Alcest: Fruits of the Spiritually Instinctive

Changing record labels, however it arises, is the music equivalent of a sports club changing manager. There’s always a buzz about the incoming personnel, particularly regarding how they’re going to help move things forward and take their team to the next level. ALCEST have recently been the recipients of this, with new album Spiritual Instinct being their debut release via their new home of Nuclear Blast. Founding member Stéphane Paut, more commonly known as Neige, gushes when asked about the transition to them from Prophecy Productions.

“Well we’d been signed to Prophecy for five albums and that’s a long time and it was just time to change our way to work; different team, different approach to things etc. We are very, very happy with NB so far. They’ve been brilliant, very understanding of everything we have asked of them, so supportive and just perfect from start to finish.”

High praise indeed, but one that’s warranted when the quality of Spiritual Instinct is brought into play. A sprawling, immersive album, it is much darker than previous album Kodama and Neige is very open on the foundations for this shift in tone.

“After Kodama was released we did a lot of touring. I was exhausted, I was feeling anxious and this manifested itself this way into the songs; it’s pretty much an album about inner fights. I was also feeling disconnected from my spiritual side but realising how important it was for me and how much I was missing it. Being in a touring band is very hard work, it’s not as fun and rock and roll as people think and I kinda lost touch with my essence during it. But equally, I had this very desperate need to come back to it.”

It wasn’t just personal reasons that Neige drew on; a significant factor was world events, although nothing too specific. “I feel that the world is getting darker and darker. I feel that humans are getting lost, that we are losing touch with ourselves and with nature. There is too much happening at the same time like social networks, internet, everything being stimulated from morning to night by all kinds of things and I don’t think people are at peace these days. I guess as musicians and artists maybe we don’t have a choice – we are just affected by these things. I don’t know if it used to be worse or if it’s now because some people tell me that it’s always been like this; that things have always been tough and hard but I don’t know. Maybe in the 90’s it wasn’t as bad but perhaps I was just more naïve then!”

Neige also went back to his roots and his early inspiration from black metal, which was his escape as a teenager. “My favourites are the Norwegian bands, so DARKTHRONE, EMPEROR, ULVER. I like BURZUM too although I don’t like the guy; musically it’s great but the he sucks! For me, the Norwegian sound is my favourite because it’s very dark and Satanic but also very connected to nature and that’s the beauty of black metal, it has a very poetic side to it as opposed to thrash or heavy that are just badass, heavy and cool.”

The experiences that inspired Neige led to a very quick writing process for Spiritual Instinct, but the recording wasn’t as swift; partly due to the want for everything to be recorded in analogue rather than digital, it took four months before it was finshed and he admits that was too long. “For Kodama we just did the drums on tape so that was easier but this time we did everything that way and, of course, unlike digital, you can’t stop in the middle of a take, delete the last bit and play it again. So there were a lot of whole takes and that naturally takes time.”

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“In addition, our songs are quite basic in the sense that they’re just drums, bass, guitars and vocals and so we wanted every element to sound perfect; perfection doesn’t exist, of course! But we were very happy with [producer] Benoît Roux, with the sound and the album in general and I think we held really high standards with this one. Yeah, maybe we did go a little bit too crazy in the studio, but now it’s over I’m very happy with it and I’m turning the page.”

The page overleaf is an extensive tour from the beginning of next year and although Neige is tight-lipped on where his band will be headed – mainly because it’s still being planned – he’s made it very clear that there will be dates in the UK somewhere down the line. Given the strength of Spiritual Instinct, those shows look set to be very special indeed.

The music of ALCEST has been influenced in the past by dreams you had as a child and other various spiritual experiences. Considering the dark themes that are present on Spiritual Instinct, was this an occasion that the album did not have as much input from those past dreams at all, or did they still play an important factor?

Neige: No, they still played a very important factor. Actually, the darkness in my life is coming from this tension of living one foot in this ‘other world’ and having the other in reality. When I was a kid, it wasn’t actually a dream but more visions or memories that I was having, but it was from a place that wasn’t from here. The things I was seeing were the most beautiful things you could ever dream or think about, so beautiful that it’s actually very hard to talk about. That’s why, when I was a teenager, I wanted to create this band so I could an outlet and possibility to express all these things.

It doesn’t imply necessarily that I don’t have any kind of dark side and that’s what people think about spirituality sometimes, that it’s just this New Age thing where everyone is happy and it’s not really like that because, with spirituality, you reflect a lot upon yourself and it means that you are going to face some demons and anguishes. It’s about the healing process of the personal quest you will have to improve yourself and be a better person for people around you, along with making peace with yourself. It’s difficult not to be too critical with yourself and in that way this album is quite dark because this time I needed to express a little bit more about my darker side.

For me, spirituality is an instinct, just like eating, breathing and everything. It’s just a need. I was baptised and brought up in a Christian culture but I decided to follow my own way and it’s just a question of preferences, you know, I don’t want to be part of any religion but I do believe in God. It’s maybe not like a guy with a beard on a cloud but I definitely believe in one.

You also said that ‘the best temple is nature’. Does that imply that you believe there is more than one higher power/deity?

Neige: No I believe there is only one; I’m not a Pagan or anything like that. But again, it’s just what I believe and I don’t have the answer. I really can’t when people are so sure about what they feel and what they hold onto that they want everyone to believe the same thing. I think we should respect each other’s opinions and that’s what I don’t like about religion also – the preaching thing. You can believe in what you want but keep it to yourself and don’t try to push it on other people.

When you eventually began to write Spiritual Instinct, did your inspirations cause you to approach it differently than you had before?

Neige: Not really. I always write from my home in Paris, I have a very simple set up – just my guitar and a small amp – but before I had even started I already knew that I had something very urgent to put out and I wrote the songs in a very spontaneous way. It was very fast, particularly the first single Protection and I realised that it was darker than usual, but it’s not something you can really plan in advance, you know? It just happened and usually I’m writing two songs and I can see which direction it’s taking and then I can say ‘Yeah, this album is going to be like this or like that’ you know?

Was there a track on the record that was really challenging to write?

Neige: Yeah, L’Île Des Morts, mainly because it’s the longest track on the record.

You went back to Førtifem to help design the artwork as you did for Kodama. What is it about their work that meant you went back to them for Spritual Instinct?

Neige: I just love their style. It’s a mix of old iconography and the inspiration they have of artists who do engraving, such as the French artist Doré. On top of that, they have a modern touch which means they can use fresh, bright colours or elements from pop culture, so it’s a mix of old school and super modern and I think it’s really cool. They have a lot of pop culture and just like me they’re very much into Japan and anime; we have a bit of the same background actually, we’re very good friends online. And yeah, it’s fucking amazing what they’ve done.

Were there any alternative designed you considered before you decided to go with the sphinx?

Neige: Yeah, it’s funny because the sphinx was not supposed to be the cover. The cover was supposed to be a female character in armour, holding a sword but not in a cheesy way like Pagan metal bands, mote in a modern way, but it didn’t really work out the way I thought it would and I was a bit lost and there was a secondary character to this visual story and that was the sphinx, so they did a few sketches and I kept on asking them to change certain details and eventually they came up with the one that’s on the front cover.

Spiritual Instinct is out now via Nuclear Blast Records.

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