Spotify Celebrity Playlist: Dagoba’s Shawter
French metal troupe Dagoba just signed with eOne Music for the U.S. The band’s been at it since the year 2000, releasing four full-lengths in that time span and consistently touring through Europe with some of metal’s biggest bands. To help get American audiences acquainted with what these guys are all about, we asked the band’s vocalist Shawter to put together a Spotify playlist of some of his favorite jams and to answer a few questions. Stream his playlist below, and read the quickie interview after.
Dagoba’s new Logan Mader-produced album Post Mortem Nihil Est comes out on May 27th in Europe and June 14th in North America.
Tell us a bit about your musical influences, both growing up and as the vocalist of Dagoba.
I felt into metal listening with Metallica. As far as I can remember from my youth I was listening to Metallica on a Walkman because my parents weren’t really into it. The way James Hetfield composes, plays and leads a band fascinates me. Not long after that I discovered Pantera, who haunted me day and night and pushed me to form my own band.
I was also into Queen because of Freddie Mercury’s personality and incredible talent. He really inspired me as a singer. Even if I could never reach his singing level, I still liked to learn about the way he wrote choruses and choirs.
Later, I tried to listen to almost everything I could in the metal scene, from America, the U.K., Scandinavia, everywhere! I was curious and ravenous for new stuff. I spent all my money on albums. And my tastes are still very wide-ranging. I appreciate American southern bands and I appreciate old and totally unknown Swedish black metal bands.I like music that makes me travel, a universe.
But I’m not only into metal. I really like electro stuff like Nine Inch Nails, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, Caribou, and any other DJ who really knows how to handle technology. I’ve got to stay connected to this scene, because I add many industrial and electronics sounds or loops here and there into Dagoba’s music, and I don’t want to use any that are too cheesy or totally obsolete. And, of course, I really like movie scores for the same reason.
As the vocalist of Dagoba, I really like Phil Anselmo because of the rage he inspires. But also Chester Bennington, Chino Moreno and Shagrath from Dimmu Borgir. I like the way he plays with delay and distortion.
France’s metal scene is booming right now, whatwith Gojira, Gorod, Hacride, Hypno5e, Alcest, Blut Aus Nord and of course Dagoba — to name a few — making waves on the international circuit. Why do you think French metal bands are suddenly receiving so much attention from outside their home country?
I think it’s cultural. France may be the good place to drink wine, but it’s never been the best place to rock’n’roll! Some of us have always been passionate and I guess just like for any kind of enterprise, it took a decade to even get known outside our country.
I think something very important to mention is the fact that we’ve been inspired by everything around us. In Scandinavia, for example, they always had a lot of very good bands, so they could race each other, and inspire each other, to create a strong local scene. In France the metal scene started to develop later on, so we had time to assimilate influences from all around the world. Maybe this is the french metal style? Mixing everything to find its own originality.
I noticed you picked a Stabbing the Drama track. Why that record over any other Soilwork album? (I love it too, just curious)
Haha! Because every single note is good in that song, the drum fills are brilliant, the vocals are great, and the sound is just perfect for that kind of tempo.
What do Dagoba have planned for 2013?
Release our new record Post Mortem Nihil Est! Touring a lot, everywhere! Meeting people from all around the world. And continuing to make music for a living could be perfect.
