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I recently had a chance to interview the guys over at Despised Icon, a band out of Canada. I'll let the interview speak words for them. Great bunch of guys, so check it out! They will be playing at the Galaxy Theatre this weekend, so if your out there in Cali, your asses better be there!
Interview w/ Eric Jarrin - guitar 1) Can you tell us a bit about the band, who's who and when it was formed Me (Eric, guitarist), Greg (ex-guitarist) and Alex (former drummer and actual vocalist) knew each other for some time and played in our respective bands but wanted to do something together more brutal and moshbeat oriented. I was a good friend of Marie (ex-vocalist) who was singing in a grindcore band and she introduced us to Sebastien (Bass). Then we decided to get a second vocalist to have more diversity vocalwise and that’s when Steve came in. Greg left to be replaced by Yannick (guitarist) and Marie had to quit for personal reasons. At the same time Alex developped tendinitis and had to quit playing drums so he filled Marie’s spot on vocals and we had to find a new drummer. Alex Pelletier (drummer) showed up for the audition and was the one for us. 2) You currently have 4 releases, the latest being The Healing Process. Each CD looks to have been released by a different label each time, why so much shifting between companies? This was not intentional at all, our first album came out on Galy records ‘cause we knew Eric Galy and he wanted to release it. Then we printed a 2 song self-distributed promo EP and that’s when Century Media contacted us. At the same time we knew a guy working for Relapse that proposed to release a split CD with BITGOTA. So that’s pretty much it but as for now, we consider ourselves members of the Century Media family. 3) Both Alex and Steve Marois cover the vocals, why have two singers in the band? Do each of them cover different singing types? We wanted more diversity vocalwise, that’s why Steve was brought in in the first place. When Marie left and Alex took over, it was a major change cause Alex’s vocals are more aggressive and hardcore like. Steve has always been taking care of the low growls and high pitched screams ‘cause that’s what he does best. 4) I recently heard your music termed as Deathcore, a mixture of Death Metal and Hardcore, how did the idea to combine both music styles come about? That’s funny ‘cause we never intended to mix any kind of metal styles, we just wanted to be extremely fast with blast beats and grinds while being able to come up with some of the most brutal moshbeats ever. Maybe that’s where the hardcorish style can be heard but to me, breakdowns have always been in heavy metal, way before the trendy new wave of metalcore. 5) How do you go about writing new songs, do you write all of your own music & lyrics? Me and Alex have written about 85% of the music on The Healing Process but nowadays Pelletier brings a lot of ideas and lyrics are mostly written 50% by Steve and 50% by Alex. 6) You recently did some shows with The Red Chord and If Hope Dies, how did those shows go, any highlights from the shows? These guys rule, the are awesome live and they deliver the shit. It was cool meeting them and we’ve found that our music fits well theirs so we really would like to do something with them in the future. 7) Later this month you will be embarking on your first US based tour, are you excited? Any thoughts on the other bands you will be touring with? It’s great to be touring with the legendary Deicide ‘cause they were a huge influence for many of us back when we started to play music and Skinless is an awesome live band. We’ve met With Passion and they are cool guys to hang with. 8) The canadian metal scene has been becoming more and more popular recently, and Quebec seems to be a hotspot for the metal scene. What's going on there to make it so popular? Maybe it has something to do with our european roots but the Province of Quebec is certainly a special place for metal bands. Montreal has been the mother of so many metal bands and the scene keeps growing stronger every year. Maybe that’s why it is that much welcoming for foreign metal artists. 9) Where does DI's influences come from? Both musically and lyrically? Musically our influences come from older metal and rock bands as from newer bands, anything done with inspiration is inspiring to me! Lyrically just the way we live and the experiences we acheive through life inspires us. Sometimes personal stuff can fuel our lyrics content, it’s up to whoever writes them down. Let’s say we’re open-minded and not restrained to a single way of viewing and writing things. 10) Everybody loves beer...so what's your favorite beer? It’s a Quebec beer labeled La Fin du Monde which means in english « The end of the world ». It’s a 9% strong beer brewed by Unibroue. It is the favorite beer of 4 of the 6 of us. Alex E doesn’t really drink. 11) If you had to listen to 1 band the rest of your life, who would it be? Eric : Pink Floyd Yannick : Iron Maiden Steve : Necro Sebastien : Metallica Alex P. : Metallica Alex E. : I’d get bored and would stop listening to music. 12) And I have to ask this of everybody, what was the name of the first band each of you where in? Come on...think hard! Eric : Obscure Minds Yannick : Korrosia Steve : Apocaliptic Script Sébastien : Extrasher Alex P. : Assomption Alex E. : Nevroze Great! Thanks for the awsome interview guys! I must encourage you all to get out there and support the band. If your out in California they have a show this weekend at the Galaxy Theatre. You can find out more about the band at http://www.despisedicon.com. If your interested in checking out the show with free tickets, talk to the man himself vB to be a braingell guest. And in the infamous words of SongEmotions.....Crank It Up Fuckers!! |
