How came the idea of creating «Vacuum»? This is your first job as a musician?

I’m used to play with other people in other bands but I needed something that really fits to what I wanted. It’s really difficult to work in symbiosis within a band and concessions aren’t easily made when related to art. Thus Pensees Nocturnes is a one man band which gives me the opportunity to express myself without other constraints than my imagination. I can do whatever I want without any remark. I can if I want to only put three notes of violin in the whole album and the violinist won’t get disappointed contrary to a Pagan Metal band which has to make its musicians play all the time for example. Forming a line-up has really a strong influence on the composition and that’s what I wanted to avoid. So indeed as a one man band this is my first experience and I’ve learnt a lot with this album.


I would like you to tell a little about the texts and their meanings.

Lyrics deal with many differents themes among which Solitude, Nihilism, Nature, Death, but they are generaly vague enough to let listeners enough freedom. I don’t have any messages to spread, any cause to defend and I lost the hope to change the world with notes a long time ago. Pensees Nocturnes is a way for me to put everything on the table and then accept life as it is. A positive Nihilism which leads to a kind of “but we have to live anyway” in the style of Tchekhov and paradoxically music, as a creative process, contributes to this kind of reconstruction after this calling into question. Thus lyrics describe most of the time atmospheres, ambiances rather than fighting for something. I don’t have the solution, the answer. I just write for me.


Do you have a musical education? I mean the arrangements of "Vacuum".

Except a few years of piano, I’ve no musical training and I think the simplicity of Vacuum’s structures would make laugh any professional compositor. Thus I would like to take advantage of this question to make clear that Pensees Nocturnes has no intention to make what too many people call “Classical Music”. Structures are too simplistic to belong to this prestigious genre. Pensees Nocturnes is a one man band, only the piano improvisation on “Coups de Bleus” was performed by a friend of mine because it’s something I’m only able to do on a guitar. My principal instrument is the guitar whose adaptability allows me to visit many styles.


What inspires you to write songs? Maybe the music of other artists, or events from everyday life?

I don’t want to compare Pensees Nocturnes to other Metal or Black Metal bands because I don’t mean to copy or to distinguish myself from others. I just try to create a music that really fits to what I want to express, whatever is done or isn’t done. I start from any idea I have, I try and then I see if it’s worth keeping it or not. So the origin of a song, a riff, a text, a theme, can be everything: a film, a situation, a thought. I let my imagination leading the process so there is no rule. As for the inspiration, I listen to all kind of Black Metal (True, Symphonic, Depressive, Brutal, Melodic...) and generally speaking all styles of music (Jazz, Blues, Classical Music, Blues, Post-Rock,...) so I let you imagine which ones can be compared to Pensees Nocturnes.


Do you already have ideas for new material? Either you have already started writing material for your new album?

Actually I have done more than the half of the second album so the concept and the lyrics are already thought. Looking at what I’ve planned, I just have two more song to compose and record.


Are you going to experiment with the concepts? Either you think more about creating music than about the concept? Paraphrase the previous question. Are you going to continue to experiment, or you have already found what were looking for?

I think the concept and the music must really be linked to each other. I mean, even if I think music is an important part of my creation, it must follow a goal otherwise I would do Technical Death Metal or Jazz, only playing with the rules and the technique. If I do so, and on the other album there will a lot of things like that, it’s to express something more or less obvious. That’s why I think the next Pensees Nocturnes will be more disturbing and difficult to understand than the first one, there will be a lot of hidden significations.

To answer the part of your question concerning the experimental approach, I don’t want to create something I have already done or I already know how to do. I don’t play live and I don’t earn anything by doing this so the only thing that interests me is the process of creation. What would be the point of always doing the same thing? So to answer your question it’s pretty obvious that this album won’t look like the first one and people must be prepared to this. Actually, by doing this I think the next album will be more destined to music lovers and many fans won’t like it but it doesn’t matter to me.


Pensees nocturnes makes bets on commerce? I believe that the potential is.

Well as I said I don’t earn anything on the sales of Pensees Nocturnes so you have an idea of my point of view. What’s more « Vacuum » is protected by Creative Commons which allows everybody to download and spread it all other the world. I don’t need music to live in a financial way. The advantage is that I have the freedom to do everything I want, I don’t have to do something that people will like. The downside is I don’t have the means to obtain what I would like in terms of instruments, material, production, artwork… But it’s what’s makes the charm of creating such an album too.


What bands do you listen? What percentage of your preference between French and foreign bands?

Generally speaking I prefer to judge bands on a case by case basis and try to avoid cataloging as far as possible. That’s why I don’t really care about the nationality of a band and thus I can’t answer your question. As for what I’m used to listen to, I would repeat myself and say everything actually: Black Metal obviously (in all its forms: Symphonic, True, Depressive, Melodic,… ), Death Metal, Classical Music (mainly Romantic Period and the following ones), Blues, Jazz, Post-Rock, Doom, Reggae…


In Russia love France, because there are live most interesting black metal bands in the world. Interestingly, this fact is something to be explained? Climate, for example, or a particular location geopathogenic zones?

I don’t really see it that way since I put music before side issues (country, musicians...) and I don’t think all these bands mix with each other. In my opinion it's purely coincidental and not the expression of a more general fact. I think with the development of the Internet this notion of nationality has no signification anymore (in music) and I’m not particularly proud of this fact even if indeed it seems we have a strong Black Metal scene (Deathspell Omega, Peste Noire, Reverence,...). I don’t really try to fit to a style and what I’m used to listening to follow the same rules. I’m not led by any kind of chauvinism, only the way I feel the music.


Have you heard any Russia's metal bands?

Since I don’t really check the nationality of all the things I listen to it’s a difficult question but as far as I remember I would say: Arkona, Tvangeste, Act of god (with the album “The place of worship”).


Thank you for your detailed responses. It's great that there is such an opportunity to enjoy quality music performed by a good musician. I look forward to the new album.