Mario Duplantier Speaks To How Playing Stadium + Arena Shows Has Impacted Gojira’s Music

Alfred Nitsch, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
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We are super big fans of Gojira, and even all this way into 2021, we have been headbanging to their latest album, Fortitude. We have our own personal ranking of Gojira albums (maybe one day we will share that ranking with you), but Fortitude is easily one of our favorites from them.

Gojira is a remarkable band that only continues to get stronger in their craft with each new release; per drummer Mario Duplantier, a lot of the band’s playing style and growth has been impacted based on the types of shows they are playing.

During a conversation with Radioacktiva, Mario talks about how the band have developed organically through jamming and how the types of shows they have played have aided in their progress. When asked about how the band went about innovating their sound on Fortitude, this is what Mario had to say:

“It’s not very intellectual, it’s not very mental — it’s more organic. We jam, and when we hear something cool, we say, ‘Let’s go.’ It’s not very we try to catch more people here and there. I would say – I have to be very honest, but the fact [that] we are touring so much… We are a live band mainly — 90 percent of our life is on the road.

“So we play shows — we do soundcheck and we play shows; soundcheck, shows, soundcheck – over and over and over again, it’s like a huge circle. We do Europe and U.S., Europe and U.S., sometimes South America, Asia — it’s crazy. So when we write the music, we want to play songs that are gonna be fun, maybe, to play live as well.

“And it’s not a conscious thing — we’re not trying to do something, ‘Let’s catch more people.’ It’s really, ‘Let’s have fun on stage and have something maybe more simple sometimes.’ Because when you play very technical music and you start to play arenas or stadiums and festivals — huge festivals — you just notice that if it’s too crazy, too technical, it doesn’t really work.”

Are you a hardcore Gojira fan? What are your thoughts regarding Fortitude? You can check out the full video interview featuring Mario below.