Alkemyst interview

(Originally from 2/24/07)

Alkemyst is a lesser known metal band from France that incorporates progressive elements into their speed/power metal style of music. Guitarists Arnaud Ménard and Séverin Bonneville join us for a look from their 2003 debut to their upcoming sophomore release, as well as some insights into their writing routines, and practice techniques...

To begin, can you give us a brief synopsis of the band - for those who may not be familiar with the history and music of Alkemyst?

Séverin Bonneville: Well, we started to play as Alkemyst in 1998, this is the time when we managed to form a steady line-up. Our music was very influenced by German speed metal bands like Helloween for example. We would play concerts in our area (France). In September 1999, we recorded our first 2 track demo CD called "A Path To Heaven", whose outcomes were rather positive for us in terms of reputation: a lot of people wanted to know more about us and our music. Meanwhile we had to find another singer as we didn't agree on the musical orientations for the band. As we couldn't find the right singer in France, we decided to reach someone we would be proud to work with on our first album, his name was Ramon Messina (singer of the Italian metal band Secret Sphere). Ramon was glad to take part in our project and joined the band in September 2000. We recorded Meeting in the Mist between 2001 and 2002 at the NSR studio, France but we had to record it twice because of a severe hard disk crash! During the recording of the album we had reached several record companies and Nuclear Blast gave us opportunities we couldn’t' miss. Therefore, our first album, Meeting in the Mist, was released in 2003 worldwide on Nuclear Blast. 

As I'm sure the fans would like to know, what can you tell us about the possibility or progress of a new album? 

Séverin: The recording of our new album is almost finished now and we’re looking forward to having you hear it guys! This album will be much more extreme in many ways with more dreamy and progressive atmospheres and very fast and agressive songs too; we really tried to reconcile different aspects of our musical personality in this album. Another point is that we really wanted it to be original (some people thought our musical influences were too easily recognizable on Meeting in the Mist), that’s why this album will probably sound more personal than the previous one I think. Currently, only the choirs and the arrangements are to be recorded. The mix will finally take place next summer in Geneva, Switzerland, and the album will be released in September hopefully. We can hardly wait...

Can you tell us who are some of the bands/musicians that have inspired you? 

Séverin: Personally, as a guitarist, I'm a huge fan of skilled people who use technique to create beautiful things. That's why I find John Petrucci's work very inspiring in Dream Theater. I think bands like Pain of Salvation or Beyond Twilight are great as they manage to bring something truly new and personal to the European metal scene. 

Arnaud: I have always been more inspired by riff/songwriters than by shredders, even if I was interested in some lead guitar player’s incredible performance. Marc Mc Gee (Ex: Vicious Rumours), Mike Wead or Jason Becker - the most impressive ones, to name a few, are maybe the ones I like the most, because everything they play is beautiful. But the ones which had the strongest influence on me were the songwritters. I wont give you the whole list, because they are too numerous for this interview. Your readers can ask me with a personal email, if they want to know more (laugh).

Do you have a favorite Alkemyst song? 

Séverin: The next one to be written! I'm kidding, I really like listening to "It's Time" as it combines powerful riffing with dreamy atmospheres. To sum it up, just listen to the chorus, you'll find the perfect embodiment of the speed melodic style to me. Moreover, I love the song entitled "Nameless Son": It's a 12 minute epic and catchy song. I think it's the most complete song we've written so far. Of course, there's a bunch of great songs coming up in our next album but I need to step back and wait so I can figure out which ones are my favorites.

Can you walk us through the songwriting process that occurs when you're coming up with new tunes? 

Séverin: Well, basically Arnaud Menard comes over or I go to his place with new material, we usually start out a song with a guitar riff. Then we try to get those riffs organized, giving a coherent structure to the future song. Once we're satisfied with the backbone of the song, each one tries to think it over to find how the song could be improved in terms of structure (intro, ending, etc...) and various arrangements. It's quite a long process, it can take weeks. Then, after the music, come the lyrics. On our following album, all the members of the band (including Ramon) worked together, trying to match some of the lyrics we had written with catchy melodies coming from our subconscious minds. It's a very interesting process: everyone feels involved and we're satisfied with the result! You see, the bottom line of the Alkemyst songwriting process is to make sure that we don't write that kind of ''Uhh, I think I've already heard that before'' song: we want each song to be unique, even though we know it's a difficult task, it shouldn’t remind us of one of our songs or one of any other band we know. Personally, I'd rather write a couple of albums in a lifetime than writing an album every two years. 

Arnaud: Concerning the new album, things changed a bit because we wrote one song almost together, and three titles have been composed from drum rhythms Arnaud (Gorbaty) invented at home. Then, we would find some goods riffs on it. Quite an original way of working, but a very efficient one, since drums are the basis of rock'n'roll!

What specific techniques or practice routines do you personally use to improve your playing ability? 

Arnaud: Well, I'm not proud of what I'm going to say but I'm rather lazy on my instrument these days so it's rather difficult for me to answer such a question. However, I always love to do some warm up exercices: I usually play intricate riffs trying to work my way up and down the neck chromatically, and I like to work on the accuracy of my right-hand too (always picking down, up, down, up...). But there’s still a lot of work left you know...

How do you think the progressive metal scene is doing today? 

Arnaud: I don’t know if it is up to us to express a judgement on the whole scene. Well, we used to name "progressive" every metal band playing a lot of notes, writing intricate-structured songs, using different kinds of time signatures... Even if we have obviously been influenced by bands like Dream Theater or Symphony X, we have maybe a different idea of what is being "progressive"; I mean, the more we get old, the more we are into the building of atmospheres, just like the rock bands in the 70's.

Today, I would call "progressive" a lot of good bands, but not necessarily the ones you could guess: Opeth, for example, are just amazing; Pain of Salvation, Ark, Beyond Twilight, or even Emperor; they all wrote masterpieces in a very complex but understandable way, full of emotions, with deep atmospheres, and an incredible skill, without being too obviously "prog". They just make the music progress – in the right sense of the word.

Is there any advice you might give to aspiring musicians, bands or guitarists?

Arnaud: First, do your best to write songs you can proud of for a lifetime: good music might imply talent, but a good song doesn't come out without lots of work. In Alkemyst, we strive and sometimes fight for weeks to end up with a good song. The important thing is to be convinced of your point of view, but be able to consider other people's ideas too. You see, you can feel you're right about a song but you might be surprised to find out somebody else comes up with a different but excellent idea too. So, be truthful to your music and the people you work with, listeners will probably feel that into your songs.

Lastly, is there any interview question you've always wanted to answer, but no one has ever asked?

Arnaud: How come we haven't seen you on stage in the US? Well, that's probably because nobody there has invited us!

Lots of thanks to Arnaud, Séverin, and the other guys in Alkemyst for providing the opportunity for this interview. Their 2003 debut, Meeting In The Mist is available through their official website and still through several online stores. You can visit their website at www.alkemyst.net and their official MySpace page is www.myspace.com/alkemystmusic.