We're here to talk about your album Saddiction, due for release on February 14th.

Do you have just one word to describe it?

Julien - Saddiction?

[laughs]

Julien - It's a continuation of what we started with Loner.

Cédric - That's a bit more than one word.

Julien - Yes, but it's hard to find just one word. It's continuity.

The lyrics are rather dark, which is quite usual for Hangman's Chair, but which also makes sense in terms of the album's title. Why did you choose this theme, this color, for your new album?

Julien - I think this kind of text has been our guideline for years anyway, so I didn't really see us making a total turn.

Cédric - That's us, and it's true that Saddiction is something that encompasses everything we've done since the beginning. It's an umbrella term that best represents us.

The first track, 2AM Thoughts, was released at the beginning of October, featuring Dool. Given that the album was announced with the second track, why did you choose to start with this one?

Julien - It's a bit special, because...

Cédric - It came at a good time with the tour.

Julien - Yeah, that's right. In fact, on this first track, we didn't announce the album. We announced the album on Kowloon Nights, because it wasn't yet time to announce it, but as we were about to start touring with Dool, and as the timing was perfect, we thought we'd release it to give it some exposure. So it's more to do with the Dool tour.

As for Kowloon Nights, which came out at the beginning of November, it refers directly to the Chinese city that was destroyed in the 90s. Why this choice? Why this city?

Julien - It's more of a metaphor. In the song, we don't necessarily talk about the city, but rather about the image it gives. I don't know if you've ever seen what it looks like, but it was a city completely plunged into darkness because the buildings were so high up that you could hardly see the sun. And in the end, the colors that stood out the most were the neon colors, the very, very flashy stuff. That's kind of the image we were going for... It sets the mood for the piece. And there's also this link with the cover, which is a bit in the same style. It was more to set the mood.

If you follow the titles of the album, you can almost see a story; they almost follow each other and end with Healed?. Is it more a note of hope or a kind of impossible to cure?

Julien - It's the second option. In terms of titles, I think we knew the first one was going to be the first, To Know The Night, and for Healed?, we also knew it was going to be the last one. It's a bit of a puzzle. There isn't really a sequel. But it was important for Healed? to be the last one, because of the theme it deals with. We ask ourselves, “Are we really cured?”. And I don't think we are ; when you plunge into depression or whatever, once that door is open, it always stays ajar.

Is there a message you want to get across directly through the album, or is it specific to each song?

Cédric - I don't think there's really a message. Everyone can see what they want to see in the lyrics, or just in the mood and emotion of each track, but there's no real message...

Julien - As what we say is always very personal, I think everyone can interpret it as they like. So there's not really a message, people will pick up on things and if they see themselves in the text, it's because we've hit the nail on the head. But there's no message. It's about us.

That's what I was getting at, because a lot of artists see music and the creation of music as an outlet. Is it like that for you too? If so, what emotions did you put into this album?

Julien - Yes, that's exactly it. It's been an outlet since we were 14-15 and it's how we're still here, I think. If I didn't have this... The two of us, me and Cédric, are kinda introverts. We're not necessarily going to talk to a lot of people about this kind of problem. I'd never talk about it except in lyrics and in the music we write. So yeah, that's totally it. We can reveal an aspect of our personality that we hide on a daily basis.

And on the more instrumental side of things, there's your sound, but also a bit of that shoegaze vibe we're seeing a lot, these days. Was this a conscious decision or did it come gradually in the studio?

Julien - The shoegaze sound is something we started with Loner, I think.

Cédric - It's coming more and more. It's more and more natural to use it, I think for us too, because it corresponds to a lot of the stuff we listen to. It's becoming logical.

Julien - That's what we listen to; Slowdive, Nothing, that kind of band. And even when you want to set the mood like that, it's really the most beautiful texture for me. It's a nice reverb with a nice guitar chorus. And it works!

Is there anything you've experimented with on the album that you've never experimented with before?

Julien - The VI bass! Actually, I've changed instruments.The VI bass is somewhere between a guitar and a bass. It's like a guitar with 6 strings, except it's tuned much lower. This is the first time we've experimented with it on an album. It's an instrument that, for example, Robert Smith from The Cure uses, him more in clean sound, which I did, but also in saturated sound. And yeah, it was really an experiment, a test, and pretty conclusive. What's more, I've got a different tuning on it, so it opened other doors for me, and as soon as I touched the instrument, I had 3-4 songs that came straight to me. Because, yes, after seven albums, it's hard to renew yourself. So you always need a little something new to experiment with, to be able to see your music from another prism, another eye.

Is there anything you'd like to experiment on future albums?

Julien - There will be something, I don't know what yet, but there will be something, that's for sure. Because often, with each album, we experiment with either a new effect, or a new instrument, or a new head. And that's what helps, for us at least, with creativity.

Did you encounter any challenges in the making of this album?

Julien - Yeah, it was complicated.

Cédric - During the creation... You'd have to answer that, but I know that during the recording, yes, because with the new instrument, the VI bass and the new tuning, I had to push my voice a little higher.

Julien - You sang higher.

Cédric - I sang a lot higher, with a lot of tension. And it's true that in the beginning, it's not that easy. It was a bit of a challenge for me to record my voice.

Julien - There's that. And during the writing, now that our drummer Mehdi no longer lives in Paris, he lives in the Vendée. We had to do everything remotely.

Cédric - We're not used to that either.

Julien - It's another way of doing. We had to do it for Loner, during the lockdown. And now, to go through it again, it's true that it's complicated. But you adapt. We just do it.

But it's different. It's true that it was a bit of a challenge.

Were there any challenges in adapting the album for live performance, or was it an album that had already been conceived for live performance?

Cédric - The adaptation for live performance is the same for me as far as the vocals are concerned ; these voices are a bit high, you have to do them live, you have to hold them live. So there's always that little live adrenalin that means we can push things a bit further than just in a studio booth. As for the rest, it's true that for the harmonies and for the backing vocals, now that we've got the machinery behind us, we can throw in some extra vocals.

Julien - Yeah, at least with the new songs, it forces us to add a new instrument on stage.

I think the hardest part is the vocals. It takes some time getting used to it.

Coming back to the studio for a minute, this album also features Francis Caste, with whom you've already worked. Would you say he's now part of the band's identity?

Cédric - Yes, of course.

Julien - And it's well known, if you read other interviews with people who work with Francis, they'll all tell you the same thing: he's so committed to what he does. As well as recording, he's also a producer; he suggests a lot of things that sometimes get in the way of reworking a track.With us, for example, he'll come up with vocal suggestions, harmonies and effects we hadn't thought of. There's a real exchange and that's why we go there, because sometimes you might think that going into a studio in 2024 or 2025, when everyone's recording at home now.... With all the techniques that exist, you can do it at home for a lower cost, but we wouldn't have the experience of what we experience with him. We'd be missing something.

Cédric - He can also be a bit of a buffer between us; if we don't agree on something, we have to break the tie, and before we break the tie, even if he's not the one who makes the decision, he can also give his opinion and try to convince us to try something.

Julien - Because he too has his own vision of Hangman's Chair, and it's important to us. He's pretty much the first person who listens to our tracks every time; our demos, all that... So he's the one who has the first listen and we rely on that too.

Do you have an anecdote, maybe something a bit fun from the studio?

Julien - I'm not sure. We were in the studio for quite a long time, what did we do, a month?

Cédric - A month, but it was very studious, yeah. Gone are the days when we'd arrive in the studio with gallons.

[laughs]

Julien - Yeah, we used to live in the studio a lot, but now we can't do that anymore. It's a certain night of the week, and even then it's Friday because we know that on weekends we don't have a studio the next day... We've calmed down.

Do you have a favorite track?

Cédric - Well, favorite, no. One that touches me the most, yeah. Because before I went into the studio, I lost my father a week or a week and a half before, so I rewrote a whole text around that. It's the one that touches me the most, Neglect.

Julien - Mine is Healed?, the last one. I often like the last tracks. It's always a very important part of an album. It's really this track that's the most important for me.

Do you have any words for your fans?

Julien - Thank you ! The album comes out on February 14, and we'll be playing live from March onwards. Come and see us in France, we've got quite a few dates lined up. We'll probably have our back catalog reissued. A lot of people are asking us when it's being processed. So here's your chance to say it. It'll be on vinyl, even on CD, I think. It's not quite clear yet, and it'll be for the band's 20th anniversary. As we're going to be very old soon. [laughs] It's for 2025 or 2026 I think. And that'll be a good opportunity to re-release all those albums!