Akiavel- From the South of France
Interview conducted on Aug. 26, 2020
By Dan Locke
Akiavel is a Death Metal band from the South of France created in 2018 by Chris (guitar), Jay (bass) Auré (vocals), Jb (guitar) and Butch (drums).
What is your upbringing?
Chris (guitar): Hello! We all have different backgrounds: self-taught musicians for some of us, classical music education for others…
The 5 of us also have different musical tastes and all have played with tones of different bands, paying many types of Metal: thrash metal for Butch (drums), death metal for myself and JB (guitar), hardcore and alternative metal for Jay (bass).
Auré (voices): and mainly hardcore for myself, until I joined Akiavel!
How did you discover music?
Auré (voices): My father was a musician, he passed on me the passion
Chris (guitar): I was 10 or 11, in the early 90’s, when friend of mine made me discover the album “Prayer for the Dying” from Iron Maiden, with which I truly felt in love. I then listened to all the Iron Maiden albums that existed at that time, and then turned to Metallica and Sepultura, two of my favorite bands ever. And I thus became a metalhead!
How did you start to write music?
Chris (guitar): It began naturally, when I was in my previous band. In Akiavel, the writing process always begins with Jay (bass), which is different from my previous experiences, but really pleasant and efficient! We then gather all 5 to improve the first demos, add our personal touch, and make it sound truly Akiavelic!
Chris- How did you get your first guitar, and do you still have it?
Chris (guitar): it was a very cheap guitar of the brand “Vision”, I bought in Marseille, but I don’t have it any more.
How did you partner with a Darius Guitarz company?
Chris (guitar): Mr. Darius happens to live in my very tiny city, in the South of France! I met him one year ago, and we realized that we hat the same musical tastes and guitar heroes (James Hetfield, Dimebag Darrel…). He made me try the guitars he was handcrafting, and I felt immediately in love with these beauties… Since he was a fan of Akiavel music and appreciated the band’s image, we partnered up very naturally!
How do they compare to Fender or Gibson?
Chris (guitar): These are two huge brands, but that never truly attracted me… I mainly own Jackson, custom ESP and Dean USA guitars, but since discovered Darius and the pleasure of having truly custom-made guitars, I made my choice!
Aure- How did you learn to sing?
Auré (voices): Just with rage and envy! And, more precisely, after my friend Julien Truchan (Benighted) convinced me, almost 20 years ago, that I could sing as loud as he did (laughs)
What was your first performance at like?
Chris (guitar): A few months after the creation of the band, we had the chance to be invited to play at the Hellfest Off festival in June 2019, a few months after having released our first EP and found our complete and current lineup. It was a crazy atmosphere, we loved it, and hat the chance to be joined on the stage by Stephane Buriez, singer for Sinsaenum and Loudblast, one of the best French metal band ever, and we played two crazy covers which made us feel happy and confident for the future. It was a bless to play in the conditions and context for our first ever show!
What was the title of your first original song? Did you record it?
Auré (voices): Is was actually Burn, which was released as a demo track and then on our first EP, available on all digital platforms! When we recorded this track, however, we had not yet met Butch (drums) nor found any drummer that had the style of drumming we were all 4 looking for (let’s describe it as violent and groovy at the same time). So, the drums were made and performed by a (very impressive and realistic) beatbox! We are really happy of the result and love this song, which helped us being signed by our first record company.
How did you start the band?
Chris (guitar): In the course of 2018, Jb (guitar) and I left our former band named ACOD, (just after the band was signed by Sony Music) but we were not ready to stop playing (laugh). We both knew Auré and Jay for a while, they both were very active musicians in our region for a very long time, and we shared a lot of stages in the past. At a very friendly barbecue party, after a few beers, the idea popped up to create a new Death metal band that would be different from all types of bands one was used to see and hear around: we wanted a genuine melting pot of all our musical influences, we wanted to remove all the boundaries that existed between all the types of metal we love. The idea of Akiavel was born.
You are about to release your new video Kind of Requiem. Tell me about it?
Auré (voices): We had a lot of fun shooting this third chapter of the trilogy of the music videos linked to our album V. First the Witness (the slave is abused by her master), the My Lazy Doll (the slave escapes from its cell) and the Kind of Requiem, where the slave… Well, we cannot say more, you’ll have to wait until the 27 of August!
Why did you pick Mr. Cana Photography as your director for the video?
Chris (guitar): Mr. Cana is a very close friend of us, a very talented photographer. He produced one if its first music video ever with The Witness, and we were so happy of the result, the atmosphere, the color, the style of the video, so different from the traditional videos, with a real artistic eye, that we decided to hire him again for the third music video. And the result is, to our opinion at least, really stunning… We are really eager to release it!
What is your favorite track on the album?
Auré (voices): I think it’s Kind of Requiem, because it really talks to me. And Huntington was written for my late grandfather, which always triggers a lot of emotion for me.
Chris (guitar): The first one, the Witness, melodic and so powerful, almost epic!
How do you stay healthy while touring?
Auré (voices): We did not tour yet with Akiavel, since the lockdown was decided on the very first date of our tour… But in our previous bands; we were mainly used to try to sleep well, bad sleeping is the source of almost all problems you may meet when you’re a live musician!
What are you’re feeling about streaming music?
Chris (guitar):Akiavel was created fairly recently (in 2018), so our music has always existed under the streaming era. The band has built its notoriety on social networks and streaming platforms, so we think one need to play with it, instead of trying to complain against it…
Digital vs. vinyl?
Chris (guitar):We are from a digital generation, even if the sound of vinyl is very pleasant…
Auré (voices): And we might well be thinking of releasing all or part of our songs (or albums) in a vinyl version, since we have a growing demand for such special editions…
What are your feelings about the social uprising going on in the United States?
Auré (voices): We are looking at this from far, but it is extremely scary for all of us, since we know that most of the US movements or trends reach Europe within a couple of years…
What is the mental health situation of the United State? How can public help the doctors and nurses on the front line?
Auré (voices): We are not the best persons to answer this question! All we can say is that in France, the reaction of the public (applauses every evening at 8pm from the balconies or windows in the cities; free food given to medical staff or delivered to them directly in the hospitals) seemed to be very helpful for the mental health of the medical staff
Do you thinks kids should go back to school his fall?
Auré (voices): Yes, they must as long as it is technically and physically possible! With barrier s and probably a lot of (unpleasant) changes in their habits, because keeping kids away from school is not a good thing for the future of a generation…
What song from the past is in your mind right now? Moreover, what is the meaning that song means to you?
Auré (voices): Honestly? “This life”, the Sons of Anarchy theme song… I discovered this series very late during the containment and I became a big fan…
How do you feel the Covid-19 virus going to affect the music business in the future?
Auré (voices): It’s hard to say, things will never be the same for sure, but no one knows to which extent…
Chris (guitar): It is difficult to say, but for sure the live industry will be deeply modified at least until the end of the year, and probably 2021. However, we are very confident on the ability of the actors of this industry to adapt, and on the public to come back very quickly to the live concerts. Metal fans in particular need concerts for their life balance!
What have you been doing with your self-quarantine?
Chris (guitar): Playing guitar for weeks and preparing the new album, to be recorded early next year…
Auré (voices): And, for me, working on the concept of this new album. One year after the release of our first album V, we should be able to release our second album, which should be even better on all aspects, now than we know how to work together and simply know each other so well. Stay tuned!
Have you discovered or rediscovered any new hobbies?
Auré (voices): I’ve been drawing, and reading a lot
Chris (guitar): I was doing a bit of combat sport when I was younger, and rediscovered these sports a couple of years ago. I used this quarantine time to train a lot, alone, but efficiently!
Aure- How was it to have a birthday during the virus?
Auré (voices): We made friends Visio conferences with a glass of Jägermeister… It was weird! (laughs)
Many artists are doing nightly concerts over either YouTube, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. What are you planning to do?
Chris (guitar): As we said, we are currently concentrating on the writing of our new album, but we must say that if the concerts scheduled for the end of this year turn out to be canceled or postponed again, this is an option we are very likely to consider!
Live Nations just started Live Nation from Home. Which are concerts from artist homes. An all-new virtual music hub keeping fans connected to their favorite artists featuring daily live streams, performances, new music and more. Do you think it will be possible to make a living doing concerts this way?
Chris (guitar): it is a good question! I think it depends on the offer and price you find on the platforms, and it also depends on the way the legislation relating to the collection of the financial rights of the bands is adapted (or not) to this new era… It also depends on the policies of the platforms themselves… This is under these rules that the artists are making a living, or not, so we hope everyone will be ready to play the long-term game!
Live Nation is starting to do the first ever U.S. drive-in concert series — LIVE FROM THE DRIVE-IN — which started on July 10, 2020. Now there are many other Drive-in concerts popping up. Do you think this is something you would be willing to do?
Auré (voices): Why not, if it is the only way to play live, but the pleasure of being part of a real crowd will be missing. This is what makes the most important part of the atmosphere of live concerts, so let’s hope it will not become the new norm…
For smaller bands who do not play large crowds, this is not really an issue. How do you see bands going back to smaller venues and doing things like play for the door, with no guarantees?
Chris (guitar): Many band’s business models will not be able to survive such change, so yes, it might also be a good kick for smaller bands, the only ones capable of playing with such a (random) financial deal…
In addition, at the present time for a band to go on tour from one state to another, they may need to self-quarantine for 14 days. How is that going to work?
Chris (guitar): We are lucky enough in Europe not to have such strict quarantine rules between most of the 27 countries, but things are moving very fast, and not always in the right direction…
With Social Distance being the norm. Do you feel that it may be the end of music fest for the next couple of years?
It might well be complicated, but we are very confident in the ability of the industry, artists, and fans to adapt and find solutions to cope with this crazy situation, notably if social distancing becomes the norm!
What about Holographic concerts in our living room?
Auré (voices): Great, do you know how to do that? We could be really interested! (laughs)
Tell me about the all-female metal project Chaos Rising?
Auré (voices): It’s a metal project with female musicians only, all from different countries. You’ll hear some cool news about it soon!
How do you see yourself in the next five years?
Auré (voices): Touring the world with Akiavel in large venues, playing tones of live concerts and enjoying the communion with the public through our music might be an answer, but just in a good shape and happy might also work (laugh)
Chris (guitar): Stillbeing in Akiavel playing live the music we love, with such good vibes between us 5, would just be a bless!
Anything you would like to say in closing?
Chris (guitar):Thank you for your support, we know our fanbase is growing fast in America, and we are really keen to meet all these new fans and show them how good and powerful Akiavel live music sounds like!
Auré (voices): Thank you for your support, we really appreciate all the enthusiasm and positivism surrounding our band! Cheers from France!
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