Interviews: Untitled With Drums

On this new occasion, we had the opportunity to interview the Alternative Rock band Untitled With Drums from France. Check out the interview and follow the band on their FACEBOOK PAGE.

1. Made Flesh is your second album—what were the main goals you set for yourselves going into the writing and recording process?

Rémy D. Perrin: I think that, like any band, we mainly wanted to make a record better than the previous one. Despite its release at the beginning of COVID, our first album Hollow did well and allowed us to play a lot of great shows, including Hellfest, Desertfest London, and even supporting Deftones. It didn't put pressure on us; on the contrary, it encouraged us to do even better. We also wanted each musician to be more involved in the production stage.

Martin Le Borgne: When I write music, my first instinct is always to synthesize what worked best from our previous sounds and keep the essence of it. Our influences have become more accessible, more 'straight to the point', with fewer instrumental lengths. While we tended to keep things artistically vague before,, the goal of this album was rather to bring a higher level of detail and riffing. Cyrille Gachet (producer) particularly helped us affirm these choices, from rhythmic details to the overall sound direction.

2. The album title Made Flesh is quite striking. What does it mean to you, and how does it reflect the record as a whole?

Martin: The concept of the album is to embody, in turn, different characters to explore different facets of the human psyche. At first, I thought of naming the album “Incarnate,” and then, bit by bit, Made Flesh remained more intriguing. This title evokes something rawer, more tangible, and corresponds more to our overall approach.

Rémy: We don't contribute to Martin's lyrics. At the end of the songwriting process, we have a discussion about what the album name could be. That's when we collectively establish the theme of the record. Personally, I don't try too hard to dissect the content of the lyrics. I'm quite comfortable in a situation where I have my own interpretation of the phrases chosen for the song titles and the few phrases that catch my ear when we play... I think that's a comfortable position. It really shows that you can have a collective artistic project while each of us is expressing something that's uniquely ours.

3. How would you say Made Flesh differs from your debut, both musically and lyrically?

Rémy: We wanted to explore further the alt-rock sounds that were already present on our previous album (Hollow) with a more "frontal", more "energetic" musical approach. We also wanted to go even further with structures and rhythms, trying to include more dynamics in our songs, breaks, contrasts... We found that Hollow was quite a linear record. Martin has also made enormous progress in his singing between the two albums, and he explored this more melodic side; he dared to take lyrical flights... which is partly due to Cyrille Gachet, who pushed him in that direction.

4. "Matter" has been chosen as the lead single. What made it the right introduction to this new chapter of UNTITLED WITH DRUMS?

Martin: It was a difficult choice in that we don't think ahead about the 'highlights' of the album. The catchy and frontal side of the vocals is an argument, along with a certain variety in the riffs and structure. All of that probably made it more exciting to listen to in order to capture the attention of listeners who don't know the band yet.

5. The press release mentions that becoming a quartet ultimately strengthened the band. How did that change influence the songwriting and recording process? 

Rémy: The album recording wasn't too impacted by the line-up change because it happened after. Our rhythm guitarist at the time laid guitars on the record. But during recording, some of us recorded rhythm guitar doublings to bulk up certain passages. Personally, I really liked this way of working because it allowed me to get even more involved in the production. Today, we know it's probably a recipe we'll generalize for the band's next album, but nothing is set in stone. Today, live, for this album, we'll still be a five-piece, with a live guitarist. We don't know what will happen next.

Martin: Moving to four makes it easier to find a balance between the different roles, whether rhythmic, melodic, or in terms of sonic textures. We still want to be careful that moving to a quartet doesn't compromise the intensity and density of the music we play, particularly live.

6. You worked with Cyrille Gachet on the production of the album. What did he bring to the sessions that helped shape the final sound?

Rémy: We wanted to go even further with production and take more time than we did for our first album, where we spent a bit less time in the studio. It was our very first experience at the time, and we were guided a bit more by the producer (Serge Morattel, Rec Studio, Geneva, Switzerland) because that's what we needed back then. For Made Flesh, we already knew a bit more about what we wanted. So our approach wasn't the same: we didn't go looking for a studio or producer that would help us sound a certain way; we rather looked for someone willing to work more collaboratively with us.

The choice to work with Cyrille Gachet was made because he was the only one who really understood where we wanted to go. He made us aware of the importance of being more decisive/less wishy-washy about choosing an effect, a break... He really helped us with synths and figuring out where they should appear. As a result, there’s less of them compared to Hollow, and yet they sound better; they bring more dynamics to the record. He also taught us to think in terms of intention, to have more of a macro vision of our songs. That's leading us to think differently about the next records we'll make. 

Martin: Cyrille was notably chosen for this record for his ability to produce, beyond recording and mixing. He intervened at several points in the process while scrupulously respecting the direction we wanted. In our view, his level of involvement was perfect for people like us who wanted to keep maximum control while benefiting from the advice of an outside ear.

7. Were there any particular themes, emotions, or experiences that inspired the lyrics across Made Flesh?

Martin: No particular event, at least not consciously. I hope that, as intended, the listener will easily be able to recognize themself at least a little through each song as its themes are rather universal: selfishness, self-esteem, anxiety or even denial.

8. Is there a song on the album that best represents where UNTITLED WITH DRUMS is creatively in 2026? Why that track?

Rémy: Space or Parasitic, because those are songs with a lot of nuance, gaps in the intentions, as well as electronic drums that we introduce bit by bit.

Martin: We're still thinking about how we'd like to sound in the future. But indeed, songs like Oblivious, Space, or Parasitic are the ones that best showcase our arsenal. They're the most enjoyable to play today.

9. Having completed the album, was there a moment during recording when you realized you had created something special?

Rémy: I'm not sure if we ever felt that we had created something special. We first felt something quite strong at the end of the first studio session with Cyrille, when we listened to the rough mixes and we told ourselves that the record was already there. We even thought there wouldn't be any more surprises, even with the mix. And when we received the mixes of the record, we had a kind of automatic smile, we wrote to each other and said "wow, that sounds really American there" haha. The result was clearly above our expectations.

Martin: The recording session was particularly challenging for us in that our ambitions in terms of results were sometimes beyond our skills. Being confronted with our own limitations helped us progress enormously.

10. What do you hope listeners take away from Made Flesh after experiencing it from beginning to end?

Martin: The record is very diverse. For me personally, I really like the idea that this album represents a kind of crossroads in which we explore several things, in terms of style, lyrics, and sound. I find it stimulating to think that among all these doors that have been opened, one of them will open onto the next chapter of our music. And at that point, some of the dials that have been pushed will necessarily be pushed even further.

Rémy: We mostly hope they'll understand that it's still cool in 2026 to listen to an album from beginning to end: it’s a coherent artistic vision that you don't get when you just listen to singles released in dribs and drabs to feed the streaming platforms!

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