Gojira Frontman Talks New Album, Tour With Lamb of God + More

Gojira frontman Joe Duplantier was the guest on Full Metal Jackie’s radio show this past weekend. Duplantier talked about Gojira’s brand new album ‘L'Enfant Sauvage,’ ‘The Flesh Alive’ DVD and their upcoming tour with Lamb of God and Dethklok. If you missed Full Metal Jackie’s show, read the full interview with Joe Duplantier below:

Let’s talk about the new album ‘L'Enfant Sauvage.’ Are you going to laugh at me every time I say it?

[Laughs] No because it’s cool, it’s one of the reasons why we gave it a French name, to hear you struggle. I love it.

Well at least you’re having fun with this; the new album it’s about freedom and responsibility and Joe, being a musician, how is your freedom and responsibility different than other people?

I have less and less freedom and more and more responsibility. [Laughs] It’s very hard, it’s a very hard life that we have but it’s the only option I can think of. I’m living a dream, it’s a hard dream but it’s really fantastic – we hang out with one of our biggest heros, the Metallicas, the Slayers and we’re on the road and we do the music that we like and we have this feeling that we make no compromise at all.

Every day we need to be on time for the show and we work with a bunch of people, we have a crew around us, we have a lot of responsibilities but it’s a choice - I think freedom for us are in the choices that we make for our lives, for our futures, for our souls. We’re just having a blast constantly, on a certain level, on another level it’s hard because the music industry and all that is not easy to deal with but we find a balance somehow.

Joe, Gojira is such a socially conscious band. Worldwide, which do you feel you’re known for more, music or activism?

I don’t know, I hope it’s for music because that’s what we do first. We are just musicians, music fans and we are trying to create something that will help people no matter who they are, well they have to be at least a little bit metal heads. [Laughs] We’re trying to express ourselves first of all and to communicate something positive then if people get some of the things that matter to us and a little bit of our message well it’s even better. First of all, we just want people to bang their heads, we play metal, we love it, it’s good for you, it’s good for the health so I hope people dig our music first of course.

’The Flesh Alive’ DVD comes out here in the states in July; it documents the recording and touring of your last album ‘The Way of All Flesh.’ Watching it now, four years later, what’s the biggest change you see in yourself?

When we released ‘The Way of All Flesh,’ we were still getting known out there in the world and we’re still fighting to be present on festivals and on the press and all that and we feel like we crossed a certain threshold especially since we went on tour Metallica so many times. Our name is becoming familiar on the metal scene and stuff, this album is really important for us because a lot of people are waiting like, “What are they going to do now? Are they going to write music for the radio?” so it’s a big challenge for us to confirm this buzz that we have around the band but still keep the heart of the music alive and what we are.

The biggest effort is to be completely honest and to ignore the pressure and to put out great songs that are still exciting for us. I’m very happy with this new album because this is us more than ever. We passed the test and we’re super excited, we’re getting closer to the core of what we want to express with this music, with metal.

Gojira is going to be on tour with Lamb of God and Dethklok starting Aug. 1. That tour goes through the middle of September. Joe, what do you like most about those bands that you’ll want to watch them every night?

Well we are very familiar with Lamb of God and we became good friends with them. I don’t know, there is this theory in this band that we feel very close to. I’m good friends with Randy [Blythe] we have a lot in common, he’s a f---in’ beast onstage, he’s very, very entertaining to watch. They have music that goes straight to the point, we learned from that kind of band – that are very relaxed and not complex and they play true metal and it’s very inspiring for us. I don’t know Dethklok that much, in Europe, it’s not that famous, but I’m really looking forward to know them better.

Have you seen ‘Metalocalypse,’ the show?

I have seen it a couple of times when I was in the U.S. but they don’t play it in France so it’s mostly a North American band so I’m very curious and I cannot wait to see them perform. I heard they were amazing, I know Gene Hoglan is playing drums; it’s gonna be something.

This coming weekend, Full Metal Jackie will welcome the legendary Kerry King of Slayer on her show. Full Metal Jackie can be heard on radio stations around the country — for a full list of stations, go to fullmetaljackieradio.com.