VOIVOD Drummer Discusses His Art

Susan Frances of Indie In-Tune has issued the following report:

French-Canadian mathematician, painter, and musician Michel Langevin is a conceptual artist whose creations depict the negative forces of technology's nature, often representations of the surreal, the macabre, and the destructive. His first paintings were of an anti-hero whom he christened VOIVOD after Bram Stoker's "Dracula", the leader of vampires who was perceived to have come from the species the Voivod and who set up a colony in the hills of Romania.

Michel conceived a cyborg type of vampire to represent the Voivod (pronounced "voy-vodd"). Along with his drawings, he conceived music to present the sub-creature's saga. The band which made the music that portrayed Voivod's epic story would also be called VOIVOD, comprised of a circle of friends whom Michel grew up with in Jonquiere, Quebec, Canada.

Michel describes, "Jonquiere is a factory town. I lived right beside one of them, and it's what I could see from my bedroom window. The noises from the factory made me think of giant mechanical creatures and when I would fall asleep, I'd have nightmares about these creatures coming towards my house from behind the factory. Waking up, I would rush to draw these monsters before forgetting about them. That's how I created the Voivod with Korgull and all."

Korgull The Exterminator would be a member of VOIVOD's cyborg army, the Iron Gang, from an alter universe on the planet Morgoth. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" was also an influence on Michel's images which conjured up futuristic warcraft, nuclear weaponry, and deformed warriors. These disturbing images filled his mind with visions that could become real if negative forces took over. As a young boy, he was more interested in drawing these visions which he saw in his mind than doing anything else.

"I don't recall when I started drawing," he reflects, "I just remember that I was already doing it when I was about 4 years old. It's always been about planets and monsters."

He confers, "When I was about 10 years old, my mother wanted me to join the scouts. I never felt that comfortable around other kids and did not want to join but I told my mother that I would if she'd enroll me in a summer art class. That's how I learned a lot of technique, but I also developed an interest in science so I ended up studying physics at the university."

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