The translation of the interview i did with Efrim of GOD SPEED YOU BLACK EMPEROR/A SILVER MT ZION was done by Todd of All Angels Gone unofficial web site. check it out. many thanks to him.
A meeting in a bar before their concert at Les Instants Chavires, Montreuil (Paris, France).[translated by todd]. 29 January 2001
How did the idea for this side project form?
Efrim: About two years ago, I wanted to learn how to read and write compositions.  Thierry and Sophie  agreed to play the music that I had composed.  That was the beginning of the group.  We played two concerts so far, and are one year old.  After GODSPEED finished touring for several months, I returned home and found out that my dog was going to die of cancer.  I wanted therefore to compose a disc of material dedicated to her, and this small formation of musicians seemed better adapted.  We then recorded pieces which we composed together and those that I had already composed.  We then decided to tour....
Did the fact that you dedicated this disc in memory of your dog decide the mood of the disc?  Were you being melancholic?
Efrim: No, because a good part had been composed a year before.  That influenced more the process of recording the disc.  In other words we recorded it in four consecutive Sunday afternoons, while I was living at Hotel Tango which is the space of our collective.  My dog was there during the recording and sometimes we had to stop so I could take care of her.
Did you feel a lack within GODSPEED to carry out the music of A SILVER MT ZION?
Efrim: Yes, I think that...the cords in GODSPEED must often fight with the guitars and the drums to be heard.  I wanted to explore acoustic sonorities of the piano and the cords, although in concert we sometimes play rather extremely.  Therefore it is a little strange live...I am a guitarist of rock'n'roll noise.  It is what I have been doing since I was 15 years old, and that was not easy for me to make this project function...it was thus strange to work in  A SILVER MT ZION as well as GODSPEED where we try to function like a true democracy, where we do not have any leader, and with force each one knows what happens, and there we play with three new members...but I think that this manner of seeing the things and then doing them is the best.  This is all that I know.
Last year, you seemed to regret the fact that your increasing popularity accentuated the divide with your fans...and to an extent cut you off from them.
Efrim: Yes (pause). This is special for GODSPEED because we do not have a singer, we do not have a computer around to communicate with the public, all that we have is our music.  It is difficult to explain it without sounding like we are complaining, as in this interview THE WIRE, we had many negative reactions on that.  It was odd for us, because we always spoke honestly and with sincerity about our problems, in the way in which the music is presented in the Western world...Everyone was accustomed there and that seems normal now and I do not think that many people call into question this presentation of the music.  But, we, we are lucky.  In Montreal, we are a good community of people who appreciate themselves, we have our own place.  Lately, we are irritated that there are so many stupid journalists in rock'n'roll and I do not know why.  We are not arrogant but this is the way that we are presented as...
Undoubtedly it is because you refuse to play the game that the majority of the bands play...
Efrim: It is frustrating for us because journalists feel threatened when we criticize the music industry.  We have never refused an interview or directed the questions like some have implied, it is sad...Now, people seem to have forgotten what represented the music for people as when we were teenagers.  They do not have any more reference in comparison to that.  You have trouble explaining to them what is more.  You stumble upon records sometimes and you cannot believe that someone could do this kind of music.  This style of record has just fallen from the sky!  You did not find any information on this band, and often those who write about music do not listen to it very often or do not listen to this style at all.  They could all just as well write for different types of magazines.  This would be better because what they know about the music is what they read elsewhere.  It is a very lazy profession...In most of the rock magazines, the interviews are there to fill out the pages between the ads or the photographs.  How is it that they cannot write in a subjective way about the music!  All of the best rock journalists were intelligent and subjective...
Were you influenced by non-musical things for your music?
Efrim: Yes, early on.  The movie was very important in the sense that our "field recordings" are directly influenced by the movie.  For example, the fact that there is no space of white between our pieces equally.  There should be a reason for this pause.  And the fact that  our pieces are so long.  They are long and at the same time they are not so long, for example the album of ASMZ, people see it like two pieces because of this single pause between two parts whereas there are several pieces in these parts.  It is not laziness, it is that they do not understand the music.  We always return from there at the same point...We are fully aware that we are lucky to have an audience for our music.  We often speak about it.  Many things about the music are not so pretty pretty but now we need to know how to react to all of that.  What does it mean by the fact that all these people buy our records?
How exactly do you see the future of GODSPEED?
Efrim: I do not know.  At the moment GODSPEED is on vacation.  We need to sit down and reflect on the next course of action for the band.  In the group each of us has different opinions for this matter.  Discussing this will be a painful and difficult process.
Will you this new material be the next A SILVER MT ZION album?
Efrim: Yes. This evening, half of the set is new.  We will record two more songs which we are working on, that will be done in the spring.
You have been begged to use your songs in advertisements, as well as films (Oliver Stone) and you refused all of these projects.  It is rather rare to have this much integrity?
Efrim: We had many calls.  It is true.  What shocks them is that we want to know what the film is about, what is it's goal, what is the director's background if we do not know it, because we do not want our music used in bad films.  And then, they are so sure you will say yes, that they make you the offer once that the addition of your music is completed!  Take for example the Oliver Stone film, it was our bass player, a big mouth who said that their 250,000 dollar offer was accepted!  Finally you have call one of their assistants to ask that they tell their boss we refuse.  The next day the boss of the boss calls us the next day to say that they have to delay the release of the film, because they have to redo the scene without our music.  They arrived two or three times, and they panic with the fifth call they intoxicate us because we already refused four times... For the Oliver Stone film, the one about American Football (Any Given Sunday), that was to illustrate this scene where the quarterback launches the ball, it is the most important moment of the film, and you have this long journey with the ball in slow motion in the air, it was ridiculous.  They wanted to use part of our song MOYA.  Moreover I do not know why, it is always this song that they want to use!  But fortunately, in America, there are only two firms that make advertisement deals for Nike, Volkswagen, these guys who are "cool" or "connected", that know about GODSPEED and once they go to a show they do not call us anymore... Our first call was from this big drunk insurance corporation, "Merrill Lynch"??, for use in an advertisement, they wanted to use our song DEAD METHENY.  We replied to them:  did you ever listen to any of our albums, do you know the politics/ethics of our group?  How can you believe that we would accept your offer?  For a large corporation?  But nobody turns them down so they are foolish not to use one of my favorite songs during a Volkswagen advertisement and each time I see this advertisement...
In another interview, you regretted the fact that the meaning of certain words were misused too much and were thus diluted, words like "hope" or "faith"...
Efrim: It is a great subject for us.  The human values were used so much to sell things, which forcefully perverted their direction.  For this reason I think that it is important to reclaim these words and to return them to their true direction.  As with the word "ploughing", which means work, but within the meaning of working for yourself it is completely different.
Yes, and at the same time in this case, you run the risk of appearing pretentious...
Efrim: This is said to us all the time...and once again it is more laziness because it is not the true meaning of the pretentious word.  Is it pretentious to use more than three words in the title of a song?  Each time you want to talk about serious things, you become pretentious, this is not the correct usage of the word.  Then, those who say that to us, will be incorrect, it is you who will be pretentious.  I hate that (he sighs).  I am really irritated by an interview GODSPEED did with a known Dutch magazine (ORR), because this journalist printed lies about us.  I was very surprised the first time we heard about it.  Extracts of this interview were circulated everywhere, and I received emails from friends on this subject, now one must reflect on the manner in which to reply.  This interview is unbelievable.  The only correct quotation that was used is comparing us to RADIOHEAD?  We answered that we thought that RADIOHEAD were hypocrites and liars because they belong to a corporation, whereas their lyrics go against that and this quotation you can find everywhere.  That seemed more shocking to say:  to call into question the integrity of these jerks in RADIOHEAD.  It was as if you insulted JESUS.  If we had said that we thought that they were pretentious wankers, everyone would be lucky!  It is insane, it is meaningless.  There was an announcement of a concert for A SILVER MT ZION in a magazine the other day and this quotation was in it.  What does this quotation have to do with the music of A SILVER MT ZION?
Comparing the music of A SILVER MT ZION, do you listen to much classical music at home?
Efrim: No, no when I was an 18 year old punk rocker, I was lucky to have a friend who loaned me the albums of ARVO, LEAVES, and GORECKI, and they blew me away.  This music has always been important for me since.  I have listened to this stuff a lot but there are so much other music that I listen to more.  The new songs that we wrote are based on the guitar thus...we are still a group that is exploring, we do not have a defined style.
The only band which I can compare you to is RACHELS.  Do you feel that you are similar to them?
Efrim: A little, but they come from an environment different from ours, and they seem more interested by esthetics.  They lean more towards art for art's sake which I do not criticize but our approach is different.  For us, these instruments are tools to try to communicate simple ideas.  This is an essential difference with them I think.
Do you think that the Internet was useful in promoting your two groups?
Efrim: We knew that there was an international distribution of our odd music and now all pass by mail order and the Internet.I did not have a computer until last summer. I refused to have one of them but I use it mostly to communicate by email.
I have monopolized a little too much of your time before this concert. Do you want to add something? Efrim: I would like to talk about history.  I do not know if you will understand but yesterday we walked together in Paris, and I came upon the cathedral of Our-Lady.  A mass was in session.  I am Jewish and this was perhaps the second time I entered a church to attend a mass.  The ritual was strange for to see, but the music, the sound and acoustics upset me by their beauty.  We continued to walk afterwards and I could not stop thinking of the time when people developed musical theories, how mathematics applied to the music, they preserved this technology for themselves.  In comparison with the acoustics of churches for example rather than to share this progress with others!  Now I do not have any more interest in this history but I still think about it sometimes, it was a great revelation for me.  The idea that there was this technology at that time, this harmony, and they used it for bad reasons.  And at the same time, I tried to understand why I was moved so much.  I was angry at myself for feeling this way.  The Catholic church did terrible things in the past.  Then, you resist that and you have tears in your eyes, and carry on, faith is a beautiful thing.  It is easy to be moved by the idea of faith.  Then I was angry because they should not be the only ones to possess this knowledge.  It should be shared.  On the outside, there is something deeply beautiful about these notes, this sound, this space.  This is what excites me at this moment.  I do not know what that means but I wanted discuss this history.  In fact my friend told me that they played OLIVIER MESSIAEN and I did not know that.  The organist played that and it was the most insane thing that I ever heard.  The entire church resonated, there were notes surrounding us and it was magnificent.