The French progressive metal band Klone return with their latest album Here Comes The Sun. The group's guitarist Guillaume Bernard gives us the scoop on the new record, tour plans, his musical background, favorite French metal bands and more.

Chad Bowar: You've had a lineup change since the last album. How did guitarist Aldrick Guadagnino come to join the band a couple years ago?
Guillaume Bernard: Aldrick has been playing guitar with Klone since the Dreamer's Hideaway album.


Beforehand, he was playing guitar with the bands Trepalium and StepIn Fluid. He's a great guitarist and vibes very well with the band. He is also a great frontman!

How did the songwriting process for Here Comes The Sun compare to your previous albums?
The songwriting process isn’t very different than before, we’re just focusing all of our energy on newer, fresher material. We wanted to do something more organic and we needed to prove to ourselves that we were able to push the limits of what we were already doing.

What are the pros and cons of producing the album yourselves?
We do work with a sound engineer to mix and master our sound, but yes, we did record it originally ourselves. Our engineer, Francis Castes, did a perfect job. There are a lot of pros to recording an album ourselves, including the fact that we have all the time we need and we can record without stress. We’re also able to take all the time we need to try different things and play around with ideas. Having the ability to change what doesn't work on the finalmusical arrangement, even down to the last minute, is important.

On the other hand the cons are very boring: problems with computer systems, parasitic noise, problems with electricity, etc.

How did you decide to cover the song "Summertime?"
I have great memories of this song. I studied it a bit at school when I was 10 years old. We like the mood and the spirit if the original song, but we really wanted to "Klonify" it by making it our own. With the name of our album being Here Comes the Sun, it was impossible to not have this track to close the album.

How has the band's sound evolved/progressed on this album?
To put it plain and simple, I’ll just tell you what stands out to me differently: more reverb on every instrument, less distortion on the guitars, acoustic drum sound, no triggers. We needed a lot of air in the sound to achieve something very atmospheric. We wanted to make music that inspires your spirit to travel to another place.

How did you come to sign with Klonosphere/Pelagic Records?
I'm the owner of Klonosphere, so I was speaking with myself and I decided to sign me: easy! About Pelagic Records, Robin at the label was really motivated to work with us and he wanted to do a worldwide release. He truly enjoys and is passionate about the new album. I know that he is doing his best with our record. He's also working on a beautiful vinyl edition of the album, which is new for us.

What are your upcoming tour plans?
We have 30 gigs coming up in France and Europe, and we also have seven gigs coming up in Australia, which will be our first time playing there. We really want to play in the U.S. and Canada, and we’re hoping to have those opportunities soon.

What has been your most memorable Klone live show?
Probably our show at Koko London with Gojira and Trepalium in 2012. It was a very good show with perfect sound. Definitely one of the best venues we have ever played. Another great show was when we played on the main stage at the Hellfest Festival in France. It was a really important show.

How did you get started in music?
I started playing music by taking classical guitar lessons at 8 years old. Later, I began playing  electric guitar and performed solo and also in a cover band. We played Ugly Kid Joe, Nirvana, Therapy and Sepultura songs.

Who were your early influences and inspirations?
The Beatles, The Doors, King Crimson, Metallica, Pantera, Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, and Pink Floyd, to name a few.

What was the first metal show you attended as a fan?
Machine Head at Nantes in France with Entombed in 1997.

What are your all time top 5 French hard rock/metal bands?
Hacride, Trepalium, 7 Weeks, Lizzard and Soundcrawler

What's currently in heavy rotation in your MP3 player?
King Crimson - Red, James Blake - Overgrown and Bartok Complete Works.

(interview published April 22, 2015)