“Bright Curse are a band here to stay and one that will only get better as time goes by. If this is just an EP then I can't wait to hear what they have in store for their proper début full length record. It will no doubt be something special.”
So I am pleased to say the band have been kind enough to agree to an interview with ourselves.
Q1 – Hi Guys, Thanks for doing this. How are things with you guys Today.
Hi man and thanks, this is our first cyber interview!
Everything is great at the moment, we just settled in a rehearsal place, for extensive and intense sessions. We are working on new songs, pushing towards our live sound.
We've got a new chap in the crew: Sylvain. He is giving us a big help to promote the EP and find us gigs Europe wise. He's doing a great job. He got us this interview for example.
Next year we should have a couple of good gigs lined up and more to come ! Stay tuned !
Q2 – For people not in the know can you give them a brief history of the band and how it came about.
Row: Back to France I was a singer and guitarist in a band called Soul Manifest, we were playing a blend of Stoner and Vintage rock with an organist. Nothing really happened to us, we signed on a Label call Night Tripper Records, but the other guys left the bands, there was no motivation at all, so I decided to leave and took the band with me. I landed in London a couple of years ago, a friend of mine Sammy was a bass player in a band called The Fraziers (They had a Groovy rock feeling) I asked him to join Soul Manifest, we found an organist and a drummer, we did some gigs in London and then the drummer was not really into it and Harry our keyboardist had to go back to Australia... Soul Manifest was meant to Die...
We stopped playing for a couple of month.
I went to the Roadburn 2012 with a couple of friends (Sylvain was on board) and it was kind of a revelation, I now want to do some more Heavy shit! screw the blues rock! (Joking, i still love that)
So i asked Sammy if he wanted to create a new band and he said “Yey!”, so, he introduced me to Zach. The first time we played together, we were jamming under acid at a private party. Man, that was really heavy. That's how Bright Curse was born.
Q3 – How would you describe your sound.
Row: Imagine Sumos fighting on the moon.
Sam: Take some psyched Viking guitar riffs mixed with deep low Indian bass tunes and blend it with some Californian desert drums beats and … you're still not exactly there. Add some catchy voice melodies with a twist of face-melting spices and ready to blow.
Zak: If tripping was a movie, we would trying to make the music: it gets super high and really low!
Q4 – Which bands and artists influence you directly as musicians.
We like everything from Rock to Metal as long as it's well played. But for instance, we just went to see Graveyard live, that was incredible. We’ve been listening to some Mastodon, they’re really good! I’m (Zak) personally always been a fan of Gojira and lately, I listen to a lot of funk.
Sam: Yeah we're inspired by lots of stuff. I personally enjoy folkloric vietnamese folk from the 50's !! haha. Honestly, really digging that slow paced stoner style.
Q5 – Are you all full time musicians or do you have regular jobs to pay the bills.
We've still employed at the moment unfortunately, Romain's a part-time porn-star recruiter for one of the biggest webcam websites. Second best job of the world after being the Bright Curse guitarist ! Zack works at Bose and sells some sound equipments when he's not banging his drums and Sammy works in web design.
Q6 – Are your family and friends supportive of your music.
Z: Last summer, we organised a Kiss Kiss Bank Bank project to raise funds to help us recording the album and, yeah we succeeded! Most of the funds we raised came from family members and friends and we are really grateful for that!
R: Our Booker/Promoter Sylvain is actually my cousin!
Q7 – What is the song-writing process in the band. Is it a group collective or is just down to one individual.
S: “Break it, mix it, roll it and light it, and ... here it comes !” haha!
Seriously, it's a common process, someone comes with an idea like a riff or a groove and we react to it. Romain writes the lyrics, and we build the dynamic. It's really open
Z: It's a band process, someone is bringing a riff, we jam it and see what happen.
R: I write the lyrics as I like to do that, I got an hiding poet inside me, only when I'm drunk (haha) , and i can easily work on the singing melody that way.
Q8 – Your about to release your brilliant new album. How did you get JB Pilon to produce it and Brad Boatright to master it. (Brad did the amazing recent Dopesmoker reissue).
JB was a long time friend and guitarist fellow who produces his own bands, so we had to get him on board. He got our sound right from the start.
Man, we're really digging Dopesmoker, it was like “we have to get him to do our master”.
Romain contacted Brad and, he answered really quickly. We're really happy with the result.
He really liked the album and sent some copies to few labels there in Portland. It was really cool from him to do that. Brad, if you read that, cheers bro!!
http://jbpilon.com/
http://www.audiosiegepdx.com/
Q9 – Was it an easy or hard album to write and record for. I love the style of genres you have on the record.
Z: I felt like it wasn’t easy on the writing side and also because of our lifes. The song aren’t what I call short and I also had a full time job back then. But I was so excited to get to create some music with some uber motivated musicians, it was hard but fun! The recording was rather fun too! We had to do a few takes, I won’t lie to you, but we knew what we wanted.
Hi man and thanks, this is our first cyber interview!
Everything is great at the moment, we just settled in a rehearsal place, for extensive and intense sessions. We are working on new songs, pushing towards our live sound.
We've got a new chap in the crew: Sylvain. He is giving us a big help to promote the EP and find us gigs Europe wise. He's doing a great job. He got us this interview for example.
Next year we should have a couple of good gigs lined up and more to come ! Stay tuned !
Q2 – For people not in the know can you give them a brief history of the band and how it came about.
Row: Back to France I was a singer and guitarist in a band called Soul Manifest, we were playing a blend of Stoner and Vintage rock with an organist. Nothing really happened to us, we signed on a Label call Night Tripper Records, but the other guys left the bands, there was no motivation at all, so I decided to leave and took the band with me. I landed in London a couple of years ago, a friend of mine Sammy was a bass player in a band called The Fraziers (They had a Groovy rock feeling) I asked him to join Soul Manifest, we found an organist and a drummer, we did some gigs in London and then the drummer was not really into it and Harry our keyboardist had to go back to Australia... Soul Manifest was meant to Die...
We stopped playing for a couple of month.
I went to the Roadburn 2012 with a couple of friends (Sylvain was on board) and it was kind of a revelation, I now want to do some more Heavy shit! screw the blues rock! (Joking, i still love that)
So i asked Sammy if he wanted to create a new band and he said “Yey!”, so, he introduced me to Zach. The first time we played together, we were jamming under acid at a private party. Man, that was really heavy. That's how Bright Curse was born.
Q3 – How would you describe your sound.
Row: Imagine Sumos fighting on the moon.
Sam: Take some psyched Viking guitar riffs mixed with deep low Indian bass tunes and blend it with some Californian desert drums beats and … you're still not exactly there. Add some catchy voice melodies with a twist of face-melting spices and ready to blow.
Zak: If tripping was a movie, we would trying to make the music: it gets super high and really low!
Q4 – Which bands and artists influence you directly as musicians.
We like everything from Rock to Metal as long as it's well played. But for instance, we just went to see Graveyard live, that was incredible. We’ve been listening to some Mastodon, they’re really good! I’m (Zak) personally always been a fan of Gojira and lately, I listen to a lot of funk.
Sam: Yeah we're inspired by lots of stuff. I personally enjoy folkloric vietnamese folk from the 50's !! haha. Honestly, really digging that slow paced stoner style.
Q5 – Are you all full time musicians or do you have regular jobs to pay the bills.
We've still employed at the moment unfortunately, Romain's a part-time porn-star recruiter for one of the biggest webcam websites. Second best job of the world after being the Bright Curse guitarist ! Zack works at Bose and sells some sound equipments when he's not banging his drums and Sammy works in web design.
Q6 – Are your family and friends supportive of your music.
Z: Last summer, we organised a Kiss Kiss Bank Bank project to raise funds to help us recording the album and, yeah we succeeded! Most of the funds we raised came from family members and friends and we are really grateful for that!
R: Our Booker/Promoter Sylvain is actually my cousin!
Q7 – What is the song-writing process in the band. Is it a group collective or is just down to one individual.
S: “Break it, mix it, roll it and light it, and ... here it comes !” haha!
Seriously, it's a common process, someone comes with an idea like a riff or a groove and we react to it. Romain writes the lyrics, and we build the dynamic. It's really open
Z: It's a band process, someone is bringing a riff, we jam it and see what happen.
R: I write the lyrics as I like to do that, I got an hiding poet inside me, only when I'm drunk (haha) , and i can easily work on the singing melody that way.
Q8 – Your about to release your brilliant new album. How did you get JB Pilon to produce it and Brad Boatright to master it. (Brad did the amazing recent Dopesmoker reissue).
JB was a long time friend and guitarist fellow who produces his own bands, so we had to get him on board. He got our sound right from the start.
Man, we're really digging Dopesmoker, it was like “we have to get him to do our master”.
Romain contacted Brad and, he answered really quickly. We're really happy with the result.
He really liked the album and sent some copies to few labels there in Portland. It was really cool from him to do that. Brad, if you read that, cheers bro!!
http://jbpilon.com/
http://www.audiosiegepdx.com/
Q9 – Was it an easy or hard album to write and record for. I love the style of genres you have on the record.
Z: I felt like it wasn’t easy on the writing side and also because of our lifes. The song aren’t what I call short and I also had a full time job back then. But I was so excited to get to create some music with some uber motivated musicians, it was hard but fun! The recording was rather fun too! We had to do a few takes, I won’t lie to you, but we knew what we wanted.
Q10 – How did the excellent EP Cover about. It is a brilliant cover. One of the most original I have seen this year.
R: The Ol' lady's name is Abbey Watkins she is not only awesomely good, but she's also really nice and it's working really well for her, you can follow her on Facebook!
Z: We sent her the music, dropped a few word and ideas, and here’s what she came up with.
https://www.facebook.com/AbbeyWatkinsIllustration
Q11 – What is the Bright Curse live gig experience like.
JB's said we are "a mix between stoner, psyche rock, doom, heavy blues and vicking warrior"
It's a good description! Lots of energy and a particular ambiance.
Q12 – What are your favourite bands around at the moment. Do you listen to modern day rock/metal or do you just listen to the classic era of Stoner/Sludge/Doom Metal.
R: At the moment I listen a lot to Red Fang, i'm waiting for the new album, Blaak Heat Shujaa and Purson, but regarding the last one, I still don't know if I like it because of the music or because the singer is fucking hot!
Z: Well, i also went to see Red Fang... that was a blast! If I look at my music library I see a lot of Queens Of The Stone Age at the moment! Lately I discovered that band called Tedeschi Trucks Band, great band! Although I do my best to follow the Stoner/Doom scene, I try to listen to a bunch of other stuff.
S: There's a lot to follow, it's hard to stay up to date. Om and Refused i'd say.
Q13 – What are your views of blogs such as Sludgelord featuring and reviewing your records, as opposed to mainstream music magazines? Has your music reached the mainstream mags, at home or around the world?
R: I could write a book on that question, but to keep it simple, you and other blogs are listening to the actual band music, and try to help bands. Mainstream magazines are not, they are just writing articles in a fashion way, they don't take any risks... They suck.
Z: I fell pretty happy to see my record being reviewed, it’s fucking awesome! I think it will be hard to reach mainstream mag, but give it a few years, hopefully they’ll open up a bit more to Stoner/Doom/Psychedelic.
Q14 – What are the most and least rewarding aspects of participating with the band.
R: Most: Emotions and Being in the B.C Crew.
Least: Money...
Z: Yeah, being part of a extended family feels great. The least rewarding for me is to have to carry drums around... Haha!
S: The worst: Yeah carrying amps definitely. The best: Turning them on and see some heads banging in the pit.
Q15 – Your looking for a label to release your excellent début EP. Any interested parties yet as I would love to own a physical copy.
Not yet but we hope.
Q16 - What are your future plans for the upcoming 12 months or so. Anything we should be excited about.
R: For the Londoners and the travellers, we're playing a Festival in February called The WPC Winter Warmer Weekender
http://whenplanetscollideuk.com/2012/11/23/first-sunday-additions-for-the-winter-warmer-weekender/
Z: It’d be great if we could do a mini-tour around the festival, a few concerts in france as well. After that, we’ll finished the few songs we’re cooking at the moment and then, you know, live shows, live shows and more live shows!
Q17 - Finally, Do you have anything to say your fans
Thank you for making the album a successful project with us.
Share our music if you like what you hear. The album's free on our bandcamp. Stay curious, stay hungry and stay heavy.
See you in the pit and stay Heavy.
Q16 - What are your future plans for the upcoming 12 months or so. Anything we should be excited about.
R: For the Londoners and the travellers, we're playing a Festival in February called The WPC Winter Warmer Weekender
http://whenplanetscollideuk.com/2012/11/23/first-sunday-additions-for-the-winter-warmer-weekender/
Z: It’d be great if we could do a mini-tour around the festival, a few concerts in france as well. After that, we’ll finished the few songs we’re cooking at the moment and then, you know, live shows, live shows and more live shows!
Q17 - Finally, Do you have anything to say your fans
Thank you for making the album a successful project with us.
Share our music if you like what you hear. The album's free on our bandcamp. Stay curious, stay hungry and stay heavy.
See you in the pit and stay Heavy.
