It is with great pleasure that I'm posting this today, an interview that has been arranged more than a year ago, but was dragged out by the, back then newly encroaching, global pestilence. "Mihai Edrisch" is undoubtedly one of my absolutes and it has been such a thrill to have this conversation with Johan and I thank him once again for his time and willingness to revisit and share his memories of the years spent with this legendary screamo band.
Stay tuned for next week, since this interview will be followed by an exclusive "Mihai Edrisch" video release, the never before seen live video footage from their farewell gig. So, without further ado...
1. I have to start with “Mihai Edrisch” and asking about “his” name. In the few interviews I’ve read, you guys give different answers to who Mihai is. The most popular version floating around is that he was a Hungarian mathematician, but the research I did doesn’t show this person actually existed. Another version stated that he was a Czech pianist, while another claimed he was a band member’s deceased relative. I guess it would be pointless to ask you the same question, who he is, so instead my question will be: what is your favorite version of the origin of Mihai’s name?
Haha I don’t remember all of them actually, but probably the Hungarian Mathematician, because when Remi answered this one he also set up a whole story behind it which was quite funny.
2. Your first album, “L'un Sans L'autre”, is quite fast and chaotic, but it deals with very intimate and tender subjects. As a musician, how do you manage to successfully fuse these two extreme contrasts together?
There was no fusion to do in my mind because at the time what we were doing was exactly what I loved, what I wanted to hear and what I wanted to tell. There’s no huge reflection behind it, this thing comes from my/our guts and our state of mind during this period.
3. “Un Jour Sans Lendemain” is pretty much a concept album in all respects. How did you come to the idea to create an album that actually represents stages of life?
It’s such a while ago that it’s quite hard for me to remember the whole process and the intentions behind it. I remember how I felt at this period and what I wanted to deal with which is quite personal actually. I for sure felt like that the album as a whole could be more meaningful if there was a story behind it. Since the main topic is about love and suicide, it probably felt quite obvious to me to depict the whole story of a guy who lived in love and pain and who was thinking about giving an end to all of it
5. In a previous interview, you explained that you do not wish to analyze your lyrics and that people should come to their own conclusions. But how do you feel after listening to “Un Jour Sans Lendemain”? Given the fact that the person commits suicide in the end, do you find the album entirely depressing or can you find traces of hope within?
It’s a pretty dark album, but not only. You can feel hope, nostalgia and other feelings here and there which probably help the darkest parts to be even darker I guess. From my side, I can’t be objective about it because that’s an important part of my musical life. I feel a lot of nostalgia and a feeling of un-achievement too because I think that we should have made at least one more album after that one, because the unreleased stuff we had done after « ujsl » was promising in my opinion.
6. You also did the artwork for the band, what was the driving force behind that inspiration? It is a unique art style, did you have any formal education or are you self-taught?
I was self taught. Actually I drew with that style only on that artwork and the repress of « Lun sans L’autre » otherwise I was more a graffiti artist, so I was drawing things totally different than this. I actually never really tried to draw again for CELESTE’s artworks or any other stuff. I was more into photography after that.
7. I’ve always been curious about the meaning of the one red leaf on the white cover of “Un Jour Sans Lendemain”. Any specific secret behind it or was it simply an aesthetical choice?
Sorry to disappoint you but that’s just an aesthetical trick which also reminds of a bit blood, but there’s no deep meaning behind that
8. Was the decision to disband after the second album a conscious one? It seems rather poetic that the end of that album symbolizes the end of the band. Or did something else signal the end?
Unfortunately there’s nothing poetic behind that decision. Our bass player Florian decided to quit the band because he didn’t felt comfortable anymore with this kind of music, and not much later Remi our guitar player decided to leave the band too because he didn’t enjoyed playing guitar anymore. So there was no meaning to continue.
9. You’ve been quite adamant at keeping politics away from “Mihai Edrisch” in the past. Do you think that there’s a trend, so to say, in the scene of making everything and anything political? Even towards the bands that are not political, per se. In contrast, does it irritate you that people immediately assume that you have to be political, just because you are in a hardcore band?
Honestly I don’t give a fuck about the hardcore scene anymore. I have my political opinions but I don’t mix them with my music, I let that aside and I don’t want anybody to blame me for this. I don’t know if there is a trend about getting everything political. I just see a sad trend which tends to kill any freedom of speech and creativity. Now everybody wants to avoid any controversy, because reputation is the most important thing to stay alive as a band. You’re getting judged for any of your moves and people forget how to differentiate art and reality. It’s getting more and more difficult to be subversive without risking to get judged/banned.
It’s not related but from from what I see, bands who are very engaged when they start tend to loosen up things with time.
10. This is different with “Celeste”, yes? Here you tackle political themes, issues that society is facing and difficult subjects of the human psyche. Was this intentional from the start with this band?
Actually it’s not different. It’s not because I talk about the society we live in that it’s political. The intention from the start with the band has nothing to do with my lyrics. We just wanted to make dark and violent music, and I just wrote things that fit to this music
11. Maybe a direct question, but how do you feel about life and the human condition, outside of your music? Is it all as bleak and nihilistic as you portray in “Celeste” or is there a spark of positivity?
It’s pretty much as bleak as I portray it. And I’m not really helping the thing, because even if I don’t feel like being a bad guy, I can at least say that the more I grow the more selfish I become.
12. Did you enjoy other screamo bands back when “Mihai Edrisch” was active? I read elsewhere that, in regards to “Celeste”, you guys aren’t into black metal, so I’m curious if the same applies to screamo?
Not that many or bands that I consider being more than screamo bands. It’s not because we shared the same drummer, but Daitro was and is still definitely my favorite band in the « genre »
13. If you could turn the clock back, would you do anything different during your time with “Mihai Edrisch”? Do you miss that project?
I missed it a lot for a while. I still do but I miss it less and less, and I also think I wouldn’t feel comfortable to play such music now on. The thing I missed the most are the melodies that we built. That’s something that I would love to hear elsewhere but that I never really found anywhere
14. In contrast to the previous question, for the entire duration of your involvement in music, what has been your most memorable or cherished moment?
For Mihai Edrisch, I would pick 2 events. The first one would be the first time I listened to l’un sans l’autre mastered. I really didn’t imagine that we would’ve done something that great. I felt so proud about it. And the second time is when we played Sant Feliu Fest. I remembered that I was in the audience a few years before, I didn’t have any bands and I was thinking that being on that stage would be the greatest achievement I could think of. So it was really something to be there for real a few years later
With CELESTE, even if we’re having an amazing career, I lived this story with Mihai’s background so I discovered less things. It’s more an overall thing that I cherish because I’m just enjoying it every time we’re on the road since almost 15 years now.
15. How is your local music scene right now? Is “Celeste” involved much in local happenings or are you just doing your own thing?
In my opinion, the scene is almost dead in our hometown and we’re not helping since we’re only focused on our own « business »
18. What are your favorite music releases in the past few years?
I’m so bad at name dropping. I listen to stuff that is really different from what we’re playing. For example the last things I listened the most are Northlane and Tesseract. Now I’m looking forward to the new Deftones, I liked some songs from Korn, Caspian, Heaven In Her Arms, Newmoon…. Really hard to name more, sorry, I don’t listen to music very often actually.
19. Time for you to ask a question!
Johan : How did you discovered Mihai Edrich and CELESTE? Do you really still listen to us and why?
I discovered ME by accident and there is a funny story behind it. I remember that I stumbled upon some blog (or it was via P2P fileshare, can't remember) which had a huge database of hardcore/screamo bands so I grabbed all of it en masse and started listening. To be completely honest, I recall that I skipped listening to Mihai because I confused the name with one other Spanish band called Enoch Ardon haha and they didn't click with me on the initial listening. Later at some point I was viewing my music folder and realized these are two different bands, so I finally gave Mihai a listen and I was instantly in love. Celeste I discovered more naturally, as I've read online that similar people were involved in the band and I had to check it out.
And yes, I still listen to both bands, a lot in fact. Even though I love both projects, Mihai Edrisch is more dear to me, since it has a certain something that no other band has. As you say, it directly triggers many different feelings, sadness, hope, grief and nostalgia, to which I am quite sensitive to. Even though I don't speak French, the music speaks to me in a peculiar way and listening to it never fails to stir up emotions.
And if this doesn't answer your question well, two years ago I tattooed my right arm with parts of the cover and the song titles of "Un Jour Sans Lendemain".
20. Thank you so much for doing this interview, on a personal level, this conversation truly means a lot to me. Do you have any final message for the readers?
Just come to our shows if we hopefully can do some again, that’s the best way you can please us.
