The Metal Mag N°25 September / October 2018

The Metal Mag is an online magazine since 1998

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The Metal Mag N°25 September - October 2018

Hello readers, it is with great pleasure I introduce you to our partner United Rock Nation whom helped me for the Diamond Head interview. I want to give a big shout out to Natalie Conway for getting this possible with the band.

Thank you to Marc Fazio for letting us use his photographer Thibault Grapperon . He also led the interview for the magazine and I’m very greatful . Unfortunately the sound was bad so you won’t be able to listen to it but read it.

In the era of digital where most people don’t buy cd’s anymore, they are still people asking for a free printed magazine, only few will pay to get it printed. It cost a lot and until you get tons of adverts , there is no way to print a big amount to reduce the price. Artists those days don’t live with their arts. Are they people going into a store and ask to get one page of a magazine?! Too many don’t want to give money to recognize the hard work we all do.

I want to thank all the bands that contact me , I wish I had a living with the mag and a team to get more support done. Thanks to all who replied to the book contest from Saad Jones! The winner is : Samuel Cote from Quebec.

Always a pleasure to have people willing to own the printed issue for their records , you rock!!! I have started to get the mag directly available to buy from the printing company, so I’ll shortly spread the links. For now I have sent it only to the ones asking for the latest issue and only one has bought it so far. Keep sending your photos so I share them in the mags.

I want to thank Jeremy Golden From Heaven and Hell records for his long time support and spreading the great bands by pressing or repressing those great albums. Thanks to Pure Steel Records who release eighties Metal bands on vinyls , shame not all bands reply to the interviews...

Once again all the labels and PRs who send me albums to review , it is much appreciated although I would need people to help me on that task that demands time since it can take me few days to listen to and dig an album to update the review section of my website. ©Julie Watts for the cover - www.facebook.com/Julie-Watts-Photo-69680658960/ ©Franck Michaud #1 Toy Called Dog #2 Diamond Head #3 Mia Klose #4 Katia Figuera Mighty Music (Français / English) #5 Picture #6 Manigance (Français / English) #7 War Fare #8 Verginia Plain #9 Hatred Dusk (Français / English) #10 Boize #11 Brittany Denaro #12 Seven Kingdoms #13 Collateral #14 Solfernus #15 Texas Metal Outlaw #16 Powertribe #17 Mily Clic photos #18 BLeedskin (Français / English) #19 The Filth Hounds #20 Carbone (Français / English)

www.metalzoneprod666.com www.themetalmag.com

1/This is your fourth album , how did you think about the direction it would go?

1. When we started writing, we didn’t have a direction, we were trying to find the sweet spot that worked for us since the lineup has had changes. We would all come in with ideas as try to cobble together. However the music sounded forced, and contrived, so we scrapped all that and went with the process that the first three records did, which is me writing riffs/parts and showing them to the guys. Once we had the riffs, Marcus worked out the vocal melodies and then came over and we worked on lyrics. Once we had the riffs and melodies, I knew exactly the lyrical direction we should go.

2/The cover art is pretty dark, was it a wish? You don’t have the ‘mascot’ on this one…can you explain?

2. We wanted to leave some mystery on the cover this time, as we felt the songs at some level had a broader appeal, and we didn’t want the art to limit its potential, so we kept the cover simple. We did however include a painting of “Gary the Goat Guy” inside the physical copy of the album.

3/After so many years you still do it yourself, any label interest?

3. While we are primarily a DIY band, we did recently sign with Sliptrick Records, to help us with some of this process.

4/Since last time we spoke , did you have line up issues? Is the band like a family?

4. The lineup has been constant for almost two years, which is the longest it has been constant for some time. These guys are like my brothers.

5/How did you compose this album compared to the other ones?

5. We just sit in the our rehearsal room playing and or writing, but like said previously, we tried to change it up and it didn’t work so went with what call “the classic coke” formula for the band which is, o write a ton of riffs and we pick the stuff that we like best and go from there.

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6/You have a great video, did you ask to skilled friends ,how did it all been done?

6. Since we did our first album, we have used the the same director over and over for our videos. Mike Sloat, the director, is super easy to work with, has an incredible camera eye and editing chops. He gets where we are trying to go, and easily takes whatever idea or concept we are trying to convey and he runs with it. Truly he is amazing.

7/Can you tell us about the two vocals , is it just a test or you really wanted to have something special for this album?

How did you get MELISSA MARI to share the vocals with Marcus? Any futur collaboration…

7. Our singer Marcus does play a little guitar and one night while writing he played an idea he’d had been working on, for his personal use, and there was a phrase he played which I loved a part from. I took the part and added a “response” part to it. I then added the big open chord structure behind the two verse parts. Marcus also has a musical theatre background, and so sitting there as starting to work out melodies for the vocal, I mentioned that should do a duet for this one since the two part verse music lends itself to that. The second we had the music together I knew with his background it would be perfect for this particular song. He wrote the incredible vocal melodies we had in mind for the basic vocal, and then we wrote the lyrics.

8/Do two vocals kind of change the way you write a song?

8. They only change it in that you have to remember it’s a conversation or call and response. I thought it as much harder to find the voice that fit the part, since Marcus has a unique range.

9/Are you playing in different bands?

9. Unfortunately at present I only have time and resources to put into Toy Called God. 10/Can you talk about the lyrics, the whole idea of the album? Are the songs linked and what inspired you for the lyrics?

10. I feel ppl relate most to what they see or what they know or live through daily. Since social media has become such a part of everyone’s lives, we decided to write that, what we see on there and how it affects the user and those around them.

11/Can you talk about your gears? How and why did you choose them? Any endorsement..

11. We are currently endorsing Fireplant Guitars, and Steve Clayton accessories. We have had other endorsements over the years, but this is what currently endorse. We also use Mesa and Marshall guitar amps, Tec Amp bass amps, Ibanez bass guitars, DW drums, and Zildjian cymbals.

12/Are you working in the cinema or you just have a big imagination by watching movies?

12. In my late teenage years and early twenties, I worked security for some Hollywood film productions, and that’s the only experience in that field I have. The imagination part has always been there for me. I’ve just always known what I want to do, the rest is identifying the details.

13/You are the band that can’t be put in a box although you are close to the Heavy Metal field, are you listening to lots of bands?

13. I’m out almost every weekend checking out bands and music if we are busy doing TCG and I have the time.

14/What is the scene like? is it easy to share live dates with different music style ? Have you got friends you gig with often?

14. The scene in our area is currently doing very well, we have a ton of super talented bands and individuals in the San Francisco Bay Area. This amazing collective of ppl inspire us to be better and greater than we could be without them.

We like to gig with like minded hard working bands, who are easy to work with and have their act together. I’ve made P5

many friends and contacts and we try to play with as many as we can. I’m not so much concerned their genre as I am their ability to connect with our audience and us with theirs.

15/Are you following the new bands? if so which one you would recommend?

15. There are so many amazing new bands out there. Here’s a list of some of my current lesser known favorites: The Watchers, Monster God, The Ghost Next Door, Swamphammer, Mudface, The King Must Die, Cultural Warfare, Exham Priory, Heat Of Damage and I could go on on and for days. Really I could. Let’s see there’s also Niviane, Hellbender, HardFail, Rage Of War, The Devil In California, His Name Is Robert Paulson, Bavmorda and just too many others for me to name here. This is truly the tip of the iceberg......I hope you all check some of these out.

www.toycalledgodband.com

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Interview led by Thibault Grapperon from United Rock Nation for The Metal Mag. 1/Today is the first show on your European tour , what is your feeling about it? What’s the story with France?

Brian Tatler : We haven’t done gigs for few weeks, so it’s nice to get back together and have your friends there. It’s just a co-hands landed. The next show is back in the Uk in couple weeks time in London and we pretty much back to pack in October and November. So we’ve never done this place before and never been to Marseille before. It’s like a good festival , two days isn’t it? should be good!

2/As you know you influenced a bunch of bands for some who are todays big ones; what impact did it do to your musical adventure?

Brian Tatler : Well it makes the band more credible, and we became an influencial band. And it helps spread the word across the world to make like the americans guys are doing you know..places we have never toured in the eighties unfortunately. So you know the band stopped in 1985 but thanks to Metallica in getting covers done for these songs and consistently playing «I am evil» live... Even now! They played «I am evil» seven hundred and fifty times so..a lot of people know this song through Metallica. So many people came to me saying I’ve got into Diamond Head through Metallica. Without that band Diamond Head might not be still going..as popular as it is. I think they definitively gave us a life line , I mean the money is nice as well. Even if we got that the popularity sort of helped you know..

3/How did you write this new album? Did you play old riffs or songs never used before?

Brian Tatler : It’s mainly new material. Lot of it we started like in 2016 with few demo and then .. ask Ras here our singer..gave us last year a CD and we went listening thinking like ‘that’s good...that’s not..’we weekly narrow down and started working on maybe a dozens songs...

Rasmus Bom : We ‘d analyze and tried to stick to what would be now called the Diamond Head preview we did the last week end.

Brian Tatler : In Rasmus home studio we would rewrite few sections few times until we can meet up in the rehearshal room with drummer, bass player etc..trying to track live and Ras would record all rehearsals. We work for months until we have the songs. We recorded the drums last week. So it has been quite of a process.

4/What the die hard fans must expect from it, is it close to the earliest material or more into the modern sound?

Brian Tatler : I think it’s pretty close to the modern sound. But we don’t want to sound like others so it is really a DiaP7

mond Head sound. We try to make the best album possible with the budget and time it takes and we have. Some riffs are old, they are the ones I have for years and years on cassettes. Occasionnally I would think «oh that would work» or want to revisit it..it never managed to grow into a song you know...it could go right for the feel and Ras vocals and then we will go.

Rasmus Bom : We don’t want to be 80’s so much and have a modern sound...

Brian Tatler : We grow up and got older . I’m such a different writer than I was , got married ... 40 years playing...

Rasmus Bom : We take what sounds good to us.

Brian Tatler : Yeah we want to be happy and people will be.

5/After so many years of composing , how do you find the motivation to write? Are you listening to bands to help you create?

Brian Tatler : I try not to sound like old bands. The inspiration of composing is such exiting and bounds us when you write with your band , the right chorus, the right riff...the right idea and it feels good it kind of bring me back to when I was 16 years old. I never really lost that even we all the live gigs and albums I still feel like a teenager enjoying the music, it’s still very exiting to be the man that makes those things it’s brilliant. If you don’t know what it’s like ,it is a real motivation for us.

6/Do you write as a band or the singer put his lines on top of the songs written?

Brian Tatler : I try to write the music and like many bands each member brings something on bass or drums...but I leave all the lyrics to Ras. We kind of create in seperate ways and bring it to mix it all as a band. We make demos and things , but I always like to write the music and then see with Ras lyrics and then we work on this.

7/Can you tell us a bit about the cover artwork, who did it and have you had input ?

Brian Tatler : It’s all done we have an american guy who worked on it , he’s called Travis Smith who’s done the artwork and we are very happy with it. He did a good job and it’s probably the best cover we’ve had. We had many different ones but this is will be something strong that people will like. The cover was inspired by one of the songs « The Titled track» but we’re not giving the name yet. It’s a powerfull image.

8/Are you listening to the new bands? are they one you specially recommend?

Brian Tatler : I like a band called «The Monster Truck» .. hum ... I have to remember all the time...

Rasmus Bom : ..I like a band called «Jinjer» I think it’s a russian or ukranian band they are killing.

Brian Tatler : Can’t think of other... I still like the old days, it’s quite cool when hearing new bands but...It’s inside floating aroung but I forget the titles sometimes.. I always looking for good singers and great solos and good riffs. My taste hasn’t changed all that much.

9/Have you got your own studio to record?

Brian Tatler : No , Ras got a studio where he does some vocals. We hired a studio to record. And it was mixed at Ras ‘s studio.

10/Are you gonna release a live DVD with bonus? The LPs are back are you gonna release one for the new album? Do you collect them?

Brian Tatler : We haven’t got a plan to do that , although we have several live gigs recorded. We have been so busy with the album that we priorities that first and haven’t thought of anything else.

Rasmus Bom : As for the Lp it’s another label doing that.

Brian Tatler : It’s a good package for the fans.

11/What has changed in your sound since you started?

Brian Tatler : You get better as a player, can’t really remember how it was back in 1980 but now you can record on your own with a better sound.

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12/Are you into trying out new gears? Can you tell us about what you use?

Brian Tatler : ahaha Ras got a great guitar... I still like the old sound of the Marshall keeping the same gears. But you know few years ago you couldn’t buy gears like that so thing have changed.

Rasmus Bom : Trying few things in the studio with different amps and mics that what we do for the sound of the mix.

13/You have an intense tour, how do you prepare for such a worldwide event?

Rasmus Bom : Gym for me.

Brian Tatler : I like to practice everyday to keep my hands at ease and it seems to work. We do a couple of rehearses.

Trying to change the songs cos you get bored after a while so it gives a fresh vibe and just enjoy your set.

14/Is there a town or country where you are happy to play the most?

Brian Tatler : Probably England.

15/Have you got songs ready for the next album or you prefer concentrate on the new material first?

Brian Tatler : No we just mastered this album the other day. We knew we had to be prepared for this tour so we will see the futur album later...

16/Do you know the bands who play on the tour with you? Are they some you are friends with?

Brian Tatler : We have the chance to know few bands to choose for the tour, some are from England I think...

www.diamondheadofficial.com

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1/You were born in Sweden but moved to the Uk, what is the reason for?

I moved to London just as a fun thing when I finished school but then I quickly got connected to a lot of people within the music industry and meet a lot fo other musicians to work with. As things were going so well in London I ended up staying for a lot longer then I planned. Im however living back in Stockholm again now since a while back but go back and forth between London and Stockholm.

2/You have great musicians over there (sweden) , was it easy for you to find ones in the Uk? My musicians in the band all lives in the U.K except from my one guitarist Kalle who is also from Sweden, he currently lives in Gothenburg. They are all hand picked and it took some time to find the perfect match in the band.

3/I received your CD from Sweden, did you start your band at home and is the reason why the merch is there?

The merch is currently sent from Sweden as this is where im based at the moment. But as mentioned before I go back n forth between Stockholm and London as I got most of my work team for the music in London. You can find both my new and my old album at www.miaklose.bigcartel.com or on Spotify and iTunes.

4/You have different musicians on the album than the live shows, why do you make that choice? Isn’t it more difficult for the « band »’s image and all the biz behind?

There were different musicians on my debut album which is the one I think you have. On the new album that is coming out on the 28th of September this year its the same musicians who play on the album that you can see if you come to a live show. They kick ass and are like brothers to me. Its Jonny Nonsense and Kalle Arheden on guitar, C-Rexx on bass and Henry Rogers on drums.

5/You made a video in the states for your new album, can you explain what has led you to do so ?

I have spent a lot of time in the States the last year and on one occasion I made the music video for Gimme Gimme, P11

it was a bit of an impuls thing and was filmed on an iPhone 6. It was a lot fo fun to film it tho and I think the result is pretty fantastic considered its made with almost no budget.

6/You seem to do everything, have you got a manager or someone that you can trust on your musical career? How do you deal with all of this? Are you in touch with your fans?

I do have a very great manager who is based in London, Tony Wilson. He has done a lot for me during the years and im very glad he is always on my side and strive constantly to push my career forward. However its always me doing the post on social media such as facebook and instagram etc. Id never let someone else do that, its important for me to have that contact with fans.

7/There is a big gap between your last album and this new one, what happened? Do you find it hard to keep up? Have you had label interests?

I did a lot of touring after my first album release and then once everything was ready for the next album I kinda hit the wall after working extremely hard for many years. I was living a true artist life in east London, had almost no money and working day and night with no time to catch my breath. I did it for the love of music but in the end it was just not a great way to live anymore so I needed a break and a lifestyle change. But now im back with my new album and ready to see where it will take me.

I decided to release STRONGER on my own label as that gives more power and freedom to me as an artist.

8/How did you find the musicians for that album ‘stronger’? Did you ask for the musical direction to take?

The musicians on STRONGER are guys that I have been working with for a long time and its the same guys u would have seen in any live shows over the last couple of years. They were all hand picked and are super talented. They are like a family to me and we always have so much fun together.

9/Are the lyrics you wrote about your last years experiences or you create from what you see everyday?

The lyrics on STRONGER is about love life, being strong and independent, going your own way. There is both fiction and reality in the lyrics.

10/Are you singing as guest in others albums? Do you play any instrument?

I do guest in other projects when there are opportunities, its always fun to do different types of musical projects when the change is given. I do play a few instruments - there guitar, violin, drums and piano but my first instrument is my voice.

11/Who is your favorite singer and have you taken lessons?

I have taken singing lessons during my school years and that can be very helpful to find the right technique. I have many favourite singers, for example Axl Rose and Joe Elliot who are both old school. But I also really love the voice of newer bands such as The Band Perry and The Cadillac Three.

12/One of your album had a white background color this new one has a red one, is is something you have intention to do with each album using different colors and does it have a special meaning?

My favourite colours are black, white and red so there is no coincident that those were the colours of the albums. But there is no deeper meaning behind it than that.

13/How do you rehearse , compose the album?

We are rehearsing in London at various rehearsal studios. We got a few that we are returning to. Sometimes we have been rehearsing at someones place to when its been convenient and been possible without setting up big amps and drum kits.

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14/You are kind of the English Doro like, would you say she has influenced you to become a singer?

I love Doro but I didn’t listen to her that much until people started telling me I reminded them about her. So I can’t say she has inspired me to become a singer, I do however think she is super cool and she is a very kind person to. I have had the opportunity to meet her and speak to her, she is an amazing singer and person.

15/You have a very 80’s sound, which bands are your favorite from that era?

A few favourites are Guns N Roses, Motley Crue, Def Leppard, Judas Priest, Europe, Ozzy…and the list can off go on.

Its all the old school rock bands. I also love Metallica and Iron Maiden and the Runaways.

16/You are interviewing bands for Total Radio, is your singing career kind of left aside as « fun » ? Which side do you prefer and can you tell us how you got those position?

Unfortunately its very hard to survive on music as your main career although that is always the end goal. I only know a very few people who have to opportunity to live completely of music, almost all musicians have another job on the side. The same goes for me. I work mainly with TV productions when Im not doing music. I work both in front of and behind the camera.

17/Why are you doing food videos? is it just a fun thing you like to do? Have you got your own trade of food thing?

Im a vegetarian and this is a choice I have made for the health benefits and for the environmental damage that agriculture has on the planet. I also love animals and fight for less cruelty.

The reason I have a food channel on youtube is to inspire others to eat more vegetarian and vegan food. Its to show how easy, delicious and how much fun vegan and plant based food can be! Check it our by searching for Mia Klose Food TV on youtube!

www.miaklose.com

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1 / Tu es le manager du groupe de ton compagnon depuis le début .

Avais-tu déjà fait ce genre de chose avant ?

Non jamais. C’était une grande première pour moi. Quand on a eu l’idée, il y a 6 ans, de fonder le groupe ensemble, très rapidement ce fut une évidence.

Il fallait à Guillaume une personne proche et de confiance pour gérer tout ce qu’il y a autour du groupe (promo, dates, etc..). Je me suis lancée dans le bain directement avec beaucoup de motivation et d’enthousiasme. J’ai vraiment appris « sur le tas ». Et comme j’aime souvent le mentionner : « c’est en forgeant qu’on devient forgeron » .

1/ You are the band manager of your boyfriend’s band from the start, have you done this in the past?

No, it was the first time for me. When we had the idea, six years ago to start the band, it became like an evidence.

Guillaume needed a trusty and close person he could to deal with all a band needs (Promo; live dates etc..). I jumped directly into this adventure with lots of motivation and enthousiasm. I really learnt from scratch.

2/En quoi ce job t’a t’il aidé ? Est-ce difficile étant une fille ou cela n’est pas un problème ?

Cette activité m’a permis de me constituer un réseau de contacts assez important dans le circuit musical français et à l’étranger ainsi que de me familiariser avec les différents outils de travail. D’ailleurs, cela me sert actuellement aussi dans mon activité en tant que promoteur via les médias français pour le label danois Mighty Music . En manageant notre propre groupe, avec Guillaume, ça m’a permis également de faire mes premières armes et d’apprendre les ficelles de ce travail.

Je ne te cacherai pas que cela n’a pas été évident pour moi, au départ, en tant que femme. Il existe encore beaucoup de préjugés sur l’efficacité du travail réalisé par les femmes, et qui plus est, dans un univers très masculin et assez macho dans l’ensemble. Heureusement il y a encore pas mal de gens qui sont très favorables aux présences féminines sur des postes de gestion et j’en connais beaucoup. J’ai été neuf fois sur dix en relation avec des hommes ces dernières années, que ce soient des managers/tour managers, promoteurs, organisateurs de concerts, animateurs radios, graphistes et j’en passe. Quand tu es une femme, et que tu débutes, certaines personnes ne te prennent pas au sérieux et encore moins si tu affiches ouvertement une certaine féminité assumée. Mais comme le dit si bien mon dicton : « Sois belle et ne te tais pas » (sourire). Je rajouterai qu’à l’aube de 2019 il serait temps qu’en France, dans notre microcosme et ailleurs, certaines mentalités changent. Une femme peut très bien porter des jupes et des talons être efficace dans sont travail.

2/ How this job helped you? Is it harder being a girl or there is no problem at all?

This activity helped me built my contact network, enough in the french cercle as abroad to get used to the different way for praticing this job. It actually helps me right now for promoting the bands through the French medias for the Danish Label Mighty Music. By managing our own band with Guillaume, it helped me to learn the tricks of the trade as getting my first experience.

I won’t hide it hasn’t been easy for me, at the beginning as a woman. It still exists thoughts about women ‘s work and her ways to get it done right. This field is very much a male one and really Macho. Fortunately they are many people who are happy to deal with women who have to work in those fields and I know a lot. I’ve been nine times in ten years of of relation with men those years, whatever has manager/ tour manager, promoter, gig orgnizer, radio dj, graphic designer and many...When you are a woman and you are starting some people don’t take you seriously and more if you have lots of femininty. But as my own characters says «be pretty but don’t shut shut up» lol. I would add that in nearly 2019 , it would be good in France that mentality change.

A woman can wear skirts , high heels and be good in her position at work.

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3/Est-ce plus facile d’être manager avec une personne avec laquelle tu partages ta vie ? N’est-ce pas dangereux pour les relations ?

Oui c’est plus facile et je dirai même que la situation est nettement plus confortable. C’est un peu comme une entreprise familiale. On se fait confiance à 100% l’un et l’autre et on est fier d’avancer ensemble. Travailler au management pour le groupe de son conjoint offre un certain confort, même si la pression est là car il faut quand même du résultat au bout du compte. Le travail se fait de manière plus « détendue », c’est relativement moins stressant et l’avantage c’est qu’on peut communiquer directement et à tout moment de visu sur la situation de travail. Cela n’a jamais été un danger pour notre relation, bien au contraire. On s’est encore plus rapproché car on portait ensemble « notre bébé artistique » depuis le départ pour l’emmener le plus loin possible. C’est vrai que par conséquent, on parle du groupe matin, midi et soir et il faut savoir aussi sortir un peu de là mais c’est ça aussi la passion et quand elle peut être partagée à deux c’est formidable.

3/Is it easier to manager someone with whom you share your life with? Isn’t it dangerous for your relationship?

Yes it is easier and I would say that it makes if much confortable. It’s like a family company. We trust each other 100% and we are proud to get forward together. Working for the management of your boyfriend’s band kind of brings a confort , even if the pressure is still there as you need result. My work is much relaxed, less stress and we communicate directly so we can see the whole picture straight away. It has never been a danger for our relationship either. We got closer as we brought our «artistic baby» from the start and to get as far as we can. But yeah we speak about the band from the morning ‘till the night , we have to get out from this from time to time but it is our passion and it is better when it is shared.

4/Pendant tout ce temps tu as posé sur des photos « sexys » via ta page Facebook. Penses-tu que cela n’a pas du tout posé de problèmes avec ton statut ? As-tu reçu des retours négatifs ?

J’ai réussi à atteindre les premiers objectifs que je m’étais fixés en tant que manager pour mon groupe. J’ai été sollicitée par la suite pour rejoindre l’équipe de Mighty Music à la promotion française. Régulièrement je suis sollicitée aussi au management de différents groupes français et même de quelques uns à l’étranger. J’ai reçu aussi deux propositions pour figurer dans des clips hard & heavy et récemment on m’a proposé d’animer éventuellement une petite rubrique radio pour faire des chroniques d’albums. Alors je pense que tu as la réponse à ta question (rire). Pour te répondre plus en détails, j’ai eu affaire, à certains moments, à des individus relativement malveillants et frustrés qui jugent sur l’apparence ou le franc parler. Quelque part c’est inévitable. De toute manière, que tu sois habillée en col roulé/pantalon ou en jupe/résilles il y aura toujours des gens pour critiquer. Personnellement j’ai choisi d’être moi-même et de ne pas rentrer dans un moule préfabriqué pour me conformer à ce que certaines personnes voudraient voir et entendre.

Je refuse le conformisme. C’est ça ce que j’appelle être rock & roll !! Etre soi-même, garder son style et sa personnalité et ceux qui ne sont pas contents n’ont qu’à aller voir ailleurs. Moi ça ne m’empêchera pas de dormir ni de continuer à avancer. J’ai même envie de rajouter qu’en France, comme dit dans une question précédente, il y a encore certaines personnes qui ont du mal à accepter qu’une femme puisse être sexy, féminine, poser pour des photos et en même temps travailler sur des postes de gestion, que ce soit organiser des concerts, faire de la promo, du management, etc… un peu comme si ces deux aspects ne pouvaient pas être compatibles . Je suis fière de montrer que c’est le cas et je ne dois pas être la seule. Tu as peut-être remarqué qu’à l’étranger, que ce soit aux States ou dans d’autres pays, on trouve des filles super sexy dans le staff des groupes et ça ne gêne personne. Au contraire, c’est la normalité. On est quand même dans un univers rock and roll il me semble, un milieu qui a toujours eu une imagerie sexy pour certains styles en particulier. Il faut que ça continue ! Si ça régresse c’est que nous avons un sérieux problème dans ce pays.

4/During all this time you have posted «sexy» photos on your facebook page. Don’t you think it has damaged your job? Have you received negative words?

I managed to reach my goals as a band manager. I have been then solicited by Mighty Music to promote in France.

Regularly I am solicited to promote and manage bands in France and few abroad. I received two propositions to appear in Hard & Heavy video clips , and recently to review album in a radio station. So I think you have the answer to your question. (Laugh) To get in depth , I had few troubles from frustrated people who judges you from your pictures and the way you speak. Whatever your clothes , skirts, trousers... there will always be people to critisize you.

Honestly I decided to be myself and not to fall into the box of what people expect. This is what I call Rock & Roll!!

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Be yourself , keep your own style and personnality. Nothing will stop you from sleeping and go forward. I even want to say, as said in earliest answer, in France they are people have trouble to accept that women can be sexy , posing for photos as working for managing , organizing live shows ..etc like those things are not compatible. I am proud to show that it is not the case and I am certainly not the only one. You probably noticed that abroad , in the states or other countries , we find lots of sexy women working in the staff for bands and it doesn’t bother anyone. And this is normal, we are in the Rock ‘n Roll world I think, a place that always had a sexy image for certain styles. It has to keep going ! If not that means we have a serious problem in this country.

5/As-tu posé en tant que modèle pour gagner plus d’argent ou c’est une autre passion que la musique ?

Pour le moment c’est juste une passion de temps à autre. Je ne pose pas pour faire des photos pros , bien que je sois sollicitée par des photographes pour différentes collaborations. J’ai même reçu des demandes de photos version papier glacé à dédicacer. Ca me fait toujours bizarre quand on me demande cela. Je ne suis pas musicienne ni top modèle, ni actrice mais en tout cas ça fait toujours très plaisir (sourire) 5/Have you worked as a model to earn money or this is just a passion like the music?

For the moment it is just a passion from time to time. I pose for professionnal photos, although I got solicited by photographers for different collaborations. I even received demands to send signed pictures with the glossy paper.

It is always strange to receive those kind of demands. I am not a musician and not a top model either. I’m not an actress but it is always a good feeling to have those (Laugh).

6/Est-ce qu’être manager d’un groupe donne beaucoup de boulot et de stress ?

Quand j’ai commencé, oui !! J’avais tout à apprendre et à construire. Je savais que le chemin serait difficile pour creuser mon trou mais je n’ai rien lâché. Je me suis toujours donnée à fond. J’ai eu la chance d’avoir les bonnes personnes autour de moi, celles qui te font avancer, qui te tirent vers le haut, t’encouragent et sont toujours à l’écoute pour te prodiguer de très bons conseils. Ce qui est important c’est de s’entourer des personnes bienveillantes. Il ne faut pas hésiter à se débarrasser le plus vite possible des nuisibles et c’est ce que j’ai fait progressivement. Ces gens-là , les jaloux et les frustrés, sont un vrai frein à la progression. Le chemin est certes, encore long, et j’espère qu’un jour je n’aurai plus qu’à enclencher le pilotage automatique.

6/Is being a band manager gives your lot of work and stress?

When I started yes!!! I had to learn everything and built myself. I knew the path would be hard to get my place but I never gave up. I always worked totally. I had the chance to have the right persons surrounding me, those who helps you going , never bring you down, encourage you and always listening to give you advices. What is important is to be surrounded by the right persons. Don’t hesitate to leave the others that are nuisible which I did progressively.

Frustrated people and jealous ones are the real break to your porgression. The path is tough and still heavy but I hope one day I’ll be the main pilot without stopping.

7/Tu travailles maintenant pour le label Mighty Music , celui du groupe de ton compagnon. Vas-tu gérer plus de groupes ?

Oui, forcément. Je dois m’occuper de la promotion, pour la France, de tous les groupes du catalogue chaque fois qu’il y aura une sortie d’album, une news concernant un nouveau single /vidéo, etc…. Mais c’est un travail qui me plaît et qui rejoint tout à fait ce que je faisais déjà dans mon groupe avec mon conjoint Guillaume donc rien de bien nouveau pour moi si ce n’est que cela va demander un peu plus de travail et que cela concernera plein de groupes en même temps. C’est une certaine fierté tout de même car je vais m’occuper directement de la promotion, par exemple , du nouveau projet de D .D. Verni (Overkill) qui sortira un premier album solo le 12 octobre 2018 ou encore de l’album de David Reece (ex Accept/Bonfire) qui sortira le 9 novembre 2018 . Il y a aussi parmi les groupes français signés No Return et d’autres dont je ferai la promotion. Il y a des groupes français qui sont sur le label depuis un moment et des nouveaux qui arriveront prochainement. Travailler pour tous ces groupes, français et étrangers, c’est quelque chose qui m’enthousiasme beaucoup.

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7/You are working now the Mighty Music label, the one of your boyfriend.

Does that mean you will have lots of bands to deal with?

Yes of course, I must deal with the French promotion and all the info of the bands each time there is a new album out, a video etc... But this is a job I love and I enjoy. This is similar towhat I was doing with Guillaume and his band except this time I have all the bands at the same time. I’m very proud as I’m gonna deal for the promotion of D .D. Verni (Overkill) for his first solo album that will be out the 12th october 2018 or even the album of David Reece (ex Accept/Bonfire) that will be out the 9th november 2018 . Among the bands there is also the French band No Return and others I will promote.They are bands who are on the roaster for many years and new ones coming.

Working for those French and international bands is a strong feeling.

8/ Raconte-nous comment tu en es arrivée à ce genre de position. Vas-tu t’occuper des concerts, de la pub des groupes. Qu’est-ce que cela change par rapport à ce que tu faisais avant ?

J’ai eu l’occasion de travailler avec Michael Andersen, le patron du label Mighty Music, depuis la signature de mon groupe en 2016 (encore un grand merci à Christophe Bailet). J’ai pu observer le travail excellent de promotion et de distribution du label. Je pense que Michael, de son côté, a vu que j’étais impliquée et sérieuse. Il y a 2 semaines il m’a envoyé un mail me disant qu’il cherchait une personne pour faire la promotion du label en France et qu’il a pensé à moi pour ce travail ! Ce fut une excellente surprise. J’étais fière et surtout de savoir qu’il a confiance en moi pour que je sois la représentante du label en France . J’ai donc accepté avec joie (sourire). Comme expliqué plus haut, je suis donc en charge de la promotion française des groupes à tous les niveaux possibles et cela peut inclure aussi les dates pour les concerts. Si j’ai des plans dans le sud pour faire venir jouer les groupes de Mighty ce sera un énorme plaisir.

La seule chose qui change c’est que je vais devoir m’occuper de la promotion de plusieurs groupes à la fois et que j’aurai, par conséquent, plus de travail et de responsabilités.

8/Tell us how did you end up in that position. Are you gonna deal with the live dates and every adverts for bands. What does that change from what you did before?

I had the chance to work with Michael Andersen the boss of Mighty Music, since I signed my band in 2016 (Once again a big thank you to Christophe Bailet). I had observed the great work the label did for the promotion and distribution. I think Michael, on his side, saw I was serious and commited. Two weeks ago he sent me a mail to tell me he was looking for someone to promote bands in France and he tought about me for this job! It was an excellent surprise.

I was proud to know he has trust in me to give me the opportunity to deal for the promotion in France. So I accepted (lol) . As told above I’m in charge of the promotion for the french bands for every possible issue needed such as live dates. I have plans in the south to get the labels bands playing and it is a real pleasure. The only thing that changes is I will have to deal for the promotion of many bands at the same time and I will have more work than I used to have.

9/Joues-tu d’un instrument ? Ecoutes-tu du metal depuis toujours ?

Le seul instrument que j’ai pratiqué pendant quelques années c’est la flûte, comme bon nombre d’écoliers ou collégiens (rire). J’ai essayé de toucher un peu à la guitare et à la basse, mais j’ai très vite vu que ce n’était pas mon truc du tout de gratter sur des cordes. J’ai testé le clavier également, ça ne m’a pas branché. Par contre s’il aurait vraiment fallut que je me mette à un instrument j’aurais choisi la batterie. C’est l’instrument qui m’attire le plus. Un jour peut-être ?

Pour répondre à la deuxième question, figure-toi que non !! Je n’ai pas toujours écouté du metal ! Enfant je n’écoutais aucun groupe du style. J’ai grandi avec des oldies plus centrés sur la période disco et Motown, sur de la variété et de la musique espagnole. A l’adolescence j’écoutais de tout : du rock, du hard rock, de la variété, de la pop, de la country, de la funk, etc…J’ai toujours été très éclectique musicalement parlant. Il y a du bon à prendre dans un peu près tout.

Puis, quelques années plus tard, j’ai rencontré Guillaume, mon conjoint. J’étais encore très jeune. Je ne pouvais pas échapper au metal en me mettant en couple avec un grand amateur de ce genre. De fil en aiguille j’ai écouté, j’ai découvert et j’ai adoré, autant les groupes français qu’étrangers, et je suis tombée dans la marmite (même si ce n’était pas depuis que je suis toute petite). Ce que j’adore dans le metal c’est cette hargne, cette rage, cette puissance, ces thèmes abordés pour certains groupes qu’on ne retrouve dans aucun autre style musical.

9/Do you play any instrument? Do you listen to Metal since the early age?

The only instrument I have played for years is the flute (French instrument at school) like many students (laugh).

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I tried to play bass and guitar, but I saw that it wasn’t my stuff. I tried the keyboard but it didn’t get much better to me. If I really played an instrument it would have been the drums. This is the instrument that attracks me the most. Maybe one day? As for the second question , guess what NO!!! I haven’t always listened to Metal ! As a kid I didn’t listen to those bands , I grew up with Disco and Motown, popular spanish music. As a teen I was listening to anything from Rock To Pop To Hard Rock, country, funk... I was listening to music as there is good in every music styles. Later I met Guillaume my boyfriend, I was young but I couldn’t avoid Metal his favorite music. Bit by bit I discovered many bands and felt in love. Even though I wasn’t into since I was a child. What I love in Metal is the Power, the Strength, the Rage... the themes that you don’t find in other music styles.

10/ Quels sont les groupes du label que tu adores ?

Pour les groupes étrangers j’aime beaucoup Tygers of Pan Tang (groupe de heavy britannique), Electric Boys (excellent groupe suédois de hard rock de la fin des années 80), Odcult (très bon groupe de hard rock/heavy suédois) et bien d’autres .Pour les groupes français mention à Archange, un excellent groupe de hard rock grenoblois.

10/Which bands of the label do you love?

For the bands abroad I love Tygers of Pan Tang (English Heavy Metal band), Electric Boys (Excellent Swedish Hard Rock band from late 80’s), Odcult (very good Swedish Hard Rock / Heavy Metal band) and many others. For the French bands I would say Archange (Excellent Hard Rock band from Grenoble).

www.facebook.com/chipsy.queen

www.mightymusic.dk

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www.facebook.com/sweetmisslauren ŠLauren Ashley Harris

http://lebathyscaphe.com

www.themetalmag.com/concert-de-carbone-seeds-of-mary-acid-rain-le-19-octobre-2018-au-le-bathyscaphea-la-rochelle/

1/How did you get the deal with Pure Steel Records? Jan Bechtum : A long time fan in the USA signed a deal for his own band (Nighthunter) and is also a talent scout for them. He brought Picture and Pure Steel together.

2/With your life as a band what would you say about labels today, is it harder to get a good one those days?

Jan Bechtum : It is easier to get a deal today but the downside is that for most bands we have to do most of the investing ourselves (studio, artwork). When we had the first record deal the company paid for everything.

3/Most bands disband or change their line up often,what is your secret for your longevity?

Jan Bechtum : Well, we had our share of line-up changes too :-). But since 2015 we are together with the original line-up and it all feels so natural. We belong together. Everything is tighter and we understand each other better then with any line-up before. That is because we built Picture with this line-up so this the real Picture and we wouldn't have it any other way.

4/Where do you get inspiration from? After so many years how not to turn around musically?

Jan Bechtum : My personal inspiration comes from Deep Purple and over the years we have grown into a band that fitted the NWOBHM very well. We feel comfortable in this style and it is what we do best so why would we turn around? We have too much fun doing it the way we do it.

5/What would you say about your music evolution since you started?

Jan Bechtum : There was a period in the mid 80ies that Picture chose a more commercial style but that did not work at all. Now we came back to our roots.

6/Music has changed as you , are you taking the band music the same way you did back then? Have you change your gear to follow the new tech?

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Jan Bechtum : We did not change much in the music writing. I (or Appie) come up with a home recorded song (mostly a good basic riff with chords) and then we finish it in the rehearsal room. Ofcourse we don't use tape recorders anymore :-) We still use the good old Marshall type amps with not much effects.

7/Did you think you would release an album like this one « live 40 years « ? Which kind of feeling you have? Are those songs the ones you played most for the fans during your career? How did you choose them?

Jan Bechtum : It was always a dream for us to make a good live album. We recorded the show with the intention to make a DVD but the video was nog good enough. The sound was though and we put a lot of effort in it to make the perfect live sound. Red Pack studio did a superb job!

The songs we chose to make a good mix of all the songs we know the fans like and that represent the band the most.

We have a lot of songs to choose from :-) 8/Are you behind the cover artwork? What can we expect inside? Photos, flyers…

Jan Bechtum : Yes, we did the artwork ourselves. There is a booklet with all the lyrics and live photo's.

9/Are they bands you love to play live and try to get them on tour each time possible?

Jan Bechtum : I saw Deep Purple and Rainbow several times. Went to Steven Wilson last year and Roger Waters a few months ago. Great shows! I don't go to heavy metal shows much because we mainly play on metal festivals and so we see those shows too :-) 10/Have you got material for a new album or you just want to focus on the live album to mark your history as a band?

Jan Bechtum : We are working on a new studio album. That will contain older material that was never released on album before and we are writing new songs as well.

11/Your albums had different themes and covers, how did you get inspiration from? Are you discussing those together?

Jan Bechtum : Ideas for covers and themes come from different people. Sometimes fans make something great. The cover for Heavy Metal Ears was drawn by someone involved with the fanclub in 1981 and we liked it so much we used it as cover.

12/Is there a band you feel closer with your sound and your history?

Jan Bechtum : Well, that has to be Saxon. We are compared a lot in the press. We did a tour together in 1981 throughout Europe and it really fitted well. They even invited us to come with them for their world tour but that did not work out because we couldn't cover the costs and the record company did not want to invest enough. Too bad.

13/Your last album is 7 years old, is it due to the live tour? can you explain the gap between?

Jan Bechtum : We are doing this purely because we are having fun. There is no pressure from record companies. An time flies as you know. But now we feel it's time for a new studio album as well.

14/Do you think you have inspired many bands since you started? You are like a legend..

Jan Bechtum : I know that many musicians picked up a guitar or drumsticks because of Picture. We are very proud of that. Same way I picked up the guitar when I was 12 because of Ritchie Blackmore. If it wasn't for him I wouldn't be playing in a band I think.

15/Do you know the country where you have the most fanbase? Is there one where you love to play?

Jan Bechtum : Largest fan base is in Brasil and other South American countries (including Mexico). We still have P21

a very active fanclub there. Ofcourse we love to play there but we also love to play in Germany, France (had a great first show there a couple of months ago) and Sweden. Italy, Greece and Portugal are also great and we have many fans there.

16/Would you say you are like a family? Do you hang out together? Jan Bechtum : We are a bit like family. We don't hang out much outside of the band activities but when we are on tour always do stuff like eating out and grabbing a few beers on a terrace together and hav lots of fun!

I want to thank you for the opportunity to share all of this and the news of our exciting new live album!

Cheers JanÂ

www.pictureband.nl

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1/Pouvez-vous expliquez les deux chants sur votre dernier album? Sur votre site il est indiqué une seule chanteuse…

Nous avons toujours travaillé avec toute la palette de ce que peut faire chaque membre du groupe. Il se trouve que notre claviériste était, avant Manigance, un chanteur dans un groupe de Death. On a donc donné une touche un peu différente en insérant son chant sur certaines chansons en même temps que Didier. L’arrivée de Carine a permis de diversifier encore plus le registre de Manigance. Même si elle a un timbre qui correspond bien à ce que faisait Didier, elle amène une nouvelle sonorité au groupe.

1/Can you explain the two vocals on you last album. On you website it’s written one singer...

We always have worked with what each of us can do for the band. Our keyboardist , before Manigance , was a Death Metal singer in another band. We so have used different aspects with his vocals and Didier’s one on few songs.

Carine’s arrival allowed to bring more color to our sound. Even if she has the same kind of vocal lines as Didier her tone is a fresh new melody.

2/Que s’est-il passé pour que vous changiez de chanteur pour une chanteuse? Comment l’avez-vous trouvée?

Il y a déjà un peu de temps que Didier éprouvait des difficultés à partir en concert. Un jour il a eu un problème de santé avant de jouer au festival de Vouziers. Depuis cette date, il nous a fait savoir qu’il ne souhaitait plus partir en concert aussi loin car sa santé ne lui garantissait pas d’assurer les dates avec nous. De plus cela avait tendance à le stresser et il avait tendance a rester seul dans cette situation . Nous avons donc réfléchi ensemble à tout ça. Nous savions qu’il était très difficile de le remplacer et nous ne voulions pas faire un choix par défaut. Nous avons donc choisi de changer pour un nouveau souffle tout en gardant, en même temps, une continuité de ce que faisait Didier. Carine est une amie de longue date. Elle nous suit depuis presque le début. On savait qu’elle avait une bonne voix car nous l’avions déjà entendu chanter dans un autre contexte. Elle connait aussi très bien Didier et nous sommes attachés à garder l’esprit d’amis dans le groupe. Nous voulions quelqu’un proche de nous car nous travaillons comme ça depuis le début 2/What happened for you to change from a Male singer to a Female one? How did you find her?

It’s been a while Didier had trouble to move to live dates. One day he had a health one, before playing at the Vouziers’s festival. Since this date he told us he wouldn’t be able to play far away from home due to his health issue, he wasn’t sure he could get at the live gigs. He used to stress and stay alone due to this situation. We had to think about it together and find a solution. We knew it was hard to replace him and we didn’t want to do this in a hurry.

We decided to change for a new breed but keeping what Didier did. Carine is a long time friend. She follows us since P23

the beginning. We knew she has a great voice as we already heard her singing in other occassions.

She knows Didier pretty well and we want to keep the friendship in the band.

We wanted someone close cos we are working like that since the start.

3/Comment avez-vous composé cet album? Une idée spécifique, un changement spécial…

En général, le démarrage des compositions se fait toujours par rapport à une idée de guitare. Sur cet album, certaines compositions sont parties d’une idée de clavier de Jean ( Nouvelle ere, L’un de l’autre). Nous avons aussi cherché le titre de l’album pendant le processus de composition. Du coup nous avons composé Machination avec déjà une idée en tête , ce qui était une première pour le groupe. Nous avons travaillé sur des boucles de claviers en les stockant avant de composer les chansons, on les a ensuite réutilisées en fonctions des morceaux. Nous cherchons à chaque album à renouveler les sonorités de chaque instrument. Nous avons notre identité sonore mais on essaie à chaque fois de nouveau trucs par rapport aux compos. Nouveaux ampli, guitares ,claviers… Le fait d’avoir un studio nous permet d’expérimenter de nouveaux équipements.

3/How did you compose this album? A specific idea, a change...

Usually, we start the compostions from a guitar riff. On this album, few composition came from ideas on Jean’s keyboard ( Nouvelle ere, L’un de l’autre). We also searched for the album title during the process of composing. So we composed Machination with an idea in mind, which was a first time for the band. We have worked with keyboards loops we kept to compose the songs. We then used them depending on the tracks. We are searching for each album to rework the tunes of each instrument. We have a musical idea but we are always trying new things. New amps , guitars, keyboards...the fact we have a studio help us to try new gear.

4/Quel est le thème de l’album ? L’avez-vous composé en fonction de ce qu’il se passe dans le milieu de la musique de nos jours? « Machine Nation » évoque la représentation que l’on peut se faire du monde qui nous entoure et du flux d’informations que nous recevons. Mais c’est aussi une image qui traite de l’évolution de nos libertés. Cela ne vise pas spécialement le monde de la musique. On évoque, avec un peu de recul, des situations de vie que nous avons vécues. Le traitement de l’information que l’on reçoit au travers des medias, et finalement l’envie de toujours chercher une liberté ( et pour nous dans la musique) car on ne se retrouve pas dans ce qui nous entoure. Un monde toujours plus guidé par la « performance » aussi bien humaine que dans l’évolution des technologies. Un monde qui laisse beaucoup de gens sur le côté, comme si les « machines » pouvaient guider nos « nations ». Nous laissons l’auditeur prendre sa propre interprétation à ces mots.

4/ What is the theme of this album? Did you compose it regarding what is happening in the music those days? « Machine Nation » Evokes the representation of the world as we can see it and the amount of informations given. It is also a way to express the evolution of our freedom. It doesn’t just talk about the music world. We are telling situations we have encountered in our lifes. The amount of information the medias are giving us , and at the end the wish to find a freedom (for us in the music) we don’t belong in all those datas. A world led by the evolution of mindkind as technologicaly speaking. A world that leaves a lot of people on the sideway, like if the Machines could lead our «nations». We leave the listeners taking its own meaning to those words.

5/Qui a écrit les paroles? Comment être inspiré après tant d’années?

Depuis le début c’est Didier qui s‘occupait des paroles. Maintenant c’est Carine qui va prendre le relais. C’est un art difficile car il faut trouver son style pour arriver à faire sonner du Metal en français. On explore de nouvelles voies musicales comme on le fait depuis nos débuts et cela nous inspire des mots et des mélodies. Nous aimons essayer de nouvelle structures ou tonalités avec le challenge du chant en français. C’est vrai qu’il n’est pas facile trouver de nouveaux thèmes car nous avons dépassé la centaine de chansons en 20 ans de carrière. Nous avons des sujets récurrents tel que la nature, l’évolution de l’humanité et la nature de l’homme. Nous pensons qu’il y a toujours beaucoup de choses à écrire sur les hommes et sur les situations de vie 5/Who wrotes the lyrics? How to get inspired after so many years?

From the beginning it’s Didier who is writing the lyrics. Now it’s Carine who will write. It is a difficult art as you must find your own style to sing French Metal. We are exploring new vocal lines as we always did which inspires us to find the words and melodies. We like to try new tones an structures with the French challenge. You’re right it’s not easy to find new themes because we have more the 100 songs in our 20 years career. We have the usual themes such as Nature, the human evolution. We still think they are plenty of things to talk about regarding the human being and his life.

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6/Qui a fait la pochette? Avez-vous participé à sa création où vous avez pris un dessin qui vous semblait correspondre à vos chansons?

Stan W Decker a réalisé la pochette. Nous aimons travailler avec lui. Nous lui donnons quelques idées et la trame de ce qu’on souhaite et il sait rentrer dans notre monde. C’est lui qui proposent les illustrations toujours en cohérence avec nos idées de départ.

La pochette a été conçue après la composition des morceaux. Beaucoup de textes de Didier traitent de sujets de société comme l’évolution de la nature humaine et le rapport avec la nature. Une fois que nous avons reçu la première version nous avons demandé des évolutions par rapport à nos envies et nos gouts, mais l’essentiel des idées sont venues de Stan 6/Who designed the cover ? Did you have input or you just chose a design among others?

Stan W Decker designed the cover artwork. We like to work with him. We just propose few ideas and what we want and then he knows our world. He proposed the illustrations with our main ideas.

The cover has been realised after our compositions. Lots of Didier’s texts talks about society , the human behaviour with nature. One we have the first concept we asked few changes depending on our taste and wish, but most ideas come from Stan.

7/Vous utiliser le mot « manigance » dans vos paroles, depuis Metallica sur leur premier album peu font ce genre de choses, est-ce parce que vous chantez en Français ? Quel en est la raison?

Tout simplement parce que cela nous correspond. Ca a un côté aussi intéressant pour les concerts. Il n’y a aucune règles a respecter dans le Metal , c‘est pour ça qu’on aime cette musique. Pourquoi faudrait-il en inventer ?

7/You are using the word « manigance » in your lyrics, since Metallica on their first album we haven’t heard many bands doing so, Is it cos you are singing in French? What’s the reason’s for?

Just because it fits us well. It is also interesting at live shows. There is no rule to follow in Metal, that’s the reason why we love this music style. Why we should invent another one?

8/Depuis vos débuts qu’est ce qui a changé? Comment voyez-vous le parcours du groupe? Son évolution…

Nous avons traversé une « epoque Metal 100% francais» avec Manigance. Depuis notre début nous avons croisé des groupes français ( Malediction , Adagio) qui étaient sur les mêmes objectifs que nous, mais qui ont arrêté. Des groupes internationaux aussi ( Angra, Stratovarius) qui nous ont beaucoup appris à nos débuts. Avec le recul, nous sommes de vrai passionnés. Malheureusement, il n’y a pas un marché suffisant en France dans notre style pour pouvoir en vivre. Tous les groupes français le savent… et le « revival » des vieux groupes français nous montre bien qu’on est dans un monde de passionnés… Mais on adore ça et nos fans…Avec Manigance on a essayé de créer notre propre style et notre son, à la fois moderne (avec une musique inspirée des groupe actuels, pour chaque album) et inscrite dans les années 90 avec un chant en français. Nous avons bien vendu notre identité au Japon, malheureusement on n’a jamais réussi à convaincre un major allemand. Aujourd’hui nous avons une porte qui s’ouvre avec Mighty et nouvelle ere avec Carine. Nous avons beaucoup de chansons à notre actif et nous sommes prêts à nous exporter pour dépasser les clivages de la France. Notre tournée avec Myrath nous aussi pas mal ouvert les yeux sur l’Europe.

8/ Since you started what has changed? How do you see your band’s path? it’s evolution...

We have been through a « 100% French Metal history » with Manigance. Since we started we crossed path with French bands ( Malediction , Adagio) who where on the same line as us but have disappeared. Some International bands ( Angra, Stratovarius) who helped us a lot at our start. We are real passionate people. Unfortunately the French market is not enough for our style to survive. Every French bands know it... the « revival » from old French bands shows us we are in a passionate world. .. but we love it as our fans... With Manigance we tried to create our own style and our sound, somehow modern (inspired by actual bands , for each album) and buried in the 90’s with a French singer. We sold well in Japan, unfortunately we never managed to convince a German label. Today we have a chance with Mighty and a new era with Carine. We have a lot of songs behind usand we are ready to move abroad to get away from the France boundaries. Our tour with Myrath opened our eyes a lot about the European countries.

9/Votre chanson « Exutoire » à une intro un peu techno et une grosse voix… voulez-vous attirer des nouveaux fans de la nouvelle scène?

Nous écoutons un peu tous les styles et nous aimons explorer de nouvelles voies. Exutoire est une inspiration dans cette ligne de pensée. Le metal actuel évolue et nous vivons avec. Il n’y a pas là de dedans d’esprit « marketing » ou un calcul par rapport à des fans potentiel. Peut-être qu’on devrait ???.. je crois franchement qu’on a passé l’âge… On aime se faire plaisir. D’ailleurs sur ce même album il y a une ballade très intimiste, dans un style que nous n’avions jamais touché depuis le début. Nous faisons de la musique aussi pour cette liberté…

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9/Your song « Exutoire » has a kind of Techno intro with a big voice... do you want to attrack the new generation ‘s fans?

We are listening to a lot of things and we like to explore new things. Exutoire is an inspiration in this kind of thinking. Metal music has evolved and we are living with it. There is no « marketing » wish or the fans that it can brings. Maybe we should???.. I think we have passed the age... we just love enjoying ourselves. On this album there is very personal ballad , in a style we never did before. We are also making music for this liberty...

10/Lors de vos concerts il y a-t-il des chansons qui ne sont pas jouées pour une certaine raison ou vous jouez ce que les fans préfèrent? Comment vous organisez vous?

Nous avons testé pas mal de chansons et finalement il reste pas mal de « standards » sur les 100 chansons que nous avons composées. Sur chaque concert on cale ces standards en fonction de notre temps de jeu. Pour chaque nouvel album, on essaie de privilégier des 3 ou 4 nouvelles chansons. Il faut aussi « composer » avec les conditions de jeu car il y a des chansons plus compliquées à jouer que d’autres. En général on a toujours des chansons en plus dans nos setlist , ca nous permet de nous adapter . On se rend compte aussi , avec le temps, qu’au final qu’il y a des chansons sur chaque album qui n’ont jamais été jouées et pourtant qui sont attendues. C’est pour ça qu’on a organisé un petit sondage sur notre facebook. On va essayer d’en tenir compte à l’avenir pour préparer nos futures setlist 10/During your live dates they are songs you don’t play for a certain reason or you play what the fans like?

How do you deal with this?

We tried many song and at the end they are lots of « standards » from the 100 we have composed. On each show we are writing a setlist depending on the time we play . For each album we always try to play 3 to 4 new songs. You also have to play with the live conditions, somes songs are more complicated than others. In general we have songs left out of the setlist which help us to adapt. We realised that many songs have never been played live but people expect us to play. This is the reason why we asked on our Facebook page for the songs they want to hear and we are going to follow this in the futur.

11/Que pensez-vous de la scène Métal Française? Êtes-vous amis avec beaucoup de groupes? Avez-vous des groupes avec lesquels vous jouez souvent?

Nous connaissons pas mal de groupes dans notre style, mais il y a beaucoup de genres et beaucoup de groupes en France. Il y a un bel esprit de respect en France. La musique plus « brutale » a pris le pas sur des groupes plus mélodiques comme nous. Il n’est pas facile de trouver des conditions de concert à la hauteur de nos ambitions ce qui fait qu’il faut travailler dur pour s’adapter et pouvoir être bons quel que soit le public et la salle qu’on nous propose. De nos jours, beaucoup groupes travaillent leur image et essaie de vendre un concept. Ce n’est pas notre cas car nous sommes de « l’ancienne génération ». Nous faisons pas de la musique pour ça, on aime exprimer ce qu’on a dire simplement et nous ne sommes pas très bons sur le côté « marketing » du Metal... on est plus proche de groupes qui nous ressemblent en terme de fonctionnement. Le fait aussi qu’on habite dans le sud de la France ne facilite pas les rencontres. Mais il faut dire qu’on fonctionne sur un modèle à l’ancienne avec des repetes où on se voit tous mais aussi d’autres moments.

Je pense que cela se ressent dans nos concerts par rapport à des groupes où les membres se rencontrent que très rarement.

11/What do you thinkg about the French scene? Are you friends with many bands?

Are they bands you often play with?

We know a lot of bands in our style, but they are lots of bands in France and in many genres.The spirit is good here.

The more «brutal» style had taken over on other more melodic bands than us. It is hard to find shows that fit us which means we have to work hard to please the most crowd we have and whatever the place in which we play. Today bands work more on their image and try to sell a concept. This is not our case cos we are from the «older generation». We are not playing music for this, we just love to express what we want to say and we are not that good about the «marketing» around Metal .. we are closer to bands that are working as us. The fact we live in the south of France doesn’t help to meet others. But we have to say that we are working on the old fashion by rehearsing in which we all see each others as other moments. I think that this bleeds in our shows compared to bands who never meet and just play together.

12/Comment avez-vous eu le contrat avec « VERYCORDS / MIGHTY MUSIC / SPIRITUAL BEAST »?

Le contrat avec Verycords pour la France est une continuité des relations que nous avons avec Mehdi Eljai. C’est le boss de Verycords . Nous avons la chance de pouvoir faire parti de son label. On se connait depuis longtemps. Il a réussi à maintenir et faire progresser son label dans un contexte économique très compliqué.. Verycords a un super catalogue P26

avec de très bon groupes français mais aussi celui de Ear Music en tant que distributeur français. Ear Music n’était pas intéressé par notre chant en français pour faire une distribution en Europe. Nous avons donc contacté d’autres maisons de disque en accord avec Mehdi , dont Mighty. Mighty a une distribution mondiale et aussi de très bon artistes.

Michael, le boss, nous a branchés avec Spiritual Beast pour une distribution au Japon 12/How did you get the deal with « VERYCORDS / MIGHTY MUSIC / SPIRITUAL BEAST »?

The French contract with Verycord is just the usual one we have with Mehdi Eljai. He’s the boss of Verycords. We are lucky to be in his label. We know each others for a long time. He managed to get his label standing during the difficult economic times... Verycords has a great roaster with lots of French bands but also has the Ear Music ones and is the French distributor. Ear Music wasn’t interested by our French language to distribute in Europe. We then contacted other labels with Mehdi such as Mighty. Mighty has an internationl distribution as many good artists. The boss Michael get us in touch with Spiritual Beast to get the album distributed in Japan.

13/Avez-vous votre propre studio pour composer etc..?

Oui nous avons notre propre studio qui d’ailleurs vient d’être complètement refait. C’est un régal de pouvoir jouer dans ces conditions. Nous avons la possibilité d’enregistrer tout en live, de répéter et aussi d’enregistrer tous les instruments de façon séparée. Aujourd’hui la technique a évolué, il existe des simulateurs pour tous les instruments et on peut, avec un pc bien boosté, faire un joli prod sans sortir de sa chambre. Le problème c’est qu’à ce petit jeu, tout le monde se ressemble et dépend de ces simulateurs. Les plugins de guitare ou un fractal sont reconnaissables au bout de 4 notes par exemple…. C’est vrai que tout le monde s’en fout , du moment que ca sonne … mais de notre côté , on essaie de garder cette identité sonore et le fait que nous travaillons à l’ancienne avec de vrais micros et de vrais instruments nous démarque en terme de son de pas mal de groupe de notre niveau.

13/Do you have your own studio to compose etc..?

Yes we have our studio that recently got revamped. It’s a pleasure to play in those conditions. We have the possibility to record live , to rehearse and record each instrument individually. Today technic has evolved, emulators exist for each gear , we can with a boosted PC, realise a great job in your own bedroom.The problem is with this game everybody sounds the same and they depends on thos gears. Guitar pluginsor even Fractal are easy to hear after four notes for example... Most don’t bother as long as it sounds good... but for us we are trying to keep our own identity withing our music. The fact we are working the old way with real mics and real instruments keep us apart regarding the sound and from many bands in the same level.

14/Utilisez-vous toujours le même matériel ou vous aimez tester de nouveaux équipement?

Le matériel d’enregistrement évolue peut. Le parc de micros un peu plus ainsi que les preamplis d’entrée de console. Ce qui change surtout sont les instruments. Coté guitare nous avons testé de nouveaux baffles mesa boogie , de nouvelles guitares , à la basse on a testé une nouvelle tete ampeg SVT. Patrick, notre bateur est arrivé avec son nouveau kit de batterie Tama… Coté clavier , nous travaillons pas mal avec du Korg mais on achète assez fréquemment des banques de sons qui peuvent être joués sur des échantillonneurs PC( Native instruments par exemple). Mais le plus gros travail sort des doigts de chaque musicien et de la façon dont il fait sonner son matos.

14/Do you still use the same gears or you have tried new ones?

The recording gear doesn’t evolve much. A bit more about the mics as the preamps in the mix table.What reallly change are the instruments. For the guitars we have tried new Mesa Boogie speakers, new guitars, we also tried an ampeg SVT head. Patrick our drummer came with a new Tama kit...for the keyboards we are working a lot with Korg and we usually buy sound samples that can be used on PC (Native Instrument). But most of the work comes out from the musicians fingers and the way the sound is done with the equipment.

Carine 1/Connaissais-tu le groupe avant ? Leur musique…

J’ai commencé par être fan du groupe. J’ai découvert leur musique sur l’EP « Signe de vie » qui tournait en boucle. Je les ai vus en concert à Montpellier à la fin des années 90 et les ai rencontrés ; on a sympathisé. Petit à petit, nos liens se sont resserrés et j’ai accompagné le groupe pour aider à l’a mise en place du matériel sur les dates, à la vente du merchandising par exemple.

1/Did you know the band before? their music...

I started as a fan of the band. I discovered their music on the album « Signe de vie » that played over and over again.

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I saw them live at Montpellier at the end of the 90’s and I met them, so we got friends. Bit by bit we became closer , I helped the band during live set to install the gears as selling the merch.

2/Dans quel autre formation chantais tu ou chantes-tu encore?

J’ai fait partie de petites formations locales qui n’étaient pas influencées par le métal. Cela restait assez confidentiel. Je ne cherchais pas à intégrer de grosses formations ; j’étais en apprentissage ! Aujourd’hui, je suis toujours en contact avec des groupes, des chanteurs et prends un grand plaisir à participer à toutes sortes de projets.

2/In which formation did you sing or still sing?

I have sung in little formation around but weren’t into the Metal field. It was more personal.I didn’t wish to get into a band , I was learning! Today I’m still in touch with bands, singers and really enjoy being part of other projects.

3/Il y a-t-il un de leur albums que tu préfères?

Il me sera difficile d’en choisir un… ça va te paraître un peu convenu, mais je les aime tous. Si tu insistes (en dehors de MACHINATION sur lequel je suis intervenue), je dirais ANGE OU DEMON. 3/Is there one of their album your like the most?

It is hard to choose one.. it may sounds «cliché» but I love them all. Ok if you insist (Except MACHINATION I sung onto) I would say ANGE OU DEMON.

4/As-tu été obligée d’apprendre tous leur titres ou ils t’ont aidé à apprendre les titres en live?

En fait, le travail pour moi n’a pas trop consisté à faire des efforts de mémorisation. En effet, je connaissais déjà toutes les paroles par cœur ! Ce qui a été un vrai apprentissage pour moi a relevé plus des aspects techniques vocaux (saturation, énergie, intention, articulation). Pour chanter du rock en français et que cela « sonne », certaines syllabes sont légèrement arrangées ;-). Les gars m’ont conseillée et toujours soutenue. J’ai dû aussi travailler l’endurance pour espérer tenir vocalement sur une tournée européenne ; cela restait un vrai challenge pour moi, n’ayant eu à assurer jusque-là que des dates isolées. J’utilise le mot travail, mais c’est plus du temps que cela mobilise. C’est la passion qui te porte.

Imagine intégrer un groupe dont tu as été fan presque 20 ans : je vis un rêve éveillée. Pince-moi !

4/Have you had to learn all the songs or they helped you for the live songs?

In fact for me it hasn’t been really a memory job. In fact I know all the lyrics !The real learning to me has been the vocal technics (saturation, energy, intention, articulation). To sing French Rock and that it sounds good, few syllabes have been arranged :-) . Guys always supported and gave me advice.I also had to train to hope keep my voice in good shape for the Europeen tour, this will be a real challenge for me since I sung only on few little shows. It is lot of time to take. Passion lift you. Imagine joining a band you have been a fan for 20 years : I live a dream!

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5/Comment se fait-il que tu sois la nouvelle chanteuse mais que ta voix ne soit pas très présente? Tu n’as pas participé à la composition du nouvel album?

Effectivement, je ne suis pas très présente sur ce dernier album. Les textes de MACHINATION ont été écrits et chantés par Didier (DELSAUX). Nous avons fait un duo sur la chanson « Face contre terre ». Ce n’est qu’après la préparation de l’album et avant la tournée européenne MACHINATION TOUR que Didier, ayant eu quelques soucis vocaux, a choisi de voguer vers d’autres horizons. Ayant déjà travaillé sur une chanson, l’idée de poursuivre ensemble s’est vite imposée. J’interviendrai pleinement sur le prochain album ; j’ai hâte !

5/How is it you are the new singer but your voice is not that much present ?

You didn’t participate to the composition of the new album?

Indeed, I am not present on this new album. The lyrics on MACHINATION have been written and sung by Didier (DELSAUX). We did a duet on the song « Face contre terre ». It is only after the release and the Europeen tour of MACHINATION TOUR than Didier , having vocal issues chose to get apart. Since I worked already on one song , the idea to keep going with the band was well received. I will be on the new album , I can’t wait!

6/As-tu suivi des cours de chants ? En donnes-tu ? Quel matériel utilises-tu ?

Oui, j’ai suivi de nombreux cours de chant, ateliers et stages intensifs sur des sujets particuliers. Je continue encore d’ailleurs. J’ai ouvert la boîte de Pandore ! Au-delà de l’apprentissage technique, on y rencontre des chanteuses et chanteurs d’univers musicaux très différents. Des rencontres riches qui favorisent les échanges, les découvertes et les remises en question. Ça permet de se construire une palette de nuances, d’aller plus loin.

Je ne donne pas de cours, non. Mais je sais qui aller voir pour être bien conseillée ! ;-) J’utilise un micro Shure SM58 sans fil, une pédale d’effets Boss VE-20 Vocal processor, des ears Westone UM pro 50 (très performantes pour le live avec des musiciens qui envoient !)

6/Did you take singing lessons? Do you give ones? Which gear do you use?

Yes I have taken many singing lessons, pretty intense on certains parts. I still do actually. Outside of the learning we meet lots of singers who are in different musical styles. Great meetings to meet great people and helps exchange, loads of discoveries and learning about yourself. It helps to go further. I don’t give courses myself but I have been to get the right advice! I use a wireless SM58 Shure mic, a Boss VE-20 Vocal processor effect pedal, Westone UM pro 50 ears(very powerful!).

www.facebook.com/Manigance-366384643187/

1/You released a single « misanthropy » with a Motorhead kind of tunes, is it for Lemmy ’s memory?

1.I have been friend with the Motorhead guys for many years my friend FAST EDDIE CLARKE who later passed away played guitar for me on both MISANTHROPY and CEMETERY DIRT, TOM ANGELRIPPER from SODOM played bass on the latter PAUL GRAY from THE DAMNED on the former, LEMMY was a great guy he produced my second album by WARFARE entitled METAL ANARCHY. 2/ Your albums have been repressed and remixed; other the decades.. are you involved in those? Your albums have been re-issued on CDs by Disonance Records, how this happened?

2.Yes I get to say what or what isn’t released and in most cases work closely with the labels I also do all the sleeve notes.

3/Can we say the band is « back »? Any album in the futur?

3.Yes man WARFARE are fuckin back after 25 years download the new album available from plastic head see face book for more details EVO-EVANS. 4/How did you get Cronos and else to sing and play on your last album « nightmare mixed »?

4.CRONOS dose not play on the new stuff, He plays all the bass produces & guest vocal on 1 track on the 3rd WARFARE album MAYHEM FUCKIN MAYHEM (Out now on Dissonance records) The new album features FAST EDDIE CLARKE LIPS from ANVIL TOM ANGELRIPPER from SODOM NIK TURNER from HAWKWIND and PAUL GRAY from THE DAMNED, CRONOS is a good friend from back in the day.

5/You’ve been at the right place and right time, what happened to the band to disappear?

5.I decided in 1990 that I had enough I ran out of ideas and got bored I had done it professionally from being 16 and worked with some of the best bands and musicians.

6/Have you played on other albums as guest?

6.Before creating WARFARE I was in several name bands MAJOR ACCIDENT THE BLOOD & ANGELIC UPSTARTS I recorded with all three I have had offers to guest but usually turn them down unless of course they were really knock out.

7/You have all your albums on Lps who pressed them? Must be a pleasure for you…

7.I have a total of at least 17 albums and have been signed to many labels Roadrunner, Neat, BMG, Universal, Cherry Red to name a few, also 100’s of compilations that WARFARE are featured on.

8/What is your view on how music has evolved/ changed? The sound the techinic…

8.Studios are far more easier to record in now with all of the technology I don’t really keep up to speed with newer bands, but I hate these fuckin talent shows that have fucked up music and we really do desperately need some youth anger and rebellion real street violence of back in the day injected into new music.

9/Who is your favorite drummer?

9.Dont really have one to be honest.

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10/Have you written all the lyrics? What made you sing and play?

10.I have written all the songs for WARFARE , I started to sing because when I formed WARFARE I couldn’t get any one as good to fit the style I was creating so I just did both.

11/What do you think of the label today?

11.All record labels fuckin suck!

12/Are you still involved in the music ? Working in studio, other formations‌ 12.Other than overseeing all of the WARFARE re-releases and recording the brand new stuff no.

13/Do you follow new bands? What do you think of the scene?

13.No. 14/Many bands have that name, what is your say about this?

14.We need more fuckin intelligent anger.

www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100010703193337

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1/Who started the band and what was the idea?

The band was founded by keyboardist & composer George van Olffen and singer & lyricist Kristyle Verginia. Driven by a great passion for music and the drive to play and perform with other musicians, was our motivation for Verginia Plain.

2/Why choosing this name and what does it mean?

The band name was inspired by the singer’s name, Kristyle Verginia.

Besides, we had to start from scratch, like a story written on plain paper. It’s hard to read between the lines if there aren’t any, and that is exactly what we wanted: to choosing our own direction.

3/How long have you been together? Any line up issue so far?

We’re a newborn band. Our birthday was in March, 2018.

We have had no line up issue.

4/Can you describe your music style?

Our style could be best described as Dream metal blended with several influences such as rock, prog, symphonic and melodic shades.

5/Your band hasn’t got a site nor page yet, are you dealing with all the promotion for your band?

For the time being we have a Facebook page, and we are on Soundcloud.

6/Have you got an album to date or you just have few songs?

We’re working on our first album and have a complete repertoire for live performances.

7/Is there a main composer or you all sit down and share ideas? Tell us how this band works?

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George and I work a lot together, he is our composer (and keyboardist), and I write (most of) the lyrics.

8/Have you done many live shows? Do you play with any musical genre?

No 9/Have you taken singing courses? Who is your favorite singer the one that gave you the wish to sing?

Yes, I have a vocal coach. As a kid, I’d love to sing. I still do. I used to listen to Tina Turner, and as a teenager I listened to Skunk Anansie and Within Temptation. Both band are female fronted and a huge inspiration source for me.

10/What are your lyrics about? Is there a theme for the album?

Our songs tend to be somewhat melancholic, when it comes down to themes such as life and death. On the other hand, we have our optimistic tunes: without struggle, no growth. We believe one must take chances in order to change his/her life. Sometimes it’s a leap of faith.

Having the guts to go where one has never been before. It’s about taking chances. Life needs to be lived, instead of just breathing. If you have the chance, then take it.

11/Do you know many bands in your area? Are you hanging out with them?

We know a lot of musicians and help each other out.

12/Do you have skills in recording or working in the music industry?

I don’t record the songs myself, our keyboardist and composer is our engineer.

13/Have you got a studio?

Yes, we have our own studio.

14/Do you have a designer for your band logo and cover artwork?

Not yet, it’s the next step  15/What are the future plans for the band?

Making a wonderful album and do a lot of gigs, preferably touring abroad.

www.facebook.com/Verginia-Plain-441326269720391

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1/Votre nouvel Ep est comme un nouveau départ, que c’est il passé durant toutes ces années?

Pendant quasi 20 ans , Hatred dusk est resté en stand by et c’est donc en 2016 que la machine fut relancé. On a réellement recommencé début 2017 et le EP nous a permis de refaire parler de nous sur la scène française et européenne.

Le problème est simple actuellement si tu fais de la musique sans rien proposer, tu restes dans l’ombre et pis accroche toi pour démarcher sans aucun produit a offrir.

1/Your new Ep is like a new start, what happened all those years?

For around 20 years, Hatred dusk kept non active and in 2016 the machine started again. We really restarted at the beginning of 2017 and the EP helped to heard again on the French scene as European one. The problem is actually if you are playing music but have nothing to offer, you stay in the shadow and try to get something when you have nothing to propose.

2/Un nouveau logo un nom plus travaillé, qui a effectué toutes ces modifications? Un designer derrière tout ça?.

En fait l’ancien logo commençait à dater (1991) – c’est marc le soliste de la première époque qui l’avait fait. Pascal notre soliste actuel qui est aussi très doué aussi en infographie, nous a donc proposé un nouveau logo que nous avons adopté de suite. C’est aussi lui qui a réalisé la pochette du EP, les affiches de nos concerts et le motif du teeshirt. D’ailleurs, il continuera à la faire dans le futur – quand t’as un mec super doué, autant le laissé exprimer son potentiel.

2/A new logo a name modified, who has done all the graphics? A designer behind all of this?

In fact the first logo was kind of taking the dust (1991) it’s Marc our solo guitarist from the first era who did it. Pascal the actual solo guitarist is gifted in graphics, he so proposed us a new logo we loved right away. He’s also responsible the cover album, the show flyers as the t-shirt. He will keep doing so in the futur, when you have someone gifted in the band just let him expressing hiself.

3/Vous gardez votre son du début avec du bon Thrash et une voix Death , quel est le groupe dont vous vous sentez le plus proche? Pourquoi une voix death?

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Y a pas vraiment de groupe en particulier a citer. Déjà à l’époque on était un mix de diverses influences musicales et c’est encore pareil aujourd’hui. Je vais pas te dire on fait du pure Thrash à la Exodus ou du Death à la Asphyx, ça serait totalement faux. On fait du métal plutôt orienté métal burné tout en regroupant plusieurs styles : Thrash, Death, Punk, Hard Core, Heavy…Quand j’ai rejoint le groupe en 1990, le death était mon style vocal de prédilection et j’ai conservé cette Trademark qui ne m’a jamais quittée malgré les années qui passent. J’ai toujours aimé les voix growler, J’ai aussi pris des cours de chant lyriques et j’ai une tessiture vocale plutôt typée basse donc les aigus non pas trop pour moi. Pour rappel, on a quand même un morceau chanté en français, RATP qui figurera sur le prochain opus du groupe.

3/You are keeping your sound with good Thrash Metal riffs and Death Metal voice, which band you are feeling the closest too? Why this Death Metal voice?

There aren’t any bands in particular. Back then we were already a mix of different influences and it is still the case today. I won’t tell you that we are playing true Thrash Metal such as Exodus or even Death Metal such as Asphyx, this would be completely wrong. We are playing Metal with balls while regrouping severals music styles such as :Thrash, Death, Punk, Hard Core, Heavy…When I joined the band in 1990, Death Metal was my vocal style so I kept this trademark that never left me. I always loved the Growl vocal, I also took lyric courses but I have more a bass texture so the high pitch aren’t for me . We have one French song RATP which will be on our new album.

4/Vous avez commencé en 1992, comment le groupe c’est il formé? Étiez vous dans un autre groupe auparavant?

En fait le groupe a été formé en 1989 par Nico le guitariste et Franck le premier bassiste , ça s’appelait Babies thrash.

Je suis arrivé en mars 1990 et après une stabilisation du line up, nous avons changé de nom pour Hatred dusk – Ok Babies thrash ca faisait pas trop crédible, je crois bien si je dis pas de bêtise que le tout premier nom fut Apple death :) Nous avons sorti une première casette 4 titres en avril 1991 « Hatred dusk » (4 titres), la deuxième « Dreadful visions » en 1992 (7 titres) et enfin la troisième en juillet 1993. D’ailleurs la démo de 1992 reste notre demo la plus connue, on a écoulé 200 exemplaire à l’époque ce qui est quand même pas mal. Je suis donc parti en novembre 93 et remplacé par un autre chanteur qui malheureusement est décédé quelque mois plus tard – ce fut la fin de la première période du groupe.

4/You started back in 1992, how the band got created? Were you together in a band before?

In fact the band was formed in 1989 by Nico the guitarist and Franck the first bass player, it was called Babies Thrash. I arrived in mars 1990 and after the line up got done, we changed the name for Hatred Dush. Ok Babies Thrash doens’t make it serious, if I’m right the first name was Apple death :) We made a first 4 track demo in April 1991 « Hatred dusk », the second one « Dreadful visions » in 1992 with 7 tracks. and the third one in July 1993. Our demo from 1992 is the most known we sold around 200 copies which back then was good. I left in November 1993 and replaced by another singer who unfotunately died few months later. It was the end of the band for the first time.

5/Est ce que le line up d’aujourd’hui est le même?

Le line up actuel est donc : moi au chant, Nico à la guitare rythmique, Pascal à la guitare solo, Jahno à la basse et enfin Tripp à la batterie - il ne reste au final que moi et Nico de la première version d’HD. 5/Is today’s line is the same?

Today’s line up is : me singing, Nico on the rythm guitar, Pascal on the solo guitar, Jahno on bass and finally Tripp on the drums - At the end only Me and Nico are the one let from the first HD line up.

6/Comment se fait-il que vous réapparaissiez de nos jours? Un sentiment de pas terminé?

C’est moi qui fut à l’origine de la reformation. Si tu veux quand j’ai récupéré les morceaux en MP3 en 2005 , je me disais putain les ancien morceaux avaient du potentiel et ca pourrais être bien et si on arrivait à relancer la machine, réalisé un véritable album et refaire des concerts. Oui le regret de ne pas avoir sorti d’album à l’époque mais aussi au début des années 90 le marché était très compliqué et surtout trop de groupe – Century média nous avait répondu à l’époque : «écoutez c’est bien mais des groupes comme vous on en a plein chez nous». Le gros avantage aujourd’hui ce sont les réseaux sociaux et les moyens de promotions à dispo sur le net : FB , YouTube, band camp , Sound cloud qui sont des P36

outils de promotions accessibles, puissants et offrant le moyen de parler de toi beaucoup plus facilement qu’avec uniquement un fanzine papier, un flyer en noir & blanc et des passages radios. De nos jours, je fais un zip avec les morceaux en MP3, une bio en PDF de bonne qualité et hop le tour est joué. Toutefois certains labels ou webzine veulent des produit physique et refuse des envoie numérique. Je suis fier d’avoir réussi à remonter le groupe mais ce fut très long et surtout super difficile – on m’aurais dit y a 3 ans, HD sortira un album en 2019 ben j’aurais eu des gros doutes.

6/What makes you are coming back today, a feeling unfinished business?

I am the reason of the band’s come back. When I got hold of the tracks as MP3 in 2005, I was thinking the old tracks had potential and it would be great to play again , releasing an album and giging few concerts. Yes the regret not having an album out back then. But in the beginning of the 90’s it was complicated and they were too many bands. Century Media answered us one day : «Listen what you are doing is good but bands like yours we have plenty of them here». The great thing today are the social medias and the way we can promote freely on the net : FB , YouTube, band camp , Sound cloud which are available and opens up wider than the usual black and white fanzine or the few airings on radios. Today I have Zip file with all MP3, a Bio in pdf in great quality and the whole thing is done. I’m proud I have brought back the band to life even though it has been really hard and took a long time to accomplish. If you told me three years ago HD would get an album out in 2019 well I wouldn’t believe you.

7/Comment composez-vous les titres?

A part 3 Titres issues de la première période que nous avons remis au gout du jour, c’est les 2 guitaristes ou le bassite qui proposent des riffs et nous les bossons tous ensemble en répète .

7/How do you compose the songs?

Except three tracks from the earliest time of the band, we have remade, both guitarist and the bass player propose riffs and we are all work on those together during rehearsal.

8/Vous avez eu un partenariat avec skull strings, comment est ce possible ? Généralement il faut être connu pour cela…

Pas forcément connu, on leur as fait écouter ce qu’on faisait et ça c’est fait tout seul. Bon t’es un jeune groupe qui débute, t’as une malheureuse démo enregistré à l’arrache et avec très peu de visibilité dans l’underground, je suis pas sûr qu’il te propose un partenariat.

8/You have a partnership with Skull strings, how is it possible? Generally you need to be known...

Not necessary, we just played them what we are doing and it just went like a glove. If you’re a young band , you’re starting you have a demo made in a rush and not much visibility in the underground, I’m not sure it would work...

9/Sur votre page Bandcamp il n’y a que trois titres, combien en avez-vous exactement? Sur quel label est-il sorti?

Sur la page band camp, en fait t’as le EP mais t’as aussi les démos de 1992 et 1993 disponible en téléchargement gratuit.

Le EP (auto prod) se trouve sur les principales plateforme de streaming : Deezer, Spotify, Apple music, …mais dispo aussi sur Amazon, iTunes , Google play….. Attention Il est prévu que les titres du EP figurerons aussi sur le premier album du groupe prévu en 2019 mais sur label cette fois et en format CD et vinyle je penses.

9/On your Bandcamp page they are only three tracks, how many do you have? On which label is it out?

On our Band camp page, in fact their is the EP but also the demos from 1992 and 1993 free to download. The Ep is self made you can find it on every platforms : Deezer, Spotify, Apple music, ussi sur Amazon, iTunes , Google play….But wait all the tracks from the Ep will be also on the new album for 2019 on the label as CD and LP...

10/Vous avez un vidéo sympa, qui l’a dirigée? est-ce votre studio? Comment cela s’est-il passé?

La vidéo est été faite pendant la journée d’enregistrement du ep en mars dernier. C’est Cédric notre photographe qui a filmé tous les musiciens en train d’enregistrer et nous en avons fait un clip. Même si c’est pas un véritable clip , cela permet d’avoir un outil sympa pour la promotion de notre musique.

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10/You have a nice video, who directed it? Is it your studio? How did it go?

The video has been done during the recording of our Ep in March. It’s Cedric our photographer who filmed us while recording and we made it as a video. Even if it ‘s not a real one it allows us to have something for the promotion of our music.

11/Jouez-vous dans d’autres groupes?

Perso à part notre batteur qui a rejoint Frantic Machine et qui a donc 2 groupes, nous n’avons pas le temps nécessaire pour se lancer d’autres projets musicaux. Boulot, famille, gosses ça prend du temps et on fait surtout ça par passion, par amour de la musique non par envie de devenir des futurs stars. Si on peut enregistrer des bons morceaux, faire un album sympa et faire quelques dates ça sera déjà pas mal. Ok si le bosse d’Universal nous offre la première partie d’Annie Cordy au Groenland, on fonce direct lol.

11/Do you play in other bands?

Apart from our drummer who joined Frantic Machine and so has two bands; we don’t have the time to get into those projects.Work, kids, family it takes a lot of your timeand we play mostly for passion. For the love of musicnot to become rockstars in the futur. If we can record good songs release an album and play few live dates it’s already enough.

Well if the boss of Universal offers us the first place with Mister been live show we jump on it lol.

12/Vous semblez avoir une promotion plutôt bien organisée pour un groupe qui n’a qu’un album.. t-shirt , photos … l’un de vous travaille dans une prod?

Personne ne bosse pour une prod dans le groupe. On a notre pote Ced qui nous fait des belles photos mais sinon pour le shirt on s’est débrouillé par nous-même. Pareil pour le ep on as tout fait tout seul sauf l’enregistrement pour lequel on a été voir un vrai ingé son. Par contre l’album en 2019, je penses qu’il sortira sur un vrai label cette fois.

12/ You seem to have a good promotion for a band that have one album...t-shirt, photo..one of you works in the prod?

Noone is working in a prod just in the band. We have our friend Ced who makes beautiful photos but for the T-shirt we did it ourselves. Same as for the CD we did everything except the recording for which we asked a real engineer.

But for the album in 2019, it should be on real label this time.

13/Comment trouvez-vous les concerts?

Trouver les concerts pas évident car t’as souvent beaucoup de demande pour les dates et pis si t’as pas de son récent à proposer, c’est pas simple. Je pense qu’avec l’appui d’un label et 1 album complet, cela vas nous ouvrir pas mal de portes.

13/How do you find gigs?

Pretty hard to find dates cos they are many demands and if you don’t have recent sound to propose it’s not easy? I think with the help of a label and a complete album it will open doors.

14/Vous semblez être connu autant par les anciens groupes que par les nouveaux, est ce la scène Métal parisienne qui aide ou les réseaux sociaux?

Très franchement même a l’époque on a toujours eu une notoriété assez faible auprès du public. Le faite qu’on est quasiment pas joué ni en province ni a l’étranger n’a pas aider pour établir d’avantage le nom Hatred dusk a un niveau plus important. Oui aujourd’hui certaines groupes issue de la scène 90’s connaissaient Hatred dusk mais bon il est clair que les réseaux sociaux ont été bénéfique pour nous.

14/You seem to be known as much as the old ones as the new ones, is the Paris Metal scene helps or it’s the social media that does?

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Honestly even back then we always had a small notoriety for the crows. The fact we haven’t played outside the city nor even abroad didn’t help either, to get Hatred Dusk at a higher level. Yeah for sure few bands from the 90’s scene know Hatred Dusk but it ‘s obvious that the social medias have brought a big part of it.

15/ Que pensez-vous des nouveaux groupes et de l’évolution de la musique?

Personnellement je trouve que la scène musicale française a encore du potentiel, je citeras comme exemple : Lonewolf, Elvenstorm, Citadelle, Tentation, Iron slaught, Corrosive Elements, Heavyction, Hexecutor, Ritualization, Necrowetch, Benighted, Rise of the North Star voir les vieux lascars d’ADX, Vulcain, Venin, Titan, Agressor, Loudblast , Witches, Crusherou Mercyless qui sont toujours la. Mais bon le public actuel s’intéresse plus à des groupes tel Ultra vomit, Tagada Jones ou Mass hysteria, qui reconnaissons remplissent assez facilement les salles. Mais a titre perso je reste assez old school dans ma conception de la chose.

15/ What do you think of the new bands and the evolution of Music?

Honestly I think the French scene still has potential to show, I’d like to give as example : Lonewolf, Elvenstorm, Citadelle, Tentation, Iron slaught, Corrosive Elements, Heavyction, Hexecutor, Ritualization, Necrowetch, Benighted, Rise of the North Star voir les vieux lascars d’ADX, Vulcain, Venin, Titan, Agressor, Loudblast , Witches, Crusherou Mercyless who are still here. But the public is more interested by bands such as Ultra vomit, Tagada Jones or Mass hysteria, who I must admit fill up the places easily. As for myself I keep it old school in my way of seeing it.

16/Avez-vous des fans à l’étranger?

Fans à l’étranger ? oui je penses vu que le ep est disponible partout dans le monde donc on doit en avoir un peu lol – on est même sur la version turque d’Amazon !

16/Have you got fans abroad?

Abroad? I think since the ep is availble in the world we must have some lol, we even are on the Turkish amazon!

WWW.HATREDDUSK.WORDPRESS.COM

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1/Your album is repressed by Heaven and Hell records, can you tell us how this happened? Was it something you wanted to do? Why now?

1- I own the record label and the publishing company that owns all the rights to the Boize library. Actually all the digital distribution is done through U-Iliot Records and Klink Publishing. I was approached 2 years ago by another label in California to re-release the Boize library. It didn’t work out. Last year, while I was on EBay I saw an old cassette of the Boize EP for sale for a lot of money, I contacted the seller and told him I still had a good amount of the original cassettes from 1992 stil shrink wrapped. He was excited and we negotiated a deal, and I sold him the remaining inventory. He then asked if I was interested in doing a re-release of all the material with heaven and hell records. I thought it was a great idea, Jeremy and I negotiated the terms, and I provided all the assistance I could give to help this project. ( I do own all the possible material that exists). It wasn’t something I wanted to do, but the opportunity was here and I took it.

2/After all this time can we say the band is back? Have you keep in touch for years..

2- The band is not back, although they seem to want to get back together, I’am not so keen on doing so. I am in touch with every member of the band.

3/Your album originally has been released in 1992 but your band was already playing in 1989, how come this took so long to get it out? What are the reasons why the band didn’t go further?

3- The band released 2 demos prior to the EP of 1992. The music scene at the time was way more complicated than today. You needed a lot of money for studio time and pressing. So while we were writing and playing, I actively searched for labels to be signed to. We were getting very close to signing with a major label in 1992, but the singer was not enjoying the musical direction the band was headed to (heavier) and decided to quit the band. Given that the voice is the most recognizable part of a band, that pretty much sealed our faith.

4/Do you still have old songs never released? That could be used for a new album…

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4- No, all has been salvaged and is available digitally. Even rehearsal recordings (see lost tapes - Boize - Emissary) 5/How did you composed those great songs?

5- Most of all the songs were composed musically by myself and Robert Kourie, then Perry Blainey would write the lyrics and then we would put it all together and make the adjustments.

6/Who decided to get the band’s name?

6- Perry Blainey the singer.

7/Since the band disappeared what have you done? Playing in other bands or working in the music business?

7- After Boize, Robert Kourie and I continued, we formed Emissary with a new line up and singer, and then we formed Breaking Violet as a power trio and myself on vocals and bass. that all ended in 1997. Since I am in finance, I still write, but do not play live anymore. I prefer the writing process and the studio.

8/Besides playing bass and keyboard are you playing any other instrument?

8- I sing, play a little guitar, sax, clarinet, a few hours with any instrument and i’ll start figuring it out.

9/Canada is full of Metal bands, was it the case back then? Do you think you have been part of the expansion of the music style there?

9- Canda was full of metal bands back then, I’m not sure that I can say that we were part of the expansion, what I can say is that metal is and always was very popular here. If we did influence anyone well that would be great.

10/Music has changed so do you, what is your view on Heavy Metal today? Are there any bands you are following? Or supporting?

10- Heavy metal today!!!!!! I find the genre seems a little tired and starting to be a little blah. I do on the other hand appreciate the more industrial/gothic/electronica Metal. Kind of hard to pigeon hold the style, but I do like Rammstein, the latest album from Marylin Manson, Amaranthe (not all), clearly I still like Metallica (the new album seems to be back to the essence of the band). But the scene is getting crowded, and not in a good way. I was born in 1967, the beginning of Metal (Black Sabbath), the riffs, the melodies, the talent. now it’s either way over your head and unpleasant, or it sounds like a pop song on steroid. No more groove or creativity. But don’t quote me on all of this, it’s just an opinion of an old Metal Head…

11/As you feel better in the studio, do you record , mix or help other bands?

11- I am writing some new material, may collaborate with others, but not yet 12/Have you ever wanted to play in a cover band? What’s your view on those which are growing like grass...

12- I played some covers with Boize, it help getting gigs. I have no opinions on what other musician feel and/or do to help themselves achieve what they want.

13/Will you release a solo album? With guest friends..

13- I may release some material, but only if I feel it is innovative and strong. For sure I will find other musician to perform what I don’t think is at par with my expectations.

14/Do you have a utube channel? Can we still find that old video?

14- Yes, UIliot Records, all the old videos are there : P41

https://www.youtube.com/user/UIliot 15/If someone ask you to play bass on their album would you? Even if it comes from a fan?

15- Not sure it would depend on the style and the material itself. I don’t have the urge to play at any cost.

Thanks Stephane Fania U-Iliot Records / Klink Publishing

www.facebook.com/boizeband/ 2018

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1/You’ve been with vixen for a while now, you’re the third guitarist how do you feel?

Britt : It feels great! I couldn’t ask for a better group of women to be around. They are strong, confident, talented, fun and inspiring. I admire them all and am grateful to play music with them.

2/Was it like a dream to get into that band?

Britt : Yeah! There’s hardly any all female rock bands, and they broke through at a time when the scene was male dominated. I did and still look up to them, and love being in the band.

3/You made a strong appearance with your band Jaded releasing two albums, what made you disbanding?

Britt : I wanted to branch out and play for other artists so I started auditioning. Other tours led to being not able to continue the band.

4/You were like a female ‘Eddie’ shredding on tables etc, what happened? Did you get bored or thought you wouldn’t have a chance in this men’s world?

Britt : I never once have thought I didn’t have a chance at something because I’m a woman, and if I did would never let that stand in my way. I still shred, I’m lately more inspired by other styles at this time in my life. I stopped playing on top of bars for solos because the stages I play are larger and I’m not in as many clubs anymore with bars to climb on, so I’d say that’s an improvement.

5/Have you wanted to release a solo album?

Britt : Yes. I’m currently working on ideas.

6/Is there a chance to see Jaded again?

Britt : A reunion would be fun! I live on the west coast now and the band is in Boston but it’s possible.

7/You are now on the Vixen live album, did you play Jan’s parts or modified a bit with your own way?

Britt : I tried to keep the integrity and sound of her parts while playing them in my own style.

8/Will you be on the next album with new compositions? What’s the futur?

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Britt : Yes. We have some writing sessions this fall and hope to record the new material soon after.

9/Can you tell us what you did all this time before you joined Vixen?

Britt : I had my band Jaded, I played in a musical in NYC, I toured with Alejandro Sanz, played with some pop artists where I got to do fun national tv and radio shows, and played in various other projects.

10/Do you still have your flying V jacksons ? Have you tried new gears? Can you tell us about your sound and what you use?

Britt : I still have the Jacksons! I love those guitars. I have been playing my cracked mirror V with Vixen lately but would like to play the others out again soon. I am currently using Moore audio pedals. They are perfect because we do so many fly dates and they are small and light and sound great. I have a pretty simple rig right now, just a delay, boost and a Crybaby wah. I use GHS strings and love Hughes and Kettner & Marshall amps.

11/Do you play as guest on others albums?

Britt : I do. I’m about to record some solos for a friend in the punk rock world.

12/You are selling plectrums, photos..are you a rock star now ? (I have jaded calendars) Do you think it’s essential to be close to your fans? Are you on social medias answering questions?

Britt : If by rockstar you mean making a living touring around the world in a rock band and selling merchandise to people that support the music and band, then yes.

Cool on the Jaded calendar!! ;)

I think being open to communicating with fans is definitely important. I do not interact a ton on social media because I am never one to be glued to my phone or computer, but anyone that has met me will know that I give people my full attention and have a genuine interest in meeting fans and learning about them. I love to meet people in the real world as opposed to online, so if I’m in your city come find me and introduce yourself! :)

www.facebook.com/brittany.denaro

www.vixenofficial.com P45

Answered by Camden & Sabrina!!

1/Have you started the band? Was there a line to follow ?

Camden: It was mostly a project to start. We wanted to combine elements of Death Metal together with Power Metal, but shortly after we started to lean much harder on the Power Metal side of things and continued from there.

2/Who chose the band’s name? What is the meaning?

Camden: Bryan (our former vocalist) had picked three different names that went along with the first albums’ subject matter for me to choose from. I ended up simply picking Seven Kingdoms 3/Since you started how many line up changes have you had?

Camden: The first album is much different than the rest of them. That featured Bryan Edwards, who was our first Vocalist. He and the bassist at the time, Cory Stene, were only on that album. Bryan still writes some lyrics from time to time for the band. Sabrina ended up joining shortly after we recorded the first album and has been here ever since.

Keith and Kevin Byrd are Original Members and still in the Band. We have had a few different Bassists, Miles Neff and Aaron Sluss. Tyler McDaniel is the newest member on Bass.

4/You seem to have lots of fun being together , are you like a family? Did you know each others before the band?

Camden: Yes the immediate band is very close. You really have to be like that to function successfully. Keith and Kevin are Brothers, Sabrina and I are married, Tyler is one of our best friends.

5/What has changed since your first album? Have you tried to progress with the sound or it became easier to create..?

Camden: The biggest change was adding Sabrina and also getting rid of most of the Death Metal elements. We settled on a much more Power Metal sound and ran with it. Since the Second record it has just been a progression in that direction ever since.

6/You had the chance to open for big bands? how does it feel? Did you keep in touch? What does it bring?

Camden: Yes, we were very fortunate to have a few great tour opportunities in the USA with Blind Guardian then Evergrey, and then in Europe with Stratovarius / Amaranthe. All of those tours are stepping stones for the band and P46

incredible learning experiences. We keep in touch with everyone as much as possible and develop friendships over the tours. Aside from the obvious exposure, a lot of these bands are our inspirations and it was incredible to get the chance to learn first hand from them.

7/You are on Napalm Records, how did it happen? Are they any other labels that were interesting in signing you?

Camden: Yes, we signed with them in 2017 for the release of Decennium, which we crowdfunded independently prior to them releasing it. They also picked up the first three albums before that and re-released those through the label. We did have some interest from other labels, but we thought that Napalm was the best fit for the band and we have been very happy with them. We are very much looking forward to releasing the next album from scratch with them!

8/Who is doing your artwork album covers? Do you have input in them?

Camden: We don’t have one specific artist that we always use. We usually select the artist after we get a generalized concept of what we want and then let them put their input in on it.

9/Who was the first to create the band’s logo? how it has evolved over the years?

Camden: I actually drew it up! It is the same logo we have had since we started.

10/Can you tell us what is your secret to climb the stardom steps compare to bands who have hard time to get on top?

Any secret?

Camden: Haha, to be honest I wouldn’t consider us to be «Stars» or even «Famous» yet. We have developed a core following because of investing in tours and putting our music out there. Quite honestly, I would say that we are only now to a point where we finally have the right tools and connections that we can apply to our music that can hopefully achieve that in actuality over the next few decades. This is an all in thing for us. I think that is what most starting out bands don’t understand is the actual amount of sacrifice it takes to even get to where a smaller band like us is. And from that point on its still a ton of work. You really have to love this to continue going. This is just simply ‘what we do’ now.

11/Do you think labels are doing it all to get a band going, or you think only your own had work is paying?

Camden: I’ve been through the motions about what a record label’s worth really is in the modern music game. I do think though, for instance, a label like Napalm can easily help develop a band and give them advice based on experience that we would not get otherwise. Their reach is also much more than we would have by ourselves for sure, and its always better to have more people working for your band than just yourselves. We are very happy with Napalm.

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So to answer the question, Yes I do believe it is still a very important part of growing. They have simply done a lot for the band in the short time we have been with them, that we would never have been able to do ourselves.

12/Sabrina you are a promotion assistant , can you explain a bit what you are doing? Does that help the band?

Sabrina: I actually don’t really consider myself a «Promotional Assistant» but I do for sure try to promote the band as much as possible. The staff at Napalm really take care of the promotion along with the band as a whole. Just being active on social medias and other platforms is just something we try to be present with.

13/Who is your favorite singer? Who made you want to sing? Giving you courses?

Sabrina: I cant really just nail it down to one specifically, but my top three from the metal world are: Floor Jensen, Tom Englund and Jorn Lande. My mom is actually the one that started me off in singing and the reason I still sing today. My mom taught me the basis of singing along with High-school Choir. Other than that I am just on a crash course in the metal world! I try to absorb as much as I can from anyone with anything to learn from.

14/Have you sung in duet live or on albums ?

Sabrina: Yes. I have done a few. I was on a song called ‘Wardens of the New World’ by Artizan and I actually covered for Elize of Amaranthe live in France when she was sick on the Stratovarius tour.

15/Are they bands you ‘d like to share the stage with?

Sabrina: We already have, actually, so yes of course! :) 16/Do you have your own studio where you can create?

Sabrina: Not so much yet, but Camden and I are in the process of building a house, finally. We hope to have our own decent set up at some point in the near future. It will make things a lot easier for our future recording processes!

www.facebook.com/sevenkingdomsofficial

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1/Who first started the band and what was the idea?

1. The band was the brain child of Angelo Tristan who had been busking/jamming for some years when he met Jack who shared his love of 80s rock music and image so they started to work together with various musicians until the got the right fit.

2/Why choosing this name? You added Uk meaning they are other bands with that name?

2. The band had been called The Angelo Tristan Band for some years as the line-up was always ‘fluid’, using a number of session musicians at times also. When they recruited Todd Winger on guitar in 2017 and then Ben Atkinson, drums, 2018 they realised the dynamics were perfect. They all shared the same love for the music and worked well together. When the single, Midnight Queen, was released in May 2018, the band felt it was the right time to change the name. The name Collateral as an adjective means ‘ descended from the same stock but by a different line’, the name therefore re-enforcing the fact that they were united in their vision. The UK is only used on social media as there is another Collateral in Europe.

3/Does the band had line up changes before getting complete?

3. See above.

4/You are not the usual Uk band mixing the music which is more popular in the states, what made you composing such songs?

4. Our influences are the stadium rock bands of the past, we aim to be the new generation of stadium rockers.

5/Have you played in other bands before together?

5. Yes, we have all at some stage depped for the same band.

6/You have a brand new video « Midnight Queen’ called ‘chapter on »’ what is the story behind it?

Who directed it?

6. The Midnight Queen is the story of a woman who feels she needs to change to fit in but finds that she is not accepted so reverts to her true self. If you notice, she has a tattoo on her neck with the phrase ‘Be Yourself ’ . The video was filmed by Twenty-Nine Five Pictures and produced by internationally renowned, Darren Bransford who is also a well known actor himself.

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7/What inspires your lyrics? How do you compose the songs?

7. Life inspires the lyrics.

8/You have the look of a glam / Hard Rock band, does that come from your influences?

A bit away from your music…

8. Our look is 80s rock because that is the era and sound we love.

9/You have won an award can you tell us how this happened and what did it bring?

9. We were voted as the best band in Kent for two years running and won 10/How did you got signed by Roulette records? Have you had over proposals?

10. Angelo approached Roulette Records two years ago to help grow the bands profile. The band was then The Angelo Tristan band.

11/Can you talk about AT Records?

11. AT records is Angelo Tristan Records, we used this as a platform to self-promote the band before we signed to Roulette.

12/How did you learn your instrument? Have you taken singing lessons ?

12. Most decent vocalists have singing lessons if they want to develop their voice especially if you are a rock singer. It’s important to know how to sing properly or you will have a short singing career.

13/What is the difference with « Angelo Tristan » ? Have you started as a solo artist?

13. See answer 2.

14/You seem to play lots of live shows, is it easy to get them? Who is dealing with those dates?

14. Angelo books the bands local shows and most are re-booked regularly as Collateral have a very good live reputation. The larger London gigs are booked by Roulette as we are still building a profile outside Kent.

15/While searching the net I can’t find any album, but your photos look like you have been here for ages like rockstars, how can you explain this?

15. Collateral do not have an album yet. We released the debut single in May 2018, the 4 track EP will be available from 23rd November and we are currently recording our debut album. We have been around for some time, building a reputation and growing the live show. People come to see Collateral because we look and perform like a stadium band whether we are playing a large stage with a crowd of 1,000s or a small pub. We always deliver.

www.facebook.com/collateralrocks/

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Answers by Igor (guitar) Why releasing an album after so many line up changes?

There were not so many line-up changes. We just continue under the same flag and after many years of total hibernation. SOLFERNUS is back with the second full length album containing ten fresh songs which represent our own way of sick metal art.

Did you play already in Root before starting Solfernus?

Of course, I played in ROOT before, during and also after SOLFERNUS´ split back in 2008. ROOT is my main musical family and it´s still active band which plays shows worldwide, recording albums and can be seen online every day.

How would you compare both bands since you play in them, is the musical creation different?

Hard to say but if we can say that there exist some contact points in the music and lyrics so we must add also that there are some different things between both bands. Musicians in ROOT compose their songs according to written lyrics.

It´s conversely in SOLFERNUS. We record demo songs and then we try to write lyrics word by word straight to riffs and melodies. I´m sure you can hear this process in our songs.

Obviously you had composed songs in 2008, have them been re-written for the album in 2016?

Not exactly. We started to record new songs in 2007 – 2008 immediately after we stopped performing live shows. We wanted to record the second album and continue as a real band although SOLFERNUS was originally founded as a small Black Metal project in 2003. But plans were slowly destroyed when our drummer Coroner (now Cult Of Fire) left the band because of his health problems and later did the same our singer Khaablus. When I started with the new songs´ writing about three years ago so I took a few guitar riffs from these never used demos which we recorded in 2008. Some of them can be heard on „Neoantichrist“ album.

Have you got a tour going on over Europe?

SOLFERNUS does not play live yet but if that will happen so we should appear in more and not only European cities.

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Otherwise it would not make a sense.

What inspired your lyrics?

In terms of lyrics, „Neoantichrist“ album is quite varied collection of verses. You can find here a classic blasphemous track „Pray for Chaos“ in which special guest, ROOT´s frontman Big Boss sings too. A Devil worship composition „Glorifired“ represents us as a typical Black Metal band but for example „That One Night“ deals about infamous psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter which is a poem showing us as a black humor lovers, you know. We have „Once Upon On Time In The East“ – the story of a very young German soldier fighting in frozen Siberia during World War 2nd…

SOLFERNUS is not a band of the only theme or in advance given concept.

What means « Neoantichrist » what made you name the album that way?

This title or let´s say a word composition is such a hint to mainstream medias. So many people are able to follow and mainly repeat stupid thoughts and words which they read in newspaper or watch in TV, actually online too. Media is a new and pretty dangerous gun for a human being. We still hear and read also a “labeling” of people by journalists or politics and these idiots scream out perhaps every day these word compositions with added “neo”. So we can learn from the press that there exist neonazis, neomarxists, neosexualists, neobolsheviks… Guess what?! So I am proud to be the “Neoantichrist” – as we sing in that song. This lyrics is describing my view of actual downtowns´ consuming life absolutely dependent on medias, commercials, false celebrities but also hundreds years innocent people following a tendency – the religion.

Who did the design of the album cover? Have you had input or just chose one you liked?

The great talent Thomas Bruno from our home-town is a good guitarist and drawer. I just told him the idea and he did this only one and perfect picture. You can see a bit graphically dyed result but the original drawing is made with a charcoal on a paper. The real hand-made art.

How do you compose the songs? Is there a main composer?

I did all music and lyrics this time but there are some lyrics written by Khaablus on the previous „Hysteria in Coma“ album too. I don´t use any special technologies while creating new music, just playing on guitar. As soon as there are ready some complete songs, we record it in a home studio with basic drums and vocal lines.

You just have released a video one year later the CD came out, who directed it? How did it happen? Are you gonna release other ones? Why did you choose that song?

A videoclip is quite important part of artist´s promotional campaign in the age of internet. This one was filmed by our friend Slaughter and his Ex Inferi Production. We used some his ideas as for example those beautiful sexy ladies, fog or the throne made by him personally. Mr. Slaughter´s main job is everything connected with latex – he´s making masks, body painting, horror effects and some his products appeared in big movies too. The whole video was shooted at his own atelier and it was great weekend along with our instruments and above mentioned women, of course;-) We chose „Mistresserpent“ ´cause it´s a catchy mid-tempo song with that right lyrics for final visual performance which you have been watching already. And yes, we´d like to make some another cool clips.

Your album is not the typical Black Album we are used to hear with blasting all along, are your influences play a big role? What do you think of Black Metal in general?

We like this genre but as you have said, „Neoantichrist“ is not a typical Black Metal album. We don´t wish to be one of thousands warpaint groups which simply follow old Norwegian scene, although we listen to some of these bands and we can confess little influencing too, no problem. We need to differ from other bands not only musically but also lyrically and visually. Our way is right as your review of „Neoantichrist“ proved by the way.

How did you get signed by Satanath Records? „Neoantichrist“ was released on two labels. Russian Satanath Records (Europe + Asia) and Azermedoth Records from P52

Mexico does the same for Northern + Latin America. We offered our music to a few companies and these two gave us the best offer. The album itself is out on CD but you can listen to stream via youtube or buy it from iTunes or Spotify in a digital format. MC cassette should be out in 2019 and we do hope that one day will appear this record on vinyl as well.

Do you have facilities to play live shows in your country? What is the scene like?

We get some offers already and SOLFERNUS will play alive perhaps in the future. We played out a few killer gigs in the past mainly over here in Czech Republic and the band performed twice at monster Open Air Brutal Assault too.

Maybe you saw another our video „Hysteria in Coma“. Waiting for right time so far...

Extreme Metal is strong in Czech Republic, what makes this style so popular?

Fans are probably hungry for it. Many people visit Brutal Assault Open Air as well as single shows at small or larger venues, we have metal TV station, radios and magazines. Extreme music is a visible phenomenon.

Do you have few friends with other bands to keep it strong and followed?

Sure, many related fanatics as we are!

www.bandzone.cz/solfernus

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How are you doing today, Robert?

I’m doing great, thanks!

Your Texas Metal Outlaws collaborative studio project has just been released on both CD and Vinyl through Heaven and Hell Records and Texas Metal Underground Records, respectively. What was your motivation in creating this record?

Well, Texas has such a rich pool of talented metal players that I wanted to work with. I got a taste of how fun collaborating on music with other players was on the last Witches Mark album “Witching Metal Ritual” and decided that I wanted to reach out to my favorite Texas metal musicians about working together.

How did you get all these awesome musicians to play on this masterpiece?

In most cases I already had established a friendship with these different musicians at one point or another just playing shows together throughout Texas in my other bands, Witches Mark and Ignitor.

Did you compose most of the songs and then rearrange them with the guest, or did you create the songs with them?

I wrote the majority of the music with the exception of the two cover songs “Running From the Law” which is a RIOT song and “That’s What Friends Are For”. I write lyrics for “Malt Liquor Maniac” I wrote a few lines on “Texas Metal Outlaws” and reworded the lyrics on “That’s What Friends Are For” the other songs the vocalist wrote their own lyrics and vocal harmonies. Stuart Laurence wrote the majority of the music for the vinyl bonus track “Black and Green” and “Echoes of Memory”.

Most of the members of both bands WITCHES MARK and IGNITOR are on this album, why did you choose to work with those guys?

Because I only want to work with the best.

Are these songs on the TMO album just leftover songs from your other bands?

The title-track and the song “Malt Liquor Maniac” were intended for the third Witches Mark album. After we released the “Witching Metal Ritual” album a lot of doors opened for us, a lot of opportunities. Our drummer Scott was asked to join Byfist, Robb Bockman joined UADA and I joined my favorite Texas metal band Ignitor. Witches Mark really wasn’t doing anything because everyone was so busy…

So after our last festival appearance in support of the “Witching Metal Ritual” album I flew back to Texas and immediately started reaching out to the players that I wanted to work with using those two songs as a starting point and then just continued to write and jam and put the Texas Metal Outlaws record together.

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Who chose the band’s name? What is the meaning of it?

I came up with the band name. It’s kind of a play on the imagery of those old Wild West outlaw gangs.

Who made the cover artwork? Did you have input on it as far as the concept?

An artist named Yannick Bouchard created the cover art based on a napkin sketch I provided. I always have final say on any artwork decisions for my music.

You once again chose Heaven and Hell Records, why did you not choose another label?

Heaven and Hell Records handled the CD pressing of the Texas Metal Outlaws album while Texas Metal Underground Records pressed the vinyl version. I chose to work with these labels because I am a big fan of their finished product, they are extremely knowledgeable individuals and are well respected within underground metal circles and I have seen their passion for the metal they release and was/am impressed with their results.

You mentioned the Texas Metal Outlaws album is also available on vinyl. Do you collect vinyl yourself, personally?

Yeah, I do have a stack of vinyl at home. Nowhere near as impressive as my illustrious alphabetically organized CD collection but I’m working on it!

What’s your view on the fact that people don’t buy many CDs anymore but rather purchase the digital album online?

Do you sell lot at gigs?

I think that sadly over time kids stopped getting excited over music. When I was a kid we would watch MTV for hours just hoping for a glimpse of our favorite bands. If I had ten dollars in my pocket I was riding my bike a few miles down the road to Tower Records to hunt for cassettes from cool metal bands.

When tickets for a big show like Metallica or Judas Priest went on sale you’d find hundreds of metalheads camped out in the parking lot outside Ticketmaster blasting their stereos and lining up for tickets at 7am in the morning. Kids today will never have memories like that and I think it’s a fucking shame.

Do you have any plans for Texas Metal Outlaws to ever perform live?

No. Believe me… I am beyond proud of the Texas Metal Outlaws album. It was a hugely, ambitious project. It cannot be duplicated. That record is going to go down in history as something very, very special. Just having the CD and vinyl and the music videos is enough to put a smile on my face. I’m grinning from ear to ear, brother. This is the most proud that I’ve ever been as a musician.

Is Texas Metal Outlaws just a one-off studio project or will there will be other albums?

Right now I’m finishing a single for the Texas Metal Outlaws. This will be a very special and exclusive single for Texas metal fans. It will also be a totally one of a kind release and no one will see the concept for it coming until it hits them over the head like a ton of bricks.

I do not foresee ever making another full length Texas Metal Outlaws album. It took for years to make, I’m completely over the moon with the results and we accomplished everything we had hoped to.

What’s the future of your other bands Witches Mark and Ignitor?

Witches Mark is finishing our long awaited third album. We are inching along every day nearing completion. The songs are out of this world. We have really grown a lot as musicians and songwriters. The third Witches Mark album is going to blow peoples brains right out of their ears!

Ignitor is in songwriting mode. When I joined the band almost all of the songs for “Haunted By Rock N’ Roll” had already been written, with the exception of “Nomad” which I contributed some riffs on. This time around I am a much P55

bigger part of the songwriting team in Ignitor and I am really enjoying writing metal with my Ignitor brothers.

You just released a masterpiece like in the eighties, what do you think is missing in today’s bands?

I don’t think anything is missing. I think the American metal scene couldn’t be hotter right now. There’s a current crop of incredible American heavy metal bands right now like Power Theory, Skelator, Vanlade, Brute Forcz, Weaponlord, Savage Master, Final Sign, Attacker, Substratum, High Spirits, Twisted Tower Dire and on and on and on…

I’ve been doing this for over twenty years and I can tell you that no one is doing this music for money. Heavy metal musicians love playing heavy metal. It’s that simple. We do this because we love it. End of story.

Do you follow bands? Which ones have influenced you? Do you still listen to the oldies?

Yes, heavy metal is my life. I draw the most inspiration from the early New York heavy metal scene. Band’s like Manowar, Virgin Steele and RIOT have all been a huge influence on me and if I had to pick one European band it would be Angel Witch, who I also consider a major, major influence.

I still listen to the oldies! There are so many classic heavy metal albums, you’d be a fool in my opinion to not familiarize yourself with all of the classic bands and albums.

Any last words for our readers?

Thank you for the interview, please check out the Texas Metal Outlaws album and see you all soon!

www.facebook.com/texasmetaloutlaws/

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1/Who started the band and what was the idea?

PowerTribe was started by Darren Stroud, the guitar player. He originally started it as a project to play some of his guitar instrumental songs (that he had already recorded) in a live setting. He loves playing the guitar live ... and John and I loved the idea of being his rhythm section. That was the original idea. Now ... the idea is world domination ;-) 2/How did you get together? Did you play in other formations before?

Darren and I had a two-piece «Band» called FreaknMissy. In this «band», I was the singer and I played drums, basses, violins, and keyboards; Darren played guitars and recorded/managed the tracks. We played some of Darren’s instrumental songs with me on the bass. We liked his instrumentals so much that we wanted a band with Darren as the main focus where we could just play his instrumentals. We did a show with a band called Final Gravity and we saw John Chominsky playing drums in that band. We asked our friend (in Final Gravity) about him and he said, «Talk to John.» So Darren spoke with John about jamming with us and playing a show every now and then. John said, «Sure» ... and Here we are.

3/Who founded the band’s name and what is the meaning?

Darren, Missy, and our manager (of FreaknMissy) were doing an advanced Bikram yoga class together. We had been talking earlier that week about a name for the new band. While in the Bikram yoga class, we were emptying our minds and just focusing on the poses when we all got into «Warrior Pose». We really felt the energy with the heat and steam all around us and while we were in these poses, it was very apparent that we really felt this tribal connection - a feeling of kinship and power as a team. After the class, I said to the manager and Darren, «Wow, we have so much Power as a group.» The manager suddenly said, «The name of the band should be POWERTRIBE.» We thought it was perfect.

Darren and I went with it.

4/How long have you been together?

As the American heavy metal band, PowerTribe (with Missy as the main singer) where the songs are more vocal oriented, we evolved into this about one year ago. We started writing songs around October 2017 to become what we are today. Prior to that, we were called PowerTribe but the focus was on Darren and his guitar playing. We played mostly guitar instrumental music then. We did shows casually for about 5 years as that incarnation and we considered ourselves as a progressive rock guitar instrumental band. Today, we are the new female-fronted Heavy Metal Band!

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5/Missy you seem to do all the things, from singing, playing, designing… Are you the main member behind this awesome album? Do you work in a music studio or have certain skills that help the band?

I am seriously just One-Third of the band. Each one of us takes a load of work. This is why we are a PowerTribe. We each individually make the Whole of the team. I wouldn’t be able to be what I am without Darren and John. My role is handling more of the marketing and public relations. I tend to be the main writer for the lyrics, but I do come up with some melodies, chords, and song arrangements. I also handled the design for the CD cover and I am currently trying my hand at creating videos for the band. Darren and John work on the creative process and the recording process. John actually owns a major recording studio which works with many popular and national acts. John has lots of contacts so he networks PowerTribe with other contacts when he deems it appropriate. John and Darren had a real handle on the recording process for the «Prepare for Battle» album. Darren constantly writes riffs and plays guitar, but he also helps with lyrics, melodies, arrangement, and has his fans on social media. He constantly writes, records, and promotes the band. He is also at the forefront of the public relations when it comes to his connection with other guitar players. He is the creative «stage» facilitator for the band. He upkeeps the gear and comes up with how to make the live shows come off in a way that is functional and good for the audience. He is also the booking agent. He is the main contact for booking the live shows. So you can see, we all have skills that we bring to the table for this band.

6/You haven’t got a real logo, why doing that kind of computer button on the corner of the album? What does it represent for you?

Ahhhhh ... but the computer POWER button IS our logo. That button turns the electronic world ON and turns the world OFF. It is Absolute POWER. The Power Button is designed with the Stick and Circle -- or should I say Ones and Zeros as in the Binary Code. Circles and Sticks are what comprises all of Life. It is the study of Opposites and it is what creates us. All of the universe is Ones and Zeros (sticks and circles). We are the binary continuum of existence.

So I thought the Power button was really good at representing the band as a logo since we LOVE Heavy Metal and Astrophysics. So, we just placed a «P» and a «T» inside of the power symbol for PowerTribe. The name PowerTribe also has a specific font (Papyrus) which is also a logo as well and has a deeper meaning for us.

7/How did you learn to play bass and sing?

Practice, Practice, Practice ... Actually, it came very naturally for me because I played piano and sang. The left hand does one thing and the right hand does another thing and I sing on top of that.

8/Who is your favorite player / singer?

Oh My Gosh, there are so many that I have recently discovered in the Metal World. I just found Cripper and I loved her voice and approach in this one video, but I just found out that they are no longer a band. I have lots of respect for anyone in the Metal world that does so many shows and outputs so much energy on the stage. I do love the band Arch Enemy with the former singer, Angela Nathalie Gossow. BUT I think that I am still too uninformed to have a favorite player and singer just yet.

9/How did you compose those songs?

Darren created riffs, chords, song structure, and some melody ideas. He (scratch) recorded everything (guitars, bass, drum tracks) and gave them to Missy. Missy listened to these song ideas and the words would just come to her along with melodies and other ideas. She would present them to Darren and they would brainstorm together and design the songs. Once they finalized their ideas, she recorded some vocal scratch tracks. Darren would send John a demo of the songs with a temporary drum machine part to give John some direction as to what Darren was thinking about going with the song. That gave John a ton of freedom to develop the drum part the way he wanted, but he would also focus on supporting the guitar riffs and the vocals. John would record his drums to the scratch tracks and then present his ideas to Darren and Missy. From there, Darren and Missy would alter their guitar, bass, or vocal parts to match what John suggested with the drums. They would work on tweaking everything until it was just right for ALL of them. Since P58

John lives in Los Angeles, and Darren and Missy live in Colorado, they do a lot of file sharing over the internet instead of sitting in the same room jamming together.

10/You have one song on a movie how did it happen?

That was all John. John owns a major recording studio and has lots of contacts. For his daytime job, John works as an audio post-production engineer and he was recording ADR for this film. (ADR is a process where the actors come into the recording studio and re-record their dialog because what was tracked on location isn’t usable because of background noise like wind, traffic, or other interferences.) The style of the film was very in line with the songs on our new yet to be released album. Although «Prepare for Battle» is not a concept album per se, there definitely is a theme. When John presented the songs to the movie’s executive producer and director ... they loved it and decided to include one of PowerTribe’s songs in the end title credits crawl.

11/Who deals with your website and the merch?

That would be Missy. She’s the «people person» in the band. Darren is too, but mostly with guitar players. And so is John, but mostly with other drummers and ice hockey enthusiasts :)

Are you in touch with your fans?

We have fans? ... Just kidding! We certainly Hope to be in touch with our fans, but we are still kind of a newer band.

We are trying to help them find us! Thank you, the Metal Mag, for helping us!

12/What inspired your lyrics?

The knowledge of the Last Days, or the end of the world as we know it, is what stimulates my lyrics. I study scriptures, but also the sciences and conditions of the world.

Are you writing a lot or you just do when the music is done?

Let’s say that I study a lot. And yes, I do write a lot from my studies. And if music comes along with it, then I put the words to the music, but sometimes the music and words seem to come very closely together at the same time.

13/you are all involved in other formations, Does that tighten the schedule for live shows etc..?

Yes, we are in other formations, but we make time for PowerTribe as a group when it is right. John says, « ... the more you play with other musicians, the more comfortable you feel. I’ve been so lucky to have played with so many great musicians over the years. Music isn’t a competition. It’s art ... and something to be shared with people, whether it be other bandmates or with the fans. It’s so rewarding to get feedback. That’s what really drives me musically ... sharing the experience with other human beings.»

14/Which bands influenced you? Do you follow new bands?

DARREN: Iced Earth, Iron Maiden, Arch Enemy, Nightwish, Doro. Yes, I am always listening to new music and checking out what is out there.

JOHN: I grew up listening to a bunch of the classics like KISS, Judas Priest, and a bunch of prog bands like Rush, Dream Theater, Porcupine Tree, and Queensryche. YES, I totally dig checking out new music and new bands. I listen to a Sirius-XM satellite radio station called Octane where they play nothing but new hard rock and metal and I find so many new songs that way.

MISSY: I think I am influenced by everything, but not one thing influences my musical being except maybe classical music. I don’t think I was influenced when I was younger because I was not surrounded by electronic information like radios, TVs, and internet while growing up in another poor country. So I did not listen to music growing up. When P59

I came to the United States, I did not have much American pop-culture. But today, I am more informed. But I still do not have the habit of listening to music. I do not like having electronic things on. I listen to music when Darren shares it with me or when I am on social media and someone suggests me to listen :) 15/How do you find live dates? Are you playing with bands you know and have the same musical style?

Darren is usually contacted by people that are aware of PowerTribe (or PowerTribe is contacted directly through social media). They ask us about certain shows or he might even inquire about certain shows. We try to be selective in what shows we play. We always prefer to play better venues and perform with other bands/artists that we genuinely admire ... like Orianthi, George Lynch, Gus G, Geoff Tate, etc.

16/Do you have an idea of the country where you are the most loved?

We are not exactly sure who’s listening to us and from where. We receive international love from many different individuals :) For whatever it’s worth, WE LOVE to travel. Remember ...

PowerTribe World Domination!

THANK YOU AGAIN for your support. You are truly a wonderful connection to have.

We appreciate you very much! xoxo Missy, Darren, John of PowerTribe

http://powertribeband.com

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lic c ly i m / m o .c k o www.facebo

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Céline et Rémy 1/Qui a démarré le groupe ? Quel était l’idée de départ ?

Céline : A la base, le groupe a été créé par Rémy (bassiste) et moi, guitariste. Au départ, nous n’avions pas d’idées bien claires pour le style. On a commencé à improviser quelques riffs et petit à petit nous avons découvert notre style : le death metal.

1/Who started the band, What was the main idea?

Céline : At first the band was started me on the guitar and Rémy on bass. We didn’t have a special idea at the beginning , not clear which style to play. We sstarted to improvise with few riffs and little by little we discovered our style :Death Metal.

2/La Belgique n’est pas à ma connaissance connue pour les musiques extrêmes, comment est la scène Métal ?

Rémy : A notre niveau, il y a deux régions distinctes pour les concerts : la Flandre et la Wallonie. Il est très difficile pour un groupe de s’exporter dans l’autre région, la barrière de la langue y est peut-être pour quelque chose. La Wallonie est truffée de petites salles de concert, il y a énormément de petits évènements, qui accueillent de temps en temps de belles têtes d’affiches internationales !

2/To my knowledge Belgium is not well known for extreme music, how is the scene over there?

Rémy : For our level, they are two disctinct counties for gigs : Flandre and Wallonie. It is hard for a band to get into the other part due to the boundarie of the language which can be the reason for. Wallonie is full of little concerts places. They are lots of events which sometimes have big international top acts!

3/Qui a trouvé le nom du groupe et y’a-t-il une raison particulière ?

Rémy : Nous avions noté sur un bout de papier divers noms qui nous passaient par la tête, on s’est simplement arrêté sur BleedSkin. Le nom concordait avec le style musical, on était d’accord, à l’unanimité !

3/Who found the band’s name and is there a special reason to it?

Rémy : We wrote few names that came into our mind onto a sheet of paper. We simply stopped on Bleedskin.

The name exactly fit the musical style, we all agreed on that!

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4/Qui a fait le logo et la pochette ?

Céline : Pour le logo, nous avons contacté un designer ukrainien qui fait de très belles choses.Pour la pochette, c’est le frère de Logan (chanteur) qui s’est proposé pour le faire. Le dessin est fait à la peinture.

4/Who did the logo and the cover?

Céline : Our logo , we have contacted an Ukrainian designer who realises great things.

For the cover it is Logan ‘s brother (the singer) who wanted to do it. He painted it.

5/Vous semblez avoir un bon suivi grâce aux réseaux sociaux, sont-ils responsables de votre rapide croissance ?

Céline : Les réseaux sociaux nous ont beaucoup aider à nous faire connaitre ! On essaye de poster du contenu de qualité sur Facebook et Instagram. Mais on peut également compter sur les personnes qui nous entourent, comme nos bookers ou les autres musiciens avec qui on a eu l’opportunité de jouer.

5/You seem to have a good following on social medias, are they responsible for your fast growth?

Céline : Social medias brought us a lot to get known! We try to post quality content on Facebook and Instagram. But we also can greet all the people who are surrounding us, such as booking people as the bands who have played with us live.

6/Votre musique me rappelle les groupes anglais des années fin 90, qu’est-ce qui vous a motivé à composer ce genre particulier ?

Rémy : C’est en composant l’album que nous nous en sommes rendu compte. On partait sur du thrash/death, et finalement on en est sorti avec des compositions plus typées old-school. Le prochain album sera plus axé brutal death.

6/Your music reminds me the English bands of the late 90’s, what motivated you to compose that style?

Rémy : It’s when we composed the album that we realised it. We started from Thrash/Death and finally we created compositions more into the old school type. The next album will be more brutal.

7/Avez-vous grandi dans le Métal ? Comment avez-vous découvert ce style ?

Céline : Oui, j’ai grandi dans le métal. Mon père m’a fait découvrir beaucoup de groupes comme Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Slayer, Megadeth, … Pour ce qui est des groupes un peu plus death/black, Rémy et Logan m’ont fait découvrir beaucoup de groupes comme Cannibal Corpse, Behemoth, Dying Fetus, Gojira, …

Rémy : Non pas du tout, je suis arrivé dans le monde du metal par hasard. Cette envie d’avoir toujours plus de disto sur les guitares, de voir la double pédale fracasser la grosse caisse ! Je prends autant de plaisir à écouter du Red Hot Chili Peppers que d’entendre Chris Barnes de Six Feet Under me gueuler dessus … !

7/Have been brought up into the Metal music?How did you discover this style?

Céline : Yeah I grew up with Metal music. My father helped me discover lots of bands such as Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Slayer, Megadeth, …As for bands more Death / Black Rémy and Logan got me into bands such as Cannibal Corpse, Behemoth, Dying Fetus, Gojira, …

Rémy : Not at all, I discovered Metal by hasard. The aim to have more distortion on the guitars, the double drum bass pounding! I have same pleasure to listen to Red Hot Chili Peppers as earing Chris Barnes from Six Feet Under yelling on me..!

8/Avez-vous pris des cours ou vous êtes autodidacte ?

Céline : Personnellement j’ai pris des cours et je continue d’en prendre. J’ai également fait un an de conservatoire.

Rémy : J’ai également pris des cours de basse pendant un an ou deux étant ado. Mais je dois avouer que je ne comprends pas grand-chose quand Benjamin (guitariste lead) et Céline discutent de théorie… Logan cependant, est totalement autodidacte.

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8/Did you take lessons or you are self taught?

Céline : Honestly I took lessons and still do. I also did one year of conservatore.

Rémy : I too took bass lessons or a year or two when I was a teen. But I must admit I don’t understand when Benjamin (Lead Guitar) and Celine are talking about theory..Logan is self taught.

9/Quel est le thème du mini album ? Vous vous êtes inspirés de livres ou films ?

Rémy : Les paroles sont inspirées de morts, tueurs en série, … Certaines chansons relatent de faits réels. On pensera notamment à une jeune femme italienne qui s’est faite démembrée et transportée dans une valise l’hiver dernier !

9/What is the theme of the mini album? Did you get inspired by books or movies?

Rémy : Lyrics are inspired by Death, Serial Killers...Some songs are from real events. We thought about that young Italian girl who got dismembered and carried in a suit case last winter!

10/Quel est votre fonctionnement pour composer ?

Rémy : Céline a composé énormément sur l’EP. Logan a apporté sa contribution également. En terme général, chacun maitrise son instrument et arrange ses parties comme il le souhaite.

10/What is your way of composing?

Rémy : Céline composed a lot on the EP. Logan brought some ideas.

In the overall everyone knows his/her instrument and arrange things the way they want.

11/Avez-vous des facilitées pour répéter ? Des connaissances d’enregistrement...

Rémy : On répète dans un local aménagé chez Céline. On a de la chance, les voisins sont assez éloignés ! On est bien entouré pour enregistrer. On possède un peu de matériel et divers micros.

11/Is it easy for you to rehearse? Any recording skills...

Rémy : We rehearse at Celine’s place where she set up a room. We are lucky the neighbors aren’t close!

We have what we need to record. We have a bit of gears and few mics.

12/Vous avez des photos et un mini album bien mixé, ce sont des amis compétents ? Comment en tant que jeune groupe on arrive à avoir autant une image professionnelle ?

Rémy : Merci à LauPi pour les photos ! C’est un ami. On puise également dans les photos pros prisent lors des concerts. D’un autre côté, on fait avec le budget que l’on a… ! (C’est-à-dire pas grand-chose haha) L’album ressemble beaucoup plus à une démo, c’est un enregistrement home studio.

12/You have photos and well mixed mini album, are their skilled friends?

How can you as young band have that professionnal image?

Rémy : Thanks to LauPi for the photos! he’s a friend. We also use photos from professionnals during our live shows.

On the other side we do with the budget we have...!(Which is not much ahaha) The album sounds much more like a demo, it is been recorded in a home studio.

13/Vous avez cinq titres, en avez-vous d’autres ou vous avez juste fait en sorte d’avoir des morceaux qui tiennent la route pour commencer ?

Rémy : Effectivement, en concert on joue notre EP, mais également quelques autres titres qui n’ont pas été enregistrés.

Il s’agit soit des toutes premières compos du groupe, ou alors de quelques nouvelles. Dès 2019 on proposera un set plus complet, avec de nouvelles choses.

13/You have only five tracks, do you have more or you just made sure it would stand out to start with few songs?

Rémy : Yeah live we play our EP, but also few others songs not recorded yet. They are first demos of the band or few new ones. In 2019 we will have a longer set to propose with new things.

14/Quels sont les groupes qui vous ont inspirés ?

Céline : On a chacun nos inspirations, cela va de Slayer à Cannibal Corpse, en passant par Dying Fœtus ou Abnormality. Tantôt une touche de Behemoth, tantôt du Six Feet Under.

14/ Which bands have inspired you?

Céline : We all have our inspiration, it goes from Slayer to Cannibal Corpse, to Dying Fœtus or Abnormality.

Sometimes it has a touch of Behemoth, sometimes Six Feet Under.

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15/Faites-vous beaucoup de concerts ? Vous avez déjà joué dans les pays voisins ?

Céline : En un an nous avons déjà effectué une dizaine de concerts et nous en avons quelques-uns qui arrivent pour la fin 2018. L’année prochaine s’annonce un peu plus chargée, environ dix dates sont prévues de janvier à avril.

Nous jouerons pour la première fois en France, en décembre. La Hollande est au programme pour le printemps. Nous aimerions aussi essayer l’Allemagne.

15/Do you play lots of gigs? Have you already played in close countries?

Céline : In one year we aready have played around ten shows and we have more coming up for the end of 2018. Next year will be more complete, at least ten dates are already booked for January and April.

We will play for the first time in France in December. Holland is also in the calendar for September. We would also like to play in Germany.

16/Essayer vous de jouer le plus possible avec des groupes dans votre style ? Avez-vous des amis qui jouent souvent avec vous ?

Céline : Oui, nous essayons de trouver d’autres groupes avec qui partager les affiches qui sont death/black metal, le public que nous touchons est plus ou moins similaire. Plus nous jouons et plus nous rencontrons de nouveaux groupes, on sympathise souvent avec les musiciens. Nous essayons de jouer avec nos amis évidemment mais nous aimons aussi découvrir de nouveaux groupes avec lesquels nous n’avons jamais partagé d’affiches.

16/Are you trying to play the most with bands in the same musical style?

Have you got friends who play often with you?

Céline : Yes we are trying to find band who share the same style with us to play live show in the Death/Black Metal, the public is kind of the same. The more we play the more we find new bands , we often get along with the musicians. We try to play with our friends of course but we also like to meet new bands and ones we never played live shows with.

www.facebook.com/OfficialBleedSkin/

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1/From what I read you are a young band? Yet you seem to be loved like the early NWOBHM scene, can you explain?

I guess it comes from our first single. A DJ from the USA said that we sounded very NWOBHM. I personally didn’t know what he was talking about, so, I googled NWOBHM and found out that most of my favourite bands were NWOBHM. They were just heavy metal bands to me.

The NWOBHM scene started to have a resurgence around the time we released our first single and a lot of bands were reforming. As I now realised I was a NWOBHM fan, we supported the up and coming popularity of this genre coming back for the second time and went to gigs.

Newcastle is famous for this genre and the local NWOBHM bands embraced us, we played lots of gigs with various bands and got invited to open festivals. Unlike a lot of the local death metal bands at the time, our music was and still is, heavy and melodic, so it lent itself very nicely with some of the NWOBHM bands. I guess the fact we have played with so many NWOBHM bands makes people start to think of us as one, but we are not.

2/Have you played in other bands before or still do?

Yes, we have all played in other bands before, but nobody you would know. Just local bands in and around the north east of England.

The Filth Hounds got together because John and Myself played in a band together when we were younger.

3/Obviously your fame comes from airplay on radio station, do you think this media is important for bands? While the normal radio doesn’t play underground bands , internet radios are becoming strong, would you recommend people listening to those?

Yes, I definitely recommend listening to internet radio stations. Thanks to the Internet, bands like us can get air play all over the world. That would not have been possible in the past.

We had only been together a year or so when we released our first single. We sent those songs to radio stations all over the world and got airplay everywhere, it was amazing and still is now.

4/Who chose the band’s name? What’s the story behind?

When the band first got together, John, who is an encyclopaedia of heavy metal, had not heard much of a band called Tank, so, I made him listen to Filth Hounds of Hades. We listened to it a lot around the time that we first got together.

We thought calling the band The Filth Hounds would be good.

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If we could turn the clock back we would never have named the band that, as people think we are a Tank tribute band.

We have our own sound which is nothing like Tank, even though I would name them in my influences, they are not a huge influence for this band.

5/How did you get the deal with Pure Steel Records? Did you chase them to get on their roaster since they release lots of 80’s Heavy Metal bands?

We recorded the album last year. It took a long time as we had problems with our personal lives which hindered the recording of the album. My wife had a heart attack and John’s wife broke her arm. It was finished in January 2018. We have been told by a lot of people over the years that in Europe people would love us. So, we decided that we would prefer a European label to release our new album. We sent our album to a few record companies in Europe and Pure Steel were the first to come back to us. They were the most excited about our songs and they came across very eager to bring us on board.

6/It usually takes time to get a label interested in a band, what do you think helped getting interest in your band?

The songs. We did not have any contact with Pure Steel before we sent them the album.

Yes, we did play on a lot of good festivals and the fact that we had been booked to play British Steel Festival in France, I think proved to them that we were willing to travel to Europe to play our music. However, the main reason they said they wanted us was because of the quality of the songs on our album.

7/You seem to play lots of live shows, do you work in the music business? Have you got lots of relative in the music field?

Haha! No is the answer to this question. The nearest we get to working in the music business is our guitarist, he is a full-time busker. His only source of income is playing guitar in the streets to people going by, and he does quite well out of it.

We are a live band and we love to play live. The more you play live the better you get and now we have experienced travelling to play our music, we have the bug and want to travel more.

8/Who designed the cover album?

The Title of the album is a play on the saying in the UK “Hair of the Dog”. It means if you have had too much alcohol the night before, then you need more alcohol the next day, which should make you feel better the morning after.

This is the second Filth Hounds album, so it is the morning after the first album. So, if you feel kicked about and have a bad head from too much heavy metal from the first album, then why not listen to the new album. So, instead of Hair of the Dog, it is Hair of the Hound.

The design took days of Facebook messages to a very talented photographer and graphic designer Keith Talbot. He has taken live photos of the band for a few years now and we have also done some studio and location photos with him.

When we decided to rebrand the band a few years back we asked if he could design us the Filth Hounds’ logo, we sent him a few images and pulled different parts of those images to finally get an idea of the hounds. He designed them on new 3d software.

So, when it came to design the album, we naturally asked him. We had many different ideas of the hounds being in a bar. Were both hounds in? Were they in the cellar? Then we came up with the idea of it being one hound in a cloche offering a drink. Would you like a Hair of the (dog) Hound? Keith works during the night, so I had many late nights, messaging back and forwards. Can he look this way or that way? I would ask. We eventually decided on the design and he just took that design to another level. It is like a Salvador Dali! There is so much detail in the background that is relevant to the album, words drawn on the window etc.… He is a genius!

9/You have had already line up issue, did it changed a bit your musical direction?

I wouldn’t say it changed the music direction, but it did hinder us and stop us from moving forward at the speed we wanted. After our first album it took over three years to complete our second.

We did have a guitarist called Danny Joseph in the band for a few months, who used to bring song ideas every week, which was really annoying and a bit strange for me, as at the time I wrote all the songs. To shut him up I decided I would take one of his riffs and guitar ideas and work on it.

To my surprise I really enjoyed working on it, moulding it, adding vocal melodies and lyrics. This was the first time I had ever worked on songs with someone else. The result was the first song on our album “Attack!”. So, this has changed the way I write songs now as most of the songs on the new album have been co-written with current members of the band. I still like to write the odd song by myself.

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10/Who started the band? What was the idea for the path to follow?

It started when I got a friend request on Facebook, from a lady called Jackie Allom. I ignored it for quite a while as I was getting in to trouble from my wife for accepting friend requests from women. After a few weeks I looked again at it and I noticed a guy with her that I recognised.

This guy turned out to be John Allom. I had played in a band for a short while with him in the mid 90’s and he wanted to get a band together for his birthday, with people he had played with in the past. It was only supposed to be one gig!! Just one gig!!!

After his party we decided to do a few local shows playing our own songs and we won a heat of a battle of the bands, which was the release of our first single, “Too Damn Good/Hooked on Love”. Every year since then more amazing things have happened to the band.

The only path we had since then was to get bigger gigs and we have been very surprised at the size of gig and the size of the stages we have played on.

11/What inspires your lyrics?

I like my lyrics to have a story, it helps me remember them when we play live haha.

I like the lyrics to be about life, I am not a fan of witches, dragons and fighting. My songs are just a reflection of life and the everyday problems that we have.

I also like to make up story’s too. We have a song on the new album called Jack’s Nightnare, which is the sequel to a song from the first album called Nowhere to Go. It is about a soldier who has come back from war and is struggling to come to terms with civilian life.

12/How do you compose the songs? is there a main composer or the whole band brings ideas?

I have been the main composer, however this album has a lot of songs on it that were co-written by me and other members of the band. To be honest this is new to me. Our first album, ‘Release the Hounds’, was written entirely by myself and a good amount of those were written when I was younger. This is why there are a lot of different styles on the first album, I wrote them at different ages.

I have found this a lot more exciting than I thought I would. I listened to so many different bands when I was younger, all different styles, and I think that comes out in our songs. There are a lot of influences but all in equal measure, so there is not one influence that over powers the sound. Some of the members have come along with riffs or ideas and I have moulded those ideas into the finished songs. We do not try and make the music into a certain style, it just comes out the way it comes out. That is the Filth Hounds sound.

13/Do you have technical skills to record etc…?

Kris has a bit of knowledge from his college course but we recorded the album at a recording studio called NEMIX, in Newcastle.

14/You have played with legends, is it easy when you are in the UK? How did you get those live dates?

It started when I went to see Y&T with John at the O2 Academy in Newcastle and I saw a local band support them, I turned to John and said, “if they can support Y&T then we can” and we did, the following year we supported Y&T on the big stage at the O2Acadamy in Newcastle. We then went on to support ex Rainbow legend Graham Bonnet at the same venue the following year.

Our focus then changed to trying to share the stage with as many of our heroes as we could. It is very hard to do this, but we learned to hound promoters and venues to get us on with the best we could get.

We supported The Tygers of Pan Tang in Edinburgh and two days later we got a phone call from Ken, the guitarist from Blitzkrieg, who told us that original singer of the Tyger’s, Jess Cox , needed a backing band. Blitzkrieg were going to do it but they had to leave early from the gig and could not back him. We ended up having three practices with the legend and co-headlined the HRH NWOBHM festival in Sheffield. Yes, for one night only, I was the Guitarist for The Tygers Of Pan Tang!

We have since supported many more of our heroes including recently Berne Torme. Our last gig of this year is supporting Oliver Dawson Saxon.

15/Any European tour in the future? What are we supposed to expect?

Yes, that is the plan. We really enjoyed playing in France recently, so we are hoping to play more gigs in Europe in 2019. I have no idea at present how the UK’s stupid idea of leaving the EU will affect us travelling, but it is high on our list to get over and play to as many people as we can. If you have never seen The Filth Hounds live before then expect to be entertained. We are a high energy live band that like to rock.

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16/What gears do you use? Are you trying the new ones? What’s your view on digital…

Haha, I have always used digital. When I was young I would hear guitarists with valve amps talking about ohms and amps needing to warm and stuff. It terrified me! So I always used solid state amps.

I have recently started to use a Peavy Valve King, so I have learned from experience what happens if you get the ohms wrong, ha-ha, but I still use digital effects.

I have a Roland GT100 which is probably what gives me the 80’s sound as I have the digital amp on the GT100 set up like I did with my old amps when I was a young. I do plan to change the settings on it to give a heavier sound. I have planned this since I first bought it.

When I first got it, I quickly set up the sound temporarily to get used to it. I have had it three years now and have still not got around to changing the temporary settings haha.

Thank you for interviewing me and helping spread (the Filth) our music. \m/ Keep the Filth \m/ Bryan McGill The Filth Hounds https://www.facebook.com/bryan.mcgill.77

http://thefilthhounds.com/

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Guillaume Royer 1/Depuis quand existez vous?

Le groupe a été formé en septembre 2017 2/Qui a démarré le groupe?

Le groupe s’est formé sur la base d’un ancien projet avec une 4e personne et s’est finalisé avec les 3 membres actuels au mois de Février dernier.

3/Vous êtes trois, avez vous essayer d’avoir un autre membre?

A la base il y avait un 4e membre qui était à la basse. Cependant, suite à des divergences il a décidé de quitter le groupe.

C’est donc Guillaume qui était à la guitare en plus du chant qui s’est mit à la basse car il jouait déjà de la basse dans un autre groupe. On a donc choisit de continuer à 3 plutôt que de chercher une 4e personne, car on avait une réelle alchimie tous les 3 qui n’aurait sans doute pas été la même avec l’intégration d’un nouveau membre.

4/A la fin de votre set on vous a vu échanger vos instruments guitare basse, cela veut il dire que vous vous êtes mis à la basse par obligation ?

Absolument pas. Comme dit précédemment, Guillaume était en parallèle bassiste dans un autre groupe depuis 1 an et c’est naturellement qu’il a donc pris la basse en plus du chant en y ajoutant son propre son plus percutant. Alexi et lui avaient déjà une appétence pour la basse avant même le commencement du groupe donc chacun s’exprime sur l’instrument de son choix.

5/Lorsque vous passez de la basse à la guitare le style de musique change comparée aux reste des chansons, est ce un divergence de préférence musicale?

Je ne pense pas que le style change tellement comparé au reste des morceaux car on retrouve du blues rock et du rock à la Motorhead à d’autres moments du set. Lorsque l’on change d’instrument c’est juste que l’un voulait jouer ce morceau à la guitare ou la basse. C’est juste une question de feeling. Nous venons tous les 3 d’univers musicaux différents ce qui explique que nos morceaux sont variés et éclectiques dans leurs styles. On ne veut pas s’enfermer dans un style précis.

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6/Jouez vous dans d’autres groupes?

Alexi fait aussi parti d’un autre groupe ,un groupe de Hardcore du nom de Ormen Paradox et Olivier fait parti de la batterie fanfare de l’Eveil de Marans. Guillaume lui a récemment quitté son ancien groupe pour raison professionnelle..

7/Qui a choisi le nom du groupe et quel en est la raison?

C’est un travail d’équipe : Olivier ne voulait pas de nom avec un “The” devant, Alexi ne voulait pas de nom anglais pompeux. Du coup c’est Guillaume qui a trouvé le nom “Carbone”. On cherchait un nom avec une signification forte mais qui corresponde à notre musique. C’est donc Carbone qui s’est imposé. Un élément quasi-universelle, que l’on retrouve aussi bien dans la mine d’un crayon que dans un diamant. En plus c’est un nom simple à retenir donc ça a été vite validé.

8/Votre logo est très spécifique , qui l’a dessiné et est il en rapport avec vos métiers respectifs?

Le logo a été inspiré des cycles aromatiques qui sont des structures de carbone très stables que l’on retrouve dans tout ce qui est organique. L’idée du côté organique (voir moléculaire) du logo venait d’Olivier et c’est Guillaume avec ses études de Sciences qui a fait le premier jet. C’est ensuite Roxanne Dubournet, notre graphiste qui s’est d’ailleurs occupé des illustrations de notre EP, qui a dessiné notre logo. Il n’y a donc aucun rapport avec nos métiers respectifs même si les études de Guillaume ont bien aidé.

9/Quels sont les thèmes des chansons? Qu’est ce qui vous inspire?

Nos chansons ont des thèmes variés mais il est vrai qu’elles sont rarement joyeuses. Elles parlent souvent de certains travers ou de mal-être que l’on peut rencontrer dans notre société actuelle tels que l’anxiété, la surexploitation de nos ressources, notre addiction aux écrans, etc. Mais dans cet univers peu réjouissant, on garde toujours une place pour des délires qui nous font rire (“Je Cours Tout Nu”). En ce qui concerne les inspirations, je me base pas mal sur du vécu, ou sur celui de personnes proches. Les textes sont pour la plupart très personnels mais s’inspirent aussi d’éléments de la Popculture auxquels je fais régulièrement référence (Sin City, Watchmen, …)

10/Vous avez un mélange de Rock , Punk, Grunge .. quels sont les groupes qui vous ont inspirés? Suivez vous la nouvelle génération?

Pour n’en citer que quelques uns, on pourrait citer : Motorhead, Rage Against The Machine, et Ultra Vomit. Les 3 n’ont pas grand chose à voir l’un avec l’autre mais ont grandement contribué à notre son actuel. Que ce soit par la puissance de leur son, le groove de leurs riffs qui te font tout de suite accrocher ou leur attitude complètement décalée mais toujours simple et humble, on continue de s’inspirer de ces grands groupes pour toujours aller de l’avant. Il faut mentionner toutefois qu’Olivier et Guillaume ont tous les 2 de grosses influences tirées de la funk, ce qui se ressent dans le groove de certains morceaux.

Actuellement on suit surtout Shaka Ponk et Ultra Vomit pour les groupes de rock français. Pour ce qui est de l’international, on suit pas mal Rival Sons et Royal Blood.

11/Vous faites des reprises de Motorhead et de Chuck Berry, un peu loin de vos compos. Quelle est la motivation de jouer ces chansons à part bouger le public?

Alors déjà la première volonté est de s’éclater sur ces morceaux en les reprenant à notre sauce surtout avec des morceaux comme 99 luftballons de Nena. C’est quelque chose qu’on a toujours aimé faire car ça nous fait délirer et c’est toujours drôle de voir la réaction du public lorsqu’ils reconnaissent la chanson originale. Pour Motorhead, c’est avant tout un hommage et c’est pour ça que l’on n’y touche pas. Après si les gens s’éclatent dessus c’est toujours plus pour nous.

12/Comment trouvez-vous les dates de concerts?

C’est très variable. Certaines dates viennent juste d’un démarchage que l’on fait sur différents établissement pour faire parti de la programmation. Dans ces cas là, ça passe par un contact téléphonique ou un mail. Dans la mesure on essaye même de s’y déplacer. Ensuite d’autres proviennent de nos connaissances qui nous donnent le contact direct de la personne qui s’occupe de la programmation ce qui facilite les démarches.

Enfin on reçoit aussi des demandes directes de programmateurs ou de gérants qui ont entendu parlé de nous ou qui nous voient sur un concert et qui nous demande de jouer pour eux. C’est toujours le cas le plus gratifiant.

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13/Avez vous déjà jouer à l’étranger? Faites vous une tournée dans la France entière?

Pour le moment non. On préfère fédérer un public autour de l’Ouest avant de partir à l’assaut du reste de la France ou même de l’étranger.

14/Comment avez vous enregistré votre album? Est ce avec des amis compétents ou des professionnels?

On l’a enregistré chez un professionnel compétent qui est également un ami du nom de Jean-Yvon Vignon (Jeewaï) qui avait déjà travaillé avec Lysistrata ainsi que sur le dernier album des Binuchards. On a fait une session de 2 jours pendant lesquels les pistes ont été enregistrées séparément et le mixage/mastering a duré environ 2 semaines.

15/La vidéo est un passage obligatoire de nos jours, existe t’il une ou vous allez en produire ?

Pour le moment il n’y a pas de clip qui a été tourné mais une fois que nous aurons terminé les projets en cours, un clip vidéo sera surement tourné.

www.facebook.com/Carboneband/

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