Electro post hardcore act Shoot The Girl First got signed recently and have been hard at work writing and recording for their newest album "Follow The Clouds". Keyboardist and vocalist Crystal or "Julie" was the one to discuss this album and more!
1. Can I get a backstory on the band/ band biography?
The band was born by the initiative of Felix (guitar) and Tom (former bassist), Quickly, the first line up was formed with Crystal (keyboards) and Nathan (vocals). The other members of the band have changed several times until 2011. The final line up was fixed with Mathieu (bass), Adrian (drums) and Kevin (guitar).
2. How did you guys come up with your band name?
The band name is the first thing that we have found, in a late night in front of a movie named "Doberman" directed by Jan Kouen. "Shoot the girl first" is a quotation from the "bad cop" (Tchéky Karyo). We're all cinema-goers. As a matter of fact, all of our demo and EP are inspired by different films.
3. Where is the band based out of and what is your music scene like there? Are there any local bands you could recommend?
We are from the south-east of France, the french riviera. More precisely from Cannes. This area, it's easier to do electronic music than rock or metal music. But there's a local scene of hard core and easycore! You can take a look on Sail To North, As Aimless Glory, An Escape for Louie, In Other Climes, Mindwake, Made Of Ashes, This Is Sparta.
4. What lyrical theme do you guys use in your music? What message do you want to send?
The name of our band is a quotation from a movie. We are all particularly sensitive to the cinema. Our first demo is inspired the universe of Quentin Tarantino with a lot of references of films like "Pulp Fiction", "Inglorious Basterds". For our EP, we continued to work this concept with other films like "Into The Wild", "Romeo + Juliette", "Fight Club". For this new album, we felt the need to express personal feelings. The lyrics are about what we can live in our daily life, through our passion.
5. What bands have influenced your band and its sound?We all have very different musical horizons but we agreed and started our music with electrocore/ deathcore. Little by little, other influences were added as melodic hardcore, post hardcore ... Even if we are fans of very very different bands, we agreed too with Parkway Drive, The Devil Wears Prada, Architect, We Came As Romans, Northlane, Emmure, While She Sleeps.
6. Is there any story or concept behind the Follow The Clouds title?
It's not a concept, just a way of life, a way to say " catch your dreams, even if they are very far from you " "Follow the Clouds" speaks about fulfill your dreams, never give up, no matter what happens, no matter who will try to get you down, take your own way, share your passion !
7. Who produced Follow The Clouds and what was it like working with them?
We've recorded all the music with Felix in his home studio in Cannes. Mixing and mastering were made by Nicolas Delestrades from NDSE Studio (Paris). We never worked with him and It was a good thing to have a new person for the mixing process. Nicolas is hardworking guy and we're happy to worked with him on this album. He gave us a new point of view on our music.
8. Who did the cover art for Follow The Clouds and how much input did you have on it?
The cover art was created by Mike from Artery Recordings. We had several ideas and creation before Mike showed us this creation, but we were not convinced by it. We fell totally in love with the picture. It matches with our expectations. This is a 10-track album.
9. This release will be released via Artery Recordings how has your relationship been with them and how did the signing happen?
When Eric from Artery Foundation decided to manage us, he announced that Artery Recordings was very interested by us too. Quickly, Mike gave us a proposition. Now, we're always in touch and we talk almost every day about many things, many projects for the band. On the one hand, it's an honor to be a member of this family with such a good bands, and on the other hand, it's amazing to be listened and assisted by professionals as Mike and Eric.
10. You released a single for the song, "Rest in Pieces" will you be using this same single as a video possibility as well or do you have another single in mind?
We have been hesitant for a long time for the next video clip... We have chosen another song which is not released. We hope that is the good choice ! We will probably organize the shooting this summer.
11. What are your upcoming touring/show plans?
We have some shows already booked for this summer: the Mair1 Festival in Germany and some french gigs.We're preparing biggest things for the end of the year.
12. Where can we listen to your band and where can we buy your stuff?
All our news are shared on our Facebook page You can listen all the singles on you tube (Stgf or Arteryrecordings channel)... We still sell our EP on Big Cartel Shop and iTunes and you can listen it on Spotify, Deezer. The new album is already available with Pre-Orders on merchnow and will be available on June 4th on iTunes and Amazon.
13. What is it you’d like a listener to remember the most when hearing your music for the first time?
Not leaving someone absolutely indifferent is the most important thing to us. We really want to share our energy. We think that metal music (to be generalist) is a perfect way to express a mix of anger, strength and hope. Our message is never give up and enjoy life to the full that's why it's also important to us to invite the people to party with us, to forget their daily life with a part of electronic music!
We do our best to grow our band and our projects. We're already working on the next album, next video clip, tour dates ...keep an eye on us, we hope you'll appreciate the next surprises !
15. Any final words of wisdom?
Thank you for this interview, for your interest, and thanks to our manager Eric, and Mike from Artery Recordings ! They gave us a chance to grow up, we are very grateful to them. And thanks to everyone who follow us and trust in us since the beginning ! It's difficult to share your music in our area, we are lucky, so we hope that the others will have this chance too. One message : never give up.
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