Get to know the metallers Peace is Just a Break!

Greg, the bass player of the modern death metal band Peace is Just a Break, took some time to answer a couple of questions for us. Learn more about the band's new single “Second Sun” and their upcoming plans below!
Peace Is Just A Break - Picture by Gabriel Cunha Rio

Hello guys. Let’s start this interview with an introduction of your band!

Hi! So I’m Greg, the bass player for Peace Is Just A Break, aka PIJAB. We’re a Modern Death Metal band from Lausanne in Switzerland. The band is around since 2011, but things got serious in 2014 with a big line-up change which led us to our first album “Little Boy”, released on October 13th 2017. We got a quite positive response, we played a bunch of shows and had the opportunity to do a little France and Czech Republic tour in 20

18. We started working on the new material back in 2019 just before the pandemic, and we parted way with our previous singer Matt Favre (which plays also in Norvhar, Cân Bardd and Skellige). Oscar, who is Jonas little brother, joined the band in 2020 during the making of the EP and got really invested into the project. It was awesome to work with him, because he has a lot of energy, many ideas and helped us have a fresh take on the songs. Due to the pandemic, we obviously had to postpone the release of the EP, but it also allowed us to take the time to work on the promotion and rehearse the songs perfectly for the new shows.

How would you describe your sound?

We all in the band are big fans of old school melodic death metal bands like In Flames, Dark Tranquillity, Children of Bodom, Soilwork but we also love more modern, prog and metalcore bands like Trivium, As I lay Dying, Bring Me the Horizon to name a few. We create music we enjoy listening to and playing and we wanted to mix the different styles of music we enjoy. I guess the listener will easily hear those influences.

You are back with a new single, “Second Sun”. What’s the story behind this song?

Lyrics-wise, the song is about the Bombing of Nagasaki at the end of the Second World War. Each verse of the song is taken from a different point of view ; the view of the Japanese civilians, the pilots who dropped the bomb on the city and the view of the military leaders. War is one of the main themes in our music, as it fits with the harshness of the music, but we also want to speak out about the atrocities of War, the absurdity of it. We’re a non-political band and it saddens us to see where the world is going nowadays. We take that negative energy and use it to create songs on which people can bang their heads for a moment.

Is it released along with a music video. How was the video shooting experience? Any funny stories to share with our readers?

As the lyrics of the songs are already heavy, we wanted to have a humoristic touch in the videoclip. The idea of a guy jumping from a plane and performing a cannonball so hard that it empties a swimming pool seemed very funny to us. I guess the message of the video is: “Let’s have fun instead of hating each other or making war”. The shooting of the video was really fun and stressful at the same time. It is our most ambitious video project and we had some delays with the 3D effects, but in the end we are super happy with the final result. We shot the video back in May 2022 and the water was still fresh, around 12-14°C, but we had a lot of fun with all the friends who joined us to be part of the video.

Can we expect a new EP anytime soon?

Yes, as I said before, we worked on new songs and recorded and EP during the pandemic. The EP is tilted “Second Sun” and will contain 5 tracks, including all the singles we released since December 2021. The EP will be released digitally on the 11th of November 2022 on all streaming platforms. We also have a release party planned on the 19th of November at La Bille, La Sarraz in Switzerland with our good friends from the band Alchemists.

According to your socials, you’re often playing shows. Is there one show that really marked your mind so far? If yes, which one and why?

Our first show after the pandemic, with Oscar, the new singer. It was a special moment because we really put our hearts into these new songs and were able to share it with our hometown public, and it was insane to see the crowd react to our music so well. People were moshing like crazy all the time and it also was our first open air show with the band.

What are your upcoming tour dates?

Unfortunately, we have nothing planned but our release party in November. We should maybe have a couple of extra shows by the end of the year, and we work with our local label Black Market Music which also takes care of booking duties.

The last words are for you. If you have a message to convey, it’s the opportunity!

I’d like to thank Distrolution for the interview! We hope the readers will enjoy our music, and most importantly, having fun listening to music, going to concerts and spend time with the ones you love as peace is just a break. Life is too short to spend it on hatred and violence.

Thanks for your time!