CARPENTER BRUT

Dropping surprise album Leather Teeth and bringing out a massive stage show, Carpenter Brut led the synthwave pack

Maybe the most surprising thing about 2018’s most intriguing and secretive new star is just how friendly and easygoing he is. Backstage at London’s Forum, the artist formerly known as Franck Hueso, familiar to you as Carpenter Brut, greets us with a warm handshake, a grin, and an incredibly Gallic, approving nod to our attire. It’s not the start you might have expected from the metal world’s hottest new mystery man. “I’m not too much into promotion,” he shrugs as we sit down to chat. That may be, but there’s a hell of a lot to unpack from the French synthwave pioneer’s last 12 months. Starting with the shock release of second record Leather Teeth in February.

“I get bored when bands endlessly tease something,” he explains. “You see all these social media posts and a dripfeed of information over many months. I think, ‘OK, I know the fucking album is finished! Just give it to me!’ I wanted to try and not make 10 video clips, just a warning a week before, and then it’s online. I don’t know if it was a good choice… but it was the choice I made.”

The rest of the year saw Carpenter Brut heading out to play “shows, shows, shows” as he garnered a reputation for ear-searing light displays and 80s movie-style visuals showing the antics of his character, Bret Halford, aka Leather Teeth. He played two sets of shows in the UK, and appeared at our very own Golden God Awards ceremony.

“I think I’ll buy an apartment over here,” he smiles. “I’m more in London than I am my proper house. If you’re important in England, you’re important everywhere. We all know that pop culture, and we all know the metal bands that came from here… many of my favourite bands, like Pink Floyd and Napalm Death, come from here. I feel like I can do music anywhere because I have been accepted in England. The atmosphere at [London’s] Koko was incredible, and such a beautiful venue.”

The metal scene seems to be gravitating towards this movement. Carpenter’s heavy take on synthwave, alongside the likes of Perturbator and Gost, is one of the most surprising developments to happen in our world.

“I didn’t expect it to happen like that,” he says, looking bewildered and shaking his head, when we ask if this was all part of the Carpenter Brut plan. “I am a metal fan, but I started making this music because I was getting very bored with the metal scene. I wanted to do something different. I was not prepared to have lots of metalheads in my audience. I have been a metalhead since I was a kid, and when I compose the art and the visuals, I really have so much of that in my head. Maybe the people feel that; the mixture of an electronic sound and a metal attitude.”

As someone who, lest we forget, is “not too much into promotion”, it’s no real shock to hear Carpenter Brut shrug off the suggestion he’s a trailblazer – a beacon of a new dawn for metal. In fact, he grins sheepishly as he recalls an interview where it was put to him that he’s a figurehead for this strange synthwave phenomenon.

“I had to tell him that I didn’t know,” he shrugs. “Maybe I am an important figure because I’ve done Coachella or other festivals, but synthwave is new in the metal scene. It’s between two waters as a genre, and it’s too early to say how far we can ride this music. If you ask James Hetfield, is he important to the metal scene, I’m pretty sure he says ‘yes’. There’s proof he is, in Master Of Puppets or the Black Album, but we’re too young to say that.”

But Carpenter Brut’s profile has undoubtedly grown over the last year. Franck talks about the surprise and excitement he felt when Ghost’s Tobias Forge asked him to remix the single Dance Macabre. He jumped at the chance.

“It was before Prequelle had come out and I hadn’t actually heard the song!” he laughs. “I said ‘yes’ straight away, and then had to actually listen to it. It was like, ‘Oh shit! I’ve really rushed into this. I’d better be able to actually do something with this song!’ Once I heard it, I thought, ‘Hmm… I need to push the poppy parts in this.’ I thought it was funny to give it a disco vibe.”

Overall, it’s been a hugely successful 2018. Or, in his own words, “tiring, yes, challenging, yes, but full of memorable experiences.” As for 2019? Well, you shouldn’t expect too much from him beyond some festival slots, but what he teases for further down the road sounds well worth the wait.

“The next album should come in 2020. I want it to have more punch and weight. Bret is going to become a serial killer, so it needs to be darker. More Nine Inch Nails. I tried to get Tobias on the record before and I’ll email him ’til death to get him on the album. I’m in touch with Deftones’ Chino Moreno, too. We nearly did something on the last album, but the schedule didn’t work. But he’s open to collaborate, so I hope for that.”

A Nine Inch Nails-style Ghost and Deftones mash-up from the Godfather Of Synthwave? 2018 has been great, but 2020 is looking well tasty already.

“Bret Halford is going to Become a serial killer”