The Future is Now with Voivod’s Away & Chewy - Hell’s Heroes VIII 2026 Interview

0:04 Hi, you love Done to be sens shirt and. W for see Why Were You Young? This is the pipe Man here on the Adventures of Pipe Man, W four see Why Radio and I'm here with. Away from and Jewey from Loivod. Oh my god, I just have to say that. The first thing I have to say is I had my warm Pain shirt out today to wear it, and then I thought about for a second, because I have this rule at festivals. I'm like, I won't wear a band unless they're like, you know, Ozzie, I won't wear a band shirt that while I'm doing interviews because I don't want the other bands to like, why you wear my shirt? So I'm interviewing Sanctuary later, so I was like, yeah, maybe I shouldn't wear that shirt today.

1:06 I'll wear it tomorrow. But I tell you, one thing I really loved about your set here at Hell's Heroes is how much fun you were having. Like to be doing this for forty four years and still have that much fun and smiling the whole time. That's what it's all about. Yeah, It's just it's fun to play music and I can't stop personally, and I just love it's really contagious as well. So people smile back at us and it's a big party. It's really cool. Yeah, and you know what, I have to hats off to you too, Like forty four years playing the drums and still being able to have that energy.

1:50 I don't know if I could do it. I have a lot of energy, but I. Think it's one of the most underrated things of how much you have to put into it. I mean, like, even look at Neil Pierre, you know, I mean like he couldn't really do it towards the end. Yeah, it's luckily I don't have any anything going wrong with my wrists and I'm being careful. And also I pretty much stopped partying more than twenty five years ago because I wanted to keep going. I saw a long time ago Tommy Aldridge with White Snake, and I thought, if I want to be that guy, I better you know, take care of myself, eat well and all that so I can still go for I still have a few years left.

2:33 I think I love it. I love it. I saw Tommy with Ozzy. That was cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I saw Randy with that was super cool. I even saw Pat Travers play guitar for Ozzy. Because after Randy died that year. I saw three guitarists of Ozzie, Randy, Brad Gillis and Pat Travers. I think Pat Travers played like one show. Wow. I didn't know that. Wow. Irish was playing Pat Travers at first in the seventies. Wow, look at that. So how about you, how does it feel to be doing this all these years? Man? A bit it's a bit of the context is that, you know, I was a fan of the band when I was eleven and twelve years old.

3:18 I'm a bit younger. I was listening to Piggy and the band and the composition, and I've been a fan since then. And I bought a guitar after that, and I wanted to, you know, start a band myself. And you know, tragically Piggy. Passed away in two thousand and five, and or for everybody, I think, even the guys in the band, the band was over, you know, like yeah, and this opportunity of playing a festival and there was an offer and they sneaking away thought about it, and we kind of met a few times before that, and it was supposed to be only one show in two thousand and eight, you know, to pay tribute to tribute to Piggy and like say hi to the crowd, and we never stopped since then.

4:00 So it's been eighteen years or so. I'm in the band and I enjoy it, and every time we go out and we tour, it's like just intribute to Piggy every night, and you know, and composing and putting our albums and the energy is there and the fun like like we said earlier, like we have fun. So yeah, it's hard to stop when you when you have fun. Otherwise, what's it used to be in the music business if you're not having fun because the rest of it sucks. Yeah, it's yeah, with the music business, there are many ups and downs, and now it's of course with streaming it's difficult. But thankfully we are the type of bands that we sell a lot of merch and that's it's really handy on the road. And also we one of the bands on Sony that's sell a lot of physical like CITs vinyls. So I think that the old school bands are still selling merch and CDs and vinyls. Otherwise, for a younger bands, it must be pretty tough. They have all the tools Internet and all that, but there are like thousands and thousands of bands, and you really have to find your own signature.

5:13 So people to be noticed, you know. And yeah, I always talk about on my interviews. I tell my listeners, like, if they don't buy the band's merch they can't listen to my show because it's the only way you guys make money. Nowadays, Spotify is fucking everybody over, you know. And it's like even in my business with streaming, I own streaming radio stations, un licensed, pay royalties, do the reporting, and some of my you know, I would say colleagues, but they're not really colleagues. They're like, well, they should just be happy I played their music. I'm like, do you work for free? Exactly. Yeah. My philosophy about streaming is that I will never blame people for using the service because it's amazing how it works, you know.

5:59 Yeah, it's not their fault. It's not their fault. So it's I think it's the whole system behind it and the way the money is distributed. But I'm talking about like the people, not the listeners, but like the other streaming radio stations that they don't get askabs, CE, SACS, Sound Exchange, BMI, you know, so so can and all those licensing and actually like pay the artists, you know, that's I think. That's what you should do. And I want to get back to Emerch because there was something really cool I saw at your merch table. But I do want to take a second to talk about Piggy because I was so impressed and like felt so cool when I was at your website and you have a page just dedicated to him, Like to me, that says everything I need to know about the band.

6:52 Yeah, biggie, I mean, he was our mentor and we were always a step behind trying to catch up with him. And you know, he started very young, and he was when we met him, he was already super good and we uh basically on the first three four albums, I was still learning how to to play, but he was already up there, you know, and many people's hero and very influential. So he will always be known as the innovator. But unfortunately he was pretty young when he passed. Yeah, it's unfortunately. And one thing about him too that I really like, being an old school metal head from back then. It's like band nowadays and metal. A lot of new bands I always say they felt like this algebraic equation, like it's a formula to make metal, and metal in the beginning was about experimentation. That's exactly what Piggy was all about.

7:49 Yeah, he was not only listening to metal. I mean, he was really into Anville and raising and thank and but he liked the crowd rock, modern composer like classical music, and also avant garde music, and so he was interested in everything. He absorbed everything. He was a bit less into punk rock than Snake and I, but we were there to bring the punk rock limit. And that's the thrash element right there, exactly. Yeah, and let's go back to the merch. So I was looking at the stuff and I know about your book. That's super cool. But then I saw the kids book.

8:30 Yeah, your merch guy didn't even know about it till he started working with you guys. I'm like, wow, that's really cool. And it's all French, so it's. Like totally cool. Yeah, who came up with that idea. It's a guy from Quebec and he just it's actually a publisher that they do on the kids book, and so he came up with this trash meddle book explained to kids and so it's just we're very bad with really cool drawings, and we love it. We love it. It's selling very well actually. And nobody else does that. I know all the bands are doing beer whiskey. You guys are doing a kids book.

9:13 I love it. We do have beers and hot sauce and all that, but this is like the item that everybody loves. I'm also very excited about this year. And you could correct me if I'm wrong, but I saw that not only are you going to do a new album, not only are you going to do a live album, but you're going to do. A video game. And I'm a gamer, so that was pretty cool. Yeah, and you tell me about the video games. It's a very talented guy, Nicole, and he did a video for US Target Earth, and he came up with the idea of doing like this end of eighties early nineties style of visuals for the video game. We can't wait until it comes out. We were Rocky is testing it right now. It says it's amazing nice. Yeah, and so yeah, it's why one of the crazy things that happens to us. And I also, I mean we lately we've been doing shows with the Symphony Orchestra. That's another trill.

10:14 So we're going to release a live album in June with Quebec City Symphony Orchestra. Wow. Yeah, that's way cool. Yes, And so what haven't you done, like in all four years? Soundtrack? Yeah, that's what we want to do, science fiction movie soundtrack. I was gonna mention too, like, even better than that, a science sci fi movie about Voyvod. Yeah, I mean it'd be great to have an animated movie with the characters. Yeah, yeah, that'd be really great. I mean, the only being a rock and roll drummer on the road and in the studio all the time, it'd be hard for me to come up with an animated movie. But I've seem lately my drawings animated by AI and it's pretty impressive. So that could be something.

11:06 Except that I'm torn because it's it's not really great for the environment, and so because of all the water it takes to a cool the electronics and all that. Yeah, besides, the machines are going to take over, like we've been saying since the eighties, nobody believed us. Then it's kin that it's it's gone right exactly, Sky ned his ear. So also, I want to say something I really loved about your set. Something you did. There's some kid that crowd served came over and he fought like ten like not really fighting, but the security guards ten of them are trying to stop him and he's like reaching out to get your guitar pick and you.

12:00 Reach out and he got it. And I was like, that's bad ass, that dude. Well remember that forever. Yeah, Yeah, it's great. I mean the kids are so amazing, you know, like the mush bit and the screaming and the you know, chanting the band's name between songs, and they're young kids. You know, they were not there in the eighties, they were not there in the nineties, but. They know their old school stuff and they appreciate it and they relive this era so to speak, you know, and we're still there playing the music and they know this stuff, you know, they know their metal. And that's why I love nowadays because when I was okay, so when I was in LA in the eighties and going all into all the shows, and like I was at Metallica's.

12:45 First show, Slayers first show. Never would there be somebody my age there And if they were, we probably wouldn't be there. You know, it was like my dad was linked, let's say in Frank Sinatra. He used to like turn a shit down your all bunch of Motley crew, you know. And now I've brought. My son into his first marsh pit, and I brought my grandkids into their first marsh pits, like and you you see that now, Like it's multi generational. It's funny because the trash medal is more popular than everyone and the kids are trying to look like us back then, and we like South America. They get crazy and all that. And we cross path with our friends from Testament Exo just all the time, sharing stages at festivals, and quite often we're wondering, how come we're still popular and even more popular than right, I think, well, we think that is because we talked about the destruction of this planet a lot, and so it's still relevant.

13:49 That's what we think. Oh, I'm with you. Like, if you take the Metal and Pumpkins back then and their songs, all you would have to do is change a couple of names, and they're operate today, which blows. Like a recreating nightmare. We used to talk about Chernobyl and then Fukushima, and now it's like the zappar Ridge nuclear plant in the Ukraine getting bombarded and all that. All we talked about acid rain and nice global warming and so like you said, we could, we could change a couple of words, and it's still the same nightmare. The night mare continues, blows my mind. Like I remember me and my friends. We'd be like, it doesn't matter. The whole world's going to blow up in nineteen eighty four.

14:30 What are people talking about now? The whole world blowing up again? Like it just oh yeah. For a while, and in the nineties, I was talking about nuclear war and the drone I just were like, you're so ritual, and I said, no, man, the high tech weaponry is getting crazier by the day. And now you're talking about like drones flying by themselves and deciding who they're going to kill and all that by themselves. And so yeah, and of course the nuclear nuclear nuclear war is back to the front line, you know, and yeah. So unbelievable. Yeah, but we're still a happy fellows because what are you going to do except we can only talk about it in our songs and.

15:11 Yeah, exactly, and that's where okay, so I won't mention who everybody knows who it is. But somebody was saying about how musicians should not be talking about this stuff. They should just entertain people. Like hello, hippies, punk rockers, metal heads. It's always even back in the times of like Elvis and the Beatles, it's always been something and why shouldn't you talk about it in your songs. Well, I think it's it's sometimes sensitive, But I think what Voyevod has always been doing is using science fiction to talk about actual matters that you know, some stuff that's happening in the reality, but so indirectly, but it has it has its impact, the same impacts. But I think it true science fiction and and you know, imagery and stories and the music. It can bring more people together and we can see it in the crowd. You know, all sort of people are from from different as e and uh.

16:24 And I think that's the power of music too. I keep talking about I have this idea of how we solve all the world's problems. Have one big music festival that everybody is required to attend. It'll be a metal festival. It could even be part punk and part metal, and just get everybody in the marsh pit and we'll all just work out our problems in the pit. It's a much better way to go. It stopped me from beating people's asses and stuff like. You just take your ship out in the. Pit, pick people up, lug each other, and it's all over. If somebody falls down, you pick him up. And yeah, people see it as a scary thing, but everybody helps each other and it's you know, when I was a kid, I didn't know about nuclear's talk pals before I discovered crass conflict that Kennedy is. So some people have to talk about it, but like Sui said, our way to do it is like some true sci fi folk tale sort of, you know, but the message is still there.

17:25 We don't name anybody. It's not that political, right. We tried to open the eyes of the kids, and I. Don't think you really have to name people. It's more about the things, you know, And look at what was sci fi when we were young is now real life. Yeah. Yeah. We used to try to find for our lyrics, Snack and I used to sit down and try to figure what was gonna happen in twenty years, and now you just have to talk about what's going on. What's going on now? And it's total science fiction. You know, it's actually impossible to predict what's going to happen in twenty years now. I know, right, And you mentioned the dead candy. So while we said that, I do want to put out positive vibes right now to Jello because you know, he suffered a stroke and positive vibes for him. One of my most memorable moments, which will be my next question for you guys, is being at Aftershock Festival back in the press area and he was back there. They weren't playing, and he wasn't playing. He was just back there and he just started having a forty five minute political conversation with me. And it didn't even matter what he said.

18:37 I was like, oh my afterwards, I'm like, and I never fann boy out. I was like, oh my god, I just had a political discussion with Jello. Bioff Jenner is an old friend forty years now. Yeah, when he was having problems with the No with when he had the censorship Foundation, I had problems with the Franken Christ Bolster and all that it got sued and wrote. I wrote to him in eighty six to wish him good luck because it was going in court and all that and we stayed friends nice. So that brings me to my final question for both of you. One story, good or bad that you will remember.

19:23 I have this whole forty five year run, forty four year run, what would it be? Oh my god? There were so many, so many bad ones and good ones. I think my favorite one was we were opening for Rush and I was. I had seen people opening for Rush getting booed off the stage and I was really really scared, especially when we played in Toronto with them, and this was in nineteen ninety and when we played astron to Me the Mind by a Pink Floyd, the crowd went louder than the music, joining it so much. So that's my probably my favorite moment as I. And another one is when I we were doing the touring with Uzzy. Jason you said was in Voevad and was also with Uzzy, So we were touring with Uzzy a lot.

20:13 He was doing two shows a night, What a Warrior, And then I was I got lost in an arena and I found Uzzy was lost and I brought Ussy back to his backstage. That's a great story. But my highlight, maybe not a story highlight with the band is the Symphony Orchestra show in Montreal and in Quebec City. And can't wait too for the album to come out. It's it's pretty amazing. I can't wait either. Well, you guys killed it here at Hell's Heroes as usual. And I do have to say you're talking about the chanting. I was at the pre party and yesterday and tay so far I was the first band that I heard so much chanting for the band and the crowd cool right, so they were here for you. Nice and thanks for in on the Adventures of pipe Man.

21:01 Thank you very much for driving us to Nice. Hello, this is away from Voivod. You're listening to the Pipemin on W for c Y radio. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Pipemin. I'm W for c u I Radio.