Interview conducted by Pedro Tiepolo
Gojira will return to Brazil at the end of this year for a single performance in São Paulo. Part of The Mega-Monsters Tour , held alongside Mastodon , the show will take place at Espaço Unimed in São Paulo on November 14th.
In preparation for this show, guitarist and vocalist Joe Duplantier spoke with Wikimetal about the Latin American tour, some rituals the band has when on the road, and the song “Amazonia” from their most recent album, Fortitude (2021).
Check out the full interview below and click here to learn more about Gojira's tour with Mastodon.
Wikimetal: I wanted to start by talking about your latest album, Fortitude (2021), which has a song called “Amazonia”. Of course, I'm speaking from Brazil, so it's really cool to see this kind of music and theme being discussed here. I wanted to know what the importance of this song is for you and how this theme interested you?
Joe Duplantier: Well, it's just the most important forest on Planet Earth and an international treasure. It's a force you can see from space. It's nothing. It's a beautiful forest that was burning while we were writing the album, so we talked about it. There's not much to say, I don't have Brazilian family or anything, it just is what it is. It just broke our hearts to see the images of the burning forests. And also the connection that this has with indigenous culture.
WM: The last time you came to Brazil, you brought indigenous people on stage, right?
JP: Yes, we did an operation in the Amazon and I met a lot of people from the Guarani and Kaiowá tribes. You shouldn't say tribe or indigenous, but why the hell not? What am I going to say? They are people like you and me. And I started all this to raise money and we achieved a lot of good things and some bad things that were destroyed soon after, like some houses we helped build that were destroyed by some farmers wearing masks. They were shooting, raping people (...) I'm emotional about the people, and not just the Brazilians, but also the North Americans, the Australians, the Tibetans. We need to respect indigenous people just as we respect other people (...) we are all human on a very small planet. I'm tired of talking about this all the time, but I'm a musician and I write music.
WM: Is it your responsibility to talk about these issues?
JP: [To make people] wake up! At least to not be afraid to look at these things. We are too concerned with our comfort. And we want to be comfortable and entertained. And we want fast food, we want everything fast. We can't stand not having comfort every day on our cell phones, our computers, and with our interactions with the world. We have zero patience.
WM: Is talking about this a reminder to people?
JP: Yes! We're not going to save anything, we're not going to save the world, we're not going to save anyone. As an artist, all we can do is shout and point out to the fans what's happening.
WM: You guys are on tour now, right?
JP: Yes, we're in Boston with Mastodon. We've been friends for years, more than a decade, and we've done many shows and festivals together. We know each other very well and have played a lot backstage. And doing this tour is really cool because many Mastodon fans are also Gojira fans and vice versa. Lorna Shore is also with us and they're a force. But Mastodon and Gojira touring together is amazing. Going on solo tours is cool, but having two bands together is good because we can often have a bigger production.
WM: In a recent interview, you talked about having started a new album.
JP: Yes, but we're in no hurry. With the tour, it's difficult to do that. We have to eat, sleep, rehearse, I don't know how other bands manage to write on the road. After the Latin American tour, I think we'll be able to do something. Nothing has been officially said, but I think the Latin American shows will be the last of the Fortitude .
WM: Do you already have an idea of how you're going to proceed, or haven't you planned it yet?
JP: We have a few things here and there, but it's still too early to say. It's like having salt and onions for a meal, but you don't yet know what to do with them.
WM: You mentioned the routine on the road, do you have any rituals during or before the shows?
JP: Yes, rituals are important because after a while you get confused, you don't know who you are anymore, where you are, and you play these songs all the time and sometimes it gets weird, you know? I can't complain, of course, but life is hard for all of us, even for rock stars. We're away from our families for months and that can drive you crazy. So these rituals are very important, both before and after the show.
One of the most important rituals for me is taking a nap because on the road you get tired so you need to regroup. [Besides the show] we still have to do interviews, meet & greets, eat. One ritual we can't skip is a group hug with the band. Many bands do this, but I think we've never played a show without doing it.
WM: Which song do you think best encapsulates Gojira?
JP: We have several eras in the band, several different aspects, and that's what's cool. You can't synthesize it all into a single song. But, for me, there's a song that, I don't know, there's almost a 99% chance we'll play it: "The Art of Dying." Despite being a more technical song, I believe it has all the elements that fans like about Gojira. The technical aspect, the lyrics, and the title summarize our entire discography and everything I'm trying to say in my lyrics. The idea could be summarized in this title, "The Art of Dying." It's the art of living, how you're going to conduct your life. The way you conduct your life will define the quality of your departure from this dimension. What will you leave behind?