Hi everyone, we're here today with Fred, aka GeishaSkills. How are you?
Oh my god, I’m doing really, really well! A lot, a lot, a lot of musical news… but that’s what we love.

Your main project right now is obviously Panic! On The Radio.
Yes, and it’s doing pretty well on streaming platforms.

Yeah, I saw the numbers going up!
It worked really well. People were receptive and they embraced the concept: this zombie attack storyline on a radio show with the guys from l’Antre. It really clicked. And we have a little surprise coming in mid-November: we’re shooting the music video for the final track of the EP.

So it's a concept EP. Can you tell me a little bit about how you came up with the concept and how you came up with this particular story?
It started after a dinner at Chris’ place, one of the guys from l’Antre, with Patknot. There was a crazy energy, something that instantly matched. In the car, we were already imagining a story, zombies… our brains were going at 10,000. The next day I called Pat with two songs; then a third; then I had the five tracks of the EP. He already had the storyline written. We presented it to the guys from l’Antre — they loved it.
Then we recorded the tracks. And without the other musicians knowing, we went to get friends from l’Antre — singers, columnists, musicians, the former drummer of Scarlean who runs Fatlab Studio… We had them perform as secret features. They only discovered, when opening the physical CD, that not only were they part of a musical project… but that they were part of a whole story about l’Antre — and that they would all appear in the music video! It was a huge surprise. And the circle was complete.

That's great. And what I also really like, and what's important to point out, is that if you listen to the album on streaming platforms, you get the songs one after the other, but on the CD itself, you get the whole story.
Exactly. On streaming platforms, the songs are in English and you can listen to them in any order. They stand on their own. On the CD, between each song you have story scenes that link everything together. There’s even a hidden track. In total, it’s 11 parts, whereas streaming only has the 5 songs.
You experience it like a radio show starting with a zombie attack. They move from place to place, and each song corresponds to a specific location. End of song → story scene → new place… until the final spot, which will be revealed in the music video.

That’s magical.
Yes, sometimes our brains smoke, but this time it worked well! (laughs)

I remember when you told me about it, you had already been working on it for a while. How long have you been working on this project?
The first seed must be from about a year and a half ago. But the creation itself was super fast: Pat is a very fast writer and singer. I sent him two songs in one day; a few days later he had written and recorded everything. When you work with someone who’s on the exact same wavelength as you, it goes extremely fast. What could’ve been a silly post-dinner idea turned into a full project in a few days. And Nath and Chris from l’Antre were the same: their brains were wired for the universe, the scenes, the transitions. Four brains going in the same direction → magic. Then of course the release schedules, the distributor, the music video… so in the end it's almost two years.

It’s not that long for a project of that scale.
To me it felt long, because I’m used to working alone. When I'm alone, an idea can take a day, a week, but I control everything. Here, you depend on people — who aren’t even supposed to know! And who have packed schedules. It’s frustrating, funny, and educational.

Excuse me, because I've been wanting to laugh since earlier, when you told me that Pat works very quickly, and I remember that during our first interviews, you laughed because you said he always took three weeks to send you his tracks.
(laughs) Yes, Pat has this unique thing: he can take ages to get started, but once he’s rolling, no one can keep up. We just finished the Sayan EP. The last two tracks are coming in November/December. He recorded both vocals in the same day… even though the songs are three years old! He can write an entire EP in a few days, or leave you waiting three years. That’s Pat. And we do huge stylistic splits together: a Viking EP, a New Orleans metal project with another singer, a tech-metal modern EP, a project with a cellist… Now we’re preparing Arca, coming from April 2026.

You really have tons of projects together.
A lot. You want the full list?

Let’s hear it.
Alright… (laughs)

– The EP Tourne Succubus with Sarah / Dark Lilith (industrial / metalcore).
– The Viking project with Nexus starts next month.
– We’re finishing Sayan with Pat (physical release early 2024).
– The Cthulhu EP with Pat and Sarah for 2025.
– A full metalcore album with Pat and Sarah, either in French or Latin.
– Arca with Pat and Gaël (Mundil Fari) — techcore / ultra-modern metalcore.
– An EP already written with the former singer of Mundil Fari (Evanescence-style modern metal).
– The EP Métabaron with Brice: two songs left, physical release in 2027.
– Two features with two singers, one of them an old-school hardcore style, Kickback-like.
And all that is already composed — I’m just waiting for the vocals. Planning is full until 2029.

As usual, you prepare everything way ahead. Also because you always have a lot going on at the same time.
Yeah, but that’s what I love: changing universes, working a lot. There are tracks I wrote a year and a half ago that I’m re-playing now: I redo everything differently, more violent, more detailed… Some tracks have been redone 5, 6, 10 times. They could’ve been 10 totally different songs. It’s the quest for the perfect sound — the biggest, most violent one. And it will never end.

Music is art, and art is also about challenging yourself, trying new things, and experimenting.
Exactly. Being independent means you can do whatever you want. If tomorrow I want to write a bossa track, I’ll do it.
The downside is: you do everything by yourself. Guitarist, bassist, drummer, mixer, arranger, graphic designer, community manager… And social media, my god… that’s the worst part. Virality doesn’t exist anymore: everything is paid. Majors put €150,000 in promo, land Spotify playlisting, get 10 million listeners. You do your best, post every day… and reach 400 people. The game is rigged. But you deal with what you have.

A lot of artists are turning independent nowadays, for creative or financial reasons.
Yes. Labels want formatted, profitable stuff. They’d love to have 14 Slipknot clones in their catalog. Independence is freedom. And difficulty.

And live shows? Not tempted anymore?
No. I’m old now. (laughs) When I was young, yes — I lived for it. We toured a lot, it was amazing. Today, my priority is my wife, my daughter. Making music and knowing that people all over the world listen to it — that’s enough. Maybe one day, for something special, I’ll pick up a guitar on stage again. But not now.

To conclude, I would like to come back to this adventure with L'Antre. Because it really is quite an adventure, and it has brought together lots of people who didn't necessarily know each other or who had only heard of each other. And I think that's beautiful because music is meant to bring people together. It's a universal language, and through this project, you've shown yet another facet of music that brings people together.
I didn’t do it to bring people together, but to gather friends. Being independent means you can work with whoever you want. And all the people I collaborate with are people I genuinely appreciate. It made sense to do a project with l’Antre: they’re great people, and we have real chemistry. And you’re part of the project too: you’ll appear in the video, you’re on the cover, you’re a character in the story. It was normal to include you — you’ve been extremely supportive since the start. So yeah, we created something unusual with people we love. Thanks a lot Fred, that wraps up our interview! (laugh)

And thank you, it really means a lot to be part of this project.
What’s funny is that most people who stream the songs will never know there’s a whole universe behind it. We’re streamed a lot in the U.S., Latin America, Eastern Europe, the Nordics… But the story itself is in French! The CD spread a bit in Europe, but not at all in the U.S. It’s funny to see that the project works so well even though people don’t have the keys to the story.

That’s the beauty of artistic reception.
Exactly. Like when I released instrumental tracks and Jen was trying to interpret everything behind them. This project is the same: if you have the keys, you see details and references everywhere. If not, you just enjoy the music or the video. Both readings coexist.

Thank you so much Fred for your time!
With great pleasure. Always a pleasure working with you.