Steel Notes Magazine
Michèl: I always get adrenaline during the brood when I can see
that I did everything right. It is the same when you listen to the
musik you wrote by yourself and it gives you goose bumps. So it's
the same kind of inner peace you get.
We talked about subculutre , similar feelings and thoughts and
I wanted the guys to tell me if they also have been confronted to
prejudice and stereotypes.
Dave: You just have to take a look at the Hellfest festival. The
inhabitans of the village still thinking it is a big event for satanist.
Maybe it is the fault of Black Sabbath (he laughs). People think
you are not confident and you chose to play music of the devil
getting tatoos because of being depressive.
The same for loving snakes. It is something strange and
unnatural. I grew up in a very conservative village but I learned
to let them talk. The worst thing is that most of them are fans by
more alcoholics and drug addicted people as it would be in the
case for metal.
Michèl:“ Only freaks do that“ would be the prejudice of both
domains. No normal person would do that. In the 90's it became
popular to have tattoos on both sides. Boa and Python owners
were always full of ink. Many popular musicans did it too and
had at least one exotic animal for the right image without any
know-how.
At that point I wanted Michèl to describe how both scene have
developped as he has a good overview of them for about 30 years.
Michél: I started in a crossover band and used to play weekly in
clubs. Meeting always more new people, you were invited to play
at festivals. You had to play to become known. To get a recording
contract you had to make a name to yourself by playing.
Nowaday you become famous on youtube and then you start you
play. So every thing is inverted, such a crazy world.
Same thing for herpetology. There were only a few breeders and
books to get information so you had to get to meet them. I joined
the DGHT (German community for herpetology and terraristic)
and so I get all informations. Everything happened behind the
scenes in a small circle. With internet and television it becames
more presentable.
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Steel Notes Magazine
www.steelnotesmagazine.com
Spring 2017
Another interesting aspect for me ist the
language. At some point very technical
and scientifical but also direct and honest.
So I asked my friends to describe it.
Dave: We speak a lot about equipement
just like little boys dreaming about
things they will probably never be able
to buy.We speek about work and what
happen in our lives.
We laugh a lot ,make a lot of jokes and
talk a lot about sex. (he laughs)
Michèl : The conversations are in
fact direct. I think there are as much
envious persons in the reptile scene
as in the music. So every one is
searching for the most success
and to play with the coolest band
member and in herpetology it is
the knowledge, to know the most
latine names and to breed the most
. Money is in everyones heads and
nobody forgets about it. You can
only enjoy it when you are free
from coommercial thoughts. I
don't have to be famous anymore,
today I'm happy to play for my
wife and my son as much as at
conzert with 1000 people. In
the world of reptile I just want
to share my knowledge and
offsprings to minimize the
overexploitation in Indonesia.
I also enjoy the success of my
readers because I love tree
pythons and so I'm glad for
every single baby hatching.
There you see how internet
has turned so much
upside down. This kind of handmade music
in reference to these animals are things that you cannot create
digitally, and I think thats what I like the most about it. People
like me love nature an want to protect it. If I reach one of the
critics with my article than I am satisfied.
This issue is so extensive that I could go on endlessly, and maybe
in the end we would find out that there are more than a few
similarities. I think we should not forget why there are people
who feel attracted to each other. It's because this is the way we can
get mutually stronger and can stick togheter.