Unit Wail | Interview
Zeuhl fusion band Unit Wail formed in 2009 by former Shub Niggurath guitarist Franck-William Fromy.
“A journey that unfolds like a dream”
Last year you released ‘Égarés’ via Soleil Mutant. It’s your fourth full-length release. What’s the story behind it?
Vincent Sicot-Vantalon: ‘Égarés’ is the black and white reflection of ‘Beyond Space Edges’. A journey that unfolds like a dream, a hallucinatory journey that this time takes place on a land that has seen thousands of years pass while the protagonists were hurtling through space or at least believed they were. It took a long time to make this album. Alain Lebon (Soleil Zeuhl) suggested a Blu-ray disc. Very exciting, but that was five years ago and since then Blu-ray audio support has been abandoned in favor of the wav file. But if the making of the album took so long, it’s also because I took all the time I needed to get to what I really had in mind.
How would you compare it to your previous records?
This album is a little less messed up than the others, much more of a rock album. It’s another side of the band. But more rock doesn’t mean that the album blends in with the mainstream. There are a lot of really fucked up moments in ‘Égarés’. Moreover the interventions of Jean-Pierre Soarez (Art Zoyd) bring a really different color to the whole. The production is of better quality. We could record the drums in close-miking for example, which corresponds much better to the sound of Philippe. In a general way I would qualify ‘Égarés’ as the album of the prematurity. For the maturity it will be necessary to wait for the next one.
“The story of a psychedelic space travel and the return to earth.”
Are your albums a conceptual art?
It can be said that each of the albums tells a story that is detailed in the titles and the cover. ‘Pangaea’ depicted a crazy world full of nonsense that is very well illustrated on the cover artwork done by Mr. Peronard. ‘Retort’ depicts alchemy, its formulas and bestiary. Then comes the diptych ‘Beyond Space Edges-Egarés’. The story of a psychedelic space travel and the return to earth. In ‘Egarés’ there is a variation of the same musical theme that recurs throughout the album.
It is a theme that can be found in the three previous albums but it is much more present in ‘Égarés’.
How are you coping with the current world situation? Are you preparing some new material?
We have made a series of four albums rather quickly, but the current stagnation has slightly blocked the process of composition and realization. The inspiration comes back little by little. We get used to everything, even the virus… However in spite of the geographical split of the band, I do plan a new album. I won’t say much more because I haven’t found the concept of the album yet. We will certainly hear a new facet of the band, with less earthy and more airy compositions, well maybe… nothing is sure, everything is moving…
Would you mind if we talk about the formation of Unit Wail? How did members meet and how did you get in touch with former Shub Niggurath guitarist Franck-William Fromy?
Let’s start at the beginning, Frank owns a small company that makes handcrafted pickups for acoustic instruments; I joined its company in the early 90’s, we quickly became practically inseparable. I introduced him to my mother and he became my stepfather as well as my friend. It was during this period that we recorded ‘Crypto Sensus’ with Édouard Perraud on drums. Then we spent a few years making a film, ‘L’ombre du réel’ (‘The Shadow of Reality’) of which you can see excerpts in the clip ‘Sargasso sea’ on YouTube.
Manu, my childhood friend, was already involved at that time. I started composing ‘Pangaea’ around 2008 or 2009, my young brother-in-law Adrian was beginning to become impressive on bass, so it was only natural that he came to us. He was studying at the CIM at the time, a very famous jazz school in Paris, and when our first drummer S.Arce went back to his native country (Chile), we asked Adrian if he knew a drummer who stood out from the others in his school, he immediately thought of Philippe. We left him a piece to work on, I think it was ‘Télété’, and when we auditioned him, at the first minute we already knew it was going to be him.
‘Pangaea Proxima’ was your debut release. If you look back, how was it to record it?
At the time, we were managing with the means at hand, i.e. not much. We recorded several sessions in rehearsal rooms with 3 or 4 microphones, that’s why the first version before the remix remaster really sounds garage. But there was a nice synergy in the band, everybody on the same wavelength and everything was done in a good mood despite the various technical problems. When Alain Lebon from Soleil Zeuhl agreed to market the album, we were really happy to have a little recognition for our work. This led us to record ‘Retort’ only a few months after ‘Pangaea’, the UW machine was launched.
Would you like to talk about ‘Retort’ and ‘Beyond Space Edges’ background?
We finished ‘Retort’ in a bit of a hurry because the label wanted to coincide with the Soleil Zeuhl festival which took place in September 2013 in Paris.
It’s especially the mix that suffered. It was re-worked later, as for ‘Pangaea’, the remastering being available on Bandcamp. ‘Retort’ is a rather dark album, very earthy, in the line of ‘Pangaea’. ‘Beyond Space Edges’ was intended to be more aerial but the result is still quite brutal!
There will be in the coming months, or years, a remix or remaster of this album too. It will be available on Bandcamp.
What does the name “Unit Wail” refer to in the context of the band name?
It was Frank and I who came up with that name. We didn’t want it to be ambiguous and we didn’t want any other group to be called that. On this point it’s quite successful. It’s the vision of a seasoned squad that uses music as a weapon to whine instead of killing.
How do you usually approach music making?
I like to find a story that I materialize with a dozen titles, like chapters. This process can take several months. Each title will then inspire me a piece of music. I’m very attached to the (zeuhl) bass – drums machine. That’s how demos are often elaborated before the melodies and harmonization. But of course, the musicians then appropriate and even modify these lines. It is usually Manu who puts the final touch by dressing the whole with more modern sounds.
Are any of you involved in any other bands or do you have any active side-projects going on at this point?
Philippe Haxaire: As a project manager, I have always had several groups at the same time. At the time of ‘Pangaea’, I played in at least eight different bands! Among more than thirty adventures, I could mention my first band Mutants Love Chicken (pop punk) – for my first album recorded at studio 301 in Sydney at the age of 17; Straightaway (melodic hardcore punk) and our opening act for NOFX; Funeral Dawn (power black metal) and this concert at the Warm Up Festival on the same stage as Six Feet Under; The Kinds (electro rock) and our concert at the second stage of the Huma Festival; and more recently OCT (rockabilly) with whom I had the pleasure of releasing my 13th album at Mr. David Lynch’s Silencio.
You can listen to Manu (Emmanuel Pothier) solo work on the Bandcamp.
Adrian is perfecting his bass playing with his father, the very famous jazz musician, Enrique Luna.
Vincent Sicot-Vantalon, you played in Zero ZeroZero.
It’s for me the period when I stopped taking too many drugs, you can’t really hear it … But playing with those two monsters that are Frank and Édouard was really a lifesaver for me. The recording was even more epic than ‘Pangaea’, but I have only good memories of it. Except maybe for the mix, which is really not a success, everything else went like a dream. We improvised for more than a year in the rehearsal room before recording. And at the recording, we just let ourselves go. Great moments…
Franck-William Fromy, would you mind telling us your involvement with ShubNiggurath? You also recordeda very fine solo album ‘Quatre Axes Mutants’. Would love to know more about your creating process…
Franck-William Fromy: I compose regularly on computer, which will lead soon to a concept album which will evoke antediluvian civilizations. A hybrid style of Shub Niggurath and Unit Wail … A joint album with Kasper T Toeplitz will be released in a few months. We found a good quantity of good quality 30 year old “metal cassettes” recorded with a Sony WM-D6C walkman. Compos and improvs, electric bass and guitar from ‘Clystère’ (our duo with Kasper created in 1985, contemporary of “Shub”). Back then, I shared my time playing in both bands. An electric result, hard but not really rock, powerful and fearsome ‘pianissimi and fortissimi’, from ant to bulldozer, only two musicians but almost an orchestral work. At the moment I’d also like to create new amplified instruments with unexpected sounds…
How about others?
Philippe Haxaire: From the beginning, Unit Wail gave me “carte blanche” and total creative freedom. I like to write the drums last so that I can choose the instrument I want to highlight every second of the piece in full awareness of the arrangement. The inspiration of my acolytes is always full of crazy ideas both rhythmically and harmonically, and for a drummer, it’s a joy. ‘Égarés’ is for me the culmination of this process started on ‘Beyond Space Edges’. For ‘Pangaea’ and ‘Retort’, absolute writing is much rarer to the benefit of a more bestial total improvisation. ‘Égarés’ is for me my most beautiful creation as a drummer: my love of polyrhythm blends with massive patterns and winks to various musical aesthetics. Each stroke of the drumstick on this album is the perfect reflection of my musical “personalities”.
What are some bands/musicians that have a big influence on you (besides the obvious ones)?
It’s very hard to miss the obvious; when I was 12-13 years old I used to listen to Bowie’s ‘Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)’ over and over again. I loved the guitars on this album, it’s the kind of sounds and riffs I’ve always been inspired by. I knew this guitarist’s name was Robert Fripp, but I didn’t discover Crimson until later and the excitement of finding Fripp in all his breadth. Despite this, my musical tastes and influences are very diverse. Today, as in the past, it goes from J. J. Cale to Tatsuya Yoshida through jazz and classical of course. It’s all very commonplace in short, it’s perhaps not directly felt in Unit Wail.
“The Zeuhl force is timeless”
How would you describe what ‘Zeuhl’ is and how would you describe your sound?
The Zeuhl force is timeless, it is a powerful machine created and perfectly mastered by Vander. It is earth and air together, a musical alchemy of sorts. It’s a motor that purrs or rises through the revolutions. Some bands like VAK have shown it well, it is a world of its own that Magma has discovered.
UW doesn’t strictly evolve in this world, we only flirt with zeuhl. I think we are sailing between a darker King Crimson and a less gloomy Shub Niggurath.
Do you often play live? Who are some of your personal favorite bands that you’ve had a chance to play with over the past few years?
Unfortunately we played very little live with Unit Wail, but the Soleil Zeuhl festival was great, we enjoyed playing with the other label’s bands, Scherzoo, Setna and Neom.
What are some future plans?
I’m gonna leave Paris soon for the countryside, I hope to be able to reunite the group there to record together in good conditions. But nothing has been done yet.
Let’s end this interview with some of your favourite albums. Have you found something new lately you would like to recommend to our readers?
Nothing very new, I highly recommend the discography of Thinking Plague that can be found in part on the Bandcamp’s Cuneiform page. The phenomenal album ‘Tzomborgha’ by Ruins, Nik Bartch’s records….
Klemen Breznikar
Unit Wail Facebook / Bandcamp
Soleil Zeuhl Official Website / Facebook
