SOILENT GREEN - Ben Falgoust

\r\n"They say only the strong survive and for Louisiana swamp grinders\r\nSoilent Green, no truer words were ever spoken. Hardly strangers to\r\nadversity, Soilent’s two-decade-old history is fraught with lineup\r\nchanges, van collisions, murder, suicide and a hurricane casualty. And\r\nyet, they soldier on, driven by passion, patience, perseverance and a\r\nwill to dominate." This is the band we had the chance to interview on the event of their latest release Inevitable Collapse In The Presence Of Conviction which definately marks the band’s most varied and instrumentally accomplished record to date. Our curiosity was satisfied by the bands singer Ben Falgoust \r\n

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\r\nFirst of all, thank you for this interview, nice to have you on www.metalzone.gr
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\r\nThank you for having me. The pleasure is all mine.
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\r\nWe would like to start from your name which is- as written in your bio - Named after a 1970s sci-fi flick about a scandalous food substitute made from dead people, intended to save a nation crippled by the effects of global warming. What inspired you to name your band this way, what is the philosophy you represent?
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\r\nWell with the name no philosophy at all. We were fans of the movie and we were just sitting around trying to figure out what to call ourselves and Tommy blurted it out and it just stuck. I know it/’s not that interesting, but that is the way it happened.
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\r\nYour history is two-decades long and includes line-up changes, van collisions, murder, suicide and a hurricane casualty. Can you give us the details on what brought you here today?
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\r\nWell the love of playing music is what keeps us, as a band, alive. As you know we have had our share of bad luck. We feel proud that we have gotten threw all the drama that has followed. The Hurricane was the last of issues that we dealt with and we lost some good friends in the storm. But we used music and still do to escape from all the other mess that is in our lives.
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\r\nBack in 1998 you signed your first record deal with Relapse. However you are now releasing your first album with Metal Blade Records. What brought you in Metal Blade? Are you satisfied with the collaboration so far?
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\r\nWe are totally happy so far. We had finished up our contract with Relapse and it was just a mutual feeling of not want to continue working together. Metal Blade have been fans of us for a while and would come see us often. So when we were free it was just a natural progression. We are excited to be with them. They are really getting behind us.
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\r\nAnd what about Inevitable Collapse In The Presence Of Conviction, you latest release? It seems to combine sludgy breakdowns, southern elements and death metal strokes. How would you describe your music and the music in this release?
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\r\nWell I don’t like to put labels on what we do. I’ll say it just like you did. We try to include all kinds of music in what we do. Whether it is blues, jazz, soul, punk, grindcore. We believe that you can put any style of music into extreme music. The hardest part is trying to do this but keep some sort of flow, without having the part just feeling like they were slammed together.
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\r\nWhat about the production, artwork, writing process. Do you all contribute in ideas? Are there any specific characteristics which make an album sound like Soilent Green?
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\r\nWell as far as writing, we all have equal opinion. I usually write most of the music and bring it to the table and we take it from there. The cd art I work with various artist. This time we use John Van Fleet. He is a big icon in the U.S. comic industry. So, for us it was a huge honor to work with him. As far as characteristics, we just do what come naturally a the time.
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\r\nWhat music do you listen to? Do you get influenced by the music you listen to? Do you bring elements of your own taste into the music of the band?
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\r\nWe I have been listening to a lot of blues, jazz, soul, r and b. I try to bring outside elements into metal. We all listen to different stuff  and we all bring those different musical pasts together.  
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\r\nLyric wise what are the themes you touch in this album? Generally what themes inspire you to write music?
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\r\nBen writes all the lyrics and words for the band. That would have to be a question for him. As you can tell, he has some pretty lengthy titles and ideas going on in his head. We pretty much let him run with his own ideas.
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\r\nIf you could give a message to a listener who has never heard of your music and is about to listen to Inevitable Collapse… what would that be?
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\r\nJust to listen with an open mind. That is all any performer could ask.
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\r\nWhere do you feel you stand with this new release and a new record label?
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\r\nWe are standing strong. With our history, we are just glad to be able to keep playing. We have a lot our touring lined up  and are just excited to be a part the music scene again.
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\r\nAre you going to tour in support of your new album? What countries are you visiting?
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\r\nWe are out right now with Death Angel and after that we are doing Dethkolk, both in the states. We are hoping to hit Europe by the end of the year, but it is all about the politics of the promoters, label, and so on. There are a couple of things in the works but nothing final yet.
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\r\nWill you record your upcoming shows for a possible future DVD release?
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\r\nWe are planning on doing a DVD, but probably not until after our next release. We do like to pride ourselves as a live band so we would love to record it and share with whoever cares to see.
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\r\nThank you very much for your time and I hope you have the best possible outcome from your new release. Send a message out to our readers.  
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\r\nThank you as well and I appreciate you giving us the press and to your readers, if you enjoy what we do please support us by coming and seeing us live if you get the opportunity. CHEERS!
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\r\nElena Mihailidou
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