interview with Eltharia
What are your names? / Who plays what?
Benjamin Nicolino, ex-guitars, drums
Pierre Carabalona, singer
Jean-Yves Girard, guitars
Laure Girard keyboards
Vincent Trauttmann, bass.
Have you had other previous members? Yes, Pascal Mesquida was on the bass and Jean-Pierre Racamier on the drums. They left the band around the year 2008. Vincent quickly joined the band, while it tooks several months (even years :) for Benjamin to decide to play the drums.
Where are you from? Grenoble, France.
What year did the band form? The band was founded in 2001 by Benjamin, Jean-Yves and Laure. Pierre quickly joined the band after these 3 decided to play music together.
What's your style of genre? "Prower prog" metal.
What inspires you? Musically, each member has his own inspiration he puts in our music. Some of us like symphonic and progresive metal while others listen to more extreme metal bands (trash, death and black metal). Concerning the lyrics, it is mainly inspired by human behaviour.
How often and where do you reherse? Basically once every 3 or 4 weeks, except during summer time.
Do you have other interests of work outside the band? Cinema, gaming, sport (boxe, marathon.)
Are you looking for a booking agency, and what are your thoughts around that? We mainly search for shows by ourselves. Working with a booking agency would be great but we may have schedule issues because of some member’s job. So for now it is a bit too early.
Are you looking for a label, and what are your thoughts around that? Not yet. We sent our biography and our album to some of them, but we did not get any response. Of course it would be a great thing, but nowadays our music can be heard worldwide thanks to digital stores, streaming…It’s a good start!
What are your songs about? All the lyrics on our album Innocent talk about innocent people in different situations. It's a perpetual figth between good and evil, life and death, guilt and innocence. Our songs deal with a psychological approach of duality.
Who does the composing and writes the lyrics? Benjamin and Jean-Yves write the music first. After that, from the keyboard to bass, each member brings new ideas. Then, Benjamin and Pierre write the lyrics.
Do you start with the music or the lyrics? With the music, but we will try to write the lyrics first on a few songs to see how it helps to find vocal melodies.
Do you compose in a certain enviroment? Benjamin and Jean-Yves work well together with their guitar, at Jean-Yves' house.
Have you done any covers live? Yes! Run to the Hills, Iron Maiden.
What language do you sing in? English.
Do you always play the same songs live, or do you vary?
We widely play songs from our second album, and we have a list that lasts half an hour and another one that lasts nearly one hour. Depending on the length we play, we choose between them.
So for now, we don't have enough songs to often vary, and we don't really want to play songs from our second album.
Do you have a regular place you play live often? Not really.
What was your first gig like? The very first one 12 years ago was stressful but exiting!
What was your latest gig? Warmaudio, near Lyon, France. With our mates from Weddingoth & Vae Viktis.
Have you had to cancel a gig? Yes, due to planning problems. But you know, at our level, there are not many consequences ;)
Where have you played live this year? Mainly in our area, Grenoble and Lyon with friends. Good shows! We trully hope we can get out of our aera to kick metal asses over France or Europe!
Where do you plan to gig the comming year? Anywhere we find a place to play live with mates from other cities!
When did you start to sell merchandise, and what do you have for sale? Except our albums we do not have merch to sell yet, mainly because of money issues!
Where can people buy your merchandise? You can buy the album on most of digital stores, or by sending us a message to get a physical copy.
What do you think about people downloading music instead of buying records now a days?
Nothing in particular, people do what they want! But the Internet allows bands to be known worldwide. We all have albums in our smartphones. The new way to listen to music is definitely digital! And to finish, it is easier to see your album for sale on digital stores than fighting to convince a local dealer to resell 10 copies!
And if you talk about dowloading illegally, of course we do not approve. But on the other hand, it is also a way to spread your music around the world. Whatever you do, except by being a potential superstar pushed by a huge record company, you won't earn money easily by making music. Just accept the way it works today!
What do you think of my work? We have to thank and deeply respect people like you who spend personal time to serve bands' interest. Keep on doing this, thanks to you, bands could get some light on their work!
Is it easier to find inspiration from older bands, or bands that are more active today? Both! Old bands push you to play music, and nowadays bands show new sounds and new techniques that obviously inspire you. Mixing the two makes something interesting!
What have been your biggest obstacles? Find a new drummer and finish the recording of Innocent that took years!
What advice would you give other bands or artists? Just play what you want and find good mates to look in the same direction. If each member has the same vision or knows how to mix differences, it is won. Talk as much as you can, face to face!
How do you get psyched for a gig? Just by being obsessed to give the best we can!
Do you have any new material? Well...Nothing to be shown for now, but songs are currently being written.
What are your web sites?
Our official website is: www.eltharia.com
We also have a Facebook Page here: www.facebook.com/Eltharia
And other links to stream our songs:
https://itunes.apple.com/fr/artist/eltharia/id945049422
http://www.deezer.com/album/9225349
How can people reach you? By email here : [email protected] or here [email protected]
Or you can also drop a message on our Facebook wall or send a private message.
What are your plans for the future? Continue writing songs and start our third album, just not to have ten years again wasted between Innocent and the new one!
Do you have something to add? Thanks for your interest! And for all the readers, do not hesitate to listen to Innocent and tell us what you think! Thank you!