"Our sound was finally developed in a way that pleased us, and we all have very fond memories of it. I can’t believe that at the end of this year it will be 30 years since it’s release…"
November Grief from Montreal, Canada, were founded back in 1993 and have been dormant for more than 20 years. Now that the band has been active again since 2020 with a few new members, it made sense to talk to bassist and singer Stéphanie Masson, who was in Wallonia, Belgium, at the time of the interview.
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Hello Stéphanie, how are you? I saw you had a gig recently. Did it go to your satisfaction?
Hello Gerald, I am doing very well thank you. Just arrived from Belgium a few days ago and still a bit jet lagged. Yes, we did show here in Montreal last December 14 and it went very well. It was also our first show at home with our new lead guitarist Rachel, and boy did she deliver the goods that night ! Kudos also go to Simonne and Zack. We had a good flow onstage that evening and the maniacs in the crowd had a good time.
Yes I am still in sporadic contact with the others through social media, specially when we were doing the November Grief reissues in 2020 ( already five years! Time flies!). Annie did play for a while in the early 2000s.
What was the reason or trigger for the revival of November Grief in 2020? Now you are three women and one man, was it important for the new line-up to become a “female” band again or did it just happen?
For a long time I wanted to bring the band back, since the mid 2010s in fact, but I wasn’t ready to put the effort and the work into it. The real impetus was when Annick Giroux contacted us for a reissue of our material on CD through her label at the time, Temple of Mystery Records. Then the pandemic happened and I was very inspired to bring back the band again. I kept seeing many bands from the 1990s underground that were reforming, and I decided that it was the perfect timing. Also, I admit that I’m not getting younger ( hehe) so it was also a bit of a « it’s now or never » situation.
It's often the case when you're young that you first say enthusiastically, let's do something like band xy, the independence comes later. I think your sound has something of Terrorizer in addition to all the death metal influences, can you understand that? By the way, your current drummer Zack is “funnily enough” also wearing a World Downfall longsleeve on a photo. On the other hand, I sometimes think of Autopsy listening to your stuff. What I particularly like about November Grief are the viscous, heavy doom parts that contrast the whole thing well, like in “Grass is Gold”, which is really brilliant. So, to shorten it, when you formed the band, what were your primary influences? Was there a particular band that particularly inspired you?
What are your memories of these old recordings? And why are a few tracks from the first “Evil-Ution “ demo missing on your discography CD, which contains the two demo CDs and a sampler track?
We recorded the first demo in our very first rat-infested rehearsal space; the reason why less songs from this one are on the compilation discography, it’s because I personally don’t like these tracks at all. We recorded that demo way too early, in my opinion. As for the recording of « To Live… », it was way more fun, albeit a bit nerve wracking. Our sound was finally developed in a way that pleased us, and we all have very fond memories of it. I can’t believe that at the end of this year it will be 30 years since it’s release…
Let's go back to the early days concerning another aspect. Nowadays, fortunately, women are nothing special in metal anymore and I always find it tiresome to advertise with labels like “female fronted” or “all female band”, basically you're just reinforcing the prejudice that women are the exception and often achieve the exact opposite of what people want to achieve with these slogans. Nevertheless, I would like to ask at this point what it was like at the beginning in 1993/1994, when times were still a bit different and ideas were more traditional. Were you often treated differently back then because you were a band of young women and not young men? Were female bands like Derketa or Mythic a role model, inspiration or encouragement for you back then?
I see what you mean; it’s good that people are writing less « female fronted » on things. I don’t like it, but I can’t control what people write either. In the 1990s it was different as it was a way to differentiate ourselves. As to whether we were treated differently ? A little bit, although nothing dramatic. People were happy to see us for the most part. Oddly enough at the time it was mostly other girls that gave us trouble. Derketa and Mythic are both bands I respect immensely, but I wasn’t aware of their existence until November Grief was into its first year or so.
What are the next plans for November Grief? Will you also be creating and recording new tracks?
Yes, we are working on composing new material for a EP, it’s very exciting indeed! More shows are also being planned.
Always on the lookout for new insider tips, do you have anything worth recommending, especially something from your region?
Check out bands like Outre-Tombe and Disembodiement for putrid death metal, and as I am also a huge black metal fan I’d suggest Cantique Lépreux and other « métal noir Québécois » groups. I would also like to mention Warsenal, one of our drummer Zack's other bands. They play speed metal and sound pretty German.
I love Immolation, and I ordered the book last week. Can’t wait to read it!
With bands like Anvil, Exciter, Slaughter, Razor, Voivod, Sacrifice and Kataklysm, Canda has produced some of the world's most recognized metal bands. Which are your personal favorites? And since you're talking to a German magazine, what are your favorites from Germany?
Voivod rules over all. Favorites from Germany ? The almighty Sodom, of course, Holy Moses (Sabina was an influence on me early on), Nocturnal, Sarkrista, Ascension…Germany is really THE metal place in Europe that’s for sure.
The last words belong to you, here you can get rid of everything that has not yet been said!
Danke Gerald for this very fun interview and a huge Infernal Hails to all the sick maniacs supporting November Grief. You all rule !
