Another world

The MAYHEM Festival is one of the Summer US Festivals. There are several festivals like this one, that go through America, making 40/50 gis in july - august.
For example, the site of this one is 2x the "Eurockeennes de Belfort" or the "HellFest" for our french readers. Everything's bigger here. The bottle of apple juice. The toilet paper. The people... and of course the festivals.
It's fun to be in the VIP place and see Dino Cazares (FEAR FACTORY) here, Roy Mayorga (SOULFLY) there, Ray LAUZIER, the new live drummer of KORN over there ("really calm and cool", said Yohan), and of course, the guys that played during the fest, Robb Flynn & Dave Mac Lain (MACHINE HEAD), the guys of UNDEROATH (really really intense and true on stage !!!)... and all the guys, 2 meters high, with the beard of ZZTOP and the belly of POPA CHUBBY, with tattoos and sunglasses... This is America !
Ross, there, was seen as a half-God. Everyone was trying to talk with him, hug him, joke with him... It must be hard to make the difference between honesty and opportunism, when you're that famous. Especially in that "metaaaaal" sphere.
Thank him he helped us to survive in that strange huge world, made of decibels storms, expensive cheeseburgers, HxC skinheads, devil's children, old porn stars, and well well well organized security people !

Rainbow warrior (!)

I'll talk about our crazy day in Devore / San Bernardino, CA, next day.
I just wanted to talk about things we hear it although we're so far away from everything we knew... Things we hear through friends and families, and coming from anonymous guys, maybe enemies, or from even other friends or so-called ones !
These things are about the fact of just being here. MOPA recording in L.A. with Ross Robinson... We add Ross on MySpace. He listened to the songs. He fell in love with the music. He wrote us as I quite never do, and so we began to think at recording together. That's amazing how this story brings us so many cool things, and the same time, so many bad words, bad things.
Bad stuff, from people we don't know and who love to hate MOPA, and sometimes from people we know. Sometimes, friends don't send us bad things. But they just can not be happy for us. We feel that.
There are people who feed you with their support, their joy, their inner frankness, their positivity. And there are people who make you feel strange inside, like guilty of the luck we have, guilty of all the work we've done to make this possible too ! Guilty of having an american producer convinced in the "spiritual power" (as he says) of our music. Guilty of having, after so many motherfucking awful personal things this year, a bit of luck. Maybe lots of luck. Yeah. We're lucky. That doesn't mean we haven't worked for that. That doesn't mean we have neither... but... we're lucky. And knowing that I scream like a pig in all the microphones of France since 1996, I'm happy to be lucky today. Yeah, that's cool, I'm a happy man today, motherfuckers.
But I will not feel guilty for anyone. I will not accept all this shit sent on our face. I will not be moved by any pathetic geek behind his screen. I will not even go to see that. I will refuse to see the jealousy around me. Cause that's what this is built on. I will forget all the strange things I heard before going in America. I will even stop to call anyone "motherfucker". Cause noone is still a motherfucker here. The motherfuckers become through our eyes people in pain, people lost in their inner fight, people who missed their enemies, people who think the world hates them, people so scared of life, and what they hide inside. I can even say I agree to help you. Just if you want to. Cause I know you need help.

Now is what we always did. We just make music. We work for that. A lot. Me, I write lyrics. I sing. And I got 2 friends. One on drums. One on the piano.
If you like it, enjoy. If you don't, enjoy life.

Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival

Slipknot, Dragonforce, Mastodon, Sevendust, Airbourne, Five Finger Death Punch, 36 Crazyfists , Machine Head, Black Tide, Suicide Silence, The Red Chord, Walls of Jericho, Disturbed, Underoath...
That's what we're going to see this evening. It's even going to start in the afternoon indeed...
We'll also work only this morning for the record, and then a little pause... with a maximum of sound ! But we deserve this break. 3 songs yesterday in the box for Yohan : "Amen", "Ode to Silence", and "Ego Zero".
Of course, we go there cause Ross is close to some MACHINE HEAD & SLIPKNOT guys, but it will be really cool to see MASTODON ! And see again this rare woman from WALLS OF JERICHO, and check what is UNDEROATH on stage. And we'll also see the new songs of the album of SLIPKNOT.

It reminds me you can see funny things in Ross's house ;-)

Mental Surgery

I didn't get the time to write the diary yesterday. Cause this last day was a big day. We recorded 3 songs. The drums of Yohan were reaaaaally reaaaaall cool. "Kill Me Twice", "Just like you and I", and "I Am An Island".
Before each song, we begin with talking about the song with Ross inside the room.
What is it about ? What are the lyrics ? Are they true ? Do we feel them in our skins ? Do we lie in there ? Are we honest enough to sing that ? What does that mean ? Why ? Could I be the same motherfucker than the guy / the girl I'm talking about in my song ? We share our experiences on that. We tell what we feel deeply. Ross wants that. He's digging in us.
"I'm a dinosaur, somebody's digging my bones" as KING CRIMSON said. He wants to get the evil out of you, so you can see this shit, visualize it, and speak to it during the songs. He wants us to know deeply why we're going to do this song. The meaning of it. The feeling to express. The common feeling to express. The meeting of our three brains connected in a imaginary point in the middle of the room, and then talking to the sky, with a common voice. Ross wants us to live the song . Not to act it. Not to play it. There's nothing to intellectualize. It's not time for that anymore.
"You say you're in pain in your lyrics ? So, now, suffer, show me. Suffer." We must suffer with our souls, more than our bodies. Cause behaving like that, with a mental conditioning, means that you forget your body. Your throat, your hands, your feet become just a tool for music, connecting people to each other, connecting people to something higher above. Some say God. Maybe it's true. You can imagine something else if you don't believe in God, but you'll feel it. Something's higher is talking. Talking to your mind. Talking to your body. And you forget yourself. Words are coming out you don't know how. With a personal voice. With a personal strength.
You only know you're tired when you go back landing on Earth, which means when you go out of the studio. Then Yohan can feel he's gonna fall on the floor, cause his legs don't carry his whole body anymore... but before, he could have played the song 20 times, he maybe would have done it.
I didn't imagine how deep I had to dig inside of me to record these songs. How I had to involve my whole mind and body into this process. How I had to accept to change all of my musical bad habits to find a bigger truth.
Knowing that, I didn't imagine we would be able to do it.

Hollywood

We also went to Hollywood. Not for tourism. We didn't even make any tourism at all yet... So we took the cameras when we knew we were going there to buy drums kits elements and equipments for the recording. The "Guitar Center" is in fact a Drum Center too. When you come in, you first understand the original name... but when you go upstairs. It's drummer's heaven.
We also checked with Ross several cymbals, several hi-hats, several snare drums... in order to have the elements that would fit the best with the way of playing of Yohan. It was Christmas for him.
I'm so frustated... I'm a fucking singer, and I can not have 1000 guitars or 1000 drums as everybody... It's totally useless to have 1000 SM58 or stuff like that...
Have you ever heard of the famous microphones of Freddy Mercury ? Michael Jackson ? James Hetfield ? No... And it's normal.

Pedals, Plugs, Cables... and modern music

Chucky repaired the tape recorder ! Hail to "the Chuck" !
Today, the studio looks like a cables store. XLR, jacks, USB, SCSI, simple plugs, cables that I didn't even know the name nor the existence... What a mess ! Little green lights, red buttons, digital numbers... This is modern music, bad ass ! Without electricity, we're tiny tiny boys...
The most impressive things among all that stuff are the strange pedals, the weird pre-amp, the effects that Ross brought to try on our instruments. This is the Robinson touch. But at the end, the goal is only to reveal the great southern MOPA sound ! The one we look for since the beginning. The one we begin to work on with Baptiste B., the guy who made our first EP (hello guy !). The one we define during this summer with Ross as mentor. Something unusual (we hope) and personal.
On the 2 videos, you'll see Ross, checking his little tricky pedals with Lil Bush, his assistant, and then, giving his last advice to Yohan (here, on "Die For Me"), cause he wants him to begin to record drums now, cause, as he said about Yohan : "he's on fire...".
Let's burn

Java Monster

The "MONSTER" drinks are energy drinks. Most of people know that. But french people like us do not !... More tasty than the RedBull. But filled with sooooooo many strange and maybe dangerous things : Taurine, Strong Ginseng, Carnitine... Filled with so much shit... that I drink it... and love it !
We thank so much NORMA JEAN to be sponsored by this company. They left 1980497740 drinks in the fridge. Thank you guys ! But you will be able to get back the Coffee or Chai Tea flavoured ones, they're awful ! The ones with juice are really cool.
I think that Yohan really needs that shit at the moment. Ross is pushing him to the limits of his body. But they get further day after day. The MOPA drums sounds more intense, bigger, more massive, stronger day after day... A mix between the 70's prods... LED ZEP and DOORS style... and the 00's prods... His tom bass even sounds sometimes like the Igor Cavalera ones on Roots ! And sometimes, his drums sounds like the one of John Bonham or Jon Theodore from MARS VOLTA... Incredible.
Yohan is hungry all the time.
When I see him playing, I know why...