Hypno5e Interview with Gredin

by David Gerhard

I see that you are half way done with your north american and canadian tour. How has the crowds treated you so far?
It is strange how I never happen to hear any bad critic after we play even when WE think we were really bad, I guess the people who don’t like us don’t tell us. Because I doubt everybody likes us. Our music is not mainstream, we play long songs, there are as many samples as there are singings, we don’t behave like metalheads… Still people in the audience are always congratulating us, nice!

Is there any change you might be planning for the second half of the tour?
Yes we have to cancel it because I’m in a bad physical condition, my lungs are suffering from the cold and the others smocking around me. But now I feel better, I guess we’ll make some smocking-rules on the next tours.

You have just played 2 back to back shows in Minnesota, one at the 400 club and the other at the Station 4. What did you think of the turn out?
First we played at the Station 4 on a Sunday for a matinee show, we couldn’t bring our drinks to the stage so we had to watch the bands play from a window, and we couldn’t buy any bottle outside of the bar because it was sunday, laws on alcohol in Minnesota suck! We played with Fistbate there, but they don’t exist anymore. I have good memories of the kids there, they were really nice and friendly. Then we played the 400 Bar and that sucked so much, we’ll never go there anymore, there was absolutely no promotion of the show (not a single flyer even in the venue itself, sic). But we played with a really good progressive band, Thosquanta, their lineup was not complete but the music was so good. In Mineapolis we had the occasion to hang out in the Seward cafe in the morning and in Hard Times cafe in the afternoon, these are the kind of place I really enjoy, as soon as we come back I know where to go to have good organic meals made by the community.

Being so far away from home, how do you keep the road a positive experience?
What is home? We’d rather be on the road than in our “homes”. Your question should be “How do you keep home a positive experience?” and I would answer that, in home we book more and more shows as to always be on the road wherever on the globe.

Now being from France, there’s quite a few bands that have made it in the metal genre. Any bands, past and present, that have influenced you and the band as a whole?
Not really, between us we never agree on metal, we all like diferent styles of metal, and we don’t listen to that kind of music a lot. Our influences are not there to pick. The thing for sure is that we all appreciated the Gojira shows the few times we’ve played with them.

Besides the band you tour with, what are some of your favorite bands to set your mood before and after a set?
Daddy Yankee ( El Ritmo No Perdona ) anytime! Merengue and Salsa are the musics we like to hear before and after playing.

Is there any bands from back home that we should be looking out for?
Sure: one of the best acts I’ve heard this year is Headwar, my best album of the year is the one of Cumshot (myspace/cumshotband), and the most original project is My Own Private Alaska (MOPA). There is a down-tempo band I like too: Lug-na.

With the release of Des Deux l’Une Est l’Autre in 2007, what genre of metal would you say you play in to? Death Metal, progressive, melodic metal.
I would say “sinusoidal” for the atmospheres: low ambient parts and high violent parts. It is progressive, it is melodic, sometimes brutal, with electronica, it’s quite open actually.

Is there a thought of maybe jumping genres in the future?
The San Diego scene with the Three-One-G label is the thing. An Albatross is the thing. I don’t know what is the name of their genre and obviously I don’t give a damn, they just rock! And they are the thing now, don’t wait for them to be changed by fame.

Since 2007′s release, has the direction of the band stayed on course with what you hoped in the begining or has it taken a different direction?
What we’ve always wanted since the beginning is to have the most artistic approach of the stage as possible, with sounds, lights, movies, sculptures… We really intend to achieve, even though most entries don’t have the required equipment for us to elaborate a proper stage as we would like it to be, we have ideas and we want to make them concrete. Musically the second album was designed for public performances, really powerful (hopefully), the technical parts are madness and the ambient parts are wide. We are making a new movie based on a less abstract scenario than the first one. As for the lights and sculptures, we actually have in france some material that we put on stage for them to be part of the show, and because it’s quite big it’s unseen in the States yet (doesn’t fit in the plane).

I see that you have a side project already. How is A Backwards Glance working out for you guys?
We give the music for free on the net and people seem to like it, we are downloaded everyday, I enjoy thinking that people all around the world can listen to our music for free. We’re planning a huge tour for this project, it would take place all around the world, following the countries’listing of downloads…

Do you think you all might focus on Hypno5e more or is A Backwards Glance a new outlet for a different sound for the future?
Both are different projects even if the musicians are the same, we’re working on both at the same time, differently. Having several bands doesn’t mean that we should focus on one band, all our bands matter the same. I currently have 6 different bands and I manage to tour with each one of them, if one can handle a schedule there is no problem.

A lot of bands from Europe try to stay away from making an English album. Does Hypno5e or A Backwards Glance have an English album or one in the near future?
Our lyrics are in English, French and Spanish, giving different colours to the music.

I search a cd from either band and i was very unsuccessful. Is there a store in the United States or a web site where fans can go to purchase either album?
Just mail us on our MySpace to get some Hypno5e’s CDs or merchandising. For A Backward Glance on a Travel Road the album is free here: http://www.dl-abackwardglance.com/
Both bands are looking for distribution in America.

I would like to thank you for your time. I hope to hear and see more of you and hypno5e in the future. Take care and i hope the tour finishes well.