EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW : Akiavel

 

1.Thanks for taking the time to talk to The Metal Times! You have a new album out, Tell us about it!

Jay (bass): Hello, this is a pleasure, thanks for having us! "V" is actually our first album, Akiavel is a fairly recent band. We released an EP in December 2018, and then this full-length album in February 2020, just before the lockdown… 

JB (guitar): This is indeed the first taste of the Akiavel "style". When we released the first EP, Butch, our drummer, was not even there, there was only drum machine.  Just after Butch joined us in late 2018, we began the writing process for this album, and the five of us got the chance to express themselves so as to mix all of our styles and musical influences, which are really different. This album is therefore a good summary of what metal music we can, want and like to play! 

2.Where was it recorded? Is all the material new?

Jay: It was recorded in the South of France, at the Artmusic Studio, by the great Sébastien Camhi, and then mastered at the Kohlekeller Studio (Aborted, Benighted…) in Germany.  We are really happy of the raw and powerful sound we managed to give to this album, this exactly corresponds to our initial idea! This is why we will probably keep the same team for our second album, to be recorded in early 2021…

Jb: Yes, 9 songs of this album are new material, and the tenth (bonus) song ("Cold") is taken from the 2018 EP. We modified and arranged this song to fit Butch's drumming, it now sounds even more violent (laugh)

3.What is the biggest difference between your last release and the new one?

Jb: The result of our EP was pretty good to our opinion, even without a proper drummer, and actually allowed us to be signed by our record company. But something was missing to create the genuine Akiavel "style". The songs of V are the first songs we wrote altogether, once Butch joined us, with his very own thrashy and groovy style of playing. This brought new energy and influence in the creation process. 

Jay: The musical background of each of us is really different and complementary, we all had different and extensive experiences in various local and national metal bands over the next decades. The mix between all of this is really good, at least from our perspective, and immediately gave birth to this style of ours, mixing many influences like Thrash, Death Metal, Hardcore…and even sometimes Pop Music (laugh)! 

4.Are you signed to a label? If so which one and how did they help or support the process?

Jay: yes, we released our first album on Mystic Production, and we are distributed by Season of Mist.  Mystic helped us to the best of their capacities, but they are a small label with limited means, so most of what has been achieved by the band so far has been made by… the 5 of us!

5.What has been going on with the band between albums? Did you tour?

Jb: As we said, the album was released just before the global lockdown… Before the release of V, Akiavel, as a band, just played a couple of times, once at the Hellfest Off and once in a small Festival in Montpellier, South of France.  Then we had a 16 shows tour initially scheduled from April until June 2020, but everything was completely postponed or canceled… 

But we are now working hard on putting all this back on track for 2021, when all this situation is over!

Jay: We all have a lot of stage experience, but Akiavel as a live band is really new, nobody ever heard our songs live, we are really eager to share our songs with our public in France and abroad!  

6.Do you have any new members?

Jay: The lineup never changed, once we found or fifth member (Butch), the band remained to same, there is a real alchemy between all of us, we like it and we hope we can keep it as long as possible!

7.Who produced the new album and how did they affect the album?

Jb: the album was fully self-produced… No one ever gave us any direction or order, the album is 100% Akiavel by Akiavel! 

8.Some like to record naked or in the dark with candles, Did you have any strange studio practices?

Jay: Not really, a pack of beers, a guitar and a computer, this is the way our riffs and songs are first written, plain and simple (laugh)

Jb: And also good food, we think it important to eat good and tasty things when we are working on our songs.  We often work at Jay's home studio, and Jay is as good as a proper French Chef, so there is always a break at some point when we enjoy the French recipes prepared by Jay (laugh). That might also help Akiavel writing tasty riffs, who knows (laugh)

9.Of course tell us where to pick up your album and how to learn more about you.

Jay: Our album is available on all digital platforms, and also on Season of Mist's website, where you can also find our print on demand merch.  Our 3 music videos are, of course, available on You Tube.

Jb: If you want to follow the bands activities and news on a regular basis, you have Facebook and Instagram, where Akiavel and its 5 members are fairly active.  There is always something new happening in the Akiavel world (laugh)

10.What is your plans now that the new album is out?

Jb: We are actively working on our second album, to be released in April or May 2021.  In the meantime, we might also prepare a small surprise for our fans by the end of November, since we cannot play our album live… Stay tuned!

Jay: Yes, and once the second album will be out, we hope we can play live… And we will then have 2 full albums to play, what an unusual, but also cool, the situation for a band playing its first live shows (laugh)