INTERVIEW – Julien (Doktryn)
Published on July 16, 2011 by Christian Sellers · No Comments
While France has never been known for its metal scene, it has produced an array of successful dance acts. Europe’s industrial metal scene, however, has flourished over the last fifteen years, with artists such as KMFDM, Rammstein and Combichrist gaining major acclaim overseas.
Doktryn were formed in Paris by two movie fanatics called Julien and Stephane, whose main influence was the Martin Scorcese classic Taxi Driver. Their sole release to date is the self-financed EP All U Need is Love, which is available via the band’s ReverbNation page.
Julien discusses his influences and Doktryn‘s experiences on the Paris independent scene.
France has a very prominent dance scene, with some of the more commercial acts being Daft Punk and Air. How has this style of music influenced the electronic sound of Doktryn?
“I would not refer to Daft Punk or Air as an influence but I am really interested in the sound they have and I think to bring a little bit of it into our music could really make a difference.”
You refer to Doktryn as an “electro/dark band,” but how would you define this description?
“I would define this description as the combination of modern elecronic musical elements and dark provocative, depressive (but honest in some way) lyrics. It is really hard for us to define the style of Doktryn, as we do not want to be part of any scene.”
Some of your songs are not too dissimilar to the type of music produced by Combichrist, as well as earlier industrial acts like Ministry and KMFDM. There are even occasional echoes of John Carpenter’s film scores. Who would you cite as your key inspirations?
“Combichrist is definitely one of the bands that I listen the most these days. As to the other bands you mentionned, as well as Carpenter’s film scores, I can’t say they have been an influence for me. It is true though that I am very keen on the sounds of the early industrial bands.”
Through your artwork, song titles and audio samples, you regular reference Martin Scorsese’s 1976 classic Taxi Driver. What is it about this specific film that has affected you so much as an artist?
“It is the one of the movies that affected me the most. It was really disturbing to feel so close to the main caracter, Travis Bickle. The way he was overwhelmed by the violence that was surrounding him and the way he responded to that… I really saw myself through him, as I was very close to going crazy that way in the past.”
Are you concerned that referencing the movie so much could cause some kind of copyright infringement or have you obtained the necessary clearance?
“I am not concerned about it even though I did not obtained the clearance. I don’t think that All U Need is Love will sell enough to cause any trouble!”
Cinema obviously plays an important role in influencing your music. Which soundtracks or movies do you feel have helped shape your band and do you hope to eventually work on a film score?
“It is always a movie in itself that is an influence and not that much the soundtrack of it. There are a lot of movies that shaped Doktryn, like Sucide Club, Noriko’s Dinner Table, SALO or the 120 days of Sodom, The Chaser, Satyricon, Tokyo Fist, all Almodóvar’s movies and a thousand others!!!
I would really love to work on a film score, but Doktryn style is so peculiar that it would need a lot of adjustments to translate all the emotions that a good movie soundtrack has to translate.”
What is Doktryn’s greatest achievement to date and what goals have you set for yourselves for the foreseeable future?
“The greatest achievement to date is that we are now commited to Doktryn and ready to release a lot of music. Our current projects is to release an album before the end of the year and also to play live. We are also discussing about a video clip. We are ready to fuck you all up!”
