“Words appeal to the intellect, while sound speaks to the heart” – Interview with Igorrr

Igorrr started as a pseudonym for a musician Gautier Serre and became a band with a full lineup consisting of: Jb Le Bail (vocals), Marthe Alexandre (vocals), Remi Serafino (drums), and Martyn Clément (guitars), yet Gautier ramains as the “mastermind” behind the project.

What does the creative process, from the idea to the final song, look like in Igorrr? Do you start with melody or the lyrics?

I could start with anything, really. There’s no specific element I always begin with — it can start with the rhythm, like in ADHD or Very Noise, it can start with a loop, like in Hollow Tree or Ancient Sun, or with a guitar sound or a melody I have in my head. It can really start with anything.

Usually, I have the global picture in my head, and I use any “piece of the puzzle” that fits what I have in mind to start building the track. From the idea to the final song, my work is about finding the best possible way to reach what I imagine, while respecting the original idea as strongly as possible.

Sometimes there’s a gap between theory — how I imagine it would sound — and reality — how it actually sounds — so I sometimes adapt the parts.

It’s a really good mixture, I can’t lie. What brought you to mix such music genres as metal and baroque music? 

It has always felt natural for me to do that. I have no idea why — I always wanted to blend these genres together. I love both, and I’m a big listener of metal and baroque music, but I always felt that each of them misses something.

Metal is brutal, dark, and powerful, but it often lacks delicate and subtle parts. On the other hand, baroque music is rich in elegance and poetry, but it misses that primal, almost physical feeling that metal gives.

So it made sense to me to keep what I feel is the best of both worlds and marry them together to create my own “complete” music.

I absolutely love “Blastbeat Falafel”, but it makes me think, how did you come up with the titles for the songs? 

Blastbeat Falafel is a bit special because I had the title first, before the song. As I mentioned earlier, it can start with anything, and here, I started with the name. I had the global idea in mind and named it before even writing the first note.

You can notice there are blast beats in the track without the oriental music, and oriental music without the blast beats — only at the very end you get both Blastbeat and Falafel together.

Those are two things I love very much in my life.

I know that you have a lot of different instruments and sounds to you songs which can make the creation process quite long. Which song took you the longest to finish and how long did it take? How long did the whole album take to create? 

Some tracks take a long time to make. I actually started writing Amen with Limbo and ADHD in 2020 (which had very different names before). I remember getting stuck with Limbo for a few years because of a melodic progression I couldn’t find.

Once I let the track rest for a few months without listening to it at all, the truth came as evidence, and I could finally finish it. It took me about four years to make.

The same with ADHD — I spent about a year trying to find what, to me, was the perfect hardcore kick drum for the track. You can hear it at 2:24 in ADHD — those simple kicks are the result of obsessive research to make them sound just right.

I think the record for the longest track in the making goes to Lost in Introspection — I started composing it as a teenager, and it was released in 2020 with Spirituality and Distortion. That means it was in progress for about 10 to 15 years.

You released an album called “Amen” not so long ago. Are you satisfied with the whole thing or were you unsure about not only songs from it but also about the reaction from the fans?

I’m absolutely, 1000% happy and satisfied with this album — the composition, sound, story, and color all perfectly match who I am and what I wanted to achieve with Amen.

During the creation process, I didn’t ask myself whether people would love it or not. Whatever a band does, there will always be people who love it and others who don’t.

For me, music is like therapy — I don’t make music to please people, so I wasn’t too worried about the reaction. What mattered was: “Is the music good?”

And since I absolutely love Amen with all my heart, it’s a success for me. Of course, it’s even more satisfying to see people enjoying it — it means you’ve shared a bit of your soul and it’s been understood and received. But with Igorrr, the goal is always the music itself.

About the album, since I really love to analyze everything, I just have to ask this question. Does the album cover symbolizes something or has a deeper meaning?

The album cover represents the feeling of the music. There’s no deeper meaning or message behind it — it’s an image that summarizes what you can find on the album.

It has a dark, ceremonial vibe: you can see the Dung Chens, the Saw Gong, even the paw of my cat Giorgio. It gives this organic feeling. Everything was made by hand and ink, following the same “old-school” process used to make the album — minimal artificial effects and a focus on analog recording.

For example, the choir reverb was made using microphones, not digital effects. There were plenty of microphones in the abbey, allowing me to choose between short, medium, or long reverbs depending on which mic I used.

I saw that in at least one song there was a choir in the recording which gets me thinking, how many people were involved in the creation of the “Amen”?

There’s a choir in eight tracks on Amen — sometimes just for short parts, sometimes for longer ones like in Limbo.

I’m not exactly sure how many people were involved, but I’d say around 30 or 40.

You have a song with Antrax. How was it like working with them?

It was an absolute pleasure. Honestly, I thought it would be harder, but Scott is a legend — not only musically but also as a person. He’s an amazing human being and made everything run very smoothly and fun.

I had a great time working with him, and if the opportunity comes again, I’d love to do it again.

How is it like to write lyrics for Igorrr? 

There are no actual lyrics in Igorrr. I use the voice as an instrument, so the syllables are chosen according to how they sound, not what they mean.

Words appeal to the intellect, while sound speaks to the heart — and I like reducing the impact of the intellect to focus instead on the soul.

You said that “I want to make music which makes sense to me”. Can you tell us more about it? What makes the biggest sense in music for you?

When I was a teenager, I was in constant, obsessive search for music that truly expressed what I had inside me — and I never found it.

I started Igorrr to finally be able to listen to that music for real.

I found fantastic music everywhere, and I’m grateful that this quest brought me where I am, but I never had that feeling of finding the music that truly understood me. Maybe if I had found Amen back then, I wouldn’t have had to create Igorrr!

So, for me, music that makes sense is music that fills a void — music that resonates deeply and makes me feel understood.

Unexpectedly, I also found another meaning: when I see people telling me that my music helped them emotionally or mentally, helping them understand themselves better or live better, that gives my work even more sense.

Can you bring us closer to the actual meaning of “ADHD”? Since you said it doesn’t mean “Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder”.

It really does mean “Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder”. The Easter egg in the clip is just a joke — the track is actually about that condition.

Your songs seem to be hard to play live, because of the amount of instruments and people in general that were involved in the creation. How does it feel to play them on stage? Is it really that complicated?

Yes, some of them are very tricky to play live — Blastbeat Falafel comes to mind, and also the end of Pure Disproportionate Black and White Nihilism.

When I compose, I focus 100% on how it sounds and whether the music is good — not on whether it’s playable.

So when it comes time to play them, whether in the studio or live, there’s often that facepalm moment of, “What have I gotten myself into again this time?” — especially when you have to play them every night on tour.

Do you remember your first live show as Igorrr? What was it like? How long did it take to prepare for it?

The first show ever was in Germany, I think. I still have some memories of it — it was very different from today. I was playing alone on stage, surrounded by machines and samples, before I could afford to hire musicians.

It took many years. For a long time, I played alone, then we toured as three people — me and two singers — then with a drummer, and later with a guitar player, Martyn Clément. It’s been a long journey, and it definitely wasn’t easy.

Every band demonstrates to us their own style. Which emotions do you think Igorrr shows us?

I think it really depends on the people. Some of them find this music crazy, which is strange to me because it feels like the most natural and logical music I know.

Tell me — which emotions does Igorrr express to you?

I know that it’s generally hard to earn a loyal fanbase. What’s your “key to success”?

I’m not sure Igorrr is a path to follow if you’re looking for success — this music is apparently not “easy listening.”

I’m sure that with the same amount of work and dedication I put into Igorrr, but with more conventional music, you’d achieve much greater success. :)