Mathieu Dottel returns to Cold Lavanew album from the French hard rock group Bukowski, which makes a new departure.
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Cold Lava was published in November. Looking back, how did you experience this release?
We are delighted with it. We gave ourselves the means to come back in force and the feedback was rave, we were a huge hit at the Vauréal Forum. We are getting back into good shape.
Let's talk about the meaning of the title.
It came to me one evening when I was thinking about it. There is an idea of duality, with this warmth that remains deep within us despite the storms outside. It can be interpreted in many ways. The title track was the first one we wrote for the album, it served as a starting point.
Let's talk about your collective work on this record, including the arrival of Max on bass.
This album is his first with us. He offered us lots of ideas, and also helped me with the lyrics, which Julien (Dottel, ex-bassist, died in 2021) did a lot before. Max is a kind of free electron, he is in his own little world which we like (laughs). Romain, in addition to the drums, invested a lot in the composition, by proposing structures. Clément, for his part, took care of the seasonings.
In addition to this collective work, we find a participation from Reuno de Lofofora on “Communication in Silence”.
This was decided when we were touring as the opening act for Lofofora, so we presented him with the idea of participating in this piece. So he joined us in the studio and scribbled his text on a sheet of paper and recorded it in two takes, we found nothing to complain about. He got along very well with my brother, so he pays him implicit homage.
“Gunpowder” also has an original intro.
It’s a recording of my brother, in Full Throttle Baby, who imitated Benoît Poelvoorde really well! A friend filmed him improvising this. So we decided to give it a nod by putting it in the intro. This has nothing to do with the theme, which is about war and enlisting people who didn't ask for anything.
What about the themes covered in the album?
We talk about societal themes. In “Isolation”, we are not talking about buildings, but about solitude (laughs). “A Thousand Knives” evokes internal wounds… There are dark subjects, but with always a light at the end of the tunnel, we are not here to dampen the mood.
Let's talk live, you have dates coming up.
We decided to play this record in full on our next dates. We have never done this before and we are very happy about it. The public reacts strongly and motivates us to continue in this direction. We have also modernized our show, we are in control of our lights, we even have video projections when the rooms allow it. We have taken a step forward compared to our other concerts. More dates are coming and we can't wait to be there!
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