Interview with Hacride (Adrien Grousset - guitar )

Interview with Hacride (Adrien Grousset - guitar ) : 

After watching Hacride give a powerfull performance at Hellfest 2009, we managed to get a hold of Adrien Grousset, the guitar player of Hacride, to ask him some questions about the band and their latest release "Lazarus" out not on Listenable Records.

I.M: Hacride has been around 2001, can you please give us a brief history of how the band came to exists and what has changed since it was first conceived. 

I met our drummer Olivier in kindergarden so we knew eachother for a long time and we met Ben (bass) first and later Sam (vocals), briefly before deciding to form the band. We’re still those four people from the beginning so nothing has changed regarding the line up. So we started the band and did a demo we sent to several labels and decided to sign with Listenable which was interested in releasing it. “Deviant Current Signal” is more considered as a demo for us though even if it had been release as an album, we are still proud of it that’s not the question but not achieved as much as we wanted maybe. We did two tours in France with DCS before releasing “Amoeba” in February 2007. That’s the album that really opened us the gates of other European countries if I can say so. We started to play a lot more and especially aboard, European festivals like Brutal Assault, Graspop, Metal Camp… and two tours with Dying Fetus and Divine Heresy. Here we’re back with “Lazarus” which had been released in April and the main thing we’re doing at the moment is to defend the album on stage.

I.M: “Deviant Current Signal” and “Amoeba” showed an interesting transition of Melodic Death Metal between albums. What has been the main reason Hacride has been so versatile between albums?  

An album is the reflection of a band life or I should say for us 4 persons with their life and experience. Like every human being we change, got across new experimentations and as music is a reflection of its composer’s soul. We can’t help changing. The two first albums are like a print of what we were and wanted when it was made.

I.M: “Lazarus” is you new album that features a very interesting mix of music. Explain more about the process the band went through when coining this signature sound? 

We didn’t want a real metal sound so we went to Loko studio in Normandie, which usually host pop rock, folk, jazz bands, to record the drums and have a very organic sound, we recorded some other lines there and did the rest in a studio near Poitiers (where we live) with our sound engineer Franck Hueso, who already did the two previous ones. The chance we have is that Franck is also our live engineer so when we went on tour before the studio we have the time to talk a lot about the sound we wanted. This brainstorming helped us a lot for this album. That gave us headaches but it worth it. Felt like we were a in chemistry lab making some potion in the studio.

I.M: What is the concept behind “Lazarus”? How would the band compare this album to the bands previous releases? 

The concept is around the Lazarus phenomenon (which got its name from the story of the resurrection of Lazarus in the Bible), it’s a disease that happen to people after NDE (Near Death Experience). They come back to life after being dead a very short time and they don’t feel in adequacy with the world around them anymore. Just like if everything had changed. The album is talking about someone living that, it could be anyone cause I think it can happen to everyone even without this disease to feel apart, on the edge and close to the nervous breakdown. The album is written like a movie soundtrack and the lyrics like a book with several chapter describing one step. The first song which is 15 minutes long is like a summary of what’s gonna happen next. This album is I think more mature and less abstract than Amoeba which was about a cellular. It’s more concrete cause it talks about humans directly.

I.M: “Lazarus” has received very positive feedback from the press. How do you think fans will accept / have accepted and received this album? 

Most of the fans really liked the album and it looks like a lot of people who didn’t like that much what we were doing before reacted very positively. But I can’t lie and say it’s the case of everyone, we had one fan who came at the first concert we did (the day of the release in France) who said he preferred “Deviant Current Signal”, liked “Amoeba” and lost us with the new one. But it’s cool, he explained us he didn’t like the more atmospheric parts we had on previous album but a lot less than now. Otherwise the reaction is very positive and it’s very motivating for us.

I.M: Will the band go and explore in other genres of metal for future releases? 

That’s something I can’t say before inspiration comes again. I think we have to play that album a lot more to exorcise before We feel free to sit and work on something new. That’s what happened for the previous one. As I said, I think the music evolves with the band so I can  say what we will compose for the next one.

I.M: Any extensive (or small) touring planned in the US in support of the new album? 

We’d really like to cross that Atlantic Ocean, but nothing is planned yet. I really hope it would come though.

I.M: What do you think about the current wave of French bands playing creative styles of metal, like Gojira, Hacride, etc? Why do you think this wave has appeared suddenly in the metal scene? 

I think it’s the first time something is really happening in France regarding Metal. I mean several bands as an artistic movement and not only one band like it happened for Trust or Loudblast… And that’s why people start to talk about it and look at what is happening in France. It’s very motivating for everyone in the scene and not only bands, the crowd, the promoters… It’s a small but still artistic movement I think.

I.M: How has the internet (myspace, etc) and technology (cheaper recording tools) impacted how you promote your band?  What have been the advantages and disadvantages of this?  

In my opinion it helps and deserves everyone cause it makes things easier sure but the consequence is that you have more CDs released than ever, which is great but makes it hard for the crowd to find what they want to hear, for bands to make the difference and promoters to listen to all the CD they receive. That plus the CD crisis and crisis in general doesn’t help. But well it’s good that everyone can access to everything more easily even if that’s kind of a big mess for everyone.

I.M: Again, thanks for the interview, is there anything else you want to add for our readers?

Thanks a lot for your questions. Nothing to add but that we wish to see you on tour and have the opportunity to share the live experience with you.
Thanks again