PESTE NOIRE – INTERVIEW AND COLLABORATION 2017 (EN, RU, FR)
Q1 : In December 2016, we had the pleasure of seeing KPN exit from the underground to appear on stage at the Asgardsrei fest – a public event held in the very center of Kiev, where you had a chance to share the line-up with NOKTURNAL MORTUM, M8L8TH and KRODA. What memories do you have of this festival? What is your overall impression from your first visit to Eastern Europe?
– For us, it was quite impressive to move from playing at a local banquet venue in France, where we first appeared on stage, to a large concert hall with 1200 people coming to see our second show. From an artistic point of view, the group was not at the top level but we have improved a lot since then — we needed a few concerts to get it right.
Organization-wise, we are astounded by the professionalism of this event, be it the sound, material resources mobilized, or reception / accommodation — it was almost unreal. For groups so politically charged to enjoy such high standards would seem unthinkable. Other than that, personally, I have always been fascinated by Eastern Europe, and I had an excellent vibe with the Russians and Ukrainians I met there, almost like meeting blood brothers.
Q2 : Speaking of shows once again, what do you think of the recent “witch hunts” against all those who are deemed “politically incorrect” these days? It looks like once a band is labeled “NSBM”, “fascist” or simply “nationalist”, a whole bunch of moralists starts snitching to cops, trying to prevent certain groups from appearing on stage. And we’re not talking only about KPN here, but also about MARDUK, GRAVELAND and many other formations that have recently experienced problems with political censorship.
– With all these cancellations, the antifa make their own anti-propaganda. It’s actually good. By overlooking the details, seeing Nazis everywhere and cancelling all these concerts, everyone ends up hating them. Therefore, I encourage them to keep going.
Speaking about PESTE NOIRE, their only weapon against us is to say that we are NS. I have already explained why PN was not NS sensu stricto, specifically in an interview for the Cercle Non Conforme published online back in 2014. Claiming that we are not NS was simply a matter of historical and ideological accuracy, although some people saw it as an attempt to switch camps, or even to promote an anti-NS rhetoric. People are really stuck within this NS / anti-NS dichotomy. I said that PN was not NS, but I never said that PN was anti-NS. PESTE NOIRE does not speak of Adolf Hitler, that’s all. If I were to say that PN does not deal with plants in its texts, would that mean that PN is against tulips and poppies? And seriously, PN is too punk to be NS. Some would see the fact that we are not associating ourselves with National Socialism as a weakness, hypocrisy, or the fear of getting into trouble. LOL: If I were afraid of trouble, I would not do a project such as VOUÏVRE — with a guy who is totally in NSBM. I would not show my support for AZOV, I would not have a “Me Ne Frego” tattoo right up my neck, and when people get to know with whom PN is going to collaborate – you have my word – they will quickly understand that I have no taboos in this regard whatsoever.
To be specific, honest, and 100% accurate, PESTE NOIRE draws on the German Conservative Revolution discourse, the French New Right or say the Italian fascism in the spirit of Casa Pound. I am a racialist, an ethno-pluralist, absolutely against race mixing, but not a supremacist. Clearly, it is this last point that sets PESTE NOIRE apart from certain purely NS bands. Once this is made clear, my primary goal, no doubt, is the defense of the white race and the expulsion (peaceful if possible) of non-Europeans from our lands. And on this essential point, NS bands are my first allies.
Then there is a photo where I make the right hand salute. All these little shitty French Black metallers are making such a fuss about this photo as if it was somehow contradicting my words. Bunch of jerks… in the aforementioned interview with the CNC I clearly stated that I feel closer to Italian fascism than to German National Socialism. So how is it surprising that those who sympathize with fascism are making the right hand salute? I have no problem to greet my friends as Europeans have done it for 2000 years, and take no issue with our fans doing it at concerts.
Q3 : Talking about fans, how do you explain that the Black Metal scene in Western Europe and North America is gradually losing its rebellious, provocative, heretical spirit and becomes increasingly sterile and castrated? How does the situation compare with that in Eastern Europe? Did you see any difference?
– I am not a psychologist, but I would say that Black metallers in Western Europe and North America are not as tough due to the overall “bourgeoisification” and domestication. They are more nihilistic because of the spirit of extreme liberalism that has raged in these lands for much longer than in Eastern Europe. Here in France, many metalheads are egocentric shows-offs, living with their moms and having an easy life. The Western Europe is known for higher living standards, materialism, vulgar hedonism, lower birth rates, and the Emperor syndrome – when the only child in the family gets all the attention, no surprise we see so many selfish cowards out there. Every little shit, mollycoddled by his parents, thinks he’s a god and has no spirit of sacrifice whatsoever, no sense of community ethics. They will never take any risk. Political correctness is in a way their comfort zone.
You use the term “provocative” — it is also a key term to illustrate the difference between the Western and the Eastern scenes? Slavs do not go for simple “Rock star” provocations, as the Necrobutcher did when posing in front of a Nazi flag, or DARKTHRONE when claiming “Norsk Arisk Black Metal” and not willing to stand for it afterwards. It seems to me that while the Western BM scene remains precisely in the juvenile, superficial provocation (Hitler being the new Satan, calling themselves NS just to shock the public, etc.), the scene in the East is much more serious, politically-involved, violent and organized. I was amazed to see the number and discipline of your volunteers at the Asgardsrei fest.
The Slavic scene seems to be much more united. You have networks in prison, your activists have a genuine sports culture and a healthy lifestyle. Both minds and bodies are subject to ideology. In France, you see it among skins but rarely among Black metallers. Also, in French prisons, if you are not a Corsican, you do not have access to a network of support among whites (who are, for the most part, either rapists or drug addicts). Taking this into account, as well as the fact that prisons are crowded with immigrants, one tries to avoid them at all costs.
Q4 : Speaking of healthy lifestyle, it would seem that the themes of alcohol and sex are of particular interest to you. It reminds us of the Bacchian songs and the Dionysian rites — both themes being present in European culture, just as much as Spartan discipline and ascetics that are cultivated by the NS straight edge movement. Isn’t there, according to you, a contradiction between the two terms, and what place do you reserve them in your life?
– These two forces — the Dionysian (orgy) one and the Apollonian (order) one, to put it in Nietzschean terms, are obviously in conflict but are not contradictory as long as they balance out and complement each other. I work out for two hours every single day to eat thrice as much more food and get thrice as much pleasure. Here in France wine and champagne drinking is a constituent part of our heritage and identity, a kind of national “know-how”. A French nationalist cannot live decently spitting on our grands crus. For everything there is a season: a time for sports and training, and a time for feasting and relaxation. Too much seriousness brings anxiety, and prolonged stress leads to cancer.
The French crowd is obviously less athletic than the Russian or Ukrainian one, but it is more festive, Rabelaisian, which is a great quality on its own. Watch the videos of our concert in Limoges — people smile from ear to ear, they sing together and give hugs without behaving like some drunk scum; it is a moment of pure conviviality.
I think that true strength is in self-control — being able to enjoy earthly pleasures without getting addicted to them in the long run. Nothing is more despicable to me than a person who cannot control his drinking. Personally, I was drinking too much before, but it helped me in difficult times. Now it is only occasional. However, it puzzles me to be treated as a drug addict because I have a sip of Dom Pérignon by some straightedge guy who shoots steroids that are 1000 times more harmful for his health.
Q5 : Among the various influences that can be spotted on your recent albums is rap. Is it a postmodernist deconstruction of discourses and genres by the technique of collage, or are you trying to strengthen up PESTE NOIRE with new exotic materials?
– No, I really dig rap music. Just like in French literature, I always felt myself closer to outcasts. My interest in rap is based on this same attraction to outlaws, troublemakers, gangsters and free minds. And as I’ve already said earlier, I am an ethno-pluralist: in the same way that I can be interested in the Japanese or Inca culture, I have no taboo on listening to black or Maghreb rap if it’s well cooked and as long as they do not renounce to break at home in Kemi Séba mode. There are distinctive voice tones, forms of phrasing and songs, the ones you can find in Niska or Siboy for example, which the whites would not be capable of reproducing. And this also holds for the German rap. A white will never rap as a black and vice versa. Preserving these racial specificities by preventing race mixing and diluting one’s culture within another is essential to me.
Rap is bold, aggressive, belligerent, hypermasculine, it speaks only of pride and power, it’s actually mega-fascist in its form. Now I’m for all prides but in terms of the victimizing and the anti-white kinds of the Negro rap, of course it’s pure shit: once set aside the interest of their flow / voice / timbre, all so authentic, in their clips, their aesthetics, they just pick up all our symbols and creations. Their guns are Russian, their cars are German, and their clothes are French. Even their heraldry is pumped on European heraldry. These retards – who may be excellent musicians yet still retards – speak only of power and domination; but the real Masters, those who possess military technology, those who make luxury cars and manufacture Hugo Boss, are obviously the whites. The truth is that we became too fag because of fratricidal wars, race mixing propaganda and human-rights hysterics. The fact remains that it is we and not they who have the logistics, the tactical intelligence and the military resources to smoke them out. Let them, therefore, play with our toys in their clips; without us, they would have wooden sticks instead of AK47’s, and donkeys or goats for transportation.
Q6 : We have come to the obvious but necessary question – what are your ongoing projects, both in terms of new records and collaborations? Where lies the battlefield for Kommando Peste Noire this year? Maybe a word about your new project VOUÏVRE?
– Ok, so in the chronological order, I am going to:
- Appear as a guest on the next M8L8TH release.
- Record the new PN album. It has already been composed, but I want to iron out the kinks and work on the musical arrangements in a way it has previously been done on “L’Ordure à l’état pur” where you have thirty different ideas per track. Live shows have taken up a lot of time, and I regret to have rushed it a bit with the two previous albums. Now I will take all the time I need to finalize this new record. Don’t expect it earlier than 2018.
- Once the seventh PN album is completed, I’m going to make the split-CD with ABSURD.
- After the split with ABSURD, we will be releasing a 7’’ with GOATMOON.
It is a great honor to work with all of these bands. Regarding VOUÏVRE, everything is completed, and we are only waiting for the vinyls from the plant. There is a lot of hype around this project due to the fact that we announced it in a video teaser brilliantly realized by ANAON PRODUCTIONS, and people are expecting a full-length album. However, this is an EP (we have always announced it as such): two Black Metal tracks with raw prod and old school sound (side A), composed and recorded by myself; and two more experimental tracks (side B) composed and recorded by HGH. Sün of the French NSBM group MALSAINT wrote all of the lyrics except for the outro. He does the harsh vocals on my tracks and I do all the clean singing. Sün is also doing the clean singing on one of the experimental tracks, and a real heavyweight of the French NSBM – whose name I shall keep secret until the vinyl is released – contributed with his lyrics and harsh singing on the outro. Ardraos of SÜHNOPFER does the drums. In my opinion, it was a good experience but I will not continue this project. I am no longer in the state of mind of the time – that of Parisian wanderings – and from the very beginning I saw it as a short break to try something other than PN, like my other project VALFUNDE, which I will never go back to. So I am leaving the future of VOUÏVRE in the hands of Sün and HGH, if they wish to continue this project.
Q7 : Let’s lift the veil on the upcoming collaboration between MILITANT ZONE and PESTE NOIRE. We are proud to announce the shooting of the video clip “Le dernier putsch” – the track that kicks right in from the first seconds of your most recent album. The shooting will take place in Kiev on June 11, and we would like to invite all fans and supporters to come join the crowd and become extras in this new Peste Noire video (for more details visit the event page: vk.com/kpn2017).
– “Le dernier putsch” was initially intended as a gesture of support to AZOV, so what better place than Kiev to shoot this video? As a matter of interest, we made a t-shirt a while ago depicting a hooligan armed with a baseball bat and wearing a knight’s helmet, with the slogan: “Be mediaeval”. Back then, it was only a t-shirt design, so I was completely blown away when I first saw hooligans with bats and clubs on the Maidan, encased in medieval armour and getting ready for the real putsch!
