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Interview with INFESTATION
This is an interview with Louis Carrier from INFESTATION - martial industrial project from Quebec.
Tell us about the beginning of Infestation. Why did you start to play martial-industrial music?
INFESTATION actually started as a dark ambient project during the winter of 2003. The industrial-martial touch could be first heard in the early demos of 2005 and it was finally released in 2008 as a fully complete and drastically violent martial industrial attack. For about five years, the project was in gestation as I tried many different approaches. What I was trying to express in music in the beginning was slightly different from what you can hear of INFESTATION today. It started from weird experimental ambient music to finally end up being a fully orchestral project with screaming the struggle for subsistence. In the end, I decided to make INFESTATION a out of the ordinary martial industrial project using the combination of aggressively raw vocals phrases mixed with thundering orchestral pieces with some dark ambient phrases now and then.
How important for you is classical european music? Do you think that martial-industrial can be considered as a link between tradition and (post)modernity? Something like “coniunctio oppositorum” in alchemy?
I sometimes listen to classical music. The music written by Wagner, Tchaikovsky and Holst are personals favorites. The way martial industrial symphonic music is written, on the other end, is quite different. I don’t write partitions by hand on a sheet, I click them of a screen in midi code. I guess we have to live with the time we are in. I don’t think there is a real link to be done; I would rather call myself a musical nihilist than a musical genius…
What equipment and instruments do you use to play as Infestation? Are you able to play live?
I would love to setup my music live, but I don’t want to end up just signing vocals over an instrumental CDR playing in the back. I think the project would deserve a more complete rendering for live interpretation to be appreciated to its just value. Also, I have been there and I have done that in the past. I had an industrial project, that is dead now, and I did not really like signing live with a CD playing in the background, even if being on the stage alone did not really bother me. It just felt somehow empty in the end… so I don’t want to do that with INFESTATION. In every song, there is about three to six orchestral tracks plus the percussions that can be heard simultaneously. It takes hours to mix it together. Reproducing this project “live” would request at least 2 or 3 good musicians to do the thing right, especially good percussionists, and I don’t have anyone serious right now. Still, I have considered this option for many years and I would love to be on stage someday, so you never know. But as of now, it’s a solo “one-man-studio” project.
Tell us more about the message of Infestation. You describe Infestation as “industrial attack on the perpetual cultural genocide of all cultures of Western civilization”. Also it is obvious that Quebec identity and fight of the minority French-speaking people are very important for you. Did you meet with opinions that such themes are “controversial”?
Controversy is my whole life. I have been deleted from “this well-known promo site” once, just like Von Thronstahl was a few days ago, and I never knew why. I think some people are really swift and dim-witted associating what you write as music with beliefs and thoughts that don’t quite represent what you actually had in mind. It’s easier that way; it’s easier to promote censorship than anything else; because you are always heard when you say something everyone heard before. Nonetheless, I can surely say we are no victims, when you choose to be a “controversial”; you have to stand the heat and deal with this kind of issue. I choose to be that way and accept the way it is. I think some people are a little too sensitive and should look in the mirror before starting chasing demons. To me, people that can’t stay true to themselves are useless traitors.
You play a cover of “Adoration to Europa”, originally by Von Thronstahl. Why did you choose this song?
First of all, this song was the very industrial martial classic of this band. Since I recently wrote up some orchestral tracks for Josef K. for his next album, I just thought a cover would be an interesting thing to do. It’s really just for “the fans” in a way, because I don’t plan sending this song on any official release. In the past, I posted similar covers on the promo page; One for Dernière Volonté song “L’Eau Pure” and one for Puissance “Totalitarians Hearts”. I truly like to rewrite songs of the artists I like from scratch in the martial industrial sound of INFESTATION. So, to answer the question, I guess it’s just inspiration.
Some bands on the neofolk-martial scene are interested in so-called “neo-paganism” or they are even “anti-christian”, but – on the contrary – some bands consider it as an important part of European identity. What do you think about that?
I think both themes are truly appealing, as they are a part of the distinctiveness of the people who compose the music. I don’t think there is any hostility between theses two opposites, as you seem to suggest. From my point of view and the project I represent, INFESTATION expresses the roman-catholic identity of the French folks of Québec. This is a decision I made in reminiscence and respect to ours ancestors and nearly forgotten spirituals beliefs. The spirituality of our people is a very big part of our identity that is often diminished, for the worst to happen. And I want to be clear on that fact; I am not a religious zealot. I just express my thoughts as I believe there is something good to be reminiscent of and also to be learned from this spiritual heritage we have left behind. I think the music of INFESTATION renders well this aspect, as the spirituality of ours collectives’ memories has come to the point of near extinction.
Tell us about your contacts with War Office Propaganda. Why did you decide to release your album in Polish label?
They directly came to me along with some others labels when my promo site went back online. After a few months of offers, I wanted to go with WOP / Rage in Eden because it seemed the most interesting thing to do at the moment. I personally find it pretty funny to defend the identity of my people releasing an album in Poland! That’s part of the controversy I guess! But they had some very nice new martial industrial projects on the label and a fairly very good distro so I thought it would be perfect for a first release and to hear some feedback. And that was the right thing to do as I get mostly very nice feedback from the album since then.
What do you think about so-called “netlabels”?
I never released anything on a netlabel but I released lots of “mp3 rips” by myself in the past circa 2002-2004, even the old INFESTATION dark ambient material. (Good luck finding it now!) I think it’s a good way to get some insights when you are in the creative process of a project.
You use a symbol of lily which was one of the symbols of French monarchy and royalist movements. What’s your opinion on the modern liberal democracy?
We can’t possibly expect going back to monarchy in our age, especially not in Québec. The “Fleur de Lys” is the symbol of our French inheritance and tradition over here and mostly everyone living in Québec can rely to it as the symbol that represents our uniqueness and the official language. This is a symbolic way of keeping things breathing, and using the symbol most folks can identify themselves is making the air easier to inhale.
Tell us about your nearest musical plans.
I might have a neofolk project coming up. Some ideas are in there for quite a while. Also, the next INFESTATION album SECOND SOUFFLE should be released by the end of 2009 or in 2010.
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