1.Since you are at your first interview on this site, why don't you tell our readers when and how you started your journey in the underground world?
It's actually my first interview ever so thank you for that.
Well back in 2016 my brother released his first album as Keor.
Since he always was my model I tried that too. My setup was so bad but I didn't care cause I had so much fun making my first couple of songs (some of which Chris and I revisited and will be on the album).
Around that time I discovered the Djent / modern Prog scene with bands like Modern Day Babylon or Meshuggah and it was such a revelation and a relief for me. Let me explain: My memory is SHIT. Since the age of 9 or 10, I've been playing my own riffs but I've never been able to play twice the same pattern. For the longest time I'd feel bad for never playing in 4/4 but when I started listening to MdB I was like: "I can't count to 4 to this, not even 3 ! Oh I counted to 6 there, wait, now it's 7 ??? Yet I'm still banging my head hard". So I slowly stopped counting when creating my material. I don't care about the time signature anymore. I'll let what comes out my fingers be.
With that mentality, I released 2 EPs in 2018 as "Bayne" (a nickname I don't want anyone to call me, ever): "The Great Storm" and "Turn The Page". Since then I've kept production as a hobby. I'd write new songs when I felt like it and never felt any pressure related to time, or band members since I worked alone for most of the time.
I've received lots of support and advice over the years from my brother and other members of Facebook groups like "Djent" "Prog Snob" and their respective shitposting counterparts.
Back in the first lockdown, I started uploading again, this time with more knowledge and experience in production and composition. Now as Vows of Wolves I released on youtube instrumental demos of the new songs "Goliath" and "Commando" as well as a remake of "Burst" from my second EP. That's when Chris hit me up with a vocal demo over it.
Seduced by his demonic voice he became the second half of the band. Everything I lacked he masters. His work ethic, ability to write lyrics, scream, record vocals, mix and master are incredible and that's all VoW needed.
Since then we've been working on the album in our free time. Chris does what he does best and I started tackling video editing / and designed our visuals (ie logo / social media). I edited our latest Lyric Video for "The Blood That Is Not Mine" which is available on our Youtube channel.
2. What genres and bands is the group influenced by?
That's a hard question to answer. We both listen to various bands and genres. I guess you'll hear a bit of Opeth here, a bit of Infant Annihilator there, maybe some Lamb of God, definitely some Periphery. I guess the listeners and their neutral ears will be more efficient at answering that question.
3. I know it might not be easy to do, but could you comment on your latest work?
Our latest work is the lyric video of "The Blood That Is Not Mine". This song is softer than the other singles; it's has a long airy and melancholic melodic build-up which is followed by 2 verses of slow, heavy riffage along with Chris' brutal gutturals separated by choirs sections. It ends with a straight-up trap beat which felt right to us so we kept it.
As for the video, I took a picture of the awful wallpaper of the room that I was in and edited it to fit the song. It's as simple as that.
4.The underground metal scene is undoubtedly inflated by many groups, so (often) it is necessary to present compositions that stand out in the chaos of the various musical scenes. Do you think your songs have something more to say or different from what has already been said in the crowded metal world?
I think what people may appreciate about the album is that even though it has been made with lots of love and care there's this "I don't give a fuck" vibe through all of it. We don't care if it's played perfectly tight, we don't care if there's unwanted noise here and there just as long as it has the right energy to it. My writing process is uninhibited. When I'm stuck in the writing process I sometimes write 5, 6, 7 riffs and only keep the most interesting one and so on. I don't care all that much about song structures. Sometimes songs like Burst have a more traditional structure with a chorus / verse / breakdown / solo. Others like Follow My Command will tell a linear story and have various changes of moods. We have 7 string bangers, slow and heavy ones, long and progressive ones, melodic ones. All of that is placed in the album to keep the listener engaged and put him on a rollercoaster of emotions.
5.What do you think of the national underground scene?
The shows smell bad and I get bruises everywhere. I love it.
6. The career of a musical group (however short it may be) is always studded with more or less positive events. What would you like to erase and what will you always remember from your group experience, from the very beginning until now?
Well for the short period of time that we've been a thing, there are only positive events, the best one is when we met for the first time. I went to Chris's house in Germany all the way from Southern France to work on the 3 singles that we released. We had great fun while working efficiently, drank beer at the bar with members of the local scene, and had long conversations outside at night. Good memories :)
7. How do you judge the Internet vehicle for promoting the music scene?
It's the best and worst thing. It's great because you can reach people from around the world while laying on your couch but it's also unforgiving. Since the market is flooded, you stop posting stuff for a while and everybody forgets about you. The algorithms of all those social media demand regularity to put you on the front, which can kill art if you only upload that. Therefore communication becomes more important than quality if your goal is to make a living out of your music, and it's a skill everyone should learn to master, myself included. There are so many artists that offer original, well-felt music and yet are in the shadows.
8.Since we are talking about it .... how many original CDs do you buy each month? And how many do you listen to?
Original what ? I rarely listen to albums in their entirety. Most of the time it's when they come out.
9.What does your group want to do when they grow up?
I wanna get rid of backing tracks during live shows at some point. I want to treat live versions of our songs as different objects as the studio ones and bring that rock 'n' roll feel with us.
10.Okay, guys! The space at our disposal is about to run out, but I want to give you carte blanche for the last message. The word is yours, you are free to express yourselves!
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