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The Distrolution / Distrolution Merch team had the chance to participate in the Hellfest Festival from 19 to 26 June 2022. On the programme, concerts, meetings... and several interviews, which you can find each week in FR version on Distrolution Merch and in EN version on Distrolution! Discover without further delay our interview with the French band Stengah!
Photo: Earl Awakes
Let's start with the brief introductions. Who's in charge of presenting Stengah?
Ben: Hello, I'm Nicolas Quest, the band's singer.
Eliott: Hello, I'm Eliott William, the band's composer. Hello, I'm Ben the band's bassist. Hello, I'm Maxime Delassus, the lead guitarist.
Max: Hello, I'm Alex Horta, rhythm guitarist of the band.
If you start by messing up an interview, I think it's going to go badly. The idea is rather to present the band, what you've done so far, the genesis of the band. How was Stengah born and who joined the band at what point?
Max: It's going to be long!
You can keep it short.
Ben: The very short version: originally, I wanted to be a vet and eventually, I got into music. No, that's nonsense. I'm sorry, it's rubbish.
Maybe we'll keep that answer.
Elliott: I had some compositions on my computer. I was at the CMA with Maxime and Benoît. We met there and I needed musicians. We were the basic trio, then Nicolas joined, who was very young. Then Alex, at whose place we recorded the vocals. In 2015-2016, we recorded an EP called 'Mechanic of the Sphere', which led us to Wacken Open Air. We worked a bit with l'Aéronef (concert hall in Lille) where we recorded two live clips. We also recorded the album there. The one who mixed our album 'Soma Sema' is Remiboy, who played the album to Richard Gamba. Step by step, we worked with him. Then we signed with Mascot Records / Gérard Drouot Production. And we're at Hellfest today.
You almost spoiled a question for me. I thank you, but it's not totally spoiled. Well then, a little question that I'm obliged to ask you. You escaped a good downpour after two days of heatwave. Well done guys! I applaud you. Bravo! Magnificent! Well, and the question I'm obliged to ask you: what's it like being at Hellfest?
Eliott: It gives you butterflies in your stomach. It creates resonances in your chest. From the first beats, from the first kick, it makes you tremble, right? And not just the ground. And you see the smile on people's faces, it's also that feeling and the looks, and the smiles. It's just crazy!
Ben: And the circle pit, the wall of death... And that at 10:30 am, damn it!
Alex: It's mind-blowing. Even being on stage and seeing behind the scenes: Hellfest, where you've usually been on site for years. Now we're playing but looking at the Ferris wheel from the stage, while performing. It's also one of our first open-air stages, outdoors. For me, it's a treat to play like this, and on top of that on the Main Stage.
Max: Personally, it was my first Hellfest. It's the first time I've come here.
Source: https://www.facebook.com/stengahproject
Bravo!!! (Applause)
Max: Thank you, thank you. First Hellfest, on the Main Stage! Overall, what remains is a great thrill. That's why we make music. I think there are plenty of people and bands who would love to be in our place. It's a huge rush, you know. That's why we've been making music for so many years and why we want to do it again. If people seem to have enjoyed the bands, that's cool. That's the feedback we get from the press, the crew, the audience. It's a mutual thrill.
Eliott: For my part, it's true that I've been working here for ten years. Going from the bar to the stage is incredible. All my bar buddies came to see me earlier and what a shared experience!
Ben: Like Max, it's my first Hellfest, so of course, we're discovering.
Bravo!!! (Applause)
Ben: And as a little anecdote, we had made a bet with Max that we would only go to Hellfest to play there.
As an artist? So the guys are setting the bar that high, huh?!
Ben: I'd like to point out that they're only doing a one-day Hellfest, though. Does doing Hellfest for one day really count? I'm starting the debate, the killjoy debate.
Your album 'Soma Sema' was released in March. How did the composition of the album and its production go? What's your view on the production of this album and its release?
Eliott: So actually, my name is Eliott. I've been pretending to be the singer all this time, but it's not true. This album, we have the impression that it's long-term, because there are tracks that are almost ten years old. There are also very recent tracks, but all of this has been combined into an album that unifies everything, through a single sound, a single arrangement. Quite a few people ask us if it's a concept album, because they feel there's really a connection between each track. I'm quite happy about that, because it's proof that the gamble has paid off.
I really see it like that, as a synthesis of the almost ten years that have just passed for the band. But the band, in its current form, has only existed for a year. It also existed from 2016 in its old line-up from the first concert we did, so it's still quite, quite recent.
If we don't take into account the two years of COVID as well. In the end, without COVID, about three years would have passed between the first EP and the album. Things happen so that eventually, more time passes, we have this impression of quite a stretched time. I find it quite cool for an album to offer this rather timeless side in fact, through ten tracks that are very connected to each other, but which nevertheless tell stories on a different chronology.
There were 80 kilos of survival clothing left overall.
Max: Without wanting to repeat myself, the leitmotif is to take the time, to do things well, to tell ourselves 'OK, it's a first album'. We didn't have any pressure from labels at that time. So yes, it was really about taking the time to do something that represents us, to work on the sound. I was talking about production: it's the first time we've thought about defining the band's sound.
You've been working with Richard Gamba for some time now. As a reminder, he was Gojira's first manager. How did the meeting and collaboration with Richard go? I'll also add some context. Our audience at Distrolution is made up of small artists. You, who were originally a local band, now find yourselves propelled onto beautiful stages like Wacken, like Hellfest, and end up working with a producer (who has quite a name in the industry), these are super interesting questions for our audience.
Eliott: We met Richard really by chance. We were at the end of mixing the album. At that time, Remiboy was mixing and mastering the album at l'Aéronef, and he was in contact with Richard. He played him the project he was working on and Richard was interested, so he contacted us. It wasn't really a clear-cut meeting, but something very gradual. We got to know each other. He asked us lots of questions. He kind of gauged the band. He tried to understand the essence of the project and it really took a few months of discussions. We met him and took time before saying 'OK, let's work together'.
It's not just a meeting or a pitch: 'We'd like to work with a manager'. At the time, we didn't even really know what it meant to actually work with a manager. We didn't even know what a label really does either. We know the broad outlines of what it represents, but it was also a lot of learning before understanding what it meant to work with them, to understand their job, to work with someone who already has a name in the industry and to know both their strengths, but also to realise that not everything is linked to that. It's not because you work with Richard Gamba that you're going to succeed in music. It also requires a huge amount of work behind it and then a commitment to it. So it's both a meeting and lots of learning and taking the time to get to know each other.
So, what has working with Richard brought you?
Eliott: It's the butterfly effect, let's say. The starting point, the signing, starting to collaborate with Richard, is what led to the label signing. This label signing leads to album releases, which lead to new partners, to bookers, to a publisher as well. It's really a small drop of water and a wave that spreads, which means the team grows. We find ourselves with more and more people working with us, and that gradually leads us to opportunities like today at Hellfest, and soon with Deep Purple, and before that, the album release and the tour that took place on a few dates in France. It spreads and it's true that we feel it's taking its time, it's taking the time to build. That's what's great about this work. We're taking the time to learn, we're taking the time to move forward, we're not rushing into it too quickly.
They put us at Hellfest because I think they said to themselves 'OK, they're ready'. Initially, we thought we might come next year but in the end they decided we had progressed enough.
What are your plans for the rest of 2022?
Alex: The next concert will be on July 6th with Deep Purple at the Musical Scenes of Paris. We also have some rescheduled dates in November, in Toulouse and Bordeaux. The rest will be communicated as we go along.
And do you have any dates planned internationally or at least in Europe?
Alex: For now, it's still quite, quite stuck. We're finally getting to the end, but there are still a lot of things that are blocked so we need a little more patience.
What can we wish for Stengah for the future?
Max: Do more like today, do more. Why not a festival tour? Keep fighting. We've resumed gigs, it's great. We hadn't played for two years. Now we want to do it all the time, every day, go on tour for a month, come back, start again.
Alex: Leave France a bit if possible. Europe, why not? Even the United States, but that's going far. We're a French band and among metal bands in France, it's still very rare to leave the country, apart from going to Belgium. If we could already leave the country, or even become known everywhere, that would be happiness. But other festivals, other open airs like we had here, that would be great.
I'll let you have the final word!
Max: Love, prosperity and chocolates... and chocolates.
