JOYLESS JOKERS Interview
Genre: Melodic death metal
1. First of all I’d like you to fill us in on what’s happening in the JOYLESS JOKERS camp at the moment. I’d also like you to point out the most important moments and experiences you’ve had with the band thus far, be them good or bad.
Hi everybody and thanks for this interview!!
Well now our activity is to focus on composing new songs and other things like promotional videos, photos etc... I think the most important moments were when we played in many big events like Sun Valley Metal Fest or Ferrock Festival where we had the possibility to share the stage with a lot of great bands from all over Italy. Another important moment for us was when we have signed the contract of Endorsement with Gold Music and also started the collaboration with Music Solution Agency.
2. What made you form a band of your own? What was your driving force and which were your influences?
Our band was born because we love playing music and we want to play something together. The early years were different because we used to play covers and more rock stuff. Afterwards we started to listen to other stuff, in particular death metal bands like IN FLAMES, ARCH ENEMY, CARCASS and many more... So, we started to compose our own songs in this “style”
3. Can you present “Taste of Victory” to our readers in a few words? Which are the album’s highlights and which its weak moments or elements, according to you?
“Taste of Victory” is our first full length album in the studio. We are very proud of it and it represents our own point of view of death metal style, with modern and melodic influences. Obviously I like every single song in it and if I have to find a weak element in it I think it’s the fact that every song is fast and heavy. Maybe we have to include more slower parts and riffs. We’ll see in future...
4. In which ways does “Taste of Victory” differ from your EP “Arms of Darkness”? How and in which ways has the band’s sound evolved and progressed?
I think that “Arms of Darkness” was more affected by our own influences. It sounds very “Swedish” while “Taste of Victory” is an attempt to detach ourselves from that. It represents the way we evolved our sound including other stuff and influences. We also changed our guitars from 6 to 7 strings to achieve more aggressive and heavy tonalities.
5. Why do you think you stand out from most melodic death metal bands out there? What do you believe you can offer to the metal scene?
There are a lot of great bands in the underground scene. We don’t think that we have to differ from other bands. We only think to compose our songs in a way that we like and I think it’s quite different from the other bands. We are composed of members that come from very different styles in terms of music like blues, rock, death metal, classic and many others. So we try to include all our musical tastes when we compose songs and this result differs every time we do it.
6. What kind of procedure do you follow when you compose songs? Do you have to be in a certain state of mind in order to perform the songs as you want?
We simply compose riffs and ideas by jamming with a guitar and a drum or at home with our instrument and then we try to put 2-3 riffs together to compose the structure of the song. There are periods when we compose a lot of riffs and others where we can’t figure out a simple part... It’s the common problem of creativity... But we don’t need to be in a certain state of mind when we compose songs.
7. Which song or songs do you think are the most ideal to represent the whole album’s essence?
I think that “Scream” could represent the whole essence of our sound. There are a lot of elements and parts in that song, from heavy to melodic riffs. There’s the first part of the song more aggressive with classic death metal parts and a “stop” in the middle with a more melodic opening.
8. Which are your sources of inspiration when it comes to the lyrics? Which are the main topics you deal with?
Our inspiration for the lyrics comes from reflections on death, on suicide, on sacrifice, on nightmares, on fears, on despair and on the desire to show everyone what we have done up to now. Other lyrics are based on bad consequences of sad events that took place in our lives like the loss of our friends and personal disappointments.
9. Why did you name the album “Taste of Victory”? What do you mean? Does the release of this album give you a taste of victory or is there an entirely different meaning behind it?
That name represents our desire for revenge to certain situations that have marked us in our lives, also in the recording phase of the disc. We have faced many difficulties and that album entirely represents our rebirth and our victory.
10. Who created the cover artwork? It’s impressive! How was it inspired and how is it connected to the album title and lyrics?
The artwork was created by Daniel Comerci of Hownworks. It’s formed by many elements that were linked with the album title, and also with our name. There are skeletons that represent death, there’s an hourglass which represents the passage of time, there are snakes that represent the change, the letters alfa and omega instead represent the opposites like life/death, joy/sadness..
11. Do you have any plans for live shows? How easy is it for you to play your songs live? Do you have to be in a certain state of mind in order to create the right atmosphere and feeling?
The main difficulty when we play live is the ability to resist 40 minutes of doing headbanging eheh J. Seriously, we don’t need to be in a certain state of mind when we play live. There’s no difference for us between playing in front of 10 or 1000 people. We always put our head down and pull the strings harder.
12. Have you made any video clips? With YouTube I think videos have started becoming a necessity for bands again. How helpful is the Internet?
At the moment we haven’t made a video clip yet. We have a nice video that was produced with some pieces of our live performance at Sun Valley metal fest. Here’s the link:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qi7ZlBvvD44I think the Internet is very helpful in order to maintain contacts with people and share band pages and songs but there are too many bands and too many songs to listen to so at a certain point you have too much information.
13. What kind of feedback have you received thus far? Can you mention a comment, be it positive or negative, serious or funny, that impressed you?
With “Taste of Victory” we fortunately received a lot good reviews and we are very proud of it. People that come to our live shows like our music in general. Unfortunately now I can’t remember a funny comment but I remember a very positive that we received from a member of a well known group and he said that we deserve much more and at the moment it was really nice.
14. What do you want people to think when they listen to JOYLESS JOKERS?
Well….. I love JOYLESS JOKERS... I think it sounds really good eheh
15. How are things in Italy music-wise? How’s the metal scene over there? How difficult is it for a band to stand out?
In Italy there are a lot of really good bands, but the problem is only one: people don’t go to see live shows. Not only for the underground scene. Unfortunately it’s our worst and biggest problem that creates others like the fact that a lot of music clubs are closing. So it’s a very difficult situation also for the best known bands.
16. By the way you have an interesting moniker. How did you come up with it?
Thanks! JOYLESS JOKERS is a word pun that represents the contrast between opposite elements: the joker that in general represents joy, and on the other side the sadness. It’s a metaphor mainly and at the same time it sounds good.
17. Thank you! Is there anything else you’d like to add?
I would like to thank you for this interview and all the fans that follow us from Italy and from all over the world. I only want to say to everyone a simple thing: support the bands and go to live shows because it’s the only way for us to keep this fantastic music alive! And obviously follow us and leave a comment if you like our project! It will be very appreciate! \w/
Christine Parastatidou
Nessun commento:
Posta un commento