interview with Sylve

Have you played in other bands?
Yes, I've been drummer for two other metal bands : Unstable for 5 years and Dusk & Darkness for 3 years.
Unstable was coming from metalcore and evolved to flirt with progressive music. I released two clips, an EP and an album with them. It was a wonderful experience !
Dusk was in a long break when I joined them, they wanted to reform the band with new stuff, so we worked a long time on an album. I had to leave when i moved from Lille to Lyon for my studies. They have a new drummer and the album is near to be recorded.
I played too with a little funk band named Cloud Velvet when I was in Lille, who stopped cuz many guys took different paths.
How is it that you started playing music? I always loved music. I grown up with parents listening to Genesis, Yes, Queen, The Beatles and a lot of others bands, so it was in my education. At the age of 6 I started music lesson, one year later I started to play Cello, then Drums. And I never stopped since this time.
What are your names? / Who plays what? / How old are you?
I'm Hugo, and I'm 27. Sylve is my personnal studio project so a do a lot of things alone. But I'm surrounded by great friends and some of them worked on me on some tracks, especially my supermate Ben, who co-composed some of the stuff and is a excellent guitarist.
My first instrument is drums but I don't have all the stuff to record so I work by playing, then writting what I played and finally put it in the DAW in MIDI format. All synth tracks are programmed.
Did you make music even when you were young? I started composing when I was 14. It was some kind of Black Metal. I still have some guitar pro tabs of this period but I never ever gonna release that ! 
Where are you from? I'm from north of France, close to Lille, and to Belgium and the best beers of the world 
What year did the band form? The Sylve project was born in my head in 2009. I wanted to create something by my own, without restrictions. So I started writting tabs (with unplayable guitars most of the time).
What's your style of genre? The first stuff I composed was related to progressive metal, with some black metal rests from my previous compositions. Then, it evolved slowly to a more mathematic form of prog. I don't think it can be called Djent, but some riffs are clearly in this kind of mood.
What inspires you? I was inspired most of the time by swedish bands like Opeth, Meshuggah, Vildhjarta or Katatonia. From other countries, bands like Porcupine Tree, Animals as Leaders, Tesseract, Haken, Twelve Foot Ninja or Karnivool inspired me a lot.
Out of rock and metal world, I was inspired by the fusion jazz bands Gogo Penguin and Hiromi Uehara.
How have you developed since you started with the music?
I suppose my main evolution is that at the beginning, it was just because I loved to play, and then, growing and growing, the will to live by and for the music. Today my objective is to work as a composer for visual supports (video games, films...) and performing arts.
The other important development was that I started by wanting to play excusively in Rock and Metal. Today I love to play and listening a lot of other styles : Jazz, Electro, Ambient, Soundtrack/Orchestral music, Funk, American Hip-Hop, Folk music, Traditionnal Music, World... But my first love stay Metal \../
Do you have other interests outside the band? Like I said above, I love to work in composition for visual arts. Out of music, I love to play video games, i'm very interested in astronomy and sciences, and I like to travel and see what I never saw before by my own eyes !
Are you looking for a booking agency, and what are your thoughts around that? No I'm not. For now the project is exclusively studio. And I think a booking agency is nice when you start to be known. For 
Are you looking for a label, and what are your thoughts around that? I like to be independant. Maybe one day if the project become too big for just me.
What made you decide to make this music? The desire to listen for real all the ideas i woke up with in the middle on the night haha
What are your songs about?
For now every tracks are instrumental. I'm not sure to put lyrics on it one day, maybe, maybe not. So, for now it's all about my moods, feelings, reflections when I was writing the composition. Joy, Sadness, Anger, Crazyness etc
And everyone is free to find what he feel while listening.
Do you compose in a certain inviroment? Most of the time I compose by night, in my little appartment. Sometimes I got ideas in the metro, some other time when i'm walking into the forest or on a mountain path. When it's the case, I "sing" the idea and record it with my phone to not forget it.
Have you done any covers live? Yes, sometimes I'm session drummer for replacing the main drummer of cover bands on some lives. It's not a kind of thing I love to do, but every time it's the occasion to meet nice people, and to make a little money to eat.
But with Sylve it's not in project, even if i decide to put the project on stage.
What do you think about people downloading music instead of buying records now a days? I think it's fine. For people who don't have so much money to spend in CD or vinyls, to have the huge access to music internet grant them is a chance. And if it was not the case, a lot of very nice band would never have been known.
Lot of these people who download music would never bought the CD anyway. The majority of people who love a band and have money to spend buy releases and merch. Since 2016, more than half of music in France is listened in streaming instead of CD. I more angry about internet plateform who gain a lot of money thanks to artists and give back to them some crappy crumb.
Today the best way to make money when you are a band is to make lives, or if you're very famous, to being listened millions of time on platforms who f*ck little artists, like youtube, deezer or freaking spotishit.
How do you think the music industry have changed because of this? In my opinion the music industry just moved from 100% physical to 99% digital.
What do you think of my work? It's nice to see people like you taking an interest for humble project like this, you do a great job !
How do you think and know that this interview will help you in the music business? People who read your interview can be interested to listen what i'm doing, and every promotion of music is great to take ! Everything is about contacts in this world.
Do you have any role models or idols? I'm in total admiration for Gavin Harrison and Marco Minnemann, they are my favourite drummers for the research in sounds, grooves and technique. I also admirate the work of Steven Wilson, Mikael Åkerfeldt and David Maxim Micic.
Is it easier to find inspiration from older bands, or bands that are more active today? I never asked myself about that before. I suppose the two are linked : active bands sound is the result of an evolution since decades of music, so when you're inspirated by a recent band, somewhere you take inspiration form the elders too !
What have been your biggest obstacles?
My biggest obstacles stay my limited budget and stuff and the time. In a world where thousands of people can make sound, you have to get a professional production if you want to be noticed in the mass. That means competences to get, material, and time.
I'm student in composition and mix so competences and stuff are coming. But I work a lot on study projects so I can't use 100% of my time producing the 6 albums I already composed.
What advice would you give other bands or artists? Never forget the joy of playing and making music. Better leave humbly but happy than have a lot of money but doing things you don't like.
Do you have any new material? I already have many albums composed. I'm actually working on an EP I composed last year to make a first complete release. I work on it everytime I got some hours for me.
What are your web sites?
You can find my personnal website there : http://hugowilliame.com/en/
It contain links to my soundcloud, facebook page and my youtube channel so you can listen what I do for Sylve and the other things I've composed for my studies.
How can people reach you? You can contact me on my facebook ! For those who don't like facebook, there also is a mail contact on my website.
What are your plans for the future? Release some stuff, promote it, and maybe find some people to put tracks on stage one day !
Do you have something to add? Thanks for the interest you put in this project, and never forget that if you love music, music will always love you too 

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