“Art Is Political”: French Heavy Shoegaze Band Mascara on Debut Album Going Postal, Touring, and Living in a Burning World
In August 2026, I saw the French shoegaze band Mascara play their first-ever gig in Switzerland, supporting This Will Destroy You at a sold-out venue in Zurich. Halfway through their set, the guitars cut out completely. Their tour manager, Mathieu Mathon, stepped up to the microphone and recited a poem he had written about genocide and a world on fire. It was certainly an intentional and striking disruption.
But for all their political urgency, the men sitting across from me are disarmingly grounded. There is none of the usual rock star posturing. They are men who burn through their holiday allowance just to go on tour. They are fathers who miss their kids and are navigating the exhaustion of life on the road. Just the night before, this involved a frantic rescue mission to retrieve a passport left at a German petrol station.
Mascara is all about that raw humanity. They forged this ethos by locking themselves away in a remote house in the French countryside, entirely disconnected from the internet, in order to connect with each other. This is why they sampled Chris Marker’s dystopian masterpiece La Jetée for their debut album — a reminder, as Val notes, that even in the aftermath of World War III, a person can choose love over survival. It’s also why their name, while universally recognised as a Deftones homage, is actually a tribute to the Algerian town where Guillaume’s father was born.
During our conversation, we discussed their DIY roots, the length of time it took to record their debut album Going Postal, French politics and their response to internet critics calling them a 'Deftones copy', among other things.
If you see us on stage, you'll stop calling us a "Deftones copy".
Before Mascara, how did each of you first find your path into music?
Val: Oh, well, I think that all my life I wanted to make music, be in a band with my friends. And I've been doing it for 20 years now. It's been different projects over time, but it's always been a part of me and always something that I wanted to have in my life, just to have the right balance to feel good!
Guillaume: I always had a super cool music education because my older brother, who is eight years older than me, did my whole musical education. He always had bands. So I followed him with his bands. And then I began to make music on my own in my room. I had some bands in the past, and then I met this guy (points out to Val).
We met in 2017. I saw them when I was in a band, they played before Nothing in Bordeaux. We chatted with Val as we had a lot of friends in common. They were looking for a guitar player, so I joined their band Man is not a bird. Then we wanted something new, and this is where we created Mascara.
The internet says you formed in 2019.
Val: Yeah.
...over a shared love of Deftones?
Guillaume: We all have different musical backgrounds, but I think Deftones is the one where everybody agrees. When we listen to Deftones we are all like, "Okay, this band is so cool." So yeah, Deftones is one of the greatest, and we all agree on it.
Val: Yes, of course it's part of our past. What he said is that this is the only band where we all agreed at the same time, but doing this music was also very natural and authentic. It was not an idea of, "Oh, we really want to sound like this band or this other band." It was just us in a room with guitars, drums, and bass, trying stuff. What we did at the beginning, because we didn't really know each other, was decide to go somewhere in France, in the middle of nowhere in a house, and stay there for a week. It was the countryside with no TV, no reception, just us...
Val: ...playing music, watching movies, and just talking to each other. This is where we started to work on the band and do the first EP. But it is all about trying to be authentic. Just being who we are, that's all.
And you named the band after the Deftones song.
Guillaume: Yes.
I read there is a personal or emotional connection to it. Can you tell the story of it?
Guillaume: Yes! I always heard the word "Mascara", not only because of the makeup and the Deftones song, but also because my father is from a town called Mascara. It's in Algeria, and my father was born there, so that's why it has a personal connection. It makes sense for us.
Val: Yeah, when we heard about this story, we were like, "Oh yes! This is it." This is exactly who we are, and we all agree on this name because it means something very deeply to us, and it's a connection more than just the music.
Some internet critics call your sound a "Deftones copy". How do you respond to that?
Guillaume: To be honest, it's very flattering. [laughs] Thank you, but we don't copy, or even try to copy. We like a lot of different genres in music, and I think there are a few bands that can mix them, and Deftones is one of the bands that does it the best. Since we love every kind of music, of course Deftones is a band where we feel, "Okay, those guys can do it, so we can do it too." I can understand why people say "Deftones copy" because obviously our name is Mascara and it's a Deftones song, but we don't try to make Deftones music. To be honest, I think it's very flattering when people compare us to this band, but we are making our own way through music and pushing things further. We'll see, maybe someday people will stop calling us a "Deftones copy", but I think it's part of the game.
Val: Exactly, we understand that very much. It's funny to see how music has these full-circle moments. When we decided to start this band, we quickly felt that Deftones was an influence for us, but we felt that nobody really cared at that point. Now, six years later, kids are listening to this band again. And this is great for us. People understand our music very well now. Maybe less in France where we are from, but definitely in the US where we have a good audience. So, it's nice. It's a compliment.
Guillaume: Even in Europe to be honest. We did a few shows here in Europe. It's our first time out of France, out of our borders, and playing those shows with This Will Destroy You is very cool. Of course we are supporting them, so most people are coming for them and we totally understand that. But we can see that a lot of people connect with us, come up to us, and enjoy the show. It's what we have to do, we have to play and show people... because maybe if you see us on stage, you'll stop calling us a "Deftones copy". [laughter].
Besides Deftones, what are other artists or bands that are your musical influences?
Guillaume: There are so many, but I think we have a big influence from the 2000s. Clément, the drummer, is a big fan of Sepultura. I'm a big fan of Type O Negative. Maxime loves bands like Tool or Cult of Luna, more post-rock music. And Vincent, who handles the machines, has a huge electro and techno culture. So we have a lot of different stuff, and Nothing is also part of our influence.
Guillaume: We consider Nothing, and especially Nikki, as our big brother. He has always helped us, and we all love Nothing and we all love Nikki.
He totally has that energy, like a bigger brother or even a father. He just watches over everyone.
Guillaume: It's always fun being around him and he is such a cool guy. But we are also into more modern music, of course. We have a lot of talented friends now; we have singers like Oklou, who is also one of our influences because of the work she does. Being from France and having international success, we just love what she does. We are very into music, so we always dig for newer stuff, because we want to bring newer sounds into our music. I think it's important to see what people are doing, and especially in France, I think it's important.
Val: But you're right, experimental, ambient, and electronic music artists like Oneohtrix Point Never are huge influences for us. But we also love Elliott Smith. We just love music, and we just take parts of every genre that connects with us.
Guillaume: I just want to add that personally my main influence is Justin Broadrick. Every project he has, like Godflesh, Jesu, JK Flesh, and even this one band that is one of my favorites called Iroha—they only released two albums and he's in it. I think this guy is my main influence.
People label you as shoegaze. How do you define your sound yourselves?
Val: We've heard "heavy shoegaze" a lot. I think it works. We love to play loud with a lot of distortion and reverb, so it makes sense. I would say that.
What does the alternative and heavy music scene in France look and feel like right now? Do you feel you belong to this community in France?
Val: I think in our specific genre, we are a bit on our own, but there's a huge hardcore scene in France, mainly in Paris. Bands like Sorcerer, Headbussa, Worst Doubt... there's a huge scene for that. Bands like Birds in Row—they're not from Paris, but they live in France, and it's a band that started in France and spent a lot of time touring in the US. That is something that influences us, it's something we would love to do. I would say that before COVID it was a bit hard; the shows were not empty, but the vibe was a bit weird. After COVID, kids came back to the shows.
And shoegaze exploded!
Val: Yes. The first show we did after our break, after writing the album, was just to be on stage again and try these new songs, and we opened for Fleshwater and it was crazy to see so many young people, so happy to be there, very into this music, and ready to party. It's better to see that than an older crowd just standing there watching you. There was a huge connection between the crowd and us, and we felt that something is going on, there's something new right now, and that's perfect for us.
Your 2022 EP was your first release with Fever Ltd. How did stepping up to a label change your mindset going into your debut album?
Guillaume: It didn't really change our mindset because we always want to release songs. Sometimes it takes a long time, but Fever and Kamtin helped us a lot. He's always super nice to us and always helping when we need something. When we have ideas, he's always behind us saying, "Let's go guys, you should do it!" This is very cool. Since he's in the US, he knows the people there, and I think that's important for us because this kind of music is very popular there. It's cool to have Kamtin seeing what's happening there, getting people to listen to our band, and promoting it from the US. So it was a cool step. Having this first album, we feel super happy and grateful. Now we have to do the next one, and we want to do it quickly. Kamtin is always on our side, trying his best to help us with stuff we don't want to manage, to be honest. He's super helpful, we love him.
Val: Yeah, he is the best. Like you said, it was a first step, just for us to feel that someone is connecting with our music in the US! Also, he plays in bands that we like, so it was very...
Guillaume: Natural.
Val: ...natural to work with him. It's great because we have a lot of freedom, which is exactly what we need right now. We will see what the future holds for us, but for now, it's very good.
You said you wanted to record the next album quickly. This brings me to my question about your debut album, which took you two years to write and just one week to record. Could you tell me more about that? Why did it take you two years?
Guillaume: Well, maybe it was because we were doubting a lot about what Mascara was going to be. We had songs, and sometimes when you overthink, you fall into a trap of constantly pushing and thinking, "Okay, this could be better, this could be better." I think that's not very healthy sometimes. But when we decided to record it, we went straight ahead. We recorded it in a week, it was done, and we are super happy with it. We have kind of learned from our mistakes, I would say. Now we are focusing on composing music and saying, "Okay, this one is good, let's move to the next." So, hopefully the next one is going to take way less time!
Your debut album reflects a heavy social and political climate. Were you reacting to what was happening in France specifically, or was it more of a global feeling?
Guillaume: Of course we live in France, so we see what's in front of us, but it's a global thing to be honest, from what we see overseas or in every country. This is about France, but this is also about the world. The world is sick right now, and it's pretty much everywhere, so I think it's more worldwide.
If there is just one message you would like to get to people out there through the album, what would it be?
Guillaume: It's hard times, but let's be hopeful.
Val: Yeah, let's stick together. I think it was just impossible for us to shut up. Art is political and we want to use this platform to spread the word as much as we can. This is also why during this tour, we have our tour manager Matthieu come on stage. He wrote something about what we think about the world, and this is part of the show. We really want to keep this going as much as possible.
You are explicitly anti-manosphere and have zero tolerance for prejudice against women or the LGBTQ+ community. Why is it so crucial to wear your politics on your sleeve in the heavy music scene?
Val: I think it's because a lot of people are suffering, and we are very much against discrimination and injustice.
Guillaume: Yeah, we are for justice, but there are so many inequities and inequalities. In France, let's say, we have an election next year. We are at the point where the far right can govern our country next year because they are really strong.
Are you referring to Marine Le Pen's party?
Val: Yes, exactly. Marine Le Pen is very high in the polls.
Wasn't shevery close to winning last time?
Val: Yeah, always. But this time...
Guillaume: More than ever.
Val: More than ever, because we had 10 years of Macron, and everybody hates Macron, and we also hate him. Next year is going to be an election, and we can see that those people from the far right, because of social media and because of guys like Elon Musk with X, feel free to express themselves. We have a lot of friends and family that suffer from this. We have a lot of friends from the LGBTQA+ community, a lot of women in our entourage, and a lot of Black and Arabic friends. We stand with our friends.
Guillaume: This is for them, yeah.
Val: And we hate every kind of discrimination. We don't want this for the future of mankind. So we try to fight it our own ways. Art is music. Sometimes people say that it's not enough, but in our day-to-day life we try to militate, speak to people, and do our job.
On the track "Dream" from the debut album, you sample the French film La Jetée. Why did a film about war and memory belong on this record?
Val: First of all, it's one of my favorite movies of all time. Of course this is considered science fiction, but it is important for mankind to learn from its mistakes, right? La Jetée is set during an imaginary Third World War. It's imaginary, of course, but it could happen at some point, it could happen anytime. It's important because the main character is only looking for love. At some point, he had the choice: would he like to be in a safe place or would he…? He chose love, but he also chose death. I think this is what it means to be human, because we all end up the same way. So let's make the most of our time on Earth and try to be hopeful. La Jetée is a such an important movie to me. I just love it — it's French and it's set in Paris. It's a dystopia, but it could easily happen — except for the fact that you can travel through time and enter people's minds. The bad guys want to control everything, even people's minds, and that's the problem. We don't want that, and we see a lot of people trying to control what others think, so I really wanted to highlight that.
Moving on, I wanted to talk about touring. Being full-time musicians is a luxury today. Is Mascara your 100% job, or do you do other work outside of the band to financially support yourselves?
Guillaume: Oh yes, we all work in Paris, we have jobs. But Mascara is part of our life, this is the main goal. We are working on it each week, we have our practice room in Paris. We just need to have money to be able to do this. So yes, right now we still have jobs, and it works.
So, do you take a holiday when you go on tour?
Val: Yeah. Since Mascara is our main focus, we can tour only on our vacation. Sometimes it's difficult because we also have personal lives, we have girlfriends, wives, kids. It's hard to manage this. But we know why we do it because this is what we love to do. Playing shows, playing music. I think this is where it's real. And to be honest, before doing this album, we said to each other: "Okay this is the last try. Maybe we will do this album and nothing will happen." We are so lucky to tour and be able to have money because of this and then be able to go back to the studio and keep going. We will see what the future gives us, but right now it works.
Besides financial struggles, what is the hardest challenge you face as an independent band right now?
Val: Maybe getting to spend time together outside of the rehearsal space? We are friends before bandmates. We love to spend time together, and sometimes it feels like the only way we can see each other is through band practice. So that is maybe the hardest part...We spend as much time as we can together, but I am also a dad, and I need to be there for my kids. We are always talking to each other, but this is about being there together as real people. Sometimes it's difficult because it means sharing our thoughts and ideas, and those are the things we take into the music we create. So it's important for us to spend a lot of time together just to be one.
Guillaume: Like when we went to that house in La Mayenne, spending time together and composing. We are gonna do this again for the next album.
Val: We really want to do it quickly, but we want to be focused and connected all together. We will be in a house at some point in September or October just to have this time together. Not just in the rehearsal room, not just Guillaume or me behind a computer writing music, we really want to do it all together, just as we did at first for this band because it works well. So yeah, this is the hardest thing, but still a struggle sometimes.
You are now on this extensive tour with This Will Destroy You. They are sonically different from you. How has the crowd reacted to you and which city has been the best so far?
Val: Saying yes to this tour was a no-brainer. I've known Chris from This Will Destroy You for more than 10 years, and he always told me "we will tour together." I always knew that the crowd for This Will Destroy You is an open-minded crowd. I always knew that maybe not everyone, but some of them would connect with us and understand what we want to say. And we are seeing it every night, just seeing people closing their eyes and being very focused on what we are doing is very good for us. We are a supporting act, so people are not there for us, we just have to do our best. But two days ago...
Guillaume: Two days ago we played in Hannover in Germany, it was the best...
Val: Very cool there. So many younger people knew us and were very into it, dancing in their own way and expressing themselves, so that was very cool to see. This is amazing for us to be able to play for so many different crowds. This is the first time we are here in Switzerland. We are very lucky and we are taking all the good vibes as much as possible from the crowd.
What has been your absolute worst experience so far?
Guillaume: Worst experience? Waiting at the border for three hours...
Val: Oh I have another story to tell. Everything happened basically at the same time but, yesterday night, I forgot my bag at a gas station. Everything, all my life was inside this bag. We arrived at our hotel, and I realised, "Oh my God, I think I forgot my bag two and a half hours away from here..."
Guillaume: In Germany. Because he has his passport in it, and to come here to Switzerland, we need passports. He was like, "Okay I don't have my passport, I have nothing."
Val: So very stressful, sorry guys. And just a huge shout out to our tour manager Mathieu because it was a no-brainer for him: "We will go there." Even though we didn't know if it would be there, it was. So we had another five hours of driving just to find it. It was stressful but in the end...
Guillaume: We had to call some friends that speak German because we tried to call the gas station but nobody was speaking English or French, so we had to call a friend in Paris that speaks German to call the gas station...
Val: Oh my God.
Guillaume: A very, very stressful time.
Val: But we're here, and that's great.
What is next for Mascara after this tour wraps up?
Val: Composing the second album.
Guillaume: Yeah, that's the main focus. We saw each other before the tour and agreed, "This is what we want to do," just being focused. We knew that this tour would give us more energy to do it. So basically the main focus is to write this new album.
Val: And to tour also. We are lucky to finally be signed to a booking agency, so this is a big step for us. Touring, writing new music, and 2027 let's go.
And finally a question for each of you. What is your single favourite album of all time?
Val: For me it's gonna be easy. It's October Rust by Type O Negative.
Guillaume: And for me it's gonna be easy too, it's 22, A Million by Bon Iver. It's my favourite. (shows the tattoo dedicated to the album on his arm.)
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