MYSTERY
BLUE
To find a band with 100%
metal attitude is really hard lately. MYSTERY BLUE, a band that cames straight
from 80's states that they are METAL SLAVES with free minds and are ready
to set the war on fire with their music. Before go to see them live on
a show near to you, read the interview to learn more about this great band...
1.HELLO! MY CONGRATULATIONS FOR
YOUR NEW ALBUM. NOW, TELL ME IF THE SONGS ON THIS RELEASE ARE ALL NEW COMPOSITIONS
OR ARE ANY OF THEM OLD SONGS THAT YOU DIDN'T MANAGE TO RELEASE IN THE FIRST
PLACE?
-
NATHALIE- Hi, thanks for the congratulations.
Yes, these songs are all new, even if we started to compose some of them
about one or two years ago…some songs need more time to get really mature
(VINCE- like some people do…J)
2.WHY DID YOU NAME THE ALBUM "METAL
SLAVES"? DON'T YOU THINK THAT HEAVY METAL IS THE MUSIC OF THE FREE
PEOPLE? DO YOU WANT TO EXPRESS
YOUR DEDICATION TO THIS GENRE BY THIS TITLE?
-
VINCE- It’s because our love for Heavy
Metal is real and sincere and we will always, whatever happens, play and
listen to this kind of music…it’s in our blood…
-
DANY- Metal is our master, so we are
Metal Slaves!
-
FRENZY- I think it was really time
to dedicate an album to this music. Heavy Metal rules in the heart of so
many people around the world for such a long time that it is an honour
for us to be its slaves!!
-
NATHALIE- I do agree with your comment
that Heavy Metal is rather a music for free people (in their minds at least),
but to have an open mind doesn’t mean that you can’t be addicted to anything
(and we are to Metal!)…
3.IN THE INTRO AND IN THE END OF THE
ALBUM WE LISTEN
TO A STRANGE SOUND, WHAT KIND OF
INSTRUMENT DID YOU USE TO CREATE THIS SOUND? DOES IT REMIND YOU A BIT OF
SEPULTURA?
-
NATHALIE- In fact I fell in love with
this special instrument during a trip to Australia. It’s called a didgeridoo
and is usually played by the Aborigines during their ceremonies and feasts.
I found the sound really magic and so I brought one back to France and
started to learn how to play it (it took me quite some time!). As the guys
also liked this instrument, we decided to include it on some of our songs
(already on the previous album).
4.MANY BANDS FROM THE 80S WHEN THEY
REUNITE, CHANGE THEIR SOUND AND MAKE IT MORE MODERN. WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE
TO KEEP ON PLAYING TRADITIONAL 80S METAL?
-
VINCE- Sometimes I find it really sad
and ridiculous, the band plays the same kind of music like before but use
a drum machine, add a big load of keyboards, a plaintive woman on some
vocal parts…and just put a “symphonic metal” sticker and that’s it! We
don’t care about being “modern” or not. We care about being honest with
ourselves and our fans. We play the music that we like to hear, we listen
to bands like Rawhead Rexx, Cage, Primal Fear, Hammerfall, Dream Evil,
so I don’t know if you call this traditional 80s Metal, but well I think
we play the same kind of music…
5.DID YOU HAVE ANY PROPOSALS TO RE-RELEASE
YOUR 80S
MATERIAL? DO YOU THINK YOU MIGHT
DO SOMETHING LIKE
THAT IN THE FUTURE OR NOT?
-
FRENZY- Sure we had some proposals,
but for the moment we are concentrated on the present and the future (we
are already working on the songs for our next album), not on the past…but
the possibility of a re-release is not excluded. Just wait and see…
6.WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE LYRICS?
CAN YOU TELL US
IN A COUPLE OF WORDS WHAT EVERY
SONG IS ABOUT?
-
NATHALIE- As I write all the lyrics
for our songs I can make a little summary of “Metal Slaves”:
-
“Slave To Blood” is a strange story
of somebody waking up near a dead body, seeing blood on his hands but not
remembering having killed this person…
-
“S.T.A.G.E.”, like its title suggests,
describes the feelings we may have about being on stage.
-
“Dark Visions” is about a subject which
is very important to me: pollution and climate change.
-
“Metal Dream” is a kind of naïve
song: it’s a dream we all had as teenagers (perhaps we still are…) to live
in a world without fights and war, and where everybody would enjoy listening
to cool music!
-
“Angel” tells the story of a good guy
gone bad because of the negative reactions/actions of the people towards
him… it’s part of our everyday life.
-
“Roller Coaster Ride” expresses the
way you can feel so high at one moment and so low at another, just like
if life was a big roller coaster ride!
-
“Desolation” and “Land Of No Return”
take place in a desert world where only monsters seem to have survived
(maybe after the bomb…).
-
I won’t describe “Silent Whisper” as
Frenzy has made it very well for the next question.
-
“Cry Out” is a story about somebody
facing a very difficult period in his life, fighting against demons like
drugs or alcohol and crying desperately for help…
7.IF YOU HAD A PROPOSAL TO DO AN EXPENSIVE
VIDEO CLIP,
WHICH SONG OF YOURS WOULD YOU CHOOSE
AND HOW DO YOU IMAGINE IT TO BE?
-
FRENZY- it’s not easy to choose a single
song on “Metal Slaves” for making a video. This album is so powerful and
each song is so personal. But for me, I would say “Silent Whisper (Bloody
Bastard)” because it expresses all the distress of people fighting against
illness and pain, it’s a very strong song, charged with emotions that everybody
can feel.
8.WHICH ELEMENT IN YOUR MUSIC ACCORDING
TO YOU CAN
ATTRACT NEW LISTENERS? WHICH THINGS
IN YOUR SOUND DO YOU THINK CAN DESCRIBE WHAT YOU DO?
-
FRENZY- I don’t know if we really need
to describe our sound to attract the listeners…just look at the cover:
what you see outside is what you will hear inside!!J
9.DO YOU HAVE ANY PLANS FOR LIVE SHOWS
OR FOR A TOUR
WITH ANOTHER BAND? DO YOU REMEMBER
ANY FUNNY INCIDENTS OCCURING TO YOU WHILST PERFORMING LIVE?
-
FRENZY- Yes, now the CD is out (well,
officially it will be on 19 September only, as we will have a special concert
evening to celebrate the release!), we are trying to get as many gigs as
possible and hope to play in all these great Metal countries like Greece!!!
Oh, I do remember a funny incident (well it wasn’t so funny at that time!).
It was in May 1998, when we were playing in a huge concert hall “Le Zenith”
in Nancy for an international motorbike meeting. We were about to start
our concert in front of 9000 people and we were already standing on stage
when we suddenly saw with terror that our bassist Dany was missing! I looked
behind the stage, he wasn’t there…so we sent a roadie to go and fetch him
while I started playing an endless solo so that nobody could notice the
problem. Finally Dany came running up the stage and we could start. At
the end of the concert, we asked him what had happened and where he was
and he told us he was still busy upstairs in the dressing room and didn’t
know we had already started…later, the roadie that was looking for him
said that he had found him “posing for a photograph” with a hot stripper
girl who had made a show before our concert!!!
10.YOU HAVE NATHALIE BEHIND THE VOCALS.
HOW EASY OR
DIFFICULT IS IT FOR THE METALLERS
TO ACCEPT A FEMALE
SINGER? FUURTHERMORE NATHALIE IS
NOT THE USUAL FEMALE VOCALIST WITH THE ETHERIAL VOCALS, USED EVERY NOW
AND THEN WITHIN THE SONG, BUT HER VOICE ENABLES TO STAND AMONG MEN AND
SHINE. DO YOU THINK THERE IS PREJUDICE IN THE METAL COMMUNITY?
-
NATHALIE- Well there might be some
prejudice about female vocals in Metal, but I ‘m not really aware of it,
I have not yet been directly confronted to such matter…and the fans in
our concerts seem to enjoy the actual line-up.
11.YOUR COVER ONCE AGAIN HAS BLUE COLOR
AND HAS A BAND PHOTO. WHY DID YOU SELECT TO PUT A PHOTO AND NOT A DRAWING?
IS THE BLUE COLOR USED AS A WAY OF MASCOT FOR YOU? A WAY TO STAND OUT AMONG
THE BANDS?
-
NATHALIE- We see so many drawings on
nearly every CD nowadays that we thought it would be cool to have a cover
with a picture of the band (and we had great fun making these photos…).
As for the blue colour…aren’t we called Mystery Blue?
12.LET'S SUPPOSE THAT WE LIVE IN A
WORLD WITHOUT
MUSIC. WHAT WOULD YOU DO IN SUCH
A CASE?
-
FRENZY- I would invent music!
-
VINCE- Create some or die!!
-
NATHALIE- Would be very hard for me…as
hard as a world without cats.
-
DANY- Listen to the music of women’s
bodies…
13.IF YOU WERE A FLY, WHERE WOULD YOU
LIKE TO BE AND
WHY?
-
VINCE- I would go to a friend of mine
who is a real animal lover. I would be safe and well treated and this guy
also listens to Heavy Metal music, so it would be perfect…
-
NATHALIE- I would like to fly to the
house of each fan having just bought our new CD in order to see his/her
first reaction while listening to our songs!
14.WHAT TITLE WOULD YOU GIVE TO YOUR
CAREER?
-
VINCE- Faith, sweat and pleasure
-
DANY- Roller coaster ride
-
NATHALIE- What makes us see life in
colour (Blue, of course!)
15.THANK YOU! HAVE I FORGOTTEN TO ASK
YOU ANYTHING AND YOU'D LIKE TO MENTION?
-
NATHALIE- Great thanks to you Nick
and BEHIND THE VEIL for promoting this music we love above all!
Nikos "William_Kidd" Parastatidis
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