Halloween is one of the first progressive rock bands from France that emerged in the late eighties. So far, the band released four studio albums: Part One (1988), Laz (1989), Merlin (1994), and Le Festin (2001), and the live album Silence... Au Dernier Rang (1998). It took the band twenty-four (!) years to release their sixth album. The new album is called Psy-Ko and distributed by Musea Records. It is a double album with a playing time of more than seventy minutes. Of course, we from Background Magazine, wanted to know why it took so long to write and record a new album, and what Psy-Ko is all about. So, we asked founding member and keyboard player Gilles Coppin for an interview. He got a little help from female singer Géraldine Le Cocq

Would you please tell our readers something about the beginning of the band when Halloween released four studio albums?

Gilles Coppin

"If I remember well, we started Halloween in 1982 as a trio. At the time, the band members were Gilles Coppin (keyboards, lead vocals), Jean-Philippe Brun (violin, guitar, bass, lead vocals) and Thierry Gillet (drums). With quite a bunch of local gigs, we built step by step a repertoire and a reputation that led to national events such as Printemps de Bourges, and - thanks to Musea Records - to our first album Part One in 1988. Our debut album was quite appreciated by the people from the progressive rock scene, and we were warmly supported by Musea. So, we kept on working with Laz in 1989, introducing Philippe Di Faostino on drums, and the more ambitious symphonic concept album Merlin in 1994 with Géraldine Le Cocq being the new singer of the band. Merlin allowed us to reach more international recognition, and moreover the album opened the doors to Progfest in Los Angeles (USA) in 1994, and to Baja Prog, the annual progressive rock festival in Mexico, where we played twice. We played Le Festin, released in 2001, live on stage during the second visit of Baja Prog."

Your formerly released albums are no longer available. Do you consider reissuing them again with bonus tracks?
"We have a few CDs left from some of the first five albums. Some of these CD versions we have already extended with bonus tracks from their initial vinyl versions. Up to now, we do not plan to reissue them, but instead we think now about future productions."

You played on all the released albums. Where you the one who brought the band together after a hiatus of 24 years? What was the reason to get back together?

Cédric Monjour and Géraldine Le Cocq

"I'm not the only founder of the band, Jean-Philippe is co-founder as well! The covid pandemic was the trigger to reanimate the band. Jean-Philippe and I, and soon after Philippe and Géraldine, we all stated that it was too bad not to work any longer on Halloween's repertoire, and so we started again in 2021. The first step was to play our music live on stage, and that's what we did in November 2021. You can check that out on our YouTube page, although the sound is not that good. Guitarist Cédric Monjour and bassist Romain Troly accepted the challenge to join us. Everything was going well, and we even succeeded in finding a new sound for the band. After this gig in November and the two after that, we wrote new compositions. Then we decided to record a new album with a new line-up and the result was Psy-Ko!"

Why are the former guitarist and bassist not involved in the recording of the new album?
"We had a twenty-four-year hiatus between Le Festin and Psy-Ko! Time enough for all band members to do other things and work on new projects. We rebuilt the band around Jean-Philippe, Philippe, Géraldine and me. Philippe suggested asking Cédric to join the band since he had been working with him for a while, and Cédric suggested asking his friend Romain to join. And so, a new Halloween was born."

Your music is difficult to pigeonhole and to compare to other acts. I can only think of names such as Frank Zappa, King Crimson or UK who might have been influenced your music. How would you name your musical style, and which bands were an inspiration for Halloween?
"Being original is certainly the best compliment you can give! Every band member has its own musical references, and this partly results in our musical style, but indeed, it seems quite difficult to classify our music. Formerly, Jean-Philippe for instance, was inspired by bands as Led Zeppelin and Gentle Giant, Philippe is a fan of Gino Vannelli and Bill Bruford, Géraldine will undoubtedly mention Faith No More and King's X. The favourite bands of Romain are Opeth and Steven Wilson, and I think Cédric would have chosen Riverside as well as some traditional British bands. Personally, King Crimson, UK, early Genesis, Magma and Van der Graaf Generator were my prog heroes. However, despite all these influences we try to define our own musical style! We heard that Psy-Ko differs from our previous albums, but on the other hand we try to ensure a kind of continuity. Of course, we belong to the progressive rock category, with flavours from jazz, fusion and Psy-Ko metal."

I think Halloween consists of excellent musicians, but how did you work together in order to compose new material, and why did it become a double album since the music lasts no longer than seventy minutes?
"Thanks for your compliments! Well, the tracks on Psy-Ko are partially based on former ideas that never became completed, and on new compositions. These compositions are very heterogenous. In some cases, almost everything

L to R: Romain Troly and Jean Philippe Brun

was written, and in others, a lot was left to each band member to adapt some passages. All band members have their own input, but that must be the case with any prog band, I presume. We didn't focus on the duration of the album, but we had a number of tracks in mind to record, and honestly, I don't know the reason! Only at the end we discussed weather it has to become an LP or a CD. The total duration led to a double vinyl album, but that would have been too expensive and too long to produce, at least for a first batch, so we switched to a double CD version."

What does Psy-Ko mean? Is it a concept album, and if so, what is the story about?
"We had a lot of discussions within the band to think of an adequate name for the album. This was done at the end of the process. The album was not intended to be a concept album, but in general all lyrics described more or less mental disorders except Igor S. We thought of many strange names like I(Gnom)inies and Wonky Wonky, amongst others, but finally it became Psy-Ko. The name must be considered as a rephrase of 'psycho' that also refers to mental illness. So, briefly, we tried to express some kind of coherence in the different lyrical themes without the idea of making a concept album."

Would you please tell our readers what the lyrics of the songs are all about?
"Well, you can have access to a rough translation of our lyrics on our website. The translation of the lyrics is a bit difficult because we often play with double or indirect senses, and these are hard to translate in another language. I don't want to go into the details, but only in general terms. Transe

Philippe Di Faostino

describes the effect of having too much empathy with people and therefore getting a personal dissociation. Crise De Foi expresses inner thoughts of a schizophrenic religious fanatic who radicalizes and finally becomes a terrorist. Gnomes describes barbarous behaviours of mining rare minerals all over the world just only to satisfy the powerful and the rich. At the time we wrote this song, we didn't know that it was currently happening in Ukraine. In Nostalgie we tried to express the inner thoughts of a woman struck by Alzheimer that deprives her from nostalgia. Frustration speaks for itself, Cochon De Laid is about the extreme and calumnious behaviour of the social network and the MeToo movement, which is far beyond decency. Plume De Plomb is the story of a serial killer accessing the Egyptian challenge of the videogame Amenti. After crossing the river of death, he discovers there's finally no difference between being a killer or not... Finally, Igor S. that deviates a bit from the overall theme. The song is devoted to Igor Sikorsky, the Russian inventor of the helicopter, who regretfully had to flee his country in the 1920s. Of course, with most of these dark lyrics we don't agree. We don't promote but regret all these mental disorders!"

Igor S. is sung in the Russian language. How difficult was it to sing in this language?
"The reason why we use the Russian language has to do with Igor Sikorsky's feelings when he quit Russia. About the difficulties of singing in the Russian language, I gladly leave that to Géraldine!"
Géraldine le Cocq: "His whole life Igor Sikorsky remained nostalgic of his homeland. I wanted to include these feelings in the song, so I wrote the lyrics in French, and translated them in Russian with the help of a Russian friend. To integrate these lyrics into the music to work together was the toughest part, as I had written the melodies beforehand."

Are you going to perform the new album in its entirety fore a live audience?
"That is, indeed, our next objective! We will be rehearsing in the coming weeks, and we have the intention to do a local, a national and - why not? - a European tour to promote the album. We think about a two-hours set in an extended version. Now, we only have to find some appropriate dates. We would be delighted to organize some gigs in the Netherlands in venues where we never played before. This is really a call for help!"

Why do you sing in the French language, and not in the much more common English language? Singing in English would probably attract more listeners from outside France?
"Well, that's a good question! However, we have several reasons to make this choice. First of all: before Géraldine joined the band, we suffered from what we assume to be a bad English accent. You might consider what is better: singing with a bad English accent or singing in one's own language! Secondly, our third album Merlin, which is a concept album, was based on the French novel Merlin by Michel Rio, and it would have been strange to write English lyrics from this French source. Finally, even if we do not promote the lyrics, it's easier for us to play with words and their different meanings in French than in English. But I agree that this choice has disadvantages as well. As you stated, it may be a barrier for non-French speakers, so for that reason we included the translation of the lyrics in the cover for our fourth album Le Festin, and on our website for Psy-Ko. Another drawback with French is its prosody and sound, which is not always suitable to rock music as English. To compensate this, it often leads to a more theatrical expression."

What are the future plans for the band?
"Gigs, gigs, and again gigs as many as we can! And preferably local, national and international. But simpler: promote Psy-Ko and possibly make newbies in prog music discover our full discography. We were out of the picture for a long time, and I think that many people don't even know our name. And after the gigs - why not? - we think about a new album."

Thank you for answering all my questions Gilles!
"You're welcome Henry!"