Chad Bowar: With the death of Piggy, you had to record Katorz a lot differently than you have other albums. Take us through that process.
Michel "Away" Langevin: After Ozzfest in 2003 we all took a few weeks off. Then we went back and did some improvisation sessions that we recorded. We did that for the rest of 2003. In 2004 Piggy took the tapes home and made 23 songs out of the best parts. We spent the rest of 2004 rearranging and demoing these songs. Early in 2005 Piggy was taken ill and spent most of the year at the hospital. He passed away in August, 2005. Prior to his departure he had professionally recorded his guitar tracks with Pro Tools on top of the demos. In 2004 Piggy went to Jason's studio the Chophouse and recorded Jason playing on 10 songs. The guitar and bass tracks were very well recorded and well performed. The vocals and drums were poorly recorded and we had to redo it in January 2006. We did that in separate studios at separate times. For the next 13 songs next year we're going to try to be in the same studio at the same time.
Normally releasing an album is an exciting time for the band, but with Piggy being gone I'm sure you have mixed feelings.
Yes, for many reasons. First of all we signed very good deals with the End Records in America and Nuclear Blast in Europe. I would have loved to have seen Piggy realize that we are in such good hands. We are on well established labels and it's a shame Piggy isn't here to enjoy it. I went to New York with Jason to do promotion and then went with Snake all over Europe. It was weird to do that without Piggy. I can't even imagine what it would be like to go on tour. I can't really picture it at this point. Being on stage without Piggy would be too weird. Maybe we'll be able to sit down and discuss it next year when we're done with the next 13 songs, but it's a long shot.
So after the next album is released the future of Voivod is up in the air?
Yes. There are some tracks Piggy left that were recorded professionally, but it was Piggy's material. Jason, Snake and I will concentrate on the next 13 songs and take it from there. Eventually we'll sit down and listen to Piggy's archives, see what we can do with it, and who's going to want to be involved. We're all on a mission to release as much material as possible because it's really good music and it would be a shame if it would just rot there in Piggy's laptop.
Where did the album title Katorz come from?
It's what Piggy used to write on the ProTools demos. It's our 14th album, and it means 14 in French. Piggy spelled it in the Voivod way, so we thought it would be natural to call it that. I actually scanned Piggy's handwriting from one of the ProTools CDs to print it on the CD.
How did you get started in music?
I started when I was about 12 or 13. I was playing Kiss and Alice Cooper and stuff like that. Then I discovered more intricate music like Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple and Rush. In 1980 when I heard the New Wave of British Heavy Metal like Iron Maiden and Motorhead and Judas Priest I wanted to give music a shot. All the way through I listened to punk rock and weird music like Killing Joke and Bauhaus. A big part of my drum style is the fact that I was obsessed with obscure kraut rock in the '70s.
Was Voivod your first band?
Yes. It was everybody's first band. Piggy and I started jamming together in high school in 1979. It was our first project. It was about 1983 that we decided to call it Voivod when we hooked up with Blacky (former bassist) and Snake. That's when we started to develop the Voivod concept that I had created in my drawings when I was younger and we decided to develop it musically. We started from there.
At what point did you get the nickname "Away?"
After playing a few covers we decided to write some songs. We knew we wanted to sing in English and thought our French names might be confusing. The idea was to create catchy nicknames that people would remember. We tried to pinpoint everybody's main characteristic. They called me "Away" because of my drawings and concepts and the Voivod mythology, and also because when we started I was studying science at University and couldn't make it every night to the jam space like the other guys did. I was absent many times, so they called me "Away."
