Occult Hand Order | Interview | New Album, ‘Silence By The Raging Sea’
‘Silence By The Raging Sea’ is the latest album by the French band Occult Hand Order.
Within this double album lies a journey through the depths of emotion, the echoes of introspection, and the catharsis of expression. From the haunting whispers of the sea to the thunderous roar of the tempest, every note resonates with a profound sense of purpose. ‘Silence By The Raging Sea’ is a reflection of our collective journey through the trials and triumphs of life.
“We basically played for a few hours until something grew inside our ears and spirit”
Would you love it if you could tell us a bit about yourself, your background, and how you first got involved with music?
Tony Duvillard: I fell in love with music and drums while I was listening to Jamiroquai, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Metallica really loud on the tiny radio that I got for Christmas in the early 2000s. Then I played drums as loud as I could on pillows until my parents understood that I really wanted a drum kit.
Hugo Zepah: I met some friends in middle school and through them I discovered rock music. When I was 14, I started a band and we played AC/DC and Green Day covers (very badly) in my friend’s garage (how original). My friend’s dad had this huge CD collection with all the classics in it, and after every practice, he would lend me one so I could discover something new. I remember the first one I got; it was Rage Against The Machine’s first album. I played it over a thousand times on the bass in my room, full volume on my hi-fi system. My family is actually still mad about those times.
Nico Fabre: As far as I remember, I was a Beatles fan when I was a kid (can’t remember how it happened though) and when we were on the road for holidays with my parents, we would listen to some Bruce Springsteen, Sting, Police, and Peter Gabriel, just to name a few.
Later, when I was in my early teenage years, I received my first MP3 player and it was at this moment that my dad introduced me to AC/DC, Deep Purple, and Led Zeppelin. From then, I fell in love with this kind of music and I wanted to learn to play the electric guitar. But I think I really started to be serious about playing music when I discovered Foo Fighters and all the great work that Dave Grohl has been involved in since then.
I’m guessing Occult Hand Order is not your first band?
Tony: Not at all, I played in several bands before. I played in a funk band, a few more conventional pop bands, and with a few various artists.
Hugo: Same for me. In high school, I was in several cover bands, and then I played for a few years in a ska-punk formation. Not really proud about that one.
Nico: As well as my comrades, I’ve played in several bands since high school, ranging from pop-rock to instrumental stoner to garage punk.
How did all this lead to the formation of Occult Hand Order? And on that note, what’s the story behind the band’s name?
Hugo: There’s really nothing deep behind our name. We were called something different when we started playing, but it didn’t feel right, so I started searching for a new name, and I just had a new tattoo. It was a hand with esoteric signs, and I thought “Occult Hand Order” sounded nice.
I guess the band was formed when the pandemic hit the world?
Hugo: We formed before all that, but it affected us badly. We were planning on going on our very first tour at the time, and isolation laws came just before that. We were very frustrated, but that also gave us time to compose a lot, so was it really a bad thing?
Would you love it if you could speak about the early jam session you did and the release of your self-titled album?
Tony: We basically played for a few hours until something grew inside our ears and spirit. To be honest, we were a fresh and impulsive band, and we needed time to build our sound and identity. It was a fun period of frenetic music, and it was natural, but we were a young band.
Hugo: As Tony said, when Nico joined the band, we were not “Occult Hand Order” yet. We started playing songs from our former formation “Restless”. But it didn’t feel right, and a lot was changing in our lives at the time, as I was just settling in Lyon. So we started jamming with our brand new bandmate. It was natural from the start. We were sure then that we made the right choice starting over from scratch with Nico.
Nico: It’s actually quite funny because when Tony introduced me to Hugo, he didn’t feel me at all. But we did a first rehearsal to see if I would do the trick, and I think I did. And we’ve been playing together for five years already.
What was it like to work on ‘The Chained The Burned The Wounded’?
Hugo: It was relieving. Anti-COVID laws were still really important at the time. We had the chance to isolate all together in the summer. It was a really good time; we felt like home because we recorded in our sound engineer’s childhood house. That allowed us to be very inspired. Some things were created there while we were making this EP.
Tony: ‘The Chained The Burned The Wounded’ was a really exciting period because we were more confident and had faith in our music. This studio session is still one of my best experiences with the band. We had one week to work on this EP and we had the time to experiment.
Nico: It was weird and beautiful at the same time. Because of lockdown, we were not able to rehearse as much as we would have liked before recording. But when we were there, the atmosphere was so peaceful, even though the whole world was still in a panic because of Covid. In the end, we did pretty well!
Tell us about some of the instruments and gear you have in the band.
Tony: I am using a Gretsch Renown Maple 22”, 12”, 16” plus a second floor tom (Yamaha Stage Custom 14”). My snare is a Tama Starphonic 14”, open tuning. In terms of cymbals, I am using a melting pot of brands: a Zildjian K 14” for the hi-hat, a Meinl Byzance Dual 18” as a crash, a stack made with broken cymbals, and two rides: a Dream Vintage Bliss 22” and a Sabian HH 22”. For the stands and stuff, I am all for Tama. I am also using some hard cases, pretty essential for touring.
Hugo: I own a Standard Jazz Bass. It was made in the US, and it’s a special edition with custom shop pickups. I love it very much. It’s been almost 10 years and I can count the gigs I didn’t perform with it with only one hand. I have an Orange Terror Bass and a 2×15 cab from an unknown brand from the 80s called ‘J de France’. We call it “Le J”. For the effect pedals, I have a DOD phaser from the 80s, an Earthquaker Devices “Plumes,” a Green Russian Big Muff from EHX, and I recently added a reverb pedal. For the vocals, I use a Space Echo from Boss. Pretty simple gear but I’m very happy with what I’ve got.
Nico: Well, this answer might be long because I’m like a real gear nerd!
Let’s start with guitars. I’ve been using a Les Paul Studio Faded in Worn Brown since the record of ‘The Chained The Burned The Wounded’. It’s my first “real” guitar and I’ve had it since 2011. I’ve changed the original pickups for Gibson Burstbuckers 1 and 2 and that’s pretty much it. Before that, I was using my dad’s late 70’s Fender Stratocaster but I stopped using it because I found it hard to play.
Amp-wise, I’m a Vox lover (Beatles fan, remember?). I’ve been using a Vox TB35C2 (kind of an American-voiced AC30) since the very beginning of the band, and I’m pairing it with an actual AC30CC2 that I’ve picked up on tour after we recorded ‘The Chained The Burned The Wounded’. The main reason why I use two amps on stage is to run my delays in parallel rather than in series (sorry for the technical terms). Speaking of delays, let’s talk about my pedalboard. It’s pretty crowded actually, but to make it short there’s an Ernie Ball VP JR, an MXR Classic 108 Fuzz Mini, a Dunlop Cry Baby Mini, a TC Electronic Magus Pro, an MXR Phase 90 (can’t go wrong with that one), an EHX Slapback Echo Reissue, a trustworthy Boss TU-2, an EHX Freeze, a Dunlop Echoplex Delay, a Walrus Audio ARP-87, and a Boss RV-6. I’ve also got a bunch of routing stuff which includes an A/B switcher for my second board, but I won’t go into details with that one, otherwise this answer is going to be way too long!
The double album, ‘Silence By The Raging Sea” is really an intense album. How much time and effort went into it?
Tony: We have been working on this album since 2021. It was a long process of creating the songs and putting everything together to create the best album that we could for the moment. It was intense, and we experienced some lows and highs, but I am proud to be involved in this project.
Hugo: I think it was the first time for us to really create an album. I believe the difference it has with an EP is that we had a vision about the whole thing. It should be more than just songs on a record. It had to mean something to us. I’ve had a lot of thoughts about mankind, the mistakes we make, the pain we experience through life, and how none of this mattered because we’ll all be buried and forgotten. I wanted to talk about that and I mentioned it to the guys early in the process. We already had some riffs and music written, so we worked around that and recorded everything during the summer of 2022 in my grandmother’s house, far from everything. As Tony said, it was intense, hard, sometimes painful but I think we’re all very proud of the result.
Nico: When we released ‘The Chained The Burned The Wounded,’ some people welcomed it as a debut album. It was therefore obvious to us that we had to produce something even more ambitious on ‘Silence By The Raging Sea,’ and that’s what we did.
Can you share some further words about the recording and producing process?
Tony: When we were recording ‘The Chained The Burned The Wounded,’ we liked the fact that we were isolated in the French countryside, in our own bubble, without any external distraction. This time, we spent one more week in the process, which allowed us to be even more creative and experimental.
Hugo: We also thought we would have more time to rest, but in the end, there was a lot more to do, so we ended up dead tired.
Nico: We may have lost our temper on some technical issues, but there were also really fun and beautiful moments.
I guess you all have your day jobs, are you planning to hit the road and tour?
Tony: It can be tricky to juggle between day job and tour. I have to admit that I sometimes work on the road and my brain can melt. But I am grateful to be here at this moment and things will, hopefully, evolve for the better.
Hugo: It’s a situation that is really exhausting us. My whole life I wanted to be a musician, so maybe one day I’ll manage to do only this. For now, I’m trying my best to manage my energy to tour as much as I can with the band.
Nico: Hugo and I work in schools, so we usually take advantage of school holidays for touring. But then we have to return to work without having been able to take advantage of the vacation to rest, so it’s pretty exhausting indeed.
What are some of the most memorable gigs so far?
Tony: I liked our gig in Novi Sad, Serbia. We didn’t expect many people at the show, but in the end, we played in front of a full house and the people were crazy. Of course, I enjoyed playing with Slift at the Transbordeur, one of the best venues in our hometown, Lyon.
Hugo: I’m really attached to the underground scene. We consider ourselves really lucky because we actually don’t have a lot of bad stories to tell about our gigs. We almost always end up making new friends, meeting really nice folks. I think that is what I like the most about touring. Of course, opening for Slift in one of the most iconic venues in town was also a blast.
Nico: I totally agree with Hugo and Tony on the fact that playing with Slift was a blast. But in a more personal way, the last gig we did in Krakow was one of my favorites because we had the chance to meet up and play again with our friends from Moonstone. Moreover, the show was sold out on a Tuesday night! Also, it’s always a great pleasure to share gigs with our friends from Wormsand from the southeast of France.
Are any of you involved with any other projects?
Tony: For the moment, I mostly play with Occult Hand Order, but I am trying to create other projects, although I don’t have enough time at the moment. I am thinking about playing funk again sometimes.
Nico: Not at the moment, but I used to play bass in a garage/punk band and I’m looking forward to playing bass in a band again.
I really enjoy the cover artwork of your albums, who is behind it?
Hugo: Morgane is indeed a very talented artist and also someone really close to us. She’s been working with us since day one. She has all our trust, and we’re so happy with what she made for ‘Silence By The Raging Sea’. She also created artworks for our merch and some tour posters. Go check her Instagram: @mobisdian_
Do you see your latest two albums as concept-based releases?
Hugo: I would say that’s more applicable to ‘Silence By The Raging Sea’. Our previous releases were EPs, and I feel they were more about getting our songs out there to be heard rather than thinking about them as a whole concept. We really only approached our latest record this way. Some people might not consider there’s such a gap between an EP and an album, but I think it’s really not the same thing.
What’s next for you?
Hugo: 2024 will definitely be full of shows. We want to play our songs in front of as many people as we can. We’ll go to Spain, Belgium, Germany, and we can’t wait to go further.
Klemen Breznikar
Headline photo: Quentin Dassibat
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