Hanna Tsepesh: Salut Franck! Thanks so much for accepting this interview and Welcome to THE GATES OF METAL! For those who do not know Eryn Non Dae could tell us a little how it all started and can you make a little introduction about yourself and the other band members?
Franck: The band was born in 2001 and was called END. at that time, we played a few gigs before the singer leave the band due to professional reasons in 2002.During that period while looking for a new singer we worked a lot on our music to find something darker and more apocalyptic, also more personal i think.
Early 2004 we found Math our new singer and start to play live only six month after his arrival.
February 2005 we record the EP called « The Never Ending Whirl Of Confusion » with our friend Mobo from the Conkrete Studio. This EP allowed us to play about 60 gigs (Pelican, Gojira, High On fire amongst others) and the Hellfest. We went to the same place to record the new album « Hydra Lernaïa » for Metalblade which is in stores now.
The band is now Mika on the bass, Julien on the drums, Mathieu the singer Yann on the guitar and myself on the other guitar and backing vocals.
Hanna Tsepesh: What are the inspirations to create the lyrics for Eryn Non Dae?
Franck: Simply life. Everyday problems, human relationships, communication between us, the poor estate of present world, for the moment it's very centered on Mathieu's feeling.
He is the only one writing but he always shows and asks us our opinion about a way to improve it, we feel very concerned about his lyrics but we rarely dare to go deep into it with him, writing lyrics is something so personal that we can't talk about it as a guitar riff you know!
Hanna Tsepesh: What are your favorite bands? You have any singer and guitarist that you admire the most?
Franck: Metallica,Machine Head,Tom Waits,Ez3kiel,Gojira,Hacride amongst others.
I grew up with Metallica and Master Of puppets this guys were my gods when i was younger and I'm still thinking that James Hetfield is the best rythm guitarist in the world, what a right hand ! I have a full admiration for him even now at 34! Rob Flynn impress me too about his vocal abilities.
Hanna Tsepesh: When you start to play guitar? Why you pick guitar for your instrument? Any reason?
Franck: I began late, around 17 but I was listening to metal for 5 years. My brother was taking some good time in a band as a drummer and I would die for doing the same but as i was living in an apartment with my mother (my lucky brother was living in a house with my father) impossible for me! So time passing by i decided to buy a guitar and a small amp, i locked myself into my room to learn how to play along my favorite records from that time (Slayer, Metallica, Sepultura). If i have time one day I'll try the drums, I am very frustrated not to have learned how to play drums...I love that instrument.
Hanna Tsepesh: Eryn Non Dae have a debut album called "Hydra Lernaia". In this album we can fell the band energy; I liked a lot this album! But, for people who don’t listen yet can you talk about and what the band want to accomplish with this album?
Franck: Thanks a lot, I'm very happy you like it !
We of course worked a lot on this album and were really working on a way to bring something new and refreshing to our music, something we felt necessary after having played song from the Ep so much times.
« Hydra Lernaïa » is way more varied in every aspect, guitar harmonies are richer, the voice changes from scream to growls to speech to something close to a confidence, the drums is sometimes more jazzy (if we permit ourself to say that!), and the bass is worked pretty diferently from what we're used to heard on metal albums i think. We tried to work on the tempos to have speed ones, mid ones and very slow ones, i see it like an oceanside with its waves and lulls in between.
« When Time Elapses » that you can hear from our myspace reveals a bit from what's on the record about violence and in its second part a bit from the melodical work we did on the album, we thought it was a good way to introduce people who listen to the whole song to what can be heard on the record.
With this record we'd like to play everywhere we can and share these emotions invading us when we play these songs.
Hanna Tsepesh: The band feels proud with the final result or you think that miss something? How was the things at the recording studio?
Franck: We're very happy with the final result but we know that we have to work a lot on the way the band sounds. Since that record we put have put money in better equipements and we can hear the diference in rehearsal now.
During the recording process we've been helped by Mobo from the conkrete studio who is the guy we've been working with for our EP, he has recorded, mixed and mastered Hydra lernaïa. Before going to the studio we recorded some kind of demos for each song to be sure about every details, so the challenging part was more into trying to make it as we had it in our head, there was only a few things that we had left unfinished just to let things happens, in the song called Pure there is this weird low sound in the middle that we knew about wanting it but it was like “we'll see how to make it when we'll be in the studio” or the instrumental one called Lam Tsol Oua on which we used an old stereo tape recorder to capture a guitar part Yann had recorded in , we tried to recorded it from the amp as the other guitar tracks but it just didn't worked as well as the old stereo tape with a microphone in front of it ! These kind of details give life to the record I think.
Hanna Tsepesh: The band is thinking about recording a video clip of the single?
Franck: Absolutely! And it's done, the songs called « The Decline And The Fall » will be illustrated by a video. The job our friend Manu (from the band Carrecube) did has literaly cuted our breath off. It's very special as a metal video, very mystical and the image it gives to the song is perfect.A huge animation work has been done with that video.
Hanna Tsepesh: If one of our readers wants to buy your album safely, what they can do?
Franck: I suggest them to go to Metal Blade Records - Mailorder - ERYN NON DAE - Hydra Lernaia - CD+MB T-SHIRT for europe and to Metal Blade Records Merch, Official Online Store on DistrictLines.com for the US. It's safe and the european version is a nice digipack ! You can also go to your usual record store if there's one left...
Hanna Tsepesh: what is your favorite music in this album and why?
Franck: I can't talk about a favorite one but I think existence asleep is the song that sum the best what is Eryn Non Dae for now with every side of what we play along the record, an ever growing intensity before finishing with a beautiful acousitc part.
Hanna Tsepesh: you guys played in the HELLFEST, right? How as that experience for you and the entire band?
Franck: yes it was in 2007 and It was excellent. We played on the discover stage and the moment wasn't the best (2:pm) but the place was almost fulfilled. A thirty minutes intense gig it was very pleasant! We had a great feedback from that gig and we hope going back again with the new records to show out! It's been time for France to to have a festival like that and its growing success is very relevant about that.
Hanna Tsepesh: The band is thinking about a European tour? You guys have plains to include Portugal in your tour or something?
Franck: Not for the moment. The next goal for us is to find a booking agency to find kind of support gigs, it's a necessity. We were asking for playing a festival In Portugal in august with bands like Sepultura and Obituary but our drummer is going to become a father at this time so we had to say no but next time we'll be there i hope !
Hanna Tsepesh: The band is happy to work with METAL BLADE RECORDS? What is your opinion about your label work so far?
Franck: Of course we are ! It's Metalblade ! They're around this business since 1982, look at their story and their actual and past bands (slayer, Cannibal Corpse, Psyopus, Behemoth...) We're extremely proud to being a part of that and we hope for a long and nice path in colaboration with them.
Hanna Tsepesh: Do you want to send any message for the people who going to read this interview?
Franck: Thanks a lot for paying attention to Eryn Non dae and we hope to come for play in your beautiful country full of history.
Hanna Tsepesh: Thanks o much for your answers and time. THE GATES OF METAL wishes the entire band a great success with "Hydra Lernaia”! We hope to see Eryn Non Dae very soon in here…
Franck: Thanks again for this interesting interview and be your words been heard. Merci
Take care.
Hanna Tsepesh: You are very welcome! thank you! All the best...
By: Hanna Tsepesh
To listen to some Eryn Non Dae music’s and for future information’s go at:
www.myspace.com/end1freefr
end.1.free.fr/
