Spanning a career of almost 15 years French Postrock/PostHardcore masters DIRGE though used to be a dark horse for a long time, waiting for the right time still to come. And finally, in 2007 real life and DIRGE’s very own cosmos juxtapositioned, bringing the re-release of 2004 record And Shall The Sky Descend to the hungry population out there, followed by the fourth opus and masterpiece Wings Of Lead Over Dormant Seas shortly after. Ban was broken and DIRGE explosively came to awareness gaining enthusiastic praise and response, as it happens on NH too, where DIRGE records don’t leave the player without the highest rating. Time for a retrospective and a look into the crystal ball…

Dajana: Hello and greetings from Germany :) How are you doing, what you’ve been up to lately?
Stéphane: We're OK, thank you.

Dajana: Six months passed by since you have released your fourth opus Wings Of Lead Over Dormant Seas and re-released And Shall The Sky Descend three months prior the new one.
You almost came explosively into awareness of the metal community at that time, setting off an avalanche of enthused response, highest rated and raving reviews by fans and media. Did you expect such feedback?
Stéphane: It would be very pretentious from us to say that we were waiting for praises and compliments when we finalized the album. The truth is that we were very happy with the result, as this work fully filled us with satisfaction. It was the most important thing. So I'd say that every good response that came after was like a sort of “bonus”. Of course it is very rewarding and encouraging but the ultimate aim for us as a band, is to succeed in creating a work as close as possible from what we have deep inside.

Dajana: Seems like you have waited for the right moment all these years like a sleeping larva. What was the initial impulse to “wake up” and to set the ball rolling?
Stéphane: Nothing was planned. Musical trends come and go, we just do our own things when we want, when we feel that time is right for us to “go back to work” :). For WOLODS we've just one day decided that enough time had passed since the recording of our previous album. We then were full of ideas, inspirations, and energy so everything came naturally.

Dajana: Reflecting on this time: What’s left of this turmoil these days? Could you benefit from the media interest in any way? Well… at least DIRGE is now a name many people know, although you have to share this name with many other bands, even with a French one ;)
Stéphane: We honestly do not know if our name means something now for people interested in metalsludgepostdoomwhatever. Concerning the benefits from these last months, I'd say that things could be better for us, but we are not crybaby people. Actually, what we miss the most is to play live, 'cause it is still difficult to tour, to find good opportunities... Medias and people received the album very well (and it's already a very good thing), but it would be wrong to believe it changed the world.
Concerning other bands with the same name... Well, some are dead and buried for ages. The new ones (like the French one) just seem not knowing how works Google or other search engines when they search for a cool band name. That's a pity, and sometimes pretty displeasing.

Dajana: Though, there is not too much to find while browsing the net, except for the reviews of the above mentioned albums plus a handful of interviews and live reports. Do you think people and media are too superficial or the music biz too fast moving respectively?
Stéphane: First I think there is an interaction between media and people. The first are supposed to feed the second with interesting things, are supposed to go into details with their interviews, reports, subjects etc. But do people really want things to be like this? I'm not sure, as it also depends on the age of the readers. Everyone knows, for instance, that kids from the net generation are used to get quick information, are used to engorge (with the help of internet) the music without often really go into details with it. So maybe lots of media follow this movement for fear of losing a part of their readers, whereas it should be the opposite. Medias must offer new (or old) things, must give the chance to let people discover, love, hate, well-addressed subjects... It is quite always the case with the indie webzines (and this is a very good aspect of the internet), but not that much with the well-installed medias like TV, press...
And it is also very clear that the musical “business” moves far too speed today, but it is our modern world which turns like this. Art becomes more and more marginalized by mass consumption.

Dajana: Talking about Wings Of Lead Over Dormant Seas I think one can state with a clear conscience that this record is now kind of a reference album/a must-have for the so-called scene. Something you proudly accept or do you just notice alongside?
Stéphane: It's not to us to say those kinds of things. Time will tell ;)

Dajana: As it is said, your lyrics get inspired by emptiness, loneliness and huge plains on one hand and the inhuman, powerful might of nature on the other. It’s clear to me for the emotional side, but how much you have experienced of the nature side? Have you ever been around the North Pole for example and seen the Northern Lights? Experienced a volcanic eruption for example or the desert’s silence (would you like to do so?)? Or is it all born from your imagination?
Stéphane: I think you can make two types of experiment. The first one is to immerse you in the nature, to contemplate landscapes, to gaze into the skies etc. It's the “live” experiment. The second one is to imagine, create, and re-create things and events. It's the “dream” experiment. We've never been around the North Pole, never walked along a volcano, never witnessed any aurora borealis but we can fix these images and turn them into feelings, then turn them into music, into words. With DIRGE, a lot of things move, rumble, knock together inside before being spitted out, like a volcano, like a storm.

Dajana: Do you follow a personal attitude, a special philosophy regarding nature? Are you active in any way? If so, what kind?
Stéphane: First, we don't use DIRGE as a medium to deliver messages. It's the creative and destructive power of nature which inspire us (even though nature is not the only driving force behind the band), nothing more. In our everyday life, we act the best we can to protect the world from its terrifying withering. We don't have any special philosophy regarding nature; we just respect it as it deserves, but as we live in an industrialized country, as we use cars etc., we sometimes face some “ecological dilemmas”, if you know what i mean.

Dajana: What exactly brings you to the desk starting with songwriting? Inner need, outer influence?
Stéphane: It's only our own needs which start the writing process of a song. Emotional needs, musical needs, experimentations needs... Outer influences did have their importance in the past, when we were younger but it is not the case anymore.

Dajana: Oh, are there already ideas for the next album? If so… tell us more please ;)
Stéphane: We have already begun to write on the fifth album, some songs are pretty advanced but I won't tell you more as there's for the moment nothing fixed. It's the first time we start working so quickly after an album, I guess that's due to a good creative dynamics (or the lack of concerts :))

Dajana: Looking back it seems like it was the cleverest idea to sign to a “foreign” label and to re-release your 2004 output. Who came up with that?
Stéphane: Some years ago, nobody was interested by the kind of music we were playing. Things changed the 2/3 last years and we grabbed the opportunity to sign with Equilibre. You know, we've always wanted to sign with a label, which would take charge of the releases, the distribution, the promo-relationships with the media, everything which is usually boring for a band. But in another hand, we wanted to keep an entire power and a total freedom regarding the whole creating process (music as well as artwork). Equilibre Music was interested by the band and as they let us totally free to do what we want, it was perfect to sign with them. And to re-release And Shall The Sky Descend was of course an excellent thing as it allowed this album to reach much more people than the previous version that we released through our own small label Blight Records.

Dajana: And what happens now to Blight Records? You signed to Equilibre. Do you have other bands/projects on your own label to work with?
Stéphane: Our label still exists, even though it is today rather like a “stamp” on the back of our CDs. For the moment we're on Equilibre, but whatever would happen in the future, Blight Record will be still there, even though we do not have (for the moment) the time and the money to promote other bands through it.

Dajana: With the release of Wings Of Lead Over Dormant Seas there were rumors around that you might support this record with a European tour in Spring 2008. It’s now spring time but I didn’t see any announced tourdates :( What’s planned on this sector in the near future?
Stéphane: Yes indeed, a tour was in preparation but sadly things got nowhere. For the moment we do not have any plans but we keep on working on it. We'd love to play in Germany for instance. You know, like I said before, things didn't change that much after WOLODS: it is still difficult to tour and to play live.

Dajana: Apropos live appearances… I read that you have visualization live on stage. What kind? Who creates the videos? Seems like that this is something typical for this scene, because there is hardly any band that doesn’t use this stylistic mean.
Stéphane: Yes, since 1998 we use video on stage. It is big mix of nature shots (storms, earthquakes, volcanoes etc.), archives footages, visual effects... Until now I was on charge of the collecting as well as the editing and all the works on the images; but we'll be soon working with a VJ as real sixth member on stage. I don't know what about the rest of the “scene”. I know Neurosis is doing it for ages but to be honest, except Overmars or Red Sparrowes (in a pretty different way comparing to us) I'm not sure it is that general.

Dajana: I absolutely love Nulle Part, a song that is quite different from the other ones. It is slow but not that heavy and all destroying and with a slightly ambient touch, calming down senses. Did you have a different approach while writing this song? Or is it just the influence of your former bass player Hichem?
Stéphane: Of course, as we let him very free of doing what he wanted (he sings but also played the main keyboards part, choose some samples), Hichem had a big influence on the final result of the song. But this track was already very advanced before he discovered him. To be honest, Marc T. did the whole structure and found some definitive ideas several months before entering the studio. Then during the recording process, we made a lot of improvisations, sometimes in just one take. So of course, from the very beginning we knew that Nulle Part would have a very different feeling, a different sounding in comparison with the other tracks such as Meridians for example.

Dajana: As I read in another interview, you work much structured, detailed and almost perfectionist before you enter a studio for recording sessions. Did it ever happen that something deeply inspired you between songwriting and studio or in the studio itself and you completely messed up a song?
Stéphane: No, fortunately. It is due to the fact that we enter the studio with ideas exact enough to know where we can go and where we must not: we always leave willfully room enough for improvisations (it allows to give a very live approach to the songs) but we know how never going overboard. For us, recording is a fragile work made of accuracy and creativity.

Dajana: Summarizing what I have learnt and read about DIRGE it seems that the band lives in its own micro cosmos, completely independent from the business/media/fan needs, working with its own rules. You create music for yourselves; is DIRGE your personal catharsis?
Stéphane: Yes, totally. We are five different persons in the band and DIRGE fills what everyone is seeking in its own personal life. The music fills some voids, heals scars and frustrations, and brings joy and satisfaction, things like that. I speak for myself but I guess it works the same with the other members. It's a kind of philosophy and yes, media, fans, outside people have nothing to do with it. But of course, I have to say that external flattering comments (or even bad critics) have their importance, but behind our own point of view. I would lie if I'd say that we don't give a shit when a person says that she loves what we're doing (if it was the case, we wouldn't sell our records, and we’d keep our music just for ourselves). So of course it also has its importance, but it is not the driving force behind DIRGE.

Dajana: That somehow implies that you are all much contemplative and introvert individuals, no?
Stéphane: Personally, I am more contemplative than introvert. But I think our music only reflects some aspects of what we are, deep down in the inside. We're not dark or melancholic people in our everyday life. As we are not one-dimensional people, the music we play only sheds light on one aspect of our personality. This is this dark side which pushes us to play that kind of bleak and depressive music. But it appears mainly through DIRGE, when we're on stage, when we create.

Dajana: What kind of life you have outside the music? I guess you can’t live on it?
Stéphane: You're right :) We're working, some of us have kids. We live a pretty normal life outside of the band. In a way, I guess that is which gives a great importance to DIRGE for us.

Dajana: What other creative outlets and interests you have?
Stéphane: Today, I think DIRGE eats all our creative instincts :) Concerning our interests, I'd say cinema, graphic arts, tattoos and even football (only for myself!).

Dajana: Ok, I’m almost at the end of my questions ;) Thank you very much for the time you spend on answering them all and I really hope to see you soon live on stage :)
Stéphane: Thank you for your interest and your support. Hope to see you when we'll play in Germany!