Since marrying shoegaze’s melodic waves of ear-bleeding distortion with the thunderous dramatics of black metal over a decade ago, Alcest has been leading the blackgaze movement. They show no signs of slowing down with their acclaimed fifth album, Kodama. Before they embark on their seven-city China tour, we caught up with the French rockers' frontman Neige.
Kodama is said to be influenced by Princess Mononoke. How so?
Japan became a big influence on the music, as well as the concept and visuals behind the record. I absolutely love this country and have had a close connection to it since I was a child.
Hayao Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke told a story that I really related to. The feeling of living between worlds – the urban world and nature or the spiritual world and our earthly world – the duality between youth and death, femininity and animality, all are relatable to the music on Kodama.
The album has been praised as a return to Alcest’s earlier blackgaze style. Was that intentional?
We wanted to go back to something a bit closer to our roots, but still performed in a modern and new style. We consciously decided to go for a more punchy style on Kodama, by putting a bigger focus on the rhythm section than ever before, but at the same time keeping the melodic and atmospheric side through lot of guitar work in many different textures. It was a very natural choice for us, after having released a soft and mellow record like Shelter in 2014.
What can fans expect from your live show?
Our setlists are usually a mix of songs from our entire discography, but we are of course playing a lot of the songs from Kodama. We try to stay close to the feel of the album when playing the new songs live. They are even more intense in a concert setting though, which we think works really well with the character of the songs.
Alcest is considered pioneers of blackgaze. Do you agree?
It’s true that when I started Alcest back in the early 2000s, there weren’t really any other bands doing this mix of specific elements that I was doing in my music.
It wasn’t a conscious choice. I wasn’t really trying to make something new. It was mainly a result of definite inspirational sources from my youth – trying to recreate the atmosphere and vibe from these places.
Could you imagine Alcest would achieve such acclaim when you started it?
In the beginning, I had no expectations to what the future would hold. I could never have imagined people all over the world appreciating what we do in this way. We always hope to reach even more people as we tour around the world, though. It still feels amazing to be doing so many dates in China. We love this place so much, ever since the first time we visited back in 2011, and we are super excited to come back. Asia is one of our favorite territories to play!
Shanghai: Apr 14, 9pm, RMB120-150. MAO Livehouse, see event listing.
Beijing: Apr 15, 9pm. Yugong Yishan, see event listing.
Guangzhou: Apr 17, 8.30pm. SD Livehouse, see event listing.
Shenzhen: Apr 18, 8.30pm. B10 Live, see event listing.
WIN!
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