1. First of all, you are self called as “Pure stupid death metal”, I would like to know from where it comes this “Stupidity” character alongside with the aforementioned retarded humor on your music?
Gaara : HI Edu! We are a group of friends and above all do not want to take ourselves seriously. It shows in our music and we wanted to have fun and slip our quirky humor into our songs. For the characters, it came little by little. We imagined Derek, this guy who eats chips in the depths of arkansas and who monitors conspiratorial news. Then good old Albert who fantasized about being eaten by aliens.
Tral : Hell-o my friend! First of all, thank you very much for giving us the opportunity to express ourselves!! Personally, humor in music is something that comes to me from Frank Zappa and Primus, nothing to do with death metal. Also, you should know that in Upper Decker, we are friends even before playing together and every time we see each other, we can't help but act stupid. We wanted to inject that into our music.
Uwe : Yo! The silly, retarded aspect comes mainly from our absurd humor and our love of exaggerated fictional characters. This "nonsense" aspect is also reflected in the style sequences from one riff to the next. Paul is our first track, and it was really conceived in this "patchwork" spirit, in a euphoric atmosphere of mates wanting to string riffs together in improbable ways.
2. How do you as a band find your own sound? How much does environment play a part in how you sound? Is there a specific sound for your region/country pertaining to the style you play?
Tral : For me, the environment doesn't affect my music very much, however, I compose a lot when I walk with my dog, I think of riffs and I record them by voice on the phone, I have a lot of sung riffs waiting to be played. Simon the Toilet Beast was born like this. Our way of composing is influenced by the many bands we listen to. As far as I'm concerned, I collect cds, I spend my life on Discogs searching and I can put 50 euros in a first press as much as 150 euros in a distro like Comatose Music or Sevared Records. In my car (i listen a lot when i drive), I can listen old stuff like Horrors of Horrors or modern bands like Shuriken Cadaveric Entwinement (2006 modern :p). In the end, i’m more concerned with the composition and structures than the sound itself.
Uwe : Our sound is a bit of a hybrid between "old school" and more modern production. The guitar is recorded on digital equipment but with a dark, old-school sound, while the bass is recorded on analog equipment but with a modern bass sound with deep mids and biting highs. In France, I don't think we have enough big-name bands to define a typically French sound. The best known is Gojira, but that doesn't mean their sound is a trademark that can be found in the majority of French bands. Metal isn't a major cultural movement in our country, but we don't really care, we just play and that's that.
3. Your first EP "Family Dinner" was released a few months ago, so it might be the right time to make conclusions... Are you still satisfied with the whole record? What was the most surprising about the welcoming of this release?
Tral : I think we are all very happy, but at the same time things went too fast and it got a little out of our control. Initially, we wanted to release a demo ep, not really an ep. Today it has become an album. In terms of sound and recording, we went a little fast, we took less time than we should have. We recorded thinking we were just doing a demo, and then it became an album. For future recordings, we will have a much better sound and musical skill, but we will keep the dirty and pummeling side, we will never do super precise technical beatdown deathcore, we are incapable of it.
4. Speaking of the recording process, where did it take place and are there any memorable anecdotes to mention?
Gaara : About the drums, it's digital. And otherwise it's home recording, in a basement, surrounded by Régis the dog and some hens. We recorded the voices with Tral. It was a rush, we added lyrics as we went along. We added effects, sound effects. it made us laugh a lot. On the Henry track, for example, my voice went off the rails at one point and we decided to keep the passage and add more while coughing.
Tral : There are no particular anecdotes, but the album is full of “private jokes”. For example, the noise at the end of Albert Fish n' Chips comes from sausages that we cooked on the barbecue the day we finished recording the song. At the end of Henri de Chissian, the cry sound it's me playing with an inflatable balloon at Gaara's wife's birthday. At the very beginning of Derek, we can hear Gaara talking before doing his voice recording and on the break in the middle of the track, we all eat chips around the microphone. We kept lots of details. Gaara coughing on Henri, it's not done on purpose, but we kept it
Uwe : We recorded the guitar and bass vocals at home, but the drums were programmed because it's too demanding to record real acoustic drums. On the day of the last vocal takes, we all got together and took the opportunity to record sound effects while eating chips, cooking sausage... It was also on this day that our mantra "In Faecalis Rectum Es Fatalis" was born. We were looking for words to pronounce in Latin for Simon's Gregorian chants.
5. Once you have released a record how do you deal with the fact that from now on things are out of your control? You can’t control if people will like it. You can’t control how people experience the music etc.
Gaara : The hardest thing is to manage to do what we want and to do something coherent at 4. We don't control the public factor, and we can only hope to touch people with our passion. It takes hard work, luck, talent and lots of energy.
Tral : We don't think about that, from the beginning we have this somewhat selfish approach of having fun. We try to make the music we would like to hear. Personally, I like music that is not accessible because it's like a game to try to understand. That's why I love brutaldeath bands like Enmity or Byonoisegenerator, and besides that, bands like The Residents or artists like Sun Ra, you can't dance to that, and you'll never hear it in nightclubs. On the other hand, my master in this process is Seth Putnam, glory to him, he always did what he wanted!!!
6. Tell us more about your personal affection for scatomancy... Are you a collector of different excrement parts to study? Do you hope to unite these parts one day and re-assemble them to awake Mr Frankenstein? (Or eventually Excrementkenstein...)
Gaara : Unfortunately due to treaty 97 paragraph 6 of the Atlas project I cannot answer the whole question. the only thing i can say, we were able to attend many scatomantic events during our rehearsals and travels. It may be coincidences but today some members of the band may be practicing this occult art. The reasons may be obscure but we are not here to judge.
Tral : In France we say: “le caca c’est rigolo”. Poo is life. From the age of 2, every human being goes through the phase of the anal stage. Look at all the funny poo emoticons that are taking over the internet. Poo is everywhere. Our role is to make people aware that all of this comes from the desire of the powerful to control the people through scatomancy. Excrementkenstein, that's great, can we steal the idea?
Uwe : There you have it - it's typically from this kind of thinking that we build our stupid, retarded universe. In Faecalis Rectum Es Fatalis my brother!
7. I will pick one song from your EP, I would like to choose Kevin, The child who haunts the restrooms in the Restos area not far from exit 24. Care to share any strange or hidden story that the different personages on your lyrics may have?
Tral : I cannot answer this question, it’s Gaara who has knowledge and awareness of all these characters. They are creations of his weak and decadent brain.
Gaara : If I had to talk about a character it would be Henri De Chissian. Coming from the infamous "De Chissian" scatomancer family, Henri is a very powerful Scatomancer mastering Somnoscatomancy. He is able to interfere in your dreams to make you relax your sphincters. His powers allowed him to get rid of hundreds of enemies, and in particular to save the city of Pau several times. In addition to its permanent seat on the Great Intergalactic Council of Scatomancy, HDC teaches several subjects at Shitkatonic University. He is famous for being the 1st Summoner of Poop Elements. Moreover, he is a close friend of the Fakir of Sex.
8. There are a large list of famous characters which you talk about in your songs. Could you tell us from where they derive?
Tral : There are characters created for the pun: Paul's Thrower, Albert Fish n' Chips, Chuck No Risk, and then others who are real, or even from the sick and deranged brain of Gaara.
Gaara : The character of Albert is inspired by the serial killer Albert fish. Jared is the subway sandwich guy. And we have a track on Chuck, from the series Better call saul.
9. How much time and effort do you spend on the band to get everything to look and sound the right way?
Gaara : I would say years and years. Each of us has had quite serious projects in the past. We've known each other for a long time. And above all that, we worked 2 years with Upper Decker to get there.
Tral : For me, it's a lot of personal composition work, gathering ideas, arranging riffs, thinking about structures, organizing the lyrics with the music and listening to a lot of music to inspire me. I think this is my main activity after family and work. Upper Decker, I think about it every day.
10. Can the rehearsals be considered as some orgies ? I’ve heard something like « one song, a beer ». You must be totally drunk at the end of the rehearsales, isn’t it ? Can you still play in those conditions?
Gaara : Ah ah ah, I think we are in the myth there. It could be that some have carried out some excesses before. But on the one hand, we have a bit of a road to go to rehearse and our rehearsals are long and sober. This does not prevent us from taking funny photos/videos but for the most part we are studious.
Tral : You will hate us but in rehearsal, we drink “Tourtel”, it is a non-alcoholic beer flavored with citrus fruits. As we rehearse very little, we try to stay focused. Well, there is another reason, it is that often, the day before rehearsals, we party and we arrive with a big hangover. This is often the case for Cedric and me, the 2 dreadlock guys of the band…
Uwe : Some of us have to drive a long way to get to rehearsals, so we can't afford to drink more than a beer or two. But we're just as stupid when we're sober, and in my experience it can be a great strength that keeps us at a high level of stupidity throughout the evening.
11. The metal bands often have a few slogans to motivate themselves in special moments, such as before gigs or during rehearsals... So, what are yours?
Gaara : In faecalis rectum es fatalis !
Uwe : For the Mandalorians it's "This Is The Way", for us it's "In Faecalis Rectum Es Fatalis".
12. If Upper Decker was an animal, what would it be, and why? Which animals would represent the best Death metal in your opinion, and more precisely your own genre?
Gaara : Definitively a wartcock (the mix between a warthog and a cock). The reason is that we are poets lost in a wild savannah. The storm is coming, and the coyote is waiting
Uwe : That would be a wartcock. This creature was born before I left for rehearsal. I was bored, so I decided to take a sheet of paper and draw a hybrid of a warthog and a cock, so that I could put the penis part in front of my bass baffle vent during rehearsal, so that it would undulate with the air displacement! The wartcock was born. Later I made a wooden version, which I enhanced with red LEDs at eye level. Maybe this obscene work of art will go on our merch stand to draw people in at gigs!
Tral : mmmhh… I don’t know, Upper Decker would be a dung beetle. To represent me death metal, I will not use an animal, for me the creature of The Thing of Carpenter is, in my opinion, what corresponds best graphically to death metal.
13. Since the amount of Death metal bands should keep on increasing, the style currently being fashionable, how do you think UPPER DECKER could stand out?
Tral : It's true that we see trends in death metal, especially at the moment where some bands even mix a very hip hop attitude with the slamdeath side of big logos and ear spreaders. It doesn't look like us, we're too boomer for that. All these young bands, when they get old they'll regret it Haha. To stand out, you shouldn't try to stand out, you have to make music without thinking about its impact. If you are sincere and involved, you will inevitably touch people. Whether you reach a million people or 5, at least you reach someone. I'd rather our music appeal to 30 real metalheads than 1 million people who consume music without understanding
14. In your opinion what are the advantages of French bands? What could be much better in France?
Tral : Unfortunately, there are no advantages to doing metal in France, really! There are really great bands, around us in particular, I am thinking of Smashed, Cyprine, Vomi Noir, Corporal Punishment for example. Metal in France is Hellfest (big fest), that means you have to wear Sabaton, Amon Amarth or Powerwolf’s shirts. Metal in france is consumed through This big festival called hellfest, people in France only see metal in relation to the programming of this fest… it's really sad. If you like the extreme, you have to go to the Obscene Extreme in the Czech Republic, not in France. Afterwards, there are still dedicated places, pubs, rooms managed by associations that give 100 percent to bring the underground to life.
15. Are there some parts of the world that really impress you due to the quality of the bands coming from the same area? I mean are you involved with what happens in South America, Asia, Eastern Europe, Europe???
Tral : Yes, absolutely, actually Indonesia is blasting everything in terms of extreme metal!! I love South American bands!!! Krisiun, Sarcofago, the old Sepultura, Ophiolatry (the split with Infernal Dominion is great). I think South America has the most blasphemous bands in the world!!
Uwe : Personally, I'm very impressed by the Canadian tech death scene, of which I'm a big fan.
16. It's time to conclude, perhaps you could tell us about your future projects or something?
Tral : keep recording and do as many concerts as possible!!
Uwe : We're keen to develop scatomancy, as we feel we're heading towards a new age of reminiscence for this little-known cult.
17. Thank you for your cooperation my friend! I want to give you the final word. Is there anything you want to share with our readers?
Tral : Thank you for this interview !!! I wanted to tell your readers to keep the underground alive, buy fanzines and band demos, dig deeper into the genre to discover new things!!
Uwe : The important thing in life isn't the way in, it's the way out!
Comments