As you might have seen from a certain big time British publication about all things metal and rock, The lead singer and guitarist of the band Gojira, Joe Duplantier, admits to purposely avoiding writing great songs to be recorded. Due to being “selfish”, in his own admission. I take severe umbrage at this, for many reasons. And what are those reasons? well, reader who i just made up to question everything I type (I might name George…), I shall expound posthaste!
First things first: this outlook, as big as Gojira is, is so fucking stupid, that it goes straight to the Fuck Off bin.
As you can see, it gets pretty full around here.
He states that he “…like[s] to stay in that vibe. It’s selfish, but as a musician I think it’s really important sometimes to feel that you could write a great song – but not actually do it.” which is kind of like starting a painting that makes all those who see it transcend what emotions they have ever felt, and then burning it, and then pissing on the ashes so you don’t start a forest fire. (fire safety is paramount, everybody.)
This angers me, as I don’t have the success that they have, nor will I, most likely. To simply have ideas that you never even try to do something with, is absolutely, staggeringly arrogant. You made the decision that for you to feel all the gratification of patting yourself on the back for a cool idea, and that no one else deserves to hear at least a damn demo version. Or to save it for later, in case that well you can pull from in the now ever dries up. Selfishness with a talent for creating is a waste. You had something that other people struggle for, and just go “meh”.
Maybe its just a culture thing, to keep things inside and just let something awesome go, but to have that pocket and ride into it, and just let that fly away nonchalantly, fuck that with a hot poker. How about letting someone else have that? Oh, it’s YOUR feeling to waste? It makes you feel good? Oh, that changes everything!
Nobody Asked Me, and that’s just fine. Maybe I’ll go write some more stuff so I can giggle when I read them, and just never publish them…
