Intervista Ne Obliviscaris (Benjamin Baret)

Ne Obliviscaris, with their very peculiar style, are gaining more and more success in Europe and world-wide. In occasion of their tour date in Prague (18th of October) TrueMetal.it got the chance to meet the guitarist Benjamin Baret.

Hello, and welcome back to Europe. It is your third tour in our continent in just two years. Are you maybe planning to move here?

You know we answered to this question a few days ago already? Well, we’re sorry, but the answer is no, it would be too difficult for several bureaucratic and personal issues.

But by hearing the accent -and I am finding it out just now- I assume you are French!
So, you might have such issues down under, I guess.

Actually, I have been living in Australia for many years. For European people is relatively easy to obtain a working visa in Australia, the opposite situation is much more complex. You must also take into account that, especially in countries with the euro, the cost of life might result expensive. Also, many of the band members have their families in Australia… may I remark that I am the youngest member and I’m 30 years old.

Which are the differences you are noticing between this tour and the previous ones? Especially the summer one.

In that tour we played in 12 festivals in 7 weeks, it means that we often had five days off, in which you have nothing to do. It can be very boring if you come here and you have no money to spend. Which was exactly our case. But this tour is shorter. On the other hand, I have a beautiful memory of the short mini-tour in Asia with Fleshgod apocalypse, I headbanged every night. I felt like a kid in a candy store.

How much does it cost to organize a tour?

A lot! Do you realize that us 6 came here with the tools and a single audio engineer? Just the way from Australia here costs € 10,000. And I want to emphasize on the importance of a sound engineer if you want to offer a structured musical proposal. You cannot arrive in one city and hire the first engineer passing by, the risks of playing a shitty show are very high.

In this sense we can open the topic about crowdfunding. Whot do you think about the possibilities of the Internet?

Internet can be for a band a double edged knife. People are flooded every day with information, videos, music. If you start a crowdfunding campaign like ours on Patreon you must be careful and make only quality material, videos or records, otherwise you disappoint fans and fuck up your image. We try, with  Patreon, to involve our fans as much as possible offering them rare merchandise at a good price, as well as the chance to win a dinner with us. With this system we published two Ep as well.

Talking about music, your proposal is very complex: how do you create the NeO sound?

It’s a big, hard and long job: the ways are infinite. I sometimes bring my riffs, but more often we just jam, jam and jam. Then we have to rework everything and put it together. Only at the end we add lyrics and vocals.

You’re 6, yet with the same line-up since 2009. How did you do? There have never been internal fights?

Fights are normal, but I can tell you something different, still related to crowdfunding. Without it someone would have had to quit the band, not having enough time to dedicate to music, or due to lack of resources. Perhaps we would have had to split or stop playing. Or maybe, we would have to continue playing in the usual five Australian cities throughout all our lives.

How did you feel when “And plague Flowers the Kaleydoscope” was brought as example in an academic lesson?

What can I say  (o se proprio vuoi usare qualcosa più alal “devo” italiano , metti “Shall”), it is the greatest success that a musician can achieve!

Now let me ask a question that would be more suitable for Xen, as its about  the drafting of texts and realization of the artwork.

In that moment Xen comes out from the backstage. Benjamin calls him and introduces us. I then ask him the question.

(ok, ma la domanda dov’è?)

It is the result of various reworkings and manipulations. I read since I was little and for the texts I rework the reality I perceive around me. For the artworks the situation is similar. I am very fascinated, for example, by Bosch and Bruegel, in terms of composition. I make several photos and then put them together through various overlaps. All with a digital program, of course.

Thanks for everything, now the last question. Can we expect a new album soon?

Probably yes.  By the end of 2017 we should make it.