Hailing from the South Shore Of Montreal, The Unconscious Mind mixes elements from black, death progressive and symphonic metal. The band trademark sound has led to comparisons with some great bands like Old Man's Child, Dimmu Borgir, and Immortal for their black metal sonority and atmospheres. Since The Unconscious Mind include a modern touch of death metal, it has also often been compared to bands like Meshuggah and Decapitated in term of tightness and technical riffs. With that the band wet on to release numerous demos and albums including most recent, "Where Philosophers Falls". Guitarist Simon Cléroux discusses this release and the band's upbringing and more!
1. What type of band are you and where are you guys from?
Simon: We are a black/death metal band, or as many call the genre: blackened death metal.
2. Tell us a brief history of your band.
Simon: We all come from the South Shore of Montreal, et the band officially started in 2007. TUM is really a band of longtime friends. We've known each other for around 9 years and we formed the band to have fun and provide some fun to people. That's still the case today but with a deeper and more professional approach.
3. What are your songs about? (What specific themes do they cover?)
Simon: The album follows a theme that relates to the title, Where Philosophers Fall as well as the band's name, The Unconscious Mind. The album is very dark and talks about certain free thinkers of our section of history, who through philosophical knowledge of the human race and the quest for an absolute truth often end up in dementia, solitude and unconsciousness. Certain songs are about this progression and others are about actual dreams I've had that were prompted by reading philosophy books by Friedrich Nietzsche.
4. Do you write your own songs? (Discuss the songwriting process in detail.)
Simon: Yes, Michael Racine (keyboardist) and I (Simon Cléroux, guitarist) are the principal songwriters. Our singer and bassist are brothers, and wrote one song each on the album, My Deadly Sin and Tale Of Creation.
5. How would you define your style and sound of metal. and why should a metal fan listen to your work?
Simon: Personally, I took a lot of inspiration from Old Mans Child for the technical and melancholic riffs, as well as from several other black metal bands like Dimmu Borgir Immortal. But, because I've always enjoyed the clean and efficient production of modern death metal bands like Decapitated, Strapping Young Lad and Meshuggah, we also get some of our modern sound from there.
Simon: I answered this a little bit above, but it's a dark album about free thinkers who go insane from a sort of overdose of knowledge on human beings. It's more or less the story of one character who over the course of the album descends more and more into madness and ends up in the abyss. Think of many of the great philosophers of our world, many of whom committed suicide or ended up in asylums.
7. Did the band have any definitive goals, before the recording process began for this release?
Simon: We were all highly motivated to finally get in studio to produce our album and aim high, but just before starting, our old drummer quit the band for personal and family reasons following the birth of his child. We were in shock because he was a crucial member of the band. We almost ended things then, but it was unthinkable to end things so close to having our first full-length, so we went into studio with Maxime Côté anyway. I programmed all the drums with the help of Max and we went for the biggest and most realistic sound possible. And we finally got out album! At last!
8. Are you using any new instrumentation you've never used in the recording process before?
Simon: Yes, just before going into studio, we worked on our sound as much as possible to get exactly what we were going for all these years. I play 7-string guitars with my other band, Derelict (technical death metal) and I had the idea to completely change the band's tonality and go two whole steps lower. We were tuned to D and now we're in B with the 7-string. Since the guitar went down, the piano and bass had to follow, so we now have a much heavier and more intense sound.
9. Why should we check out this album and what sets it apart from everyone else?
Simon: Well, all I can say about that is that for metal fans, it's an intense album with lots of emotion and intensity, and we're very proud of our project that has given us so much satisfaction over the years. It's very important to have support from the community to support what you like doing in life, and since we're a new band putting out our first album, we really appreciate the help from the fans and would like to personally thank each and every one of them.
10. Do you guys have any new music in the works?
Simon: We actually do have a few songs that we are reserving for our next album, which will have a much more positive and less obscure theme, while remaining just as technical and rich in atmosphere.
11. How do you describe your music to people?
Simon: Music that kicks you right in the teeth. Music that lets you release emotion, gets negativity out and frees the spirit.
12. What image do you think your music conveys?
Simon: A pretty dark image, I must admit, but live you can see that we're really just fun guys and we're nice to talk to, haha. Our singer shows a rather comedic side of himself during shows. We're very serious when it comes to music, but not very serious otherwise simply because we're happy people and not depressed about the world.
13. How did you guys come up with your band name?
Simon: The Unconscious Mind, the source of creation and dementia, a mysterious part of the brain that no one really understands. It's also a metaphor for humanity's unconsciousness through media, commercial radio and modern society, all trying to shape our spirit right before our eyes. It is said that dreams are the language of the unconscious, which is an important aspect of our songs. It has happened to me many times to write songs in the middle of the night after waking up from a dream and wondering where all these thoughts and inspiration come from. The unconscious is a power within us that we must exploit.
14. What can the fans expect to see from you in the future?Simon: We have some shows booked around Quebec and probably Ontario, and I'd love to visit our European and South American fans one of these days. We promise you a second album that we hope will be even better that Where Philosophers Fall.
15. Is that your final answer?
Simon: Thank you very much for this interview, it is very much appreciated! Thanks also to all our worldwide fans and supporters who give us the energy to do what we do!
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