HEROD – Interview with David & Pierre

Currently Hardcore is experiencing a renaissance. This is not just a simple, aggressive and heavy music but today Hardcore is very rich music with the complex rhythms and variable rate, low tuning guitars, varied vocals, alternating moods, and more… This all we will hear on “They Were None” the first album of HEROD from Switzerland… A few weeks before going to the festival in Switzerland, something struck me to write a review of this album, which I received from the Danish label Mighty Music, hoping to hear the band live… Intuition did not disappoint me!

Hello men! What were your first impressions after the concert at Rock Altitude Festival in Le Locle?

David – Badass man! I was really surprised there were so many people as we played really early. Soundcheck wasn't easy due to PA tech issues and I wasn't feeling comfortable. But I just dived in on the first song, that was great!

Honestly, for me the vocals of David was set too quiet. IMPURE WILHELMINA had similarly. But you gave a mighty kick… I must admit that so rarely happens that the first band affect in any way for listeners… David, you are quite charismatic on a stage, communicative, you are trying to interact with the fans… And there you went between the audience with a microphone… It was totaly crazy…

David – Thanks!

Then I was pretty close… I saw as you feel the emotions, you throw out an aggression… But there, among the crowd you were like introvert… The closed eyes, the music and your screams…

David – It's not really easy for me to be surrounded by the crowd at that particular moment in The Fall, this is really a moment where I'm going deep down in myself and start to growl wordless vocals, like I would do from a cave where I'll be about to die, I don't have any defense or protection at that moment, but yes this is also why I really like the feeling of being there, there is no showing off, there is no light show, no high stage, only music and human beings.

And do you remember that you grabbed some guy next to you and you yanked him slightly? Of course for together will feel the music?

David – yes I do ! It was like a invitation, a come on in!! I also felt people tapping on my shoulder, almost like a cheering dude, this is gonna be alright. I love that because we can tell that a lot of people can feel what we're trying to give out with our music, and they are touched. I feel blessed.

The people took a pleasure. I think you too… The thanks, the common photos… It must be a nice feeling. Agata (my wife) was one of the first who asked you for a common photo…

David – Oh yeah I remember her and you then! It's always special for me, because I don't feel like I should get any thanks or pictures, it should be the other way around ! I am really thankful for what I'm able to do with Herod.

Jacob from Mighty Music told me that recently you played a good concert in Copenhagen, Denmark… Did the label bring you there?… Can you compare these concerts – at Le Locle in Switzerland and at Copenhagen, Denmark?

David – they were really different, but we weren't ! Stage size wise, crowd wise it was real different, that wasn't our backline either. First time ever we're going there. I was really feeling like hey people this is what we do, this is what we are!. Pierre, Bertrand and I spent like half of the show in the crowd. I was really overwhelmed by the music and its power. It felt good. A guy came to us after show, apparently he'd been incarcerated several times for violence issues. He told me that he could feel in me, in us, the same anger he's going through. I saw him during the show, he was headbanging and all, we got connected, and if for a minute he felt good with our music, man, this is worth it.

Do you have any tour plans for this year?

Pierre We are going to make our first tour ever in France in October! only 3-4 gigs. We are working on a european tour for next year, we would love to come to Poland!

Ok, so let we go to your debut album, “They Were None”. Generally speaking, you recorded 11 songs in style of Post Hardcore. But I sense there the elements of Post Rock, Deathcore or Mathcore and even Industrial… So, what do you created the album with so variety of arrangements?

Pierre – Herod is actually my solo project back in 2006 when I was living in Sweden for 6 months. It took many years before I met Fabien (drums) in 2011. We started working together on my songs and then David put the vocals on it in 2012. 2013 we entered the Studio Mecanique, la Chaux-de-Fonds in Switzerland. I wanted to work with Julien Fehlmann because he produced a few swiss bands I am influenced by (Unfold, Forceed, Coilguns). Julien help us to arrange the tracks and satanize every riffs.

Generally speaking, Are you satisfied with the album? Did you expected such result? Or maybe if you would be recorded again the album then you will be change something else? As you said the producer of album was Julien Fehlman (worked with THE OCEAN), and in addition mastered by Svante Försback (worked with RAMMSTEIN), so probably not work out badly, hahaha…

David – I really loved the way it turned out. Basically the band's been created to make the record, so we had no real vision of how things would work. Julien did a hell of a good job. He pushed me way further that where I was expecting to go. I remember the first day of recording, I was feeling stressed and pushed by him and I blew a fuse. I start yelling at him, he kept calm and explained me things like to say, hey david, you're not being harmed here, we're all going in the same direction. And then we went to hell and back ! One session I had to stop, my head was so hurting I was about to throw up.

Is the name of the band – HEROD has something to do with the history of the Bible, or simply it is a “hero” in Greek?

Pierre – Herod is known to have tried to kill the christs child, he gave order to kill all the boys in Bethlehem who were two years and under. But there is another side of this mad king, he also is one of the greatest builder in history, the city of Jerusalem bear his stamp. Was he a murderous mad man or a brilliant king and architect? I liked this idea of bipolarity, I feel like him, in a softer way!

Who did you mean by creating the title of the album – “They Were None”?

Pierre – They Were None is taken from an Agatha Chritie novel. In the novel, ten people are on an island under different pretexts, all have been complicit in the death of other human beings but either escaped justice or commuted. The guests are charged with their respective “crimes” by a gramophone recording after dinner the first night and informed that they have been brought to the island to pay for their actions. They are the only people on the island, and cannot escape due to the distance from the mainland, yet gradually all ten are killed in turn.

I assume that author of lyrics is David. Of course I heard songs but I would like to present the lyrics for those who do not know your music yet…

David – Lyrics are personal, introverted and self reflected. Empathy and Catharsis. I'm really affected by how the world is turning these days but either in a close way, like close friends or family or my city, either in general. I don't have much hope in us, human beings. I tried to change that on a personal field. We are not gonna make it with money and individualism, we are gonna make it through sharing and caring. Those are really cliché themes but if you look closer, those are the real diseases to me. That's why people are making constant burn outs, might be why Breivik did this massive killing in Norway, or why teenagers are committing suicides. Lyrics are about that large idea.

The introduction to the song “Not Forgiveness Not Vultures” brought the blowing of East wind. It seems to me that words recited in the Russian language have a political character…

David – The text is taken from the master and margarita from Bulgakov. It is definitely political, or satanic! I let you choose!

Every Polish man have to read the story at high school… At the concert in Le Locle probably it sounded exotic for the most listeners. But I felt a bond with this song. Poland was under the political regime of the Soviet Union for several years… But the time has been changed and many bands begin to be approached differently to promotion than in the past. Usually they are young bands. The free downloading, listening from the Internet happens more and more often. From the one hand, the team can reach a wider audience but from the other hand, many people just listen to music from the Internet without buying a disc cd or mp3 files. You also make available the songs at various websites. Do you have an advantage by this?…

David – I guess, for a new band, you can't really expect anymore to get money from selling records anywhere else than the shows. But internet is there to give a real opportunity to get connected with people from all over the world, and this is wonderful.

And how did you get the wing of Mighty Music?

Pierre – Our graphic designer is the drummer of Sludge, a swiss band signed on Mighty Music.

How is your every day? I ask, because who knows, maybe someday you will get long tours and you will have to abandon the present of life for your music, hahaha…

David we all have part time or full time job, myself I'm doing lights for a living (I came often in Poland with Samael) but we are all determined to give the best of us to Herod. We all are in the mid thirties and expectations are a bit different than where you are more young, but doesn't change the will, really.

So I wish you success and thank you for the interview. Last words are for HEROD…

David thanks for giving us the chance to be heard in Poland. I've been listening a lot to Obscure Sphinx lately. They do a have a really nice way to build songs and state an atmosphere. Hope to share the stage with them! Take care!

I assure you that not only in Poland. Metal Centre exists in both languages…

https://www.facebook.com/HerodNoise
http://herod.bandcamp.com