Multi-talented Gojira drummer Mario Duplantier says he’s too focused on the band’s next album to consider taking on any extra projects.
He fills his spare time with painting and photography. But while he and brother Joe Duplantier – Gojira’s frontman –have worked on other musical projects in the past, he can’t see that happening again anytime soon.
Mario tells Impact: “I prefer to stay concentrated on one project for now and put all my energy and talent into it. Painting, photography and videos is another way of expressing my creativity, But I love to focus on one band for now.
“I don’t want to go back to a new process of having a band, finding a name. All my energy right now is on Gojira.”
The French metal outfit are working on the follow-up to 2012’s L’Enfant Sauvage and Duplantier says the drums have been completed for the new album, expected in 2016. And he admits tours with Slayer, Behemoth and Mastodon have influenced past albums, such as 2008’s The Way Of All Flesh.
He says: “When we toured with Mastodon we loved some of their ideas and we said, ‘We should do this.’ When we started composing The Way Of All Flesh we were on tour with Behemoth. They were so tight and so extreme, it was an influence on some songs.”
Gojira have dates in Brazil and Chile coming up this month, as well as a support slot with Metallica in Canada on September 14.
