Specials

Celeste: The French masters of blackened screamo

posted by: maurice on 20 July 2010

France gives us some of the finest bands that are currently around. The international fame of Kickback, Gojira, Year of No Light or The Austrasian Goat is becoming bigger and bigger. The darkness and nihilism that Celeste brings is also expanding. Celeste just did a full European tour in support of their latest album '-Morte(s) Nee(s)-'. We interviewed vocalist Johan, who tells us a lot about the new album as well as almost everything concerning Celeste.

Why are your lyrics in French? Is it because you can express yourself better? Or do you think it’s a part of Celeste’s atmosphere of the music?

"I’d say both. It really helps me to be sharper when I write my lyrics, and with time it became a part of the band’s atmosphere. I couldn’t imagine to sing in another language."

I don’t speak French; can you tell us where your lyrics deal with?

"The latest album is totally dedicated to women. It deals with many aspects. Tough ones like violences against women such as rape or pedophilia. But it also deals with lighter things like the loss of innocence, or contemporary female behaviour."

Don't you think that singing French (as opposed to English) will limit yourself in attracting a broader and maybe different crowd?

"Maybe, but I don’t care. If someone couldn’t listen to us only because I don’t sing in English, then he doesn’t deserve to listen to us."

What is the reason you worked with close-up pictures for your last two records?

"There are no reasons actually. I have an idea, then I search for the perfect picture (which is a damn long process), and fortunately I always find something that I like a lot. The cover of the "Nihiliste(s)" LP" isn’t a close up but I also like it a lot."

Of course, I like that one too. I was wondering who Marta Kwiecien is (the cover model on the artwork of ‘–Morte(s) Nee(s)-‘). I typed her name in google.com and the first picture I found was beautiful backside and a picture when she won Miss Polonia in 1999.
Is this the same girl or someone different because the looks are quite different? How did you work it out she wanted to join for the artwork?

"No nothing related too these internet links. Actually Marta is an unknown young Polish girl. She did some photo shoots with the photographer I worked with (also a “young” Polish girl). I was first willing to order something new from a photographer, but I found a photoshoot that really fitted to what I expected, so I decided to take it. Fortunately Martyna (the photographer) was into working with us, and she was really kind with us during all the process. I’m really satisfied with this collaboration."

Celeste has created its own niche somewhere between heavy screamo and black metal (also due to the vocals). How do you describe your music?

"Just something dark and violent. No fame, just heavy music."

You have your own specific sound; is it difficult to keep your music interesting? Is that also the reason you used piano, alto and cello at the end of "De Sorte Que Plus Jamais Un Instant Ne Soit Magique" on the last album?

"For the moment, even if it might get more and more difficult, it always has been pretty natural to write some new stuff and find our directions. For a long time we wanted to use some guests but we never found the time to do it. This time we took this time, because we really thought that it would help a lot to reach a new step. That wasn’t the case for the previous releases, they are somehow rougher, so they didn’t really need anything more."

In my review I also wrote the following about this last song:
“...in combination with the feed backing guitar wall it gives the music a miserable feeling. This doomy end is different from their previous efforts and it fits the depressing sound as these classical instruments do on the sorrowful “Symphony No. 3” from Górecki.
Are you familiar with classical music? Name your favorites if you can?

"I don’t know anything about classic music, and none of us do actually. That’s unfortunate. I’d really like to know some, because sometimes I really appreciate it. The thing is that I only like it when it’s depressive, and unfortunately it seems very hard to find some.

I checked this Gorecki symphony on youtube, but I’m sorry, I don’t really see a link. To me the “sadness” here is too obvious to be really sad."

What kind of music or bands have influenced Celeste? What kind of music are you listening to nowadays?

"A long time ago two of us were into Shora a lot. I listened a lot to Neurosis and Breach. But that was only at the beginning.

I don’t think that we are influenced though, even by these bands. We all listen to a lot of different stuff. Some of us like metalcore bands which I hate a lot. Antoine likes some post-rock stuff that I can’t bear. Guillaume listen to some crappy Black Metal bands that I hate. I listen to some strange stuff that others hate. But we all love what we do, that’s the most important thing."

Are there any writers or books that you would recommend to our readers? Are these writers also influence you for the lyrics and music?

"I only read some shit on the internet, I never read any book. The only one I read and love is "Lolita" from Nabokov, so I could only recommend this one to you."

Will the next album be in the same style as the previous ones or are you going to do something completely different?

"Honestly I don’t have a clue. For the first time we didn’t write anything new for almost a year. We really concentrated on doing a lot of shows. We’re currently starting to write some new things again, but nothing is planned. We don’t really know how things will turn out, but we’re still very motivated."

I ended my review of '-Misanthrope(s)-' with the following words: “It's too bad this CD has editing problems (a two second gap) between every song. In every song you become completely one with the music and at the end of every song your submission to Celeste is interrupted terribly. It’s a disaster for the flow of the album and the reason why ‘- Misanthrope(s)-’ receives four stars instead of four and a half.”

Was it really a mistake that occurred during the master or at the CD factory?

"You’re totally right. The factory screwed it up. Unfortunately I got a copy of the CD too late to cancel the process. That’s a big shame. In the end, the best version is the mp3 one, that’s weird..."

Asice.net is from the Netherlands. Every year thousands of Dutch people are visiting France for a holiday. What do you think of that?

"Dutch girls are cute and well shaped, that’s the only thing I could tell you. Actually I never talked or even had to deal with a Dutch tourist visiting France."

Are you living in a cave? How do you think the rest of the world will look on the French people? Do you think they are right?

"I think that most of the people hate us because they think that we are arrogant. That’s mostly true, so we can’t complain."

Are you still wearing the laser lights on your heads during your live show or is it only on special occasions? Why are you doing that?

"Yes we still do. I can’t bear looking to some shows where no effort is made to create a good ambiance. There's nothing uglier than looking to a hardcore band under a cold white light. So we could have asked a guy to create some projections like any post blabla band do, or to do something new. We took the second option. We thought about different ideas and the combo of red headlights + stroboscope + smoke machine looked to be the perfect one to stick well to our music. The bad thing with this is that when we play by day at a festival we look very shitty."

I was pretty impressed by your live show at the Denovali Festival. For half an hour, the intensity was enormous to say the least. Can we expect the same on this year's edition?

"I’m glad that you liked it. It was a pretty good performance because we really had the opportunity to make it the way we like. For the next one we’ll play the whole new album for the first and only time, so I hope that it will work out well."

Famous last words?

Many thanks for the support. I hope this interview will help Dutch people to know us better and will come to our future shows in the Netherlands, like the one we’ll do in Utrecht on the 28th of August."

Celeste will play with Fehler and Funus in DB's on the 28th of August. Don't miss their first gig on Dutch soil.

Interview by Maurice.
Pictures taken from the Celeste Myspace.