As a matter of fact, I've always thought of Nemo as something more than a classic prog-metal band. I'm talking about great songs like "1914", "La morte du scorpion" where I found an high rate of creativity never seen elsewhere in european prog-metal scene.
Thank you ! As I said, prog metal bands are now mostly influenced by themselves, which situation creates an impoverishment of the music I think. In the band, we listen to a lot of different music styles, and we love to play all of them. That blend makes our difference. Our music is progressive because we mix many things inside, and we love to develop themes and melodies on long lenghts. Not because we want to sound like one band or another.

Which are your favourite Nemo tracks ?
Well, I do love every song we write ! Some of them unveil defaults with time, some don't. Without talking about next studio album's songs, I would say "O.g.r.e" or "1914". But the next album contains our best songs !

How your songs take shape?
We have two ways of composing music. Jamming and structuring all together, or working on one or another's ideas. For example, I wrote "O.g.r.e." and then we worked on the arrangments together, while "1914" was written by the whole band. When all the music for the album is composed, then I write the words based on the concept imagined by Guillaume and I. Guillaume sometimes writes lyrics as well.

How about "Presages" and "Prelude a la ruine" sales ?
Less than 500 copies. It's not enough to finance the further productions, so we always need pre-orders for every new album. It's sad, but I hope it will change soon. However, "Prélude à la ruine" is out of stock now, and we hope the next album, which we will make 1000 copies, will sell better. I guess we don't sale much because we are self distributed. But the internet is magic, and we don't despair to reach the financial balance.

Which are the main differences between these albums, in your opinion ? Do you think you evolved your style ?
"Présages" is more progressive, with long suites and typic ambiances. "Prélude à la ruine" is more direct, with shorter songs and heavier sound. But it also contains long prog songs as "Tous les chemins" or "Le monde à l'envers". This is the main difference I think. With "Prélude ..", we were also more mature in composing and producing. This one sounds better for me. But that does not mean that we changed our music, we just don't want to write the same album every time.

Let's talk about the forthcoming live album called "Immersion publique"? Does it feature the entire set of your past gigs ? If not, which songs have you cut ? I can't believe you haven't played "La morte du Scorpion" !!!!
The album contains one hour of music, which is the time we're allowed to play in festivals. We rarely play longer, except the day when this live album was recorded. But we have chosen the songs we played 15 days before in Paris. We did not play "La mort du scorpion" this night, but we used to play parts I and II in 2003. Maybe we will play them again, but it's getting harder with all those new songs !

Do we have to expect some interesting news from the next studio album ? When it will be available ?
Yes you can ! It is now entirely recorded, and we planned the released date for February or March 2006. We hope we will be able to keep this date, because we don't really know if pre-orders will finance it ! We will anyway find a solution, we always find solutions !! Concerning the music, I will only say that it is the most progressive record we made until now, and that it contains some of our best songs, ever.

You also released a solo album a couple of months ago. Does it sound different from a Nemo album ?
Yes, I did, and that was my third. The two first don't sound like Nemo music. But for this one, called "Cannibales", I wanted to make an album that I really wanted to enjoy, as a listener. So it's a mix between rock songs and longer pieces, guitar-based instrumentals and soft songs. Some critics described it as a "softer Nemo".

Taking a look at the latest news on your site, I read your comment about P2P (peer to peer) and I found it really clever. I mean, you haven't condemned the so called "wild downloaders" but you've invited them to buy your albums just to hear a better sound and to make the band living. What do you think about P2P ?
It has no sense to condemn people who want to listen to our music ! Moreover we can't do anything against the fact that people put our music online or download it. So the only thing left to do for us is trying to tell them that we pay to record our music and make albums, so they have to buy our albums if they like our music ! Otherwise the band, like many others, will not be able to continue. However, it can be a fabulous way to make our music known all over the world, but people have to be honest with it : download it, listen to it, buy please buy it !

Is the self-production a definitive choice for you ?
At first it is not a choice. We recorded the first album, and sent it to labels but no one seemed to be interested. We did for every album and we still do it. But I have to admit that we are not ready to accept any condition on the pretext to be signed by a label. I think that small labels would not be able to offer us more than that we already have. I'm a bit pessismist because the few labels we'd like to be signed by won't do because we sing in French : it's not economically profitable. Maybe I'm wrong, but anyway we will continue the band, with or without a label.