Keep up with Victorien "Bubu" Delacroix here:
Diluvian:
Rising Purge:
Smeti Duchu:
Malevolentia:
I turned 15 in 2004 in a small band called Smetì Duchu (meaning: The Ghosts Dust), which was basically Melodic Death Metal. More or less 6 months after the beginning of Smetì Duchu, Dut’s and Trivette (Diluvian Guitarist and Vocalist) had a project called Diluvian and asked me to play. After that, a guy at one of my shows with Smetì Duchu asked me if I would be interested for playing in an Old school Death Metal band called Rising Purge. Until 2009 I continued playing in those 3 bands while I wanted to do something else, so I decided to create a technical death metal project (as a guitar player) with a friend, but 4 bands was really too much. I stopped Akeron (the name of the guitar project) just 2 months after the beginning of the band. Then, because of a style divergence, Smetì Duchu broke up as Rising Purge. Now I’m going to play for a while with an Extreme Dark Metal band called Malevolentia, and of course I’m still in Diluvian.
Victorien Delacroix Interview:
SDM: How old were you when you started playing?
Victorien: I just turned 14 when my parents bought me a drum set after weeks and weeks of headache, before I used to hit garbage cans with pens all day long.
SDM: Did you play in a school band or any drum corps?
Victorien: I’ve never been in a drum class or anything like that. For me music means freedom, I didn’t want to learn it with teachers or something, I prefer to listen and try to do what I hear or to watch videos of drummers performing. I see how they do it, then I try to do it. Of course it took years before succeeding to reproduce some technique's, like the blast beat or the simple stroke roll.
SDM: Who are your top 5 metal influences?
Victorien: I have to say Cannibal Corpse, who gave me the envy to play death metal. Nile, for the incredible work of their drummers (George Kollias fan). Meshuggah, Tomas Haake made me learn the legs and feet independence throught all the Meshuggah Albums. He is such an incredible drummer! Psycroptic, for the amazing technicality they give and for the inspiration for tabbing, Death, of course… who wouldn't be inspired by this band. The best ever!!
SDM: Who are some other of your favourites?
Victorien: I could say Necrophagist, Decapitated, Origin, Hate Eternal, The Faceless, Dying Fetus, Misery Index, Morbid Angel, Decrepit Birth, Malevolent Creation, Disavowed, Obscura, Kronos and many others. I like to listen some of my friends bands too, like Dieresis, Blackstain, Recueil Morbide, Human Parasite, Dejected or Mehtnakriss.
SDM: Let us know 5 CD’s that are in your current rotation.
Victorien: I often listen to Ob(servant) from Psycroptic, Those Whom The Gods Detest from Nile, The Negation from Decapitated, Tomb Of The Mutilated from Cannibal Corpse, and finally Nothing from Meshuggah.
SDM: What do you do to warm up before a show?
Victorien: About 25 minutes before playing, I take a seat and hit my knees with my sticks and do 4 hits left, 4 hits right for 1 or 2 minutes, then I do 8 left, 8 right and I do the same with 12 hits and finally 16 hits. For my legs, I just do the same as I do with my hands. Finally 5 minutes of neck warm up!
SDM: Do you read music? regardless of answering yes or no, please tell us how it might have effected your playing?
Victorien: I can read music yes, but the composing way for Diluvian is to tab our songs on Guitar Pro, so I don’t read partitions. Personally, I just hear and do. All my philosophy of music is based on hearing and not reading. I think it enabled me to work faster than some of my friends who were in music classes, but that’s just my opinion.
SDM: Can you tell us about the gear you use?
Victorien: I generally use a Pearl Export EX series composed of: a 22" x 18" bass drum, 10", 12", 13" rack toms, and a 16" floor tom. I use a Pearl DR 503 rack and Yamaha Cymbal stands. I’ve got different cymbals, but most of them are Sabian (love these cymbals). 20" Ride Pro Sonix , 18", 16" China, 14", 16" Crash, 8" Slash and a 14" Hit-hat, all of them are Sabian B8 Pro. I have a 10" splash AA series and the rest of the stuff is a 13" muted china with a 8" splash (Stagg). I also have a 14" crash Paiste I use sometimes. To finish, I use Pro Mark Simon Phillips Signature sticks and a very old Yamaha double pedal. For the recording of Epidemic and when I can have 2 bass drums, I use my Axis longboards Pedals.
SDM: If you could give a piece of advice to young drummers, it would be…
Victorien: I consider myself as a young drummer who has so much to learn… But if I could have something to tell younger drummers, I would say: Never give up, don’t try to work too fast, music is a long and hard process, and if you can, play everyday !
SDM: Who gave the besr live performance you’ve ever seen?
Victorien: Well I’ve never been lucky enough to see a show of Nile yet, so for now I can’t say if it was Dying Fetus or Psycroptic, but both were awesome drummers and bands!!
SDM: Aside from drumming, what else do you like to do?
Victorien: I spend a lot of my time on my guitar or my bass, composing or just reproducing songs. I love guitar technicality. I’m also passionate about the cinema.
Videos:
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