STOUTNESS - Breaking Free From The Digital World... (France - HardCore/Groove Metal - Interview with Loug).

Hi—Can you introduce yourselves and tell us how it all began for you—how you discovered this musical world, what drew you to it, what fascinated you, and what made you want to make music?
Hello Roughtimes, first of all, thank you for this great interview and for your interest in the band STOUTNESS. So, how did it all start for Stoutness? Well, it goes back to the last century. Actually, it started out as a rock band called the Monkeys (1995), with Franky, Sergio, Loug, and Matt.
When Matt (Mat Wallace) left to pursue other musical horizons, the rest of the band naturally shifted our musical direction from “rock” to “metal” in the broadest sense—a style that suited us better—as we each evolved toward different yet complementary styles: Pantera, Biohazard, and the grunge era with Nirvana—basically, that whole wave from the late ’90s. And very quickly, little Dimegabb joined us because we were from the same neighborhood—“as we say around here”—and, of course, he was a metal fan.
Dimegabb joined us in 1998, in that famous garage where it all really began (at a friend’s place—he wasn’t in the band); we’d been rehearsing there regularly for a while, and we started writing songs quite simply and fairly easily, drawing on our shared influences at the time. That was really the kickoff for the band Stoutness, with a first demo titled “Neve Shalom” released in 1999.

Tell me about the band… How did you meet? The current lineup? Past experiences? And most importantly—WHY did you feel the need to form THIS band?
Like I was telling you earlier, Dimegabb is the cousin of my best friend “Mon Frangin Dub,” and as for Francky and Sergio, it was high school that brought us together. It’s stories like that that bonded us. On top of that, there’s music in general—our shared passion—though we each have very different tastes. Dimegabb is the most eclectic in the band when it comes to metal; Sergio is more into thrash metal, while Francky is into bands like Gojira, Soulfly, and The Cure!! As for me, I’ve always leaned more toward fusion and hardcore, and now I’m a huge fan of metalcore. So there you have it—that’s the music we play. Beyond the music, though, there’s a lot—and I mean a lot—of friendship. The band started in ’98—actually, ’97—and next year we’ll be celebrating the band’s 30th anniversary. So despite a 15-year hiatus (2001–2016)—we wanted to try other things and life just took us in different directions—we eventually reunited with enthusiasm and simplicity in 2016.

Describe your sound and explain why I should listen to YOUR band at all costs?
As for our sound, we’ve put a lot of work into it, drawing inspiration from the bands we listen to, both from the mainstream and the underground scenes. We wanted something fairly natural, that sounds similar in the studio and on stage so we can deliver a true-to-life live performance. Our recordings are getting cleaner and cleaner now.
Guitarists Francky and Dimgabb decided to stick with the big Peavey 5150 & 6505 amp heads—big sound, heavy guitars, and a drop C tuning—which is fairly classic but well-crafted and clean. You can hear this sound when you listen to our last two EPs, *Never Dead* and *Backfire*.
As for Sergio’s drumming, it’s truly unique—it’s a technical, fast style that can go up to 180 BPM. He’s a top-level athlete; he trains to maintain that level of rhythmic precision. Sergio has a sound all his own, with slightly tribal, world-music-inspired elements, because he’s a true percussionist.
As for me, I wanted to try to create a sound with a slightly punchy bass, with a hardcore punk vibe, but playing extremely low in the bass end.
There are no boundaries for us—you can find all kinds of influences in our music. That’s why, when people have asked us to describe ourselves lately, we’ve stuck with “Power Groove Metal,” because it accurately captures what we stand for: a pretty broad mix, and we haven’t set any limits on ourselves when it comes to trying out different things. So there you have it—a quick summary of our style. I hope we’ve managed to inspire you and our readers to check out our music!

Lyrical and musical inspirations/influences? How important are lyrics to you? Are there specific messages or ideas you try to convey and share through your lyrics?
Well, when it comes to influences and inspirations, since the four of us listen to different things—and not just metal—that’s actually pretty cool. Underneath this shell of heavy sound, we can also really enjoy much calmer stuff.
Dimegabb and I, for example, really like Oldelaf when it comes to French music, but I think the others are into different things. We like Radiohead, The Cure, Lofofora… well, so many different things. Serge also likes world music on the side, for the sounds of the percussion—really simple stuff.
Franky can do romantic stuff—he’s really good at it, actually.
For example, with the track “Backfire,” it started with a really hard-hitting riff at the beginning, which we end up coming back to later, and I don’t know why, but the inspiration to throw in something very melodic as an intro just came instinctively.
Franky added the ukulele, Sergio wrote a piano line to round out the vibe, and then there’s that solo vocal—that’s it… It’s very representative of what we also want to explore in the future: more polished songs.
As for the lyrics, though, ever since Franky started writing the first songs, he’s been the one writing almost all of them. It’s his take on everything that’s going on in the world—a bit of this and that—and realizing that, well, there’s protest, there are weird things happening, and even more so now over the last few years.
On the "Backfire" EP, we put screens on the cover as heads on the bodies of zombies—without meaning to at first. When we were writing and discussing it among ourselves, we realized that people are protesting from behind their screens; very often, they only react through their screens.
In fact, people—human beings, us—have become sheep, quite simply zombies.
We no longer really think for ourselves using our own brains and convictions; instead, we’re influenced by what the media feeds us. So there you have it—these observations were our sources of inspiration.
Since people are becoming antisocial and increasingly individualistic, there’s less and less direct interaction where we come together around a shared passion—and with our own free thinking as well.
That’s kind of what comes across. Right now, we’re already starting to work on the next tracks.
There’s no doubt that current events will continue to be a source of inspiration.

About the band’s discography... Imagine someone who doesn’t know your band at all and wants to check them out. Which album would you recommend they start with, and why?
In our discography, to discover Stoutness, I’d say you should listen to “Never Dead” (2024) first, followed by “Backfire” (2026), because it’s like fine wine—STS has matured in the way we write and compose.
Earlier, we were talking about the sound. On the latest EP, we refined the guitar sound, worked more on the bass tone, and added more mics to the drums. And then, there’s also the vocals, where there’s more freedom and more backing vocals.
Francky has a deep, resonant voice for his size, which is surprising. And beyond that, he can sing with a simple, melodious voice.
Our first EP, “Neve Shalom,” released in 1999, was a completely self-produced demo that we’re super proud of, given the era and our limited experience at the time.
Pure DIY—we designed the covers ourselves, pressed the records ourselves, and didn’t have a dime to our name. And yet we still managed to distribute and sell over 1,000 copies. It was also our first studio experience with the guys at Nerve Studio—they’d set up a studio in a big garden shed (a big shout-out to Dom, who passed away not long ago) at the Papasdioh band’s place.
Back then, the demo was featured at Fnac (for the old-timers out there, you’ll remember), and for a whole week, you could listen to it on headphones alongside other major-label albums—just because the salesperson really liked our EP.
So, it was an amazing experience for us between Christmas and New Year’s 1999. It was freezing cold, and since it was our first studio experience, we had to get everything done in two days. And you know, that allowed us to play a lot of shows—about a hundred of them—playing with big bands like X-Vision, Do or Die, and No Flag. We played shows in Belgium, met some great people—it was cool, it was really cool.

What about your latest album?
Our latest release is "Backfire", out in February 2026. It was a long process—two years—two years after "Never Dead". We take our time writing, deciding when to go into the studio, and mixing…
This latest EP is a bit unusual, since we paired three new tracks—“Put Your Glasses,” “Another Day,” and “Backfire”—with two songs that were on our very first EP (Neve Shalom / 1999): “Protest” and “New Life.” We wanted to revisit those two tracks with our current sound and make a few improvements.
Luckily for the band, Francky is passionate about studio work and very meticulous. He recorded and mixed "Never Dead", and R3MYBOY—a longtime friend who had previously mixed for Gojira, PCCC, and Skip The Use—mastered it.
For “Backfire,” Francky wanted to challenge himself by seeing the process through to the end and mastering the album as well. It sounds amazing, and we’re very proud of the work he’s done.
Before the EP’s release, we launched a Ulule crowdfunding campaign to finance the album’s release, the pressing, a music video, a backdrop, some equipment, and merchandise. It was a huge success—we far exceeded our goals.
To celebrate all of this in style, we rented a venue to host a proper release party and launch the EP. We were able to hand out all the gifts to the people who had contributed.
So on February 28, the Backfire release party took place at the PACBO in Orchies, with our friends from Dear Liars and Black Hazard who came out to party with us.
The album is available, of course, at our merch booth during our concerts.
Our EPs are available on all legal streaming platforms. On our YouTube channel, we invite you to give us a thumbs-up and subscribe. Our first music video, “Death,” from "Never Dead"; a “lyrics video” for “Cupidity”; and our latest music video, “Another Day,” which just came out at the end of May—filmed with Julien Iovino Komabox (director) and Jérémy Paniez (camera operator), who created an amazing music video for us in full 4K.
We’ve also just released a full live recording of our performance at Pacbo—thanks to Rosatino for capturing this release show. For those who weren’t there, you can now check us out on stage: a 4K recording with sound engineering by Cyril and mixing by Francky. You’ve got about an hour of footage from that famous release show, which was just massive for us—it’ll remain an amazing memory.

What are your plans?
It’s too early to reveal anything right now because we’re still promoting "Backfire"—it’s starting to take shape—but yes, we’re already working on it; we’ve got plenty of ideas, especially about working differently on our next songs, and why not explore new projects or potential collaborations with very different artists,

What would be your wildest dream with the band?
So, the wildest dream with the band—though I think it’s kind of the same for all metal bands—is to play Hellfest. Let’s be clear about that. But it would also be to play at legendary venues near where we live, like L’Aéronef, for example, as well as touring around France and playing abroad.
But Hellfest—that would be insane!!

Your BEST & WORST concert—as a band—and why?
So, our best concert. I’d say the album release show in February at the Pacbo, because it was a project the four of us put together from scratch, and we got a lot of support and great feedback—it really gave us a boost. A huge crowd showed up, and they stayed hyped throughout all three bands, so that one was the best.
We played with Pogo Car Crash Control in 2024 and the atmosphere was insane.
We’ve also played at Chariots Furieux, with Nashville Pussy, Loco Muerte, and most recently with Drop Dead Chaos—it’s always incredible to experience that, and it often brings up different emotions.
And the worst one was a show we ended up not playing. We were invited—it was back when we were just starting out, so over 25 years ago—and it was in a pretty rough neighborhood up north.
Some kids showed up to cause trouble, and things got out of hand, so we couldn’t play. So I’d say that was the worst because we were ready, and in the end, we couldn’t play at all.

Upcoming live performances?
The Dawn Festival, on November 14, 2026, in Phalempin (59/North of France)—the first edition of a wonderful initiative to support the nonprofit fighting violence against women.
The organizers, the founders of this project—Nico and Marie—are people who are always active on the local scene
They’re wonderful people who want to make a difference, and well, kudos to them—and especially to everyone else who still dares to organize events. We’ll be sharing the stage with Akiavel, Insurgent, Pelmwork, and Dear Liars. It’s going to be a huge show, and it’s really affordable—it’s close to Lille, Carvin, Liévin, and Douai.

A few words about your local scene—which bands are you friends with and would like to mention?
The local scene, honestly, is incredibly rich—incredibly rich in its musical diversity.
To name a few: our buddies in Black Hazard, with their super heavy heavy rock/metal style. Dear Liars, who deliver some insane rock-core—and they’re always grinning and sporting mustaches. Unfate, with Tom and Ju, who work their butts off organizing a lot of stuff in the region. The guys from Abbygail, who are more into heavy metal. But there’s also Unswabbed, Hank is Dead, March of Scylla, and so many others.

What’s the question you’d love to answer but have never been asked? Careful, I’m also waiting for the answer that goes with it...
Oh shit, that’s a trick question—it’s complicated. It’s super complicated.
Up to what age are you guys going to keep playing ?
Why aren’t there any girls in the band?? :D

The last word is yours...
So, a quick word to wrap things up. We’re going to do some PR, we’re going to do some promotion. The idea is to get our music out there as much as possible and get as many people as possible into the venues, at least to start with.
When we play, of course, it’s: follow us, go check out what we’re doing, feel free to give us feedback, check out our music videos. Feel free to like, feel free to share, feel free to subscribe—and that’s it—keep following us.
And above all, keep supporting the local scene and supporting community organizations so they can keep keeping live music alive, especially the underground scene.