Since the late '90s, Fuck the Facts has been a force to be reckoned with in the worlds of both grindcore and metal. The French Canadian crossover band has undergone a few lineup changes, hiatuses,\ and other challenges, but has returned stronger, making more music and hitting the road. Westword recently caught up with Mel Mongeon, the group's vocalist, to talk about FTF's current North American tour, new record and upcoming show in Denver.
"We feel pretty lucky. It’s been a full DIY effort...from releasing it to pressing it to doing artwork and mixing it, it's all us," Mongeon says about the new record, Desire Will Rot. "So it’s kind of fun to do something to support the media and the scene. When you are an older band, it’s hard to tell how you are going to be received, but we’ve gotten a lot of good feedback."
Fuck the Facts has been playing music together now for almost two decades, and in that time, the band has seen a lot of changes to the grindcore scene and the metal scene in general. The bandmembers remain firmly rooted in their positive ideals about metal, and gain strength from the community element that the intimate scene brings.
In addition to being members of both the metal and grind communities, Fuck the Facts, as bilingual French Canadians, belong to both the French- and English-speaking communities.
"Three out of four people in the band are bilingual, so for us it is a daily reality to be speaking both languages. It’s not necessarily something you think about," Mongeon says. "When you tour, you start getting reminded once or twice a day; someone will come up to you and say, 'Oh, you’re French!' I think in the U.S. you don’t hear as many French accents — more Spanish accents."
When asked how bilingualism affects the music, Mongeon says, "If it influences, it’s tough to know, because I can’t compare to what if I wouldn’t be bilingual. In lyrics we use both languages, and we give ourselves the freedom, if we want to name songs in French, even write an album in French, we don’t limit ourselves to one language or another."
Fuck the Facts will be playing on Monday, November 23, at Mutiny Information Cafe in Denver, located at 2 South Broadway. The show is all-ages (Mutiny Info is a bookstore and coffee shop by day and does not serve alcohol), and the cost is $8. Openers include 908, a grind band from Colorado Springs, Vermin Womb, a grindy doom band from Denver, and Athamé, a two-woman brutal metal band. Tickets can be purchased at Mutiny Info during the day or at the door.