
If someone
has doubts about the intensity of our gigs, here’s a little link
to the video of one of the most violent gigs we did : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yenbv5gvCkE
7. Are there differences between the OFFENDING of gigs, and the one we can hear on CD? If so, what are the strongest ones?
There aren’t a lot of differences, we might play a bit faster sometimes, but that’s all.
8. I noticed you have a quite skillful drum-playing level, as the blasts and rolls doesn’t seem to be any problem for you, and the playing is tight, quite varied and dynamic. How long have you been practicing drums? Do you consider drum-playing as some kind of sport, with warming, training, (possible) diets, or are you satisfied with the fact of hitting the kit as a madman until the rupture of the skins? Ah Ah
I don’t see drum-playing as a sport, because it would be very reductive to talk about it that way. (I’m playing since 9 years). To play drums in an extreme metal band can be very physical of course, and so it often requires a specific training. I’m a sportsman (Walking, running, muscular training, bike, etc), I work a lot on the technical side of the instrument (Of course I warm up myself) and I don’t eat anything and everything (I try to have a well balanced and rich diet, because my body tends to slim very fast if I don’t keep a strong appetite).
9. Which drummers influenced you? Listening to the OFFENDING demo, I wouldn’t mind saying: Dave Culross at the time of « Despise the sun » (SUFFOCATION).
I know this album, but I even didn’t know Dave Culross was a part of it. Anyway, thanks for the compliment!!! I was and I’m still very influenced by Dave Lombardo, Pete Sandoval, Trym of Emperor (Especially in Asmodée); but also Richard Christy (Death, Burning Inside), Donald Tardy (Obituary), Nick Menza (Megadeth), Mickey Dee (Motorhead) and Scott Travis (Judas Priest).
10. I read OFFENDING were working on a first album. Will it follow the same style than your demo? Or will there be other influences, if so what would it be? (Would you feel good with a touch of traditional music, with blasts and screaming flutes distorted with metal-files? Lol)
Yes, the album will be in the same style than the demo. There will be a surprise in a quite special (but very obscure) song, I don’t say more!
11. Don’t you think recording an album after an only demo could be a bit fast for various reasons? I listen to metal since before the whole Internet affair, and back then bands released several self-produced recordings to develop their style, setlist, and to slowly but surely grow bigger in the underground to finally explode as a neutron bomb with the first album…Ok, I wrote a little book, but what do you think of it? After all, OFFENDING wasn’t created few months ago, and the musical context has changed quite a lot since a dozen years…
Yes, I think that recording demos is cool for a while… An album, even if it’s not well distributed, officialises the presence of the band. I think it’s another scale to reach a level where you’re considered with more serious. We’re not beginners, and we do not need to train with 10 demos to record a suitable album.
12. Did you find a label? Did you receive few offers? Or at least, some sympathetic feedbacks ?
Until now, Virgil of Several bleeds is interested, but nothing is set. It’s hard for a label to take risks with a new band, even if I think the « Death metal band with Asmodée members » phenomenon might help us. We also had some cool feedbacks from quite a lot of peoples.
13. Some members of OFFENDING are basically a part of ASMODEE; this should represent a lot of time in the rehearsal room! As the two bands has a serious level, I presume you warm the strings at least one time a week… Isn’t it too hard to deal with two bands at the same time? Are you able to rehearse during the week, and to have a « Fresh and available » state of mind at work, the morning that follows? Lol
Expect from few exceptions, rehearsals occur during the week end for both bands. It’s true our schedules are very busy. With the personal training on our instruments and daily alimentary jobs, our weeks are well packed. It’s obviously not easy to deal with; a proof could be I just drew an (inverted) cross on girlfriends!
14. It seems to me ASMODEE was signed on SACRAL, a label that went totally nuts at the end… How did things occur with them ? It seems the ex « boss » has found god and converted himself lol…
Cédric is a very nice guy with strong musical tastes. We met him while he was especially feeling bad (Personal problems) and it was quite confusing to see this guy in this bad state! His problems are the cause for Sacral’s end. It’s a shame. His spiritual convictions are his own concerns.
15. The end of this interview is near… Tell us more about your future projects, available merchandising… If I forgot something important, or if you want to spread a message, it’s the right moment!
Thanx for the interview and the space you give us in your webzine! Concerning merchandising, T-shirts will be ready soon, and the recording of the album should begin at the end of 2006/ beginning of 2004. For more infos: http://offending.free.fr and www.myspace.com/offending
Website: http://offending.free.fr
