Hacride Interview

Interview
Adrien Grousset
Hacride

Lineup:
Samuel Bourreau: Vocals
Adrien Grousset: Guitars
Benoist Danneville: Bass
Olivier Laffond: Drums

6/4/07
Interviewer: Erika Kristen Watt

Hacride Promo

You haven’t heard of Hacride? Quoi? Vous fait-il habite sous un rocher? Well, we must have because this French outfit hailing from the tiny town of Poitiers has received enormous international acclaim with their release Amoeba earlier this year. Though this band has been in the Industry for a few years now, they’ve only recently received a buzz due to the success of other French death metalers Gojira and Scarve. Playing stages with such heavy hitters as Slayer and Korn in this year’s Hellfest, proves that this band does not just show off their astute technical guitar hooks but that this is a band that could help open the gates with more heavy atmospheric sounds from France. Guitarist/programmer Adrien Grousset was kind enough to tell us a little about the band and why they could be a big deal. Lire sur…

When and where did you find the member’s of your band? Mini history of the association of the band.

Adrien Grousset: The band was formed in 2002 in the same year of our demo “Cyanide Echoes”. After spending Hacride Promo

some time performing, we decided to record our first album “Deviant Current Signal” with Frank Hueso, who allowed us to sign up with the Listenable Records label in 2005. DCS. The welcome was quit warm and this allowed us to make our first tour “deviant tour”! This tour was amazing and very exiting, we had played in all the country and in Switzerland, and we had stopped just in may of 2006 for the production of amoeba. The recording was situated between may to October, always with our friend Franck Hueso, and now we are in tour.

How do you mesh all of your individual influences into the your band’s sound? How do you keep it original and fresh for yourselves and your fans?

Adrien: Well we get a lot of influences, but sorry man, Fear Factory is not one of them!! We're listening to SYL, Steve Coleman, Immortal, Muse...Being open-minded is like a kind of dogma for us, we strive to avoid being associated to the metal entity with a capital M. We’re simply making music and even if defining our musical style as metal is sometimes necessary for people who don’t know us, we don’t need this! We’re playing metal because it may be (along with jazz and electro) one of the only styles that allows us doing everything we want; mixing different styles is still something that chocks or frightens people today and that’s why we’ll continue exploiting this vein! Hacride’s music is a kind of homogeneous and coherent musical patchwork. Assimilating as many trends, styles and artistic visions as possible is a necessity for us to feel satisfied with the music we’re making.

How important is it to you to have fan and critic recognition for the musical contributions your band has made to the metal community on a whole?

Adrien: As soon as Hacride was created, we wanted to be part of the scene, so yes it's really important to us to be followed, and feel that we're supported. Reading unanimous critics about "Amoeba" as well, it pushes us to go straight ahead. We took lotsa risks with Amoeba, thanks to this we got quickly some notoriety in the musical scene, and we're proud of it!

What have you learned about yourself and your bandmates during your years together as a band?

Adrien: Probably the "team spirit", a band it's like a couple, except that you are almost eight in!

Where do you begin when you lay down your arrangements for your songs?

Adrien: Everything starts at home, on my small home studio; I work on all the compositions and do all the arrangements. We work together practicing the songs, like this everyone brings his ideas, and his way of playing. But we often do some last minute arrangements in studio, so it's often a long work, but that's the key of the Hacride's maturity.

Just how symbolic and/or personal are the songs you arrange?

Adrien: Music and Art in general are probably the best ways to communicate that exist, the best ways to drive emotions, feelings...Obviously it's personal, composition implicates to give a part of yourself to the music. Well for me it's like a sort of catharsis, a therapy!

What have you learned about the music industry that has made you a better musician today?

Adrien: Nothing, music business is really far from music and creation, that's just...business. A band can't do without it, but this has to stand out off the way of the musical preoccupations...

Top 5 bands /musicians that you are listening to at the moment?

Adrien: Dimmu Borgir, Muse, Devin Townsend, The Doors, Keep of Kalessin.

What is your most embarrassing CD you own?

Adrien: None, I've burned all the embarrassing ones!

What would a newcomer to your music except to see at one of your live performances?

Adrien: May be just capturing the world and ambiance we've created! I don't know, but it's true that shows are quite essential to us, and we tried to materialize "Amoeba" on stage with lights and videos.

Most embarrassing stage mishap?

Adrien: Breaking a string!

Wildest thing that has ever happened while on tour?

Adrien: Haha, well we were in Paris and were censed to play a show on a pinnacle. We arrived at the time, but impossible to find the canal boat. We asked somebody, and the guy said: "Wow guys, don't worry, it'll be there in half an hour". We were waiting with our stuff for the gig place that was...late!

“If we could go on tour with __________ I could die happy!”

Adrien: SYL!

Any special messages you would like to extend to your fans and supporters?

Adrien: Thanks a lot for everything, the interest you're giving us. We hope being able to come to see you someday...;)

Why should anyone listen to your band?

Adrien: Maybe like a bad-musician.

What is the song you want played at your funeral?

Adrien: I don't know, I can't judge.

What’s the one thing that people wouldn’t know about you that you wouldn’t mind sharing?

We’d like to thank Adrien for taking the time to share a bit of his life with us! Merci beaucoup!

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