EMQ’s With Disorientation
EMQ’s With Disorientation
Hi everyone! Welcome to another EMQs, this time with Canadian Symphonic Metal Project, Disorientation. Huge thanks to them for taking part.
What is your name, what do you play and can you tell us a little bit about the history of the band?
Marie-Claude Fleury (vocals, oboe, English horn, drum programming). We are Disorientation, a Symphonic Metal project. Symphonic Metal is a style that usually portrays beauty and grandeur, we show despair and distress, and we can agree that those are far from elegant. I play oboe and English horn so that provides the orchestration, but we are the opposite of being epic, our approach is more like chamber music.
Daniel Daris (guitars and bass). We share an interest in dissonant music and started recording ideas based on that. We had many song parts lying around, some even started in early 2010, but it was in late 2019 that we got serious and started recording what would become our self-titled EP. After that, we started working on new material right away, but because we both are involved in other projects, it took two years to release Survival Mode, our 2nd EP which has 3 songs as well.
How did you come up with your band name?
Marie-Claude: I was looking for something abstract that could not be associated with any specific style of metal or lyrical content. When the idea of the name Disorientation came to my mind, it fitted those criteria, plus the fact that there weren’t 25 bands with that name already, which made it an obvious choice.
Daniel: When we released our 1st EP, someone who reviewed it said that Disorientation was a perfect band name and title for our release.
What Country / Region are you from and what is the Metal / Rock scene like there?
Daniel: We are from Montreal, Canada.
Marie-Claude: Montreal has long been known for its metal scene, even in the 90’s when everybody liked to say that metal was dead, there were bands here that kept the style alive and well. Nowadays there are metal shows of every sub-genre of metal every week.
What is your latest release?
Daniel: Survival Mode has more of a harder edge compared to our 1st effort, this required a change of sound and we opted for the crisper approach provided by the mixing and mastering of Hugues Deslauriers.
Marie-Claude: Survival Mode is more blunt and straightforward than our self-titled EP. This time we decided to create a lyric video for one of the songs. Video editing was pretty much new to us, but since I created our artwork, I wanted to experiment with this as well.
Who have been your greatest influences?
Marie-Claude: I am a fan of Dawn Crosby’s vocals on Fear of God’s “Within the Veil”. It was pretty cutting-edge for the 90’s, even if it was mostly studio work that was not replicated live. I also like Karyn Crisis for her irregular vocal lines that change in a pattern you can’t explain. European Symphonic bands like Therion and the early Tristania have also influenced me because they showed how to clean vocals juxtaposed with growling could be used in a powerful way. Another band I have been influenced by is Liva. Unlike most Symphonic Metal Liva is more intimate, like a chamber orchestra, and this is the approach we use for our music.
Daniel: Celtic Frost, because of the overall deathly vibe of the music. Also Obituary, Gorguts, Morbid Angel, Black Sabbath.
What first got you into music?
Daniel: My dad was playing guitar and had a lot of cassettes and vinyl. I started listening to Elvis, The Beatles, and The Beach Boys, those were the music he was into. In my youth, I was surrounded by music and I absorbed everything that came out.
Marie-Claude: I heard Madonna when I was about 7 years old, and from that moment I wanted to listen to music all the time. During my teens, I moved on to heavier stuff and even today I like to discover new artists and styles.
If you could collaborate with a current band or musician who would it be?
Daniel: Luc Lemay from Gorguts, Mathieu Bérubé from Teramobil, Michel “Away” Langevin from Voivod.
Marie-Claude: For me, it’s very hard to decide who I would like to collaborate with.
If you could play any festival in the world, which would you choose and why?
Marie-Claude: Roadburn, because there’s more of an artistic vibe to it.
Daniel: Wacken Open Air, for the visibility and the experience it would provide.
What’s the weirdest gift you have ever received from a fan?
Daniel: I never received anything strange from a fan, so far.
Marie-Claude: Me neither.
If you had one message for your fans, what would it be?
Marie-Claude: Thanks for supporting us, and for supporting music in general.
If you could bring one rock star back from the dead, who would it be?
Marie-Claude: I would bring back Nico so she could see how her own music is getting recognition at last, however, I’m not sure she would like to be brought back.
Daniel: It’s a cliché, but Cliff Burton. I’d like to smoke weed with him and have him as a guest on one of our songs.
What do you enjoy the most about being a musician? And what do you hate?
Marie-Claude: I enjoy the process of creating something that’s completely our own, something that has never been played before, in the way we choose to play it. What I hate is having to deal with the day-to-day chores that take away time from the music.
Daniel: Creating and contributing to compositions. I am a bassist first and I love that instrument’s role. What I enjoy less is that it can become tiring.
If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?
Marie-Claude: I would eliminate venue merch cuts and increase streaming royalties.
Daniel: The emphasis it gives to following trends, whether it’s clothing, hairstyle or type of sound. I’m bothered by bands who only copy what’s fashionable.
Name one of your all-time favourite albums?
Marie-Claude: I will go with Obituary’s “The End Complete”. It was the first time I heard really guttural vocals and it had a big impact on me.
Daniel: The Fourth Dimension by Hypocrisy.
What’s best? Vinyl, Cassettes, CD’s or Downloads?
Marie-Claude: I hesitate between CDs and downloads. I like looking at the CD booklets but I also like the portability of downloads, they allow you to carry your entire collection in one single device.
Daniel: I like cassettes because they are compact, and vinyl because their artwork is gorgeous.
What’s the best gig that you have played to date?
Daniel: Disorientation has not played any shows yet, but for shows I did with other bands, there’s one I did around 2003-2004 with an extreme metal band called Demental that was pretty intense in terms of energy from both the band and the crowd. It was in a town called Rouyn-Noranda, which is an 8-hour drive from Montreal.
Marie-Claude: The best shows that I have played were in New York with the Growlers Choir. We played at the Culture Lab in a jazz metal opera called La Suspendida along with jazz trio Kilter, string quartet seven) suns, and singer Andromeda Anarchia. The show also featured aerial dance for an extra dramatic effect.
If you weren’t a musician, what else would you be doing?
Marie-Claude: I would probably be investing more time into drawing and hopefully getting better at it.
Daniel: If I was not into music today, I have no idea what I would do.
Which five people would you invite to a dinner party?
Daniel: I would invite Brad Dourif, Robert Trujillo, Alex Lifeson, Loyd Kaufman, and Daniel Lemire.
Marie-Claude: I’m the type of person who would want to make sure everybody has personalities that get along so I have no idea!
What’s next for the band?
Marie-Claude: We want to build a line-up to play shows and hopefully make our next release as a band rather than a project.
Daniel: We also want to start working on our next songs.
What social media / Website links do you use to get your music out to people?
https://disorientationmetal.bandcamp.com
https://music.apple.com/us/artist/disorientation/1587626266
https://www.amazon.com/music/player/artists/B09H6CCTYL/disorientation
https://www.deezer.com/fr/artist/146661052
https://www.facebook.com/disorientationmetal
https://www.instagram.com/disorientationmetal
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6V2jaggYrUfygVqzNYmSlA
Time for a very British question now. As an alternative to the humble sandwich, is the correct name for a round piece of bread common in the UK either a Bap, a Barm (or Barm Cake), a Batch, a Bun, a Cob, a Muffin, a Roll or a Tea Cake?
Marie-Claude: I would say a muffin?
Daniel: Here, we’d say an English Muffin.
Thank you for your time. Is there anything else that you would like to add?
Marie-Claude: Thanks for this interview and for talking about Disorientation.
Daniel: Thanks for the interview!
Disclaimer: This interview is solely the property of Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this review, unless you have the strict permission of both parties. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.
