Who knew that a holiday and music could work so well together. In this case Halloween and music couldn't be a better combination and while there have been a variety of acts who take these into account of their own musical waits and ways, Ghouls Stone Valley takes it into their own hands! While they have released a demo, played some shows and toured, they have yet to release a debut album let alone gotten signed to a label, but all that will change in due time! Frontwomen vocalist Kommandant K gave us the horrifying details of the band's past, present, and future plans that will make it Halloween 24/7!
1. What type of band are you?
Kommandant K: Not an easy question. ;) We began the adventure in 2013, keen on playing Horror Punk, for the look and the fun to play it, but it happened so quickly that we found ourselves in a situation where we were caught up by our past.... early Neo Metal! So we kept the Horror dimension and the Neo side as well to create something we qualified as Neo Horror Metal. Well for the most part we found it to sound great! :) We're a visual band and for us our music couldn't be conceived without any scenic dimension nor image. If it happens that you come to see us at a show it's likely to be 6.66% music and 43.3% scenic. Ghoul Stone Valley perfectly transcribes us for what we are with our varied musical horizons.
2. Please tell us about the history of your band and its members.
Kommandant K: Räv and I met in college (the five of us becoming friends at the same college) we were both in love with the same kind of music and same bands and had the same fascination for horror movies! He had a few bands before Ghouls Stone Valley, for my part even if I had always loved to sing, I didn't even know that I actually could. Let alone sing in a band and on stage? Years later with lots of Jagermeister it all came naturally to us, Räv had tried to start a band in the spirit of the Murderdolls after they split, with some other musicians in and around here. They couldn't find a singer, so I wrote them some lyrics waiting for a chance to sing it for them but they decided that an idea of a frontwomen sucked! So we started our own band mixing metal and horror movies with a frontwomen in place! Naturally we came to Sardes who was playing bass with Räv a few years before in this gothic band Lilith Child while Middle and Rott were bass and guitar players in Four-o-Five Code a melodic death metal act from Marseille. The strength of our band lies within the fact that we're all friends for the longest time, coming from different places that are very tied together!
3. What is the music scene like where you're from?
Kommandant K: Ahhhhhh Southern France metal is hard for a band like us. There's a lot of stoner bands, a little glam metal bands and a few industrial, a lot of death metal and hardcore bands as well. Not easy for us to find gigs in which we perfect fit. So we play more often with glam or industrial bands. More so the public here always complains about the lack of shows, you can hear them whine and moan everywhere that there's nothing in Marseille and how everything happens in Paris etc. But when there is a show I mean a local show nobody comes! Or if they do come nobody moves or interacts during it. It's quite funny really, when sometimes there's a few people just in front of you when you're on stage that when you come to talk to them afterwards they're often from another region or here for the holidays or just moved in! I don't think we live in the best region of France to have a metal band except for the hardcore bands. France supports the big regional acts like Dagoba who came international but yet don't help out the regional scene. It wasn't that way 5 years ago.
4. Do you think not being from a big city like LA or NY in the U.S. influences your sound?
Kommandant K: How would I know if being from LA or NY have influenced our sound? I wouldn't now would I? :p
5. What’s the origin of the band’s name?
Kommandant K: Give me 5 minutes to find someone to pretend that we're serious. Actually our band's name existed a long time ago even before the band itself. It was one of those numerous evenings that were spent together, we were watching photos of us that we had taken for Halloween, us wearing devilish masks having fun. I don't know why but there was a sign named "Stone Valley" hanging on the wall behind us. We were joking about it when the name Ghoul Stone Valley hit us so suddenly, I could still hear Räv telling me "Hey sis, if someday we have a band we already have the name!" Then all laughing out loud we both thought it would be a killer name! One day we had that band and just took the name added an "S" to the end to Ghoul. Ghouls don't try to seek an explanation to the name, it's just a calling card for all of the ghouls and freaks to rejoice in spending the horrifyingly nights with the Ghouls Stone Valley crew!
6. Who are your musical influences?
Kommandant K: Various acts; Genitorturers, Korn , Evergrey, Manson, Rob Zombie, Wednesday 13, In Flames , Coal Chamber, Motionless In White, Murderdolls, Machine Head, Sixx AM, Love and Death, Hanzel und Gretyl, Mushroomhead, Dawn of Ashes, The Defiled, Pantera, Suicide Silence, Dimmu Borgir, As I Lay Dying, I could go on for a long time!
7. Do you write your own songs? (Discuss the songwriting process in detail.)
Kommandant K: Yes we do! We see ourselves playing together at rehearsals, but we only play the songs we already have, adjusting them to perfection and making them groove to the beat. Sometimes we find new melodies and riffs to use here or there. We use a lot of computer assisted music to compose our music, which helps us work faster, we are more quicker to see what works and what does not. We work together one sends the file to the other, then they add their own parts, if they aren't satisfied with it, we go back and work on it until it's ready and we play it. Sometimes we get writer's block on parts so then your mailbox rings and you see stuff sent in from Rott or Räv, that stuff pleasing us most of all we continue working! Concerning our lyrics I have dozens pre-written but most of the time they don't fit so I have to rewrite them usually I first have to find the melody then I write the lyrics it all depends.
8. What are your songs about? (What specific themes do they cover?)
Kommandant K: We always liked the idea of talking about Halloween but added a second degree of adding humor and cynicism but I was never comfortable with those or the images so I kept the Halloween idea instead except in a darker way. Having the human's depths of madness and incomprehension through the use of horror movies and lighter images diverting them from their first and direct image. The lyrics I write about can be understood in the first degree, like I'm talking about a man containing the werewolf within him, or in a second degree of I am talking about a guy trying to contain his insanity. I did the same thing for our song "Don't Fear the Boogieman" I am my worst threat trying to never quote the reference itself, I first had to make it into a universal subject then create from it. By doing all of this I talk about serial killers, werewolves, black widow teens, gurus, freaks, everything creepy crawly and unhealthy that you're scared of it but you can't help yourself with being fascinated with it in the meantime.
9. Why did you want to take your passion for horror films and fuse it into making music?
Kommandant K: Someone had already taken the place for fusing the love of music and movies together. Räv, Sardes and I were literally in love with Halloween and horror movies growing to listening to the Murderdolls a lot!We really wanted our music to have that funny yet freak sound of a Halloween night with the heaviness of a cemetery fog except have it happening 24/7. Adding this to the fact that we love to disguise ourselves and you can't copy us in time for Halloween or we'll slaughter the shop! We just couldn't envision our music without a scenic creepy dimension something would have just been missing from it.
10. What have you released so far and what do you have new in the works?
Kommandant K: We have released a four track demo at the beginning of this year, just to have people be able to listen to what we can do and have the possibility to play shows of course. We're right now finishing up with writing our debut album and will play some of these new songs live at our next shows. The album will be released in September with a video clip to promote it.
11. Are you signed to a label? What should labels/zines/promoters know about your band? Why should they be interested in it?Kommandant K: We're to young to be signed to a label, so we will try to find one, as soon as our debut album is released. We're trying to propose something new, mixing all of our influences together to be a very modern sound using horror, neo, rock, visual, and industrial. We have done nothing so far but already have gotten good feedback and reviews. We were chosen by the Italian Dead Nation Agency to be on their roster while we don't even have an album out! Just a few photos and a demo. It just comforts us with our choices that give us the strength that we will work harder and harder in what we love to do!
12. Where can we listen to your band and where can we buy your stuff?
Kommandant K: You can listen all the demo tracks on
YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZVQGnsF73Gu5SUhpkFO-yQ
Reverbnation:
http://www.reverbnation.com/ghoulsstonevalley
To buy our stuff (demo and t-shirt) contact us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ghouls-Stone-Valley-Official/264656453671449?ref_type=bookmark
Or email us at ghoulsstonevalley@hotmail.fr
13. What plans do you have for the future as a band?
Kommandant K: The release of our debut album for the fall early as September or October with a video clip promoting it. By October we will be touring with our Italian and English brothers of Scream Baby Scream and The Dead XIII who are both a part of the Dead Nation Agency. Thanks Natalie for permitting us to having our first interview!!!! Put your Halloween masks on and join the Ghouls Stone team trick or treat!!!!!
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