Alcest are a band I have been keeping a close eye on since I heard the majestically transcendental, genre-defining "Le Secret" EP a few years ago. Following the release of two subsequent long-players, 2007's Souvenirs D'un Autre Monde and the recent Écailles De Lune, the genius behind Alcest, Neige, decided to take the band on the road for a tour of Europe and the US. Just so we're all on the same page, his name means snow. Here is a little what we spoke about…Vice: You started out as a black-metal band with your demo Tristesse Hivernale. Then you went crazy and started making shoegaze-sounding music in 2005. What's that all about?
Neige: When I started Alcest with Tristesse Hivernale, I was 14 or 15. You can't invent such a complex concept as a personal universe when you are that young. I just wanted to make "true" black metal, like the bands I was listening to, such as Darkthrone. This fascinated me a lot, and I wanted to do the same, but it didn't last. Just after the demo came out, I decided to do my own stuff, and to use my own "inner universe" to compose music. And since "Le Secret" its been the same concept, it did not change.What influenced the sound on "Le Secret"? Was it stuff you were listening to, or was it a logical progression?
It's nothing like that. I will have to explain the Alcest concept. When I was a child, I had some flashes of a kind of dreamworld. I never really could work out what it was. This continued until my early teenage years. And then, nothing. And this was so strange. I wanted to share this but I couldn't. People would just say, "You are crazy, you smoked some drugs." But no, this really happened to me. It was not dream or imagination. I'd be walking down the street, or in the car, and then I would have flashes, you know? Flashes of somewhere else that is not here. And I wanted to make music about it because I needed to express it. So this is how the real Alcest formed. Tristesse Hivernale is not the real Alcest. It's just black metal.Right.
I don't want to please people. People say, "Oh you know, he just copied My Bloody Valentine and shoegaze." But I didn't have a fucking clue shoegaze even existed. During the recording of "Le Secret" [in 2005] I was like 16, 17. I was just a metal guy listening to a few dark ambient things like every metal guy does. I did not know anything about pop or rock. I was like, "Oh, rock is for gays." So all these people that say I copied shoegaze… it's absolutely wrong.So are you into shoegaze now?
Yeah, a friend put me onto My Bloody Valentine and I was like, "Wow, this is amazing." Now I love it.I think "Solar Song" is the best track on the new album, Écailles De Lune.
Oh really? That's cool. Nobody likes this song. We will be playing it tonight.Do you think there is a big difference between the sound of this track and, say, the tracks with more guttural vocals, like "Elévation"?
Absolutely not. It is all major chords, it's all very luminous stuff. It's just in "Elévation" I am screaming. For me screaming does not mean "black metal". It doesn't mean "darkness". It's just a very strong feeling of expression. Anybody can scream—you don't have to have long hair and patches. These two songs are just… (makes the sound of a small explosion) pure light. The metalheads hate it.Listen: Alcest, "Solar Song" [audio:http://viceland-assets-cdn.vice.com/music/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/05-solar-song.mp3]For details of Alcest's tour visit their myspace here.†ROCKWELL†
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Neige: When I started Alcest with Tristesse Hivernale, I was 14 or 15. You can't invent such a complex concept as a personal universe when you are that young. I just wanted to make "true" black metal, like the bands I was listening to, such as Darkthrone. This fascinated me a lot, and I wanted to do the same, but it didn't last. Just after the demo came out, I decided to do my own stuff, and to use my own "inner universe" to compose music. And since "Le Secret" its been the same concept, it did not change.What influenced the sound on "Le Secret"? Was it stuff you were listening to, or was it a logical progression?
It's nothing like that. I will have to explain the Alcest concept. When I was a child, I had some flashes of a kind of dreamworld. I never really could work out what it was. This continued until my early teenage years. And then, nothing. And this was so strange. I wanted to share this but I couldn't. People would just say, "You are crazy, you smoked some drugs." But no, this really happened to me. It was not dream or imagination. I'd be walking down the street, or in the car, and then I would have flashes, you know? Flashes of somewhere else that is not here. And I wanted to make music about it because I needed to express it. So this is how the real Alcest formed. Tristesse Hivernale is not the real Alcest. It's just black metal.
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I don't want to please people. People say, "Oh you know, he just copied My Bloody Valentine and shoegaze." But I didn't have a fucking clue shoegaze even existed. During the recording of "Le Secret" [in 2005] I was like 16, 17. I was just a metal guy listening to a few dark ambient things like every metal guy does. I did not know anything about pop or rock. I was like, "Oh, rock is for gays." So all these people that say I copied shoegaze… it's absolutely wrong.So are you into shoegaze now?
Yeah, a friend put me onto My Bloody Valentine and I was like, "Wow, this is amazing." Now I love it.I think "Solar Song" is the best track on the new album, Écailles De Lune.
Oh really? That's cool. Nobody likes this song. We will be playing it tonight.Do you think there is a big difference between the sound of this track and, say, the tracks with more guttural vocals, like "Elévation"?
Absolutely not. It is all major chords, it's all very luminous stuff. It's just in "Elévation" I am screaming. For me screaming does not mean "black metal". It doesn't mean "darkness". It's just a very strong feeling of expression. Anybody can scream—you don't have to have long hair and patches. These two songs are just… (makes the sound of a small explosion) pure light. The metalheads hate it.Listen: Alcest, "Solar Song" [audio:http://viceland-assets-cdn.vice.com/music/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/05-solar-song.mp3]For details of Alcest's tour visit their myspace here.†ROCKWELL†