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Category: Progressive Music Lounges
Forum Name: Interviews
Forum Description: Original interviews with Prog artists (which are exclusive to Prog Archives)
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=68759 Printed Date: November 30 2024 at 03:54 Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 11.01 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Capharnaum (June 2010)Posted By: toroddfuglesteg
Subject: Capharnaum (June 2010)
Date Posted: June 29 2010 at 10:39
This is one of the two bands with the name Capharnaum listed in ProgArchives. I am saying this because I first sent this band a very good interview sheet about the tech death scene in Florida. I was very pleased with my list of questions.......... until this band pointed out that they were a heavy prog band from Canada. Ooops...
Anyway, Capharnaum is a very promising band from Canada with two good albums under their wings. They are also signed on one of the more promising record labels on this planet. I got in touch with them for their story. Francois answered my questions.
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Our
Capharnaum biography is excellent so I am not going over that again.
So to start with; please
give me your (long or brief) thoughts and lowdowns on.........
Intrumental
from 1999
At
the beginning of the ‘90, Capharnaüm was mainly metal oriented
while playing our favorite music’s of that time (Metallica,
Anthrax, Megadeth and so on). In between our gigs, François
Blanchard wrote our first songs and brings them to the band. With the
lineup of 1998, we finally decided to only focus in playing our own
compositions.
Intrumental,
was the first full-length demo “custom made” and proudly recorded
by ourselves. Well, none of us knew what post editing was, so… we
did it live in one shot. We learned the basic of recording with of
course some mistakes but with a lot of passion while keeping our
naïve way of doing music. This album is sold out and has never been
reedited.
Some
day, we may record them again. So, if you are lucky and you got a
copy of Intrumental, please keep it.
Le
Soleil est une Bombe Atomique from 2006
Le
soleil est une bombe atomique, is for sure a beautiful happening in
the life of Capharnaüm.
Imagine
yourself at the end of your twenty years old, being all gear set in a
chalet (Wild studio), up north in St-Zénon (Québec) and recording
loud music day and night with an Xbox waiting for the one who wanted
to relax... So, that was it!
Recording
that album was a way to turn a long “page” in our history since
we succeed to give life to 10 songs that we played in numerous scenes
all over Québec state. To achieve that, we went in different studios
and try and try again. For two consecutives summer we were the “test
sample” for a Switzerland studio recording school that came to
Montréal to practice recording bands (in 2004 and 2005). This
occasion kick us in the right place to decide to make a full-length
album.
We
will not forget Fred Lanteigne and Pierre-Hugues Rondeau who teach us
the art of playing in a studio and greatly help to get to the point
with this album.
What
have you been up to since 2006 ?
In
2007, we sign a distribution contract with Unicorn Digital, a
progressive label based in Montréal http://www.unicornrecords.com/ - .
At the end of that year, we unfortunately face different unexpected
conflicts with our bass player that brings us to continue with only 3
members, the Blanchard brothers (François and Marc-André at the
guitars) and Maxime Brisebois (drum).
Of
course this double happening (signing a contract and loosing one
player) was a bit of a strange dream for Capharnaüm. Fortunately, we
met different people who gave us new energy. In 2008 and at the
beginning of 2009, we bring our group to another level with a live
show in cooperation with a VJ, name Mothlight and the Mosquitos
http://mothlight.ca/ - ,
thanks to Dustin Molicki.
Our instrumental music mix with projected images in a live
performance was just perfect!
But
at the end of 2009, François Blanchard had to leave Montréal for a
contract in Japan (not for music related things) and thus Capharnaüm
become a virtual band (at least for now until… not determine yet).
How
is the writing and creative processes in your band?
Because
of the virtual fact of Capharnaüm as it is now (François in Japan,
Marc-André in Québec and Maxime in Montréal), this time is for
composition only. We have to say that “Intrumental” and “Le
soleil est une bombe atomique” were borned because of such long
process of composition. Being not force to produce and just being
inspired by what’s happen around us.
For
the past album and demo, François composed the draft songs and the
main ideas first, then the others members input their touch and
inspiration which makes Capharnaüm sound.
At
this moment, François is in the first step of composition
(pre-production) and he will probably have music to complete two
albums at the same time! Well, let say that we will purify his idea
and make one great album.
We
believe that we are not the first band in which distance has separate
members for some time. Fortunately, Internet can be our friend and
communications between members still keep going.
How
would you describe your music and which bands would you compare your
music with ?
Capharnaüm
music is a kind of reaction to our society. By being sensitive to
what’s happening everywhere, music becomes a mixture of energy,
craziness, hope and a way to fly in another world for sometime. We
tries to give energy to the one who listen with some twist that keep
the listener disturb and hopefully making him dream or travel. That
is why some sound can be more understandable in a live performance or
by listening it more than once.
Some
indirect influence for us were Pink Floyd, Rush, Metallica, Vangelis,
Joe Satriani, Igor Stravinsky, Brian Eno and more, but we are not
sounding like one of them, it is simply some of our roots or our
basis of… 20 years ago!
If
one asked what are the bands similar to Capharnaüm, we believe that
this person is better than us to judge it. The interesting thing is
everyone always gives different references to our music.
Canada
has given our planet some really fantastic bands. But how is the
music scene and the gigs scene in Canada these days ?
We
cannot talk for Canada globally since we played only in Québec
province. For sure, Montréal is an attractive place for underground
scene. There are many good bands and a lot of talents all over the
place; we can definitively say that music scene is healthy.
However,
instrumental music has for long time suffered in finding good place
to show up, like festivals, TV programs or radio shows. We believe
that this is somehow changing now. More bands are doing instrumental
music or experimental tracks in these day and people are more open to
search for specialized music’s.
Internet
community and the “freeness” of listening music out there are
probably responsible for this new era. Everyone can now find his own
space. But a question remains, is there a band that will be as big as
our first inspirations (like Metallica in the ’90)?
You
have also been touring South Africa if I am not wrong. How was that
experience ?
Oups…
this was a kind of dream for us that unfortunately did not come true.
François had a friend who could book numerous scenes in different
city of South Africa. But, we never got the money for this tour. So,
it was just a beautiful motivation for some time.
What
is the latest update on your band and what is your plans for the rest
of this year ?
Now
days, Maxime Brisebois make his own music and drum experimentations
as well as giving drumming class. You can find him at this address:
http://mistermax.ca/ - . On his side,
François get inspiration by Japanese culture while tracking the
pre-production of the next Capharnaüm album and finally, Marc-André
keeps training himself in playing Satriani scores on his powerful
Mesaboogie.
Our
goal for this year his to all keep in touch and progress with the
pre-production.
From
where can your albums be purchased ?
Songs
are available on iTune and amazon web. But, anyone can go through our
distributor network Unicorn Digital and buy online or on the
different shops in more than 20 countries. See
http://www.unicornrecords.com/capharnaum.html. - .
Anything
you want to add to this interview ?
Best
to you all and be sure not to miss our next album! Of course you are
more than welcome to first discover our music with “Le soleil est
une bombe atomique”.
Finally,
thanks to Torodd for our first Internet interview!
A big thank you to Francois for this interview
Their PA profile can be found http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=3105 - and their homepage is http://www.capharnaum.biz/ -