A potent cocktail of black metal, sludge and learnings stemming from rising through the depths of Lyon’s hardcore movement, France’s Celeste, in their debut album with Nuclear Blast, continue to push sonic barriers. Assassine(s), the bands’ sixth studio album (produced under the watchful eye of Chris Edrich), leans into woeful atmospheres and melodic surges, while never sacrificing on vision, or indeed heaviness. 

Frontman and bassist Johan Girardeau sat down with BraveWords for a deep dive into Celeste’s 15-plus year journey, their taxing recording sessions on Assassine(s), re-charging during pandemic downtime, their must see, gonzo live performance and much more!

BraveWords: Man, this has been an interesting couple of years, obviously. I kind of look at the pandemic as one big bottleneck of time. There's a lot of upward momentum right now for this band. The signing with Nuclear Blast and with this new record, I think is the culmination of everything you guys have done. This band has been around for 15 years or more, and you're gaining so much traction now, but all of a sudden, there is a worldwide pandemic. How do you kind of rationalize that and work your way through it? 

Johan Girardeau: “There's too much to say, to be honest. So far I think it was a really lucky period for us, because if it didn't happen this way, I think the album would not be what it is and it would be, not much worse, but it had a good influence in many aspects. First of all, we'd written most of it during the first lockdown in France. So we had to reinvent the way we were writing music, which the way we did before was just to show up at the rehearsal place, bring some riffs and try to make some good stuff, you know? And with this album, since we were all away from each other, we decided to just write some stuff on our own at home and do some home studio and some preparations all on our own. 

“So we just split the work with Guillaume and myself, and we just wrote the stuff we felt would still be best for this album, which by the way, we decided before writing to just think outside the box, experiment some new things and so on. But those experiments are really tough to do at the rehearsal place and being at home, adding a lot of spare time because for myself, I do work. I have some restaurants and they were closed, so I had a lot of free time to spend like never before. So I was waking up every morning and it was OK to just write music. That's cool, and I've learned (to use) home studio and learned to write some drums. I've learned a lot of things, which was interesting. Being in this situation helped us to develop many new ideas because when you are at home and you have an idea, there's no one beside you to say OK, that riff is shitty or something, you know? So when you believe in what you've written you just develop it as much as you can and then you end up with a full song almost done and all these riffs are here. Then your guys have to listen to it and give their opinion about that. And thankfully, their opinions are really positive.” 

BraveWords: With something like this lockdown and isolation, there’s the fears and the internal emotions many of us have gone through during these last three and a half years or so. Do you think it kind of permeated or had its place in the record in the riff writing, the ambiance, and in the songwriting? Because you guys have never feared going dark. In fact, I believe you go darker and darker and more atmospheric as the records go.

Johan Girardeau: “It would be dishonest to say yes, because to be honest, I know it's silly, but the lockdown was the best period I've ever experienced. Having nothing to care about. I mean again, I have some businesses and that’s really stressful. Being at home alone, having some free time, and by the way, it was super sunny outside. I had some beers, some nice food. I mean, I couldn't complain. I really, really enjoyed that period. Hopefully my enjoyment didn't show up on the music, because that would sound really shitty (laughs). I don't know how, but we've always had this capacity in the band to write some really, really, really bleak, dark stuff, even if in our daily life we're just some good folks. We just enjoy being all together, drinking some beers and so on. And we love really extreme music. And by the way, we don't listen to so much extreme music ourselves, but I don't know why we love to play that and write such stuff. Maybe you need to ask a psychiatrist (laughs).”

BraveWords: So in terms of a record like this, I feel like each record has progressively gotten darker in so many different ways, but in a lot of ways you've stayed quite heavy and Assassine(s) is quite heavy. It’s a heavy record, but it feels like you're kind of finding that line where you are mixing in different tendencies and different sounds, moods, atmospheres and finding balance. Do you find at this stage where you guys are coming off of Infidèle(s) that there’s that fine line between bringing the heavy back that fans of this band expected, while also incorporating different sounds, feelings, and moods. 

Johan Girardeau: “Yeah, definitely. To be honest, that's something we started with Animale(s). So two albums ago. But I think at the time we were not open minded enough. When we tried to experiment something, it was actually really something which looked huge for us, which was actually something very small. We've reached our goal a bit more on an Infidèle(s), which to me is the first breakthrough in our discography. But yeah, you're right. This one, in our opinion, is so, so different. Something we discovered later is that this album is still heavy, because we didn't feel that way. When we had written that one and we recorded that one, we felt like it was so atmospheric and so on that it wasn't still heavy. Just listening to it when it was done, playing it a little bit live, having our friends listening to it that we were like, OK, that's still some pretty heavy stuff.

“So we felt a bit frustrated at first when we discovered that. Because the idea was to be really much quieter and so different. But in the end I think it's super optimistic because we like to be a heavy band. And if we can be heavy but still a bit easier to access and that people do understand more of the melodies … I think that's the best mix because I think that in the past the frustration could come from the fact that, for instance, in our opinion Infidèle(s) had some really great melodies, but I'm not sure everybody really understood them or heard the very fine details. And on this album, also thanks to the production, I think that it's really easy to get everything that’s happening. Of course, there are many different bands that are much easier to access, but on that side I think, not that we are like pop-ish or easy listening, of course, but I'm pretty sure that a much broader audience can understand the thing we do and can just like what we're doing right now.” 

BraveWords: Talking about production, working with a guy like Chris who has such pedigree working with Gojira, Tesseract, the list goes on. I understand he really pushed the limits of the band. He challenged you guys to go back and do things in so many different ways, and it was a strenuous but rewarding process that probably led to the album being as good as it is. Can you kind of take me through working with him and how he really pushed you guys to rise to the occasion? 

Johan Girardeau: “Yeah, actually, we told him first that the idea was to get more professional and to have a really tight recording. And he was like ‘OK yeah, let's do that for sure. That's something I like’. We didn't even imagine how crazy he was. I mean, we've recorded some stuff like 20 times sometimes, and it was just crazy. It was not even a bad experience because we knew it was for the best. We knew it would mean something at the end. But when you're like that, you almost feel like a really bad musician. Like, really? That's the way you record an album. I was not tight enough? And you're like, OK fuck, I really suck. I don't know how to play bass or I don't know how to sing, you know? So it's not what you thought at first glance, but then you know that such involvement is going to pay at the end.  

“So we spent twice or even three times more time in the studio than we were supposed to. And that's also thanks to the COVID and so on, because first we were supposed to record in the U.S. with Will Putney and due to COVID we couldn't go there. So we had to find another solution, and so we had to also postpone the recording session. And the fact we recorded in France allowed us to do a first session and then listen to it and go back because we felt like there was so much more to do. And that's something which couldn’t happen if we had to fly to the USA, go back home and then everything would have been done and we couldn’t change anything. So again I go back to that thing, that to us, the COVID thing was really, not joyful, but really lucky because of the things that happened. Even postponing the album, it wasn't a bad thing for us. I mean, I feel super lucky with everything that's happening to us. 

“And to go back to Chris Edrich, also a good thing is that he really has the perfect ear. Sometimes when we are like, OK, this melody, there's some kind of friction. It's not perfect. He was really good to sometimes really feel like, ‘OK, right here, stop. There's something that maybe we can improve’. And even if it's not a lot of things, but if there's just like 10-15 things on the one album notes that have been changed thanks to him, it's always a good improvement. And also we felt like it was a good opportunity when we were wondering should we do this or that there was like ABC to choose from? We are like, OK, what's your pick? It's really good to have someone like him who can tell us, ‘OK. I think that's the best idea, so let's go with that one’.” 

BraveWords: I think about the signing with Nuclear Blast, obviously one of the premiere heavy music labels in the world right now. You had this worldwide renowned producer, now you are signed to this label. The tour offers are getting bigger. Performances are getting bigger. Has it kind of felt in the last year or two with all of these different things happening that you are taking bigger steps? For folks who might not know this band, this isn't an overnight success. This has been what, 15, 16, 17 years? Have you felt that real upward trajectory? 

Johan Girardeau: “I would say that we feel it actually right now. It's stupid, but maybe that's just the way and how many people are listening to our stuff on Spotify that makes us really understand the difference compared to what we've experienced before. Of course during the last two years we had a lot of expectations, but nothing was granted because we knew we were coming to a really big label. We knew we would be one of the smallest bands. We knew that we are like some kind of extraterrestrials in the label because we do some really particular kind of metal. So we have no guarantee that it would stick, that it would work, that the people who were following Nuclear Blast would enjoy our stuff. And by the way, there's a lot of people who really disliked the stuff we do and we knew it would happen. But that's fine. But all in all, all the media coverage, all the promotion which has been done is really going very well and we directly see the outcome. So what's coming next and what we enjoy is that a lot more people are going to come to our shows, which is the next step. But to be honest, we never had to complain. I don't know why. I think we have a very strong fan base. So everywhere we play, we have at least a few people. We can complain about that, but if we can have twice more, or even more, it's going to be much better.” 

BraveWords: And speaking of the live performance, you guys have really carved out a reputation as a must see live band. Relentlessly heavy and we know what we're getting with you guys. It's crazy, you're getting punched in the face with this music. But on top of that, the presentation stands out. Has that been kind of a conscious effort from day one, with the red light, the darkness, with the fog? Was this something you guys sat down and said, OK, we're going to stand out here in our live show. People are going to leave and tell their friends about seeing us live. 

Johan Girardeau: “Yeah. We always had an extreme view of the live show, and I think we are even much, much more extreme live than on record. Even people who like us a lot – and some people even don't like us live – some people, even if they like the music say, ‘OK, actually, Celeste means something live and forget about the album’, you know? That's crazy. But that's something we do almost naturally. The only thing we've thought about was ok, a live show is something. I mean, I think for people on stage, playing music is something, but is it that interesting? I don't think so. And so we are always thinking about some ways to make us enjoy the show more because we feel just being in our natural environment on stage, just be what we are because actually we love being in darkness when we are on stage. 

“We love being among the fog and all those strobe lights and so on. We like it, and hopefully people will enjoy it also and come to our shows and just never forget about it because it was an experience they never felt before. That's part of what we are working on since day one and that we are trying to improve. And even for the upcoming shows, we have some new ideas. And we really want people to just come to our show, show up in front of the stage and just forget about themselves for one hour and just wake up after and say, ‘OK, what the fuck happened to me?’”