Description

Birdmask Manuel Gagneux, renowned for his work with influential metal band Zeal amp ArdorThe five songs ofTristanare steeped in sadness and beauty, Well never get better Its a long and gruesome odyssey,sings Manuel on Recovery over muted electronics. The soulful and stark Dearly Beloved sounds like a message from the depths of depression Spend a week in the bathtub You know that you messed up.Whilst latest single Leave the Rain Outside offers a swinging, whirling gothic melody as a vessel for Gagneuxs voice to swoop and soar, before the crescendo of sound on Breathe In, Breathe Out.In metal, sadness always has to be this huge thing.Says Manuel, It039s never just a certain aspect of it it039s the world is ending and your mom just stabbed you. It039s never heartache or ennui or anything like that. Its misery rather than melancholy.And there lies the most important distinction between his two projects Manuel has always felt a slight disconnect with Zeal amp Ardor, as it finds him acting as a different person to explore societal topics. Birdmask on the other hand offers a true expression of himself, in what he describes as hisgleeful stupidity and childish exploration.It sees Manuel confront more subtle personal themes, such as melancholy, and how his ego sits with feelings of imposter syndrome,I write songs and I don039t really know what I039m dealing with and then years later I039m like, Oh, wait, I wrote that because of this and that.Recent years, Manuel says, have led to him having to work atremembering what is me, and what is just the echo of other peoples projections. I have to be alone sometimes just to work out am I doing this because people expect it of me, or is it something I genuinely feel I think those concerns and emotions worked their way into this EP.Hence the themes he identified loss, cowardice, conquest and recovery.Birdmask does in fact predate Zeal amp Ardor, as Gagneux began making music under that name in 2011. He could never quite get it together with his musician friends to put a band together,so I figured I could just learn producing on my own, and then, as a last resort, I figured I could make music on my own.For several years he selfreleased on Bandcamp, labouring away in complete obscurity, releasing scores of singles and two albums, then Zeal and Ardor happened, and over a short period of time, Gagneux suddenly and unexpectedly found himself the toast of the metal world.All throughout that time however, Manuel craved returning to the music he had been making before the yin to Zeal amp Ardors yang, as he puts it, and never ceased writing tracks with the sole intention of having them become Birdmask releases. In fact, whilst the duo of EPs the Isolde EP is due early next year were recorded over an 18 month period, the tracks were all written over an estimated 5 year span. And Manuel is at pains to stress this is not a side project this is its own thing, his original vision.I think I039d like to try to reach different people. And there039s a conscious effort of separating the two, just because it039s different music, at least to me. The reason I wanted to distinguish it is because it would be easy to gain an online following of people who just associate me with Zeal amp Ardor and by proxy just happened to like this.Please allow 57 business days for dispatch. Birdmask Vinyl is available for home delivery from Vinyl Records London, only £20 +P&P