Interview with ‘The Brotherhood of Pagans’
http://brotherhoodofpagans.free.fr/
http://www.myspace.com/brotherhoodofpagans
Nattsol: Tell a few yourselves for a start, please.
BOP: We leave in the countryside near Compiègne, 100 km (in the north) far away from Paris. We are happy in family with our wives and children. A job… not very interesting to talk about!
Nattsol: As it could be noticed, you took nicknames, but don’t reject your original names as well. Could you explain what do your nicknames mean, if it’s not too personal?
Sailor: My name is Jack… (That’s a joke for those who heard the CD ! :o))) )… No… My name is “Marin” and I have always been nicknamed as things linked with sailor’s themes. Popeye was too ridiculous… “Neptune the god of water” was too long and arrogant. LOL :o))))
Coccs: This nickname is old and due to the VW car that he loved… while he had a 2CV…
Vox: Vox Populi at the beginning because when someone had to know something, or if something shouldn’t be known by someone… Vox told you what you should or shouldn’t have to know… It was Our Vox Populi (the “voice of people”). Vox stills
Nattsol: Before we start talking about ‘The Brotherhood of Pagans’, it would be lovely to know more about two pre-BOP bands – ‘Itchy Souls’ and ‘Nuits Heretiques’. What can you say about these bands?
Sailor & Vox: “Nuits Hérétiques” was our first band with Elrick and Vox… It was more a training band than a real band. It permits us to learn how to be a band member… And it was the first time we dreamt to succeed in music, as wide-eyed boys :o). But nothing really concrete was able to be… That’s why Elrick, notably, took his Pilgrim’s staff to look for a singer and why not a keyboard player. Then He met Alien during a party. He and Coccs were in the same quest. So merging us with the birth of “The Brotherhood of Pagans” met our expectations (even if the band was unnamed as yet).
Coccs: We had many bands with Alien, and we wanted to build something more serious, secure, because we knew that we weren’t in the good way.
Nattsol: The next question is about the name of the band. It’s quite clear why it is ‘brotherhood’, I suppose. But why ‘pagans’? Is that your attitude to religion? Life at all? Or something else?
BOP: The main idea is to find a name which could be suitable for what we have to say about these fucking religions and politics… The “pagans” are less than human from the Catholicism’s point of view. So we wanted to tell that the truth is not in the preaching of all those old and grasping religious and politics (two words for a same thing). In another way, we wanted to find a name which could be associated with medieval, Dragons, magic, Tolkien…
Nattsol: Tell me more, please, about your first gigs and those ones which made you famous (is that the correct word?). What was the public there? And what was its reaction?
BOP: I think the public was always happy to see us, even if they didn’t know “Brotherhood of Pagans”. But we didn’t tour enough in the goth scene area, to say that we were awaited for… So the public was varied with different moods, but with great feelings while listening to us.
Nattsol: You said that there were not many goth-oriented shows with you. So what was the scene you gave shows for? In your opinion, did you fit there?
Sailor: I’m sorry for not being very fluent but what could we say about the scene? We didn’t tour all over the world during several months (we are not professional), so, when the scene was not oriented at-all (festival…), we can’t say what was on their minds, we weren’t in the crowd brain so it’s very difficult for us to talk about that. A gig we made in Dorsten, was pretty cool because there was a goth-party at the first floor (playing music like Sisters, Virgin Prunes, Siouxsie…), while we were playing at the second floor with two other bands. Our room was full during all the gig anyway. So we were very happy and sure the public liked our show.
Nattsol: Now I’d love to ask about the first ‘Brotherhood of Pagans’ album, ‘Tales of Vampires’. Could you represent this work in your own words, and tell what it is for you now?
Sailor: Now it’s the past. We think is a super thing that happened for us, because it was unbelievable but true! Wow! We got our own CD! And it seemed liked by many people, and gave us a place in the goth scene! But unfortunately, it was a waste because TOV was not well supplied enough… The difficulty to buy it was a shame… And unfortunately, the band exploded just after the release of ToV… Another waste…
Nattsol: So the band broke up in the mid of the 90’s because of Elrik’s departure. As it was said, you just couldn’t keep up without him. But in 2006 you decided to reform the band without two original members. And you mentioned in the influences ‘Brotherhood of Pagans ‘95’. So are two these bands different? Or it’s the one band with two faces? What has stayed and what has changed?
BOP: First, things are different because we took 14 years in our faces!!! As well, the fact that the lineup was about 4 then 3 members (when Alien decided not to continue, in nearly 2006), changes the way of making music.
You can’t make the same music when you are in a rehearsal configuration (with each instrument played at the same time) than when you are only 3 to play all the instruments in a home-studio. So, the birth and growth of each song of “Only-Once” were totally different than they use to be during the first step of the early Brotherhood of Pagans. As well, now we are 3, things get better because we are in a perfect symbiosis, and that’s the most important!
Nattsol: Now let’s move to your ‘Only Once’ album. It is said that you decided not to involve other musicians but learn playing new instruments by yourself. Why so? And what is your attitude to these new for you instruments? Why you have chosen them?
Sailor: The main reason is we felt that if we wanted to survive, we wouldn’t have to manage other problems than ours. Involving other musician implied to share everything (good times but also problems). And we thought we had enough work by managing ourselves. As well, considering that in this band, we didn’t express ourselves as we should, due to our hibernation time. BOP is now Coccs, Vox and Sailor as if we were the last in the boat… Our duty was to continue alone.
Nattsol: Well, now about the album itself. As it was said, it doesn’t have too many relations with the previous BOP. So what have you tried to express in this album? Does it have a conception, lyrical and musical?
Vox: As we always do, nothing is planned in advance. So there’s no conception. We have the main ideas such mixing dark or/and weird ambiences with a bit of humor. If things are not well defined it helps the listener to built his own idea, and feelings.
Nattsol: This album is your step aside from quite orthodox gothic rock, how could you characterize its style? In your opinion, is there something related with what you have done? If yes – what is that?
Vox: It’s the result of not calculating anything! Neither, ToV wasn’t in the straight line of goth-rock. The remaining thing is that we like to give a whole universe through different ones instead of a succession of songs based on the same sound and ambiance. Maybe it’s a bit more difficult to appreciate our music immediately, above all if you want to find only one theme.
Nattsol: I always ask the bands which describe their style as ‘goth’, what does this word mean. There’re no any strict borders of this genre, so the meaning is always personal. I’d love to hear what this word means for you.
BOP: Recurrent question about what is “Goth”… First Gothic is a way of life, and thinking but cannot exist without considering… MUSIC! … Rather than only FASHION! “I’m dressed in black; I wear New-rock shoes, a fetish collar… Yep, I’m a goth!” Bullshit… Music prevails!
Then, for us “Goth” is at the beginning, the straight continuation of what we used to call “cold-wave”-music, with dark, strange, ethereal & bizarre atmospheres, always with a sense of oddness. So, because everyone needs to “store” each bands in a style, we can say that Brotherhood of Pagans is a goth-rock band (that’s ok if in this case goth-rock means cold-rock :o). But now, Goth (in the cold-wave sense) is dead, since it was phagocytized, vampirised, by (black-)Metal music. Now what is the Goth-type if not someone who listen to Metal-music, but dressed in black? In most cases that is a gothic people. Of course, every goth-people are not like this and of course everyone can listen to Metal-music! But those who keep this oddness, and not follow the herd of “metal-music at any cost” are the guardian of the gothic-temple!
Nattsol: Which musical experience apart from BOP you have? Which of it you consider as the most exciting? Or which could be the most exciting?
Sailor: Vox plays guitar in Jacquy Bitch band. Coccs and I have no other musical experience apart from Brotherhood of Pagans.
Nattsol: There’s no any mentioning about your contemporary live shows. Do you ignore stage? If yes – why?
BOP: We are now in rehearsal for this! The aim was to compose, to record, and then to release “Only-Once”. And because it was the main goal, and because we had nothing to show except the songs of “ToV”, we decided not to make live show, while “Only-Once” wasn’t released. The first one may be in a few months.
Nattsol: Well, so how are you going to have these shows? I mean, what will BOP be on and what metamorphoses of your past stuff a listener should expect?
Sailor: The difference will be what you find between the 2 CD. It will be less “garage” and more mature I think. The fact that we can’t play the entire instruments will be mainly noticeable with the lack of drummer. Sailor is now the singer, Coccs takes the bass and partly the keyboards, Vox keeps the guitars… Any laptop PC will play the rest.
Nattsol: In your opinion, will the BOP fan base stay or it will be changed? (Or it already moves?)
Coccs: They’re all probably dead! LoL… I have absolutely no idea about that!!
Nattsol: What are past, present and future for you in music and apart from it?
Sailor: If you mind about Time… that’s the end… So we all have to coexist with the “time-machine”. For the rest, we are about to be on stage and we start to compose for the next CD. Apart from it… That’s our private garden :o)
Nattsol: How does your music influence on your backstage lives?
Sailor: We all need to try to succeed in something. Music offers a sort of second life. But it drastically changes your life only if it takes the near-whole part of your life. Because life is not as Manichean as that, we have to deal with all the «rest» (our beloved family, our not-beloved job…). I think if you want to devote time to music (or any other art), you must abandon family (unless if your wife really shares the same thing, and that is more difficult with children…)
If we weren’t musicians we probably find another «drug» (Sailor: painting or stone-sculpture maybe… Coccs: Metal-sculpture yes… Why not… Vox: I would have said “what an ass, I am!” while seeing such band like Brotherhood of pagans… “That’s very cool… If only I had learnt an instrument I will be on stage rather that doing my bloody job!” :o) )
Nattsol: What other art aspects are you interested/involved in?
Sailor: Nothing in particular. . To take care of our family!! (That’s not very rock n’roll, isn’t it?)
Nattsol: So you’ll have live shows soon. What next? Have you already thought about it?
Sailor: No plan at the moment. We will make some gigs according to our possibilities, Maybe in November. A live show with several bands.
This will be an “Alone-Prod” and “Une nuit Cent Lune” co-production.
We started to write new songs in order to release a CD under 10 years ! :o)
Nattsol: Thank you for the interview, wish you all the best in your work. What are the last words for this interview you’d love to say?
BOP: Thank you for your interest and kindness… Tell everyone: Please buy Only-Once don’t hack such bands like us! CDs are available on our sites!
Thank you! Hello from France to Russia!
Questions: Pall ‘Nattsol’ Zarutskiy
‘Grave Jibes Fanzine’
