Chad Bowar: This is the last night of your tour with Metallica. How has it been?
Joe Duplantier: It was the best tour we’ve ever done. Opening for Metallica is a huge page we’re turning. It was really a dream since we formed the band. In the early days I remember we were talking that our ultimate goal would be to open for Metallica. We did this because of Metallica. We wanted to be just like them when we were young and starting out. And today we are opening for them. We really achieved something. It’s really an awesome feeling.
Have you had much contact with Metallica’s members during the tour, or are they pretty isolated?
We thought they would be isolated, but they are not. They are really simple and down to earth and pay a lot of attention to the people working with them and the opening acts. They will sometimes show up in our dressing room to say hi. I remember the first time James Hetfield came into the dressing room we were so nervous. After a week or two we started getting used to the presence of the Metallica guys. They are really nice. We’ve had a chance to hang out with them sometimes, like go to a restaurant. It’s really cool.
You’re also friends with Lamb Of God, and Randy Blythe was on your last CD.
They are our buddies, really good friends. They respect us as a band, we respect them. There is a lot of friendship going on.
Now that the tour is ending, do you get to take some time off?
Yes. Unless there’s something we can’t turn down we plan to take a couple of months off, then do some shows in Europe and the festivals next summer. Then we’ll compose a new album. That will make for a long break for the fans. We’ll still work on the band, we have some things going on businesswise.
Are you planning the next CD to be released in 2011?
Yes. We want to take our time to put out a great album. We’ll probably do a DVD before that. We’re filming on the road ourselves, and we shot a couple of shows in France a few months ago. We’ll probably release a DVD.
Where haven’t you toured that you’d still like to get to?
Japan and Australia are the next big steps for us. South America would be great, too. We had offers, but it wasn’t the right timing. Probably on the next album we’ll do all of them.
You’ve spent a lot of time touring in the United States. What are your favorite things about coming here?
The best is definitely the people, meeting new people. That’s the most interesting thing. It’s nice to see the big buildings and mountains and scenery, but the people are the heart of the country. That’s what makes it exciting. We met so many people on this tour, and now we have to leave. It’s kind of frustrating.
What do you like to do on your downtime when you’re on the road?
There are so many things we like to do, but the days are so short. We work a lot, taking care of the business part of the band. It takes a lot of energy and time. As soon as we get up we are on the computer, checking emails and dealing with the label. Since the beginning we are our own producers and own our masters. We take care of the merch. We are not a band that’s being pushed by a big company and a manager that takes care of everything. Some bands will do that, and they have a lot of time to kill. So they get drunk, do drugs, whatever. We don’t have time for that, and we don’t want to do that. We want to be clear minded and work.
Owning their own master recordings isn’t something a lot of bands are able to do. How did you manage to do that from the beginning?
At first we never got a deal with a record label to start our career. We did an album ourselves. We found money, asked our families and friends to give us money. Then we went to a studio for 10 days, and the album was our property. The next step was to find a deal to sell it. We needed to release an album, even though we didn’t have any offers. It was a struggle. We were just musicians who didn’t give a (crap) about anything but playing music. And now 15 years later we are businessmen. It’s been quite a trip.
Do you have time to do any songwriting on the road?
No. We have to be in our rehearsal room. This is a very nice dressing room compared to what we have usually. Usually there are 10 of us packed into a closet, and we don’t have room to set up our gear. I have ProTools on my computer, but I don’t have time for that usually. If we get bigger, maybe we’ll be able to. Metallica has an entire crew that takes care of everything and have good management. They have a rehearsal place set up every day so they can jam and record everything. That’s a dream. I would love that. If we had that, we would be able to write on the road.
Your brother Mario is also in the band. Do you have the type of relationship where you argue and fight a lot, or it is more laid back?
We are very relaxed. Of course, being brothers in a band isn’t easy because we know each other so well. We’ve been through tough times, but we always end up talking and overcoming the tensions and become closer and closer.
Were your parents supportive of you and your brother being musicians?
When we started my mother was really supportive. My father is an artist himself. He’s a painter. He found a good compromise to be able to make a living out of it. He draws cities, and sells them to companies promoting tourism. He does brochures and things like that, but also has his own work, which is extreme. If you compared his art to music, it would be death metal. But it’s really good. He’s an artist himself, so he couldn’t really tell us to get a job. He kind of ignored it at the beginning, then he became a fan.
