interview with COMPULSION
What´s the name of your band? COMPULSION
How was the band formed? The band was formed in december 2010 by Fred and Butch, two old friends that wanted to Write and play oldschool stuff. Then Butch who was on another project met Matthias who joined The band in 2012.
Can you tell about your band? COMPULSION is an instinctive thrash-death-grind metal band. Lyrics are about social decadence, human condition and pathetic mentality of human being But the lyrics are like Z horror movies, and we make some bold humor like our music !
Where are all band members from?/Who does what in the band?
Fred is come from St Malo (France) ,he plays guitar and vocals
Butch is come from Angers (France) ,he plays bass
Matthias is come from Angers (France) ,he plays drums
What was the ambitions of the band when you started? Making some noise, custom music , and having some fun. Express our energy and anger.
Could you explain your music to someone that haven't heard you? We make a crossover with some influences like death old school, thrash old school, and grindcore, We are not a modern band !!!!! we love the old sound of nineties !! our music feels like rust
Where was your first gig? Our first gig was at the bar « Le Barbu » at Angers (France) in 2013
Where was the latest gig? Our last gig was at « La scène Michelet » at Nantes (France)
Who writes your songs?/Who writes the music who writes lyrics? Songs are written by all members, Lyrics are written by Fred
Who has the best since of humor in the band? Matthias!!
What's good/bad with the band?/What genre do you feel you are?
Every thing is good in the band,
One thing bad : the hard part is meet to rehearsal,
Why did you pick that particular style?/What are your songs about? Like I said, we love underground and the nineties scene and lyrics are about human decadence with some humor!
Do you write your own material or mainly covers? We write our own material, no covers
Have you made any albums?/If yes what are they? We made this month our first EP ( 8 songs) is an auto-production, it’s called: BRUTAL ERRORS. It can be heard on Bandcamp or bought by contacting us on Facebook
Do you have any clips on YouTube? No, just some videos of our gigs in some pubs !
How old are you?/What got you started in music? Between 33 and 39 ! We play music for long time now!!15 years on average Everyone started by passion
How old were you guys when you first stood on stage? I, Butch in 1998 ,I hope it's the same thing for Fred with our first band bands : Khalkabad and Svärdom !
What year was the band started? 2010
Best/worst gig you've played? The worst was the first at « le Barbu » in Angers, and the best gig at « t'es rock « in Angers , public was great.
What places will you be playing in in the imidate future? Also, we will play at a big gig november 8 2014 at Angers with Dagoba, Zuul fx, Ekthellion, Dysmorphic, and War machine.
Where have you played from then till now? We will play at «Café Latin» next october 24 in Angers with Panic layer and dying hope
Witch band is the best you´ve seen? For me (Butch) Bolt thrower and Obituary.
Is it always the same songs live? Yes for the moment
What has been the best/most promising gig so far? The gig at le “Chabada” at Angers with Dagoba, zuul fx !
Have you had any bigger tours from start to now? Not for the moment
How big crowds do you usually play for? 50 to 70 people, maybe a bit more…
What are the plans for the rest of the year? The big gig with Dagoba, and making some new songs !
Where do you usually play? In pubs or small concert halls
How do you get psyched up for a gig? We are always so excited to play gigs with some apprehension, we hope all the time the people will be happy to see COMPULSION !
What are your goals with your music? Making brutal and fun songs for metalheads !! and for us of course…
When did you decide to go all in for the music? In 2010 when we have created COMPULSION, but music is not the only passion and interest in our life,
What are your sources of inspiration? Thrash, death and grindcore metal scene from nineties and eighties and horror movies and social environment, But for music, we try not to copy any bands.
What's the first step when making a new song? Making some riffs and assemble them in a logical (or illogical ah ah!) sense ! And we try to create brutality and we try to be the most original as possible ! Matthias create patterns and infuses his style ! After we make some modifications to finalise it and Fred writes the lyrics ,
We make a first version in home studio with drums program before working on it together.
How do you feel about the downloading of music instead of buying albums? Downloading is good and bad at the same time, it's good because it's allows to discover many bands and after, people can buy albums they like, but it's bad for bands who wants to live with their music if people don't buy songs after download,
What would be your dreams for the band? For me, I want COMPULSION have more audience and I hope we can make a true album with a great sound, But the album will be an auto production again, we don’t have much money, also we want to have the control of the sound of our creations.
Besides your own music, what genres and bands do you listen to? I listen to the new Cannibal corpse !! most seriously, all bands old school, I also like heavy metal, I think Fred is like me , Matthias listen every style of metal ,he is the most eclectic,
What would be your greatest fears for the future? The abortion of COMPULSION for some reasons,,,
When you are on stage, what do you fear most then? I fear that public don't like our music
Have you been in any other bands?
I have another band with Matthias : NECRONATION with Christophe( guitars and vocals ) and Lisa (Bass),
I have a black metalband duo with Mörtomb (vocals and lyrics) : EKATÖMB,
I have played with Fred in death metalband : SVÄRDOM and in a hardcoreband KHALKABAD,
Fred played in his first band : MEUH
I was bassist and Matthias was drummer in PESTKHLYST (black metal) during 1 year,
What do you work with outside of the band and the music? Me and Matthias are working in « medical services » Fred is an electrician.
What would you do if there was no music? Music (ahah ! ) seriously, I don't know , music is a passion,
How often do you rehearse? One rehearsal at month, we works the songs at home rest of the time,
Where do you rehearse? In « La Cèrclere » in Angers,
Name 2 of your own songs you like at the moment? The two new songs we work on! But they dont have been named yet !
What drives a band that isn't all that famous and renowned to try to make a living on their music and to keep playing? Passion , pleasure to create and share our creations !
Do you have any webpages?
Yes , a Facebook page:https://www.facebook.com/compulsor
a bandcamp: http://compulsion.bandcamp.com/
a youtube page: https://www.youtube.com/user/compulsion4935
Any pearls of wisdom for all other bands out there? Nope…except rehearse…as much as you can, even when you’re alone work and keep your tracks in mind.
Describe your show, visually and musically is very simple, we have no artifice in our gig, we give brutality !!! It's direct,
How do you view the musicindurty of today? I think the money is a big part of the problems in the music industry, They are a lot of band with very good musicians who don't have personality and sounds similar to earn more money, it's sad , In other side, we can make music more easily today with computer, and home studio, it's a good thing, many small bands can make songs and albums with less money, Maybe we’ll see the way we share music change soon with internet and all the new applications and diffusion possibilities it offers.
What are the biggest obstacles for a band? Find places to play and give the first contacts in the music system,
What is best/worst with playing the clubs? The place is often too small and there are no air conditioning, otherwise, it's really fun to play in pubs because we are near the public, it's more warm.
Tell us about upcomming gigs and why we should be at them? The big show for us is november 8 because it's the firt time we will play with big bands like Dagoba. I think there will be many people and the sound will be very heavy you’ll discover COMPULSION in good conditions.
What is your favorite crappy instrument? Flute
Whats your Pre-show ritual? One beer no more and some jokes to lighten the mood.