French rockers Black Roads unveil details on their debut EP!
Hello Black Roads, hope that you are doing good :) Thanks for your time! Would you mind introducing your band to our readers? Hello Valentine, it’s a pleasure to answer your questions. Black roads is the story of a 10 years friendships between Mehdi-Nicolas an avid writer of poetry and player of folk music. And Damien, a guitarist fan of heavy metal and former electro DJ. Mehdi-Nicolas is more located in Frankfurt am Main Germany, while Damien is in Paris France. But the travelling between our sessions was also a source of creativity. How did you come up with the name of your band? The name of the band comes from the translation of the book “Sur les Chemins noirs”” of the French writer and traveller Sylvain Tesson. It talks about the reeducation of the writer (after falling down from a roof) in the wild nature of his home country France, called the “black roads”. In order to learn how to walk again and refresh his body and mind. The band has been formed recently at the beginning of 2018. Following a long period of convalescence after an accident of one of the member. This period has been fruitful of reading and song-writing. And we had a revelation after some jam sessions together in our respective homes in Frankfurt and in Paris. Each time we met a new song came up quite naturally, it is a unique feeling of creation which is something utterly beyond us. You have released your debut EP "Burn" back in October 2018. Would you mind introducing this release to our readers? What kind of songs can we expect on it? This first EP is a mix of styles which gives life to songs in a realm halfway between rock, new wave and pop tones. Through the lyrics, sometimes in French sometimes in English, we tried to bring a message full of sensitivity and melancholy. Regarding the instrumentals and general production... We tried to create something quite different from the kind of songs and band you could listen to on the radio or on spotify playlists. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLH17VR0BZu-tt2oVmDVD9XAFjQUVEY10 How long have you actually worked on this release? It must be very exciting to reveal your first songs to your audience! Yes you’re right it is such a great feeling to finalize the first EP and to share our first songs. It is one thing to be in the creation mood and to have finally a nice musical object after many discussions and back and forth! The band is quite new. We have indeed started working together since February 2018 with fruitful week-end nights of jam session and creation in Paris. The purpose has always been to have fun and great feelings with music and the mix of our influences. Then we have decided to launch our first EP during the last summer. And we have recorded the EP in August in Damien’s apartment or we would say more home studio now (laugh). And also in a house in Bordeaux where we met for the first time 10 years ago. It was a unique moment of creation and fun. We would like to take the opportunity to thank everyone who has participated to the project. The mixer, photographer and designer from different places and universe. And of course the strong support of our family and friends. If you had to pick one track from this EP, which one would you pick and why? We would pick up the song Anomia which is the simpler and shorter song of the EP in terms of production with one voice and guitar. The raw lyrics try to shed light on the concept of anomie introduced by the French sociologist Emile Durkheim. It is a condition of instability resulting from a breakdown of standards and values or from a lack of purpose or ideals. It is maybe what we can experience in our current societies. On the music side, we are pretty convinced that a basic production without many instruments and effects reveals the quality and powerfulness of a song. With our modest resources, it is also a kind of tribute for the wonderful songs “I will” by Radiohead. Or “Hurt” by Nine Inch Nails, which are ones of our major influences. Do you plan on releasing a music video for one of the songs anytime soon, or maybe tour a little bit to promote this debut EP? Yes, we are in contact with a friend who is a talented young film director. And we think our song Blind fits quite well with a short movie. Let see what happens on this side! Our priority is to work on plenty of new songs and improve our music and style with the experience we have from our first EP. We can already tell you that we have plenty of songs that we have created during our last summer session with strong potential but not produced! We will try to push the border of our music influences and go as far as we can in our music style. One rule: no rules! The live of course is something special and we will do our best to be ready for a first performance in 2019! The last words are for you. If you have a message to convey, here’s your chance! Keep on rockin’ in a free world!
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