EMQ’s With Omnivide
EMQ’s With Omnivide
Hi Everyone! Welcome to another EMQs interview, this time with Canadian Progressive Metal band, Omnivide. Huge thanks to their Vocalist/ Guitarist, Samuel Frenette, 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?
My name is Samuel Frenette, I do vocals and play guitar. Our band formed in 2020 after an Opeth Tribute band that 3 of our current members were in dissolved. We wanted to write some Progressive Metal, so we went about writing songs and defining our sound, all while learning how to properly record and produce ourselves to achieve the sound that we wanted on our first album. We played our first show in the summer of 2022 and have been very active live ever since, and we finished recording our first album in February 2023.
How did you come up with your band name?
We were trying to find a band name that hadn’t already been used and sounded cool/original, so we scratched our heads for quite a while. Eventually, we came up with Omnivide because in French, “omni” means the same thing as in English (totality/everything) and “vide” means void or emptiness. So put together, Omnivide means everything and nothing all at once, or the totality of emptiness if you prefer. Since our music goes from clean and quiet sections to grandiose and heavy riffs, we thought the name was fitting.
What Country / Region are you from and what is the Metal / Rock scene like there?
We’re from the province of New Brunswick on the East Coast of Canada, in a town called Moncton. The metal scene is quite lively here, there are a ton of local bands playing shows regularly. The Maritimes is somewhat of a self-contained scene, and it’s much easier for bands from around here to play in major cities from our region than to break through in provinces like Quebec or Ontario.
What is your latest release?
Our latest single (our first one ever) is called Holy Killer, which will be on our upcoming album “A Tale of Fire” being released on March 22nd: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwIYIHQK_i0
Who have been your greatest influences?
We’re inspired by the great bands that have certain aspects of the same kind of music that we aspire to write. Bands such as Obscura, Wintersun, The Black Dahlia Murder, and Opeth just to name a few.
What first got you into music?
I got into music around age 8 or 9, first falling in love with Classic Rock as I was taking guitar lessons. That quickly transitioned to Metal around age 11 when my uncle showed me Megadeth and Nevermore, and I never looked back, playing tons of guitar and devouring music continuously ever since.
If you could collaborate with a current band or musician who would it be?
A dream of mine would be to somehow collaborate with Devin Townsend, he’s just such a creative genius. It’s an extremely unlikely dream, but a dream nonetheless.
If you could play any festival in the world, which would you choose and why?
We would love to play Wacken one day, as it’s the biggest Metal festival in the world. It would be a career-defining achievement for us.
What’s the weirdest gift you have ever received from a fan?
We haven’t received any gifts yet, I’m sure our fans just forgot to give us some…
If you had one message for your fans, what would it be?
Thanks so much for all of the support so far! Our local scene is awesome and many people repeatedly come to shows, which means the world to us.
If you could bring one rock star back from the dead, who would it be?
I would go with Chuck Schuldiner. I would love to have seen him play live with Death or any future band he might have been involved in, and to hear what crazy music he may have come up with.
What do you enjoy the most about being a musician? And what do you hate?
I enjoy the creative process the most; making music is the reason I am in a band in the first place. On the other hand, the business aspect of the band is something I’d happily let someone else do if ever we got to that level where it made sense to hire someone.
If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?
I would bring back physical media as the only means of listening to music. I stopped buying many CDs after I got Spotify and I regret that my collection hasn’t grown much in the past few years.
Name one of your all-time favourite albums?
I’m gonna go with two because I can’t decide: Wintersun’s debut album and “Temple of Shadows” by Angra.
What’s best? Vinyl, Cassettes, CD’s or Downloads?
I personally love vinyls and I’m actually buying some regularly to build my collection.
What’s the best gig that you have played to date?
Our best gig would be our last one in our hometown of Moncton, we played with Necrohol which are great friends of ours. The turnout was amazing and we sold tons of merch. Oh, and it seemed like the crowd enjoyed our music too!
If you weren’t a musician, what else would you be doing?
I’d probably be writing fantasy novels, as I’ve always been a huge fan of series like the Wheel of Time and Dragonlance.
Which five people would you invite to a dinner party?
Devin Townsend, Mikael Akerfeldt, Kiko Loureiro, Jari Mäenpää and Teemu Mäntysaari.
What’s next for the band?
We’re going to release our debut album in March, go on a tour of Eastern Canada in April, and write a second album to hopefully release in a couple of years from now!
What Social Media / Website links do you use to get your music out to people?
https://www.facebook.com/OmnivideBand
https://www.instagram.com/omnivide_band/
https://omnivide.bandcamp.com/
https://www.youtube.com/@Omnivide/featured
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?
Oh man… I’m gonna go with a Roll?
Thank you for your time. Is there anything else that you would like to add?
Thank you so much for the interview! If anyone is interested in our music, our first single ‘Holy Killer’ should be out on all streaming platforms by the time this interview comes out, and our first album will drop on March 22nd. Follow us on socials to keep up with the releases!
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.
