SHANNON
Shannon offered us a great
hard rock album with power and melody. Olivier is here to reveal some of
the band's "secrets"...
1. HI! CONGRATULATIONS FOR YOUR
ALBUM! GREAT HARD ROCK!
Thank you, I’m very happy that
you appreciate our music.
2. FIRST OF ALL GIVE US A SHORT BAND
BIO AND INTRODUCE YOURSELVES TO THE READERS.
Shannon were born in 1998 with
3 musicians :
• Patrice Louis : All guitars
• Thierry Dagnicourt : Keyboards,
bass & drums programming
• Olivier Del Valle : Lead vocals
During the first time, we have
written a couple of songs that sounded like us, in relation to the music
that we like: Powerful and Melodic stuff. One year after, we got an 8 track
demo. We have sent the CD to the record companies in Europe. We got 2 contacts
and possibility to get a deal, but in these 2 cases the conditions (financially,
artistically and the relationships with the people) were not so good for
us. So we preferred to decline and seek a better solution. In the beginning
of 2002, Stephane Brulez (label manager from ANVIL CORP) contacted us and
was interested in really working with us. So after short negotiation, we
made the deal with him and today the album is on the market (France and
Germany). The choice of ANVIL CORP isn’t an accident. The company gave
us the time to really work on the songs and what we needed to do an album
with a great sound like we would like to have. The mix was made by Didier
Chesnaud from Headline at the MELODY STUDIO in FRANCE in July 2003. Didier
did a great job. He has captured the spirit of the songs as well as we
wanted. In fact, the album has the sound that we wanted with a crunchy
and dynamic music, with great guitar parts and strong vocals. Since the
studio work, a drummer has joined the band, his name is Stéphane
Mignon. He helped us in the end of the recording session for drum programming.
3. WHERE WAS “SHANNON” RECORDED? HOW
LONG DID IT TAKE YOU? WHO WAS THE PRODUCER? ARE YOU SATISFIED BY THE FINAL
RESULT? IF YOU HAD THE CHANCE TO CHANGE SOMETHING, WHAT WOULD THAT BE?
We are very lucky because we have
our own studio where we recorded the album. We have been recording it for
a whole year. Didier Chesneau has made the mix and it’s co-production ANVIL
CORP / SHANNON. I think we didn’t change anything. This album has the quality
and the mistakes of a first album. It’s fresh, spontaneous with a live
touch, but still has imperfection, because we didn’t have the experience
so far…
4. WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE TO PLAY A KIND
OF METAL THAT, LIKE YOU SAID, IS MAINLY DOMINATED BY U.S. BANDS? NAME SOME
OF YOUR MOST BELOVED BANDS AND ALBUMS.
The music from Shannon is the music
that we listen. So it was natural and logical. It was not a real and reflected
choice. In fact the US bands have dominated the 80’s but EUROPE got a great
success and in the quality aspect you have FAIR WARNING, SHAKRA, GOTTHARD,
BONFIRE…
Olivier : The influences are very
different. Shannon was influenced by the 80’s music. In my case, I’m pretty
sensible of the voices from: JOE LYNN TURNER, JEFF SCOTT SOTO, MIKE TRAMP,
RONNIE JAMES DIO, MICHAEL SWEET, MICHAEL KISKE. About bands, I like many
different stuff. Like many kids, I’ve listened to anything I appreciated,
without preoccupation if it was AOR, Melodic, Thrash or Heavy. Today I
listen to BON JOVI, SEPULTURA, but still have a predilection for ACCEPT,
WHITE LION, FAIR WARNING, JUDAS PRIEST, DOKKEN, HELLOWEEN…
Patrice : I was influenced by technical
guitar players but with a strong melodic orientation, like: MICHAEL SCHENKER,
RITCHIE BLACKMORE, FRANKIE SULLIVAN from SURVIVOR who is a killer, but
not enough considered by the Media. About guitarists from today, I appreciate
very much BILL LEVERTY (FIREHOUSE) and TONY BRUNO (SARAYA, DANGER DANGER).
In all case I hate the weave from SHARPNEL RECORDS orchestrated by MIKE
VARNEY during the late 80’s with technical musicians without Feelings and
true melodies. The exception is TONY MAC ALPINE, who did a great melodic
Album, but only one… As for bands I appreciate very much JUDAS PRIEST,
DANGER DANGER, FIREHOUSE, NIGHTRANGER and FM.
Thierry : I like musicians like
DAVID PAICH (TOTO), JOHNATAN CAIN (JOURNEY), MIC MICHAELI (EUROPE) and
ROBBY VALENTINE. About bands I can give you the name of BON JOVI, TYKETTO,
JADED HEART and of course TOTO and JOURNEY.
5. WHERE ARE YOUR LYRICS REFERRING
TO? WHAT INSPIRES YOU TO WRITE LYRICS AND WHAT CAN TAKE THE INSPIRATION
AWAY FROM YOU?
The lyrics talk about many different
subjects. “HEARTBREAKER”, “SHE’S A LIAR” and “LOVEHUNTER” talk about love,
“WILD,WILD,WILD” talks about the story of a Psycho killer who seeks his
own death through the Victims that He kills… “YOUNG AND TOUGH” is more
into sex and rock’n’roll. We didn’t have a special subject to talk about.
The lyrics follow the wind of the songs…When I write the lyrics, the inspiration
comes from everyday life, experiences, but almost every time from imagination
and fiction.
6. DO YOU HAVE ANY PLANS FOR LIVE SHOWS?
DO YOU LIKE PERFORMING LIVE? HOW DO YOU IMAGINE A SHANNON LIVE SHOW?
We are right now on intensive rehearsal
to get on stage as soon as possible. The first gigs must be coming in March
2004. The Shannon show will be like the image of the band and the musicians.
Simple with flash and balls to kick your ass. It will be the reflect of
the album and for the track list, we will be playing the album + some surprises.
7. TELL US A FEW THINGS REGARDING THE
ARTWORK. WHAT DOES IT SHOW? WHAT DO YOU WANT TO EXPRESS AND HOW IS IT CONNECTED
TO THE LYRICS?
The illustration didn’t bring any
particular message. It’s like the name of the band, We didn’t want a typical
Metal cover for this album. In the past we saw a lot of artworks typically
METAL and most of the time was more ridiculous than great. The colours
and the quality of the work were the reasons of our choice. There are no
connections between the artwork and the lyrics. The Artwork didn’t bring
any message. We chose it because it’s our taste and we were seduced from
the quality of the work.
8. ARE YOU SATISFIED BY THE FEEDBACK
YOU GOT THIS FAR? IS THERE A COMMON STATEMENT YOU SEE REPEATED IN ALMOST
ALL THE REVIEWS YOU GET?
Since the album is on the market,
we got different critics from European magazines and the reactions are
good. The album is almost welcome. All think that the force of the album
is the different kind of songs and the quality of the production.
9. WHICH ARE ACCORDING TO YOU YOUR
BEST AND MOST APPEALING ELEMENTS AND IN WHICH FIELD DO YOU THINK YOU NEED
FURTHER IMPROVEMENT?
I think that SHANNON need more
experience. The progression will be coming. The more the group will experiment
the more we’ll get the right performance. We have to learn of each thing
to be better.
10. WHAT NEW DO YOU HAVE TO OFFER TO
THE METAL SCENE? IF SOMEONE ASKED YOU WHY HE SHOULD PREFER TO BUY YOUR
ALBUM INSTEAD OF ANOTHER RELEASE, WHAT WOULD YOU TELL HIM?
We didn’t seek to bring something
new. We aren’t so pretentious to do a metal revolution. We want just to
give pleasure and fun to the listener and has pleasure to write and play
songs. The best promotion is the album itself. Its force is the quality
of the production for a first CD and the different kind of styles that
you can find along the 13 tracks. On that album you have crunchy AOR, pure
ROCK’N’ROLL and HEAVY stuff, but we always maintain an important element:
Melody. I think that the best way is to listen to the CD to capture the
universe of Shannon.
11. IF YOU HAD THE MONEY TO MAKE AN
EXPENSIVE VIDEO CLIP. WHICH SONG OF YOURS WOULD YOU SELECT AND HOW DO YOU
IMAGINE IT TO BE?
If we get the opportunities, it
will be on songs like “HEARTBREAKER” or “WILD WILD WILD”, they are very
accessible songs.
12. IF YOUR MUSIC WERE AN EMOTION,
WHAT WOULD IT BE? IF IT WERE A PAINTING, WHAT WOULD IT SHOW?
Passion, passion and one more time
passion. Painting : “abstraite”, like a Picasso who everybody can find
what they want. The band is on this way when we write music. We didn’t
seek to follow a certain fashion. That’s why you can find a true diversity
in the songs. Everybody can find what he wants and what he likes.
13. WHAT DOES SHANNON MEAN? HOW DID
YOU COME UP WITH IT?
The name Shannon has no special
origin or reason. We would like something “neutral” that didn’t give any
indication of the music. We found SHANNON sounding good and sweet. It’s
also short and when we found it, we kept it. We have no connection with
a Shannon (We mean a girl), sorry…!
14. WHAT TITLE/PHRASE DO YOU THINK
COULD SUM UP ALL THE BAND’S EFFORTS TILL NOW?
We can’t give you best tracks and
it was not that we want during the writing. Since the album in on the market,
everybody has favourite songs. It depends of the sensibility of each one
and we found that good.
15. THANK YOU! THESE LINES ARE YOURS.
LEAVE YOUR MESSAGE…
We want to give a lot pleasure
and fun to the listeners, so much that we got during the writing and the
recording. We hope to see you soon. Good luck and long live to BEHIND THE
VEIL.
Christine Parastatidou
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