F*CK THE FACTS’ TOPON DAS & MEL MONGEON: THE METALSUCKS INTERVIEW
Axl has blathered quite a bit in recent months about the awesomeness of the new Die Miserable album from Canadian death-grind-punk-whozit-whatsit-galore band Fuck the Facts. It’s left me quivering in the fetal position a few times, too, so we figured it was high time we found out what the band had to say about it? Read on for all the facts you could ever want to fuck from the band’s guitarist/founder Topon Das and vocalist Mel Mongeon.
Your last few releases have each been recorded by a slightly different lineup. Were you able to do anything with this particular lineup that you haven’t been able to with your past lineups?
Topon Das: Because everyone is so involved in the writing, we end up sounding like a combination of everyone’s influences and abilities. I don’t like to look at things as better or worse, really it’s just different. If there were different people in the band, we would sound different. I just really love to see how different people create music and play their instruments, and to hear the results of the different combinations. Also, I do see the importance of having a solid core, so being able to maintain a stable band for this long definitely makes things easier.
Why’d you decide to build your own studio before recording Die Miserable?
TD: I really shouldn’t say that we built our own studio. We more just threw all our gear and some mics in my mom’s basement and decided to track this entire album ourselves. It was a pretty ghetto set-up, but it got the job done. That was pretty much the first step in us getting set up to record ourselves more in the future. Since then we’ve moved the “studio” to some other rooms and with my buddy Martin Cleal (who travels the world doing sound for bands like Beneath the Massacre, The Black Dahlia Murder, Obscura, etc.). We’ve been slowly working on making it better and better. We’ve also started recording and mixing other bands down there (Alaskan, Biipiigwan, Collider, etc.) and it’s where we recorded the Die Miserable bonus EP, Misery. Basically, we’re thinking long term. We plan on making music and releasing albums for a long time to come, so to have our own place that we can do this ourselves just seems to make sense. I’m not gonna say that we’ll never record elsewhere again, cause I can definitely see that happening at some point. But we really enjoy the process of recording, so being able to learn more from other people and to be able to play around with recording whenever we want is a real benefit. If you’re interested, you can check out the page for our studio here.
How did Marc Bourgon (bass) and Johnny Ibay (guitars) contribute to the songwriting process for Die Miserable?
TD: Johnny came in kind of late, so most of the writing was already done. He basically just wrote and played the guitar solos on “Cold Hearted” as well as some stuff on the Misery EP. Marc had been around a bit longer and contributed a lot more to the initial writing. The music on Die Miserable is pretty evenly split between Marc, Vil [Mathieu Vilandré, drums] and myself. We have already started working on some new songs for what will be our next release and Johnny has been in there full force. So I’m sure when we do our next album, you’ll get to hear what an FTF album with Johnny involved in the writing will sound like.
Did you have an idea of where you wanted to go lyrically with the album? Or did the lyrics evolve over time?
Mel Mongeon: The lyrics evolved over the years with me. I can’t fully separate myself from my subjects. It is mostly influenced by what I have been reading, or what preoccupies me in that era, or deception I witnessed or faced at that time. That’s what inspired me. So I guess I can say that they just evolved over time.
Die Miserable feels so cynical about everything — relationships, politics, religion, the self — until the last song, “95,” which seems to be a really pure memory of a simpler time. What inspired that song? And what’s behind the decision to make it the only song in French on the album?
MM: It always feels odd to me when I realize someone has actually read the lyrics. It is such a loner thing to write lyrics. It’s something you throw out there and you never know if it actually gets read, or if someone actually got touched by your lyrics. But yeah, here is the story behind that “95” song: I heard that song for the first time at our jam hall. The guys were just working on it. I heard this catchy punk riff that really grabbed me. I really felt like in the skin of the person I was when I was 16 (in ’95; you can do the math). When I was a teenager, I really listened to a lot of punk and hardcore music. I was a real party kid that would go to as many shows as possible. It is that feeling I had, that flashback, that inspired me for the lyrics. I tried to describe that girl, from the perspective of the person I have become. I don’t often put myself on paper that boldly, but for that song, it just felt right. I prefer writing in English, because I censor myself less, probably due to the fact that I don’t master the language as much. Therefore, I tend to write less in French. I decided a few years ago to always do at least one song in French per release and that’s what I’ve been doing since the Legacy of Hopelessness EP (2005).
A few minutes into “Alone,” the song bursts into this vintage Propagandhi/Strung Out sound… and “Census Blank” has that over-the-top guitar-tapping beginning and outro. Do you guys have a hidden love for ’90s pop/punk and symphonic prog?
TD: Perhaps it’s more a not-so-hidden love for music in general. When we write there’s never a template that ideas or riffs need to fit in. All ideas are welcome, and to be honest I get the most excited about the stuff that sounds like something we never really did before. But it’s funny that you mention Propagandhi for “Alone,” cause that’s a song that mainly Marc wrote and Propagandhi is his favourite band ever. Vil is the main guy behind “Census Blank” and he’s the guy in the band that listens to metal prog shit. So I guess it’s really just our influences coming through.
With so many releases out each year, your fans get an almost voyeuristic insight into how you’re growing as a band. Is it important to you that each release feels like a discrete, cohesive statement?
TD: I always get stumped on this question. Perhaps I feel like I need to defend myself or make up some sort of reason or uncover some hidden agenda behind what we’re doing, I don’t know. Personally I love to listen to and watch the evolution of bands and musicians, so if people that see that in us, than I’m very happy. We’ve done a lot of stuff in the past that now I look back on and I’m a bit shy about, and it used to bug me. But over time I’ve learned to love and appreciate everything we’ve done. It’s all steps in becoming better at our craft, keeping things interesting and just enjoying being able to do what we want. We’re not racing to have as many releases as possible, but when the ideas are flowing and the irons are hot why would we stop ourselves from striking? I hate to think that there’s an acceptable amount of music to release at an acceptable time in an acceptable fashion. I’ve tried putting these limitations on myself in the past and it only resulted in me feeling restrained, angry and frustrated. I started Fuck the Facts to break out of these constraints. I’d much rather do something and learn from it, than look back and wish I would have tried.
It’s amazing to me that Mel’s pregnancy didn’t seem to slow down your touring schedule at all. How did her pregnancy impact the writing or recording of Die Miserable?
MM: The pregnancy happened after the recording of the vocals for Die Miserable. The artwork was done after the birth, so there was not really an impact on that recording. It did slow us down from playing live as we took a break for about six months. The baby was born almost six weeks earlier than planned, so I stayed in the hospital with her for three full weeks. I slept there and lived as a zombie, while experiencing for the first time a true depression. I had no TV or phone out there, so I had a lot of free time. It gave me the opportunity to write lyrics for a song that’s on the Misery EP that has been released at the same time as Die Miserable. These lyrics scream pain and depression, which is something I am really fond of in any lyrics.
You’ve traditionally done a lot of the marketing and promotions for Fuck the Facts yourselves, even while you’ve been signed to Relapse. Do you really enjoy doing all that, or are there more practical reasons why you keep it DIY as much as possible?
TD: We’ve learned to enjoy it, because it’s practical and the only way we can get things done the way we feel they need to be done. The reality is that we don’t make anyone any money, so the effort we get from outside the band is usually pretty minimal. We used to wait and see what wasn’t getting done and then pick up the slack, but now we just don’t even bother waiting anymore.
Topon, do you feel like the Fuck the Facts of today is fulfilling the vision you had when you started it as a solo project thirteen years ago?
TD: Yeah, I think the basic elements are still there. It’s hard to remember exactly how I was or what I was thinking 13 years ago, and I’m sure it’s changed at least a bit since then. But the main idea was that I would have one project where I could do anything and everything I wanted, and I feel like that’s still how we do things now.
-SR
Die Miserable is out now on Relapse Records. You can win a copy here. Get the companion Misery EP at Fuck the Facts’ Bandcamp page.
