Inspired by witchcraft and horror movies themes, between doom, sludge, black, grind, death and post metal, a new event for metal maniacs called VVITCH FESTIVAL is coming in Italy. A trilogy of events plus a fourth one, the festival. Three different venues in Milan, 17 bands, some of them for the first time in Italy, some for exclusive Italian shows.
“..dark forces are going to cross the walls of the city, after the Sacrifice and the Ritual, the Evocation..
During the festival, the experimental French Metal band Celeste will play an exclusive Italian show. I asked Johan Girardeau (Vocals and Bass) about their Audiotree Live session, how important is communicate with the audience and the future plans of the band.
You have just released your Audiotree Live session, a perform in total darkness with only red headlights and a strobe. Why this choice?
Johan: That’s the way we’re playing live for tha last 12 years. That’s an important part of our visuals so we wanted to keep it for the Audiotree session. Guys there were really nice so they accepted that we used their studio exactly as we do on stage, in the end we triggered the fire alarm, but that was a good and fun experience
How important is what you try to communicate to the audience during your shows?
Johan: That’s pretty much everything. Recording an album is mall part of what we’re doing, most of the time we’re doing shows, so the best way to enjoy being a musician is through the live experience. But we don’t need a lot from our audience, as long as we feel like that they really pay attention to waht we’re doing and that the undertstand our point we’re fine with that.
You will be on the road again at the end of September and you’ll perform in Italy at VVITCH fest in Milan. What does someone expect when they attend one of your shows?
Johan: Something dark and heavy, a true experience, something almost exhausting, but something they will remember for a while even if they don’t like it.
What inspires your live performances?
Johan: We just created the thing we would have want to see live. We didn’t get inspired by other good live shows but rather been inspired by what we’ve seen live when were younger and felt very like being very ennoying. We just wanted to be everthing else but that.
The first time I listened to your record it was kind of like this atmosphere of sorrow and pain. Is that the feeling you’re trying to communicate?
Johan: Yes exactly, we really like to work on our melodies to make them not only heavy or violent but also sad at the same time
What do you think about the metal scene these days?
Johan: It seems that it’s going pretty well. I just feel like that people now only care about the “big” bands, they go more and more to big festivals and less to normal shows. I also see less and less “kids” coming to the shows and even less young people starting up bands. So I think it’s getting older, I just hope that i won’t die with our generation.
How is the situation in France?
Johan: The same as everywhere else I guess, nothing special. Maybe people here is even less caring about the underground scene here
It’s been a year after Infidèle(s). What has changed for Celeste after that album?
Johan: I don’t think that we got a broader audience with this album unfortunately, but the good thing is that we’re having much more people attending our shows than we were used to. We’re also trying to offer more professional live shows and we’re playing in better venues than we were used to, which also helps to do better performances. All in all, everything is going pretty well for us, we have a strong fan base, we’re really thankful for that
Do you feel more mature as a band?
Johan: Definitely, a long time ago, we were playing fucking wasted, with no soundcheck and no rehersal. No we offer very tight live shows. I think that we’re just getting older haha
Are you writing something new now?
Johan: Unfortunately not, two of us are business owners and we’ve done 70 shows last year, so we don’t have time to write music yet. We’ll probably take a little break someday to do that
There is always a black metal influence in your music. Is that something you’ll keep exploring with Celeste?
Johan: Not necessarily, it never as been do on purpose, we don’t really listen to black metal, that’s neither a genre we really appreciate, we’re just naturally write riffs which sounds black metal in some ways, but we don’t care about sounding BM or not
What’s next for Celeste?
Johan: We have nothing big planed yet, but like every year, we’ll do a lot of week end shows, a 2 or 3 weeks tour somewhere outsdie Europe and as many festivals as possible next summer. So explect to see us on the orad in 2019. And be patient for the next album haha
VVITCH I – Sacrifice
September 19th 2018, Spazio Ligera, Milano
DEMILICH (FIN) exclusive Italian show
SPECTRAL VOICE (USA) exclusive Italian show
CARDIAC ARREST (USA) exclusive Italian show
VVITCH II – Ritual
October 11th 2018, Kraken Pub, Milano
DOPETHRONE (CAN)
EAGLE TWIN (USA)
MESSA (IT)
VVITCH III – Evocation
November 3rd 2018, Spazio Ligera, Milano
BOLOGNA VIOLENTA (IT) “Uno Bianca” full album set
FISTULA
(USA) exclusive Italian show
GRIME (IT)
DEATH HAS GONE (IT)
VVITCH FESTIVAL
November 25th 2018, Circolo Magnolia, Milano
FRIZZI 2 FULCI (IT)
(live soundtracks by Fabio Frizzi, of Lucio Fulci’s horror cult movies, for the first time in Milano)
CELESTE
(FR) exclusive Italian show
KEN MODE
(CAN) exclusive Italian show
BELZEBONG (PL)
BIRDS IN ROW (FR)
COILGUNS (CH)
THE NECROMANCERS (FR)
