REGARDE LES HOMMES TOMBER - ENTREVISTA

Regarde Les Hommes Tomber was created in 2011. How and why you decided to make Regarde Les Hommes Tomber? Was difficult to find all the members of the training?

Hi. Tanks For your interest. I’m Jean-Jérôme, guitarist. I started to write the songs on my own. That was an introspective and lonesome work, very personal.  Then, gradually, I played the demo of the songs to my current fellows. We are friends and played together in several bands before.  Excited, they all decided to take part of this project. We have been working together for one year and half before going into the studio.

Your first publication as a group is a complete album, was this your first choice or we handle other possibilities, such as editing an EP or a demo? What was the process of creating the album? What is your way of working in recording studio? Describe some of this album, the listener can find it?

When we start the band, we have enough tracks to publish a full length. So we decided to publish a coherent package with a main theme and a dedicated artwork, a sort of concept album. 

Our album is composed with 5 tracks and 2 instrumental tracks. It starts with a slow and a strong crescendo ascent track called “Prelude”. Then, you can listen to the peaceful eponymous track “Regarde Les Hommes Tomber”: calm, melancholic, only composed with Larsen. The five last tracks are quite the same, in a very powerful and yelled register.  Two of them are shorter (less than 5 minutes) and more accessible. The first one “Wanderer of Eternity” is a good song to discover the universe of the band. The Second one “Sweet Thoughts And Visions” is more melodic with some accelerations. The longest tracks are “A thousand Years of Servitude”, “The fall” and “Ov Flames, Flesh And Sins”. They are all an explosion of “black anger”. The first one starts slowly. In this track, you can hear black riffs and spoken works. The second one has a lot of  changes in the atmosphere and dark melodies. “Ov Flames, Flesh and Sins” is the top song of the album. This track can be compared to a tormented journey; a sign of an uncontrollable apocalypse. The ingredients of the song: aerial passages, syncopated riffs, a bit of Doom, Hardcore vocals, worrying narrative voice, not to mention the devastating and powerful  Black Metal.

We recorded in different places. A particular attention was paid for drums. We wanted a good natural reverb on it. So, we looked for a big space with a very high ceiling. That's why we first had thought of old deserted buildings. For the anecdote, that was the place where ships were built at the Nantes Shipyard before closing. This place was very huge, cold and perfectly appropriate and gave us a nice natural reverb. Guitar and bass have been recorded in an old shack located in a very brushy garden. We also paid a particular attention to the reverb. Finally, the singing, mixing and mastering have been done to the Darkened Studio.

Listening Regarde Les Hommes Tomber one has the feeling of being in a job with a lot of musical influences from post metal, post black, sludge, what are your main influences when composing? What bands have influenced you? How would you define your style of music and you want to convey with your music?

I'm totally addicted to Classical Music and Post Rock. I like a lot listening to different groups such as Sigur Ros, Caspian, Mono and also Envy. They are all groups who make you travel because of the atmosphere they create. That what I wanted to recreate in a darker way with a slight touch of Black Metal in order to highligh the desperate side of the music. To be perfectly honest, I also listen to groups like Secret Of The Moon, Enslaved, Emperor, Mastodon, Ulver or Deathspell Omega.

Above all, we want to create a heavy, desperate, oppressive, intense and an explosive atmosphere with our music which can be sometimes aerial. It’s a kind of apocalyptic sludge.

The name 'Regarde les hommes tomber' refers to a film by Jacques Audiard. Why did you choose this name for the group? How important was this movie decanters to put the name to the group?

We took a long time to choose a name for the band. We tried to find a name fitting with the music and the general theme of our texts: the perpetual failure of the Human Being in his quest for the absolute. We wanted the name represents the melancholic and desperate side of our music. Antoine, the second guitarist, was really affected by the movie “Regarde les Hommes Tomber” directed by Jacques Audiard. That's why he made us this proposal to be called like the movie. At the beggining, we were scared of being penalised because of a french name for the band but this unsual name RLHT is just perfect with the image we want to give of ourselves and our music.

What topics you treat in your lyrics? What inspires you when writing lyrics?

The main theme is about the perpetual failure of the Human Being in his quest for the absolute but also the opposition between the Man and the Divine. Man wants to be greater than the Divine, greater than he is and keep failing in his quest for the absolute because his meaningless condition as a mere mortal is unable to understand a tiny part of this immensity. It's an hopeless struggle with an inevitable conclusion. Man will always be caught by his lower instincts, his desires and his egoism. The Human Being, starting from a will to become a better Man, will always turn his quest for the absolute into a mean of domination in order to control his environment and people. This thematic is discussed in a lot of biblical stories. So, we asked our friend to get the inspiration from those biblical stories to write the lyrics of the songs. The story of Babel, Noah, Cain and the Dante's initiatory route with Virgile are all told and expressed in our songs. These examples show that the immensity which surround us, called God by the Human Being or natural elements, will always bring the Man to the reality; to his mortal and meaningless condition. 

Who is designing the album cover? Is there any biblical reference in it? How can you connect the cover with the contents of the album?

We asked Fortifem, Parisians graphic artists, to be in charge of the artwork. They got the inspiration from different existing prints  such as Gustave Doré's engravings. We proposed them to draw the Tower of Babel in the foreground which perfectly illustrates the theme of our album : the failure of the Human Being and the Divine punishment

What kind of equipment do you use music in the rehearsal room and that you use at concerts?

We use the same equipment in rehearsal room and stage. We used to play on Orange amps, Blackstar amps, Marshall Cabs and Ampeg cabs. Concerning instruments, we play on Gibson guitar, LTD guitar, Warwick Bass and Gretsch Drum. At last, we used a lot of reverb and delay pedals !

What event in your life made you want to dedicate to music? How were your beginnings in extreme music? What is the cd that you are most proud of having in your collection?

When I was 10 years old, I discovered the four legendary Metallica albums. It was so amazing I decided to learn guitar. Then, I discovered band like AC/DC, Iron Maiden, Queen, RATM. My beginnings in extreme music came later with bands like Emperor or Entombed. My all times favorite cd : AC/DC Live at Donington !

Are you in contact with other bands from Nantes or France? How would you describe the local scene and that of France?

We are used to play with french bands such Taste The Void or The Great Old Ones. They are good friends of us and excellent bands. In France, there are more and more interesting groups, which was not the case ten years ago. Things are moving on... thanks in part to the new generations who hasn't been influenced by Neo-Metal. The Black Metal scene has proven itself for a long time, and groups such as  Deathspell Omega, Blut Aus Nord, Celeste, Antaeus or Aosoth keep proving it.

The album was released by Les Acteurs de l'Ombre Productions, how did this collaboration? Do you feel comfortable with the label? Will you continue publishing your work through this label in the future?

We gave our very first gig in May 2012 in opening for A Wolve In A Throne Room where Gerald from Les Acteurs de L'ombre Productions noticed us. Convinced by our music, he decided to sign us up on his label and produce our first album. We are very satisfied with our label cooperation. LADLO give us the opportunity of streaming our music in large scale. We are very thankful to Gerald. He is doing a great job for us. Thanks to him, we did the opening of Enslaved, on March in Paris. He spends days and nights to promote his groups. We respect his work. It's also an honour to work with LADLO because the other bands are excellent.

Are you happy with the reception that is taking the album a level of public and media? What does the future hold closest Regarde Les Hommes Tomber as concerts, upcoming release, etc?

We have a lot of magazine and webzine feedbacks. We have many positive and laudatory music articles. LADLO gives us a strong visibility in France and overseas. We didn't expect for such good feedbacks. It's a big surprise. It's very motivating. Concerning upcoming concert, please take au look to our official Facebook page to get in touch : http://www.facebook.com/rlhtband

Thank you very much for your time, if you want to add something for people who like Regarde Les Hommes Tomber, this is the place, thanks. I hope the questions are to your liking.

I hope you'll enjoy reading this interview and thus to know RLHT better. The most important thing about us it's we are big fan of music above all: its history, its environment, its evolution and its differents trends...We always try to learn and discover new things. Real geeks and bulimics of music! We don't do that just for fun! It's this passion who drives us and gives us the motivation to go ahaead. We just wish to convey it to a wide audience!