ERYN NON DAE – Interview with Mickael André

ERYN NON DAE – probably the most unique French bands out there. Maybe even one of the most unique bands in the entire metal world. They just released their first long play entitled “Hydra Lernaďa” and they're already shaking some webzines and music magazines with their unique sound. Even though the name and music sounds dark and hateful, this band is the most friendly band I ever had chance to deal with. I asked band's representative about their band, conception of it in general, most recent release and a little bit about future plans.

So guys… how did you come up with this project? You dont have a big list of releases on your record but I can tell that you put everything you have to offer on Hydra Lernaia because this album is just great! I am assuming you were working hard since very beginning of END?

Thanks a lot for the kind words ! You're right, we've been working really hard since the beginning, and I have to admit that it's something quite comfortable, I mean we all know bands who struggles to have everybody involved in a band but in ERYN NON DAE each member try to do his best to make the band go ahead and I guess it makes difference when we work for the band, lots of daily work inside and outside our rehearsal room.

As a French band, are you some kind of (positively saying) metal scene outsiders in your homeland? I see lots of depressive black metal there, many post rock and post metal projects but I never met with such unique sound as ERYN NON DAE presents. Not in France honestly, not anywhere else… It is really hard to give you any straight genre label… Treat it as a compliment.

Thanks again! I think it's better not to try to give any label since we sometimes read such weird thing! I guess it depends on the individual's musical knowledge. People in the posthardcore/rock/noise thing compares us to Neurosis while people in the Meshuggah thing think we are running after the more complicated time signature possible, but I think music is beyond these considerations, of course bands we're listening to are influencing us in some ways and people needs labels to get an idea of what they're going to find on a CD and we totally understand that but it's really something that we are unable to do. Another funny thing is that some webzine said we were playing a kind of modern black metal and it's quite interesting, this mean that some people are more focusing on the atmosphere part of the music more than the genre it supposed to belong to, so to answer to your question (finally) I don't know about being an outsider but from what I've heard we are a part of this progressive scene, I mean French bands began to be known for their abilities to mix many elements in their music.

While I was doing a little research on the web I found many great words about you in webzines and other music services. There is one thing that connects them all that I would like to ask you about. Lyrics. They are really unusual and taken from deepness, straight from heart. I see your concept as hatred to humanity, hatred to the horrible things human can do to nature and other people. There is pain and misery, there is weakness of being alive and nothing is perfect. Am I correct or I missed something? Tell me a bit of your lirycal influences and how did it develop in time during bands existence.

Math (the singer) writes all the lyrics and as you said it's something realy important for him, it's not just about writing a few lines to be howled on stage, it's a huge part of him, and I see that his writing process is evolving, it's a complex process to be described, “Hydra Lernaďa” is about nine human feelings symbolized by the Hydra, these feelings that the more you fight against them the stronger they grow. It's something quite universal isn't it? Considering what he wrote on the EP, what it's about on “Hydra Lernaďa”, and what I've read on rehearsal these days, it's always about expressing himself through his lyrics but it seems that he's now looking for something more straight to the point, not simpler but it's more about trying to give the words more weight, more importance, as you said it's coming from heart and as in many situations it's often about finding a kind of equilibrium between something toughand worked, something simply felt and expressed like it is, it's a realy hard matter but it's avery important part of what the band is and you're right in your interpretation; it's something we often debate between Math and I that nothing is perfect, so what about this need to tell it again and again? Even if there's some shy moment of light like in the song Pure we have to admit that what's surrounding us is quite ugly…

You pretty much kicked in the door to the wider metal scene coming up with Hydra Lernaďa. I can bet you feel the same way. This shockwave you created in some musical and fan circles is very noticable…

One more time it's something quite hard to notice, I mean there's a kind of incapacity to clearly see what's going on with the effects created by the album, we know that “Hydra Lernaďa” has been apreciated from what we read and what people told us but I don't know if it goes further, but I'll try to believe you! Haha! But I think it will be more revealant in a few years to see where is the band and how “Hydra Lernaďa” is considered, or not!

How would you describe and what would you thank for acquiring your unique sound? Teamwork for sure, so you have to be very dedicated and cooperative for what your doing as a band…

Yes, that's it! A result of cooperation and each member's will, for “Hydra Lernaďa” we had an idea of the way we wanted the album to sound like, and Mobo (our studio sound engineer) is a great guy when it comes to help us in shaping the sound we wanted. I don't know if it's unique but it's one more time a question of finding an equilibrium between something very worked and something more natural, and I think we're going to dig that way for the next one, it's definitely a kind of quest! We are quite focused on the sound thing, and we know that there's a lot of things to try even if in the band we all agree with the direction to take with our sound there's always a part of surprise somewhere, it's exciting.

About Hydra Lernaďa… How did preparations look like for this album? Any special inspirations that led you to create this original album?

No special inspirations, but a kind of rather egoistic will to give form to what we had in our heart, it's been a quite long process since we're not a professionnal band, we don't have any organisation like we record, we tour, we write, we record, we tour… so we have to keep ourselves ready for gigs while composing new songs so it's a long process, something we have constantly in our head and that we always try to put in songs, so it goes through rehearse: recording demos when a song is over and then go to he studio when it's done but it's a daily process involving all our lives, nothing more, nothing less.

Is there any particular theme of this album and meaning of the title?

Yes, “Hydra Lernaďa” is the image Math choose to sum the nine human feelings his lyrics are dealing with in this record. There's also a strong thing with the number nine in this record, you'll have to read the lyrics to make your own opinion about the “Hydra Lernaďa” theme here!

Future is unavoidable as well as plans connected to it… Do you already have something on mind what is ERYN NON DAE going to do in the future after Hydra?

Yes we have a quite clear idea of where we're going next. We have a few songs ready for the next one that gives us some ideas of what the band is about these times, we have a few gigs coming and we're still writing songs for the next one. We hope to enter the studio late 2010, but we never know…

I am assuming that lots of shows are upcoming to promote your latest recording…

Well, a lots isn't what I would say! We have only a few shows, don't ask me why, I just don't know, we always want to play more but, it's never enough…

Is ERYN NON DAE going to participate on some bigger stages i.e. festivals?

Unfortunately, nothing is scheduled with summer festival and other big thing… sorry !!

For the final question… is there anything that ERYN NON DAE wants to say to their fans?

A big thanks to all of you who are sending us kind words and others. It means a lot for us. Be sure we are hardly working on the next record and hoping for coming to see you anywhere you're from! Thanks again!

Official website: http://erynnondae.com/
Myspace: www.myspace.com/end1freefr