CRYPTOPSY’s FLO MOUNIER Tackles Heavy Life Questions

Cryptopsy are one of Canada’s most hard-hitting and respected metal exports. With seminal tech death staples Blasphemy Made Flesh and None So Vile cementing the Montreal behemoths as extreme metal legends, Flo Mounier continues as Cryptopsy‘s beating heart and one of the game’s most endearing drummers.

Ahead of the release of the band’s ninth studio album, An Insatiable Violence, Metal Injection caught up with Mounier to tackle some hard-hitting questions ranging from successes and failures, advice for young talent and pre-show jitters.

Here are excerpts from our candid interview with the legendary death metal drummer:

On Cryptopsy’s Intensity 

I feel great, dude, I never imagined at my age, which is like 50 plus, I would feel so good playing drums. Death metal drumming, extreme drumming, blast beats and all that stuff. I feel great. You’re the first person to ask me this, which is amazing because, yeah, dude, I’m loving my life. It’s hit cardio. H.I.T.T., hit cardio. So, high-intensity interval training. So it’s like tennis. You’re fast for one second, slow for one second. It’s really great. We’re going like 100,000 miles an hour, you’re right. 

How do we keep getting faster? Because we love each other. Because it’s easy, it’s effortless, but at the same time, we like to impress ourselves. And when you impress yourself, when you take care of yourself, you take care of others at the same time. And that’s always been Cryptopsy. It’s always been what I decide has to fucking happen, and it will happen. Not me specifically, but my band specifically. We like to make ourselves happy. Now, when you write a song, you make yourself happy, but you’re thinking, boy, you’re supposed to be one of the best musicians in the world, whatever, blah, blah. When you put it out, if people aren’t happy, then you’re disappointed. And we’re disappointed, of course we are. We’re human beings. So if people like this song that’s coming out, that’s great. If people don’t, then we’re kind of butt hurt, you know? I mean, it’s very, it’s very simple. 

We are always pushing each other, of course. Yeah, let’s go for it. Let’s go for a ride. That’s it. That drive. Let us push this far to 240. No, let us push it even faster. You understand what I mean? Yeah, that’s what we do. That is life. That’s music. That’s all it is, brother 

On Songwriting Reflecting the Real World

That changed when Matt (McGachy) came into the picture because the vocalists write the lyrics. We have enough to deal with guitar-wise and drum-wise. So when Matt came into the picture, he’s a beautiful human being, but he had to go through a lot of persecution before he was accepted as a Cryptopsy member, and that was horrible for him. You have to understand, when you’re alpha like he is and the voice that he has, he’s always been trying to excel, and now it’s like subjects matter. We’re like we’ll write the music Matt, you write the fucking lyrics, you know what I mean? It was a process, I can tell you, because it’s always a process when you try to better yourself. It’s not overnight. You can’t better yourself overnight. 

On Influences and Changes in the Band

When we changed from Necrosis to Cryptopsy, it was a change. It was like a vital change to death metal, from thrash to death metal for sure. It’s always been what we listen to and what we’re influenced by now. That’s what it’s always been. There’s never been a mention in Cryptopsy of what we have to put out. 

And it doesn’t matter because Cryptopsy has always been that we feel like this should be what we want to play, and we release it. And that’s the most important thing that people around the world have to remember. We love to be in the moment. There’s no subject matter that we have pre-decided or anything like that. It’s just that we need to do this because we feel it now.

On Montreal’s Metal Scene

Montreal, you can have like 12 shows per week. We have a seven-day working week, yes. You can have 12 shows per week, and most of our metal fans will come out to the 12 shows per week. They’ll buy their fucking tickets and they’ll buy merch and they will be golden. It’s unbelievable. On a Monday, sold out. Tuesday, sold out. Wednesday, sold out. Thursday, sold out, Friday, sold out. I mean, Montreal is a metal city. Montreal’s a metal musician scene. It’s glorious. It’s perfect. So, not much to say about Montreal. I guess I lucked out. 

Montreal has a great scene, and Montreal bands are coming out. Maybe not like the day because the day was the day, right? We’re talking about the end of the 80s to like 2010. Despised Icon and all that stuff, do you know what I mean? That’s the day. Who knows, and I will be the first one to encourage something that I will hear comes out, but am I looking out for it? No. I’m looking out for my boys because they deserve the most. Matt McGachy deserves the most credit ever. Christian Donaldson deserves more credit ever, one of the best producers in metal, of course. And Olivier Pinard. What the fuck, dude, one of best slap bass players. Unbelievable.

On Influencing Future Generations

Well, that’s cool. That’s cool if they’re listening and want to get into a different genre of music that they’re not used to. And that’s fine with me. What does it do to me? Nothing. Nothing, dude. I mean, I have a life to take care of. I have kids, I have a wife, you know what I mean? I play the shit and I’ll play the shit as best as I can every night. Other than that, if you like what I do, wow, thank you. Thank you for respecting what I thought was maybe good 30 years ago. How do I know? I’m not Jesus. 

Advice? Never give up. You think you’re gonna fucking fail, guess what, fail. That’s gonna fucking make you a better person, so that next time it happens you won’t fail. You know what I mean? Life is tough. There’s nothing easy about this process at all. If you don’t fail, you will never succeed, because you don’t know the antithesis. You don’t know the difference. So fail in order to succeed.

So musicians who are growing up, wanting to do death metal, do whatever you want. Do rock, do jazz, do whatever you fucking want. Do what fucking makes you happy. Because the happier you are, the happier the next person right next to you is gonna be. You only have to please one person in life, yourself. And that’s a struggle that will never come to completion at the end, but if you’re a complete person or you think you are, that’s the only way you’re going to make somebody else happy. If you’re a piece of shit, well, you’re gonna attract pieces of shit. That’s it, man. You have to take care of yourself, man. 

On His Definition of Success

That’s a great question. Success to me is, and we’ll touch back on what I just said, is being happy by yourself. You know when you play a good show. I know when I play a good show. You know when you have a good interview, the next person knows that when they serve the Big Mac and it’s fucking fresh and not all fucking all over the place, they know that they made a nice Big Mac. That’s success.

Perfection within yourself. If I play a shit show, I know. If I played a great show, I know, and my whole driving life has been to not have that weave, to not have that, great show for Flo, bad show for a Flo great. It’s always been fucking brutal as fuck. If you don’t receive a stick in the fucking forehead and bleed from it, it isn’t a good show. Do you understand what I mean? It’s about brutality. But if I don’t deliver brutality, then I’m not delivering my message. If I’m off, then I am off. That’s my fault. And I try never to be off, because that’s what I love to do. Not have to do, love to do.

Perfection in people is just taking care of themselves. You concentrate on yourself. I know that people think it’s egotistical to concentrate on yourself, but it’s not. Because when you find happiness, you can make somebody else happy. And that’s a work of progress. That’s one person you can be happy with, two people, you can make 15,000 people. If Flo Mounier can be one of the best drummers in the world, that’s on me. But if 20,000 people agree with it, well, that’s 20,00 happier people. 

On His Approach to Playing Live

I still got nervous, but my approach when I’m sitting, cause I don’t have a house anymore. I live in an apartment, so I don’t play drums very often. My comfort zone is my drum set. So as soon as I put my ass down on that drum throne and I have that set around me, that set that I want, that touch that I want, the tuned skins that I want, the perfect symbols that I’ve chosen over the years. I say let’s break everything. You understand what I mean? Let’s break everything.

So the first one on the set is what? “Slit Your Guts”? All right. Let’s brake everything on “Slit Your Guts”, you know what I mean? It becomes a power thing because Cryptopsy has become a power station. Cryptopsy has become a powerhouse. And that’s the important thing I want people to realize. You come to Cryptopsy show, you’re going to have to literally take a shit in the bathroom before. If not, you’re gonna shit your pants because it’s a powerhouse and it will fucking kill you and to be very honest, I have to take a shit before. We go on and we fucking powerhouse the fuck out of it all. And that’s Cryptopsy. 

On What Keeps Him Motivated

It’s actually being behind that kit that keeps you going. That’s it. It’s that touch. I haven’t changed many things on my drum kit. I added the eight-inch back tom on the kit, which I love, but I haven’t touched many symbols or anything like that for a good 25 years. The other thing that keeps me going, to be very honest with you, is the love for you, the fans. The band I play with. My wife, the separation factor. I’m gone for a month, now we love each other more. It’s just a combination of everything, brother. And it’s all about positive love, you know? That’s what keeps you going.

When I sit behind my kit, I’m like a kid at Toys ‘R Us. And I enjoy it so much. When I talk to you, I enjoy it so much because you have great questions. Its beauty, its life. When I tour with other bands and I meet these different people, I don’t know fucking who these guys are from Belgium. They’re the opening band, I don’t know, but guess what? Now I know and I love them because they bring something else to me. I never toured with Decapitated. They’re sound-checking right now. You can hear them background. I’ve never met him before. Guess what? They’re beautiful people. That’s life, that’s what makes you happy, man. That’s what makes you happy. The little moments, the little things. And you know, fans, when they buy shirts, and they make me be able to buy a Big Mac for my wife when I get back home, well, that’s a beautiful thing.