Sunday, June 16, 2019

TABLEAU MORT INTERVIEW

1. Introduce yourself and your band and tell us why we should listen to you

Hi Metal Coffee PR and thanks for having us
I am George Topor, founding member and guitarist for London based metal band Tableau Mort. I’ve started to write music for Tableau Mort in early 2017 on my own, as a solo project. Towards the end of the same year, George Bratosin – drums, Cristin Giurgiu – guitar and Radu Vulpe – guitar joined and Tableau Mort started to take shape. 2018 was a difficult year for us, with various line-up changes that affected the release of our debut album which was originally scheduled for November ’18. Most of the material for the debut album was recorded between June and September 2018. With the addition of Marek Basista bass and James Andrews on vocals, the line-up was completed and we’ve managed to add the last touches to the album early this year.
You should listen to us as we are one of those band that stand out of the crowd. Our music is primarily black metal however I can honestly say, we don’t sound like any other band in particular. We have added all sort of flavours to our music that makes it different. There are not too many black metal bands with 3 guitarists, or playing 8 string guitars. There is also no black metal bands I know of, to incorporate bass drops in their music. Orthodox Church elements are also a novelty as it is more or less an unexplored territory, only a handful of bands touching the subject at the moment. 

2. What do you classify your sound as, who do you tell people you sound like? 
 
I prefer to keep it simple – black metal. I am not really a fan of sub –genre and sub – sub – genre labelling, however everyone’s free to label us as whatever they wish if that makes them happier. To us, the music itself is more important and when we write music we don’t think about genres, labelling and what fits within a certain genre and what doesn’t.
Like I’ve mentioned earlier, I don’t think we sound like any other bands but again, the listeners will have the final say. Of course, you will find all kind of influences in our music as in 2019 is extremely difficult to be 100% original, but I would like to believe we are as original as we can be

3. With digital music in today's world would you vote to keep or eliminate physical media? 
 
Well, personally I am a huge fan of technology, gadgets etc. so I prefer the digital releases. Al the music I’m listening to is on digital format, I do not own any CDs, tapes, vinyls etc. On the other hand, the metal fans in general prefer physical media. That being said, I would vote to keep both so everyone’s satisfied.

4. What is the reason you decided to be a musician and has that reason paid off? 
 
This is a difficult one as I’ve never thought about this before.
There were two separate episodes in my career so two separate reasons why I wanted to make music.
In 1990, after the revolution, there was an invasion of modern music in Romania, where I grew up. A country that barely had any music up till that point, was suddenly flooded with music coming from the west, in all its forms: pop, disco, rock, metal….and I’ve started to listen to everything as it was all so new, fresh and fascinating. At the time I was seeing all those artists like gods, unreachable, untouchable and that made the whole thing even more fascinating. Pretty much around the same time, local metal bands started to appear but because the concerts were so rare those people in the local bands were seen like some sort of demi-gods too. ….And that’s what I liked, I wanted to be like them, so in 1992 I auditioned for a semi-established local band as a vocalist and the next minute I was in the band. While in the band, I have started to take guitar lessons from the band’s guitarist, eventually becoming a guitarist myself. It paid off for a while as I started to play gigs and get a lot of attention, however it was extremely difficult because we were playing on homemade instruments, amps, pedals etc. and that was extremely frustrating eventually leading to the end of my music career in 1997.
20 years later, in 2017 I decided to pick my guitar again and start writing the album that I always wanted to listen to but no one released. So this is where I am, releasing my first album with Tableau Mort. We’ll see if that pays off

5. How do you feel about females in metal getting special attention? Do you feel it is fair?

I didn’t even notice that females in metal are getting special attention. I’ve read a few articles recently about the term “Female fronted band” and I assume that’s what you are referring to. I know that quite a few female band members got offended by this term but I don’t think the use of it is intended to be discriminatory. Bands like Nightwish and Within Temptation for example have a lot of fans who are also looking to discover more bands in that vein, and articles that use the term “female fronted band” helps them reach those bands easier…..personal opinion

6. In the world climate with hatred being at an all-time high and metal being an “angry” music 
 
I think punk and hardcore, maybe thrash metal have more to do with the world climate, hatred, politics, etc. and I don’t know whether these factors are related to the aggressivity of the music or not. Our music is definitely not influenced by any of these

7. Are you opposed to religious beliefs or politics being used in music? 
 
No, not at all. Our music and lyrics are inspired from the eastern orthodoxy. Music is a form of art and has to be treated as such. 

8. We have dive into some pretty deep issues here do you think your music sends a message and if so what is it? 
 
Our music sends a message for sure, but we chose to leave it open ended so the listeners take whatever they want out of it. Makes it more interesting.

9. The market has changed and many bands believe that record labels are a thing of the past, with many labels now charging bands to “sign” how do you think a band can make it in today’s scene

This is a very good question. First of all, I don’t think the record labels are a thing of the past. The musicians should focus on writing and playing music while the labels should be taking care of all the other things. Labels in general have all the contacts and tools to promote a band. 

Until signing with Loud Rage Music a month ago, we were an unsigned band and we contacted or have been contacted by a lot of record labels. Quite a few of them were asking for money to get us signed. I advise all the bands that are looking for a label to stay away from these fake “labels”. A record label is a business that invests in artists they believe in and push to promote those artists in order to bring revenue to their business. That works perfectly for both parties as the artist gets exposure and money and same for the label.
These scam “
labels” are asking the artist for a fix amount of money and for that money they commit to do certain things…..sounds ok until they find the next artist and they will forget completely about promoting you ….they’ve taken your money already and they have no more interest.

10. Why with the thousands of options including netflix , sporting events everything on demand, do you think people should take the time to listen to what you have to say in your music?

People who love their music will always find time to listen to the stuff they like . I am a huge music fan myself and between TV series, Netflix, job, rehearsals, family, I still find time to listen to music. Now, why our music ? Because it's special. If I didn't believe music's special, I wouldn't do it.

11. How do you feel about pay to play? Do you think it is fair for a band to have to pay money to play?

In my opinion this is completely wrong and I would never pay to play, but at the end of the day everyone’s free to do whatever they want. I know a lot of bands doing that

12. It is fact that you are the talent and the entertainment explain what you think is the most important key to success? 
 
Hard work, perseverance and a bit of luck

13. In country music and even in some cases rock music is written and performed by different people would your band perform a song written by someone else?

Playing or recording a cover version of a song you like is perfectly fine, however it is not something we would do. At least, not at the moment. But I’ve never understood the idea of being in a covers band, or even worse… in a tribute band, but hey, there is public for that, hence the bands

14. If you are pro female in music are you pro using sex to sell your music?

Why not? Sex sells

15. What is your view on the lawsuits against people saying lewd or unprofessional things to women or men and how does that affect an art described as sex drugs and rock n roll ? 
 
What a delicate question. Everything’s about being PC these days. There’s always someone to get offended by something someone else have said or done. It’s a trend 

16. Ok let’s lighten up a bit. What is your favourite band of all time and why? 
 
I’m listening to a lot of music and I keep discovering new bands every day, so I can’t say a have an all-time favourite. It’s difficult as most of the bands have one or two good albums and the rest are just average. However a have a favourite album of all time and that’s : Covenant – Nexus Polaris. What a masterpiece!!!* great album!!

17. What would you be doing if you were not in a band?

I am doing other things in parallel anyway, so I would probably be doing the same things

18. Do you have a favourite sports team?

I’m not into sports, sorry 

19. If you could get on stage with anyone dead or alive who would it be? 
 
Leonard Cohen

20. This is your shot to let loose, Throw down your biggest complaint about the music biz

As I’ve mentioned earlier: pay to get signed or pay to play


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