Interview sent by Brett Van Put on February 14, 2023.
Answered between February 17 and 22, 2023.
Edited (by me) on February 20-22, 2023.
Published. Was supposed to be published simultaneously in the digital fanzine issue 32 and on the website on March 1, 2023, but the fanzine was only published on March 13, 2023. My pictures in the fanzine were all compressed and squished. The website version is still not published.
-Let’s start off with this special Valentine’s Day release. What should readers know about it and why is Valentine’s Day special in the world of Vision Eternel?
Vision Eternel started because I was heartbroken over one of my ex-girlfriends. It had been quite some time since we had broken up, and I had since been in other relationships, but when I found myself single again, I quickly remembered how much I missed her. I was in a lot of pain; I just could not get over her. It was then early January 2007, and I was in an extremely depressive state; but I was also in an extremely creative phase.
One afternoon, I picked up one of my guitars and started playing whatever came to me naturally, without direct influence of any genre or style; it was all mood. The song with which I came up and recorded was “Love Within Beauty”. At first, I did not know what to do with the song, since it was so different from the black metal and death metal music that I played in my other bands. It was also too emotional and hopeful in nature to fit within the scope of my dark ambient band Soufferance. A few nights later, I found myself in the same mood and wound up composing and recording another song, “Love Within Isolation”. It was at that moment that Vision Eternel properly started, and I decided to write more songs in that style to document my heartbreak.
Within a month, I had composed and recorded six short pieces for this new project and a whole concept began to form around it. Each song was titled after a phase that I went through with my ex-girlfriend: from meeting her, through the break-up, and finally, the agony of having to move on. But the concept went deeper: the first letter of each song title was taken from my ex-girlfriend’s name, so that the track listing on the back cover would spell her name. I titled the release Seul Dans L’obsession (Alone In Obsession in French), because that is how I felt at the time. That theme is also represented in the band’s name, Vision Eternel: being eternally nostalgic of a past relationship. I think that the name still holds up today and is still true to my recent releases.
Another concept within the release was that the first chords that open the extended play in “Love Within Beauty” are the same ones (though played differently) that end it in “Love Within Extended” (the unlisted piece at the end of “Love Within Isolation”), thereby giving the release a conceptual loop. I also decided to handle all of the artwork myself (instead of working with my usual art designers), and directed and edited a music video for the single “Love Within Narcosis”. The music video and the pictures for the artwork were shot at the same location and have similar visual elements to tie them together.
This was my first concept album and it was a turning point in my musical career. I put more effort into it than for any of my other bands’ releases at the time. I could feel that this extended play was something really special. It was so intimate. That was because I had composed and recorded the music without any inhibitions or hindrances; it was all heart, all emotions. Because of this elaborate and intimate concept within the release, I decided that the perfect release date would be Valentine’s Day. After all, this was a documentation of a broken heart, and how much more lonely can a depressed single person feel than on Valentine’s Day. As such, the release date became part of the concept.
Once Seul Dans L’obsession was released, I was not sure if there would be a future for Vision Eternel. How can one make a sequel to a relationship which has already been fully documented? Recording that music had helped me to move on from that ex-girlfriend, but I was still suffering from chronic depression. In May 2007, I realized that there was another recent ex-girlfriend from whom I had difficulty recovering. It suddenly made perfect sense that Vision Eternel’s next release should document that other relationship, starting from when I was depressed over the earlier-mentioned girl, through meeting the new girl, the dating, breaking up, and finally, being alone all over again. Another relationship’s full cycle. Coincidentally, it mirrored the theme of my favorite film, Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo: Boy meets girl, boy loses girl. Boy meets girl again, boy loses girl again. Each new Vision Eternel extended play tells the story of another past relationship.
The second concept extended play, Un Automne En Solitude (An Autumn In Solitude in French), was recorded between May and July 2007, but I deliberately withheld it from release until the forthcoming Valentine’s Day in 2008. This established the tradition of releasing all Vision Eternel material on Valentine’s Day. However, I faced issues with the artwork of Un Automne En Solitude and the release was delayed until March 14, 2008. That release date was deliberate as well. I decided that if I could not have it out on February 14th, then it would be released on the 14th of the next possible month.
On Valentine’s Day 2009, I was successful in releasing the Japanese compilation An Anthology Of Past Misfortunes, which compiled the first two extended plays with three unreleased b-sides and a poster. Unfortunately, Vision Eternel’s third concept extended play, Abondance De Périls (Abondance Of Perils in French), missed the Valentine’s Day 2010 deadline because of mastering delays.
Instead, it was released on March 9, 2010; it is the only Vision Eternel extended play that was not released on the 14th of a month and I have come to regret this profusely. I see it as a flaw in Vision Eternel’s timeline. The date was selected because it was the closest Tuesday to the 14th. At the time, official music releases by professional record labels were always released on a Tuesday, and I was attempting to treat my record label as professionally as possible.
However, 2010 did introduce the back-up plan: the Valentine’s Day Exclusive. Since I knew that the mastering of Abondance De Périls would miss the holiday deadline, I offered my fans a “heartbreak treat”, a previously-unreleased song from the band’s archives. I have since tried to honor this tradition for Vision Eternel fans each year when I do not have a new release ready for Valentine’s Day, so that no matter the situation, they always have something to look forward to on that day.
I always aimed to release the following Vision Eternel extended plays on Valentine’s Day, but The Last Great Torch Song was delayed in 2012 because of recording, mastering and artwork changes. Echoes From Forgotten Hearts was successfully released on Valentine’s Day 2015. Then the An Anthology Of Past Misfortunes boxed set missed both the 2017 and 2018 Valentine’s Day deadlines due to ridiculous pressing and printing plant errors. Finally, For Farewell Of Nostalgia was delayed by a change of artwork, but also by the need to line-up a suitable release date between three different record labels.
It is hard for me to properly convey how important releasing Vision Eternel material on Valentine’s Day is to me. It has become such a symbolic event within the greater concept of the band, and I become very sad if it looks as if a new release will miss the deadline. I am also eternally regretful of all the past years when releases could not be released on Valentine’s Day, or of years when I did not offer my fans a “heartbreak treat”. Over the last few years, I took to preparing the Valentine’s Day Exclusives many months in advance, so that I never have to miss one again. I have something very special planned for the band’s twentieth anniversary on Valentine’s Day 2027, but that is still a few years away.
-It appears that the visual component is essential for the Vision Eternel experience. What are some themes and images that capture the emotion behind the music of Vision Eternel?
Vision Eternel will (hopefully) always project a global sense of sadness and loneliness. Although the band has included, in very brief periods, other members, it stemmed from my past failed relationships, so these are very personal and despairing themes. I do not put on a facade or persona for this band or for the public. I try to offer a very honest depiction of who I am and how I live my life. I am a pessimist and nihilist. But I am also very nostalgic. There is an element of hopefulness and romance in Vision Eternel, but more in the sense of “Will she ever come back to me?”. Or a nostalgic moment of what once was. It certainly is not advocating a light at the end of the tunnel.
During the band’s early period, I wanted to control every component of the concept, so I handled all of the visuals myself, including the cover artworks, the band photographs, the band logo, the merchandise designs, and all of the online designs. I tried to convey those sad, lonely and solitary emotions with photography, but it was never my specialty. I have a better eye for a complete picture, but not much for breaking down the elements of what makes it work. I really liked using items that give off a little bit of light in the middle of darkness, like a lantern, a lamppost, a firefly, a fading sunset, a moon, a light beam, or a lit-up window. I am a night person and I prefer grey rainy days; I also have blue eyes that are very sensitive to light, so without getting too Freudian, that might be an explanation of why I enjoy those visual items, both in real life and in art.
After three releases, I began to work with other visual artists. I still handled most of the layout designs, but the principal visuals were created by others. My at the time roommate, Marina Polak, provided a beautiful photograph that was used for the cover art of Abondance De Périls and The Last Great Torch Song. My at the time best friend, Jeremy Roux, took care of band pictures and videos, the band logo, the online media design, and eventually the cover art of Echoes From Forgotten Hearts. More recently, Rain Frances has been contributing a great deal with band pictures, videos and paintings, Christophe Szpajdel provided a new band logo, and Micheal Koelsch has been painting the latest album covers. With these people on board, I have been able to introduce different types of visual arts, and ones which I feel can reach the inner emotions of more people.
In addition to the sad and lonely themes, the principal visual style of Vision Eternel is taken from German films of the 1920s and 1930s, American films of the 1940s and 1950s, and French films of the 1960s and 1970s; notably expressionism, pulp, film noir and neo-noir. Vision Eternel is very cinematic, and my mood is deeply influenced and affected by watching movies. Prior to writing or recording music, I will often watch a movie to set my mood. I have taken in strong visual influences from such directors as Alfred Hitchcock, Douglas Sirk, Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder, Orson Welles, Jean-Pierre Melville, Jacques Deray and Henri Verneuil; cinematographers as John Alton, Stanley Cortez, Robert Burks and Nicholas Musuraca; and also the photographic portraits of Yousuf Karsh. I try to incorporate that into the cover artworks and the band’s promotional photographs.
But there are two aspects of the visual presentation that I take into consideration: the digital presentation and the physical presentation. In the early days of the band, the visual presentation was rather limited because our fan-base was principally on the internet. Very few compact discs of our early releases exist; our releases were mostly distributed digitally. As such, I was restricted by how I had to present Vision Eternel to the public.
Once I was given the chance of releasing Vision Eternel material on wide-spread physical formats, it presented an opportunity for another level of conceptual art. Obviously not as extraordinary as a band like Tool’s releases, but within the limitations of the record labels with which Vision Eternel collaborates. And I think that I have tried to push them to produce packages that are a little more elaborate than the ones with which their other bands are content… and sometimes to the detriment of Vision Eternel. Several record labels have abandoned Vision Eternel releases mid-way through the production because of my high standards. But I would prefer to cancel a release and find a new partner, rather than offer a sub-par product to my fans. They deserve better than that.
My goal with Vision Eternel’s physical releases is to offer an interesting packaging, not necessarily an innovative one, but one which at least enables me to share a bigger story with my fans who chose to venture on the path of tangible media (rather than streaming music through digital devices). There is a much deeper concept to Vision Eternel, which as you said is not only auditory, but also visual. I want to offer an old-fashioned listening experience to my fans. The excitement of obtaining the album, sitting down and reading through the liner notes and discovering new things about the band, and being absorbed by the artwork while listening to the music. Of course, all of this can be done digitally, but it will never be the same as a tangible product.
-I know you’ve said that the music from Vision Eternel came naturally and you’ve really built this entity from the ground up- how do you balance your evolution as an artist with the expectations that fans have for you?
Do Vision Eternel fans really have an expectation of the band? Honestly, I have no idea. I have never heard anyone say “The old stuff was better”, nor have I heard “The new songs are nicer”. More often, I hear of people either liking or disliking my music. Perhaps some of the older fans have come to expect something sad and longing; something that they can listen to when they are depressed. That is my personal expectation of Vision Eternel. And that will always be the case with Vision Eternel because those emotions are part of my personality.
I think that Vision Eternel’s fan-base is pretty diverse and open-minded, and I feel that it is because my music was never truly accepted by a single genre’s scene or community. Whenever I, my fans, or critics would put a tag to categorize the band’s music, others quickly came along to debunk it and reject it. Some of the genres with which Vision Eternel has been associated over the years include ambient, dark ambient, ethereal, dark wave, drone, minimalism, emo, shoegaze, dream pop, dream rock, space rock, post-rock and post-post-black metal (that is not a typographical error).
The objections from stringent fans of those genres were that Vision Eternel’s music is not ambient, ethereal or dark wave because it lacks keyboards or other electronic instruments; not shoegaze, dream pop or dream rock because it lacks vocals; not post-rock because it lacks drums; not post-post-black metal because it lacks distortion; not dark ambient because it is too hopeful and bright; not drone because it is too structured; not minimalist because it is too layered; and not space rock because it lacks a psychedelic element. As such, Vision Eternel does not have the luxury of being suggested in many people’s lists, definitive or broad, of bands that showcase or fit certain genres. And as a result, I suspect that people most likely discover Vision Eternel by accident, and that my music just happens to hit the right timber in their ears and they become fans, regardless of the genre. I do not think that I am an avant-garde or experimental musician or composer by any means, but I do think that people need a certain open-mindedness to appreciate Vision Eternel.
There is one thing that I have heard several times from fans, and that is that they like hearing the eBow. I make it a point to use it on all of my new songs, whereas in the past, it was only occasionally utilized. That is one element in the evolution of the band. Another is that I have developed and arranged longer and fuller songs in recent years. Early Vision Eternel compositions were much shorter and more minimalist. The progression came about when I decided to make Vision Eternel my priority, after several years of shuffling between multiple bands. As I got older, I realized that I was not able to contribute as prolifically as I once did, perhaps because as one gets older, one becomes more critical of material being released. I decided to put my atmospheric black metal band, Vision Lunar, on an indefinite hiatus, and terminate my other ambient projects, Soufferance and Citadel Swamp. Once that was accomplished, I was able to incorporate some of my favorite songwriting elements from those other bands into Vision Eternel’s music, such as Soufferance’s lengthy, repetitive, almost hypnotic, segues and codas, Citadel Swamp’s multi-instrument layering, and also from an older band, Éphémère’s textural guitar leads. Perhaps this helped to bridge the gap for fans of my other bands to also start enjoying Vision Eternel.
-You have played with all types of bands- other than Vision Eternel, what band do you feel the strongest connection to? Will you be returning to the more extreme metal genres with any future projects?
I am definitely still (and will likely always be) a metalhead. It might come as a surprise, but I do not listen to the type of music which I make with Vision Eternel. I have listened to, just out of curiosity, a handful of ambient, dark ambient, shoegaze, dream pop, ethereal, drone and post-rock bands, but that is not the type of music which I enjoy (perhaps that is why Vision Eternel’s music does not truly fit within those genres?).
I most certainly miss playing metal. I also miss playing in a band, more so lately, though I have become a recluse over the past ten years, and that would be difficult to change (even if I wanted to). Even before withdrawing from society, I had great difficulty finding musicians with similar styles and ideals for my bands. I always seemed to meet musicians who were controlling and dictating and who would not treat the band as a collaboration with equal partnerships. I do not work well in that environment because I am very creative and I have a need for my ideas to be heard. But since I am principally a guitarist (I can handle bass guitar and have done lead and backing vocals in some of my previous bands), I do need to rely on others in a full band setting.
I also realized that black metal had become extremely trendy during the 2010s, and that made me shy away from it. Part of me wanted to wait out the new wave of trend-followers before returning on that path. However, I had a phase of creativity in 2015, which yielded the extended play Luna Subortus by my atmospheric black metal band Vision Lunar. The band is somewhat of a counterpart to Vision Eternel, in which I can play more aggressive music. I do see a future in Vision Lunar, though it has been on hiatus since 2016. But I have several plans in mind and a couple of songs that I have been slowly arranging over the years. I had hoped to work on this material in 2022, but a certain Vision Eternel release consumed nearly all of my time. At this point, Vision Lunar is also a solo project (though it formerly had other members), so it cannot be compared to playing in a full metal band. I think that if I meet the right people down the line, I would be happy to take part in another metal band.
-I read that Faith No More is your favorite band- what makes them special for you as a fan and listener? (other than their latest album, I’ve loved them all- especially Angel Dust of course). Do you think Mike Patton’s Ipecac label has been a great place for creative artists to release music?
I am an immense fan of Faith No More. I always tell people that I am a Faith No More fan first, and a Mike Patton fan second. By that I mean that I like Faith No More universally, even with its early vocalists and guitarists, and later guitarists. I am not restricted to the Patton-era or Martin-era of Faith No More. I have listened to most of Patton’s other bands and projects, some of which I enjoyed but not all of them. I really like Mr. Bungle and Lovage, early Tomahawk and some Fantômas.
I discovered Faith No More during an important period of my mid-teenage years, when I was very depressed (sounds familiar?) and also had a lot of free time, which allowed me to delve into their retrospective career. One of my closest friends, Thomas Nunziata, was a huge fan of everything Patton, and he introduced me to Faith No More. He and I met during the summer of 2003, while working at the American Red Cross in a really ghetto area of Plainfield, New Jersey. I remember that during my lunch breaks, one of the other employees and I would walk a block over for take-out Chinese food, and on the way, he would show me the blood-stained sidewalks where gang shootings had taken place. I came from a very clean-cut area in northern Edison, New Jersey, so seeing that as a teenager made me feel like I was “cool”.
Nunziata and I spent many, many days at the American Red Cross that summer, doing clerical work, preparing material for their First Aid and CPR classes, and organizing donated items. As you can imagine, that gave us a lot of time to talk about music. He had a very broad and deep knowledge of music (his father was a radio disc jockey, so he grew up with a lot of music), and was always raving about Patton. He told me that he had seen his band Tomahawk open for Tool, of which we were both fans, the summer prior. Nunziata knew that I was a metalhead, so he introduced me to the world of Patton a few days later by sending me, via America On Line Instant Messenger, some Fantômas tracks from their debut album, and Faith No More’s “Malpractice”. He thought that these heavier songs would be up my alley, but the lack of obvious melodic elements threw me off and I am almost ashamed to admit that I did not even listen to “Malpractice” all the way through.
Later that summer, he and I were driving around in his van when he put on Tomahawk’s debut. I liked this band immediately, especially the songs “Flashback” and “God Hates A Coward”. My friend explained that when Tomahawk played those songs live, Patton sang into a gas mask and the members dressed in police uniforms. I was intrigued, and as soon as I returned to my parents’ house, I downloaded live footage of the band performing on Channel [V] in Australia from February 2002. That captivated me. I then read up on Patton and slowly began learning about all of the bands and projects he had done over the years. As a special surprise to Nunziata, I started downloading all of the video footage that I could find of Patton’s bands, which I planned to burn on digital video discs for us to watch together (this was still a few years before Rhino Records re-issued Faith No More’s video home system releases on digital video discs).
It was while going through these videos that I became a fan of Faith No More. I heard “Epic” and was amazed. That song was so melodic and catchy. I immediately called Nunziata on the telephone and told him that I was now a fan of Faith No More, but that I “liked their first vocalist better”. I was under the impression that “Epic” had been recorded with Chuck Mosley because the vocals were mostly rapped and the singer had long hair; I only knew Patton from the Tomahawk videos. After setting me straight, Nunziata offered to make me copies of The Real Thing and Angel Dust. I still remember the first time that I heard The Real Thing: I was in my father’s car, leaving Nunziata’s house to go back to my parents’, and the instant “From Out Of Nowhere” started playing, I was addicted. Again, I think that it was the amount of melody from Bottom’s keyboards and Patton’s vocals that absorbed me. And Jim Martin’s guitar was unlike anything that I had ever heard. The songs “The Real Thing” and “Zombie Eaters” also became favorites.
Earlier, I mentioned that I had a lot of free time. By this point in the story, it was early autumn 2003, and I was in-between schools, having been asked to leave New York Military Academy. I was simply without motivation to accomplish any school work; I was too depressed. So while my parents and several “experts” debated if I should be sent to another private school, or be given another chance at public school, I remained at my parents’ house and saturated myself in music. Nunziata and I had an acoustic folk project, The Tom & Alex Project, and I also had my own rock band, The Slopin Fairy 7.
During the day, however, when I had the house to myself, I would listen to Faith No More on repeat for hours. Initially, it was The Real Thing, then Angel Dust. It really became an obsession. But it was also a form of comfort because the music kept me company. It was not music that I would put on and only half-listen to in the background; I was actively and deliberately listening. I would play a specific album five times in a row, each time focusing my attention solely to one instrument. So I would listen to the entire album only hearing Martin’s guitar tracks, then Gould’s bass guitar tracks, then Bordin’s drum tracks, then Bottom’s keyboard tracks, and finally Patton’s vocal tracks. I also watched and analyzed their music videos (I discovered Alfred Hitchcock through Faith No More, they have made numerous references to him and his movies in their work). I was also fascinated by the band’s four-hour interview session with MTV that was filmed during the making of Angel Dust. This was before YouTube existed, so it was difficult to locate video footage online. I also joined tape-trading communities (which had by then become mostly digital) and tracked down live concerts of Faith No More. I loved listening to those, especially ones from the Angel Dust era.
Eventually, my parents consented to let me return to public school (which I also did not enjoy). Each morning, I would take my portable compact disc player, put on my headphones, and listen to Faith No More as I walked over to Nunziata’s house on the way to John P. Stevens High School. By the winter of 2003, King For A Day, Fool For A Lifetime was also in heavy rotation, and I later became obsessed with Album Of The Year in the spring of 2004, while I dealt with a break-up. That album had several softer moments, so it was perfect timing. I also learned to appreciate Introduce Yourself and We Care A Lot, though this happened about a year later. I consider Introduce Yourself my third-favorite Faith No More album, behind Angel Dust and The Real Thing.
I became known as “the Faith No More guy” around town, because the fist question that I asked everyone whom I met was “Do you know Faith No More?”. I also nearly always wore Faith No More t-shirts (some that I purchased on eBay, others that I spray-painted myself in my parents’ garage) and Mr. Bungle t-shirts and a hoodie (which at the time you could still purchase officially from their website, but licensed to Cinder Block).
This reminds me of an interesting story about when my Mr. Bungle hoodie was stolen. It happened during the autumn of 2005. I had become friends with a drummer named Michael Vassallo, who lived in the nearby town of Metuchen, New Jersey and played in the incredible post-rock band Black Sand And Starless Nights (I later released some of their material through Abridged Pause Recordings). Vassallo joined the metal band Mutiny (later signed to Roadrunner Records and renamed Mutiny Within) in 2005, replacing their original drummer Phillip Petrov, and he invited me to one of his first rehearsals with them. Mutiny was not necessarily a popular band (this was before they started playing serious shows), but every metalhead at John P. Stevens High School knew them. They were one of the few metal bands from school.
Vassallo came to pick me up at my parents’ house one afternoon, and on the way to the rehearsal studio which the band had rented, he and I listened to Mr. Bungle’s eponymous album. I was, of course, wearing my Mr. Bungle hoodie. Shortly into the band’s practice, I took off my hoodie and placed it on an amplifier behind me. I cannot recall if it was halfway through the band’s set, or at the end of it, but we all wound up outside, some members to smoke cigarettes, others to call on their rides and girlfriends. I also cannot remember who drove me back to my parents’ house, perhaps Andrew Jacobs and his brother Brendan, since their parents lived very close to mine, or perhaps Luis Obregon, since he and I knew each other well.
What I do remember is that when I arrived at my parents’ house, I immediately realized that I had forgotten my hoodie! And this was an important hoodie. As soon as my mother arrived, I convinced her to drive me back to the rehearsal space, which was located about twenty minutes away, in another part of town where I had never been previously, but which I somehow remembered how to find. I ran in, looked around, but it was not where I had left it. I asked the manager if he had seen it, but he was clueless and proceeded with the standard dialect of not being responsible for lost items (even though I had not accused him nor made any claims). Back at my parents’ house, I called and chatted with each member of Mutiny, asking if they had seen my hoodie, but none of them had any information. A couple of the members had shady reputations, so I was never fully convinced of their innocence, but I had nothing to go on.
About half a year later, I finally found out what happened to my hoodie. Vassallo had stolen it! He posted a picture on MySpace of himself wearing it, and I immediately called him out on it! He quickly removed the picture and denied my accusation profusely, saying that he never had a Mr. Bungle hoodie. And to this day, he still denies having stolen it! Obviously, I did not hold a grudge because I worked with Black Sand And Starless Nights through Abridged Pause Recordings years later, but it would have been nice for him to own up to the theft. It is practically a running gag at this point, as whenever we talk (though it has now been a few years) I bring up “Hey, what about my Mr. Bungle hoodie?”.
Back to Faith No More… I once planned to write a book about them. It was to be titled Kings Of A Lifetime – The Definitive Story Of Faith No More and I was in communication with some of the members. I had read Steffan Chirazi’s incredible book Faith No More: The Real Story, which at the time was the only official biography of the band. I really, really loved that book, but it stopped in late 1993, with Martin leaving the band, so it was not complete enough to satisfy my obsession. Chirazi did later provide a write-up and interview with the band for the King For A Day, Fool For A Lifetime seven-inch vinyl boxed set in 1995, as well as the liner notes for the Who Cares a Lot? greatest hits compilation in 1998, which rounded out some parts of the story. But I wanted to know more, and I wanted to document this missing knowledge.
This took place roughly during the spring, summer and autumn of 2006, and my friend Robert Alvarez (who lived in Miami, Florida and was also a huge Faith No More fan) and I were planning to take a road trip to Los Angeles and San Francisco, California to work on the book and visit historic Hollywood filming locations. I had recently received my high school diploma and wanted to pursue music full-time, whether it be writing about it or composing songs. While waiting on Alvarez, I began interviewing some of the band members. I got to chat with Bottom, Gould, Dean Menta and Joe Pye, their first vocalist, who shared with me some very interesting information on the early days, such as their first name after quitting Faith. No Man. (before they settled on Faith. No More.) was Your Grandmother’s Penis. I do not think that this tidbit of information was ever published anywhere.
By late July 2006, Alvarez still had not made up his mind about going west, so I ended up moving to Montreal, Canada instead. The funny thing about it all is that he ended up moving to Los Angeles three years later, but I never made it out. While in Montreal, I secured a publishing deal for the book with an artsy publisher named Librissime, which was located on Saint-Paul Street in Old Montreal. It was to be a deluxe hardcover book that we agreed to publish in April 2008, to commemorate the ten-year anniversary of the band’s break-up. That gave me about a year and a half to complete the book. Unfortunately, things did not pan out as some of the members of the band were not ready to open up about events that they still felt were open wounds.
Although Faith No More is my favorite band, most people would probably find it difficult to hear their influence in Vision Eternel’s music. It would be absurd of me to state that Vision Eternel sounds anything like Faith No More, but I do take a lot from them, both consciously and sub-consciously. For example, I discovered the eBow through Faith No More (songs like “Midlife Crisis”, “Just A Man” and “Stripsearch”). I remember watching a video of Faith No More performing “Midlife Crisis” with Hudson on guitar in July 1997 at the Phoenix Festival in England, and thinking “Wow! What is that!!!” Hudson was using this foreign device that created a harmonic feedback on his guitar, while all this time I had assumed that the sound was made in the studio by Roddy Bottom’s keyboards (Martin did not always use the eBow live). I later spotted Hudson also using his eBow when Faith No More performed “Stripsearch” on the French television program Nulle Part Ailleurs in December 1997, and that cinched it for me: I wanted an eBow!
It took me a long time to find one, firstly because not every music store carried one (and online stores were not as common at the time), but also due to its cost. eBows are not as inexpensive as they appear; they cost about as much as a guitar pedal. So I had to save up for it. When I finally purchased one in September 2009, the first thing that I used it on was a Vision Eternel song for Abondance De Périls.
-Your releases with Abridged Pause run the gamut in terms of musical styles- what have been the most important ideals you’ve had for the label?
Abridged Pause Recordings started out with much different ideals and plans than what it eventually became. I had previously co-founded another record label, Mortification Records, with two other partners in September 2006. That record label quickly became the home of most of my bands, Vision Eternel, Vision Lunar, Vision Solitude, Soufferance, Gallia Fornax and Throne Of Mortality. In fact, it became principally known for releasing my music digitally. By early 2008, I wanted to form my own record label, but strictly to release music by other artists, and on physical formats. I was adamant that none of my bands would ever be signed to Abridged Pause Recordings, so I kept Mortification Records active in the background to continue releasing my music.
The first two acts signed to Abridged Pause Recordings, in late August 2008, were Dreams Of The Drowned, a post-blackened grind metal project from France, and Black Autumn, an atmospheric/depressive black metal band from Germany. That was the style of music on which I wanted to focus with my new record company. A month later, in September 2008, I also signed the Californian post-rock band Ethereal Beauty, which had planned to release a seven inch vinyl single with Vision Eternel. It was only through this collaborative release that I consented to adding Vision Eternel to Abridged Pause Recordings’ roster, and I was sure that it would be a one-off release.
I later recruited more post-metal, atmospheric black metal, sludge metal, post-rock and avant-garde bands to Abridged Pause Recordings, but I came to realize that I was not helping any of the artists. I certainly meant well, but I was not apt in the world of marketing, networking and promoting. The record label’s releases were not getting the type of exposure they deserved and I felt that I owed it to these great bands not to sell them false promises. And so, I made the decision to narrow the focus of Abridged Pause Recordings towards releasing my own music again. That way, I would be the only party to suffer if a release was overlooked by the press and public. The one band from Abridged Pause Recordings’ former roster that I truly regret not having the opportunity of working further with, is Black Autumn. I was supposed to release their album Aurora on colored twelve inch vinyl, and I often find myself thinking “If I had the money right now…”
By comparison to Mortification Records, which closed down in late 2008 (and had a brief re-activation in late 2010 for about four months), Abridged Pause Recordings is operated with a professional business structure. It is a legally registered company in Canada, and I have several imprints that handle its various functions. Abridged Pause Publishing is the music and text publishing arm, Abridged Pause Productions handles the video production, Abridged Pause Apparel takes care of merchandising, Abridged Pause Blog is host to the webzine section on the website, and La Detente Studio (formerly Mortified Studios) is both an audio recording studio and a graphic design firm; all of these divisions are under the umbrella of the Abridged Pause Enterprises company. I do not want to give off the impression that I operate a massive corporate structure with its own skyscraper downtown; all of this is very modestly managed through a sole proprietorship, and from a single office in my house. But I do treat it as a business, not a bedroom project.
-I love the label’s artwork and logo design, etc., it’s fresh, unique, futuristic, yet undefined- what inspired you to go in this direction for the label (and the band’s) visuals?
The visual identification of Abridged Pause Recordings is entirely attributed to my at the time best friend, Jeremy Roux. He was instrumental, in a creative capacity, during the early years of the record label. I had been brainstorming company names for a couple of weeks, and when I finally decided on using Abridged Pause Recordings in mid-February 2008, he immediately offered to design the website and company logo free of charge. I was extremely pleased by his offer because he was a great designer and website builder. I was in awe of his skills and creativity. He had previously helped me with designs for minor projects, but he was mainly a corporate designer. So on one hand, I knew that I was going to receive a polished and professional design from him, and on the other hand, I could feel that he was excited because this was to be his first music-related project, and at the time, we had a pretty similar taste in music.
However, it took him several months to begin working on the designs, and even longer to finish them. That is what ultimately delayed the activities of the record label by eighteen months, and what I feel also hindered the company with a forced “soft launch” through MySpace in August 2009. I would complain about having to wait, but only moderately because he was doing all of it for free, and he was hosting the website on his server, and he had paid for the domain registration. And for all of that I am still grateful.
Roux worked on three different website designs over the years, and I still feel that the first one was the best. The other two slowly chipped away at the company’s identification and visual statement, presenting it less and less as a record label, and more as a webzine. That was partly my doing, however, because over time, the Abridged Pause Blog section, where I publish retrospective band and record label interviews and biographies, took up more importance in the company structure. The third and current website design is almost ten years old now, so it is starting to feel old. I wish that the original website design could be re-incorporated, but with updated technology, so that I could have that visual identification again. I miss it terribly.
The original Abridged Pause Recordings design (both the logo and the website) was developed in July 2008. Roux went for a very metal music-oriented theme, with a lot of black, dark blue and grey. The icons and the background were deliberately grungy, but in a fashionable way. For the logo, he mixed up two fonts, Birth Of A Hero and Century Gothic, and accented it by inter-locking the D and P together, and adding SOS in Morse code around the word Abridged. The idea of using the Morse code came to him when he broke down the meaning of the company’s name (which I had chosen not for its literal meaning, but only because it sounded good to my ears and was not limiting to a specific genre). He felt that the name should symbolize that the record company is coming to the rescue of bands, to release their music and bridge the gap between artists and fans. I mentioned previously that Roux was a corporate designer, so he found it important to present Abridged Pause Recordings as a business with a slogan and a corporate appeal. Roux was also responsible for some of the early digital flyers to promote the releases, and he would take care of matching up band logos on top of artist pictures for the website.
The second design was made public in January 2012. I have to be honest and admit that I never liked it. It was mainly done to allow for higher resolution images on the website and the ability to embed social media updates and Bandcamp albums. Roux greatly simplified the visual elements and layout with this second design, and I always felt that it was a rush-job. The new background was just grey and black instead of blue, and the layout hardly had any customization. It looked like a WordPress blog instead of a record label website. That was fine for the landing and news pages, but I hated the way that it made the releases and artists pages look. It never felt right.
Abridged Pause Recordings’ third website was designed over a week-end in September 2014. I wish that I could say that it was an exciting experience, but it was not. The second website had always performed badly, so after a couple of years of begging, Roux and I finally set a date to improve it. But I quickly found out that he was not willing to design an all-new website. Instead, he told me to purchase a ready-made WordPress theme, which he planned to customize. That made things difficult because I wanted the website to showcase the blog section (which had outgrown the record label section in popularity), but I did not want to diminish the bands and releases.
This third design did bring much-needed updates to the layout, such as wider article columns (since my interviews and biographies were lengthy), more room for images, cross-promotion of other blog posts, and most importantly, a responsive mobile theme. However, Roux hardly customized the theme at all. The website was stripped of any visual identity, with the exception of the company logo. There was no background, and the blurred image in the header was a quickly-Photoshopped Soufferance album cover. To be fair, I think that I was content at the time, because the website would serve its purpose, but I was never thrilled.
-What’s next for Abridged Pause and Vision Eternel?
I have been working on two Vision Eternel extended plays during the past two years. The first is completed and pending release, while the second is still under development. The former is a deluxe edition re-issue of Echoes From Forgotten Hearts, which includes the seven songs from the original release, plus sixteen previously-unreleased songs, all re-mastered by Carl Saff, a new artwork by Micheal Koelsch, and a fifty-page booklet recounting in detail the troublesome story of the release, from its conception as a soundtrack to its re-tooling into an extended play, and why it was never properly released. This deluxe edition was scheduled for release in early 2022, but it has been continuously pushed back by the record labels involved, until it was eventually cancelled. I am now in the process of shopping the release to interested record companies, because it is not one which I can manage through Abridged Pause Recordings.
The latter release is Vision Eternel’s seventh extended play and follow-up to For Farewell Of Nostalgia. I began documenting song ideas in 2019, during the For Farewell Of Nostalgia studio re-recording session, but I deliberately did not pursue them because I did not want to be distracted from the principal release. I have since recorded demos of additional songs and hope to finally record this extended play this year. I plan to work with Michael Koelsch on the artwork of this one as well.
As for Abridged Pause Recordings, there are no set plans at this time. In the event that I cannot find a suitable record label to release Vision Eternel’s seventh extended play, I will release it through Abridged Pause Recordings. But I would much prefer to work with another company because dealing with distribution and shipping is extremely difficult when living as a recluse and in a remote area (I live forty-five minutes from the nearest post office).