After an eponymous album, which followed the tragedy that struck the band hard, Bukowski returns with a fiery seventh effort, “Cold Lava,” reflecting the band's ambitions to take the next step...
We met you when the album simply named after the band was released exactly three years ago. How are you doing? They say that time heals all wounds. Was that the case for you after the untimely death of your bassist and brother Julien Dottel?
Mathieu Dottel: Absolutely! Of course. And he would have been proud to see us here now. I think we're on the right track.
An eponymous album is often symbolic. Looking back, did it play its role? Was it a therapeutic album that was necessary to move forward?
Mathieu: Exactly! The creative process was quite complex. It was necessary in order to arrive at the sequence of events that is presented today with this new album.
Can we see this eponymous album as the end of an era and the announcement of a new one that begins with the new album? Were all the tracks on it written recently to mark this idea?
Romain Sauvageon: Yes, I think there was a desire – not to change artistic direction – but rather to return to the band's roots while trying to add a touch of modernity to the mix. On the other hand, there was a real desire to return to things that were more rooted, older in Bukowski...
Mathieu: ... Simpler, more effective.
Romain: ... More Bukowski!
The band has remained stable since then. Was this stability important, this clan, family aspect that is your strength?
Mathieu: Exactly!
Clément Rateau: I think it's ingrained! I didn't even think for a second that Bukowski could be any different. I feel good with my mates and I know that when I meet up with them, I'm home!
Mathieu: We're delighted to see each other again every time, it's important! And it's not like that for everyone. It's a plus we have: the four of us are very close-knit.
Max Müller: Especially after the tour we did with lots of dates!
The pain is still there, but we can deal with it more easily now!
The tour was really rewarding: getting back on the road must have done you good and allowed you to complete this therapy by meeting your fans?
Romain: We didn't see this tour as the end of a chapter, but rather as a new beginning, a fresh start. In fact, Julien's passing will never really be fully accepted; he will always be there and will always be a part of us, especially Mathieu. There's this thing where now, for example, in the samples, we have Julien's voice: we have Julien on stage, we have Julien behind us on the backdrop... We're happy to have him with us. The pain is still there, but we're able to embrace it more easily now!
Finally, we feel that this eponymous album has allowed you to confirm your somewhat unique status: you manage to appeal to rock fans – we often hear you on Oui FM, for example – as well as hard rock and metal fans. Is achieving this balancing act, as Motörhead or Cheap Trick did, something important to you and something you strive for, or is it simply part of your DNA?
Mathieu: It's a bit of both! Basically, it's not really something we set out to do. With this new album, we just wanted to have fun first and foremost, and also to please the people in front of us and get them moving with songs that bring people together, with choruses that are easy to sing along to... So for the next tour, we want to share everything with the audience: we can't wait for them to come and sing/chant our songs...
This new album, ‘Cold Lava’, is coming out quite quickly. Was it important to get back to business quickly to show that you were in good shape and determined to give it your all?
Mathieu: Yes, but in the end, it almost felt like a long time. It's true that when Bukowski first started out, we released an album every two years. So I wonder if this new album wasn't the one that took the longest to release. It almost felt like a long time: we're champing at the bit! We're back and we can't wait.
‘Cold Lava’ could define what you are: boiling and on fire, determined and go-getters, but at the same time, you know how to be calmer and cooler, but with this idea of fire that lies dormant and ready to reignite? Isn't this title a metaphor for your personality after all?
Mathieu: Yes, that's exactly it. I don't know what else to say: you asked the question and answered it at the same time. Well done (laughs)!
Clément: It's something that may seem dead, but there's always life inside.
Mathieu: Always this metaphor of rebirth, and I'm not talking about Louis XIV (laughs)!
Speaking of history, when I read the list of titles, I wondered if the title “Gunpowder” referred to the events that took place in England in 1605 surrounding the Gunpowder Plot and Guy Fawkes?
Max: It can be interpreted in many different ways, but it's mainly about what's happening right now, particularly the various conflicts in Ukraine, Palestine... It's 2025: it's mind-boggling to see that! Overall, war is a real mess!
But ultimately, aren't we disconnected in knowing that we experienced an enchanted interlude after the Second World War and that the risk is that the whole world will soon be at war?
Mathieu: We do indeed have wonderful leaders: it's pretty awful!
But we don't want to go to war.
Max: But coming back to the text: we refuse to accept this reality!
Mathieu: We advocate non-violence!
Romain: But this reality is very violent, very concrete and very close.
Clément: Feeling like we're at war when we've done nothing to deserve it...
We're falling into a kind of warrior patriotism that doesn't suit us at all.
Exactly, thanks to one or two egocentric leaders, to the detriment of the people...
Mathieu: Exactly! We're falling into a kind of warlike patriotism that doesn't suit us at all. We can be patriotic, but for other reasons.
Max: This song is about rejecting patriotism without hating your country, refusing to enlist...
I'd say it's about being aware of your sensitivity to today's reality, which is sometimes highly incompatible.
Through your sound, your general attitude and your lyrics, you represent this idea of free rock without borders, an old rebellious idea far removed from conformity. Do you identify with this idea?
Mathieu: We still have a very Anglo-Saxon culture. We are French, but we have an Anglo-Saxon culture: borders are disappearing.
As for our attitude, it's more intrinsic than deliberate. It's not really something we necessarily want to highlight, but if it's noticeable, so much the better.
Clément: We did set ourselves a few more limits on this album than on the previous one, for example.
Which ones?
Romain: We did experiment on the previous album with a fairly long track, but we cut it down on this new album.
For this new album, we've gone back to something much simpler and more effective.
You didn't want to be labelled as progressive...
Mathieu: It was a bit like that on the last one, actually. For this new album, we've gone back to something much simpler and more effective.
Romain: It's an album tailored for
live performance, so we can promote it, rather than just making a nice album – because the previous one was very good – it was perhaps more of an album to listen to in its entirety and which requires several listens... For this new album, we thought it would be good to have an album tailored for live performances, especially in the spirit of a band like Bukowski, which has always been known for its strong energy on stage. That's why we wanted to go back to something that was more in line with Bukowski's racism.
And to stay with the idea of freedom that characterises Bukowski, it seems that almost all your lyrics are about defending freedom in a humanity that is becoming less and less human and increasingly harsh? Is this idea of defending a certain idea of freedom the essence of your struggle?
Mathieu: Yes, completely. It's a mixture of joie de vivre and sadness. The lyrics start off badly and end well. We denounce something, but we don't want it to take over because the purpose of a song is to help. For example, when you're feeling down or whatever, the goal is not to sink you even further, but rather to help you find yourself and make sure that the music can help you get back on your feet, regardless of the theme: it's a mixture of all that.
If you don't have that glimmer of hope, what's the point in continuing?
You said that you started from a negative point of departure to end up with a positive conclusion. Where do you find that glimmer of hope?
Romain: I think that if you don't have that glimmer of hope, what's the point in continuing? You cling to something and that's what keeps you going. As Mat said earlier, we tackled social issues and profound topics that are often problematic, such as violence against women and war. These are very broad topics, but ultimately they are very specific and very contemporary too.
We needed to tackle these issues. You mentioned freedom. I don't know if we thought about freedom at first, but we did think about lots of little issues that bothered us and that we wanted to highlight. And ultimately, if all that falls under the umbrella of freedom, that's fine with me...
When listening to the album, one is struck by its variety within the songs themselves, such as “Headlights”, “1000 Knives”, “Isolation” and “Howls”, which are a mix of rock, pop and alternative. Is varying the subject matter in the tracks part of your DNA, which avoids too much conformity? Is it something you seek out or does it come naturally?
Clément: I think that's just the way we are!
Mathieu: Actually, we tried to keep it as simple as possible (laughs). It's in our DNA to want to tell stories and to have several moments and emotions in a song.
We're all a bit like Dave Growl's children!
In fact, we can hear a bit of the Foo Fighters sound, who excel in this varied genre?
Mathieu: The Foo Fighters are clearly one of our influences...
Romain: We're all a bit like Dave Growl's children, really!
Mathieu: Especially you (laughs)! But yes, we're very happy with that comparison, even though we're more metal-oriented than Foo Fighters, but yes, it's a very nice reference.
There's also a definite pop side to the choruses with catchy, melodic vocals. I think these tracks have everything it takes to be a hit with a wide audience. Did you compose them with this in mind, with a more mainstream approach?
Mathieu: It's still fundamental to who we are. The mainstream has become a bit of an insult, whereas there was a time when the mainstream was the Rolling Stones, the Beatles...
That's what we're being offered, that's what the radio stations want to play, when in fact there have been some excellent songs that have united people from start to finish since the dawn of time, even in the 1980s with U2, Phil Collins... they were still very high quality compared to what we're being offered now, but they were mainstream...
Clément: At a pinch, the mainstream aspect is in the length, the duration of the songs, and that's where we've made our mark. But the melody, the vocals... that's Mathieu's work, who's always looking for something more and who's in tune with his own evolution and what he's listening to around him.
Mathieu: And then, it gives us goosebumps to make catchy choruses. We experience them as much as the audience does.
Bukowski has never been confined to one style
In this sense, “Cold Lava” is even more laid-back, very melancholic and profound, with a purely pop feel and a great deal of sensitivity. It's as if the whole soul and personality of Bukowski and his musicians is laid bare. Was it important to release such a captivating and personal track?
Mathieu: Yes, because we feel that it's a completely confident track, one of the pillars of the album that we'll use for the future.
Max: It's a very melancholic track, one of the most melancholic on the album. It's very characteristic of Bukowski to have this melancholy, to have something very melodic with depth... It was obvious that this track would sum up the album... A track with a certain softness too, because spreading it all the time... it was fun to change things up a bit. We wanted to change from the previous album, where we inevitably had a formula, and this time we wanted to do something different.
Mathieu: Whereas sometimes, some bands don't have the right to do that when you're called Motörhead, you do Motörhead and that's it. Bukowski has never been confined to a style where you had to do something very specific: we've always been very free in that respect, as I say.
Romain: And as for the title track, I think it was one of the very first riffs we came up with when we started writing. And ultimately, the logical progression of the album makes it the central pillar of the album and the fact that it's the title track: there's a logical progression because it was really the very first thing we wrote and everything else flowed from that... And since it set the aesthetic, the image, the mood and the atmosphere of the album, it made sense...
On “Over the Vines”, we find a US sound at the crossroads of Foo Fighters, Nickelback and Soundgarden with vocals typical of the genre. Will this powerful rock sound always be part of Bukowski's identity?
Mathieu: Oh yes, exactly! Once again, it's not necessarily deliberate, but it comes out every time.
So, yes, all the bands you just mentioned are references for us, particularly on this track, which is very US rock...
“Criminals” is more powerful, more edgy and heavy, with a tone close to hard rock with punk sounds and neo-metal influences à la Korn in the vocals. Was it necessary to offer such an abrasive and violent track to express a need to vent anger?
Mathieu: Exactly! For this track in particular, we thought we needed to play a song that we really wanted to play live: this track is really cut out for that! It's also necessary to let loose, to throw in a little more violence at times.
At the very beginning, we were really labelled as stoner rock, when we weren't necessarily just that.
“Gunpowder” and “Neverending Fall” are also heavy and powerful without losing the rock and melodic feel. Would you say that these two tracks are also a way of reminding people that you're still close to a hard rock movement similar to Trouble, Sleep or Kyuss?
Mathieu: Absolutely. It's true that at the very beginning, we were heavily labelled as stoner rock, even though that wasn't necessarily what we were. Now, there are still some remnants of that, but it's more of a crossover: we're not sure about the stoner part (smiles).
Romain: It's true that the band is often labelled as stoner, and we wonder why?
Mathieu: But that was at the beginning, on the first album...
Romain: But even in what we're still doing now, sometimes there's this very slow groove thing...
Finally, we find a duet with Reuno on “Communication In Silence”. The title is vindictive and has all the makings of a stage anthem. Was working with such a big name in the alternative rock scene an obvious choice for you?
Mathieu: Honestly, yes. We really enjoyed doing it! We got to know each other over time and this song really cemented a friendship that will last a long time. It was great!
Max: And he wanted to do it! He didn't drag his feet about coming back: he was happy! And he scribbled down some lyrics that fit perfectly, because it's not easy to do ‘Franglais’, i.e. to have English and then a French passage... but it works! No, we're really happy with the performance, and he did it in two takes: it's impressive!
Indeed, he's one of the few, along with Mouss from Mass Hysteria, who knows how to make French sound good in metal...
Max: It's very difficult!
Mathieu: I'd even say it's risky!
Next up is the road. I can imagine you playing at both Rock en Seine and Hellfest, capable of playing in front of very different audiences. What can we expect in terms of festivals and concerts?
Romain: It's still in the works, so we don't have a very clear picture yet. What is certain is that the tour will mainly take place in 2026.
We were talking about wanting to go back to our roots a bit and change our artistic direction: I think we're going to change on that point too, we're going to try to find venues that aren't necessarily bigger but different, with more other bands, and get off the circuit to discover new things...
What new bands do you have in mind? Could you see yourselves playing with Landmvrks, for example?
Romain: Why not! We'd love to!
Max: It could be that, or as you said, Rock en Seine, which perhaps more broadly fits with our idea... That's also why this album is interesting for us: we can perform on stages where we're not necessarily expected and reach people with this album. Namely, people who don't necessarily listen to metal and will come across one of the tracks on this album on the radio and think it's not bad. If we can capture people's attention and try to bring them into our world.
With a discography of seven albums under your belt, you have the opportunity to adapt your setlist to suit the audience...
Mathieu: Of course, absolutely!
Max: The idea was perhaps to get back to our more rock roots and try to seek out fewer venues that are geared towards metal. And to tell ourselves that we can go for something a bit broader, like purely rock stuff.
Mathieu: And be the strongest band on the bill, for example. We've done the small festivals and we want to discover new ones.
Romain: We can't wait!
So more festivals with Feu! Chatterton than Landmvrks?
Mathieu: Why not?
Clément: I could also see myself opening for System of a Down at the Stade de France! There's a gap between Queens of the Stage, who are opening for them...
...but you wouldn't be the most rock band...
Mathieu: No, but we'd sign up right away (laughs)!
We mentioned the track “Cold Lava”, which best sums up this album. Where will you place this track in your live setlist?
Romain: It's a track that breathes, that has a softness to it. I think it needs to be placed between two more energetic tracks. This track would be a kind of calming influence...
So not at the beginning or the end, but in the middle...
Mathieu: I'd say more towards the end, though...
So what are the next known dates?
Mathieu: We're playing at Destroy Fest next week, but that's more of an end to the old tour than the start of the next one.
Romain: Those are old commitments...
Are you still going to play songs from the new album?
Mathieu: We're going to play one...
Romain: On these upcoming dates, we're going to play songs from the previous album since the new one isn't out yet.
Mathieu: We're going to avoid revealing everything before it's time.
Will there be a release party anyway?
Mathieu: Of course!
Romain: There will be a release party around the album release date – it won't necessarily be in the form of a concert – but it's currently being booked.
Romain: And then we're planning a date at the Forum early next year, which is our home turf: that's for sure!
With System of a Down as the opening act...
Romain: They'll make the effort before the Stade de France. They need to get some practice in: we have to help the smaller bands (laughs)!
So we'll potentially see you at your release or even at the Forum
Bukowski: With great pleasure!
Thank you very much
Bukowski: Thank you!
And thank you to Noise for his contribution...