Interview with Annick of Cauchemar 2010

By Bradley Smith

Annick you are fairly well established in the scene but Cauchemar is a relatively new entity.  Can you give a little insight as to its creation and the motivation for forming Cauchemar?  What are you musical goals with Cauchemar?

The band was created approx. in 2007 by myself and guitarist François. He is a total riff machine and we share similar metal preferences so we decided to create our own band together and see where it leads us! It took us quite a long time to develop our sound, and it was even harder to find dedicated band members… For example, I was only supposed to be the bassist, but since it was impossible to find a suitable vocalist, I decided to add the vocals myself. (Hence why I don’t sound like a diva! Haha!) We eventually asked our good friend Patrick (guitarist of BASTARDATOR) from Ottawa to do the drums. We thought it was going to be really hard for practicing, as Ottawa is two hours away from Montreal, but turns out it works perfectly well! Also, at first we only wanted to record an EP (for now) and stay away from the scene, but eventually we thought it would be nice to do a few gigs. We got Andres Arango from local band VIOLENTADA to play session bass, so I can concentrate at 100% on the vocals. Our goal is to create magical and eerie doomy heavy metal, with no frills and memorable riffs. We also want to show that good metal can be made with French lyrics, just like in the 80’s French metal scene.

I know a bit has been made of you singing in French.  Why did you decide to go with your native language when it was probably quite tempting and probably the easier route for you to sing in English?  Also I read that some of the people that have a problem with you singing in French are French themselves.  That seems a little strange doesn’t it?  Why do you think that is?

Everyone sings in English, so to stand out of the crowd and be different, we decided to sing in our own native language. On top of it, like I said earlier – we are huge fans of the 1980’s French metal scene (H-Bomb, Sortilège, Vulcain, Blasphème, ADX, etc) and like I also mentioned, we wanted to show people that French sounds particularly good in metal! Of course, we initially thought it was going to be total commercial suicide haha, as here – people are usually very critical about music with French lyrics. Turns out that the locals thought we were a breath of fresh air!! Great! Of course, it’s a huge challenge to write lyrics that actually sound good and not cheesy in French. I usually try to convey images when I write, and I think it works pretty well. But yeah, the people that like the lyrics less are surprisingly the French themselves… some of them mentioned that it sounds odd, or that they don’t like understanding exactly what the lyrics talk about!

So this leads me to your mini album, La Vierge Noire.  What can the listener expect from the album?  How do you feel it is a representation of both yourself and the other members of the band? 

The listener, first of all, has to have a trained ear in order to fully appreciate the album. If he is a fan of metal with triggered drums, over-produced records and modern sound in general, he will be completely repulsed by our record. On the other hand, if the listener loves doom metal, 70’s metal, NWOBHM, early 80’s speed metal, soulful heavy rock recorded with exploding orange amps and an overall REAL, honest sound, then he will thoroughly enjoy the record. Of course, it totally represents us – perhaps a bit too much. Hahaha!

One aspect about forming Cauchemar is that you get to take the stage with some of your doom metal heroes, such as Pagan Altar.  How does it feel to be provided the opportunity open for such legends and in general how do you enjoy playing in the live environment?  What do you focus on when you are standing up there on stage in front of a rabid audience?

Well, I actually am the one behind those concerts haha, so it’s not like Pagan Altar, Blood Ceremony and Revelation have a choice… hahaha!! But seriously, we are very honored to share the stage with Pagan Altar. I never thought one day it would happen, never in a million years… and it’s one of my favorite bands ever! I know this will be forever branded in my memory. So far, we only played one show – opening for Vulcain, Midnight and Inepsy, and I really enjoyed it! It seems like time flies by so fast when you are on stage… I was a bit nervous and shy at first, but I visualized the songs in my head and it made me focus and get out of my body, if you know what I mean. And I have no idea what to say in between songs. Haha!!

To me it seems that the underground is in the midst of a regression of music styles and even aesthetics.  Do you see it yourself?  I mean Traditional metal and NWOBHM are becoming big again and even thrash was resurrected.  Why do you think this is?  And what direction do you see the scene moving in next?

Yes of course, metal has been so plastic in the past years that people feel the need to reconnect to their roots. The beautiful thing is that back in the late 70’s and early 80’s, originality was highly regarded and everything sounded fresh and new, so there is a lot to learn from these eras. Thrash metal has been stagnant for the past couple years. Swedish style death metal is currently really popular. I don’t know where the underground scene will be moving in next… but hopefully it won’t be traditional doom metal.

You authored the heavy metal cook book, Hellbent for Cooking.  Where did you get the idea for this and how difficult was it to get backing from a publisher for it?  Was it easy to get bands to submit recipes and how did you decide which bands you were going to solicit for submissions?

I got this idea when I went record shopping and used cookbook shopping (a lot of the times they sell records in used libraries in Montreal). I was really hungover from some concert from the previous evening, and I thought that it would be cool to ask bands for their favorite recipes, and compile a book with them! I eventually released the recipes on the back of Morbid Tales #6, which caught the interest of my editor, Ian. He really enjoyed what he saw, and so he offered me to do it in full color, and in a real book! So yeah, I was totally lucky because I didn’t have to shop around for it. Most of the time it was pretty hard to ask people for their favorite recipes, because they actually have to sit down and either think about it – create it, or copy type it from their own notes. It’s not like an interview that you can do anywhere you want, you know! For the bands I solicited, they are bands I found interested and that I enjoyed myself. No way you would have found metalcore bands or trendy shit.

Last I heard you put Morbid Tales zine on ice?  Why did you do this?  Will we see a resurrection of the zine and can you give me a little taste of some of the adventures you have had because of the zine?

Yes, Morbid Tales fanzine is on ice for a good 5 years, because I got other stuff going on. Can’t really reveal it right now due to personal reasons, but it will be adventurous that’s for sure.

Being such an advocate for and an adherent of doom metal, what makes that style so special to you?  What separates it from other styles of metal, not just musically but in regards to aesthetics and attitudes?  It’s also a very diverse style and I don’t think people really take the time to notice this.  What are some landmark doom albums that left a huge impression on you?

Doom metal is the music of the soul. Good doom metal is magical… it just grabs me from the inside, you know? It’s not pretentious, it’s just totally REAL. It’s my favorite style of metal, that’s for sure. What separates it from other styles? I guess true doomsters have a pure heart and a sense of unity. They play because they need to. Not because they want to show off or be cool – or else they’d go in another genre! And yes, traditional doom is very very diverse; you got everything in there… Black Sabbath style, doomy NWOBHM, epic doom metal, doom metal à la Candlemass, doomy heavy rock, biker doom, and so on. So many good records! My favorite albums are… Saint Vitus – S/T + Hallow’s Victim, The Obsessed – The Obsessed, Pagan Altar – Vol. 1, Scald – Will of the Gods is Great Power, Paul Chain’s Alkahest, Death SS’s History of Death SS, Candlemass – Epicus Doomicus Metallicus and tons more! Listen to these albums and tell me there is no magic in them. Come on. It’s just too good!

I know you were involved with the Master’s Hammer 4 LP boxed set reissue on NWN.  But as I understand there was some sort of misunderstanding regarding that boxed set.  Can you expound upon that and add some clarity to the issue?

Yeah, this is pretty much done and buried, but myself and Yosuke from NWN! Prod worked together on licensing the two first Masters Hammer LP’s from Osmose. Osmose wasn’t in touch with Masters Hammer for years, and therefore we couldn’t get artwork approval from the members themselves. A lot of research went into the colors, layout, fonts, etc… and we were very satisfied with how it came out, until Storm himself saw the artwork at the GZ pressing plant, located only a few minutes from his home in the Czech Republic. He totally freaked out, thinking it was a bootleg, etc… but everything was made legally, of course. He also mentioned that the design was ugly, and hated the purple. It was a huge shock for me haha, as I thought it looked awesome! We even used all of his fonts for the design. In any case, things happen… I’m still really happy in how it came out.

The Canadian metal scene to me has been somewhat underrated, aside from Voivod.  As an insider, how do you view the Canadian scene and what do you see as its contributions/legacy to the metal scene?  What Canadian bands do you think are vastly underrated and deserving of more attention?

METALIAN! They are a local Montreal band that plays an ancient style of metal like 70’s Judas Priest… but they are not totally plugged in the underground and all their recordings don’t reflect what they sound like for real, live. Honestly, these guys have been going on for years and they are truly excellent. They deserve to play in huge stadiums everywhere in the world. Truly a remarkable band!

With the EP, there was a direct intention to get an “old” sound despite using modern recording equipment, was this difficult?  And what methods did you use to capture the band’s energy and intensity in the studio?

No, it wasn’t difficult at all! We chose the studio because we enjoyed Yogi’s sound. His recordings were very close to what we wanted, and he knew the bands we enjoyed, so it was extremely easy to get that warm, earthy tone. All his equipment is ancient though, we used a vintage Orange amp for guitars, sunn amp for bass and a 60’s Ludwig for drums. We pretty much didn’t touch the sound at all on the computer to keep this dirty “live” style. We didn’t use any methods really… we just tried to focus as much as we could in the short time we had. I find I didn’t have enough time for my vocals, but I eventually accepted how they sounded.

It seems to me that there is a growing sense of community within the underground that recalls the Tape trading days in some ways.  Do you see this?  And do you think the internet has been key in helping grow this community?

Tape trading has always existed… especially in the fanzine community. I still trade tapes from time to time. In fact, that’s how I learned about Scald and Abysmal Grief – from my friend Danny (Pariah Child fanzine). I don’t think the internet helped.

The artwork for the mini-album has a magical/religious appearance with its use of various symbols.  Is there a certain unification of the symbols and your own beliefs and what is the aim of the artwork you chose for the mini-album?  Do you have spiritual/magical motivations in your personal life or is there no correlation between this choice in imagery?

Every element in the artwork is there for a reason. If listeners are curious enough, they will figure out what it means. And yes, we have “magical” motivations in our lives, but not silly text book magic.

As always, thanks Annick.  Doom on!

You are welcome! Keep up the great work!