GOJIRA: Pro-Shot Footage From France's CLASS'EUROCK Festival Posted Online

Professionally filmed video footage of French modern metallers GOJIRA performing the song "Flying Whales" at France's Class'EuRock festival in July 2006 can be viewed below.

In a recent interview with Scott McLennan of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, GOJIRA singer and guitarist Joseph Duplantier said that after making its first two records — "Terra Incognita" and "The Link" — the band approached its third album, "From Mars To Sirius", with more confidence and with more ideas.

"When we made our first album, we all had jobs or were in school. Whenever we could meet and compose, the only thing we composed were fast songs because we were so excited. We put all our aggression into the music," Duplantier said. "Now we are a full-time band. We are not just coming to the music with aggression. We play music all day, so we are playing music we want to hear. When you spend every day in a rehearsal space, you want to hear changes, so we go to some mid-tempo compositions and look for ways to keep the verses interesting. I think we are playing better because we are trying different things."

Duplantier said that growing up in Bayonne in Southern France engendered the band's eco-friendly attitudes.

"We feel sensitive about the Earth and caring for the planet. We live near the Atlantic Ocean and mountains are nearby. We have always been close to nature and its effects. It is only sensible to be concerned about the ecology," he said.

Duplantier said he realizes that people going to see GOJIRA are coming out for a show and not for a political discussion. Thus, much of its work is not explicit politicizing, but in many in cases a matter of weaving band members' beliefs into the songs.

And Duplantier said that hopefully GOJIRA will be able to record new songs soon. The band has been touring in support of "From Mars to Sirius" for more than two years. Listenable Records in France put out the album in the fall of 2005, and Prosthetic Records in the U.S. released the disc last year.

"We are working on a new album," Duplantier said. "But it is hard trying to compose on the bus."

And part of the difficulty comes from the fact that GOJIRA is not likely to repeat itself on its forthcoming record.

"We do what we feel we are meant to do," he said. "When the music is right, you feel it and it is intense. That is the exciting part of the job. We like that freedom. Sometimes a record label wants to make changes, and will do things like ask for more singing parts. Or if someone asks us to pull back, we tell them we are not interested. What we like is what we do."

Read the entire article at www.telegram.com.