Vertex's debut album The Purest Light fuses raw emotion, political fire, and musical freedom into a fierce, trance-inducing experience—untamed, unfiltered, and deeply human, both sonically and visually.
1. You
describe your music as “an electric rodeo on the edge of a razor-sharp blade.”
Can you unpack what that means to you artistically and emotionally?
It's
directly connected to the fact that our music is built and conceived very
organically. We use our musicianship to outdo ourselves (mainly our drummer),
experiment and improvise. Especially during live shows. We don't use backing
tracks or any click. It gives us a lot of freedom, and we fully embrace the
risk that comes with that freedom. There is a lot of speed and power
combined in our music, no triggers no samples, that's why we try to interpret
this the closest way possible of what you can give with a musical instrument,
and we completely surrender to it. Our music is glowing and we constantly play
with this fire.
2. Your
debut album The Purest Light is said to contain both hatred
and illumination. What themes or experiences inspired this duality?
These themes
are of course deeply personal. Connected to the lyrics written by Kik our
singer. The album explores these extreme dualities that we live in this
contemporary world, where society is capable of good as well as bad. It
broaches very political subjects, linked to the insidious mechanisms of control
in the heart of so-called modern Western civilization, at the same time,
it celebrates luminous moments like becoming a parent, passing on knowledge,
family, and the intensity of life itself. Our music is a very good
way to express our inner rage and our love.
3. Each
member comes from a different musical background. How do these diverse
influences shape the band's sound and songwriting process?
It’s true
that we all come from very different artistic backgrounds and drastically
contrasting sonic experiences. In the writing process, it is more
about having a common vision, driven by Pierre (drums) and Maxence
(guitar). Pierre brings a strong focus on virtuosity and experimentation,
while Max leans more toward brutality and roughness. Both combined with
harsh vocals, we try to give birth to a music experience that leads to a
feeling of trance you can move and dance on.
4. You’ve
cited bands like Meshuggah, The Dillinger Escape Plan, and Pantera as
inspirations. In what ways do these influences surface in your compositions or
performances?
Honestly,
that's a good way to frame this question. Nowadays, people are balanced between
the need to have references to identify with, opposed to the need to get
something original and personal. To be fair, Meshuggah is the most accurate
name dropping we could give. Of course we use similar ingredients (polyrhythms,
chuggy guitar riffs, relentless screamed vocals, progressive song structures),
but what shows through the most is the need of dance and something hypnotic. We
have some epileptic parts you could affiliate to DEP but Meshuggah did that
too. Pantera is more a reference for some guitars solo and the 90's vibe that
stands out sometimes. If we could avoid name dropping, we would. We are so
influenced by so many other artists, and genres that are far away from metal,
at a pinch it's more about the way you play your instrument.
5. The album exorcises "anger
accumulated in our 2.0 world." What are your thoughts on how digital life
affects our emotions—and how does your music respond to that?
In the band
it is a bit tough for everybody to manage digital life, all at different
levels. Social media drains a lot of energy, but more importantly it can
drive you to addiction, judgements, extremism and egocentrism. It is
at the same time a great tool for promotion, but it can easily be a self-destructive
tool.
Our music
expresses a disgust of what the world became with that, and especially how
just a bunch of interested people got to manage all the platforms for more
control, more publicity, more money.
6. “War Is Peace” and “All My
Hatred” are standout tracks with powerful visuals. How important is the visual
and conceptual side of Vertex in your overall artistic expression?
For the
videoclips we usually work with Mlle Dou production, who is
someone close to us. She brings her understanding and touch to our
music. For the visuals it's Farzaneh Housseini, who is someone close to us as
well. She is a visual artist from Tehran, and her work was talking to everybody
in the band. Having something handcrafted, organic and full of revendications,
was evidence to us.
We like to
work with people surrounding us who understand and sustain our music. It is
important that everything we do spreads something deeply human.
7. You’ve
just launched The Purest Light Tour. What can fans expect from your
live show—sonically and visually?
We come to
the stage as we are. People can expect something sincere, savage, and generous.
Metal bands are used to "brand" everything, even themselves, and
that's ok! But we're just not like this.
We love
music, and we love to play it free and wild. No backtrack, no metronome. People
can expect to see other people enjoying themselves on stage, playing fuckin
loud and violent music.
8. From
your early EP Scalable to now, how would you describe Vertex’s
evolution in terms of sound and identity?
Since the
first EP we changed the line up a few times and a change of singer brought
something really new to the band. The presence of kik brings a much more 90's
feeling to the project.
The first
EP was "homemade".. For the album we worked with Thibault Bernard,
who did an incredible job. It was someone we knew before, and he took time to
understand our music and bring it to what it is on the album.
The Purest
Light is the continuity and concretization of what we started many years ago.
All along the way from the first EP, the project became sharper and more
identifiable. Like a sculpture that you have in your mind and gets a shape out
of your work over time.
It probably
got heavier and more engaged on the way.
9. How
did the collaboration with Le Cri du Charbon and Inouïe
Distribution come about, and how has it supported your artistic vision?
As for the
clips and album visuals, Le Cri du Charbon and Inouïe Distribution are people
we've known for a long time. We're lucky to have a label that does a real label
job for us, i.e. takes financial risks and works hard to develop and promote
Vertex. They love what we do and how we approach music and its environment as a
whole. We have total support from them and no intrusion into our creative
process.
10. Finally,
what message—or feeling—do you hope listeners walk away with after
experiencing The Purest Light?
We hope
they'll want to listen to our record again! And above all, that they'll be able
to let themselves be carried away, dance and, why not, even dream. If listeners
can feel it in their flesh, in their bodies, then it's a win-win for us.
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