We come from the Southwest of France just near the Spanish border. Actually two hours south from Bordeaux where they make wine. So that's where we live but we don't drink a lot of wine. There's the Atlantic Ocean there and we have the mountains which are a natural border between France and Spain. It's a beautiful, beautiful place. A very green land. Beautiful landscapes. We live in the countryside in a small town called Bayonne where you can find good ham and good wine too. Funny people. It's a great place to be but mostly because of the nature it's amazing. We're very inspired by the nature. It's a great place to have our headquarters.

My mom is from Switzerland.

That's beautiful. It's like France but better.

With really good chocolate, I know. When I graduated from high school and before I went into the Air Force, my parents took me to Europe for a graduation present. I got to go to Switzerland, France, and Germany. It fucking rocked. I loved it. I can't decide if I like Germany or France more. I think Germany because I like the beer and I can handle the language a little bit better. My mom insisted I had to learn another language. Either her language which is French which I can't pronounce or German which is easier to pronounce.

I guess for English speaking people it must be easier to learn German than for French people because there is a big difference between French and German but there are connections between English and German.

German seems to be a little more phonetic whereas French isn‘t and that's where I ran into trouble.

French is horrible. We don't speak French really. French people, we're constantly barking.

You guys originally called your band Godzilla and then you changed it to Gojira. Where did that name come from out of curiosity?

When we first formed the band we had to pick a name because you have to do that. You cannot form a band that does not have a name. Oh shit, we forgot a name. We tried to find something a bit mystical coming from the Eastern myths because we like this philosophy from the East and at the same time we wanted something very monstrous. Very big. Very crashing. We picked Godzilla at that time. It was not very famous. It had only one or two movies in black and white, home made, very funny with that guy with a suit. It was ridiculous but at the same time very mystical and we liked that. Also the fact that we like to not take ourselves too seriously so Godzilla was a bit funny also. Then your American movie came.

The remake.

Oh my God. When we saw that we were just scared. Oh my God, it’s getting too famous. People used to tell us “oh, Godzilla? Like the big movie? Oh, so you make a movie.” As a joke. We decided to change the name but it was a bit complicated because this tour was made already with the name Godzilla so it was hard. Then lawyers sent a letter telling us we had to change the name because of that. So we changed it and discovered that the real name in fact was Gojira which we didn’t know that.

So that was the Japanese name.

Finally it was called that and we’re happy with that name. It’s more exotic.

Yeah, it’s fucking cool. I like that because some of these bands have the damndest names. It’s like we need a five syllable name now because everyone took the three worded ones. I guess you guys have put out a couple of albums already and a DVD. I saw in your bio that you guys are into environmentalism and shit like that. What got you into that?

It’s not the main thing about us but I would say that the main thing is that we try to know ourselves better. We try to learn from each other. We chat a lot. We try to understand our fears. If we have jealousy or bad feelings, we try to understand them and express them through music. That’s really our main thing because I think everybody is concerned by their inner demons. You have to face them. Because if you don’t face that, it will devour you from the inside. It’s a bit violent but that’s the way we feel. Of course we are highly concerned about environmental issues because it’s kind of a spaceship we have, the planet Earth. We are all stuck on this planet, on this ball which is in never ending space. I don’t want to scare you.

No, that’s fine. I live in the scariest country in the world with the scariest government in the world and I’m not scared.

So you understand that we are very naturally involved in that and when I think about the world, I have to think about nature and endangered species and us. We don’t want to preach anything, we just talk about it.

I think it’s nice when people bring shit like that up because people especially here in the United States are just not fucking concerned with anything. I mean my President doesn’t believe there is such a thing as global warming. Go figure. You guys have put out From Mars To Sirius. Can you tell me a little bit about that record? I was listening to it on the way down. It was my third or fourth time listening to it.

Oh, okay.

My favorite track is definitely the first one. I like the drumming and that weird noise. I love that.

We take the string and then we touch it with a finger and it makes that sound. We bend the string. From Mars To Sirius is our last album. Actually it’s my favorite album from Gojira. I’m happy with it but I feel like it’s a pretty long trip when you hear the album. It’s very long actually. The songs are intense and we express a lot of things in them. A lot of feelings so you have surprises in it. We have those long parts. We go into a light trance and then suddenly it gets very excited. For me it’s an exciting record but at the same time you want to be prepared to hear it. It’s a long trip but I think it’s a very interesting record.

The first time I played it I was having a party at my house and people just absolutely fucking dug on that thing. I had to play it twice.

Really? Oh, that’s a good sign.

They asked who it was and I said it’s a metal band from France. They were like it’s a bunch of frogs and I’m like uh, yeah, whatever.

Yeah, I don’t eat frogs personally. I have no friends that eat frogs.

Nobody who likes frog legs? What’s wrong with that?

Maybe once I saw a man with a frog but I think he was about to put it in a lake so I’m not sure he was about to eat it. I never saw a frog eater in France.

I like frogs. I couldn’t imagine eating them. Sometimes we get frogs in my swimming pool and we take them to this one pond that is near by so they don’t get run over in the street. Tell me a little bit about the DVD that you guys did. I thought that was interesting.

This DVD is already three years old. He’s a big boy now. We took care of him. He’s a nice guy. Nah, we recorded it before releasing our album outside of France. It’s the end of a time or the end of a period for us. We needed to turn the page. We got big in France. When we have a concert there are lots of people coming and we’re always headliners.

And they’re lively. Not like tonight.

Yeah, people are really with us, in France it’s getting big. I don’t think we can get bigger than that in the metal scene in France. We’re always headliners but outside of France we’re not. We’re totally unknown. Too bad. From the very first rehearsal we wanted to be everywhere. In France it’s a bit special because the music business is really French. Everybody speaks French. They don’t speak really English so we had to fight a lot to be able to push CDs in Spain and Germany. First Europe and then we signed a contract to a label in France and we got this contract with Prosthetic Records in California. We started to find out what was possible to do in the States and now it’s getting bigger and bigger. In England for example we are on the cover of a magazine already so it’s cool. It’s only this year. The DVD was the end of that French period and to us it was a gift to the fans. Okay, this is the French Gojira. Take it and watch it while we go outside and see what’s going on out there.

The Children Of Bodom guys first started out as openers too. I saw them open a couple of shows and I thought they really needed to headline their own shows. About the third or fourth time they came over here they finally did headline. It doesn’t take long at all. It didn’t take them long and it probably won’t take you guys that long. One of these days you’re going to come through here and you’re going to be the main act.

I was told that everything is possible here in the States.

I like to think so.

Yes, that’s the wonderful thing about the States. We feel free. When you come from Europe, Europe is a great place. I love Europe. There are plenty of good things especially food.

Yes and wine.

And wine of course. When we come here, we feel an expansion. Our bodies feel an expansion. We feel excited. We feel like we can dress like we want. Nobody is going to tell us something. You can say crazy things. It’s great, really. We love the States and French people are fascinated by the States most of the time. Don’t believe what’s on TV. French and Americans struggling and whatever. I think there’s a pretty good feeling between them.

I think the only really bad feelings there are is that my President has put foreign relations back 200 years because of the crazy shit that he does. That guy is fucking mad. A lot of these other heads of state realize that and fortunately we as normal people are like you fucking assholes do whatever and we’re going to still talk to each other. I think it’s all about human relations between normal people. I think that music is the big diplomacy maker. It bridges that gap of fucking political bullshit.

Exactly, of course. And it makes you feel alive. When we see American bands in France we realize we feel the same thing. Then we come to the States and we play and we see the kids jumping around. It’s cool. That’s real nice.

Tell me how the tour has been going so far.

Great. Especially the show in Detroit. The show in Detroit was wild. It was incredible. I don’t remember the name of the venue. It’s a pretty big venue with an incredible high stage. The stage was very high. Ten feet tall or something. Very high. So we had a beautiful big view of the circle pit and it was just amazing. We had this electricity in the air in Detroit. The place was a bit nasty around in the streets. There was something magical happening that night.

You’ll find that when you tour the United States most night clubs are in a pretty bad part of town.

This club was actually great. It was a bit outside of the town but yet not so far. We walked to the center to eat chicken sandwiches which were very good. There were beautiful buildings and the streets were very clean. We like to see all the cities. On French TV we have New York, Dallas, L.A., and we know the States. Now we can see it with our eyes.

The three cities that matter. How long is the tour for and how far are you into it? Are you just starting or halfway into it?

No, we’re just starting. It’s the fifth gig. We have two weeks left of the tour. Tomorrow we play around Phoenix. Then we hit California. Anaheim, San Diego, Los Angeles, and then Denver, Minneapolis, Washington, D.C., New York, Montreal, Worchester, Quebec City. I’m especially excited to play New York. It’s my favorite town in the world.

New York is awesome.

Yeah, I love New York.

There is an electricity in New York that you don’t find anywhere else. It’s amazing. You get there and it’s just electric. Everyone is running around all over the place and you’re just like wow.

I’d like to live there in a year. I’d like to spend some time in New York. I don’t know why I feel a calling. I know I want to be there.

You need to spend at least a week there. It takes at least a week.

Of course and we play there at Nokia Theater. It’s in the center of Manhattan. The tour is great. So far no problems. We’re not sick. We eat a lot of junk food and we get fat. We have a lot of fun. We see all of these beautiful cities. It’s great.

I’m glad you guys are having fun. What do you guys have planned after this?

Actually we have another tour in the States. It’s a very long tour of like seven weeks.

Who are you going to be out on the road with?,p> Lamb Of God, Trivium, and Machinehead. Four bands. Three fucking amazing American bands.

I love Lamb Of God. They are amazing.

Yes, they’re incredible. We met them in Paris. We had a show with Slayer at a very, very big venue called Paris Lycee.

That was the Slayer, Lamb Of God, and Children Of Bodom show.

We joined the tour for just one gig in Paris because we were French and famous in France but that was a great moment because I met Randy from Lamb Of God. He came in the dressing room and he started to light a fire because he’s really into nature and me too so we chatted on the web before the show. He told me to bring some branches from the forest and we’re going to light a fire. So I said yeah, teach me so we had a lot of smoke in the dressing room but no fire at all and I laughed a lot with this guy. I felt so good for three days after this show because I met him so it’s going to be a fun tour.

I bet it is. I hope you guys come through Dallas.,p> We start the tour with Lamb Of God in Dallas. The first gig will be in Dallas. I can already tell you that we’ll be there around February 17 or something like that. It’s going to be cool.

Any other thoughts or comments?