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Comity – COMITY is just a bunch of people trying to play the music they’d like to hear. The band is from paris france and exists for almost 15 years, even if the line-p evolved throughout the years. From the beginning only remains francois and myself. But one thing is for sure: today comity got his best line-up ever.
NR – « Doing an exercise and forgetting that the HHM is usually black … very black and assuming you are talking to a pink magazine » tell us the influence of each musician in the band , their strengths, their secrets and dreams.
I really enjoy a lot of stuffs from jimi hendrix to frankie goes to Hollywood. My strength comes from people like rob alford who did a lot for the gay community in a very homophobic metal scene. My dream is to follow his path and to help the hardcore scene becoming more tolerant toward people like me.François Prigent (guitars / lap steel / sitar / backing vocals)
NR – Well, continuing with a theme that makes sense at this point, why abandon the « Candlelight Records » to enter in the « Trendkill » and now in the « Throatruiner Records »? Why and how it was done this way?
Comity – We were not directly signed on CANDLELIGHT records, we signed with APPEASE ME records, which is a sub-division of candlelight. It was a great honor to work with this structure because vince from BLUT AUS NORD was the guy behind the name “appease me” and we’re absolute fans of this band, and also because it was great to be alongside so much great names. But as you may know it’s very difficult to sell this kind of music, it takes a lot of time and a label like candlelight doesn’t spend enough time to promote bands like comity. On a big label like this one your record only lives for three months, and afterward you’re on your own. Anyway, we didn’t “abandon” candlelight records because at the end all the bands from appease-me were fired…and that’s how we understood that maybe it’s better to be a big fish in a small lake than a small fish in a big one. And that’s why we worked with TRENDKILL which is a smaller label, and the boss was a friend of us, with a good back catalogue and a lot of contacts. but the truth is he did absolutely nothing to promote the record. And here we come today, signing for our new L-P on THROATRUINER, which is a small structure, but working more than anyone, and Matthias is definitely a passionate guy, he’s an absolute fan of every record he releases, spending his whole time on promoting bands, just take a look at his catalogue, every single band is incredible! This collaboration is beyond perfect so far!
NR – A life connected with music and a cause, explain to us the concept behind each album, starting with:
Comity – We all were in college at this time, very young, naïve and full of energy. I think it’s the point with this record. It’s our first move toward a more elusive and maybe less straight forward music. You got to know that we use to play some kind of classic mix of hardcore and death-metal, while we were already listening to experimental and progressive music. So this record is more like a first try to mix it all. Maybe a bit maladroit but feed with passion and adolescents kind of energy. The title and the words finally summarize very well what we had in mind at this time.
Comity - The concept is very simple. Andy Warhol said that everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes, thanks to art. That anybody can be an artist. But we think that “art” isn’t about glory, we don’t give a fuck about glory. “Art” is all about passion and guts. Because of this guy, anybody can call himself an artist, COMITY included. In a way he’s responsible for all the shit you can hear every day. But on the other side, we, as people are aload to male music thanks to him. This is our paradox, and this E-P is all about this paradox, it’s like hating your own dad. We consider ourselves as artisans by the way, not as artists.
• As Everything Is A Tragedy (2006) – Candlelight
Comity - When we started to write this album, we had a lot of troubles as a band and in our lives, we didn’t had a label anymore at this time and we didn’t know were the band went. So we started to play music again, with no special objectives at all, we started to write music again only because we needed it. This album is all about this feeling, a mix of frustration and passion, when it’s so disturbing that your guts hurts, and then it becomes hate… to me this album is full of pure hatred. As everything is a tragedy is a very sarcastic title, because feeling something that strong for something that much abstract is totally futile, but unfortunately it’s the biggest part of our lives, and it will die with us. The concept is about considering that we’re all like small gods, because we’re creating something everyday, but we shall fall, and everything we’ve done shall fall with us. So in a way we can consider that what we call god will fall as well.
Comity - You left us here is our first record after we split-up. It’s the first try with our new drummer and myself playing bass as well as singing. On all other records comity was five people. Now we’re are only four, it’s kind of comity v2. the title has three ways of understanding. You left us here talks directly to the audience, it means that we’re still the same band. It’s also about the drummer that left us after ten years and made us split. And it’s also about what we call god, who left man here, and we don’t know why, or what we have to do, what is our function, why we exist. The story is inspired by the novel “to our scattered bodies go” by P.J farmer.
1 – Part I (11’40)
2 – Part II (8’22)
3 – Part III (9’01)
4 – Part IV (21’58)
Comity – I think that you can’t listen to this album piece by piece. This really is a whole package, you can’t pick apart one song. We didn’t write it this way. And I hope people will listen to it this way. The structure of the album is frozen. Starting with voices only, then 20 minutes of usual comity, a 10 minutes breack with acoustic and unusual approach (not in the comity way I mean) and then 20 more minutes ending with voices only.
Comity - The answer is just above. But there are a few more sources alongside Farmer works: Nietzsche, Schopenhauer or the sisyphe myth.NR - Comity is an apocryphal band?
NR – Looking at the level of life every day more run down, this question has to be done. In which parts of society do you think echoes this positivist message, in the few who live well or in the millions those in difficulty?
Comity – There is no positivist message. I just think than mankind is not aware of its own nihilism.
Comity - I hope not, If we reached or highest level yet, we have to stop making that kind of music. The goal is unreachable, and that’s why it’s very exiting.
Comity - To tour as much as possible, to meet interesting people in unknown places, to keep pushing our limits as far as possible, exploring other ways in making music.
NR – What is the feedback you have received so far from The Journey Is Over Now?
Comity - Considering the album is not out yet, we have pretty good feedbacks.
Comity - Some extreme rock’n roll played with sincerity, passion, and guts.NR – Thank you again for your willingness and desire to you and Matthias (to who HHM always has the door open) a big hit with The Journey Is Over Now
Comity - Thanks a lot. It’s always great knowing people that far are interested in our music