Phoner interview & trascription by Robin Stryker

Well, this was a new experience … interviewing all five members of a band at the same time by phone. Please join Femme Metal in welcoming the members of Chicago hard rock band, Deadmanswake: Kryssie Ridolfi (vocals), JP Soule (guitar/backing vocals), Josh Barker (guitar), Troll (bass) and Kip Kiebles (drums).

Welcome to Femme Metal everybody! JP, I understand that Deadmanswake did not start out as a female-fronted hard rock band. How did you guys get to where you are today?

JP : Well, I was actually the original vocalist for the band,and that lasted right about until I heard our first recordings, heard my voice and decided I didn’t want to sing anymore. (all laugh) Not as a main vocalist, anyway. I do fine if I’m blending with somebody else, but I just REALLY can’t stand the sound of my own voice. After that, we went through a couple of different guys. At the time, I was kind of going for an In Flames, Dark Tranquillity kind of sound. Then it just really got to the point where screaming ended up sort of feeling like it was gonna be a trend that was eventually going to go away. I didn’t want to be a band that was trapped in one specific era and I also didn’t want to be limited by somebody who didn’t have a strong melodic voice. So we let our screaming vocalist go, and started looking for other people. I wasn’t looking for a female vocalist, but I was definitely open to the possibility. And by the time we ended up working with Kryssie, it was down to her and one other person. I personally was sold from the first audition; the rest of the band, it took a little bit more convincing. She showed up at this other guy’s audition and just smoked him. I was already sold before that point but, by the time she finished that song, it was like “Okay, no one else need apply. We’re done”. That was the song “Screaming in Silence”, which is actually not on any official recordings as of yet but we have played it live a couple of times.

Let’s talk about the new album, “It Comes to This”. Give folks an idea of what they will hear when they listen to your album.

Kryssie: I know vocally all of the songs are lyrically from my heart. I know every vocalist says that. But the reality is, when I joined this band, I was at a really big renaissance (as I like to call it) in my life. I had just lost a two-and-a-half year relationship, I had just gotten my own place. My first audition with this band was the day I signed the lease on my first place by myself, and it was this big rebirth in my life. And all of the songs that I wrote lyrics for were within the first month of being in the band. That’s how emotional I was. Every single one of these songs is either about pain or about being confused about something or a personal loss or a personal gain, and all of that stuff was something I was feeling in the Fall of 2007 when these were written. So it’s very personal to me and I hope that people who hear it really identify and feel connected to me through it because I want people to know and I want to convey that they are not the only ones feeling stuff like that.

I’m fascinated by the album cover. You all are cartoons, with Kryssie as a nurse looking rather alarmed to see over your shoulder the rest of the band as zombies coming after you. What’s up with zombies?

Kryssie : A lot of us are really big fans of the horror genre and the name of the band Deadmanswake… when I first heard the name of the band… all I could think of was the walking dead. A friend of mine is a published comic book artist. I was talking to him one day when he popped into my work — which is ironically a horror collectible store — and he drew this quick little thumbnail sketch. It went through a lot of different incarnations, and the one that we ultimately ended up with I think is absolutely hilarious. I think all the caricatures look exactly like the boys. There are so many ways you can look at it… me being the only one who is not a zombie and everyone coming after me, you could go the cliché way of “oh, I’m a woman in a man’s world and it’s tough to not get eaten alive”. Or you could just go with the fact that we are all big dorks and we all like horror flicks. It’s probably a little bit of both if you want complete honesty.

If you could pick a horror film to have a Deadmanswake song in, or any film for that matter, which song would it be and which film would it go with?

Kryssie : I would choose the song “Back to Blood” and I would put it in “Shaun of the Dead” in the scene where they are beating the zombies with the pool cues in the Winchester. The Queen song, “Don’t Stop Me Now”, the fact that that’s in there is amazing but if I could throw our own in there I would totally put “Back to Blood” at that exact spot.

Kip : Just to stay away from the mainstream, I would have to say “Fright Night” is one of my favourites. Kryssie could probably tell you who stars in it and then some, I’m guessing. As far as the tunes go, I would use all of them on the soundtrack.

Troll : Do you know how “Maximum Overdrive” is an all-AC/DC soundtrack? Replace it with the “It Comes to This” album.

JP : In keeping with the zombie theme, it would probably be “Save Me”. I would use it at the end of the original “Dawn of the Dead”, where the zombies bust into the mall and they are ripping the bikers apart. There are all sorts of guts being pulled out and limbs being chewed. It’s just beautiful!

Quite the bloodthirsty crowd we have here. Guitarists – JP, Josh and Troll – tell us about your most prized instrument. (Keeping it clean, of course.)

Kryssie : My mind went there immediately. (laughs)

I knew it would, Kryssie. That last part was actually for you and not for the boys.

(all laugh)

Kryssie: I am seriously a fifth grade boy. I went right there, too. Okay, go on.

JP: This is actually a really easy one for me. Thanks to the miracle of Craigslist, I stumbled across a 2002 Ibanez Destroyer, an actual for real made-in-Japan Ibanez, and I managed to pick it up including the matched Ibanez case for less than $350. The Destroyer just sounds huge. I am one of the world’s greatest living Iron Maiden fans and Adrian Smith played a Destroyer back in the “Live After Death” era. I thought they were the coolest thing and, of course, they are! Plus it has a similar shape to a Gibson Explorer, which was James Hetfield’s weapon of choice, and he was one of the reasons I picked up the guitar in the first place. The Destroyer fills a whole bunch of guitar-hero rock star fantasies of mine.

Josh: To be honest, all of my ideal guitars, I don’t own. Of the ones that I play, the two that I like the most are an LTD Explorer, which I got for fairly cheap when I got it. I was young and stupid and was like, “Oh my god, it looks like an Explorer!”. It was the kind that James Hetfield played. Like JP already said, Hetfield was one of the reasons I picked up the guitar. I use that one pretty much for the bulk of the set. I also have an Ibanez SA that I recently put the new Steve Vai Evolution pickup into, which has improved its sound a whole hell of a lot. I just love Ibanez guitars overall. Ibanez has a pretty sick Flying V that I’d love to get my hands on.

Troll: My Kramer bass is definitely my prize possession. It’s technically the second bass I ever owned, but my first real instrument. I had an old Cort P-Bass copy that was a piece of crap that I broke within two months. Then I got the Kramer in maybe late 1988 or 1989, when I’d only been playing for a few months. I still have it to this day, and the shop that I got it from still exists so I can still go there and get a free set-up whenever I want. That thing has just been through hell and back. It’s my trusty at-home practice bass. I’d love to play it out, but it really doesn’t sound that good. It is priceless to me, though.

Kip, what is it like to be the new kid in the band? Did they make you feel welcome; are you part of the family; are they sharing their beer and all of those things that one would hope of good bandmates?

Kip : They don’t share beer. (Kryssie : We give him wedgies every day). The fact that they beat the hell out of me on a regular basis gives me the feeling that I’m loved, yes. Because that is what I did to my younger brothers, when I was younger. The band has definitely made me feel very at home. It’s kind of difficult to put into words where I am at with this band, but ultimately I’m the metal cheerleader in the band. Saddle shoes, skirt, pom-poms … good to go! There were some benefits that I could offer to the band, like a rehearsal space and a big truck to pull the equipment trailer, but those were just circumstantial. So I guess, when it’s all said and done and the smoke clears, we’re all pretty lucky because they offered me things like a damn good gig that I could be proud of.

Here is something that I’ve been dying to ask. What was it like when you held the first copy of your CD in your hand?

Kryssie : Can I just tell you about the text message conversation Troll and I had when the UPS man was delivering? We had been texting that whole day because the CDs were supposed to show up that day. (It’s common knowledge that, when we are not out doing things, Troll and I especially are huge advocates of pyjamas. We are always in our jammies, no matter what). Troll texted said something about the UPS man. I was like, gasp, “Is he coming?” And he was like, “The bastard just drove by!” I didn’t hear from him and I was getting nervous. Then I got a picture message with just a photograph of all seven boxes of our CDs and I screamed like a little girl … it was amazing! All of us have been musicians for so long. Before I was a vocalist, I used to be a guitar player. I was playing guitars since I was 10, so I’ve been in the “business” for 15 years almost. This is the first actual, physical, honest-to-god, pressed from a factory CD I’ve ever had. This is a HUGE emotional thing for me, and it was nice to show it to my mother and give her a reason why I quit college.

Deadmanswake is having a pyjama party gig. Is this just another excuse for Kryssie and Troll to appear in public in pyjamas?

Kryssie: More or less. It is a CD release for another band, and their frontperson sent me an e-mail and was like,”The theme of this show is freakshow. Take that and run with it, and do what you will.” We were tossing around ideas for playing at a different venue on a different day, and we were like, “Oh, we should show up in our pyjamas.” And then it dawned on me … how funny would that be for the freakshow theme?!? I have a feeling that Troll is going to show up with pigtails and the whole nine yards and I’m digging out a special pair of slippers. It is absolutely another excuse to be seen in my jammies in public.

JP : I’m not totally familiar with everybody in the band’s sleeping habits, so I’m just really hoping that no one in the band sleeps naked.

Kryssie : I’m not totally familiar with everybody in the band’s sleeping habits, so I’m just really hoping that no one in the band sleeps naked.

With as diverse as your musical tastes are, how hard would it be to decide what the cover song would be on a new album?

Kryssie : We’ve actually had pretty good luck — with this incarnation of the band, anyway – we’ve had a really, really easy time picking out covers. We do have diverse influences, but when it comes down to it, if there is some silly, ridiculous deep-cut that one of us mentions that everyone thinks is funny, we go for it. The one that we are talking about putting on the album is one that lots of people on our Facebook page – people that I’ve never met – have mentioned that they would really like to hear us do. It’s kind of cool that if we make that happen, they’ll hear it and be like, “Oh, I suggested that.”

Okay, album is out and you have dates lined up. What is your tour scheduling looking like for the summer? Will you be travelling away from Chicago? Will folks in other parts of the United States and perhaps our friends in Europe have a chance to see you too?

Kryssie : We did an interview last week where we were asked a similar question about whether we would like to get out to Europe. That’s a frustrating question because I would tour there tomorrow if I could afford it. Realistically speaking, if we were able to do it, it would have to wait until next summer. Hopefully by then, we can create enough of a buzz and maybe after our A&R showcase get people who are willing to invest in us to go over there. But that is, realistically, something that we can’t even think about this summer, which really, really is painful. We have got another band that we are hooking up with. None of the dates are set in stone yet, so we are not announcing them. But we are going to have a two-and-a-half week tour towards the end of the summer that will take us from Chicago all the way as far south as Florida, then we are going to come back. It is just going to be a two-and-a-half week run. We definitely are going to make it a point to travel this summer, and get out there. We can’t keep doing all this Internet networking if we can’t put our money where our mouth is and go play in front of people..

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Interview by Si Smith

France had produced some great music over these past few years, and now has a new champion: a satisfying blend of pop, rock and general progressiveness that takes on board influences from all across the musical spectrum. Femme Metal spoke to vocalist Adeline to discuss how they found the perfect recipe for combining all those elements!

First off, a warm welcome to you from all at Femme Metal, and thank you for speaking with us today.

Thank YOU for your interest in what we do !

Before your arrival in the band in 2000, the band began way back in 1998 as many bands do, as a cover band. Do you know what kind of songs were being covered at the time?

I think they covered a few songs of Anathema, Moonspell, Yearning,  Edge of Sanity… that kind of bands. As for me I had a cover band too in which I sang classic rock songs from bands such as The Cranberries, The Police, U2…  That’s how they found me, they attended one of our gigs and they contacted me a few days later.

Your first couple of demos with the band, “Stanzas” and“Dreamland”, must have been relatively successful as you eventually landed a deal with Sacral production. Thinking back to those early demos, was the sound a lot different from what it is now? Or is it just a natural progression through the years?

Those demos sounded a little bit heavier than the music we play now and there were quite a lot of synths/electro inputs, but the “mellow” side of our music, that mix of rock, pop and metal, was already there. So were the flute and the percussions. It was more than ten years ago now, and at the time my bandmates were obviously much more influenced by the metal bands they covered a few years ago than they are now. In between they sort of abandoned things like the death metal growls and the electro inputs, and they gave the music a “progressive rock” feeling. Maybe because they managed to build through the years a common reference table in the composition process, where as ten years ago the music of Akin was more a raw mix of the very different musical influences of each member of the band.

France seems to have produced some successful progressive-edged bands in recent years, including Auspex, Qantice, Kalisia, Adagio and Spheric Universe Experience (to name but a few). Even Gojira (although much heavier) still hold on to a progressive influence. What do you think it is about the French culture that seems to launch this thirst for the progressive in music?

It maybe because the accent is put on the music rather than the lyrics. There might be a few exceptions but the lyrics are mainly in English which is not our mother tongue. What we find most interesting are the actual melodies, the rhythm, the harmony… That’s probably why the French are so interested in progressive music. That’s my guess anyway.

Considering these other bands, what do you feel Akin can bring to the scene that is different from the other bands of the genre, if you consider yourself “labelled” by a genre at all?

It maybe the variety of influences in our music. I personally listen to a lot of Sting and Tori Amos (and recently I found some interesting things in Lady Gaga’s music, please don’t hit me!), when other members of the band would be more into Dream Theater, Opeth or Anathema, for some others it would be the Beatles … It may also be the variety of instruments we use in our songs: we like to do experiments.  In the end, we think that the music we play doesn’t belong to a genre in particular. Whether you’re fond of rock, metal  or pop you might like our new album. We hope so in fact! 

There was a long period between releases before the new album was birthed. What were you guys doing during this time?

We have had arguments in 2004 and the guys decided I wasn’t a fit in the group anymore. They therefore had to look for a new singer, which took them quite a long time. Then I know that a combination of different factors really slowed the band’s activity down : some members of the band had to move to Paris for professional reasons while the others lived in Lyon, some got married, became dads… And they also suffered several hard drive crashes where they lost a lot of data (there seem to be some kind of “Akin’s curse” with computers…). They really planned to record the new album in 2008, and it took 3 years to record it because of those personal, technical and professional constraints.  

This time round the album has been billed as “with a string quartet on the side”. In what ways did this affect the way the album was composed and recorded?

The string quartet brings harmonic texture to the songs. It kind of has the same function as the keyboard did on the previous album. Only it gives a more organic and Beatles feel to the music. The songs were pretty much finished before the arrangements were added.The strings were recorded separately and mixed into the songs.  

There is also a wealth of other instruments on there - darbuka, djembe, dilruba, daf and tablas to name a few. What is the key to co-ordinating all these instruments do you think? Did you ever sing live alongside these musicians, or was it all recorded separately?

Adding these instruments was like adding relevant touches to spice up the album. We had already used a djembe on the previous CD’s and on stage and we thought it worked rather well. We had the opportunity of using other traditional instruments on this album and it felt natural to include them as long as they served a musical purpose.  

You put a free 8-track version of the album up for free download at bandcamp.com (in fact all your previous releases are there for free download too). Did you receive any specific feedback from that at all from people who had downloaded it? What was the aim behind putting this sample up for free?

It’s too early to say because it’s very recent, but the feedback has been positive up to now. Putting this sample up for free seems like a good way to get people to listen to our music. Obviously, the album as a whole is more interesting because it takes you through one hour of music which we tried to keep as dense and exiting as possible. The Digipack is also very smart, we think.  

The first two songs on the new album “The 92nd flight” and “Cassandra” also appeared on your 2003 EP “Forecast”. What was the reasoning behind revamping them for the new album alongside the new material?

“Forecast” was a “forecast” of the 2nd album “The Way Things End” which we had hoped to release a lot sooner. It gave a glimpse of the 2nd album and included new versions of songs featured in “Verse” (the first album) and a song that we didn’t have time to record during the “Verse” sessions (“The City in the Sea”).“The 92nd Flight” and “Cassandra” don’t only work as previously lost tracks, they have a real purpose because we can safely say they are much better versions that the ones recorded eight years ago. 

I must say that I enjoyed the idea of the album “Verse”, being based as it was around the works of Edgar Allen Poe. This album too contains its fair share of poetry (eg on tracks “Miller’s End” and “Resilience”). What is the significance of these particular poetic works? Could you tell us a little about them?

It felt natural to use poetry on certain passages because the themes of the selected poems were very relevant and the quality of the speaker’s voice served a real musical purpose. It also gives some kind of relief to my singing voice. I must say I’m flattered that you use the word poetry to qualify “Resilience”, because it’s one of the two lyrics I wrote for this album, and I never thought about it as poetry. 

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Label : ProgRock Records

Review by Tony Cannella

On their 3rd album Portugal’s Progressive/Gothic metal duo known as Factory of Dreams decided to take a different tact than on their previous two. Not so much musically (although the band continues to progress with each album), but lyrically their new album “Melotronical” is a concept album, revolving around the evolution of an electronic molecule into a living, breathing entity. Wow! That is certainly a unique idea for a concept album and one that I am willing to bet hasn’t been tried before. On “Melotronical”, the complexity of the music matches the intricacy of the lyrics perfectly. The songs feature some cool orchestration and moody passages compliments the story as it develops. Jessica Lehto really pushes herself to new heights vocally and multi-instrumentalist Hugo Flores is also there to help out in the vocal department when needed, to give the songs a more aggressive feel when called upon. The 13-song opus begins with two very strong tracks, “Enter Nucleon” and “Melotronical” kicks things off in strong fashion and showcases the duel vocals of Jessica and Hugo. The spacy vibe of “Taste of Paradise” is up next and features Jessica exclusively on vocals. This song starts with a slower tempo that steadily builds as the song progresses. “Protonic Stream” is next and at 8-minutes, this is the longest song featured here and is divided into two parts, part 1 is “The Illusion” and part 2 is titled “Protonic Matter”, Jessica’s vocal work is simply breathtaking throughout the album, but especially on this epic number and the melody really enriches this tune. Other highlights include: “Into Oblivion”, “Obsessical”, “Dimension Crusher” and the finale “Reprogramming”. Okay, so I like Factory of Dreams and have a great appreciation and admiration for what they do. Having said (or wrote) that, it is also true that “Melotronical” may be a bit much to take in all at once. There certainly is a lot going on here, on both the music and lyrical side of things. Still, “Melotronical” is a huge accomplishment for this Portuguese band and just may possibly be their best, involved and most complete work to date.

Rating - 90/100

Tracklist

1. Enter Nucleon
2. Melotronical
3. A Taste of Paradise
4. Protonic Stream
5. Into Oblivion
6. Obsessical
7. Back to Sleep
8. Whispering Eyes
9. Subatomic Tears
10. Dimension Crusher
11. Echoes from Earth
12. Something Calling Me
13. Reprogramming

Line Up

• Hugo Flores - Vocals, Music, Instruments & Production
• Jessica Lehto - Vocals, Vocal Harmonies & Arragiaments

Links

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Label : BlueFreya Media

Review by Luisa Mercier

Fateless Tears just released their new single, “Dawn’s Oblivion” and here we are with this short 3-track EP .The title track showcases the band characteristics: prog metal with heavy riffs, catchy melodies and S. Lee Baysinger vocals on top of them. “Stasis” is an acoustic version of the song, which features calm guitars and keyboards and smooth female and male vocals soar through the music. Everything is so sweet. Last track, “Standing Still”, is a ballad, short but effective. Above all, it is fascinating how the the lead vocals and the backing vocals merge in an emotional mix. Given this preview, the full-length will be one not to be missed!

Rating - 70/100

Tracklist

1. Dawn’s Oblivion
2. Standing Still
3. Stasis (unplugged)

Line Up

• S. Lee Baysinger - Vocals
• Richard Baysinger - Guitars, Drums, Synth & Backing Vocals

Links

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Label : BlueFreya Media

Review by Luisa Mercier

Fateless Tears just released their new single, “Dawn’s Oblivion” and here we are with this short 3-track EP .The title track showcases the band characteristics: prog metal with heavy riffs, catchy melodies and S. Lee Baysinger vocals on top of them. “Stasis” is an acoustic version of the song, which features calm guitars and keyboards and smooth female and male vocals soar through the music. Everything is so sweet. Last track, “Standing Still”, is a ballad, short but effective. Above all, it is fascinating how the the lead vocals and the backing vocals merge in an emotional mix. Given this preview, the full-length will be one not to be missed!

Rating - 70/100

Tracklist

1. Dawn’s Oblivion
2. Standing Still
3. Stasis (unplugged)

Line Up

• S. Lee Baysinger - Vocals
• Richard Baysinger - Guitars, Drums, Synth & Backing Vocals

Links

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Label : Echozone/Intergroove

Review by Tony Cannella

Reactive Black is a duo from Germany. They play dark, Gothic metal with electronic and industrial elements. In 2007 they released their well received debut “Upcoming Evil”. Now Reactive Black returns with “A New Dawn…”.” A New Dawn…” features 11-songs and 45-minutes worth of dark, atmospheric music. Vocalist Sassy Skeleton has an interesting style that is quite unique and adds great depth to the music supplied by multi-instrumentalist Rotten. Some highlights include: “It’s Time Again” (a cool opener), “Proud”, “Only in My Dreams”, “Taste of Paradise” and “Doom”. Probably the most interesting track – and my favorite – is “Fading Away”. The lyrics to the track are spoken by Sassy Skeleton set to the backdrop of dark, ethereal music. “A New Dawn…” also includes a video for the song “Doom” and two bonus MP3’s of the songs “Days of Decay” and “Evil Is” from their debut. All-in-all it’s a pretty cool collection of material that should please all connoisseurs of dark metal.

Rating - 73/100

Tracklist 

1. It’s Time Again
2. Proud
3. Only in My Dreams
4. Darkened
5. Thoughts
6. Lost
7. Taste of Paradise
8. Feel the Fire
9. We Don’t Die
10. Fading Away
11. Doom

Line Up

Independent Release 

Review By Tony Cannella

From Slovenia, Aperion plays symphonic power metal with operatic vocals supplied by Zala. The band has just released their debut “Act of Hybris” and it contains 13-songs and 47-minutes worth of dramatic metal music with strong symphonic leanings. Aperion has quite a big line-up. Featuring 8 or so members, the band not only includes the usual guitar, bass, drums but also manages to incorporate cello, flute and violin as regular instruments. Another thing that struck me about the band is the vocal chops of Zala. Of course the opera thing has been done quite a lot over the last few years and they are all great but Zala has a real depth and power to her voice and does not rely on her operatic style all of the time. There is no doubt that “Act of Hybris” is a solid album from start-to-finish but my favorites would have to be: “Source”, “Ocean”, “Maya”, the pretty ballad “Fairytale Mind” and the up-tempo violin heavy instrumental “Fe+”. The track “Dajte” is another one that definitely stands out. This song is half instrumental (it has sort of a polka vibe to it, really!) before Zala’s vocals join in half way through. Incredible song! It would be difficult to go through “Act of Hybris” song-by-song because each track is different from the last. Just suffice it to say that “Act of Hybris” is a fun and interesting listen and is worth checking out if you are into the operatic, symphonic metal thing. Admittedly I am very partial to this kind of music. On “Act of Hybris”, Aperion has created a sort of musical journey and the destination is very rewarding.

Rating – 95/100

Tracklist

1. Source
2. Ocean
3. Shine
4. Urma
5. Light
6. Maya
7. Fairytale Mind
8. Black Flies
9. The Truth
10. Fe +
11. Dajte
12. The Concept
13. U 

Line Up

• Zala Hodnik- Vocals
• Crt Birsa - Guitar & Vocals
• Samo Dervisic - Cello 
• Tinka Muha - Flute 
• Martin Bezjak - Viola 
• Ziga Birsa - Didgiredoo 
• Dani Telebar - Bass
• Nejc Kolar – Drums 

Links

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Links

MySpace * ReverbNation * Twitter * Facebook * Site

Links

MySpace * ReverbNation * Twitter * Facebook * Site

Links

MySpace * ReverbNation * Facebook * Twitter * Site