Interview with Shaârghot
Hello. Many thanks to take your time to answer few questions for Distrolution. Typical ask I know, but could you introduce yourself and your band? Hi guys! I’m Etienne, the singer and compositor of the group. I’m also the one who give his body to Shaârghot. Shaârghot come from a wish to hear things that I didn’t find in the Electro indus scene. Except Punish Yourself I didn’t see other band who mix Electro and Metal as well, and mostly band who gives a real show on stage! After a long time of unsuccessful searches, I said to myself: “hey, and if I do this by myself just to see?” And here we are ahah! Can you tell us more about Shaârghot's character? He’s a human who muted, a failed scientific experiment in a future world, a cyber punk world. We evolve in a purely dystopian world. The human was too curious, and he has been sent in a camp where he was used as a test subject. After the experiment, he finally became this thing; a part of his memory was gone, he doesn’t remember who he was before. There’s just a sick part of his brain, which called herself “The Shaârghot” and which possess regenerative capacities, an increase strength, etc. So, we were in front of something not really happy to be here, in a vat, extremely strong. He caused an incredible shitstorm; he escaped, and he lives now in the undergrounds of the city. He began to create a lot of little friends like him thanks to his blood, because he just has to inoculate his blood to someone to infect her with the same black parasite that cover their skin.
There's a lot of staging around Shaârghot, where does the inspiration come from? My inspiration principally comes from the famous bands like Rob Zombie, Punish yourself, Combichrist, or Rammstein. These bands are really interesting to see on stage, and it’s not just music, there’s a real show, a universe. It’s a complete show, and I wanted to create something like that too. Can you tell us a little more about your musical background and your composition process? I principally come from the Electro Industrial scene. I’ve always had a lot of affection for big synthesizers, and the dance floor kicks, but this musical genre needs more aggressiveness to my mind, and as there’s a lot of things I like in Metal, I chose to hybridize these two styles. For the composition, I write every text, and I compose 80/90% of the music. I come with an idea of what the guitars and the drums will do, what sound of the synthesizer I want, I know the most part of all these things but sometimes it works perfectly in my head and not at all in reality. So, I know that I’m not infallible and if the rest of the band has some ideas, they will propose new things and we will see together if these ideas make the piece of music better or not. That’s when it’s necessary to put his ego aside and admit that the proposed riff is more interesting than mine, it serves the music better. I know exchange with others ideas if I think they are good and interesting for our work. The idea is to create good titles that we enjoy to listen and to play. And the main goal is the stage. These songs are made to be played on stage and for people to dance and mosh on it. Each band has its own influences, what are yours? Oh, there are so many! I have already listed some of them just above, but my influences come from all directions. We can find psytrance with bands like Mangadrive, Infected mushrooms, or more experimental bands like Sonic Area. And in fact, I can’t make an itw without talking about Punish Yourself ahah!
Let's talk about "Break your body". Can you tell us about the artwork? Its concept, which created it, etc. The artwork is made by Lyan, a young illustrator really talented. I have worked with her since almost the beginning of Shaârghot. I wanted to represent a daily scene in the life of the Shaârghot, but not only. The first you can see is the stupid and wicked face “baseball bat in your head”, but the title Break your body has another message to transmit: there’s a wish to free the body, unleash people and run out of the taboos. In fact, what is a “Shadow” ? They’re not just people who are contaminated by the parasite, the transformation goes beyond that. The psychology of Shadows is modified, they become totally destitute of mental barriers: there are no more restrictions, no more taboos, every code that the society imposed are broken… These creatures are totally free in their mind, for better and…for worst! Every time they have something to do in mind, even if it’s unthinking or stupid, they do it. Even if it’s violent or with positive intention, they do it…They are random creatures who have totally let go. Shaârghot asks for let go, do what you want and after, the first embodiment, it’s a baseball bat in your head. In short, Break your body is an invitation to happily break your bones and break free. Where did you record this opus and do you have an anecdote to share with our readers about the recording of « Break Your Body » ? Ahahah, I think that the place where I recorded the voices is already hardcore! I recorded it in a clothes locker, because the clothes made a good sound insulation! In fact, we do everything with pieces of strings; we record, compose and create everything in bedrooms; we just don’t have studio. I know you're working on a second album, will it be a sequel to "Break your body"? Absolutely, but I can’t tell you more for the moment. You are very well received and appreciated also in concerts, can you tell us your best memory about live stage? One of our best memory is a particularly violent concert at the Gibus in Paris; it was like we were playing in front of a hive of bees, people were moving so much! They were really excited and they gave us so much that after two titles the room was like a furnace! I ask myself who will be tired in first between them and us ahah! I also remember that some people grabbed our performer Skarskin and throwed him further on stage. At the end the emergency services come to bring round someone and the fuses of the room have blown during the last title, but we didn’t care it was a really great concert! Any last word for your fans? Yes. I love turkeys!
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