Interview with Fred bassist for Inhumate, done by Patrick.

1. Metal hails Fred! How are you doing this weekend? Please tell the readers a little about yourself.
Hi Patrick ! I don’t really know if I’m an interesting person. Just imagine a Metal head behind his computer answering this interview listening to Morgue Supplier and Machetazo with a cool fresh beer on his right side.

2. At what age did you become interested in Metal? Who were some of the first bands you listened to? Who are some of your current favorites?
I started listing to metal when I was around 11 years old, it was around 1977. The first band I knew and I bought a record from was Kiss. I was really impressed by the picture inside the double LP showing a very large scene with explosion, fire. Gene Simmons spiting blood was also driving me crazy ah, ah, ah! Then I followed the Metal wave with bands like Saxon, Iron Maiden, etc. Only band I still listen to from that time is Motörhead. Nowadays my favorite are still Lemmy’s gang but also underground gods like Jig-Ai, Benighted, Yacopsae Or Origin.

3. When did you form Inhumate? what is current line-up? For the readers who have never heard Inhumate how would you describe sound?
I formed he band in the end of 1990. Since that time I’m the only active member. So the current line up is me on bass, Christophe on vocals (since 1994), Yannick on drums (since 1994 too) and Damien on guitar since 2007. Our sound? Best way to understand it should be to check our Myspace profile : www.myspace.com/inhumate and turn sound to the maximum hehe. Now, we call our music Drind/Death: some Grindcore with a bit of Death Metal. People usually describe us as a Grindcore band. But it’s ok, we don’t care about all those words, most important is musick!

4. The new CD "The Fifth Season" was recently released. How long did it take the band to write/record this release? Are you all happy with how it turned out?
It took us almost 5 years to compose it. It was so fucking long because we had to face several problems, most important of them was the departure of David (our guitarist from 1990 until 2006). So we Damien entered the band he had to learn all the old tracks and help us to compose new ones for the album. About the studio time it took us several months, as ever. Yes, we’re really happy how things turned out, I think the new tracks are not so much different as the old ones, we’re following our way, don’t fucking caring about the fashion and the wave of Carcass clones that submerges the UG for years now.

5. How has the response been from the fans and the press?
The responses have been quite good I think. But seems strange to me, because the responses for our previous album “Life” were better and I think this new album is much more interesting than “Life”. Strange, but ok. We’re here to play music not to comment it hehe.

6. With each release the band has made a "concept" album. What gave you guys the idea to try this? How did you all decide on the concept? Please explain it to the readers.
All this started when we were thinking about the title for our second album. The first one was titled “Internal Life”. We thought that it may be interesting to have a following of the first one. So we decided to title the second one “Ex-Pulsion” (in French “expulsion” is the exact moment of birth). After the internal life was arriving the time of birth. Later Christophe and me had some intense brainstorming especially after the rehearsals around some beers (for me, cola for him hehe) and slowly we build a wide concept made of 7 albums. Until now we respected it. This album is called “Growth” and the theme of it is the years during which the personality is growing up. Then is “Life”. This album is the centred of our concept (4th on 7), it deals with the maturity time, when the moment arrives to give life to the next generation, life never ends! Our last album is “The Fifth Season” dealing with end of life: serenity, knowledge, wisdom. And then we have to release two more albums “Expulsed” (that will deal with the “expulsion” of life, time to die) and “Eternal Life”, when life is endless, as well as Inhumate will be when we’ll have our concept done.

7. Does the band have any upcoming shows/tours in support of the album? Where will you guys be playing?
Yes of course we have some dates to come. Next one is at the Fekal Party in Czech Republic, then we will be back to France for some cool gigs, especially our United Sickness Fest (October 24). I say “our” because we’re organising this festival for the second time. Before this we did 7 editions of an underground fest called the Soul Grinding Fest (more info and complete history of all this shit on www.grind-your-soul.com). Back to our gigs, some shows are already planned in Russia and more are in negotiations in Germany, Austria.

8. I know over the bands long career you have gotten to play all-over Europe. Where have been some of your favorite places to play? Are there any countries you all would like to play?
Without doubt the best shows we did were on Obscene Extreme Fest I think. This fest happens in Czech Republic in the beginning of July and is maybe the most grinding fest in the world. Every year more than 3000 maniacs from all the world visit it and get their ears destroyed by 60 bands of fucking Grindcore, if we except the headliners which usually sucks in my opinion hehehe. Now we’d really like to play in the USA and Asia. For USA we never had any serious proposition and for Asia we had many invitation but the travel cost is really too expensive for us, unfortunately. But we still hope to play on both places.

9. Who are some bands you all have shared the stage with? If you could set-up a dream show/tour who are some bands you would love to play with?
Ah, ah, ah too numerous to be listed. Biggest bands may be Sepultura, Brutal Truth, Cannibal Corpse, Nile, Six Feet Under and beside them hundreds of great and fucking talented bands. I think we already shared the stage with all the bands we wanted to.

10. The band has been around since 1990! When you all formed the band did you think you would still being going as strong almost 20 years later?
Oh no! Believe me! Every year I was thinking that it was a miracle if the band was still around! But now things changed and it seems almost impossible for me that one of us leaves the band before we end the things we have to do.

11. The band has pretty much kept the same intense Death/Grind sound over the years. What is it about Grind, brutal Death you guys love/respect so much?
We think that Metal must be intense. We don’t see any other way to play Metal than this one. If we wanna listen or play melodic stuffs then let’s play something else. Since I was young, metal has always been a kind of brutal music and I really don’t understand how can people melt together brutality and melodies, seems strange to me. In the same way Inhumate is a live band end on stage we do also try to carry as much energy as we can, this shouldn’t be possible with a kind of slow uninteresting melodic bullshit, right? hehehe

12. How do you feel the scene has changed over the years? Do you feel it has gotten better, worse? why?
I think that things are easier now than it was 15 years ago. I remember when I had one or two hours a day hand writing letters to all round the world for promoting Inhumate. It was hard and expensive as fuck. Now just have to buy a computer, click and I’m connected with the whole world. But maybe is it worse now for the young bands. With Myspace it’s hard to be able to make oneself a bit known, too many bands (real or fake) appears on it. Same thing for concerts. Nowadays all bands want to play, but how to know if they’re as good as they seem on their Myspace page. See what I mean? Technologies brought many good things but bad things too in the same time. And the underground scene is following this evolution.

13. When you and the band finally do decide to retire (hopefully not for another 20-30 years) how would you like the underground fans to remember you and the band?
Ah, ah, ah ! I never thought to that. I don’t know. Maybe as an honest band that always tries to practice what they preached. We’re rising from the underground and respect this scene much more than the official one, we never betrayed this idea. In the same time I’d like people to remember that even if you have a small self produced band, you’re able to have real fun and play very interesting gigs, not only in your small area. So with the underground scene maniacs and supporters, everything is possible, the band just have to work its music and its promotion. But one thing sis sure we don’t have the feeling that we are the best band of the world ah, ah, ah! We’re just a small band trying to have pleasure in what we do, nothing else in fact.

14. At what age did you begin playing bass? Who are some of your influences/favorite bassist? Do you play any other instruments?
I started when I was 19 I think. To be honest my favorite bassist is Lemmy hehe But I don’t try to imitate him, he plays rock ‘n’ roll, I play Grindcore. So, I have no particular influences as I’m not playing that much always trying to be better than the day before. Playing an instrument for me is just a way to play in a band, that’s interesting me. I have no interest playing home with down volume. You know, playing in a band like Inhumate, in which all of us have the same ideas on what we want and need for the band is really exciting and that feeling is really enough to make me improve enough to play some Inhumate bass parts, I don’t need to be a fantastic player, really not.

15. You all come from the French underground Metal scene. What is your opinion/thoughts on the underground metal scene there?
It’s really not bad at all. We always had some really interesting bands, unfortunately for years labels didn’t sign French bands (don’t know why?) and nowadays it seems to me that French bands have problems to perform our of our boundaries. French bands play in France for French people. I’ve heard that the Black Metal scene was not bad in France, but I can’t tell you more as I have no interest in it.

16. Who are some of your all-time favorite French bands? Are their any new up and coming bands you think the readers should watch out for?
If your readers wanna check some cool French bands I recommend them Massacra or Loudblast for the old ones and maybe the most known worldwide (nineties). And the following ones for the actual underground scene : S.C.D., Trepan’dead, Defecal of Gerbe, Blockheads, Xaros, Infest, Malariah, Benighted, Warscars, Diluvian, Goryptic, Human Parasite.

17. Well Fred thanks a lot for taking time out of your busy schedule to fill this out. Do you have any final comments for the readers?
Thanks for giving us the opportunity to express our selves, that’s appreciated! And readers interested in Inhumate can check our Myspace profile www.myspace.com/inhumate or our website www.inhumate.com!