No doubt the world over has seen the first interview that Eagles of Death Metal have given since the horrific attacks that occurred almost two weeks ago at Paris’ Bataclan. I also watched the interview, along with the preview of the interview which was in poor taste and personally have a few things to say about it.
All of what you are about to hear is personal opinion but I find Vice to be a glorified hipster conduit. Sure, sometimes they do publish interesting articles yet usually are unable to write an article appropriate for the forward thinking idea to be well portrayed. Don’t get me wrong I am no writer extraordinaire but personally I have a big problem with how the interview was run for the band.
Putting together a 28 minute edit, Vice aired their first interview with Eagles of Death Metal speaking to all members of the band, it is tough to watch. Recounting their experiences individually each member essentially gives their angle of what happened in the Bataclan that night. Unfortunately due to our human condition, we retain a sense of morbid curiosity to see just how it was for the band when everything started to happen. Nevertheless the dressage that Vice put on the interview was tasteless and very uncaring.
Several times during the interview Jesse Hughes understandably gets choked up by the forceful questioning and is clearly in no way near to give a proper interview. Though when Josh Homme, who wasn’t at the show is brought in he makes an incredibly valid point that there are thousands of stories that will never be told and that the band are simply on a pedestal because they are just that, a band. The sadness that was felt when Hughes explains his love for Homme and his bandmates trying to make sure that that everyone was ok is one of humility and true love that Vice preyed on.
The fact that the interviewer shows no emotion whatsoever to any of the band’s feelings personally sickens me. Some might say it retains a sense of neutrality which personally I feel is completely the opposite. Regardless of any political agenda, hundreds of people died in a senseless act of violence. Instead of being understanding the interviewer pushes the band, asking obvious questions like when they recount that there was an explosion “was it a suicide vest“. What do you think?
Not to mention the unnecessary additions of seeing the band ask for five minutes only to not even return to the same scene. Adding in the request to show that the band are visibly distressed, of course they will be visibly distressed, any human being would be. Vice essentially used the means of Eagles of Death Metal to leech off the band’s sorrow to feed its viewer base. I will admit there are some things that you learn which give you more of an idea of the situation itself but the entire way the operation was handled, from the teaser to the interview itself was distasteful and callous. Again this is only my opinion and everyone is entitled to their own thoughts but perhaps there might some people out there who agree with me. I for one hope there are.
