It is incredible how many good bands that blooms onto the metal scene from all around the world these days, there are far more good bands than bad bands emerging onto the scene, and that is of course very positive. One of the newer bands is the French quartet Zuul FX, which delivers hard hitting modern death/thrash with a good blend of industrial coldness and modern elements in it, a very brutal, yet dark and atmospheric audio attack. I got a good talk with bassist Shag and mainman and vocalist Zuul about their debut album "By The Cross", what fuels their fire and so forth, a real good and interesting read.

Hi there, how are things in France as we speak?

Shag: Things are going really alright. After a quick rest in the summer, we are on the road again and the welcome is still fabulous!

Will you please start off by introducing yourself and tell us what motivates you to play in Zuul FX?

Shag: For my part, I was motivated in playing in Zuul Fx because it was a true good project. When Zuul asked me to join the band, I was very happy because I knew since the beginning that the story would be great. And with the background of Zuul, it was a chance to play with him. Zuul and I used to play together just for fun before I joined this band.

Zuul: Thank you Shag!!! I am the singer and frontman of this band!!! What motivates me in this band is that I formed it with cool people. We make the music that we like and we play what we emotionally feel, no taboos and no restrictions. Our music is our personality. We identify our music with our behavior. Sometimes mentally violent, abrasive and quiet, sometimes sad and dark... I choose those musicians taking into account the particularities of everyone.

A small introduction of the rest of the band and a bit about what their special forces are, will be great as well!

Shag: What can I say...? Blast the guitar player is coming from Switzerland, he's very sharp and he has a great sound. It's pretty cool to play with him. Aurel the drummer is amazing. He is the only drummer able to play what we have in our minds when we write songs... You have to see him on stage...

You released your debut album "By The Cross" earlier this year, how was the album received?

Shag: VERY well!!! We were the first astonished by the way the album has been received... We knew that "By The Cross" was something new in the "metal scene" but you never know! It's good to see that the public likes it very much and the media support us in a very good way.

What did you back then expect of the album, and did your expectations get fulfilled?

Zuul: For a first album of a band coming from France, it's not bad at all! We created a buzz around the band and that's what I wanted. But the most difficult part is still to come although we believe in our music. We are trying to find a European tour in support of a bigger band. If we reach this goal I'd be the happiest man in the world! The other members of the band as well!

Now, when you have had some time to digest the album, what do you feel about it and is there anything you would like to change or wished you had done differently?

Shag: Of course there are always some little things you want to change when you look at the past... But what we did was the feeling of the moment. This album is a very good reflection of what Zuul Fx is and we are very proud of it. For my part, there is nothing to add in "By The Cross", it is our songs, our sound and a fucking good base to set every stage on fire!

I have wondered a bit about the band name, Zuul FX, what does it symbolize and how did you come up with it?

Zuul: I hate when names sound too common. I like things to be out of the standards. I find the name Zuul Fx quite unusual in metal. For me metal is unusual and has to stay like that. Some people are disturbed by this name. In a radio interview with the UK, a journalist asked us: "Why this shitty name, Zuul FX?" and Shag our bassist replied "You have the Beatles and the Rolling Stones man" and the guy eluded the question, it made us laugh… Zuul has been my nickname since I started to make music, my friends were calling me that. I kept this nickname and wrote the first ZFX songs and then recruited the musicians. I proposed them this band name and they liked it. I would have killed them otherwise anyway!!!

When looking at the lyrics, you seem like an angry man, where does all the anger come from?

Zuul: From the world around me and from my everyday life in this rotten world. Sometimes it's better to express yourself through art. What allows us to go away from what's been forced into us since our birth. Music lets me escape those obligations. That’s the only thing I found and I like more than anything in life. Everything else sounds wrong: the government, the world, freedom, fraternity, regality, they all sound wrong. To me life without music has no taste. Music is a vast nature to me, like one of the most beautiful landscapes in the world, it has a universal language that is worth all the words of our world.

I think I will never find peace because the world humanity built makes me sick on almost everything and I have absolutely no confidence in words and no respect in the instability of the human mind.

How important is it for you to have a source like Zuul FX, where you can blow your steam?

Zuul: For the same reasons as above. We are all on the same page in the band. If I didn't have this band to blow my steam as you say I think I'll be very far from here now, from civilization. I mean it, I'm not just saying it.

Where do you find inspiration to the lyrics? Some of them seem quite personal.

Zuul: Yes they come from my observation on the world around me again, my everyday life with close people and others. I mainly write about life in general and I gave a fairytale aspect to some lyrics through metaphors so that the stories sound better!!!

Are the any specific happenings or events that have influenced the lyrics on "By The Cross"?

Shag: All the lyrics are of course influenced by what happens all around you... But no specific events that you would know...

You seem to vent some wrath at god as well, and you mention both satan and cabal in the lyrics… Are you Satanist by belief or…?

Shag: I'm not a satanist and Zuul Fx is not a satanic band... The wrath at god is only a wrath against what people do. People use god in many different ways... The wrath is here... When people kill in the name of god, there is a wrath and anger against these guys, not courageous enough to admit that they are animals. They don't deserve to live in the same area as us...

What are your sight on Christianity, Satanism and Cabalism?

Shag: For my part, I have the same sight on the three... Religion is far from me, I am an atheist, so I don't believe in nothing that could help people on this earth... except themselves!

The music is a furious blend of heavy thrash/death metal, industrial spheres and effects and nu-metal, how did you end up with that exact blend?

Zuul: Well I think we are simply open to music in general! In this band we are influenced by various styles and bands. I didn't want to make music with musicians who are only listening to one music style. Metal is our reference and our sound and we're proud of it because that’s what we wanted. Our music gained in wideness because we wanted to do the simplest things possible to have the possibility to include every detail. And that makes a difference.

How do you get inspired to write music, are there certain things or moods that triggers your song writing?

Zuul: We wrote all the songs by Internet!!! Blast and I don't live in the same country, we are 2 hours by plane (or 4 hours by train) away from each other. The easiest way was to send songs via email. That's how we wrote the album. We were sending each other the songs and then were discussing them on the phone. Sometimes we were seeing each other to have a drink and finalize things. The other band members met in the studio for the recording of the album!! We gave them the tracks to work on and that was it! Then we recorded the album in 4 months in Paris with Francis Caste at the Studio St Marthe. We spent 15 days in the studio. Francis took part in the project right away when he heard the demo. He proposed to produce the album in an artistic way because he is a musician too with very good ideas when it comes to arrangements. He's been the fifth member of the band during the recording. He's very patient and determined and wants the best out of the bands he produces. It put us in an ambiance of confidence and the result is more than satisfying for us.

How do you in the band work when you write music, do you make the music together or?

Shag: It's a little bit different now. This album was written by Zuul and Blast. Now, we all write music and we make it listen to the others each time we see each others. Then we speak about what is cool and what is not... We work like that. Everybody is giving his ideas...

Can you mention 3 bands and 3 songs that have meant a lot to you personally and for you way of writing music?

Shag: Black Sabbath, Motörhead and Alice Cooper for me... 3 songs would be 'Strutter' by Kiss, 'Eighteen' by Alice Cooper and 'Live Wire' by Mötley Crüe"...

Zuul: Metallica, Machine Head, Fear Factory... the 3 songs would be: 'Hail And Kill' by Manowar, 'Painkiller' by Judas Priest, 'I Wanna Be Somebody' by WASP...

How would you describe your music to a metalhead not knowing of Zuul FX?

Shag: I would say: you take the best that you like in modern metal or death metal and you put a big part of rock 'n roll....

Zuul: Yeahhh... it's true!!!!

What would you like to accomplish with the band?

Shag: "By the Cross" is the beginning of the story... We would like to make this story long, happy and full of good moments!

What do you want to symbolize with the album's cover artwork, "locked into a small pre-defined box by christianity, which you can't escape" is how I interpret it! What are your thoughts behind it?

Zuul: Exactly!!! There are different themes in this album. « By the Cross » shows some human aspects and feelings like injustice, hate, rage, vengeance, suffering, melancholy sometimes and the sadness that every human being has deep inside. I wanted to put all those feelings in the music and the lyrics, to talk about our everyday experiences, in a society where everything is based on Judaeo-Christian rules and all that goes with it. For instance the fear of the cross above our heads that keeps us quiet in case we would like to follow another path. I wanted to talk about this because that's where I come from and I wanted to picture this on the cover of the album too. In the foreground the hands on the bars is a metaphor of the control our society exercises. The Christ in the background is like an indelible stigma, always there. Whether you are atheistic or of any other religion this atmosphere covers the whole world. This is not an album about religion but more about how we live because of that religion, dominating the western world. I pictured people like you and me, heretics, people hurt deep inside, who are only existing by following the society's rules, not different from the others, living without any excess. If those people had the force to search for what they truly believe in, they would be astonished and afraid of what they can do. But they would also realize that they are kinda blocked if they make a move different from what they're expected to do.

Considering it is a half year since "By The Cross" was released, are you now working on new material and do you have some news for us as song titles, release title, subjects of the new material etc…?

Shag: We don't have song titles for the moment, but the new material is on its way!!! We write almost everyday and we like it!!!

How have the band developed since "By The Cross" was finished?

Shag: Zuul Fx is really working like a band now. We are very close and the mood is coming with all four but the new thing is that we're working with some cool guys, very talented. Our light engineer and our sound engineer are part of the band now.

Do you have any idea of when we will see a new release from you and in what form it will be… and will it be released by Equilibre Music as "By The Cross"?

Shag: The only thing I can tell you for the moment is that we will probably record the new stuff in the spring 2006... Sorry not to be able to give you more info...

How do you look upon the future of Zuul FX?

Zuul: Great!!! I believe in what we do and it doesn't matter where we will go! I'm sure we will do what we want to do with this band. It has a good karma, I’m sure we will do great things. Most people who have heard us, whether they are professionals or fans, think the same: the album can't be ignored when you've heard it once!

Will you share your 5 all time favourite albums with our readers?

Shag: for me it is:

Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath
Mötley Crüe - Too Fast For Love
Alice Cooper - Bark At The Moon
The god Ozzy Osbourne - Bark At The Moon
Motörhead – Overkill

Zuul:

WASP - WASP
Metallica - All until the "Black" album
Fear Factory - Demanufacture
Machine Head - Burn My Eyes
Meshuggah - Destroy, Erase, Improved
...and one more because I'm the leader!!: Judas Priest - Painkiller"!!!

Thanks a lot for answering my questions, if you have anything to add, feel free to add it now!

Shag: Thanks to you, the only thing to add is that we hope to be able to play live for you very soon. It's always a pleasure to share this with new people across Europa

Zuul: Yeahhh... it's true!!!!!