{"id":201416,"date":"2025-10-10T00:36:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T00:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/201416\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T00:36:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T00:36:12","slug":"gojira-the-story-behind-flying-whales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/201416\/","title":{"rendered":"Gojira: the story behind Flying Whales"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are a multitude of things that set Gojira<\/a> apart from so many of their contemporaries. There\u2019s the French band\u2019s groundbreaking, environmentally conscious lyricism, singer\/guitarist Joe Duplantier often screaming for the salvation of a polluted world.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s the mix of technicality and brute force of Mario Duplantier\u2019s intricate drumming against hulking riffs inspired by everything from death metal<\/a> to nu metal<\/a>. And there\u2019s their ability to conjure inventive melodies, something backed up by the millions of Spotify<\/a> streams amassed by hook-laden singles such as Silvera and Stranded.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

All three came together perfectly on Flying Whales, the 2005 anthem that has become one of their signature songs. The seven-minute behemoth \u2013 originally from Gojira\u2019s third album, From Mars To Sirius \u2013 plummets from a hummable introduction to bouncing death metal, before Joe roars about the wonders of ocean life over a torrent of breakdowns.<\/p>\n

The song turned out to be Gojira\u2019s moment of self-actualisation and its omnipresence in their setlist for the last 17 years has gifted it with life beyond even their control. Gig-goers regularly bring inflatable whales to gigs and chuck them about, and there\u2019s even a Facebook fan group called Gojira Whaleposting with some 20,000 members.<\/p>\n

Gojira – Flying Whales (Live At Brixton Academy, London) – YouTube
\n\"Gojira<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

There\u2019s only one downside: Joe Duplantier doesn\u2019t particularly like Flying Whales very much. \u201cIt starts with a super-duper long intro that, honestly, if I\u2019m going to listen to the song, I skip,\u201d he tells Hammer with a laugh.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s such a drag! It leads into that main riff, which dictates the tempo of the song. To this day, we don\u2019t understand what\u2019s so special about that riff, but Mario has a million theories. He says that Flying Whales is the perfect tempo. That\u2019s why it\u2019s successful, because it [matches] the average human heartbeat.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen the lyrics are like this crazy, mystical bum that lives in a cave and says, \u2018Oh, I wanna reach the whales!\u2019 It\u2019s so weird. I\u2019m kind of pissed, because these are not my favourite lyrics and there\u2019s something clumsy about the song; it has a million breakdowns. When we play it every night, I\u2019m wondering, \u2018What\u2019s up with this song? Why do people want to hear this song?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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Joe may lament the lyrics of Flying Whales making him sound like \u201ca fucking hippie\u201d, but the fact remains that the song\u2019s awe at the miracles of nature perfectly fits his values and upbringing. He and his brother Mario, five years his junior, grew up in the rural Landes forest, two hours from Bordeaux in the south-west of France.<\/p>\n

Joe used to pass the time collecting wood and stones at the beach, only to come home with hands blackened by crude oil. Even worse, Mario once went to the hospital with an ear infection after swimming in polluted water. As the pair grew older and discovered rock and metal, they attended gigs in the nearby Basque Country, which was fighting a perennial battle for independence from France and Spain.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was some \u2018mild\u2019 terrorism going on,\u201d Joe recalls. \u201cThey were exploding cars and banks and real estate. There was an ongoing war between the French and Spanish police and these Basque terrorists, so there was this climate of tension. Bands would do underground shows in somebody\u2019s garage or somebody\u2019s barn. Even though I didn\u2019t share the whole \u2018independence of the Basque Country\u2019 [stance], I got to witness this electric dimension of rock and punk music that had a purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gojira\u2019s 2001 debut album, Terra Incognita, and 2003 follow-up The Link combined brutal death metal with spiritually inclined lyrics that pondered meditation and the course of life. \u201cMy political consciousness wasn\u2019t activated yet,\u201d admits Joe. By the time of From Mars To Sirius, that was starting to change. Their love of nature and increasing desire to make music to instigate social action began to shift front and centre \u2013 something manifested on Flying Whales.<\/p>\n

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\"Metal\n<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared in Metal Hammer issue 358, March 2022. (Image credit: Future)<\/p>\n

The frontman was inspired to write Flying Whales\u2019 lyrics when he read that ocean-based mammals, such as whales and dolphins, have some of the most complex brains in the world. \u201cThis book said that whales, like humans, have an incredible amount of grey matter compared to other animals,\u201d he explains. \u201cSo, what do they do? They don\u2019t build houses, roads or prisons. They don\u2019t have laws, don\u2019t read books, don\u2019t make movies. Why are they so smart? Maybe we\u2019re missing something.\u201d<\/p>\n

While honouring these mysteriously intelligent cetaceans, Joe holds a mirror to mankind: the species that hunts them for their meat and blubber. \u2018Beneath the seas I searched and had a different view of us on Earth; the sinking ship of man,\u2019 he growls during the second verse. It neatly fits the over-arching theme of From Mars To Sirius: not only is there a flying whale emblazoned on the album\u2019s cover but, lyrically, it\u2019s fixated on the belief that we must reject violence to evolve.<\/p>\n

\u201cMars is the Roman god of war and Sirius is a star that, in some cultures, represents love and peace,\u201d Joe elaborates. \u201cGoing from the masculine energy of Mars to the more feminine and peaceful Sirius is what humanity needs to do in order to survive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the band\u2019s messaging evolved, Flying Whales\u2019 music is a result of Gojira doing what they always did: jamming in the Duplantiers\u2019 house until they stumbled upon something cool.<\/p>\n

When Joe slid his fingers from the fifth fret of his guitar to the first, the quartet instantly leapt on the sound and composed the simplest yet heaviest of riffs around it. It proved emblematic of an album that, guitar-wise, became the least complicated Gojira had done at that point, de-emphasising tremolo picking in favour of pick scrapes, melodic taps and seismic chords.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a nu metal vibe,\u201d Joe concurs. \u201cI think Gojira dwell somewhere between Morbid Angel and Korn<\/a>. We had a lot of fun playing with those two elements, often in the same riff: death metal and whatever Sepultura<\/a> invented with Chaos A.D.. The Flying Whales riff came from a pulse, a mood, that happened organically in the rehearsal space.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, that atmospheric opening \u2013 the one that Joe today considers skippable \u2013 was necessitated simply by the song\u2019s placement midway through the album. \u201cWe try to balance out the pace of every record by putting in a song with a calm intro,\u201d explains Joe. \u201cThat\u2019s what every musician is probably doing when they release an album; maybe after six songs, they\u2019re like, \u2018OK, this is too much! We need to slow things down so we can come back and strike again.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Gojira\n<\/p>\n

Gojira\u2019s Joe (left) and Mario Duplantier onstage in 2008. (Image credit: \u00a0Steve Thorne\/Redferns)<\/p>\n

Despite being held up today as the band\u2019s earliest masterpiece, From Mars\u2026 proved more of a creeping infestation than a meteoric smash hit. Released on underground label Listenable and too monolithic for rock radio, its success came on the back of Gojira\u2019s live shows, which were as frequent as they were intense. \u201cWe\u2019re definitely a live band,\u201d states Joe. \u201cWe record albums and then we just tour, tour, tour. We never said no to a tour for 20 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such a prolific schedule has only made Flying Whales more and more of a Gojira mainstay. In turn, Joe has only grown more and more perplexed. \u201cWhen I talk to fans, they say, \u2018If you don\u2019t play that song, I\u2019m going to shoot myself in the face,\u2019\u201d he laughs. \u201cThere are so many other songs that are way better than this one! I think it has something to do with the title. The image of a flying whale has caught people\u2019s attention, like, \u2018What?!\u2019 It became this gimmick for our entire career.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, ever since the singer painted a planet-sized white whale and plastered it on the front cover of From Mars\u2026, the image has been inseparable from Gojira. A legion of devotees have the artwork as a tattoo. Plus, the connection between the band and the animal has been the inspiration for countless memes all over social media, no doubt fuelling the song\u2019s status as a live must-see. Joe himself has mixed feelings about the unexpected life the song has taken on.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually dislike fans bringing inflatable whales to shows,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m trying to express something spiritual and otherworldly, and it ends up being a bunch of plastic objects thrown at people. When I look at this paradox, I\u2019m cringing a little bit. But that\u2019s personal. This band is not my band; it\u2019s everybody\u2019s band. They want to come to the show, have fun and do their own thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared in Metal Hammer issue 358, March 2022.<\/p>\n

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