Tao Menizoo
Tao Menizoo! Interesting name, very unusual I could say, for an Industrial Death/Thrash Metal band! Thanks to Laurent, the band leader, you have a great opportunity to see what all is about with this French extreme Metal band, and I assure you that you won't be disappointed if you decide to buy Tao Menizoo's last album called "So Blind"! So here you have Laurent in an exclusivity statement for Arcana Noctis!
Arcana Noctis: Hello Laurent! How are you and how are the things going on for your band now that the brand new album is out for a while?
Laurent: Hi, first of all, thank you for this interview! Since the album is out, our main activity is promotion and gigs. We can't speak of touring, because of the time between each date, but we had never done so many shows in such a short time before! It's a real kick-in-the-ass for us and a real pleasure to meet people and audience here, there and everywhere we're invited to play... So, we work hard to keep on playing live on that kind of regular basis! Otherwise, we have released a second video, a 100% homemade stop-motion video, as was the first video, but with a longer song... And finally, we are working on new songs and thinking about the artistic lines of the next album (planned for the end 2010)...
Arcana Noctis: I would like you to tell us a few things about band history, starting with the very beginning back in 1997 if I'm not wrong!
Laurent: You're right; we played the first notes together around 1997. We (Koshee -drums-, Totof -guitar-, Ronan -bass- and I -guitar-) were already here, still are and will be... Only singers came and went away. Two of them! Before we decided that my temporary unofficial vocal participation will be the right one since we couldn't find the right person for the job. I can't imagine the band without any of us: for about 12 years, the core of the band has never changed! It's a story of strong friendship, confidence and common vision. Of course some disagreement may occur about a song, a riff, a set list, a vocal line, but it never comes up to arguing or fighting... None of us has to be frustrated of being in the band, so any tension is solved as soon it happens...
Back to history: In 1999, 2001 and 2002, we recorded some demos before the first album in 2003 (you can find all the demo recordings as mp3 bonus tracks on that first album). We had a distribution deal for it, but without any promotional budget, this album remained in the shades of oblivion ;-) though it got many good reviews...
Then our musical activities have been slowed down because of problems with our rehearsal place before we find a new one... Here is the second album "So Blind" chronology: Summer 2006, first takes (drums, guitars) of the new album; Autumn and winter, bass and vocal takes, arrangements... Spring and summer 2007: album mixing... Autumn: album mastering... January 2008: the album is released first as a promo for getting reviews and searching for a deal with a label... The deal is signed with Thundering Records/Manitou Music just before summer 2008... And the official release according to the distributor planning is September 2008... Then shows and shows, up to now, and still for a few dates (see our website for more info about gigs)
Arcana Noctis: Now I would like you to introduce us the new opus "So Blind" by telling us the necessary technical details and so on; and don't forget to tell us a few words about each song!
Laurent: We did entirely the "So Blind" album by ourselves, except the mastering made in Belgium in a professional studio. So we did the recordings (we had to buy a noticeably important list of gears, microphones and software) at our rehearsal place for the drums and the guitars. Drums (Yamaha Recording model) have been miked with Shure Beta52 and Beta91, Beta56, SM57, Sennheiser MD421 and Oktava overheads. Guitars (Vigier and Gibson) were miked with SM57, MD421 and an Oktava. We used a Line6 Pod Pro XT... Since the takes; we have bought some tube amps (ENGL E530) we will use for our next recordings, for sure...
For the bass, we recorded it, at my home, directly plugged into the audio interface, then ramped with two sounds of the Bass Pack of the Pod, one clean and one crunched... If you listen carefully to the bass guitar on the album (particularly the bridge in "Not Even God") you will notice it's always a bit distorted, never clean... It's an Andy Sneap recommendation: "try distorting the bass more than you think, you need some mid range there" (see Noise 101 website).
Vocals have been recorded at home with a T-Bone SC1100 and a SM57 microphones... I have doubled each take and put some distortion of one track leaving the other clean.
Mixing has been done with Cubase, and the plugins of the Focusrite Liquid Mix and Universal UAD-1 dsps... The keyboards sounds you can hear on the album are all VST plugins or samples...
I won't give detailed explanation on every songs, there's too much to say!!! But, anyway, here are some tricks about the first ones:
"Words Of Wrath": a short song, an introduction to the album. It's a quite old song that was very much longer, but the second part was far less "in-your-face" so we decided to make it a shorter title, with only the fast and aggressive parts.
"Deathwish": a quite typical song of Tao Menizoo, melting different styles and parts. You can hear some samples of electric arc during the song, and whispers at the beginning of the first bridge, just after the first chorus... The keyboard playing a light and repetitive tune is a virtual instrument, emulating a mellotron... We use some pitch correcting on the voices to create strange artificial harmonies and melodies in the last bridge part, the one before the last chorus...
"So Blind": a track where you can hear the bass treatment: clean but compressed original sound mixed with overdrive... And when the bass plays alone, a light touch of chorus effect... The high pitched voices in the chorus are all mine, there are about 5 or 6 overdubs... Of course, I can't sing it live as it's recorded, so for the gig, the drummer sing it with me, and I use a more harsh voice to give it more impact... In the final bridge, if you listen very carefully, you may hear some very discrete "Ha!" of an orchestral choir... They are played on a 4/4 basis, but the riff is absolutely not 4/4, so it gives an impression of misplacement and irregularity, but it's not ! ;-)
"My Funeral": lots of orchestral parts (strings, horns, timpani) and discrete guitar FX overdubs in the introduction and chorus of this song... Koshee, the drummer, is the clean voice singing the chorus... He sings it live too... We do really like playing that song live, because it melts heavy chords and blasting parts...
"Not Even God": the interesting part is the middle bridge with arpeggios, nice overdriven walking bass, ethereal voices (Koshee and I) and a reversed guitar solo... Sort of 70s touch ;-))
Arcana Noctis: This album was recorded during the 2007 year, being masterised at the end of the same year. Only in September 2008 you find a deal signing with Thundering/Manitou Records. Don't you think that it was delayed to long?
Laurent: For sure, the time spent for recording the album is way too long. Doing a record at home has an obvious advantage: the freedom to do things deeply and carefully (and doing it again, and again...), but it has a major drawback: the freedom to lose so much time re-doing things, or doing anything else instead of working hard on the recordings! For the next album, we will plan things better and try to respect our own deadlines.
The delay between the release of the demo and the deal is the normal time for: contact many labels, send the stuff, wait for the listening done, get a return, try to convince, convince, negotiate, think about the decision, give an OK, prepare the documents, read them carefully, sign them, send them, wait for the distributor to plan the official release according its own release roadmap, and finally get the album released...
Arcana Noctis: I mean is it so hard to find a label out there? Because as I can see Tao Menizoo's way of playing seems to be a very interesting one and too many shitty bands have signed with major labels. I don't want to mention anyone here but I know that you have a few in your mind!
Laurent: Thank you for appreciating our music! The main goal of a label is trying to survive by making a few money with popular or/and bankable bands... So, it means that a band playing a well identified style, in the hype of the moment, will find a deal more easily than a band with a strong personality but barely unclassable... You can be different BUT you have to be easily marketable in well-known musical areas... I'm not sure we can be labelled with a single simple word; well in the hype... Lots of people do appreciate or really like our music and style, but only a few make the next step and buy our record or come and see us during our shows...
Arcana Noctis: Could you please tell us what are the major differences between "So Blind" and your previous materials, especially to that one recorded back in 2003?
Laurent: Technically, this album has been entirely made by ourselves only and no one else (except mastering), way more than the previous one was... The songs have been written on a shorter period of time, as a consequence the musical style should be seen (and heard!) as more homogeneous, I think... And I dare to believe that I sing better too on that record ;-) We have also tried unusual (for us) vocals line: clean and high, and harmonized... And there is no guest and no featuring, this album is much more personal... Finally: the lyrics follow a concept while those on the first album don't...
Arcana Noctis: What are your lyrics talking about and tell us if there is a link between all your songs at the lyrical level?
Laurent: There is no chronology in the album, as it's a not a story, but yes, there is a concept, a link between the song. They all are about a kind of messiah becoming a dictator, oppressing and controlling people by religion, education, sexuality, narcotics, prophecies and visions... That's also a major difference between this album and the first one where lyrics were various and clearly unrelated...
Arcana Noctis: Do you have something with the religion in all its forms? Do you think that today's MAN would be a different one if religion doesn't exist?
Laurent: Of course, man would be different... But I can't say if the resulting world would be better or worse... I personally have no problem with believers as far they keep their faith private. Religion, or any spiritual conviction, belongs to the private sphere, not public. That's a kind of private path everyone should follow (or not!) without being led by a mentor or a guide: his way is not yours, your way is not mine. And I don't see why religion should apply to anything else but spiritual world... I don't need a priest in my bedroom or in my fridge!!! I can't stand proselytes... But religions, and religious people, seem unable to keep their faith for themselves... It's a so naïve attitude to believe being the elected people knowing the real truth laying beyond the appearances of things...
Arcana Noctis: Now let's talk a little bit about your musical style. You call this polymorphic Thrash/Death blasting! What exactly do you want to express with this polymorphic... and tell us if you found another band to play almost in the same vein with you?
Laurent: None of us in the band is entirely in a definite style of Metal. Some Metal bands play a very well defined style, because every member is heart and soul into that's style... We aren't. None of us can't even be defined as being a pure metalhead... Diversity and multiplicity of our likes, dislikes and tastes (in Metal music, as in non-Metal music) makes us write and play songs where every one of us put what he wants to hear in it, being Metal or not... We have no problem with melting Thrash riffing with Death break, Black Metal blast, odd progressive time signatures, Industrial sampling or Pop arranging... As far we all do like the result. Full agreement between us is more important than musical orthodoxy. We never say "we can't play that because our fans won't like it" or "we can't play that because it's not compliant with the rules of the style"... We can deliberately play clichés or try to avoid any déjà-vu, no matter what people will think about that... Some will like, some won't, so we will keep on playing for these that are touched by our approach... And they are enough numerous for being considered as an effective audience, so we are not alone! ;-)) Though we have some news songs written, we do not know yet how the next album will sound like! Faster? Slower? Easier? Darker? More brutal? More Pop? Who knows? We don't!
I don't know if we are in the same vein than another band, because in fact, we are in many veins, depending the song or even the part in the song... One can find a bit of all our influences in our songs: Voivod, Prong, Opeth, Pantera, Death for example... But you can't say we are right in the vein of Voivod, or Prong, or Opeth, or any other band... BUT we do not think we deserve our own new vein!!! ;-))
Arcana Noctis: Can you tell us a few words about the feedback that I supposed that you received until now, taking into consideration that this album was on line starting with the beginning of 2008?
Laurent: During the whole year 2008, and still a bit during 2009, we had collected a lot of reviews (you can read them in PDF file on our website). Most of them are clearly positive, and some are even really enthusiast!! Of course, there are some bad (and very bad) reviews but they are only a few, so we consider we are mainly encouraged in our musical choices and decisions... We expected a more moderated feedback... So the main surprise for us has been the high level of enthusiasm, of a great number of reviews...
Arcana Noctis: Is "So Blind" the most important thing that you have done until now with Tao Menizoo?
Laurent: Actually, this second album remains in a kind of continuity with our previous work and approach, but we have been further in the DIY, so in a technical point of view, it was a kind of test for us to know if we can go on producing our music by ourselves or not. So, we know we can, but we know the points to improve too. What is very different and somewhat new, and very important for us, is the real effort we have made this time in promoting the album and looking for shows of any kind... We have to keep this effort continuously, and get more and more shows, in more and more regions, and even countries in a next future, we hope so...
Arcana Noctis: Are you content with the deal you've signed with Thundering Records? What are they thinking about this album and of course about the feedback?
Laurent: Yes we are, as we did not have any illusion about the reality of the Metal music market in France, and about what the label could do or not... We did not expect the label doing all the job for us... We have considered the deal as a kick-in-the-ass start to make us work and go further, and that's what it is actually... I don't know what they are thinking about the album in the deep of their heart. I just know they have found it enough good to make a deal with us... I keep them inform of any feedback I get about the album, but I must admit they seem to have more important bands to manage for now... Maybe they are not enough people in the label to manage all the bands equally and so, priorities change very fast, and I'm not sure we are anymore on the top of their "to-do" list... "C'est la vie"... The real test will be the next album, because normally it will be worked and promoted before it's effective release while "So Blind" did not benefit that kind of "pre-release" promotion...
Arcana Noctis: I suppose that you have started to create new songs for the new album, if we take into consideration that "So Blind" was recorded back in '07. Am I right? How is going to be the new album, and tell us if are you going to play in the same way you did until now?
Laurent: We have about 4 or 5 songs almost finished, and some embryos for a few more... We're going to have a little more time to write new songs because of gigs recently cancelled or delayed... We should have complete the writing by the end of the year, to record the album in the beginning 2010 for a release about September... During that time of writing, we should record some pre-prod/work-in-progress tracks... Maybe some demos will be available on our MySpace... Or not... ;-)) About the musical orientations, it seems we are going in the same way, but maybe the songs will be written more for being played live, more in-your-face... Or not... ;-)) You know, our songs used to change a lot between their writing, their recording, and their live versions... They're not carved in stone, even after being released on CD...
Arcana Noctis: Tell us your future plans and give us a few details about the live activity you're going to have this year 2009!
Laurent: In the next few months, the gig activity should slow down a bit to let us some time to write news songs. But there still will be some shows (maybe abroad??), because we still have to keep alive the "So Blind" album promotion and the promotion of the band name... As previously said, we are currently writing new songs and lyrics... We should record also some pre-prod tracks, and work on microphones placement, effects use and so on for the future takes and recordings, if we decide to do it ourselves again. And we are currently working on finding gigs for the end of 2009, so, there's not so much to tell about that for now as nothing is confirmed!
Arcana Noctis: My friend that would be all for now. Thanks a lot and you have the last word to conclude this interview. I wish you all the best!!!
Laurent: Thank you for this interview! We hope some of your readers will be enough interested by the band to give a try to our album... Anyway, keep on rockin' and stay Metal! See you!
Arcana Noctis: Hello Laurent! How are you and how are the things going on for your band now that the brand new album is out for a while?
Laurent: Hi, first of all, thank you for this interview! Since the album is out, our main activity is promotion and gigs. We can't speak of touring, because of the time between each date, but we had never done so many shows in such a short time before! It's a real kick-in-the-ass for us and a real pleasure to meet people and audience here, there and everywhere we're invited to play... So, we work hard to keep on playing live on that kind of regular basis! Otherwise, we have released a second video, a 100% homemade stop-motion video, as was the first video, but with a longer song... And finally, we are working on new songs and thinking about the artistic lines of the next album (planned for the end 2010)...Arcana Noctis: I would like you to tell us a few things about band history, starting with the very beginning back in 1997 if I'm not wrong!
Laurent: You're right; we played the first notes together around 1997. We (Koshee -drums-, Totof -guitar-, Ronan -bass- and I -guitar-) were already here, still are and will be... Only singers came and went away. Two of them! Before we decided that my temporary unofficial vocal participation will be the right one since we couldn't find the right person for the job. I can't imagine the band without any of us: for about 12 years, the core of the band has never changed! It's a story of strong friendship, confidence and common vision. Of course some disagreement may occur about a song, a riff, a set list, a vocal line, but it never comes up to arguing or fighting... None of us has to be frustrated of being in the band, so any tension is solved as soon it happens...
Back to history: In 1999, 2001 and 2002, we recorded some demos before the first album in 2003 (you can find all the demo recordings as mp3 bonus tracks on that first album). We had a distribution deal for it, but without any promotional budget, this album remained in the shades of oblivion ;-) though it got many good reviews...
Then our musical activities have been slowed down because of problems with our rehearsal place before we find a new one... Here is the second album "So Blind" chronology: Summer 2006, first takes (drums, guitars) of the new album; Autumn and winter, bass and vocal takes, arrangements... Spring and summer 2007: album mixing... Autumn: album mastering... January 2008: the album is released first as a promo for getting reviews and searching for a deal with a label... The deal is signed with Thundering Records/Manitou Music just before summer 2008... And the official release according to the distributor planning is September 2008... Then shows and shows, up to now, and still for a few dates (see our website for more info about gigs)
Arcana Noctis: Now I would like you to introduce us the new opus "So Blind" by telling us the necessary technical details and so on; and don't forget to tell us a few words about each song!
Laurent: We did entirely the "So Blind" album by ourselves, except the mastering made in Belgium in a professional studio. So we did the recordings (we had to buy a noticeably important list of gears, microphones and software) at our rehearsal place for the drums and the guitars. Drums (Yamaha Recording model) have been miked with Shure Beta52 and Beta91, Beta56, SM57, Sennheiser MD421 and Oktava overheads. Guitars (Vigier and Gibson) were miked with SM57, MD421 and an Oktava. We used a Line6 Pod Pro XT... Since the takes; we have bought some tube amps (ENGL E530) we will use for our next recordings, for sure...
For the bass, we recorded it, at my home, directly plugged into the audio interface, then ramped with two sounds of the Bass Pack of the Pod, one clean and one crunched... If you listen carefully to the bass guitar on the album (particularly the bridge in "Not Even God") you will notice it's always a bit distorted, never clean... It's an Andy Sneap recommendation: "try distorting the bass more than you think, you need some mid range there" (see Noise 101 website).
Vocals have been recorded at home with a T-Bone SC1100 and a SM57 microphones... I have doubled each take and put some distortion of one track leaving the other clean.
Mixing has been done with Cubase, and the plugins of the Focusrite Liquid Mix and Universal UAD-1 dsps... The keyboards sounds you can hear on the album are all VST plugins or samples...
I won't give detailed explanation on every songs, there's too much to say!!! But, anyway, here are some tricks about the first ones:
"Words Of Wrath": a short song, an introduction to the album. It's a quite old song that was very much longer, but the second part was far less "in-your-face" so we decided to make it a shorter title, with only the fast and aggressive parts.
"Deathwish": a quite typical song of Tao Menizoo, melting different styles and parts. You can hear some samples of electric arc during the song, and whispers at the beginning of the first bridge, just after the first chorus... The keyboard playing a light and repetitive tune is a virtual instrument, emulating a mellotron... We use some pitch correcting on the voices to create strange artificial harmonies and melodies in the last bridge part, the one before the last chorus...
"So Blind": a track where you can hear the bass treatment: clean but compressed original sound mixed with overdrive... And when the bass plays alone, a light touch of chorus effect... The high pitched voices in the chorus are all mine, there are about 5 or 6 overdubs... Of course, I can't sing it live as it's recorded, so for the gig, the drummer sing it with me, and I use a more harsh voice to give it more impact... In the final bridge, if you listen very carefully, you may hear some very discrete "Ha!" of an orchestral choir... They are played on a 4/4 basis, but the riff is absolutely not 4/4, so it gives an impression of misplacement and irregularity, but it's not ! ;-)
"My Funeral": lots of orchestral parts (strings, horns, timpani) and discrete guitar FX overdubs in the introduction and chorus of this song... Koshee, the drummer, is the clean voice singing the chorus... He sings it live too... We do really like playing that song live, because it melts heavy chords and blasting parts...
"Not Even God": the interesting part is the middle bridge with arpeggios, nice overdriven walking bass, ethereal voices (Koshee and I) and a reversed guitar solo... Sort of 70s touch ;-))
Arcana Noctis: This album was recorded during the 2007 year, being masterised at the end of the same year. Only in September 2008 you find a deal signing with Thundering/Manitou Records. Don't you think that it was delayed to long?
Laurent: For sure, the time spent for recording the album is way too long. Doing a record at home has an obvious advantage: the freedom to do things deeply and carefully (and doing it again, and again...), but it has a major drawback: the freedom to lose so much time re-doing things, or doing anything else instead of working hard on the recordings! For the next album, we will plan things better and try to respect our own deadlines.
The delay between the release of the demo and the deal is the normal time for: contact many labels, send the stuff, wait for the listening done, get a return, try to convince, convince, negotiate, think about the decision, give an OK, prepare the documents, read them carefully, sign them, send them, wait for the distributor to plan the official release according its own release roadmap, and finally get the album released...
Arcana Noctis: I mean is it so hard to find a label out there? Because as I can see Tao Menizoo's way of playing seems to be a very interesting one and too many shitty bands have signed with major labels. I don't want to mention anyone here but I know that you have a few in your mind!
Laurent: Thank you for appreciating our music! The main goal of a label is trying to survive by making a few money with popular or/and bankable bands... So, it means that a band playing a well identified style, in the hype of the moment, will find a deal more easily than a band with a strong personality but barely unclassable... You can be different BUT you have to be easily marketable in well-known musical areas... I'm not sure we can be labelled with a single simple word; well in the hype... Lots of people do appreciate or really like our music and style, but only a few make the next step and buy our record or come and see us during our shows...
Arcana Noctis: Could you please tell us what are the major differences between "So Blind" and your previous materials, especially to that one recorded back in 2003?
Laurent: Technically, this album has been entirely made by ourselves only and no one else (except mastering), way more than the previous one was... The songs have been written on a shorter period of time, as a consequence the musical style should be seen (and heard!) as more homogeneous, I think... And I dare to believe that I sing better too on that record ;-) We have also tried unusual (for us) vocals line: clean and high, and harmonized... And there is no guest and no featuring, this album is much more personal... Finally: the lyrics follow a concept while those on the first album don't...
Arcana Noctis: What are your lyrics talking about and tell us if there is a link between all your songs at the lyrical level?
Laurent: There is no chronology in the album, as it's a not a story, but yes, there is a concept, a link between the song. They all are about a kind of messiah becoming a dictator, oppressing and controlling people by religion, education, sexuality, narcotics, prophecies and visions... That's also a major difference between this album and the first one where lyrics were various and clearly unrelated...
Arcana Noctis: Do you have something with the religion in all its forms? Do you think that today's MAN would be a different one if religion doesn't exist?
Laurent: Of course, man would be different... But I can't say if the resulting world would be better or worse... I personally have no problem with believers as far they keep their faith private. Religion, or any spiritual conviction, belongs to the private sphere, not public. That's a kind of private path everyone should follow (or not!) without being led by a mentor or a guide: his way is not yours, your way is not mine. And I don't see why religion should apply to anything else but spiritual world... I don't need a priest in my bedroom or in my fridge!!! I can't stand proselytes... But religions, and religious people, seem unable to keep their faith for themselves... It's a so naïve attitude to believe being the elected people knowing the real truth laying beyond the appearances of things...
Arcana Noctis: Now let's talk a little bit about your musical style. You call this polymorphic Thrash/Death blasting! What exactly do you want to express with this polymorphic... and tell us if you found another band to play almost in the same vein with you?
Laurent: None of us in the band is entirely in a definite style of Metal. Some Metal bands play a very well defined style, because every member is heart and soul into that's style... We aren't. None of us can't even be defined as being a pure metalhead... Diversity and multiplicity of our likes, dislikes and tastes (in Metal music, as in non-Metal music) makes us write and play songs where every one of us put what he wants to hear in it, being Metal or not... We have no problem with melting Thrash riffing with Death break, Black Metal blast, odd progressive time signatures, Industrial sampling or Pop arranging... As far we all do like the result. Full agreement between us is more important than musical orthodoxy. We never say "we can't play that because our fans won't like it" or "we can't play that because it's not compliant with the rules of the style"... We can deliberately play clichés or try to avoid any déjà-vu, no matter what people will think about that... Some will like, some won't, so we will keep on playing for these that are touched by our approach... And they are enough numerous for being considered as an effective audience, so we are not alone! ;-)) Though we have some news songs written, we do not know yet how the next album will sound like! Faster? Slower? Easier? Darker? More brutal? More Pop? Who knows? We don't!
I don't know if we are in the same vein than another band, because in fact, we are in many veins, depending the song or even the part in the song... One can find a bit of all our influences in our songs: Voivod, Prong, Opeth, Pantera, Death for example... But you can't say we are right in the vein of Voivod, or Prong, or Opeth, or any other band... BUT we do not think we deserve our own new vein!!! ;-))
Arcana Noctis: Can you tell us a few words about the feedback that I supposed that you received until now, taking into consideration that this album was on line starting with the beginning of 2008?
Laurent: During the whole year 2008, and still a bit during 2009, we had collected a lot of reviews (you can read them in PDF file on our website). Most of them are clearly positive, and some are even really enthusiast!! Of course, there are some bad (and very bad) reviews but they are only a few, so we consider we are mainly encouraged in our musical choices and decisions... We expected a more moderated feedback... So the main surprise for us has been the high level of enthusiasm, of a great number of reviews...
Arcana Noctis: Is "So Blind" the most important thing that you have done until now with Tao Menizoo?
Laurent: Actually, this second album remains in a kind of continuity with our previous work and approach, but we have been further in the DIY, so in a technical point of view, it was a kind of test for us to know if we can go on producing our music by ourselves or not. So, we know we can, but we know the points to improve too. What is very different and somewhat new, and very important for us, is the real effort we have made this time in promoting the album and looking for shows of any kind... We have to keep this effort continuously, and get more and more shows, in more and more regions, and even countries in a next future, we hope so...
Arcana Noctis: Are you content with the deal you've signed with Thundering Records? What are they thinking about this album and of course about the feedback?
Laurent: Yes we are, as we did not have any illusion about the reality of the Metal music market in France, and about what the label could do or not... We did not expect the label doing all the job for us... We have considered the deal as a kick-in-the-ass start to make us work and go further, and that's what it is actually... I don't know what they are thinking about the album in the deep of their heart. I just know they have found it enough good to make a deal with us... I keep them inform of any feedback I get about the album, but I must admit they seem to have more important bands to manage for now... Maybe they are not enough people in the label to manage all the bands equally and so, priorities change very fast, and I'm not sure we are anymore on the top of their "to-do" list... "C'est la vie"... The real test will be the next album, because normally it will be worked and promoted before it's effective release while "So Blind" did not benefit that kind of "pre-release" promotion...
Arcana Noctis: I suppose that you have started to create new songs for the new album, if we take into consideration that "So Blind" was recorded back in '07. Am I right? How is going to be the new album, and tell us if are you going to play in the same way you did until now?
Laurent: We have about 4 or 5 songs almost finished, and some embryos for a few more... We're going to have a little more time to write new songs because of gigs recently cancelled or delayed... We should have complete the writing by the end of the year, to record the album in the beginning 2010 for a release about September... During that time of writing, we should record some pre-prod/work-in-progress tracks... Maybe some demos will be available on our MySpace... Or not... ;-)) About the musical orientations, it seems we are going in the same way, but maybe the songs will be written more for being played live, more in-your-face... Or not... ;-)) You know, our songs used to change a lot between their writing, their recording, and their live versions... They're not carved in stone, even after being released on CD...
Arcana Noctis: Tell us your future plans and give us a few details about the live activity you're going to have this year 2009!
Laurent: In the next few months, the gig activity should slow down a bit to let us some time to write news songs. But there still will be some shows (maybe abroad??), because we still have to keep alive the "So Blind" album promotion and the promotion of the band name... As previously said, we are currently writing new songs and lyrics... We should record also some pre-prod tracks, and work on microphones placement, effects use and so on for the future takes and recordings, if we decide to do it ourselves again. And we are currently working on finding gigs for the end of 2009, so, there's not so much to tell about that for now as nothing is confirmed!
Arcana Noctis: My friend that would be all for now. Thanks a lot and you have the last word to conclude this interview. I wish you all the best!!!
Laurent: Thank you for this interview! We hope some of your readers will be enough interested by the band to give a try to our album... Anyway, keep on rockin' and stay Metal! See you!