The Metal Mag N°22 This new issue is like any , always thinking is the last one but everytime a surprising feedback and response from people who wants me to keep going, a huge thank you to all of you! Also for those asking for the printed version of the magazine , since it is an online one , I print it for myself and you know that it needs at least 2000 copies to get the price down as for CDs and due to the fact people rather buy digital today I can’t afford to print those copies if I haven’t got the amount of people to buy it. You are always welcome to order an issue as long as you pay the price. A big thank you to Dena Weismann for her continued support and keeping the flame with great bands. Horns up to Dave Softee for sharing his interview you can always listen to on his utube channel. Huge respect to Donna Labate who manages bands and her continuous work. I want to thank Vanessa Pably and Jaap Wagemaker from Nuclear Blast for getting me that interview from Heathen!!! Five years but finally got it :) Of course Kragen Lum for taking his time for answering me as he is a busy fella. Lots of kisses to my friend Dana Shelton who brought me the interview from Exodus ‘s Jack Gibson.
A Warm thank you to Susanna Coltrè for buying the mag N°21!!! (see photo below) Cover photo ©Alexandra Adler The Editor : ©Franck Michaud # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #
# Debra Beach Pain is Tentation (Français / English) Gaia Epicus Seasons of the wolf by Dave Softee from Metal Meltdown Ravenscroft First of Dawn Heathen Porno Graphic Messiah (Français / English) Ashes Arise (English / Français ) Project Pain Kramp (Espanol / English ) Elie Bertrand Toxik Temtris Double Raw Exodus Hillary Slaughter Psychoid (Français / English)
© www.themetalmag.com
https://caligrrl.blogspot.fr Remedy Music fills the air like oxygen Surrounding me, I breathe it in The rhythm and melody take control of my soul Filling an empty void until I’m left whole Consuming my mind with a flurry of memories Sometimes music is my only remedy Taking my thoughts to a different time and place Rejuvenating my spirit, filling this empty space Serenity replaces the melancholia inside Loneliness fades away at least for awhile The gift of music always brings me a smile Like a symphony reviving my heart Giving me hope for a brand new start (C) 2015 by Debra Ann Beach/ Caligrrl Poems
www.youtube.com/channel/UCzDe0yGrkRefxRlfFUzemCQ
1/After being a drummer for years trying to get your skills on top, what made you decide to become a singer and stop the instrument? I hated to carry all those fucking shells of my drumkit and the cymbals on stage every single night (hahahahaha). No, the real thing about this change is that I played years over years the drums and I always had the feeling that I couldn’t really express what’ s going on in my mind. So I started to write lyrics and in addition I set the first steps to train my voice. I always thought that there is so much unsaid and untold in myself and as I had the chance to start with an amazing band as a vocalist there was no discussions about doing this. 2/You obviously had a long way on changing bands as music style, have you found what you’re looking for or you are always on the search? if so what are you looking for? The problem is I’m a perfectionist and in every single band before PAIN IS there was something missing. In one of those bands the bassist was experimenting with alcohol and other things, in the next band there was the singer who felt in love and his new girlfriend told him that he couldn’t play anymore in a band, and all that shitty stuff. When I started PAIN IS there were also lot of stuff going on but we made it till today. Nowadays we are just like family with the will to get to the top or as far as we can with our music, but one thing is certain, we love what we are doing today and we really have so much fun on stage. Honestly, I can say that I’m really in the band I always wanted to be and there is nothing that could change this. I love it to be with my so called second family. 3/What made you create « Pain is »? what does it mean? You seem to have a story behind evolving with the names of the albums, is this a concept? The will to fight and to express myself as a singer. The story behind our bands name is simple. We always wanted to create a band that the crowd and our fans are really into. The fans always should be a part of the band. When we called our Creation PAIN IS, we always wanted to involve our fans, to set their own PAIN behind our bands name.
Talking about if there is a concept behind our album historical line. I think looking back I can really see a timeline, or a story behind every single album, but we never ever wanted to do concepts on our album. We create music in the same way as we do everything else in the band and that means that’s it’ s always a natural flow. If you have to think about your own music and a concept and so on then I think no one would believe you – so we just let it flow. 4/How did you all meet? is the line up stable? We met in natural way not over Facebook or internet like people or bands today – we did in an old-fashioned style by talking, drinking and meeting each other. The Line-up as it is established since 2015. 5/You seem to have nick names like comic heroes, what’s the meaning of it? Thank you for seeing us in this way (hahahah) but we already stopped to work as comic heroes, as far as I know. The reason behind our names is simple. It is a mixture of nick names and self-description, which we took to create our names as artists. 6/You have a band outfit, suits in black and red, can you tell us what is related to? Does the band on its own has whole story like a book/movie? The outfit is a thing we want to express our inner voices with it. So that everybody can see out there that we are more then only 4 persons playing music and making shows. We want them to show that 4 people and their thinking as family can conquer everything. And the thing about the colors is the contrast which lives in every single bandmember on its own. 7/Which bands inspired your compositions? you seem to mix different types of Metal… We are listening to so many great bands but also to unknown bands that inspired us. But normally we try to do our kind of music and define more and more into a own style of music. Is it a mixture of this or that band? Maybe, we don’t care – we do what we do. 8/Have you tried a second guitarist or you just like the way you are? There was no need for this because our family is fully set so far. And every single bandmember is so unique for our band that we wouldn’t disturb it with new bandmembers. 9/How do you compose the songs? Normally we start with guitar or refrains out of my vocals. If we find a hook-line in a part we try to follow the ride line into the core of the song and finalize the song. 10/What are the lyrics about? are each songs related to each other? The lyrics are about things that really pissed me off or things I want to change in life. But also public things that goes on in the world. Last but not least I write also about how to bring some sexiness into our lives, if you know what I mean. 11/Is it easy to play live shows in Austria? It is never easy to play shows as a band. When you start with the band everyone is coming and say’s “Your band is good you have to play more”, but on the other side the same people don’t come to your shows. What’ s wrong with you all – go out, go to concerts. And the main thing also visit concerts where young unknown bands play. Don’t stay at home and talk shit on Facebook or something like this, support your scene man, it’s the only way, to save young bands from not to be heard or spending thousands of Euros to make pay to play shows. Start by yourself and support those uprising bands. We are in the lucky position to play over 30 to 40 shows per year, but it was a long hard road for over 16 years to get there where we are today. 12/You have great videos , who have directed them?
First all thank you for your compliment. The last video we did was called “Don’t let us down”. It was directed by Gunther from Sliphazard productions. He is a fucking god when it comes to make the best out your music and band in a visual way. Indeed the storytelling was amazing. He always is so focused and a little bit of a perfectionist, but as I always say the easy way isn’t always the best. I love his work. 13/You played at Wacken and won prices, how it’s like to be nominated and get that chance? would you say that your dedication as a band is the result of those accomplishment? We won the battle in Austria before we could go to the finals in Wacken. We came there with nothing and left Wacken as one of the five winning bands worldwide. So it was really awesome to play there, to get involved to this amazing crowd in Wacken. And dedication to your band is good but not enough to make it there. We started to compete there after years of playing our asses a band all over Europe. It’s a result of hard work, love and practicing, practicing and at least practicing. 14/Did those shows opened doors? Did you make contact with other bands? Wacken opened us a band different new opportunities and channels to push our music and concerts to a new level. We make contact to labels and record labels there and also we exchange us with other bands. But to open the door to these things is only one thing if you want to be part and be accepted in this business you have to follow every single chance and continue your hard work as a band . 15/Have you got an album coming? A world tour? what’s next ? We are just working on new songs for an upcoming EP. The Preproduction will be finished in August 2018. In December 2018 we will be at the melon FM Studios together with our producer Mike WOLF to record the songs. The music Video coming up with the single will be produced by Gunter from Sliphazard Production in January 2019. So we would land with the single in February or March 2019 and the EP in April 2019 round about. In the meantime we are on tour as usual but in 2019 we intensivate the tours to make the best Promotion for our new stuff so be prepared. Last but not least we were just in Ireland to make our new band photos with a international known photograph, great stuff man, finally after all those years we have band pictures with a real soul, you can feel the pictures. It was very awesome to work with this big photographer – more info about those pictures and shooting follow soon. 16/You got signed by Noisehead Records did you have other proposals or choices? The label doesn’t exist anymore but we are actually in negotiations with different record labels and management for the upcoming stuff and the future of PAIN IS – all in progress. 17/Are you involved in the music business? We are involved in this biz. As a Band you have to be in there. But we are looking forward to promote and push our band even more. We are ready for further steps into the depths of this biz.
https://www.pain-is.net
1/ Votre groupe est plutôt atypique, des musiciens qui changent d’instrument… comment avez vous géré ces modifications ? généralement on change de musiciens… Tout s’est fait en fonction des besoins du groupe ! Et hors de question de changer de musicien car Tentation est avant tout un groupe entre potes. Patrice était à la base le batteur mais comme son chant plaisait aux copains des Hordes Metalliques il a fini par faire les deux. Du coup Guix est passé à la basse. Puis, comme nous envisagions de faire un ou deux concerts, nous avons décidé d’embaucher Laurent pour gérer la batterie et permettre à Patrice de se concentrer sur le chant uniquement. 1/Your band is pretty unusual, musicians changing instruments... How did you deal with those modifications? Normaly there is a line up changing? Everything happened due to the band needs! And there is no way we change our musicians cos Tentation is mostly a band with friends. Patrice was the drummer at first but his voice pleased the friends and Metalheads so he ended up doing both. So Guix went on to play Bass. As we wanted to play live showss, we decided to get Laurent to play the drums and give Patrice the will to concentrate on the vocals. 2/ Comment vous êtes vous retrouvés signés chez Inferno Records ? Quel est le lien avec Impious ? Fabien de Infernö Records est partenaire des soirées Pyrenean Metal depuis le début, soit 2007. Nous avons toujours eu un bon feeling avec lui. C’était donc normal pour nous de lui proposer cette sortie et il a accepté avec beaucoup d'enthousiasme. Pour Olivier, contrairement à ce que certains pensent, le hard reste une famille. Olivier étant dans le même état d’esprit que le groupe, la collaboration s’est faite naturellement. 2/How did you got signed by Inferno Records? What is the link with Impious? Fabien from Inferno Records is a partner for the Pyreneans Metal shows since the beginning , which is 2007. We always had a great friendship with him. It’s normal for us to ask him to get that album done and he accepted with
lots of enthusiasm. For Oliver, on the opposite of what people think , Metal is a familly. Being in the same spirit as us it went naturaly. 3/ D’après ce que j’ai lu vous étiez plutôt parti pour faire des reprises, est ce que faire des compos c’est en sorte invité dans l’aventure par hasard ? Les reprises c’était plus pour s’échauffer, voir ce que donnait l’harmonie entre Guix, Guillaume et Patrice. La première compo “Bruixes” est arrivée assez vite. 3/From what I read you were going to be a cover band, is composing kinda invite itself in the adventure by hazard? Covers are more to get the heat coming, to see what would come up from the mix between Guix, Guillaume and Patrice. The first composition «Bruixes» came up pretty quickly. 4/ Qui a choisi le nom ? Avez vous changé ou c’était déjà décidé? qui a fait le logo ? Guillaume, Guix, Franck - un pote de Torreilles - et Patrice s’étaient réunis le temps d’une après-midi pour chercher un nom mais rien de bon n’en était sorti. Après le départ de Guix et Guillaume, Patrice et Franck sont restés boire quelques bières ensemble et ont eu la révélation. Après deux coups de fil “Tentation” était validé. 4/Who chose the name? Did you change or it was already decided? who did the logo? Guillaume, Guix, Franck - a friend from Torreilles - and Patrice met during an afternoon to search for a name but nothing came out. After Guix et Guillaume left, Patrice and Franck stayed drinink more beers together and the revelation came. After two phone calls the name was chosen. 5/ Le choix de chanter français est pour rendre hommage aux groupes de ce pays ou simplement car vous ne vous sentez pas de chanter en anglais ? Parce que surtout on ne voit pas l’intérêt de chanter dans une autre langue que la nôtre. Nous trouvons plus logique de demander aux français pourquoi ils chantent en anglais que l’inverse. C’est dommage cette croyance que l’anglais est la langue du rock... 5/The choice to sing French , is it to give credit to all the French Metal bands or you just don’t feel the will to sing in English? It’s just cos we don’t see the point to sing in another language than our mother’s tongue one. We find it more logical to ask Frenchies why they sing in English rather than the opposite. It’s a shame to think that Rock is an English music.... 6/ Quel est le lien entre le groupe et « pyrenean metal » ? Tous les musiciens de Tentation sont des membres actifs du bureau de Pyrenean Metal, ce qui à permis à Tentation de se créer d’ailleur. L’association est bien antérieur au groupe et c’est après l’organisation d’un concert qu’on s’est dit que ça serait cool de monter un groupe de hard qui chante en français. 6/What is the link between the band and «Pyrenean Metal Fest»? All Tentation musicians are involved in the Pyrenean Metal office, which help the creation of the band actually. The association is far older than the band, it’s after organising a live show that the idea came to us to get a band that sings in French. 7/ Avez vous des contacts avec les groupes mythique français des années 80 ? Oui, avec certains ! Notamment Didier de H-Bomb, Yann de Ponce Pilate, Betov et Adx, Jean-Marc de Venin, Patrice
le Calvez de Killers et Titan, les gars de Blasphème pour lesquels d’ailleurs Laurent et Guix se sont partagés le set à la batterie pour le concert des 10 ans de Pyrenean Metal, un peu avec Vulcain. Nous aimerions rencontrer Zouille de Sortilège afin de le motiver de remonter une fois sur scène pour le PWOA :) 7/Do you have contact with the 80’s French bands ? Yes, with some of them! Mainly with Didier from H-Bomb, Yan from Ponce Pilate, Betov and ADX, Jean-Marc from Venin, Patrice le Calvew from Killers and Titan, guys from Blaspheme with whom Laurent and Guix shared the drum kit during the show for the 10 years of Pyrenean Metal, a bit with Vulcain. We would love to meet Zouille from Sortilege to force him to get up one more time on stage for the PWOA :) 8/ Vous avez sorti un mini album il y a deux ans déjà, comment c’est passé le temps vous avez fait beaucoup de concerts ? La sortie du MLP a été très bien accueillie par les hardos que ce soit en France ou à l’étranger. Nous étions vraiment fier des réactions du public. Du coup, pas mal de concerts nous ont été proposés mais on y va doucement. On a quand même fait une quinzaine de dates en France, Belgique et Espagne, le groupe est un loisir et doit le rester. Il nous arrive donc de refuser des dates pour ne pas nous sentir étouffé par ce hobby. 8/You made a mini album two years ago, what happened during this time , did you play lots of live shows? The MLP has been well received from Metalheads around the world. We were very proud from the reaction of the public. So many gigs have been proposed to us but we do it slowly. We have played fifteen live dates in France, Belgium and Spain. the band is a leasure and must stay that way. It happens we refuse live dates to not suffocate from it. 9/ Comment composez vous les chansons ? On pose la musique puis on l’enregistre. Patrice compose ensuite la ligne de chant de son côté en faisant du “yaourt”. Pour les paroles, il n’est étrangement pas rare que certains mots de ce yaourts soient repris dans les textes. Comme si, inconsciemment, il savait déjà de quoi il allait parler. 9/How do you compose the songs? We set up the music and record it.Patrice compose then the singing line is done like yogurt. For the lyrics is it not rare that some words come out from this yogurt mixed with the real text. Like he without thinking knew already what he would speak about. 10/ Vous allez sortir des Lp’s en 2018, avec split comme à l’époque, est ce un choix et trouvez vous que cela soit nécessaire vu que tout va très vite de nos jours ? On sort un split comme ça s’est toujours fait dans le milieu du metal et pas seulement à l’époque ! A la base le split devait être “4 ways” en incluant des pistes également de Herzel et Electric Shock. Mais plus tu mets de groupes, plus c’est compliqué à organiser, les timings ne correspondaient pas forcément. Les liens de forte amitié et le destin qui unissent Iron Slaught et Tentation nous ont donc réuni tout naturellement. 10/You are going to get some Lp’s in 2018, with a split like the early days, is it a choice and do you think it’s necessary due to the fact everything goes very fast those days? We release a split as it has always been done in the Metal world not just the early days! at the beginning the Split was meant to be «4 Ways» with Hertzel and Electric Shock. But the more you get bands the more it gets complicated to organise, timmings didn’t match. The strong friendship and destiny made unite Iron Slaught and Tentation so it came naturally for us. 11/ Quel matériel possédez vous ? avez vous tout ce qu’il faut pour faire le meilleur où vous empruntez ?
Laurent gère un local de répétition avec une partie studio, on a donc tout ce que l’on a besoin pour maquetter et enregistrer. De plus il est régisseur général pour le Département des Pyrénées-Orientales et Guix est sonorisateur également dans son équipe, ce qui aide beaucoup à vrai dire ! Nous avons donc à loisir d’enregistrer quand cela nous semble bon, tout est quasi déjà en place. Ensuite nous savons ce que nous voulons et nous ne sommes pas exigeant au niveau du son. D’une part nous ne souhaitons pas une grosse prod moderne car nous aimons le son plutôt vintage et d’autres part, nous ne voulons pas passer des heures en studio, préférant la spontanéité au reureu et éditions à ne plus finir ! 11/What gear do you own? Do you have what it takes to release the best or you borow? Laurent deals with a rehearshal place and part of a studio, so we have all needed to release the demo and then record. He is also a general manager for the Departement of Pyrénées-Orientales and Guix is also the sound engineer in his team. Which helps a lot I must say! We have the pleasure to record whenever we want , everything is in place. Then we know what we want and we are not bitches for the sound. On one hand we don’t want a big production as we love the old sound and on the other hand we don’t want to spend days in the studio, liking the spontaneous play rather than the repeat without ending !
www.facebook.com/tentationfrance/
1/Hello since our last interview you went through many troubles, can you explain why such things happened to you? 1. Just looking forward now and have no need to talk about troubles that has been. Some times in life things doesn't always go they way you plan for it to go. 2/How can you explain you are still searching for musicians, they have lots of talents in Norway as sweden… are you too hard on them? 2. Good question but the answer seems to be very simple. Even though there are many great players, not so many of them play, can play, or want to play this style of metal. The ones who can and wants to play this style is either in a band already or they don't want to play in a serious band. So am i to hard or difficult to work with? No not at all 3/You changed several times the band’s name, that must make it harder to get fans going? isn’t it painful? What did you gain from it?  3. Changing name has been a natural part of thew process, and for every name change we have also changed the music style. The name and style Gaia Epicus will however not change. There was also one time I changed the name because some other band had the same name. 4/You have your own label, does that mean you haven’t find one that suits you? do you think the music business is getting bad with time? do you release all of your albums? 4. First we where signed to a label, but it was bad news. Then i made my own label and could have 100% full control. I wouldn't mind signing to a big label because that could make the band bigger, but the conditions must be right. I have been contacted by big labels before but they where clearly not interested talking about my rights, so i passed on that. I have released the Gaia albums since 2008, and also re-released the old ones. 5/You have made 5 albums so far, are you the main composer? 5. I compose everything (except 2 songs), and i also run everything besides the music. I am working on album nr. 6 now, and it will be released this year. 6/ You seem to have loads of guitars, do you get an endorsement? 6. I just have 3 electric guitars and one acoustic, but i tend to use just 2 of them. I have been offered endorsement by 2 smaller company's but i turned them down. 7/Who design your cover albums?
7. J. P. Fournier did 4 and Michael Muller did 1. And the new one is made by Stan W. Decker.
8/What are your lyrics about? how do you get inspiration after so many years?
8. Mostly about things happening in life, bad things, environment problems and hope for the future. Inspiration comes from living in this world. 9/DO you still have the same influences or with time you have changed?
9. I think i still have the same influences, Megadeth, Metallica, Helloween, Gamma Ray, Iron Maiden etc...
10/DO you play live shows only in Norway? have you got plans to tour around the globe? 10. We have played in Norway, Sweden, Spain, UK, USA. A would tour would be great, so we will see what happens. 11/are they songs or albums that are most liked by the fans?
11. The song everybody likes is Fire & Ice from our debut album.
12/what do you think of the scene today? 12. I haven't really been following the scene so much the last few years. But i'm guessing it hasn't changed that much. 13/Are you following new bands? is there one in particular you love the most?
13. Not so many new bands that i have discovered lately.
14/Have you guest on other bands albums?
14. No i haven't.
Best Regards Thomas
http://www.gaia-epicus.com
Interview by Dave Softee Kletzel from Metal Meltdown Radio with Skully Dave : Welcome back Skully how you’re doing tonight? Skully : Thanks it’s been like seven years since I talked to you. Dave : It’s great to have you back with us and I want to congratulate you on your new record «Last act of Defiance» released on Iron Shield Records based in Germany. Skully : Yes it is and we have Pure Steel Records helping us with that. It’s kinda like nice this time we gotta Thomas, we were really good friends for a long time. They actually were the ones in Germany buying our stuff from America and send to other labels, that’s how our relationship was born. And of course the Anthology album Thomas knew how to put out all the material on a double CD and Witches Brew was involved with another label. There was Pure Steel Records promoting and distributed, it’s cool I feel like I had three record labels all helping out! Dave : And specially in this age with the underground , the more hands you have the best you are. It’s hard for me to believe that the band is celebrating his thirty years ! Skully : Yeah ahha it will be thirty years this october. Dave : Congratualtion and It’s been eleven years since you put up an album «Once in a Blue moon» so I really should say you release music «once in a blue moon». Skully : Well you know what , we really timed up that album cos you know each album came out an we were expecting to get one in 20002/2004 and it got postponed by different circonstances. It finally came out in 2007 and one reason we did that it took so long to get it we changed the title of the album. We called it «once in the blue moon» cos it took
so much time for us. And a fan told us get it on July cos it’s really gonna be a blue moon. We then waited and as I just made a new song called «Ghost woman» that was perfect for the album. It took couple of months to record that and stick it on the album ah. Dave : That’s an interesting story but what I really want to know is , since we last spoke how have you been up to as a band, what happened? Skully : Well we mostly had our asses kicked ahahaha We weren’t really unactive though. My brother was ill so we had to put things on hold to see if he would recover you know. By the time we already had five to six song cut for the album.To get the album out by at least 2012! By the time 2008/ 2009 we got hit by the economy people were loosing jobs ..money wasn’t coming like it used to. Instead I was playing a bit with bands to keep the studio running and keep the place earning a little money you know. By doing so I ended up helping out lots of bands and even played bass in one. Ended up playing in a cover band, got involved singing in a project called Soldiers of Night..Ended up helping out 3D Burns on Bass and helping them to get an album out as a co producer so been keeping busy. We wanted to get the album out by 2014 but that wasn’t happening because of financial problems mostly. We kept postponing it and meantime my brother wasn’t getting any better even worst. He kinda had bail out completely and wished us to continue so what happened is I took the time and I finished myself the album out. Dave : Oh I heard about your brother, is he getting better these days? Skully : Oh yeah is getting better it’s just some much things happened to him , the health issue has affected him mentally and both physically. He can’t do what he used to, he can’t do live shows , even back in 2007 the last few shows we kinda noticed he might have a cold or something like that. After five songs his vocals kinda loosing it and he wasn’t that good and always getting sick. So to basically move on we gave him some time, for year and see how you’re gonna do and get back your health and everything. You put more than 20 years in dedication so we’re not gonna cut loose in everything...As I said he didn’t get through and he told us he bailed out he wished us to continue. Denis and I formed this band back in 1991 as we did I just came out of a band as a lead singer called Equinox..I trained my brother since I had experience for years as lead singer so I knew he had the chops so he would do great. The first years of Seasons of the Wolf was all about us at the beginning working on tape and else working him to sing...basically get in done and we got our first drummer and bass player and the rest is history. Dave : So you’re keeping the torch for your brother to keep the band going.. Skully : ..in the meantime we wanted to look for another singer , replacing my brother was a hard place to fill since you are established as a band for several albums you know the next guy is gonna do has good or better. Like Bruce Dickinson replacing Paul Di Anno or Dio coming out after Ozzy ... The new guy needs to be overdue to the same approach to the same type of music and to have the desire and being a good lyricist and have the same style we have. When I put an ad I was saying «someone like Bruce Dickinson, Rob Halford, David Wayne from Metal Church»... you know we’ve been through let’s 2 dozen singers. Some good some really good but some were really nice but not very good (laugh) hey you know what i’m saying! You got a lot of talent outhere but you gotta get along with the people you’re gonna work with. We finally found the right fit Robert Baxter called me up one day, he happened to know my brother. he knew the situation of my brother he was doing vocals for some bands...He did lights, or sound if the bands needed , he helped bands at shows. I ran on him one day at a 3D Burns show he said «hey I saw you got the Anthology album I’d like to get a copy of that» I told him I hook you up to the studio and got you one. And he called me one day he knew we were in the studio with other bands and he told me on the phone he wanted to start originals songs in the vein of Bruce Dickinson thing old school Metal , I told him «why don’t you come see me I might have a band you’re interested in» (laughs).I said bring some lyrics with you, I took few tunes I wrote and read his lyrics and I told him sing your lyrics n the music I’m playing.BOOM we wrote a song and in 15 minutes he was here! I said you ‘re our guy ahahahah Dave : So you found the one, he’s the curent lead singer? Skully : He is the curent lead singer and we are writting new stuff right now for the next album, we have a new bass player Sam Conable on he also plays in another original band called ‘Cryptic Vision’ got couples albums out.He also plays in cover bands and we went through many auditions and Sam called me one day , he read an ad I out and came and met me, we jamed and that was it! So he’s in . We have our ex- drummer Wayne who’s still a part of the familly he came to play with Sam so we could jam through songs , in the meantime we were looking for a new permanent dru-
mmer and Sam new one. His name is Ken Trapp who plays in a Kiss tribute band and I knew him but didn’t know he would like to play our stuff. He came out and went through some songs and we’re a band again! As far as the new album we still have couple songs with my brother, we also have Mark Empire he lives in New Jersey but he also playing drums , Bill Bois on bass on couple of tracks, our old drummer went through few tracks and the female bass player Phaedra Rubio ,who happens to be in Norway appears also on couple tracks. That’s how the album came on together. Dave : Interesting, how long you actually worked on Last Act of Defiance? is it coming from seven years of patience from yours... Skully : Actually it started back in 2008 just before my brother went on so bad that we couldn’t continue with it, like I sayed we put it in the back for couple of years. We gotta come back to it but we were so busy in the studio with other bands hanging out with dealing stuff for bands and got more years . Time by time we ended up working on it and finished around 2015! I made an annoucement on facebook and other places we were ready to release it. Ahaha well I’ve shouldn’t have done that( laugh) but it wasn’t going to happen...before we release the album I wanted to be sure we have a full line up to act for live shows and start straight for the new album. We were done for the last year 2017 to be released in the summer but then we got slammed with those storms. That posponed for everybody and every business loosing their houses etc... lot of cleaning to do and some parts are still up for cleaning...it was meant to be released in October or end of the year cos everything was done but I thought «hey why not wainting January it’s a new year for a new album» ahah. Dave : You’ve been working for a long time on this album , you must be eager to have this album outhere ? Skully : Oh yeah we have , we’re so happy it’s now done and out and with the new line up we already have seven new songs already written for the new album. I want everybody involved so everyone has a part of it. Dave : Excellent, did you do all the mastering and engineering for the last album «Last Act of Defiance» ? tell us how those came about. Skully : We do everything here at our studio ouselves. I do most of the producing and my keyboard partner we’ve been together since the beginning , he does the engineering. He’s really good at it! Dave : Is Seasons of the Wolf curently the label from the act? Skully : It is ! always have but it ‘s becoming again! Dave : Can you tell about the futur news coming up? Any shows.. Skully : Well we don’t have anything right now, we had opportunities but we turned down cos some are busy and it wasn’t the band to fit our live shows. We are working on touring right now , we will probably do few local shows in the bay are cos that’s what we always do. We also have a big stage in our studio where we can fit 150 people and we’re known about it, it’s a big stage. This is where we practice as we where on show. We probably do in few months a Seasons of the Wolf night in the studio opened to have our local fans to keep it going. Of course it will be a benefit show as we don’t have yet merchandise to sell. So we don’t really want to tour before getting merch ect..we»re not getting paid that’s why it’s a benefit show. The next thing we’ll do is probably play in Tampa to warm up for a larger show, we’ll do a lot to make sure we have a camera crew to film the show so we’ll be able to show with the people around the world. What we really wanna do right now is recording the new album cos we ‘re not gonna wait another ten years..We want to get that new album with the new line up out by 2020! if Not earlier but I’ll make sure it will be released. Dave : You are working for the title for the follow up album to «Last act of Defiance»? Skully : We certainly do and it will be the title track we are working on very soon. We will release it straight , and it will be the first time we release a single! From the new album coming. The title of the song and the album is «Once More Unto the Breach». Dave : Thanks for the info, talking about the merchandise what would you see for the new album as it’s been a while you haven’t had something new. Would you have T- shirts and where would they be available ? On facebook page?
Skully : Right now about T-shirt merchandise we are completely out of stock. But as you see on the cover of Last act of Defiance we have a super cool design made by a guy in indonesia. «5millegrams» that’s how he want us to call him Well probably hire him for the next album . As far as merchandise I printed a poster I want to get from that cover and a t-shirt with the titles of the songs written in the back. We got so many previous t-shirts we wanna reprint that got so famous and people always ask for stickers they like to stick all over the walls... Listen up the whole interview live on Dave Utube ‘s page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKMtAFwAtyw
Dennis Risto w
Skully
Interview with Devin Bakers 1/Who decided to create the band? The original guitar player saw ralph performg in his old band and said we should jam together.
How did you all meet?
Just chance or luck, mutual friends or musicians suggesting people - email, text and phone calls. 2/What’s the reason for the band’s name? The original guitar players moms maiden name( i think) was ravenscroft and ralph said that is a cool name we should use it.
Is it related to a movie or something in particular…
Just sounds cool!! 3/Who did the logo? Rik hansen
Have you got involved or just chose from the artist ideas?
Rik came up with the idea but we made some tweaks. 4/You are all in different bands, isn’t this tough to get committed? We all were in different bands but now all 4 of us are fully committed to ravenscroft.
How do you see the fact being in different bands helps musicians?
Experience it and makes you realize when you have the real deal. 5/You have professional sound and great music, do you have a music studio or music skills that help getting you on top? We have a rehearsel studio and a recording studio we use at world class audio/shawn sullivan. I would lean toward
chemistry in ravenscroft. 6/Do you think mixing different people from various music styles gain to make the perfect band? Yes, we all like rock and hard rock but all have different influences and that makes ravenscroft. 7/Have you contacted labels so far? Yes we have had some label interest just looking and waiting for the right one.
Do you think bands have to give 100% today rather than before a demo tape was enough?
Absolutley, it is harder today than ever, so 100% in all areas is a must. 8/You seem to be in the music for a while , how do you see the changes and what’s your point of view? When you feel rock music from head to toe..it is awesome and there is nothing I would rather do. this band can write, record and perform at a high level, I am back to chemistry and we are all lucky. 9/You just released six songs, why not adding the oldest ones? Brett is not on any of the older recordings and those songs are already on cosmic plan - this new stuff is killer.
Have you got others or you concentrate on getting the right songs for each album?
We have more new songs but these 6 are the right 6..for now!! 10/You have made two videos, who directed them? Rik hansen and we directed.
What was the process?
We came up with a concept that the 4 for us liked and made it happen.
What made you choose those particular songs?
What songs we liked and what concepts we could pull off to make them great!! 11/Are you touring in the whole country? Not yet but hopefully soon. 12/Do you know your fans? Yes, our fans are hardcore, loyal and fantastic. we stay in constant contact with most of them.
Have you got lots from Europe so far?
We have absolutley been hit up by fans across the world. 13/Who is dealing with the website? Paul o’connor is our web guy.
Social medias‌?
We all stay in touch and contribute on social media.
http://ravenscroftofficial.com
First of dawn 1/Have you started the band? Yes ,it’s a band or more like a studio project for now. 2/What means the name First of Dawn? First of Dawn , is aviation related , it’s Dawn Patrol , the small formations of aircrafts ,looking enemie’s positions during WWI -II. 3/On your facebook page it’s written Symphonic Project, have you found a singer for this or you will sing? The previous name of my project is Alexandra Symphonic Metal Project , then I changed it to First of Dawn . All the vocals are sang by me and I am the only singer in the band. 4/On your Utube page looks like the band is called Alexandra, have you changed the band name or you have several project at the same time? Both Alexandra Symphonic Metal Project and First of Dawn are the same people and same band. 5/Who made you want to be a bass player? Have you taken lessons or you are self taught? I have studied piano since i was 5 , at 14 years old I got into the metal music and wanted to play guitar and even took acoustic guitar lessons,but after trying the bass at my then boyfriend’s rehearsal place , I felt in love with the power and sound of the instrument , im a self taught bassist . 6/Is it easy to find musicians in Ukraine? I have no idea , i didn’t work with local musicians for more than 10 years . 7/have you played in Metal bands before? touring etc… Yes ,i played in several bands in Ukraine between 1995 -2007 ,no ,we didnt toured . Those were just small local bands ,which i outgrown fast .in 2005 I formed a band and in 2007 we won a band competition but after that we broke apart , my guys couldn’t handle the smallest exposure and it was impossible to continue working with them. In 2012 I already had my Alexandra Symphonic Metal Project .
8/How did you get the whole band together? Here , at Facebook , I had a friend who plays mean guitar , Mika Gronholm , it’s him playing on my ballad Fallen , so we started recording ,but he was too busy with his band so i had to look for another guitar player , meanwhile i got a great drummer Nicki Homfeldt , who plays on all the songs , except the Fallen . Now i’m working with new guitarist and we are working on 2 new songs and preparing for recording debut album and then we can think of live shows and tour so basically it’s me and Nicki ,and whoever plays guitar at the moment 9/How long have you been singing for? is it easy for you to sing and play at the same time? I’ve been singing since i was 5th grader in school , having the only contralto in choir . It’s easy because i write the songs and create parts for bass which will not interfere with my singing . so i keep my bass playing simple. 10/What are the lyrics about? what inspires you? its about everything i see ,people i know ,a small part of me as well .... i first write the music and then see which story will fits better . Mostly lyrics are a bit dark , it’s unrequited love , broken dreams , and so on..The new song i work on ,titled Heaven is about me ,reflecting what i feel in last couple of years . will be very nice and powerful song . soon it will be out 11/Your logo for « AlexandrA » was great, are you gonna have the same for First Of Dawn? who is designing it? we are looking into the logo thing at this moment , it will be aviation related but still great of course ,i wont accept anything less than perfection. Also I’m aviation addict so , there will be some planes ,wings and maybe stylized pilot uniforms involved ,we will see , I have great ideas 12/How is the scene in Ukraine? Do you cross borders a lot for musicians and live gigs? I dont know about local scene so much , I go to Kiev to watch my favorite bands ,when they play here . What happens with local bands , i have no idea . I didnt crossed the borders to play or attend the show ,but it will definitely happen in the future 13/You talk about an album, have you got already an idea of the cover artwork? who is gonna release it? The album will most likely be self produced . Yes , I answered the idea about cover in the answer with logo 14/What are your favorite bands? are you following the underground scene or more into what the business brings you? I listen lots of bands but my most favorite bands are SymphonyX , Helloween , Def Leppard and W.A.S.P, Those i love dearly Also i like bands like Whitesnake ,Rainbow ,Joe Satriani , Edguy and so on ... No , I dont follow underground scene , meaning local Ukrainian bands I follow news on the bands I listen to the most at the moment ,or one of which have new albums ,shows nearby , meaning famous bands . Because if you want to learn , you better learn from the best.
www.facebook.com/alexandra.adler.37 www.facebook.com/alexandra.adler.37
1/What is the band line up now or the one that will record the album? it seems you keep changing musicians… Kragen: The current lineup is David White on vocals, Lee Altus and myself on guitar and Jason VieBrooks on bass. We do not have a permanent drummer at this point but hope to have that position solidified soon. 2/You released the demos with Paul Baloff why now? what stopped you from doing this decades ago? Kragen: The Pray For Death (The Complete Demo Collection) release was put together for our hardcore fans as a free download with the purchase of a Pray For Death shirt or hoodie. There hasn’t been much activity from the band in recent years and we wanted to connect with the fans in a way. The collection has all of the official Heathen demos including the demo with Paul Baloff, which have all been mastered for the first time. 3/Since your last tour back in 2013 what happened to get the new album taking so long to come? Kragen: There are 6 songs demoed already for the new album. I have another 3 or 4 that I started working on to record demos and Lee has some music written as well. Unfortunately, Lee and I have both been very busy with Exodus for the last few years and have not had a chunk of time available to finish writing and record the new record. As with all Heathen albums it takes time and we want the next album to live up to the expectations that our fans have for it. 4/What has changed from the first album? The creation process, the ideas… Kragen: I would say that the songwriting process has gotten more refined over time. The basic idea is still there but it has evolved over time as everyone has gotten older. The key elements are all still there though, thrash metal with melodic vocals and lots of guitar harmonies. 5/Must be hard to get people aware of the band with so many gaps and today’s fast news going, most fans are following you but for the others..? Who is dealing with the site, social medias etc.. Kragen: At this point, I am handling all of the social media stuff for the band. I also run the Heathen online store and
fulfill all of the orders. Recently, I have been trying to add new merchandise and build up the fanbase in anticipation of the new album. It can be a lot of work but I enjoy it. 6/It seems Heathen is linked to Exodus since the beginning but looks more like a shadow how can you explain it? Kragen: Well, Exodus was really the band in the Bay Area that set the standard for all of the other bands. Everyone looked up to them. Lee has said many times that Exodus made him want to play thrash. I see Heathen as a more melodic version of Exodus in many ways. 7/« The Evolution of Chaos » is an enormous masterpiece, will the next album be in the same vein or you will bring another touch? Kragen: Thanks. We worked really hard on the material for The Evolution of Chaos to have it live up to the standard set by the first 2 albums. I think the next album will follow along the same lines of Evolution in general. Like a mix of the music style from Victims and Evolution but with the shorter song format from Breaking. At least that’s my vision for the album. 8/How do you guys rehearse? Do you have a studio or do it all by the net now? Kragen: Most everything is done via the internet at this point. Lee and I see each other very regularly while on tour with Exodus but most of the communication with everyone else is online or on the phone. Everyone lives in different areas of the US now so we all write at home. We do get together to rehearse before shows and before recording. 9/Is there someone who brings the ideas or you just jam and find the right parts for the songs? Kragen: We all write on our own and bring ideas to the table differently. I have a home studio and will demo the songs with programmed drums, playing the guitar and bass parts and recording scratch vocals if I have lyrical ideas. Everyone has a different method of cataloging their song ideas. 10/Kragen how do you deal with all the songs and solos you have to play / Create? knowing that you have to play a lot to keep them in mind… Kragen: I have to compartmentalize really. I review and practice for whatever I have in front of me. I sort of purge the other stuff from my RAM temporarily and focus only on what’s coming up. If it’s an Exodus tour, I rehearse just that stuff for a couple of weeks. When I get home and I’m writing or recording, I only write and record. If I’m working on a guitar book, I only work on that and so on. 11/Tell us where did you learn the guitar and how the best you can keep being good as a player? Kragen: I was fortunate to take lessons from a studio musician when I was a teenager. He taught me not just guitar riffs and licks but also about gear and how to prepare for a gig. I also studied classical music composition and theory at the University of California, Los Angeles and jazz at the Grove School of Music. I still work on improving my skills for both studio and live playing, learning new techniques, etc. You have to keep up with what’s current in terms of playing or you will back yourself into a corner. I always want to improve my skills not just maintain them. 12/What are your gears? Do you try new things or keep the ones you love? Kragen: Right now I’m mostly using Kemper Profiling Amps live. We use them with a head for power and cabinets on stage so it sounds like what we’re used to hearing. I love the consistency of the tone from the Kemper. I do still have my Mesa/Boogie Mark IV and a couple of other amp heads as well for recording. For my guitars, I have been with ESP for the last 10 years. They make great instruments that play well and are very durable for touring. 13/Who gave you the wish to play guitar? Have you tried other instruments? Kragen: When I was 8 years old I heard AC/DC’s Back In Black album and it made me want to play guitar. I had played piano starting at age 5 but I switched to guitar and never went back. I also sing, which is more of a recent thing
in the last few years. Honestly, I think that the voice is the hardest instrument to master as you can’t “see” the notes or visualize the vocal chords. 14/You are very busy, coping with bands, guitar lessons, learning… how do you find spare time for yourself and relax? are they times you don’t want to play? Kragen: I look at music as my job and I work on it Monday through Friday with somewhat normal work hours. I teach on Saturdays so Sundays are usually my day to relax. I usually end up doing other projects around the house on my days off. Let’s just say that I like to stay busy. Haha! 15/Who will design the next cover album? Is there a theme already or it will be just a great artwork? will it be LP version or you are going with CDs and download like everyone those days? Kragen: We haven’t chosen an artist for the next album cover yet. I really liked the artwork on the Evolution album. Travis Smith and I have been friends for 20 years and I would really like to have him do the artwork for the new one as well. I would love to see the album released on CD, vinyl LP and digital. Nuclear Blast always does a great job with special packaging and everything so I’m looking forward to seeing what we can come up with for a killer album package.
www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100010825954696
1/ Première question comment vous en êtes venus à appeler votre groupe de la sorte? Rien que le mot « porno » sur internet ramène plus de cochonnerie que de music... J'ai souhaité créer un groupe qui représente toute la bêtise que l'on trouve en allumant la TV, en allant sur Internet et en lisant certains magazines / webzines. Quand j'ai créé Porno Graphic Messiah en 2006, je souhaitais incarner au maximum le Messie de la Provoc' (tout en jouant sur le "Graphic", étant donné que nous avons beaucoup de visuels et décors). 1/First question how did you end up giving that name for your band? Just the word Porn is bringing lot of crap on the internet except music... I wanted to create a band that represents the amazing bullshit we find watching TV, visiting the internet and reading some magazines/webzines. When I started Porno Graphic Messiah in 2006, I wished to incarnate the most provocation messiah that exists. (playing with Graphic, as we have lots of visuals and artifacts) 2/Qui a fait la pochette ? le design ne reflète pas la musique... J'ai moi même réalisé la pochette de cet album, qui reflète parfaitement la musique de l'album Terrorize Me, ainsi que la société actuelle: Un livret blanc et saint, entaché de tâches de sangs. Le titre "Terrorise moi" est lourd de sens, tout comme les Guitares et tempos sont pesants dans cet album. 2/Who did the cover ? the design doesn’t refect the music... I myself designed the cover of this album, it reflects perfectly the music you can hear on Terrorise Me, as the actual society: A saint white booklet , blood staints. The title «Terrorize me» is full of meanings, as the guitars and beats are heavy and pounding in this album. 3/Quel est le thème de l’album? Est ce que toutes les chansons sont liées? Oui, toutes les chansons sont liées. Cet album parle du monde moderne: Nous y sommes, ça y est ! Il est difficile de sortir dans les rues, à un évènement sans avoir peur qu'un attentat se produise ! Nous sommes en 2018 et nous savons
que nous pouvons mourir fusillés dans des concerts de Rock, même dans la capitale ! Et en même temps, les chaines d'INFOS, Internet, et tous les médias se nourrissent de ce type de tristes évènements. En conclusion, l'album décrit ce monde de haine et violence, avec l'envie de protéger mon fils (cf la chanson "Are You With Us ?" et "STAR") et toutes les personnes qui n'ont rien demandé. C'est typiquement la peur de l'être humain dont Terrorize Me fait l'objet. 3/What is the theme of the album? Are the songs linked? Yes all the songs are linked. This album speaks about the modern world. We are right here, this is it! It’s difficult to get out in the streets , scared about any event that can happen like a bomb attack! We are in 2018 and we know that we can be killed in at a rock show, even in the city ! And at the same time the TV, medias , internet feeds from all those sad events. To make it short, the album describe the violent world full of hatred, with the wish to protect my son (eg the song «Are You With Us ?» and «STAR») and all the people who didn’t ask for it. It’s typical human fear that that the album Terrorize Me is about. 4/Musicalement on pourrait couper l’album en quatre parties, vous ne voulez pas être catalogué? Les influences sont pourtant là... Je n'ai jamais nier mes influences. J'écoute Nine Inch Nails, comme Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson, Orgy ou Clan Of Xymox, Depeche Mode, Yazoo ou encore NTM BIG, Xzibit, etc etc. Tant mieux si nos influences se ressentent. 4/Musicallly we could split the album in four parts, you don’t want to be stuck into categories? But your influences are here.. I never denied my influences. I listen to Nine Inch Nails, Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson, Orgy , Clan Of Xymox, Depeche Mode, Yazoo or even NTM BIG, Xzibit, etc etc. That’s great if our influences are noticable. 5/Les musiciens sur les videos et sur le cd ne sont pas les mêmes, avez vous souvent des changements de line up? A quoi est ce dù? Il faut simplement être au courant que les grands médias français ne sont pas pour nous et qu'il est plus facile d'être considéré et reconnu lorsque l'on fait du Maitre Gims ou Kendji. Compte tenu de ces éléments, certains musiciens ont du mal à tenir un rythme de vie parfois compliqué et trop "underground". C'est pourquoi Another Management a vu le jour en 2017 (Plateforme pour les Groupes et Pros dans l'univers Rock Metal en France). Ensuite, il faut savoir que je suis (quasiment) le seul compositeur du Groupe. Ce sont principalement mes idées, mes visuels, mes créations, etc ... Je m'entoure de musiciens live qui sauront embellir mes chansons et mettre l'ambiance nécessaire ! Après tout, c'est comme si je te demandais "Pourquoi tu as plusieurs Ex différentes sur tes photos Facebook ? A quoi cela est dû ? " comme pour insinuer que tu n'arrivais pas à tenir une relation de couple, alors que c'est la vie apporte son lot de belles et aussi de mauvaises rencontres. La vie fait aussi que, parfois, tu es obligé de te consacrer à d'autres projets de vie qu'à la musique. Pour ma part, la musique fait parti à 100% de moi. 5/ Musicians on the video and on the album are not the same, do you often change your line up? Why is t? You have to know that the big French medias aren’t for us and easier to be recongnized when you play like Maitre Gims or Kendji. As such , musicians have difficulties sometimes to handle the hard life and too «underground»; This is the reason why Another Management started one day of 2017 (Platform for bands and Pros in the Rock and Metal universe). Then you have to know that I’m the only (mostly) the main compositor of the band. Most are my ideas, my creations, visions etc... I surround myself live with musicians who can emphasis my songs and get the show entertaining! After all it’s like if I asked you «why do you have different ex-girlfriends on your Facebook photos? Why is it?» Like you couldn’t handle a relationship while life is bringing good and bad meetings. Life also makes that sometimes you have to deal with other project than music. For me music is 100% of me. 6/Vu les sons numérique et électronique, vous arrive t’il de jouer avec des groupes de musique totalement différents? Comment êtes vous accepté? Nous avons, c'est vrai, la chance d'être un groupe qui ne ressemble à aucun autre. Du coup, comme souvent, nos différences attirent et retiennent l'attention des spectateurs. Nous avons l'immense chance d'avoir de beaux compliments à chaque live et surtout des personnes qui nous suivent ... dans le monde entier ! Puisque nous partirons également aux USA et Canada en Mai 2018.
6/Will all the digital and electronic sounds, do you play with bands who play different type of music? How are you accepted? We have , it’s true the chance to play a music that doesn’t sound like anybody. So most of time our differences attract people and catch the audience ‘s attention. We had the chance to get awesome compliments at every live shows and mostly the people who follows us... in the world! As we also we’ll go to the states and Canda in May 2018. 7/Depuis que vous avez commencé, comment avez vous évolué? Pensez vous avoir plus d’expérience dans la composition? Oui parfaitement ! Et pas simplement ... Je suis devenu papa d'un petit garçon, j'ai appris de mes erreurs, j'ai évolué sur plusieurs points de vue car j'ai tout simplement vieilli. Je suis également devenu patron d'une entreprise qui tourne à merveille (Another Management), ce qui me permet d'être entouré d'Artistes et Pros incroyables. Du coup, je me nourri de leurs expériences et des différents ressentis. J'imagine que tout cela se sent entre Til' Death Or Nothing (2014) et Terrorize Me (2018). 7/ Since you have started, how did you evolve? Do you think you have more experience for the compositions? Yeah sure! and not simply...I became the father of a little man; I learnt from my mistakes, I evolved on many point of view cos I just got older. I also became the boss of a company that works perfectly (Another Management),which helped me getting surrounded by artistes and professionals. So I could feed from their experience and I felt what has changed in me. I think everything can be felt from Til’ Death Or Nothing (2014) and Terrorize Me (2018). 8/vous avez des vidéos, qui les dirigent? Comment sont elles réalisées? Je fais en sorte de réaliser voire tourner nos Clips. Je m'occupe donc du montage également parfois, mais pas que. Nous avons par exemple une vidéo qui devrait arriver d'ici peu, faites par LDN Prod (signée chez www.anothermanagement.com) 8/You have videos, who directed them? Did you make them? I make sure I make everything myself, I also edit the videos sometimes, but not just that. We have a video that should arrive soon, done by LDN Prod (signed by www.anothermanagement.com) 9/Vous êtes signés chez Konklav Records comment cela c’est il passé? Quel est votre vision des labels de musique aujourd’hui? Je pense que Konklav Records fait parti de la très petite liste de Labels français à faire le Job. Je ne m'imaginais pas signer chez un Label sans le moindre feeling et avec des conditions déplorables. Konklav Records est sur la même longueur d'ondes que Porno Graphic Messiah et Another Management. Nous avons des ambitions, et nous savons qu'il faut avancer étapes par étapes. Nous comptons (je pense) pour Konklav Records au même titre que Konklav Records compte pour nous. 9/You are signed to Konklav Records how did it happen? What is your vision of today’s label? I think Konklav Records is one of the few on the French labels to do the job. I didn’t image myself signing to a label without any feelings and poor conditions. Konklav Records is on the same line as Porno Graphic Messiah et Another Management. We have ambitions, and we know we must go step by step. We think about them (I think) as much as they think about us. 10/Etes vous totalement libre de votre création et de vos actions? Totalement ! Et je pense que cela se ressent aussi dans les Live. En plus des supports Physiques et Audios (Enregistrement 100% par Another Management), nous dirigeons Porno Graphic Messiah comme une immense machine. Je fais attention à chaque détail, et tente d'avoir l'imagerie et son les plus proches de ce que je suis et pense. 10/ Are you totally free for your creations and actions? Totally! I think it also bleeds through out of our shows. With all the physical items and the sound (100% recorded by Another Management), we are working Porno Graphic Messiah as a huge machine. I get attention to any little
details, and have the closest image and sound of what I think it should be. 11/Avez vous un manager pour trouver des dates de concert? Des concerts à l’étranger? Nous utilisons à 70% le réseau d'Another Management pour trouver l'ensemble de nos dates. Pas mal non ? Les 30% sont des personnes qui nous contactent en direct. 11/Do you have a manager to find live dates? Any gigs abroad? We are using 70% of Another Management’s network to find the dates. Not bad isn’t it? The 30% are from people who contact us directly. 12/Possédez vous des compétences dans le graphisme ou la technique musicale? J'ai eu la chance d'être formé en Infographie et me faire la main sur l'Enregistrement Studio. En plus d'être créatif, cela me donne l'opportunité d'être autonome dans beaucoup de domaines, même si j'ai encore beaucoup à apprendre. 12/Do you have knowledge in Graphic Design or Musical technics? I had the chance to be formed on the graphic design side and learnt myself in the recording studio. As much as being creative it gave me opportunities to work on my own in many fields, even if I still have lots to learn. 13/Qu ‘est ce qui inspire vos compositions? Ecoutez vous certains groupes avant d’écrire. Je m'inspire principalement de l'actualité mais aussi de mes expériences. Je reste un grand fan des années 90 / 2000 ! C'était pour moi une révolution musicale dans le Rock Metal avec la découverte de nouveaux genres et l'exploitation absolue de samples et d'ambiances étranges ! 13/ What isnpires your compostions? Do you listen other bands before writing? I mostly get inspired by the news and also from my experiences. I’m still a big fan of the 90’s / 2000’s era! It was for me a music revolution in Rock and Metal with discovery of new genres with tons of samples and strange atmostphere uses. ScarS (Chanteur / Guitariste - Guitarist/ Singer)
www.facebook.com/PNMBand/
1/ How the band was born? What was the element that made you start knowing you are from two different countries? It’s written in your bio Amy is the main founder…. Amy - “I had written many songs on my personal SoundCloud page and sought out other female musicians to start a project as I’ve always wanted an all female metal band. I was planning on moving to Portland, Oregon and posted that I was moving to the area and was seeking vocalists and a bassist to start a band. Emily moss contacted me interested in singing and Stephanie Nolf contacted me as well via my soundcloud page. The both of them were the only inquiries to join the project and yet the both of them were able to fulfill each roll needed to form an entire band as we all had the ability to create music together online”. 1/Comment le groupe est néé? Quel élément déclencheur qui vous a fait démarrer sachant que vous êtes dans différents pays? C’est écrit dans votre bio qu’ Amy est la créatrice.. Amy - « J'avais déjà écrit beaucoup de chansons sur ma page SoundCloud et j'ai recherché d'autres musiciennes pour commencer un projet, j'ai toujours voulu faire un groupe entièrement féminin. J'avais pour projet de bouger vers Portland dans l'Oregon et j'ai posté que je cherchais des chanteuses et une bassiste pour commencer un groupe. Emily m'a contactée pour me dire qu'elle était intéressée par le chant et Stéphanie m'a aussi contactée via ma page Soundcloud. Elles étaient les seules demandes pour rejoindre le projet et chacune pouvait remplir un rôle pour former le groupe, nous avions toutes la capacité de créer de la musique en ligne ». 2/ Did you use online studios? How did you compose? Rather difficult to get on with each others and agree… Amy - “we recorded each instrument and vocal pieces individually at our own homes using home recording software. I wrote the songs and sent over to Stephanie Nolf who would add drums to the songs as well as bass and vocal patterns. The songs were then utilized by Emily to add lyrics to Stephanie’s vocal patterns and Emily recorded her vocals as well”. 2/Avez vous utilisé des studios en ligne? Plutôt difficile de mettre tout le monde d’accord... Amy - « Nous avons enregistré chaque instrument et le chant individuellement chez nous en utilisant un logiciel d'enregistrement sur ordinateur. J'ai écrit les chansons et les ai envoyées à Stéphanie qui a ajouté la batterie, la basse et les voix gutturales. Les chansons ont été alors envoyées à Emily qui a écrit les paroles et enregistré ses voix claires ». 3/ You have a video, how did you release it? Did you do it in France or in the States? Why choosing this song?
Amy - “we recorded the music video individually at our homes in front of a white background. Since we couldn’t be in the same place to do the video, this made it easy for Stephanie to edit the video looking like we were together but we never were. The song summoner is one of our heavier songs and it just resonated with us to choose this piece”. 3/ Vous avez une vidéo, comment a t’elle été réalisée? Vous l’avez faite en France ou au States? Pourquoi choisir cette chanson? Amy - « Nous avons enregistré nos prises vidéo individuellement chez nous devant un fond blanc. Nous ne pouvions pas être au même endroit pour la faire, donc cela a permi à Stéphanie d'éditer la vidéo et de donner l'impression que nous sommes ensemble. Summoner est une de nos chansons la plus « lourde », il nous a semblé évident de choisir ce morceau ». 4/ What is the band’s name meaning? Amy - “Ashes Arise was taken from a lyric from the song “summoner”. During a brainstorming session between Emily and Amy the name stood out and symbolizes the rising of a Phoenix from the ashes”. 4/Quelle est la signification du nom du groupe? Amy - « Le nom Ashes Arise vient des paroles de Summoner. Pendant une session de brainstorming entre Emily et moi, nous avons pensé à ce nom, cela symbolise le Phénix qui renait de ses cendres ». 5/ Who wrote the lyrics? Is there a link between them all? Amy - “Emily wrote the majority of the lyrics. They are linked by a common theme of battling internal and external forces and being stronger in the end”. 5/Qui a écrit les paroles? y a t’il un lien entre elles? Amy - «Emily a écrit la majorité des paroles. Elles ont un thème commun qui est le combat intérieur et extérieur qui nous rend plus forts à la fin ». 6/ You each have a talent that helps getting what it takes to make a band, did you know it before meeting or it came naturally ? How long have been you in touch for? Amy - “we all individually fulfilled each roll to form this band and it worked as we each contribute to making this band complete. We formed in the summer of 2016”. 6/Vous avez toutes des talents qui aident pour la création d’un groupe, le saviez vous avant de vous rencontrer où c’est venu naturellement? Depuis combien de temps vous vous connaissez? Amy - «Nous avons toutes individuellement accompli un rôle pour former ce groupe et cela a marché car chacune a contribué à la réalisation de ce projet. Le groupe s'est formé durant l'été 2016 ». 7/ The cover as the music leads you nearly in a movie universe, ghosts , souls,… What is the story behind the album and the band? Amy - “The cover was inspired by mythology and the occult. It is set in a dark world where there are many possibilities for mystical forces to interact with the living”.
7/La pochette comme la musique nous envoie presque dans un film, les demons, fantômes... quelle est l’histoire derrière cet album? Amy - «La pochette de l'album a été inspirée par la mythologie et le surnaturel. Elle symbolise un monde sombre où il existe beaucoup de possibilités pour que des forces mystiques interagissent avec la vie ». 8/ Emily is not in every song or less present as vocalist, is it a choice? How do you see the melodic voice in the compositions? Amy - “Mainly I had the idea of having a melodic metal band with aggressive vocals during heavy or fast guitar riffs so we would use Stephanie. I wanted the chorus to hit hard and be memorable and Emily’s voice captured my attention immediately as having the potential for a melodic vocalist. Having the band deadlock as an influence I wanted to emulate the ability to have a strong catchy chorus using Emily’s voice. The song sleepwalker highlights her vocals as it is a more melodic flowing song. It is likely to be different in our next album”. 8/Emily n’est pas dans toutes les chansons où bien chante moins, est ce un choix? Comment voyez vous les voix mélodiques dans vos compositions? Amy - «J'avais principalement l'idée de faire un groupe de métal mélodique avec des voix agressives sur des riffs de guitares lourds ou rapides ce qui correspondait bien au style de chant de Stéphanie et j'ai voulu que les refrains soient mélodiques et faciles à retenir, la voix d'Emily a retenu mon attention immédiatement car elle avait le potentiel pour faire du chant mélodique. Je suis influencée par le groupe Deadlock et et j'ai voulu que nous puissions aussi avoir des refrains entraînant avec la voix d'Emily. La chanson Sleepwalker met en avant son chant car c'est une chanson plus mélodique. C'est susceptible d'être différent dans notre prochain album ». 9/ Have you already had the possibility to play live shows or it’s not intended? Amy - “Being thousands of miles away it is most likely not a possibility to do live shows. However I still plan on moving to Portland to connect with Emily. We just have to convince Stephanie to move to the USA!”. 9/ Avez vous eu déjà la possibilité de jouer en concert ou cela n’est pas prévu? Amy - «Étant éloignées par des milliers de kilomètres, ce n'est pas tellement possibilité de faire des concerts. Cependant j'ai toujours pour projet de me déplacer vers Portland pour rejoindre Emily. Nous devons juste convaincre Stephanie de venir aux USA ! ». 10/ Are Emily and Amy already in other bands too? Amy - “I was playing guitar in a black metal band called souls of dissolution and also a melodic metal project called stargrave during the creation of ashes arise. This is Emily’s debut album and band”. 10/Est ce que Emily et Amy sont déjà dans d’autres groupes aussi? Amy - «Je jouais la guitare dans le groupe de black métal Souls of dissolution et aussi dans un projet de métal mélodique Stargrave pendant la création de Ashes Arise. Pour Emily, c'est son premier groupe ». 11/ There is no drummer and only one guitarist, is it gonna change in the future? Did it give you trouble for the album? Amy - “No because each member fulfills each
part of the band. I records all guitars and synthesizer, Stephanie records vocals, bass, drums, the orchestra, and works on the sound album and mix, Emily writes the lyrics and records vocals. We have a perfect unity and no need for other members at this time”. 11/ Il n’y a pas de batteur ni de deuxième guitariste , est ce que cela changera dans le futur? Avez vous eu des problèmes pour l’album? Amy - «Non parce que nous avons réalisé chaque instrument du groupe. J'enregistre toutes les guitares et le synthé, Stéphanie enregistre ses voix, la basse, la batterie, les orchestrations et travaille sur le son et le mix de l'album, Emily écrit les paroles et enregistre ses voix. Nous avons une unité parfaite et n'avons donc pas besoin d'autres membres pour le moment ». 12/ You are on all social medias, who deals with those? Often called « project » what for? Amy - “we all handle social media accounts. I see this more as a project as we work individually at our own homes and collaborate online together”. 12/Vous êtes sur tous les réseaux sociaux, qui s’en occupe? Souvent appellé ‘projet’ pour quelle raison? Amy - «Nous avons toutes des comptes sur des réseaux sociaux. Je vois le groupe plus comme un projet car nous travaillons individuellement chez nous et collaborons ensemble en ligne ».
www.facebook.com/ashesariseproject
1/When you started the band did you have trouble to find the right musicians? Hell yeah, its always difficult to find musicians who thinks the same and share the same passion in this case for old school thrash, especially (tight) drummers are hard to find !! 2/What is the meaning of the band’s name? what made you choose it? Bauke and i have to come with a good sounding name, we both had stopped a few years playing/singing ( Not Marc he never stopped playing/shredding ) so its fucking hurts to play/sing that fast and intens again...... so Project ??? oh fuck yeah, Project Pain !! 3/Did you have a band before that led you to play Thrash ?
We loved thrash since the eighties, we been in a few bands, Killer Force, Minas Tirith, Mandau, Virtual.......
4/Did you create the song together with the guitar and the vocals? How did you compose? I compose all songs, one at the time, if the music is ready I will send the demo of that song to Bauke, Serge and Marc, then Bauke will write the lyrics, serge will do the drum parts and Marc will hit us up with his spectacular solo's, then we will go to the FA Studio to record that song! till we hit ten songs ￟ 5/Your new album cover show you both is it because you haven’t got a complete line up yet? Yes Bauke and I are on the front cover and yes in that time we didn't know Marc was coming back in PP, and now search for a drummer and bass player to hit the stage again \,,/ 6/Who did that awesome artwork? Have you participated in the creation?
Ipoet Poetra of Five Milligrams did the artwork for the second and third CD and will do the upcoming album in 2021, we hit him up with ideas and he then show us his fantastic drawing skills and ideas !! 7/Are you fan of Zombie movies?
lmfao yes we are.........
8/How did you get Josh Christian to play a solo on your second album? We all are great fans of Toxik from the start in the eighties, especially Marc is, Josh ia an awesome guy and one of the best guitar player in the world !! so i contacted Josh if he was interested to play a solo on our second album, and he said yes i will, how fucking METAL is that, we couldn't be more proud. 9/Did it opened doors or it just gave you a bit of notoriety?
It is always help to have a guitar hero on your album, so in all kind of ways it helps.....
10/How is it live to play someone else solo? We have a few guitarist how played with us live and they all played their own solos of that particilar song, we give the guitarist the freedom to play their own made solo's with highlight of the original solo's, so are the drums and bass, and Marc can play any solo you show him, he rocks. 11/How and why did you sign with FA Records? To sign with FA Records was not that difficult, before FA Records we were signed by Dead Inside Records, but they stopped in record business, FA Records is my own (little) company since 1996 and releases the bands i played in. 12/Are you playing in other bands? No we not playing in other bands, Project Pain it is, we have 1 side project that is F.Y.Y.F.F. releasing some metal covers now and then with friends. 13/ Have you got lots of contacts with other bands to play live gigs?
Oh yeah, we have lots of contact build in all those years, metal is one big family \,,/
14/You have also a guest player on the new album « Brothers in Blood » are you most a studio band? what is important to have guests on your albums? Yes their is always a guest guitarist on our albums on the third it is our good friend and awesome guitarist Dennis hairball Smeekes he is also in the videoclip '' Silent Invader '' along with our good friend Des Barett on drums and our former bass player and good friend Kristof Mycka. 15/Who directed the video? was it fun to do? having an exodus tshirt with the red flying v is a dedicace to the band? I directed the video in the FA Studio, and it is always much fun to do, especially the recording day with our good friends 16/What are the lyrics about? do you write them all both? Bauke writes all the lyrics, lyrical themes are typically thrash, war, life, religion and kick to society and fuck em all .....
http://www.project-pain.nl
1/Who started the band and what was the idea? It was my idea. I was sick and tired of those who called themselves “heavy metal” and wasn't playing heavy metal. I wanted to play heavy metal. Period. So along with my brother, Lap, we decided to form a band: to play traditional heavy metal. 1 / ¿Quién comenzó la banda y cuál fue la idea? Fue mi idea. Estaba harta de esos que se hacían llamar “heavy metal” pero no tocaban heavy metal. Yo quería tocar heavy metal. Punto. Así que junto con mi hermano, Lap, decidimos formar una banda: para tocar heavy metal tradicional. 2/Why this name? how did you choose it? The name came in a brainstorm. We did a huge list of options and I added “Kramp” which has no meaning at all. But when we proposed it, we all agreed that was just perfect. 2 / ¿Por qué este nombre? ¿cómo lo elegiste? El nombre surgió en una lluvia de ideas. Hicimos una lista larguísima de opciones y añadí “Kramp”, que no tiene ningún significado. Pero cuando lo propusimos, todos estuvimos de acuerdo en que era perfecto. 3/You look pretty young how did you get the Heavy Metal blood from ? you seem to love the early eighties era.. I'm not that young. We do look like forever young and pretty, but I do have 27 years and plenty of shit on my backs, hahaha. I love heavy metal, the most traditional sound, so it's easy to search more on the 80's. The time when my favourites bands did born, released the most awesome albums... I started digging and digging and I prefer heavy metal over all other styles, so I drown on it. 3 / Te ves muy joven, ¿cómo obtuviste la sangre de Heavy Metal? parece que te encanta la era de los años ochenta ..
No somos tan jóvenes. Parecemos jóvenes eternos y hermosos, pero tengo 27 años y mucha mierda a mis espaldas, ajjaja. Adoro el heavy metal, el sonido más tradicional, así que es fácil buscar más en esa década. La época en que mis bandas favoritas nacieron, lanzaron los discos más cojonudos... Empecé a indagar e indagar y prefiero el heavy metal sobre todos los estilos, así que me empapo de ello. 4/Your band started eight years ago, is it difficult to find musicians in Spain? You have quite a lot of bands in Heavy Metal… It's fucking impossible. At least in my hometown. In Madrid it's really hard as well, but more easy... where the hell are the drummers in this country?? Luckilly, we have Albertt and we won't let him go. There are a LOT of heavy metal bands in Spain right now. More than people that goes to the concert, but hey! I'm not going to complain if I can listen good music. 4 / Tu banda comenzó hace ocho años, ¿es difícil encontrar músicos en España? Tienes muchas bandas en Heavy Metal Es jodidamente imposible. Al menos en mi ciudad. En Madrid es difícil también, pero mucho más fácil... ¿dónde hostias están los baterías de este país? Por suerte, tenemos a Albertt y no le vamos a dejar ir. Hay un porrón de bandas de heavy metal en España ahora mismo. Más que gente que va a los conciertos, pero bueno, no me voy a quejar si puedo escuchar buena música. 5/Have you started as a cover band or you wrote compositions from the start? So who composed? It took so long to have something that you could call a “line up” that we had songs when it happened. I compose most of the stuff, also Lap creates a lot of riffs and harmonies. We did play many covers back then, but just because we didn't have enough material of our own, hahaha. 5 / ¿Has comenzado como banda de covers o has escrito composiciones desde el principio? Entonces, ¿quién compuso? Llevó tanto tiempo tener algo así como una “formación”, que cuando la tuvimos ya había canciones. Compongo la mayor parte del material, pero Lap también hace muchos riffs y armonías. Por aquel entonces tocábamos bastantes covers, porque no teníamos suficiente material propio, jajaja. 6/You have one CD and appeared in compilations, you should be ready for an album? what are the difficulties you encounter ? How did you get in those compilations and what did they bring you? We are ready! Actually, we're giving the final touch to the songs. The first difficulty it's: MONEY. We're saving for that. As we're unsigned, we don't have that kind of support, but whatever: the day will come. We appeared in two compilations, the first one “Iberia Metálica”, a friend of mine talked to the guy in charge about us. The second, “Spanish Steel Attack”: they were looking for Spanish young heavy metal bands. Both of them were good help. Both of the were also first volume of each collection, so it's kind of an honour to “start” something, hahaha. A pleasure to be with other good, hardworking bands on the same release. 6 / Tienes un CD y apareces en compilaciones, ¿deberías estar listo para un álbum?
¿Cuáles son las dificultades que encuentras? ¿Cómo llegaste a esas compilaciones y qué te trajeron? Estamos listos! De hecho, estamos dando los toques finales a las canciones. La primera dificultad es: DINERO. Estamos ahorrando. No tenemos contrato y no contamos con esa clase de apoyo, pero en fin: el día llegará. Aparecimos en dos recopilatorios: el primero, “Iberia Metálica”, un amigo mío le habló de nosotros a quien estaba montando el asunto. El segundo, “Spanish Steel Attack”: estaban buscando bandas jóvenes españolas de heavy metal.Ambas fueron de mucha ayuda. Ambas lanzaron el primer volumen de cada colección, así que es algo así como un honor “empezar” algo, jajaja. Un placer estar con otras buenas bandas trabajadoras en el mismo lanzamiento. 7/Have you played in different bands or still do? I had some “bands” that never had a name, hahaha. We just hang and never really did a full cover of anything, so I don't count them as “bands”. My first real project was Kramp. 7 / ¿Has tocado en diferentes bandas o todavía lo haces? Estuve en algunas “bandas” que ni siquiera tuvieron nombre, jajaja. Sólo nos reuníamos y nunca llegamos ni a tocar una versión completa, así que ni las cuento como “bandas”. Mi primer proyecto real ha sido Kramp. 8/Do you only sing or play another instrument? How did you learn the vocals? When I was a child I started playing with a keyboard that was terrible, but was my favourite toy. Till this day: my favourite instrument to play in private. It what I used the most to compose the first songs of Kramp. I had a drum when I was 14 and the same year I got my first electric guitar. I can't play a bit of drum, but the guitar was more productive. Later on, I did really learn guitar going to the Conservatory of Music and playing classical guitar. I had to quit as I moved to Madrid and then I started to take more seriously again electric guitar. For my vocals... I started in my hometown with some lessons but I got sick and I left. My teacher was an amazing flutist, but not a singer in any way. You cannot teach something that you don't use yourself, sorry. I then studied by myself and I also teaching to others. That's been most of my vocal education. The last year I started to study again in the academy with Narciso Tenorio. 8 / ¿Solo cantas o tocas otro instrumento? ¿Cómo aprendiste la voz? Cuando era cría empecé a jugar con un teclado que era terrible, pero era mi juguete favorito. Hasta hoy: mi instrumento favorito para tocar en privado. Es lo que más usaba para componer las primeras canciones de Kramp. Tuve una batería a los 14, y ese año también tuve mi primera guitarra eléctrica. No toco una mierda en la batería, pero la guitarra fue más productiva. Después aprendí realmente yendo al Conservatorio, pero tocando guitarra clásica. Lo tuve que dejar porque me mudé a Madrid, donde empecé con clases más serias de guitarra eléctrica. Vocalmente... empecé a recibir clases en mi ciudad, pero me perjudicaron a nivel físico y las dejé. Mi profesora era una flautista increíble, pero no era cantante. Y no puedes enseñar algo que no usas tú mismo, lo siento. Empecé a estudiar por mi cuenta y he estado impartiendo clases. Eso ha sido la mayor parte de mi educación vocal. El año pasado reanudé los estudios recibiendo clases de Narciso Tenorio. 9/Does the line up changes affect the EP done ? Are they songs you don’t play anymore live? do you have songs not recorded you play live? Do you play covers to get the crowd moving? The line up changed for the last time once the EP was done and released, and already presented live in a couple of gigs. We had to work again on rehearse, but there was no problem to play any song live. There're some songs that are not recorded and we play live, that will be on the new album. And yeah! We like to play covers: Death Rider by Omen it's one of our favourites, the last week we decided to prepare Hall of the Mountain King by Savatage.
9 / ¿Los cambios de alineación afectan el EP hecho? ¿Son canciones que ya no tocas en vivo? ¿Tienes canciones no grabadas que tocas en vivo? ¿Juegas a cubrir para que la multitud se mueva? La alineación cambió por última vez una vez el EP estaba grabado y lanzado, y ya presentado en vivo en un par de conciertos. Tuvimos que ensayar todo de nuevo, pero no ha habido después ningún problema para tocar ningún tema en vivo. Hay canciones que sí que tocamos y no están grabadas, que aparecerán en el disco. Y, ¡sí! Nos gusta tocar algunas versiones: Death Rider de Omen se mantiene como nuestra favorita, la última semana decidimos preparar Hall of the Mountain King de Savatage. 10/Who designed the logo? What’s the story behind? I did! I was talking online with one of the guitarist of that time: Infer, when we decided the name and everything... and meanwhile I was creating the logo. I sent him the first sketch with the golden colour and some variations of the letters and some moments later, I sent him the design with the axes and his response was “It's exactly how I imagined it.”. We never spoke before about how the logo should look, if there was need to add axes, chains, bread or a parrot, but we all agreed that it was just like that how the logo should look when the design was made. It was something weird and instinctive, like the choosing of the name. 10 / ¿Quién diseñó el logo? ¿Cuál es la historia detrás? ¡Lo hice yo! Estaba hablando online con uno de los guitarristas de la época: Infer, cuando ya habíamos decidido el nombre y todo ... y mientras tanto, estaba creando el logo. Le envié el primer boceto con el color dorado y algunas variaciones de las letras y algunos momentos más tarde, le envié el diseño con las hachas y su respuesta fue "Es exactamente como lo imaginaba". Nunca hablamos antes sobre cómo debería ser el logotipo; si era necesario agregar hachas, cadenas, pan o un loro, pero todos estuvimos de acuerdo en que así era como tenía que ser el logo cuando se hizo el diseño. Fue algo extraño e instintivo, como la elección del nombre. 11/What are the lyrics about? is there a theme that will keep it’s way through the albums? I like a lot to write about revenge, but from different views, hahaha. It's more obvious on the EP because there are just 5 songs and 2 of them talk directly about it, hahaha. The other one it's about Conan, other about Hellriser and the last one it's about a barbarian attack to a village. In the new album you'll be able to hear more different themes: battles, aliens, illness, misantrophy, mythology... I don't like to just follow one line, I keep on jumping to one and other idea. 11 / ¿De qué tratan las letras? ¿Hay algún tema que se mantenga en los álbumes? Me gusta mucho escribir sobre venganza, pero con diferentes visiones, jajaja. Es más obvio en el EP, porque sólo hay 5 canciones y 2 de ellas hablan directamente sobre el tema, jajaja. Otra es sobre Conan, otra sobre Hellriser y la última, sobre un ataque bárbaro a un poblado. En el nuevo disco podréis oír diferentes temas: batallas, aliens, enfermedades, misantropía, mitología... No me gusta seguir una línea de escritura y salto de una a otra idea. 12/ You only have short Utube clips, do you get sells more at your shows or the videos still help? The videos help a lot! We don't upload a lot of live videos, basically because we don't have. There's an Assault live full, but I for example we just uploaded some short clips of some covers just for fun, because usually are recorded with mobiles and the clip it's cut or you can hear more the crowd than the actual sound... or suddenly we're blurred, you know... However, there are videos of all the songs for free listening on Youtube. There's a lyric-video of Leather Warrior that keeps on bringing new people everyday.
12 / Solo tienes clips cortos de Utube, ¿obtienes más ventas en tus shows o los videos aún te ayudan? Los vídeos ayudan muchísimo. No submos muchos vídeos en directo, básciamente porque no los tenemos. Hay un clip de Assault entero en directo, pero por ejemplo, sólo subimos algunos clips cortos de algunos covers por diversión, porque suelen estar grabados con móviles, el vídeo está cortado, puedes oír más al público que la música... o de repente somos manchas borrosas, ya sabes. Sin embargo, hay vídeos de todas las canciones para escucha gratuita en Youtube. Hay un vídeo con letra de Leather Warrior que sigue trayendo mucha gente nueva cada día. 13/You are a great designer and have a page with your arts, are you in school or you are just gifted? What are your plans in the futur with your arts? Thank you so much!!! I've never being in art school or whatever. I actually quit highschool to do what I love: music and art. Right now I'm still painting some custom jackets but not sewing so much...more concentrated in illustrations, and designing art for bands, I'm experimenting with acrylics and new materials. So far my main project is the new Kramp artwork, for the upcoming album ,and all the desings for merchandise, flyers, posters... Of course, I hope I can still make more art for bands: it's what I enjoy the most of this. 13 / Eres un gran diseñador y tienes una página con tus artes, ¿estás en la escuela o solo tienes talento? ¿Cuáles son tus planes en el futuro con tus artes? ¡Muchas gracias! Nunca he ido a clases ni nada, de hecho, dejé el instituto para dedicarme a la música y el arte. Ahora mismo sigo pintando algunas chaquetas personalizadas, pero no coso demasiado... estoy más concentrada en ilustraciones y diseñando arte para bandas, estoy experimentando también con acrílicas y nuevos materiales. Por ahora, mi principal proyecto es la nueva portada de Kramp, para el futuro álbum, y diseñar todo el merchandise, flyer, posters... Por supuesto, espero poder seguir diseñando e ilustrando para bandas: es lo que más me gusta de este campo. 14/You have skulls on a photo reminding Wasp, the axes on your logo may think of band like Manowar.. which bands have influenced you the most? will you get an outfit for live shows? The skulls are part of our show, actually. I have a mic stand with skulls impaled, and we're preparing more “babies” right now, hahaha. We love to play, but we also love to offer a good visual show: skulls, banners, chains... Bands like Wasp, Lizzy Borden or Mercyful Fate are an inspiration for stage and photoshoots. Manowar is a huge influence, musically and visually: leather all the way and the epic feeling... yeah. We like those 80's bands in armors made of leather and studs: Omen, Armored Saint, Black Knight... We all have our own special outfits for live shows, for us it's an important part. 14 / Tienes calaveras en una foto que recuerdan a Wasp, los ejes de tu logotipo pueden pensar en bandas como Manowar ... ¿Qué bandas te han influenciado más? ¿Conseguirás un atuendo para shows en vivo? Las calaveras son parte importante de nuestro show, realmente. Tengo un pie de micro con calaveras empaladas, y actualmente estamos preparando más “bebes”, jajaja. Nos encanta, pero también nos gusta ofrecer un buen espectáculo visual: calaveras, estandartes, cadenas... Bandas como WASP, Lizzy Borden o Mercyful Fate son una inspiración para los escenarios o fotografías. Manowar es una influencia enorme, musicalmente y visualmente: el cuero como elemento indispensable y ese olorcillo épico... sí. Nos encantan esas bandas de los 80's con armaduras hechas de cuero y tachuelas: Omen, Armored Saint, Black Knight. Cada uno tenemos nuestra vestimenta especial para los conciertos, es un detalle importante para nosotros.
15/ How does the Metal scene reacts with you? is it easy to play live shows? You live in the capital while some bands live in different parts of the country, are they some you are friends with and hang out sometimes ? We have recieved really good reactions so far. Right now it's quite easy to get gigs... not the best conditions, but it's easy, hahaha. I live in the capital right now because of that. I'm from an small town were it's just impossible to do anything. No musicians, no people to be crowd, no support, no places to play. No, no. I came to Madrid to search musicians to reform the line-up, while my brother stayed there. We have played this last year in many many cities of Spain, but we haven't been able to play at our hometown yet. That's the situation. The scene it's good, but is small, so at the end most of the band members known the rest, hahaha. It's easy to be at the same place playing or just seeing a concert as fans 15 / ¿Cómo reacciona la escena Metal con usted? ¿Es fácil tocar shows en vivo? Usted vive en la capital mientras que algunas bandas viven en diferentes partes del país, ¿son algunas de las que son amigos y pasan el rato algunas veces? Hemos recibido buenas reacciones hasta ahora. Ahora mismo es bastante fácil conseguir conciertos... no las mejores condiciones, pero es fácil, jajaja. Vivo en la capital precisamente por eso. Yo soy de una ciudad pequeña en la que es imposible hacer nada. No hay músicos, no hay público, no hay apoyo, no hay lugares para tocar. No y no. Vine a Madrid para buscar músicos y reformar la banda mientras mi hermano sigue allí. Hemos tocado este último año en muchas ciudades españolas, pero no hemos logrado conseguir fecha allí. Esa es la situación. La escena en general es buena, pero es pequeña al fin y al cabo, así que la mayoría de miembros de bandas nos conocemos entre nosotros, jejeje. Es fácil coincidir en el mismo sitio tocando o viendo conciertos como público. 16/Is the spanish press supports Metal bands? Mmmmmmmm, let's see... There's a big difference between big and small/independent press. The big ones just tell to new bands “Hey, I like your material, if you pay to my magazine, we can promote your music. You were born to be a rockstar”. If there's no money, you only have an interview that they use mainly as a first contact to try to ask money. Unless you're Iron Maiden or their friends: forget about it. However, we and many other bands like us, have recieved support of many small radio shows, fanzines... 16 / ¿La prensa española admite bandas de metal? Mmmmmmmmm, veamos... hay una gran diferencia entre la prensa grande y pequeña/independiente. Los peces gordos, sólo dicen a las nuevas bandas “Hey, me gusta tu material, si nos pagas, podemos promocionar tu música. Naciste para ser una estrella del rock”. Si no hay dinero, como mucho tienes una entrevista que básicamente, usan como primera toma de contacto para pedir pasta. A no ser que seas Iron Maiden o amigos: olvídate. Sin embargo, nosotros y muchas otras bandas, hemos recibido mucho apoyo por parte de pequeños programas de radio, fanzines... 17/Are the social medias helping you getting more fans worldwide? Who is dealing with this? For sure! I love the way social media helps musician, artist... I manage all the accounts and it's amazing to see the progress. We have many fans outside our country, from different places, and it's all thanks to the internet. On Facebook you can see all the news, live pictures, photoshoots, live videos... on Bandcamp you can find the whole EP for free listening and also download, on Youtube there's the whole EP as well and you see the interaction of fans on the comment section. It's just fascinating!
17 / ¿Las redes sociales te están ayudando a conseguir más fanáticos en todo el mundo? ¿Quién está lidiando con esto? Por supuesto! Me encanta la ayuda que facilitan las redes sociales a los músicos, artistas... Yo llevo todas las cuentas y me fascina ver el progreso. Tenemos muchos fans fuera de país, de diferentes sitios, y es todo gracias a internet. En Facebook pueden ver noticias, imágenes de directos, sesiones de fotos, vídeos de conciertos... en Bandcamp encontrar el EP entero para escuchar y desargar gratis, en Youtube está también el EP completo y podemos ver las interacciones entre los propios fans en la sección de comentarios... ¡Es simplemente maravilloso! 18/How did you record your first EP? Did you do it yourself or payed a studio to get it done? The whole process was homemade. We recorded each instrument in our own houses as we didn't have the money to pay for an studio. For the vocals I used a guitar mic and I didn't have a mic stand nor a pop filter... I used a fishnet attached to my mannequin ... The power of imagination. At that time, we weren't sure if the result would be for a simple demo or for an EP, but the mix turned out pretty well for what we had, and it ended up being an EP. 18 / ¿Cómo grabaste tu primer EP? ¿Lo hiciste tú mismo o pagaste a un estudio para hacerlo?Todo el proceso fue casero. Grabamos cada pista en nuestras respectivas casas porque no teníamos dinero para pagar un estudio. Para las voces, usé un micrófno de guitarra y como no tenía soporte de micro o un pop filter... usé una media enganchada a mi maniquí... Imaginación al poder. Por entonces, no estábamos seguros de si el resultado serviría para una maqueta o para un EP, pero la mezcla final quedó bastante bien para lo que teníamos, y acabó siendo un EP.
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1/When did you start the drums? I started playing drums at 5 years old so 23 years ago !! :O 2?Who made you want to play? One of my uncle had a kit over at his house. I sat behind the kit and started banging away. I was a very turbulent kid around that time so when I asked my parents if I could learn drums, they were ecstatic. I had finally found something to keep me calm and focused for more than 2 minutes ! 3/Have you tried other instruments? I have ! I learned to play the flute, xylophone, a nfew classical percussions (timpani, metallophone, snare…), bass guitar and a little piano. I tried guitar for 2 weeks but… did not love it ! ha ! 4//I discovered you from the band « scarlet sins » , what happened to that band? Hehe ! We’ve known each other for a while then eh ! Well, this band was a whole lot of fun. I was part of that adventure for almost 3 years. We did so much during that time. Everything from the Grammy awards, to opening up for Motley Crue… it was amazing. At some point, we came to an important crossroad. We didn’t manage to find solutions that would please everyone… so we disbanded. 5/Have you played in many other bands? Oh yes ! I was part of multiple cover bands before and after this Scarlet Sins. I never joined another original band after that, until just recently. As much as I loved being in an original band the separation felt like a divorce. I wasn’t ready to reinvest my time, energy and soul into a project until I met my new bandmates. Most of my career has been being a sidewoman. I am hired by artists, troops, musical companies and bands to sit in with them. 6/You look like a rockstar over here in Europe, adverts, conventions… How does it work? You don’t seem to be IN a band… are you well known in your country? Haha !! Thank you very much for the compliments !! You’re so sweet !! Well I owe a lot of my career to social media. That’s how I met Scarlet Sins. That’s how I connected with a lot of the artists and groups I’ve worked with. I’ve worked with so many different people all over the world. Thanks to social media I also have the chance to be in touch directly with all the music lovers and drummers. I absolutely love it. I feel I have such a privileged relationship with people. It’s wonderful. So I would say that yes, I am established around the world and I’ve managed to do so due to the power of social media. People from around the world hire me to record their albums, be part of their projects. It’s amazing. I get to travel the world and play music. It’s the best job I could ever dream of. 7/Why choosing the pink color for your sticks and drum? You seem to have your own image compared to all drummers… Hihi !! When I moved back to Montreal after my Scarlet Sins year, I wanted to revamp my image and my branding. Although I love playing rock and hard rock music, I also wanted to remind people that I could play other styles; pop, funk, country, etc. I’ve always had a soft spot for pink. I started off by launching my first line of drumsticks back at that time. We partnered up with the Canadian Breast Cancer Society. The campaign was very successful. Then a couple of years later Pearl Drums also joined this movement and I guess now I’ve really adopted Pink as being my color ! I love to play around with it. I think it’s important to stay true to ourselves especially when doing unconventional things. I like to expose my feminine side in every aspects of my life.
8/How did you choose the trade for your gears? are you endorsed? have you tried all the makings? what’s particular from the one you use? I am super lucky to have had the chance to sign incredible international endorsement deals with some of the biggest and most respected companies in the drum world at a super young age. I signed with Pearl Drums, Sabian and Evans at 17 years old and with Regal Tip Drumsticks a little later. I am extremely grateful for those relationships. I believe they are the best in their field. I wouldn’t change anything. Even if I wasn’t endorsed, I would play these brands. I am so proud, grateful, honored to be part of these families. It’s a real blessing. 9/Can you tell us the set up you have and what is the reason for? Do you have double bass drums? I currently have 3 setups depending on the gig. Setup #1 is the big kit. The drums are Pearl Reference. It’s a 14” x 6” 36 ply snare, 10” x 6” and 12” x 7” toms, 16” x 16” and 18” x 18” floor toms and a 22” x 20” kick. It’s a custom white paint kit with a pink pearl gloss finish. I have the matching Pearl rack. Depending on the gig I have between 3 and 5 crashes, 1 ride, 1 regular hi-hat and sometimes a fixed hi-hat as well. Setup #2 is the kit I use the most. It’s my flamboyant pink and white candy kit. The basics of this kit is a 14” x 5.5” snare, a 12” x 8” tom, a 14” x 14” and 16” x 16” floor toms and a 22” x 18” kick. With this kit I change around the snare often and set up anyway between 2 to 3 crashes, a ride and the hats. Setup #3 is exactly the same as #2 for the drums but it’s hooked up to the Tru Trac electronic system by Pearl. I use this kit to do a Drum-DJ show. I sometimes hook it up with real cymbals if it’s a bigger venue. I almost always set up the double kick pedal. I find it brings colour to many styles. I have a bunch of custom snares that I change up depending on the gig, the sound that I want to get out of it. For cymbals I change it a lot but I mostly play cymbals from the AAX and HHX collections. I also recently purchased a few gems from the Artisan line and I CAN NOT TAKE THEM OFF ! I manage to make them work in every style. I love these babies so much ! For heads I use on all my kits G2 coated on tops. I haven’t been very risky with those. I’ve been putting these for 10 years. I love these heads. Especially since Evans has introduced the 360 technology, it’s been just the best heads ever ! For drumsticks, I use my signature Elie Bertrand hot pink 9A Regal Tip sticks (available on my website www.ElieBertrand.com/#Store ) 10/Are you self taught or you attended a drumming school? I took lessons from the very first day until the age of 17 years old. I took 12 years of lessons once or twice a week. Also, I was part of an elite music programs from grade 4 until I moved to Toronto. When I moved, I kept taking lessons once in a while with masters. Actually I still do once in a while. 11/Have you got technical skills like recording or using samples, electronic pads…? I have done some studio work over the year. I also use electronic pads but programming isn’t my strength. I am mostly hired for live performances of all kinds or studio recording. 12/How do you carry all these equipments? Do you have your own van? Have you got friends to help you out? Haha !! Oh wow !! Well, on some tours we are super lucky to have a team handling all the gear and even sometimes that set it up for us ! That’s always super sweet ! But for all the other gigs, I have a SUV and I am very strong !! Haha !! 13/Do you speak fluent French? Have you travelled in Europe? I do speak French. It’s actually my native language. Both my parents are French Canadians. When I was a kid my babysitters all spoke English though. Also, my grandparents’ on my dad’s side were “snowbirds”. They spent all their winters in Florida… And for whatever reason, my grandma would often speak with me in English as a kid. She only did that with me. I guess she knew I would need it in the future.
My first pro band was with English speaking people as well. My music career mostly has been in an Anglophone world. Montreal is very interesting in that sense. I live in the province of Quebec which is at 90% French. We are I believe 7 million people. There are 35 million peoples in Canada and about 9 million speak French. In Quebec most people speak French but in the rest of the country it’s very different. The French communities out of Quebec are very unique. They remain very strong but they all speak English also. In Quebec, a lot of people also learn English but they are not necessarily fluent. This is an ongoing debate and I would even say battle for a lot of people. Personally, I am very grateful to be able to speak both language. I actually wish I could speak other languages. 14/What advice you would give to a girl who wants to start the instrument? Go for it. Don’t doubt yourself. Have fun with it ! Trust your gut. And, just be yourself. Sometimes we try to be more “like the boys” to fit in better… but from experience the moments I’ve been the happiest in my life are when I was just myself. I would say right now, as I am answering these questions, I feel the happiest of my entire life. I am confident. I feel great in my own skin. I am confident with my musical skills. I feel good, powerful as a woman. I don’t ever feel like I have to act differently around people yet I am always part of the boys’ club in the business. It’s the greatest feeling to just be yourself and be respected for it. 15/Is there a music style you prefer to play? why? Hands down Country music and Rock music. It’s where I shine the most. It’s the styles I enjoy the most playing. I grew up playing and listening to these styles the most. My first pro band was a cover band and we played a lot of it. It’s embedded in me deeply. I have a very emotional connection with these styles and I think it shines through my playing. That being said, I really love pop music as well. I’ve always had a soft spot for funk too. Photographers : Gil Perron and Katia Millaire / Yvon Archambault Hair and Make up : Catherine Lavoie Website : www.ElieBertrand.com Store : www.ElieBertrand.com/#Store Facebook : www.Facebook.com/ElieBertrandDrums Instagram : @elie.bertrand YouTube : www.YouTube.com/ElieBertrandDrums Twitter : @eliebertrand
n Josh Christia
1/How did you get the deal with NO Dust Records? How did you hear about them not why choosing another? Did it take long to find the right one? Henk the owner of No Dust approached me at the Little Devil club (Tillburg NL) in 2017 and asked If I would consider joining his label. We talked a bit about it but we were at a gig and he had to go, so he left me a business card and we went on our way. When we got home I started thinking about what I wanted to do with new Toxik material going forward. DIY and self release is fine, you can actually make more money potentially.. but it is a lot of extra work and time believe me...dealing with a larger label tho, you lose so much artistic control that it's really not conducive to what we are either.. so we decided to go independent and having spoken with Henk I knew his business plan was right for us and also that he was a true fan of the music and genre.. Henk is the real thing. It's our honor to be working with him on this and hopefully other records in the future 2/This new album is packed with goodies, « In Humanity » only available on utube for years, « Breaking class » last year EP, Did you remastered the tracks ? have you had to change the line up and rework the whole songs? I won't spoil it.. but there are some really cool things on this release, for any old-school fans it will be especially good because of the new recordings of the classic tunes (which are sick) but there is some rare recordings and song / idea/ demo stuff that I would never normally consider putting out but that ads a lot of personality and value for lack of a better term.. its just cool shit so why not share it?? ... 3/What input have you had in this package? Choosing the photos, the design… I was involved throughout the process it was a collaboration.
4/Can you tell us what happened with the last release « Breaking Class » , did it sold well? This was your new material over many years… was it a hard work? Breaking Class did really well considering we did a self release. There was a glitch with getting the discs out though. We didn’t have enough quality control in place and the CD orders were of poor quality.. thats part of why I wanted to do the box set this way... To give a propper release to the EP but also to make sure that fans who ordered signed copies get what they paid for. 5/You always been playing whatever is for Toxik or underground bands writting solos, how do you get the inspiration? I Have been playing and writing music for almost 40 years... and I have to say I have never lost the inspiration.. from my Punk infused first efforts to the gammet between and including film scores, country records, producer credits, full Jazz and Classical scores, Interactive titles ..corporate work, Teaching..lol... I Never stop. I JUST LOVE TO WRITE AND PLAY METAL MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE  6/How do you end up in an underground band’s album? Do they ask you? how does it work? Do they pay you for the solo? How do you compose for them? are they old solos or ones you play only once? No I always compose new solos for guest spots, or just get really warm and rip one out... I dont charge for guest solos... if I like the band and their music its my pleasure to be a part of what theyre doing 7/Have you got the chance to play with known musicians from Testament… or you on your own working your guitar? Yes I have jammed with many of the legends or at the very least shared stages.. but i actually jammed or traded licks with Dime Bag, Andy LaRouque, Chuck Shuldiner, John Petrucci, Alex Scholnik, theres more... from the guitar perspective... I have been very lucky 8/Are you still using your Nexx guitars? Do you have a guitar for each songs or album? Tell us about your gears… I do use my Nexx guitars I have 3 that I rotate.. I have a few more that I throw in for recordings, an ESP Les Paul copy that is amazing sounding when recorded and super nice custom Goliath V that sounds amazing on drop D stuff... I don't do much extended guitar writing with Toxik.. but I might in the future. 9/What can we expect from the new material? You have aged, music has changed.. What we will hear from the Toxik blood? follower from « Breaking… »? Breaking Class was interesting because it caught us right as we were solidifying the musical lineup.. I have been through a lot of people but this current group is really badass.. Problem was Charlie Sabin just could not get his head around the audience, touring and the material. He is a great musician and a brother but he does not have enough of a love for metal to do what it takes to make Toxik go.. It is a lot of work and a lot of expended energy without much financial reward...Basically he couldnt handle the 20 hour flights and endless meat and cheese trays... its tough man especially for an old motherfucker like him or me lol... but I seem to still have the spirit for it, I never get tired of making music or traveling for me personally its the adventure and the experience but also the metal, the volume on stage the absolute asskicking we get when we play with great bands.. what possible life could be better than this????? Its in your blood or it isn't I think. The new material is more progressive than Breaking Class.. I started to get a little bit carried away with Hardcore riffing..Just listening to a lot of aggressive new and oldschool music but Toxik has an intellectual edge to it that is
important to the vibe and overall message of the band... so the new writing reflects that. We have our 3 disc box set coming out end of this month.. and then you can expect a full length 3rd LP by year end... New Singer, added Guitarist.. etc.. more to come.. Toxik is not finished yet 10/Did you have the idea of the new cover album? You wanted it to be reminding the old covers ? Yes...and Mario Lopez. The idea for the 3rd disc was simple, combine the first two records by selecting tracks from them, mix in a couple of new songs and introduce our new singer Ron Eglacius by way of both familiar and new music.. so once the idea was settled combining the two covers was an obvious choice. Mario Lopez sent us back roughly what you see.. I contributed the Trump angle for the clown It came together quick... the other thing about the cover is,it actually points to our contributiin to the mess... we are media people, I especially put out a lot of opinion and I use Toxik to do it... so it is us looking at ourselves too . Kind of a cool angle tho.. I thought it was clever to make us a part of the thing we are pointing at
www.toxikmetal.com
1/Your last album is about two years old, are you trying to release an album every two years or you have a record deal that tells you to? The last album was ÂŤEnter the AsylumÂť. We love to write music and create albums. I think an album every two years is a good time frame to work to if possible. 2/What was the difference form the previous albums? is it easier after time to write albums or you have songs you always have in advance for the new albums? All our albums have themes or concepts. The last album was all about an asylum and each patients condition was an idea for every song. The guitarists always have a lot of riffs available to create songs with too. They are always writing ideas so sometimes we will have a few songs ready to be developed for the next album after each release. 3/How do you find inspiration for the lyrics? what are your inspirations? Are you trying to keep a theme for each album? Yes we do use themes, this next album is all about emotions of the mind and body. I tried to keep the next album more positive as there seems to be a lot of doomsday stuff coming out at the moment. 4/Would you say the fact you and your husband are the main members of the band helps to get it going? Definitely helps , music is what connected us and we both enjoy the live aspect of a band plus the creative side of making albums. It is our life and has been since early high school days. 5/You seem to be like a family, do you share everything like great friends? If you mean my fans / friends. Yes they are my family and love spending time with everyone. We have the best parties and memories from gigs Temtris plays and shows we go to together like Arch Enemy who we saw just this week in Sydney.
6/Is your husband the main composer or the whole band is brining touches before a song is finished? Fox and our other guitarist Hoff works together creating song ideas. I will often sit down and come up with the melody line/ vocal line and then put down lyric ideas. We all work as a team to get the final product as good as we can. 7/Can you explain the problem you seem to have with drummers? Is Australia the country of drummers ? bands always searching for ahah… It is hard to find people who are committed musicians. A lot of members have thought they could do the job but it is time consuming and not cheap to commit to a working band. I guess it is one of those things that you don’t know if you can do it until you try. We do push pretty hard also to keep moving forward and this often takes it’s toll on members. 8/You obviously have lots of live shows, how do you find them? is the Metal scene strong? We could play more but recently we have tried not to over play and this year we are focusing on recording so we have backed off a lot . The scene is going well i believe and this year so far we have had a massive amount of touring bands play Australia. This can impact on the local scene as there is only so much money people have to spend on Metal shows. 10/You are always listening different bands everyday, does that help you to get inspiration for your songs? I love music and listen to everything from Rock through to black metal depending on my mood. I guess it does help with inspiration and makes me challenge my vocal abilities. 11/You have your own studio , do your children play music too? Yes we have a studio set up here we use for rehearsals and recording. Our Children have grown up with parents that are always playing music so i am not surprised they both have some musical abilities. Our son has self taught himself piano and our daughter has a great voice plus is now learning guitar too. 12/How do you practice your voice? How do you know how to lay your melodies? I had my first vocal lessons at 14 but have recently started some more vocal lessons with Ralf Scheepers to work on my endurance. I believe you can always learn more tricks and the lessons are fun too. Music to me is all about emotion of the song so the melodies often come naturally to me when writing the lyrics to a guitar riff or to a piece of music the guitarists have written. 13/Who designs your albums covers? We have an artist we use from Newcastle called Daz Death “ Not so fine Art “ He has done our last cover and is painting our next cover at the moment. We throw him our ideas and Darrell will sketch his interpretation for us. Once we give the go ahead he begins painting. 14/You have a video for each album, have you got someone who directs them or you have lots of friends with skills? Your time has come was a professional video but the others we have done ourselves to save money where we can. The production of a film clip can be expensive, we have some ideas for the next clip too but it all depends on the single we choose first.
15/Is there a country where you have the most loyal fans? You are copying with all the social medias and everything for the band, must be tough to deal with? Do you think that what a band should do? I have some wonderful fans in England and also here in Australia. We definitely need to get Temtris overseas with this next album. Hopefully to England or Europe to increase our fan base. 16/Tell us a bit about the new album, what we have to expect? Lots of positive stuff. Overcoming things mentally and emotionally in the lyrics and direction.This album will be different again to the last and we are pushing ourselves musically to do bigger and better stuff. Genevieve Ronda
www.temtris.com
1/Why have you changed the name from Nasty Ratz to Double Raw? We didn´t change the name just quited NR. 2/For a Czech band you look very US, have you moved there? Or you are just inspired by your favorite bands? Thanks. US music´s very inspirative for us. The most of our favourite bands´re from states. 3/You sound very professionals, did you keep in touch with sound engineer and manager? Did you make the album before changing band’s name? We´re still working on our sound but it´s a never ending chemistry in record studios. Our debut DR incoming album´ll be released at the end of 2018. It´s in progress still. 4/You obviously have a great live past, are you gonna tour again with those bands? How is like to tour with bands like Tigertailz? With Tigertailz it was a single show in Germany, not tour haha. We´re still trying looking for some new venues and bands to play with. 5/How is your country accepting you? We hear a lot of Death Metal bands but not so much about bands like you, is it easy to find live shows? It´s not much easy to find live shows in Czech Republic ´cause of club conditions or the money itself. But we always love to play here if it´s possible. 6/Who designed the logo? have you given your thoughts? Logo was designed by our Stevie. It shows toughness and rawness. 7/Let ’s talk about the video « million faces », who directed it? how comes you have parts of a film? Did you pay the rights for the movie? What’s the theme about? How long did it take to make?
The video was made by Milan Balek and was inspired by "The Getaway" movie. Theme´s clear. Everybody got a million faces if it helps to some profit for them. And a music video takes maybe 5 hours to record and a few hours in cutting room. 8/Have you changed record deal? No. We just leaved a previous band, so record deal´s a past for us. So, we´re free now. 9/Who are your favorite bands ? the ones that got you inspired by? There´s a lot of our favourite bands. For example Whitesnake, GNR, Motley Crue, Skid Row, HCSS, Heavens Edge etc.. 10/You have only one guitarist have you tried another one? No, we got only one but you never knows. Four members in a band´s enough haha. 11/Who is writing the lyrics? Is there one composer for the songs? Lyrics´re mostly writed by Peter but it´s not a rule. And we all´re composers. Somethimes chemistry comes from togethers jammin, somethimes we used Stevies versions of guitar riffs. 12/Does that mean you haven’t released an album with Nasty Ratz or it’s buried? The stuff which Steve wrote for a new NR album´s still real, but we don´t know about using these songs for DR debut album.
«A Million Faces Video»:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkU17wl8AdI
www.doubleraw.com
Dana Shelton : Exodus fans know you from Exodus, what other bands have you been in , or have played Live with or any studio albums you are on that maybe people might not know. Jack 1. I’ve mostly played with exodus over the last twenty years. I’ve played on some records that nobody is supposed to know! I also played with our friends Testament. It was only for a week though. Dana Shelton : What made you become a Bass Player (A damn good one at That ) ? Influences ? Inspirations? Jack, 2. Mostly it was because all my friends played guitar already. So I got a bass so I could play with people. When I was young my bass heroes were Geddy Lee and also Billy Sheehan. I still love them both. Dana Shelton : Exodus is going on Tour to Europe in June, any favorite countries/venues ? Jack, 3. We have great shows in Europe. We will be doing some of the big festivals this year. Hellfest. Grasspop. They might be my favorite of the big festivals. Dana Shelton : You have a band Called Coffin Hunter, you play Banjo and sing , how did that come about ? I know your Bandmate/Drummer Tom Hunting plays in the band as well. Jack, 4. Coffin Hunter came about from my love of playing banjo and old country/bluegrass in general. I started writing trucker country and I roped Tom into playing with me. He has a love for country music too Dana Shelton : Tom has been in and out of Exodus, did you and he grow up together? Or just known one another for a long time ? Jack, 5. No I met Tom and Gary in 96. I joined Exodus in 97. They grew up together though.
Dana Shelton : I'm into Astrology to , to a certain degree. I know you are a Virgo, and it has been said Virgo's are very picky/critical, is that you ?, If so what do you absolutely need to do or have while on Tour ? Jack, 6. As a Virgo I am pretty picky yea. But not to the point where I can’t deal with anything. There’s pretty much nothing I have to have except caffeine. Dana Shelton : You have a certain ‘Stance’’ while on stage, I have taken many a pic with you in that Stance. Your leg is out and foot is resting on the speaker. Is this for comfort ? Or is it because your Amp is right there. Gotta say it’s super cool !! Your leg looks a mile long in pics !haha Jack, 7. Thank you haha. I do it out of comfort. It helps me brace myself so I don’t fall over. Glad you like it though.  Dana Shelton : With all the craziness going on in the world and your busy Tour Schedule, and side projects, what do you do to relax ? Jack, 8. To be honest, I don’t rest much. If I do test I just sleep for extended periods. There’s just too much to do. Dana Shelton : Gonna go with the ever popular, ‘If you where Stranded on a Island’, what would be your must have top 3 Rock albums, also top 3 Metal albums as well. And anything else you might listen to . Jack, 9. Rock : Moving Pictures, Fair Warning, Houses of the Holy. Metal : Master of Puppets, Reign in Blood, Exhibit A. Country : Outlaws, Red Headed Stranger, Live at Folsom Prison Dana Shelton : Thank you so much for taking the time out for to chat a bit. I know you are very busy writing a new song !! Exciting !!! Best of luck with all your projects Jack  Jack, thank you ! It was my pleasure!
www.facebook.com/coffinhunter666
http://exodusattack.com
www.facebook.com/You-Rawk-RawkWear-167182033750419/
1/ Why calling the band that way? is it related to one of you or a movie? The word « Slaughter » is generally used for extreme bands… —) So ‘Hillary’ is related to our front singers name Hille. ‘Slaughter’ is in our case not only a synonym for any kind of musical extremity but more an expression for the diversity of clean vocals and growls. 2/ Who is the main founder of the band? What was the main idea? —) Founders of the band were Yves and Marcel who played in another band together before. Main idea was to do their own thing - musically but also from their personal understanding of how to get things done. 3/You are more into Rock and mix some crunchy tunes with distorted voices, are you mixing your influences or just want to find your way through the new generation’s crowd? —) All members do bring different influences to this project whereas progressive style is a common root. So mixing those backgrounds when creating new music is just naturally given. We don’t focus so much on the ‘new generation’ than it’s more like letting ourselves go and get the right feeling in that one ‘magic moment’. 4/Have you played in different bands before or still do? —) All members have been playing in many bands before and still do act in projects from time to time. One of our guitar players is producing different other bands in his own studio right next to our rehearsal room. 5/How did you all meet? have you had line up troubles that delayed the creations of the songs? —) So the roots were set by our drummer and guitarist- Yves and Marcel. In 2012 after different people came and left they met up with Hille who blasted them away with their vocal range and capability. Mid of 2015 bass player Tobi entered the band by last year the band had to replace the second guitarist so Brugge joined making the actual line up complete. 6/ What has changed from 2014 to today ? —) Beneath the fact that everybody is little older today, we got even more experience playing live on stage whilst touring around. The recording sessions of ‘YOU’ in 2017 do mark a starting point for us regarding songwriting: in some way we reinvented the process being more focussed on the dynamic expression of our material. Also we’ve renamed the band - Grimm became Hillary Slaughter. 7/Your Ep has no name yet you call it « you », what is the reason for? —) Well the EP is named ‘YOU’ - probably one can find that name on side of the cover and on the CD itself. The song ‘you’ itself was already placed on another sampler so is an identification mark for Hillary Slaughter anyhow.
8/Do you have your own studio ? You mixed the album in two music studios, what led you to this choice? —) Yes we have our own studio just next to our practice room. Pretty cool to use the chance to do a rough record instantly when writing new material. To work in different studios just developed due to factor time. The initial start just ended up with 3 songs but after a while we were just confident that a five-track EP is more a round cake and gives the listener little more chances to learn about the facets of our music. 9/Have you taken vocal lessons? Do you teach? —) Neither taken lessons nor teaching. So kind of a natural given talent. Just start singing under the shower don’t be shy!! 10/What are the bands you’re into and might have influenced your tunes? —) Wow that’s a question you shouldn’t ever ask a few musicians that are listening all day long many different styles of music just to catch the day moment – the day song… There is everything in it such as Tool, A Perfect Circle or Karnivool from the progressive side but also Tremonti, Dredg, Disturbed from straight rockmetal. Our base player and also 2nd guitar are more into metal such as Pantera, Meshuggah, Architects.. so this ends all up in a big melting pot.. 11/Your Ep is released as digital, do you think it is better or cheaper today for a band to get exposure? Do you have records of how many buy it? —) So the digital release is a must have by today. Music industry ended up here lately so if you try to spread your stuff as wide as possible then Spotify, Deezer, Itunes and all others you have to feed. But we do believe in the oldschool way still – to buy a CD and a shirt on a concert listening to a new band which music you really enjoy. Support the underground! 12/How do you find gigs, are you playing live shows with friends? How is the response so far from the crowd when you play with different music styles? —) There are couple of networks online such as backstage pro where you can start some activities to play with other bands or to initialize your own concerts. But it’s pretty important to use the right filter and search for good size of the club, little bigger bands that catch people so you don’t play in front of no one. It’s also important to stay in touch with people you have met on your own concerts, to share contacts with bands that are into your music style as well. One day the next chance to play a cool gig together is just a corner away. 13/What is the scene like in your country? is it easy to have a band today? —) Everybody can start a band just catching up with some mates playing an instrument. That’s for sure pretty easy. But being in a band is always like being part of a team - being a part of a bigger thing. So as far as we’ve learned: the best team will get the best chances. The local music scene in Kiel is pretty nice – there are many different bands that area connected in a good network. Biggest issue for our scene is to have very less clubs and venues to play at. 14/How do you compose a song? —) We found 2 different ways working fine for us. There could be a riff idea from either one of the guitarists or even the bass player we start jamming on. From time to time it happens that just from improvisation the song gets structure and more parts just pop out of our fingers. Lyrics at that point of time are also quite spontaneous. The other way of writing is that some guy is taking already different riffs into account arranging them to a full structure of a song. Next session the band is pointing out this idea trying to develop. As we do have the studio nearby we sometimes do a small take of drums and lead guitar to play around with the arrangement and give the singer the chance to catch up with some lyrics already. 15/Have you got plenty to be recorded songs for a complete album? Do you play covers? —) No covers! First full-length album we hope to start sessions in autumn this year. Ideas are there many…
www.hillaryslaughter.com
1/Quand a démarré le groupe? Qui voulait faire du Thrash? Pas un style très aimé en France… Thomas : Il a démarré en 2007 avec Amaury, on voulait tout les deux jouer du thrash, c’est vrai que ce n’est pas un style très aimé en France mais on ne joue pas pour plaire à l’establishement…d’autres le font à notre place. Amaury : Et encore, Thomas me parlait de son projet depuis 2005 ! C'est seulement en 2007 qu'il m'a fait écouter ses compos via Guitar Pro, j'ai tout de suite accroché. 1/When did the band start? Who wanted to play Thrash? Not much loved in France... Thomas : It started in 2007 with Amaury, we both wanted to play some Thrash, it’s true that this is not well loves in France but we don’t play to please the establishment...others are doing it for us. Amaury : And Thomas talked to me about his project since 2005! It’s only in 2007 he played me his compositions via Guitar Pro, I lilked it straight away. 2/D’ou vient ce nom? Quel est la raison du design? Qui l’a fait? Thomas : C’est un mélange de psychologie et bizaroïd deux concepts qui me plaise. Le design c’est moi qui l’ai pondue, je voulais quelque chose d’aérien, percutant et simple à lire. Amaury : Le précédent design était encore plus étrange. Ça ne faisait pas "thrash" du tout mais il était plutôt intéressant... dans son style. 2/Where that name comes from? What ‘s reason for the design ? Who did it? Thomas : it’s a mix between weird and psychology two fields I like. The design I did it, I wanted something flying, right to the point and simply easy to read. Amaury : The older design was more weird. It wasn’t Thrash at all but more interesting in its way. 3/Comment vous êtes vous retrouvés chez Music Records?
Rémi : Assez simplement en fait, Valentin a monté sa structure a Melun, dans la ville ou nous nous trouvions tous a l’époque, on venait tout juste d’enregistrer notre ep Thrash test, à la maison, avec nos moyens à nous, il nous a proposé de le sortir et de nous en faire la promo. On a accepté, et de fil en aiguille, on a signé un contrat pour l’album Thrash Impact. 3/How did you end up in Music Records label? Rémi :Pretty simple actually, Valentin started his business in Melun. We lived there at that time, we just released our first EP «Thrash Test» at home. We used our own tech he proposed us to release it and spread it on his promotion. We accepted , and ended up signing a contrat for the album «Thrash Impact». 4/Qui a fait cette superbe pochette? Kiko : Thimothé Montaigne, un dessinateur talentueux. Sa passion pour le dessin, la moto, le metal et le bon whisky nous a pas mal rapprochés. Il a bien voulu collaborer avec nous pour ce projet suite à une soirée bien arrosée. N’hésitez pas à le suivre, il expose du 4 au 24 avril sur Paris. 4/ Who designed that awesome cover? Kiko : Thimothé Montaigne, a talented designer. His pasison for drawing, the motorbike, Metal musicand the good whisky got us close together. So he decided to collaborate with us on that projetc after a good drunking night. Don’t hesitate to follow his work, he’s at Paris exposing his art from the 4th to the 24th April. 5/De quoi parlent vos chansons? D’ou vient l’inspiration? Thomas : Elles parlent beaucoup de notre monde qui chlingue un peu si tu y regarde de plus près mdr. Certaines sont plus légères que d’autres c’est vrai. La politique, la surconsommation, les télés réalités, la guerre ou encore le parcours d’un tueur en série, c’est varié. Pour ce qui est de l’inspi ba c’est l’inspi quoi… j’observe les gens tout simplement. Amaury : Ça me fait penser qu'au bout de 10 ans, je devrais peut être jetter un oeil aux paroles. 5/What are your lyrics about? Where comes from the inspiration? Thomas : They speak a lot about our world that stinks if you look out closely lol. Some are lighter some are real. Politic, max consomation, reality TV, the wars or even the story of a serial killer, it’s varied theme. Well for inspiration it’s just inspiration... I observe people mainly. Amaury : I ‘m just thinking about it , after ten years I should check the lyrics. 6/ Avez vous eu des problèmes de line up ou juste des soucis financiers pour mettre si longtemps à faire une album? Rémi : Y’a eu le départ de Nico, notre guitariste, qui nous a forcément un peu freiné a un moment, ensuite est arrivé Kiko, puis on a remis la machine en route. Amaury : Je pense que c'est plus par flemme. A là base, on faisait nos répétitions et des lives de temps à autre, ça nous suffisait. Bien entendu, on parlait d'album mais sans jamais se lancer dans l'aventure. C'est Kiko qui nous a motivé pour le faire. 6/Did you have line up issues or just financial probems that delayed the album after so long? Remi : First Nico left, our guitarist, so it has slowed down the process. Then Kiko came and the machine restarted. Amaury : I think it’s more lazyness. At first we did our rehearshals and from time to time live shows, and it was enough for us. Of course we talked about an album but without really getting into this adventure. It’s Kiko who has motivated us to do it.
7/Est ce que la scène française vous a portée? comment vous trouvez des dates? Quel est votre sentiment sur la scène Metal en France et dans le monde? Thomas : Des festivals émergent un peu partout donc c’est cool mais on ne peut pas dire que ce soit comme chez nos voisins Allemands ou Anglais. La France c’est surtout le pays de la variétoche, du Hip Hop ou encore de l’électro… dommage. Rémi : Est-ce que la scène française nous a porté ? Et bien les retours sur notre ep 4 titres ont plutôt été satisfaisant, et donc encourageant pour l’enregistrement de l’album, de bonnes chroniques dans l’ensemble et pas mal de passage en radio. Les dates, ici en Seine et Marne, c’est plutôt du contact/ connaissances, bouches a oreilles… comme partout en fin de compte j’imagine? La scène française est là oui, elle existe, c’est intéressant, après je pense qu’il faut arrêter de faire les choses dans son coin, ne pas hésiter a soutenir, plutôt se serrer les coudes et s’entraider que de se quereller, ou savoir qui fait mieux les choses etc etc…. la scène a notre niveau n’est t’elle pas justement un rassemblement de passionnés unis par la même flamme scintillante qui nous animent?!! Parfois, quand j’en croise, ou bien, lis certains commentaires, j’ai quelques doutes. La scène mondiale, et bien elle se porte plutôt bien, vu le nombre de sortie incalculable de Black, Death, Thrash, et tout le business qui en découle. 7/ Did the French Scene has given you a lift?How did you find live dates? What is your feeling about the worldwide scene as the French one? Thomas : Festivals are growing a bit everywhere whic is good but we can say it’s not the case as our nieghbors in Germany or England. France is mostly the TV commercial shit, Hip Hip or even Electro... which is a shame. Rémi : Did the French Scene has given us a lift? Well the feedback from our 4 Ep album was pretty good and satisfying. So it has encouraged us to record the album. Great reviews in most of the radio stations and medias. The live dates here in Seine et Marne it’s mostly contacts from people we know, word of mouth.I guess it’s the same from everyone? The French scene exist yes, it’s interesting, but I think you have to stop doing your things on you own. Don’t hesitate to support others and get united rather than arguing or to search to know who does the things the best etc.. Our own scene isn’t it just the way to unite passionate people who has the same flame that burns inside ?!! Sometimes when I meet people or just read comments I have a doubt. The worldwide scene is well and to see how many impossible to count , bands to surface from Black,Death,Thrash Metal and all the business that it brings. 8/Vous avez un son proche des premiers groupes des 80’s , en quoi vous vous sentez proche du son de cette époque? Thomas : C’est le son que j’aime tout simplement, celui qui a changé ma vie à 14 ans et donc je me voyais mal jouer autre chose pour être dans l’air du temps. La nouvelle scène metal est médiocre je trouve dans le thrash et beaucoup se disent thrasheurs et jouent plus du hardcore ou du néo-metal en réalité. Rémi : Voila, comme Thomas, en fait c’est une putain d’histoire de son, les prods trop propres, lisses et sans saveur d’aujourdhui, ça dénature tout, ça perd toute son authenticité, le « vrai » metal selon moi, s’est construit dans la décennie 85/95, tu peu déborder un peu. C’est toute cette période, l’âge d’or du Black, Death Thrash…., aujourd'hui c’est soi du repompage avec du gros son, ou soit de l’innovation, mais là encore, on perd toute l’authenticité dont je parlais plus haut 8/Your sound is closer from the early 80’s bands, in which you feel closer from that sound? Thomas : That’s the sound I simply love. The one that changed me when I was 14 and so I didn’t see myself playing something else. The new scene is weak and I think Thrash and many called themselves this way but they are more Hardcore or Neo Metal in reality.
Remi : Yeah like Thomas, it’s just a fukin sound story. Too clean productions, without no life from today’s sound. It breaks it all and loosing it’s authencity, the True Metal sound was born in 85/95 and may go a bit further. It’s a whole age of Thrash , Death and Black.. today it’s just redoing with a fater sound but even with the technology it has lost everything as I said earlier. 9/Quel équipement vous utilisez? Thomas : Je joue sur le Mark4 de Mesa boogie et putain Mesa ça envoie. Ma gratte c’est ma conception. Rémi : Bass Fender JazzBass, et j’utilise MarkBass en tête d’ampli sur combo Hartke, je suis plutôt satisfait de cette association. Kiko : Engl powerball et LTD MH-350FR, après j’ai quelques pédales pour améliorer le son. 9/Which gears are you using? Thomas : I play on a Mesa Boogie Mark4 and it blows. My guitar is my own made. Remi : JazzBass Fender, I use a MarkBass for the head and a Hartke cab. I ‘m pretty satisfied with this association. Kiko : Engl powerball and LTD MH-350FR, I have few pedals to deal with the sound. 10/Comment c’est passé votre premier enregistrement de l’album? doit pas être simple la première fois? Thomas : Non je te confirme mdr, tu croies être un bon guitariste ou chanteur et puis là on te demande de faire de la musique comme un pro et la… ba tu bosse parce que tu voies bien que tu ne joues pas toujours clean. En tout cas je recommande à tout musiciens de faire un album c’est très révélateur et enrichissant dans son parcours. Bon, on la fait quand même parce qu’on est pas des tocards non plus hein mais c’est vrai que c’est souvent quand tu t’enregistre que tu t’aperçois le mieux de tels ou tels défauts. Rémi : Personnellement j’ai plutôt vécu ça comme une bonne expérience, je pense sincèrement que la vie de musiciens passe avant tout par le studio. Amaury : C'était ultra stressant. C'est une des rares fois où j'ai regretté d'avoir choisi la batterie ! Devoir tout reprendre pour une simple erreur, c'est traumatisant ! Kiko : C’était une expérience très enrichissante. Après avoir enregistré l’EP dans mon salon en home studio à l’époque où l’on vivait ensemble avec Thomas. Que l’on devait tout gérer de A à Z au niveau de la recherche du son et de la production. Se retrouver avec un ingénieur son et les gens du label a été comme un soulagement au niveau du travail technique à fournir. Cela a apporté un autre point de vue sur notre travail, ce qui nous a poussés vers l’avant. On a pu se concentrer plus sur notre jeu de musicien et c’était nécessaire. Depuis les répétitions sonnent beaucoup mieux ! 10/How did your album recording went so far? Must not be easy for the first time? Thomas : NO I admit lol, you think being a good guitarist or singer and then we ask you to play like a pro... you work cos you see that you need to and don’t always plays good. I recommend to any musicians to record an album it enlights you and helps you to grow in your life. We did it cos we are not stupid but you know it’s when you record your music you realise all the bad things and the best ones. Rémi : I personnaly lived that as a good experience, I sinceraly think musician ‘s life is mainly in the studio. Amaury : It was very stressing. It’s the only rare time I regreted to have chosen drums as my instrument! Replaying everything for just a tiny mistake, very traumatized. Kiko : That was a very rewarding experience . After recording the Ep in my home studio where we lived with Thomas. I was far away to thinking we had to deal with all aspect in searching for the sound and the production.Being
with the sound engineer and the whole label team conforted me for all the work to give. It brought another vision on our music work which leds us to pursue. We could get more concentrated towards our own playing and it was necessary. Since then rehearshals sound better! 11/Est ce que vous êtes auto formés ? Thomas : Autodidacte tu veux dire ? Oui pour le plus gros après moi j’ai pris un an de cours de gratte et de chant sinon jusque là j’ai fait comme beaucoup, j’ai regardé des vidéos de mes idoles. Rémi : Pareil Autodidacte, en fait quand j’y pense, c’est avec Psychoïd finalement que j’ai appris ce que je sais aujourd'hui. Amaury : J'ai reçu des cours il y a looooongtemps. Entre le moment où j'ai arrété et le moment où on a commencé le groupe, il ne restait plus grand chose. Au final, c'est dans Psychoïd que je me forme. Kiko : J’ai appris un peu le piano et le solfège et j’ai pris quelques cours de guitare dans ma jeunesse. Mais ça ne correspondait pas au côté énergique, puissant que je recherchais en tant que musicien. J’ai beaucoup appris et continue à apprendre seul, tout en m’inspirant de tout ce que je peux entendre. 11/Are you self taught? Thomas : You mean Autodidact? Yeah for most but I took few guitar lessons for a year and singing but I did like most just watching my idols videos. Rémi : Autodidact, in fact I think it’s with Psychoid I learnt all I know today. Amaury : I took lessons looooong time ago. Beetween the time I stopped and when I started the band, there was not much left. At the end it’s in Psychoid I learn. Kiko : I took few piano lessons and the music writting, and few guitar lessons when I was a kid. It didn’t match my energic pulse nor the power I was searching as a musician. I learnt a lot and still do on my own with taking all that I hear for my inspiration. 12/La basse est bien présente et donne ces super moments qui manquent aujourd’hui, écoutez vous les groupes récents où vous ne vous y intéressez pas du tout? Thomas : Moi j’écoute en nouveauté beaucoup Baroness et The Rival Sons par exemple. Comme je te disais je ne suis pas un fan de la nouvelle scène thrash. Rémi : C’est pas que je ne m’y intéresse pas du tout, mais je préfère de loin la scène old-school, on y retrouve une énergie, un son, une ambiance particulière qui n’existent plus dans le son d’aujourdhui. Regarde tout ces groupes qui veulent sonner old-school aujourd'hui, et l’émergence de la scène sludge rock stoner etc…. les trucs influencés deep purple, led zepp, Black Sabbath… tout ça revient a dire ce que je disais plus haut en fin de compte. La volonté de Thomas est de faire que cette basse soit bien présente, c’est d’ailleurs pas pour me déplaire. En fait, avec Thomas, on discute jamais très longtemps du son ou de la présence de la basse sur telles ou telles morceaux car nos avis et ressentis sont les mêmes sur ce sujet. Kiko : Par mon métier de disquaire j’écoute beaucoup de musique et connais bien les nouveautés du marché français. C’est enrichissant, même si c’est pas toujours ce que tu as envie d’entendre. Pour ce qui est des groupes, je suis attaché à mes favoris et laisse entrer peu de groupes récents. Je découvre par ci par là des artistes déjà connu, j’aime me plonger dans les époques. Ecouter comment les choses sont nées. 12/The bass is really heavy and gives great moment that missing today, do you listen the recent bands or you don’t care about at all? Thomas : I listen to most of recent Baroness and The Rival Sons for example. As I told you I’m not a fan of the new Thrash scene.
Rémi : It’s not that I don’t care about at all, but I prefer by far the old school scene . We find the energie, the sound, a special atmostphere that doesn’t exist today. Look out those band who wants to sound «old school» , the new Sludge Rock Stoner scene etc... they are influenced by deep purple, led zepp, Black Sabbath… everything is coming back finally. The wish from Thomas, and we discuss a lot about it, is to have the bass really present on this or that typicall song as we have the same fell together about it. Kiko : Due to my job a record seller, I listen a lot of music and know what is done today in France. It’s interesting even if it’s not always what you like or expect. I mostly listen my old times favorites and from time to time check new bands.I rediscover some known artist and like to plunge into the music history to know how those bands started. 13/Quel est le groupe qui vous a le plus influencé? Thomas : Metallica Rémi : Oui Metallica, évidement mais pas que: slayer, dark angel, entombed, venom, bathory, Hellhammer et tellement d’autres en ce qui me concerne … Kiko : Slayer, Megadeth, Testament, Motorhead, Deep purple et beaucoup d’autres. 13/Which bands have influenced you the most? Thomas : Metallica Rémi : Yes Metallica, of course not only : Slayer, Dark Angel, Entombed, Venom, Bathory, Hellhammer and so many as I’m concerned … Kiko : Slayer, Megadeth, Testament, Motorhead, Deep purple and many others. 14/Avec quels groupes allez vous tourner pour cet album? y’a t’il certains dont vous aimeriez faire la première partie? et pourquoi? Amaury : Aucune idée, probablement avec le line up de notre label. Du moment qu'on joue avec des gens cool, ça nous suffit. On garde d'excellents souvenirs de notre tournée avec Voice of Winter et Mezcla, ces mecs sont vraiment sympas et ils arrachent tout sur scène. 14/With which bands you are going to tour for that album? Are they some you’d like to share the stage with? Amaury : No idea, probably the roaster from our label. As long as we play with nice people, it’s enough for us. We keep excellent contact and memories from our tour with Voice of Winter et Mezcla, those guys are really cool and they kick live
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