Experimental post-black-metal band Bosse-de-Nage are a rather elusive lot—as one might expect an experimental post-black-metal band to be. More than 15 years ago, reliably rad record label The Flenser embraced the San Francisco crew as one of its first signings. Yet both parties did so without much ballyhoo, leaving fans of adventurous and challenging heavy music with more questions than answers. Especially because the quartet has still only played 19 concerts to date.
Among those who took note of the equally mysterious and rambunctious Bosse-de-Nage were fellow San Franciscans Deafheaven. It was a 2012 split release between the bands that prompted many metal connoisseurs to first take notice of Bosse-de-Nage, whose name connotes enigmatic and hallucinatory imagery. After releasing material on a relatively consistent basis in their early days, the band is ponying up with their first studio record in eight years, with Hidden Fires Burn Hottest dropping today via their longtime label home. In honor of that release, we had the rare privilege of picking vocalist Bryan Manning’s brain in order to shed more light on Bosse-de-Nage in their current chapter, showcasing his sense of humor in doing so.
Read what Manning had to say about the band’s potentially touring after living a practically monastic existence, why it took them so long to churn out Hidden Fires Burn Hottest, and what his dream concert would entail.
After regularly asking musicians to explain what the term “avant-garde” means, I don’t think I’ve heard the same answer twice. How would you define the term?
I was tempted to look up one of your previous interviews and copy/paste someone else’s response to see if you’d notice. I think it means art that is pushing the envelope and perhaps utilizing non-traditional or unexpected elements to further progress whatever medium the artist is working in. Something like that, anyway. I did not major in art.
When you delve into making a new album, are you able to compartmentalize your previous material?
I’m not sure that’s possible, and it wasn’t the approach we took on our latest album. A lot of the work we did on Hidden Fires Burn Hottest was in reaction to the album that came before it [2018’s Further Still], where we placed a lot of rules and restrictions on ourselves in the writing process. We accomplished what we’d set out to do, but weren’t all that satisfied with the results in a long-term sense. Early in the writing of HFBH we deliberately pushed ourselves in the opposite direction.
Sorry to ask the question you’ll be getting the most, but why the eight-years-long break between studio albums?
I’m sorry, in turn, to offer you the most boring answer of them all: COVID. We started writing several of these songs before the pandemic rolled into town, crushing our momentum for quite a long time. There were some more general and typical life changes for some of the band members in this interval that thankfully didn’t result in any of us moving far away or wanting to stop making music. We eventually managed to get back to work, but it took a while to really get the momentum going again. The long span of time allowed us to take care with these songs and put a lot of thought into the album as a whole. I don’t think we’d have ended up with the same album if we hadn’t taken so long to write it.
What’s your estimation of how your fanbase has changed over the years? Heavy music became extremely diverse during those eight years between your albums.
I’m not sure I have a real sense of who our fanbase is, since we don’t play live very often. I interact with some lovely people on social media and occasionally get approached by fans when I go to local shows in the Bay Area. They seem to be a pretty diverse and friendly bunch, and I appreciate that. I suppose we’ll find out if we manage to get back on the road in some capacity in support of this album.
What would be your dream concert?
We once played in a basement under a restaurant in Paris, and there were maybe 40 people packed into this tiny cellar space smoking cigarettes while we played. I choose this venue, although I unfortunately don’t remember the name of it. Ulver is opening the show, playing Bergtatt in full, followed by an Aphex Twin ambient set, with Coil as the headliner. I’d love to pick some other impossible acts to add to this, but part of this dream scenario is being home and in bed by 11 p.m.
