VOIVOD Drummer: 'PIGGY And I Saw Some UFOs In Buffalo'

Jessica M. Alexander of Spinner recently conducted an interview with drummer Michel "Away" Langevin of Canadian metal innovators VOIVOD. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Spinner: Describe your sound in your own words.

Michel: It's a mixture of prog/punk/metal with a sci-fi edge...Prog rock has been popular in Quebec where we are from and it has had a strong impact on the band; we are huge RUSH fans! But in general we are all fans of various forms of rock.

Spinner: What's your musical guilty pleasure?

Michel: BOSTON. We just have great memories of being teenagers and hearing BOSTON at the circus and carnivals that came to town, along with STYX and QUEEN. We don't necessarily brag about liking those bands, but we love listening to them.

Spinner: What's the craziest thing you've seen or experienced while on tour?

Michel: While on tour with PRO-PAIN in 1996, Piggy and I saw some UFOs in Buffalo! Trust me, no one believed us, and even to this day, I think that is still true. Basically, we were hanging out in the parking lot with some fans after a show and looking out on the city. Suddenly, we saw 6 transparent spheres that were half-glowing and dancing around in the sky. The whole scene looked very choreographed and the spheres split in literally a second! We ran to tell the rest of the band but they took one look at us with a bottle of Jager in our hands and figured we were just drunk! Piggy and I basically talked about it every day on that tour and after a while I think the guys started believing that we hadn't made up the whole story...I have even heard of other people online having the exact same experience!

Spinner: What is your "normal" band setup? Does it change when you go on tour?

Michel: The set up is pretty minimal: four-piece drumkit, bass, guitar and vocal. Usually the guys like to have two cabinets but due to stage restrictions, that isn't always possible. The drumset is small compared to what a lot of other metal bands are doing, or even what I use to do back in the 80's. When we tour in Japan, we always get a lot of comments as to how we produce as much sound as we do with such a small setup.

Spinner: What makes you get out of bed first thing in the morning?

Michel: Graphic work and deadlines! I do artwork for many other bands; anything from t-shirt designs, CD covers, stickers, tattoo designs, book covers...I love the fact I can split my days doing half graphic design and the other half music I love!

Spinner: Anything else you feel the world should know?

Michel: We're back!!! We will be playing two shows in Russia in April, which we are excited about as this is our first time to Russia. We will also be doing the Wacken festival in Wacken, Germany after that — we are always well-received there! As far as recording goes, we might get back to that, but with Piggy gone, it's been hard. Right now we just want to play!

Spinner.