HEAVENLY
Questions asked by Jon Wilde, added to Rock Realms 17th December 2009.
Heavenly is a French metal band with a hugely flamboyant edge. We recently reviewed their new album Carpe Diem and came away more than impressed.
Singer Benjamin Sotto kindly agreed to answer a few questions on behalf of the band.
Hi Ben, thanks for taking a moment to answer these questions. Hope you are well?
Ben: I'm fine thank you, Jon… It's a pleasure to answer your questions.
Firstly, congratulations on the new album, I think it’s great. I assume you are happy with the way it turned out?
Ben: Thank you so much Jon! It’s lovely to hear you like our job on this new record; we worked for more than two and a half years on this new material and we are very proud of it…we tried to find elements of everything Heavenly embraces right at this moment: some speed, thrash, classical pieces, symphonic orchestrations, shredding guitars, mid tempo songs, well.... I think everybody can find himself in this album.
Is there a ‘Heavenly sound’...i.e. how would you describe the sound of the band if someone asked? I still can’t work out if you’re a power metal, thrash or glam band. The best I could manage was describing the sound as flamboyant metal...
Ben: Firstly, thank you for your description... it's always hard to describe our music in a few words, but I'll say that our music is based on speed or melodic metal and then is enriched with elements from different kinds of music like classical music, rock or opera. The Heavenly sound is a mix between power, melody and emotion, really!
I assume from latest album Carpe Diem you prefer not to be limited by one genre?
Ben: Of course….. “Carpe Diem” is a compilation of nine tracks and each track has his own colour and emotion. You’ll find speedy songs like “Ashen Paradise” or “Ode To Joy”, alongside catchy songs “Lost In Your eyes” and “Fullmoon”. Then, heavy songs like “Carpe Diem” and symphonic and theatrical stuff like “Farewell” and “A Better Me”, so there’s no strict rules…. “Carpe Diem” contains everything we like at this moment.
How does this album compare sound-wise with earlier Heavenly releases? Have you always liked to mix it up or am I right in thinking you used to be more of a power metal band?
Ben: Our vision of the music is changing everyday, but I think each album is necessary to his successor. By that, I mean “Virus” couldn't be as it was without the previous album “Dust To Dust” and so “Carpe Diem” without “Virus”. As you've said, the previous albums are probably more powerful than the new one, and I agree….. But composing the album, we didn't want to take any particular direction with this….. There was no template; the composition was made very naturally. “Carpe Diem” is maybe less powerful but it’s much more melodic and symphonic.
There are some strong Queen influences on the record. Have they always been a big inspiration?
Ben: You know, we’ve been asked this many times and, it’s not surprising really… I grew up listening to Queen songs and the band Queen and its influences were already present in our previous albums. But “Farewell” and “A Better Me” (which are presumably the songs you’re picking out?) are voluntarily impregnated by this band, I would say! These songs are like a tribute to the most famous rock band there is. These two tracks could be on “A Night At The Opera” in my opinion, and I love it…. A lot of things remind me of Queen; first the structure of the songs, then we built the choirs like Mercury did, tried to get some of the lead guitar sounds Bryan May captured and I also placed Freddie Mercury tones on the lead vocals….!
Who else has helped shape Heavenly’s direction over the years?
Ben: Well, we're listening to a lot of music and have many contrasting, different horizons, so it’s hard to say…. But, we've probably been influenced by as many metal bands like Iron Maiden, Metallica, Helloween, Judas Priest, and Pantera…. As rock bands like Queen or Bon Jovi. There would be the classical music of Bach, Beethoven, Vivaldi as well, and also Jazz, Blues, Opera, Disco, all kinds of music.
Were there any particular stories or concepts in mind during the writing of Carpe Diem?
Ben: The concept of the phrase “Carpe Diem” is from a Roman lyric poet called Horace. The original sentence was “Carpe diem quam minimum credula postero”. It means "Seize the day, trusting as little as possible in the future." For many people, the meaning changed and became “Enjoy the day, trusting as little as possible in the future", which refers to the pleasure quest and as well often includes sexual pleasures…
On this album, songs like “Carpe Diem” and “Fullmoon” deal with this theme, but “Carpe Diem” is definitely not a concept album, so the other songs deal with different things: Love, Hope, War, Despair, stuff like that!
What is the writing/recording process actually like? Who writes the songs? Is everything prepared before you hit the studio, or is it more of a jamming session in the studio with everyone adding their bit?
Ben: Well, the writing process is quite simple… We record demo songs and each member brings his own parts to the table. Sometimes, we start with a guitar riff, so I give it to Olivier (Lapauze) and Charley (Corbiaux) who rearrange everything with each musician arranging his own part, and the song grows from there. I'm still the main writer in Heavenly, Olivier and Charley compose a little too. And, for the recording, we've got our own studios - this album was recorded largely in those, at home – before we bring in our sound engineer, Philip Colodetti, who works with Kamelot and Epica as well, to do the final mix and mastering.
Was the album recording work, pleasure, or a bit of both?
Ben: For me, it's a real pleasure because you're working for you. I think it's like parents who are waiting for a child and for us at least; a recording session is almost like the childbirth. This is the result of the work of five members over many months… It’s very emotional. We are blessed in that our work is a passion, we don't wake up every morning to go and just do a boring job. I have to be honest, it's a real pleasure.
Any good stories from the recording sessions?
Ben: Any good stories.....? No, only bad ones… (laugh).... Unfortunately, with Heavenly, we always have problems in the studio…I don’t know what it is? On this album, we broke the computer during the recording session and the tracks were in there on the hard-drive! But everything got back to normal eventually, we didn’t lose too much time….
Seriously, everything is great during the recording sessions really, because day by day, songs take shape, and you discover exactly what you've had in your head over many, many days. So except for a few computer problems, I think, overall, everything went well.
Do you have any favourite moments or tracks on the album?
Ben: This depends on my mood but if I have to say which song I prefer now, at the moment, I think it's “A Better Me” or “Farewell” because they are slow songs and we don’t have many like this in our discography; it's something a little new, I think. But I also like “Carpe Diem” and “Lost In Your Eyes.”
Did you have any guest artists working on the album?
Ben: Yes, of course. When we recorded the song “Save Our Souls”, we thought it would be nice to have a guest on the first verse. We immediately thought of Oliver Hartmann, who I discovered when he was with At Vance. He 's a very good singer and I remember being impressed by his amazing ABBA covers…
For his solo albums, he works with Philip Colodetti, who did our three last albums as I mentioned earlier, so that was an easy decision. We made him the proposal and he accepted. I think he did a fucking great performance on this track….. He’s a super professional musician actually…
Then we needed a female voice, and for this we turned to a singer called Geraldine Gadaut from the French band Benighted Soul. And last but not least, a very good friend Nicolas Marco, from Forgin' Fate, did an amazing Keyboard solo for us on the song “Ode To Joy”….
Ahh, yes I was going to ask who played the piano...he is clearly jolly handy!
Ben: All Nicolas Marco… This guy also did additional orchestration on a few tracks…. We just gave him the piano part and he rearranged it and played it for the record. He is an astonishingly good keyboard and piano player...
We love the album’s artwork. Who was the artist behind it?
Ben: That’s the work of Derek Gores, who’s worked with Kamelot; it was amazing to work with him because he's a funny guy. I've said before that we wanted to represent this “wrong”, misinterpreted, interpretation of “Carpe Diem”, that's why it was necessary to have a sexy cover…. Of course, we could have been a little bit more subjective, but it would not be relevant… It's not so ‘unbearable’ to see two beautiful girls almost naked...?
Does your music sell well in France (your home country), or do you tend to do better in more traditional rock-loving places like Germany, America and Scandinavia?
Ben: Well, before we released the “Virus” album, the audience was bigger in countries like Germany, Spain and Japan for sure. For a long time, it was hard for French people to accept French bands. I don't know why, but people thought it was much better if the band is from another country. We've often heard something like “your albums are great and that's amazing for a French band”…? But for me, a musician is a musician whatever, wherever he is from, and now, thankfully, there's a trend reversal going on, and our sales in France are growing… I think French people are becoming more open-minded, and that's a good thing.
Do you get chance to do much touring? Is there any chance of you coming to the UK for example?
Ben: Schedule a UK tour! We'll be there, for sure! Seriously though, we did not have the opportunity to come to the UK after the previous album “Virus” and that was a shame…. Perhaps, with this new album, we will have the possibility to visit you and of course it'll be a real pleasure. At this moment, we're scheduling a new music video clip; this is our priority right now. Then, I hope we can plan a European tour, maybe in Spring. We are eager to play live; really eager… it's always a great experience. Maybe we'll play a summer festival or something? Nothing is definitely planed now.... sadly, but, let’s see!
Is your live show as big and brilliantly over the top as this record suggests?
Ben: Well, to be honest, the first three tours we did weren't the best. Since the “Virus” album though, our live performances are increasingly getting better and better. Now we are ready and eager to do great live shows. We hope we will have the opportunity to do a lot of gigs with this album and in big venues or festival shows where the music will really stand up!
Since recording the album, drummer Thomas Das Neves has left the band and been replaced by ‘Piwee’. Could you tell us a bit about the new boy and how he’s fitting in?
Ben: That’s right and when Thomas left the band we immediately thought about him actually… After the first gig with Firewind, we did not hesitate for a second; Piwee’s integration into this band was immediate. Everything happened so simply and naturally. He's very professional. I think he started playing drums when he was 11; he studied drums and music at university. He played in different bands, recently with Fairyland… And he also performs drum clinics for different brands of musical instrument; Mapex drums, Meinl Cymbals and Roland electronic kits...., so he's incredibly versatile.
His musical vision is very large, from jazz to extreme metal, through classical, blues, Latin and rock music. He’s influenced by people such as Dave Weckl, Terry Bozzio, Virgil Donati, Simon Phillips, and Mike Terrana... And all this makes him an effective drummer who knows how to serve the music. I think Piwee brought something new and rich into our music straight away – his feeling and expression are amazing!
Is there anyone else you’d like to work with one day?
Ben: Metallica or the Iron Maiden guys? This would be more than a dream.... More seriously, I hope, one day, we could do something with a symphonic orchestra? A gig, a record, anything… I’d love to do that!
Does anyone in the band have any interesting side projects?
Ben: Ha, Ha funnily enough… Only a little bit…. As I've said, Piwee demonstrates many musical instruments and he plays with several different kinds of side project. Matthieu (Plana), our bass player, is also playing in Asmodee, Warattah, Sael and with Pierre Yves Marani, whereas Olivier has done various guest solos for different bands…. But I just dedicate myself exclusively to Heavenly.
What are you up to once you’ve finished answering these questions?
Ben: I don't know, maybe answering another journalist’s questions ...(laugh)...
Anything else you would like to mention?
Ben: I just hope that everyone will enjoy our new album “Carpe Diem”, and we hope we'll see you if we can tour in the UK. Thank you for this interview and for your time!
Thanks to you sir!!
Thanks again to Ben. You can check out the Rock Realms review of Carpe Diem here.
http://www.myspace.com/heavenlyofficial
