Kylesa

Décidément, l'été est la saison des premières fois : non, je ne parle pas de la perte de ta virginité au camp de vacances d'Argelès-sur-Mer mais de mon premier concert de Kylesa, de ma première interview et de ma rencontre avec un Phillip Cope un peu crevé mais très sympathique. L'occasion parfaite pour discuter de l'actualité de Kylesa, groupe dont il est le leader. Au programme : la tournée avec Converge, le nouvel album, le lien avec les autres groupes de leur ville, Savannah, et bien d'autres choses. Bon dépucelage.

First, a traditional question: introduce yourself to the few who don't know you yet.

Ok. I'm Philipp Cope and I play guitar and vocals for Kylesa.

So, how is the European tour going?

Oh, it's going really great.

It's a fucking line up for a European Tour, with huge bands… There are Converge, Kylesa (you), Gaza and the new one, Kvelertak. Do you know where this idea of making those bands touring together came from?

I imagine that Converge had some sort of saying in that. You know, they are the headliners, we toured with them before in the States and that was cool so, happy that we can do that again over here. I'm assuming that… yeah, they probably took the two other ones as well.

Converge asked you to do the European tour?

Yeah.

You've left Prosthetic Records for Season of Mist. Why did you make that choice?

Hum… We don't really discuss that kind of stuff openly. You know, there are a several reasons but we like to keep that stuff. It's not really our style. We do not like talk about the business so… When you're in a band, you have to choose what is best for the band. We're not talking about it.

But maybe you can tell me how your relations with Season of Mist are so far?

So far it's been great. It's actually the most professional label we worked with. We worked with a lot of label over the years. They've been really cool with the artists. SoM really helped us to make the best album we can make. We are really really happy of the way they handle it.

The new album, of course. The studio sessions for your next album are almost done…

It's done. We've just finished.

Great! So, what can we expect?

The new album is called “Spiral Shadow”, should be out in October. It's overall a little bit trippier and it has more “mellow” songs, mellower songs. I mean, the record is still… it's definitely the trippiest album we've made.

It will be more like the groovy madness of Static tensions? No return to the brutality of the self-titled for example?

It's not a return to anything. It's about moving forward. But there will still be a lot of screaming on it!

Mellow songs… Will it be like “Parent's Song”, the acoustic conclusion of your first album?

Yeah, every album has at least one mellower song. Generally, we put it as the last song (laughs)! This time we kind of turned them in more focus songs. Usually they are instrumental or weird songs. In “Static Tensions”, we took a mellower direction on “Unknown Awareness”. But this time, there are about four songs that are mellower, just trippy, and still kind of dark.

Will it be John Baizley doing the artwork again?

No, this time we used an artist we've been working with for years. He's done a lot of T-Shirt designs for us. We really like what he's done for us in the past and we used a different artist for each album.

There is a scene emerging from Savannah (you, Baroness, Black Tusk) which seems to influence other bands. In your opinion, where does this sound come from? For example, is Savannah a source of inspiration?

It's hard to say because you said it's emerging but there's been a scene for years (laughs)! My previous band, Damad, had a big part on that first lay as we should say it. We really don't know: it is people hanging together and having a mutual appreciation for heavy music. I guess it's just get going!

I haven't listened to Damad yet.

It was definitely before what people consider as a scene now. It was definitely the start, the beginning. And there were some other bands like Tank 18, a lot of other bands but Damad was the one with the most of materials, touring.

But there is a connection between Kylesa, Baroness and Black Tusk in terms of “psychedelic metal sludge thing”…

Yeah but Kylesa is doing that for years before those bands so… I mean, I don't know if we had an influence on that, I can't say for them. Our influences are coming from different places, before those bands were on that.

It's not coming from smoking the same weed for example?

(laughs) Sure that happens many times. Yeah it could be! More an attitude…

You did two Pink Floyd cover songs. You seem pretty influenced by this band.

Oh Pink Floyd yeah. We pursue that psychedelic way more on the new album!

Will you do more cover songs? Songs from which bands for example?

We will probably do some more. We will probably not doing another Pink Floyd's song (laughs)!

You can make an album of Pink Floyd's cover!

(laughs) Yeah, I don't think we'll do that! I have no idea of what we will cover. You will see.

Your lyrics are metaphorical, kind of spiritual and tribal at the same times. Who writes them?

Laura writes all the lyrics.

Ok. And can you tell me what their sources of inspiration are?

Really just day to day life. It's about getting through the entire struggle over that and making sense of it. We write in a kind of stream unconscious kind of way. It's really just… in the reality, in the real world. Trying to deal with all the stuff.

And how are you writing the music? You have two drummers for example. It must be hard...

It's actually not too hard. Laura and I write the total and the two drummers make their parts. When Laura's ideas are done and my ideas are done, we get them together and then we make the basis of the drums and then we bring another drummer. We try to combine them together. We may want to add what they want to add to the songs or not.

Why Kylesa, a Buddhist term that means “demon of defilement”? Sounds like a black metal name!

(laughs) Yeah it does! Actually, our first drummer came up with the idea, at the time we thought that fit you know. We just changed the spell, just to make sure that it will be our name. We like the whole idea behind it.

Is that a way to describe your music?

It really represents… The name and the whole theory behind it represent the same thing as the seven deadly sins and things like that… It's about the things that keep you to moving on to a better place. One of the things about that theory is that you have to take two paths. You have to take the good and the bad. I think that we can relate to that, try to overcome the not-so-good things that we've done in our life, to move on and learn from it. We can be better people from it.

Is Buddhism a spirituality of everyday life for you?

Just more a curiosity. I don't take any of this… what we describe as religion or anything like that. We are not pro or necessarily anti-religion. None of us have a particular belief that we practice.

Last question, a classic one again: What are you listening to these days, any good band to recommend?

Ohoh man, lately, all I have been listening to is our new album until the mastering is done (laughs)!

And is that a good album?

Yeah, it's good (laughs). We really worked a lot on it. We put everything we had on it. I feel that it is, I do. We tried everything we could to make it good. Now, if people won't like it, it will be more a matter of taste. We let anything aside, something we did on our earlier albums. We refuse to do that now. I hope that people will like it. But you know, there's music all over the place. Lately, I've been listening to the music of the people all around me. People on tour and stuff… I listened to Gaza and Birdeater. I must really dig in that actually.

One question coming to my mind: “Static Tensions” is your most successful record. What is your opinion about it, now?

Uh well, we busted our asses on it (laughs)! We really did! But you know, each one is done better than the last. It's a progression. There always gonna be some people that prefer one album or the other. It's also because people are listening to our music at a certain point in their life. We've been making those albums over a ten-year period of time. We are in different places of our life in each record. If anybody likes any records we've made, I'm happy. We just have to like what we feel. That's how we do. But “Static Tensions” is definitely what brought new people to our band. So, we're grateful for that.

Ok. If you have anything to say, final words are yours…

Oh yes, thank you for your time man. I appreciate it.

Merci à Keyser pour avoir corrigé mon anglais de fermier !