VOIVOD's AWAY: MOTÖRHEAD 'Was Definitely The Band That Had The Most Impact' On Us

February 6, 2016

In a new interview with music writer Joel Gausten, VOIVOD drummer Michel "Away" Langevin discusses a number of topics, including the band's upcoming "Post Society" EP, the departure of bassist Jean-Yves "Blacky" Thériault and the key to the group's longevity. An excerpt from the chat follows below.

JoelGausten.com: One of the highlights of "Post Society" for me is your cover of "Silver Machine", which I know was recorded and announced before Lemmy's passing. Obviously, you guys toured with MOTÖRHEAD, and you covered MOTÖRHEAD in the early days. What was that band's greatest impact on you as a musician?

Away: It's definitely the band that had the most impact on VOIVOD. We were fans of DISCHARGE and VENOM and all that, but MOTÖRHEAD was really the focus of VOIVOD in the sense that I totally copied "Philthy Animal" Taylor, and Snake's vocals are really influenced by Lemmy's vocals. Of course, Piggy was a huge fan of "Fast" Eddie; actually, Piggy's first nickname was "Fast Piggy." [Laughs] MOTÖRHEAD was really the example for us. It was just heavier than everything, especially at the end of the '70s and very early '80s. It was the basis for everyone who wanted to be heavy. All of a sudden, everyone wanted to be heavier than MOTÖRHEAD, then all of a sudden, everybody wanted to be heavier than SLAYER and so on and so on. It turned into blastbeats! [Laughs]

JoelGausten.com: How were you first introduced to HAWKWIND?

Away: Again, this is all stuff that Piggy was aware of in the '70s. We were two or three years younger than him, and he really introduced us to weird progressive rock and German Krautrock and all that. HAWKWIND has definitely always been one of my favorites, along with GONG. When we did the last sessions for the new EP, we heard a lot about cancelations of shows on the MOTÖRHEAD 40th-anniversary tour. We started to worry about Lemmy. While in the studio, we decided to do "Silver Machine". We did it really quick; we learned it in the studio, winged it and tried our best. But it was definitely to pay homage to Lemmy. Of course, we were not expecting him to pass away; we just felt it was time to pay tribute to him.

Read the entire interview at JoelGausten.com.

Find more on Voivod

Prev More News Next

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).