Scorpio: Made Flesh - where does the title come from, and what are the themes of this album?
Martin Le Borgne: I wanted to talk about the overall human psyche, and Made Flesh was a way to express the incarnation of different characters throughout the songs we composed. So the name came from that. We had a few other ideas before, but this was the best fit. It’s not really a concept album, but—
Lucas Delay: A unifying theme, we’d say.
Your first album, Hollow, got a really good reception. You played Hellfest and opened for DEFTONES. But looking at your Spotify numbers, I’d expect them to be much higher. What do you think kept that initial success from translating into streaming numbers?
Lucas Delay: We don’t really know, and we try not to look too much at the stats and that kind of stuff. Honestly, I’m coming up short for a decent answer. Of course, the more people listen to our music, the better it makes us feel, in a way. But we also make music for ourselves first, and we try not to pay too much attention to how many people listen to us or what their opinion is. There’s obviously a contradiction at the heart of that, and as a musician you have to live with it, I guess. All I can say is I hope this will grow in a positive direction with the release of the new record.
And for fans who heard the Symbols EP that came out last year, what should they expect on the new album? More of the same, or something different?
Martin Le Borgne: The EP was actually recorded after the LP. We did it in more of a DIY process, recording a lot of it ourselves, which is half the reason the chronology is strange. I think the album is more produced.
Lucas Delay: A bit more polished, I’d say.
Martin Le Borgne: Yeah, more polished, more variety, more atmosphere. A more immersive experience.
Lucas Delay: At first the idea was to release the EP as a stopgap, to bridge the gap between the two albums. Some of the songs were actually much older, even though they were recorded after the second album, so it felt natural as a stepping stone between the two records.
Rémy D. Perrin: And to complete what my bandmates said, and bridge back to your question about Spotify: we sent Made Flesh to a lot of labels starting in fall 2024, while we were finishing the recording. Some got back to us, but I’ve lost count of how many messages said something like, “The album is great, but you don’t have enough followers on Spotify.” It was really frustrating. To keep busy while we waited, we decided to record the Symbols EP. Looking back, I think it kept us from becoming completely frustrated with the music industry at that time. I don’t know if my bandmates agree, but that’s my take.
Lucas Delay: There was some truth in that, yeah.
UNTITLED WITH DRUMS. Photo: Angelique Delabre
Isn’t that the label’s job, though, to help with promotion? It sounds like they expected you to already have the promotion and the following before they’d sign you.
Lucas Delay: Yeah, it’s the snake eating its own tail. It’s like applying for a job and being told you don’t have enough experience, but that’s exactly why you’re applying in the first place. We had to navigate around that.
Martin Le Borgne: We had to meet them halfway. They wanted a point they could start working from, and they couldn’t really work with a band that had gone quiet, with no news and no listeners. So we had to blow on the embers of the project to get their attention and their trust.
You ended up signing with Season of Mist. Did it help that the label is French, like you?
Lucas Delay: Maybe.
Martin Le Borgne: Yeah, but I don’t think they work with that many French bands.
Lucas Delay: I don’t think there are a lot of French bands on their roster.
Rémy D. Perrin: A big part of the team is in Marseille, but a lot of people there don’t even speak French while working. Still, I think it helped that the owner, Michael, is French. And for me, since I handle a lot of that outreach and my English isn’t great, it was probably easier to pitch the band to a French label than an English-language one. [laughs] I can’t really write in English. I think the label also knew our band because we’re French too, and he was familiar with our live shows in France, so he could tell we were a serious band. He took a risk signing us, and I appreciate that.
Did any other labels tell you your music sounds too much like early-2000s music: grunge, post-grunge, a sound from twenty years ago?
Lucas Delay: We haven’t really run into that kind of criticism, because it’s a trend that keeps coming back. It’s a cycle. The ’90s-ness and early-2000s-ness of our music hasn’t been a hindrance, maybe even the opposite. It’s not conscious on our part, but it just so happens we’re riding a trend that’s picking up again right now. We’ll see where it goes.
For this album you worked with a new producer, and you’ve already mentioned a more polished sound. What did he push you to do, or help you open up to?
Martin Le Borgne: He helped us get to where we already wanted to be. He was very respectful of how we wanted to sound, and a great technician. He helped us commit to our new direction, music that’s more direct, more straight to the point. It was a great experience, technically and personally. We were pushing our boundaries, playing above what we’d done before.
Rémy D. Perrin: And the particular thing is we didn’t record in a real studio. We recorded the album in what we call in France a salle des fêtes.
Lucas Delay: That one’s hard to translate: it’s basically a public—
Rémy D. Perrin: A public room.
Lucas Delay: A public space.
Rémy D. Perrin: A public space, yeah.
Lucas Delay: We have those in France, you can rent them for parties and other events. I’m trying to think of the equivalent in the US or UK, but I’m not sure there is one. It wasn’t a real studio either.
UNTITLED WITH DRUMS. Photo: Angelique Delabre
Martin Le Borgne: More like a small theater.
Lucas Delay: Yeah, basically.
Rémy D. Perrin: It’s a theater and a cinema, and a lot of other activities you’d find in a small French town. It’s in the town where we rehearse and where I live, so we had access to the space. It’s a different experience than a studio, because you’re not stuck with one kind of sound: there are so many possible configurations, and you have to experiment with the room itself. Cyrille Gachet, who recorded us, is a real producer in that sense, because he tried every space to get the best sound out of it. It’s harder than a studio, but in the end you get a record that doesn’t sound like anyone else’s.
Lucas Delay: It’s a situation where you don’t really know what to expect going in, but that also breeds creativity, recording somewhere unusual instead of a proper studio. We basically turned a small theater into a recording studio for ten days.
What were the main challenges? I’d imagine the technical side: setting up all the microphones properly. Did you record separately, or more live, the way some bands rehearse everything and track it together?
Rémy D. Perrin: Honestly, the heat was the real challenge. [laughs]
Lucas Delay: We recorded in the middle of a heat wave.
Rémy D. Perrin: Yeah.
Lucas Delay: Probably something we’ll get more of here in France. As for the recording itself, drums and bass were tracked live, like on the first record. We like having those two foundational parts recorded together. Everything else, the other instruments and the vocals, was recorded separately.
Let’s talk about the cover. It’s this red, blood-like mask. What does it symbolize?
Martin Le Borgne: I wanted it to represent the kind of mask every song on the album is, in a way. I was going for something close to the écorché figure, a flayed figure, so—
Lucas Delay: Being flayed, exactly.
Martin Le Borgne: Right. I wanted to keep it very stripped down. I’m a graphic designer, so I wanted one dominant color and not too much detail, no landscape or anything like that. Something you’d recognize right away and remember, and something that ties into the album’s themes. Since the record is about human beings, a face felt like the obvious choice.
Made Flesh — the flayed red mask, no logo, no title: "I wanted one detail, one thing that says a lot." Artwork by Martin Le Borgne.
You also chose not to put the logo or the album title on the cover. I’ve seen a few other bands, including some on Season of Mist, do the same lately. Is that a trend, or what drove the decision?
Martin Le Borgne: I think it’s how we consume music now, mostly digitally. I didn’t want the artwork cluttered with information you don’t really need. Wherever you’re listening, you can always find the artist’s name and the title. It’s displayed somewhere on the screen anyway.
Lucas Delay: Right, it’s displayed somewhere else on the screen anyway. [laughs]
Martin Le Borgne: Yeah, I just didn’t want to load it down visually. That’s what drove the decision.
You’ve already released three singles ahead of the album’s release at the end of August. Why these three specifically?
Martin Le Borgne: It wasn’t an easy choice, because we like all the songs we recorded. “Matter” was the first single for us, because of how varied the riffs are and how the song progresses. It showcases the choices we made in the mix, putting certain elements up front. The vocals are very in-your-face, the guitars have a grit we didn’t have before, so that song represented what we wanted to do with the album as a whole. After that, we picked “Shame” and “Oblivious” for their atmosphere. Like I said, the album has range and variety, and we wanted those two songs to show that: something more punk-ish, something more atmospheric.
With the album nearly out, what are your touring or festival plans? It’s festival season. Are you playing anywhere this summer?
Martin Le Borgne: Booking for this summer came together too late for us, so we’re looking at next year to properly bring the album to the stage. We’re open to gigs through the end of the year, but nothing major is confirmed yet beyond a small festival in France and a few shows in our hometown.
Rémy D. Perrin: We’re actually in talks with a booking agency about lining up shows for 2027.
Lucas Delay: We’re waiting to see how the album is received before deciding how to move forward. There were also some personal life events that kept us from playing much in 2026, around the time of the release, but that’s fine.
Fingers crossed the album does well and the shows follow. Let’s talk influences: you already mentioned the ’90s and early-2000s feel of your sound, the mix of alt-rock, grunge and post-grunge. I’ve seen comments, especially about the “Oblivious” intro, comparing it to NIRVANA. What are your main musical influences?
Martin Le Borgne: There are a lot. We recognize ourselves in the new wave of grunge-gaze bands, like SUPERHEAVEN or NARROW HEAD. Like them, we draw from the ’90s, but I never wanted to sound like some tribute act glorifying that era. The production back then wasn’t perfect, but I always wondered how those bands would sound if they were putting out music today. Some of them are still around, like DEFTONES or QUICKSAND, but a lot disappeared in the early 2000s. We keep all of them as influences, but we’re really aiming for the bands that passed the test of the new millennium: DEFTONES, QUICKSAND, HUM, FAILURE, HELMET, and more like them.
UNTITLED WITH DRUMS. Photo: Angelique Delabre
I know it’s hard for musicians to pick a favorite song on their own album. They’re like children, you’re not supposed to have a favorite. But let’s do it anyway. Pick your favorite song from the new record, and why.
Lucas Delay: Let me think… I’d say “Been So High,” because it’s so different from anything we’ve done before. It’s probably the riskiest song we’ve put out, and that’s exactly why I’m picking it.
Martin Le Borgne: I’ll pick the same one, honestly, because at least it’s trying something we’ve never done. It’s hard to describe: it’s a bright song, it doesn’t have the darkness or urgency of the others, but it pushed us in a direction that excites me. I also really like “Shame.” It has an anthem quality to it, and it’s simple to play and sing, so I like it for that too.
Rémy D. Perrin: I like “Shame” for the same reason. But I’ll say “Parasitic,” because it’s a song with a lot of nuance, pauses in the intent, and it’s where we start introducing electronic drums bit by bit. That’s a direction I want to explore more in the future. So, “Parasitic” for me.
For people discovering UNTITLED WITH DRUMS for the first time with this album, what do you want them to take away from it?
Martin Le Borgne: I want them to compare it to the albums and EPs we’ve made before and see that we’re always evolving. You won’t hear the same album twice, I hope. We’ll always try something new, always push things further, sometimes in ways people won’t like, but we’re always experimenting. I don’t want to be the kind of band where you hear one album and assume everything we make will sound the same. I want people to be stimulated by what they hear, and to feel like the next chapter will be different, and hopefully even more exciting.
Lucas Delay: I completely agree with Martin, we’re all very much on the same page about that approach. We don’t want to repeat ourselves, and we hope people notice that as we go.
Rémy D. Perrin: And personally, I want to tell listeners: if you like DEFTONES or NIRVANA, you’ll probably find something you like in our music. Just as importantly, we’re not a singles band, and we’re not trying to flood streaming platforms with songs. We’d rather people listen to the whole album, start to finish. I hope people will do that with this one.
Made Flesh is out August 21 via Season of Mist.
Thanks to Will Yarbrough at Season of Mist for arranging this interview.
UNTITLED WITH DRUMS: www.season-of-mist.com/bands/untitled-with-drums
Follow UNTITLED WITH DRUMS: