Hi! Tell me about your band and what kind of previous experience do you have as musicians?
Hi, we are Dawnpatrol and we play old-school Thrash/Speed Metal. We are rooted in the 80es and we talk about a post-apocalyptic/nuclear era, lot of sci-fi subjects, war…
As musician, before playing with Dawnpatrol I have played drums in several local black / thrash metal bands : Monarchia Daemonium, Vermeth, Hellraper… I also play all the instruments with Svartfell and other projects to come.
Cendres, our drummer, also plays with Hordous, an obscure black metal band.
Why did you pick your band name? How did you form? Why did you decide to play the genre or genres you do?
This band name was chosen because I wanted an original name for the style we play. I didn’t want a name too evident for the style. Each one can imagine something different with that name and that’s good. For us it’s perfect for the totalitarian, post-atomic world, we speak about.
I decided to play this genre because I have grown with it. But it’s right I have other influences, like old heavy metal with bands like Judas Priest, Manowar or Saxon and Black and Death Metal also with bands like Bathory, Dissection, BoltThrower, Massacra…
But it’s always old-school Metal. We don’t like modern Metal.
All those influences can be felt in Dawnpatrol, but at the end it turns into something different.
What can you tell us about your latest record?
Our latest record, The Dawn of Steel is the most violent record we have done.
All the tracks are really catchy and primitive. We keep the old-school sound here, all is natural, it’s not over produced. Some people say our sound is too primitive but they forgot that in the old times the sounds of the records were more as that. Now all the bands have a quite similar sound, very polished, without any mistakes and ultra compressed.
We don’t care, some tracks of this record are really strong. And playing them live increase their violence.
What the kind of album feedbacks are you waiting for?
We wait for nothing. We only hope this album will be appreciated for what it is. Old-school Thrash Metal. No more, no less.
We don’t revolution in the genre. But we have a particular approach because you can find influences from other genres in the music. And you have the sound and an insane, crude atmosphere that you don’t find in modern false retro thrash bands. Maybe it’s close with albums like the first Kreator, Destruction, Sodom…
Are you gonna to make some world tour in the future? Do you think this is available for everybody option to tour around the globe? What do you think band have to do to get such opportunity?
If we had the opportunity we would want to tour around the world. But for the moment it’s difficult. We don’t have a lot of time and money to do that and for an underground band like us it’s quite impossible. No one offer you the opportunity to do that. If you want to participate to an important tour you must pay for the other bands and for you most often. The travel, food, hotel…
Even finding gigs in our country is difficult but it’s possible because the cost is less expensive.
Maybe if you have a good label it can be possible to tour a lot because they have the right contacts and the organisation.
But now even the big labels don’t want to pay a lot the artists. So the situation will continue to be difficult I think…
Do you believe in heavy music scene without money?
I don’t think heavy music is possible without money.
It’s right that you can find audio material and instruments at low prices but to make something more professional you need quality and a more expensive material.
Now the labels don’t want to take risks so most often you pay for all the production of a record, studio, artwork… Even for the promotion , some labels don’t do a good job!
You must all do by yourself, so it takes time. And time is money…
And it’s the same for touring as I said before.
What do you think about online music sharing? Do you ever give your music away for free? Why?
I don’t really like music sharing because with internet all is now too easy and available. Before music download it was long to discover some bands and some albums were really hard to find. So when you found them it was like finding the grail. Internet has killed all the magic.
It’s quite sad, now all is mixed up, metal is a part of the music business like the other styles…
Yes I have given my music for free because to promote your record you have no other solution. You must send it for free to the labels, fanzines, webzines, radio…
And some of our tracks are available on youtube, soundcloud, bandcamp on streaming. Because it’s a good way to promote us.
But we still sell our physical albums and don’t share our music for free. People must be conscious that behind a record there is a lot of costs.
Who are your musical influences? Have you ever think your band could be so famous as your favorites?
My musical influences come from old-school speed/heavy/thrash metal from the 80’es, and some black and death metal bands from the early 90’es.
I have already mentioned those bands but I can add bands like Agent Steel, Overkill, Venom, Running Wild, King Diamond, Riot, Razor, Exciter, Nifelheim, Sortilège …
I don’t think we will be as famous as those bands, maybe we can approach it. We don’t know how the future can be…
Honestly I don’t think about that, I just try to release the best record we can do each time. It’s our main goal.
Do you have a formal music education? Do you think it’s a Kind of important thing?
I don’t have a formal music education. Except when I was very young at school! But I have all forgotten.
I have learned by myself and my experience with many bands and musicians has allowed me to be a better musician.
You must work with your instrument as hard as you can…
And to play with others help you too.
If you have just a formal music education you will miss a lot of things…
How do you balance your music with other obligations – mate, children, job?
Sometimes it can be very hard to balance music with all those obligations. You must be very organised to control your time. Moreover as music can’t be a way to win money, it’s often the last thing to do. And when you are tired it can be difficult. To have children increase this difficulty!
Fortunately music is a passion above all. Metal is in my life since many years. As long as I will have this burning flame in me it can’t stop and I will always find time for that.
How do you handle mistakes during a performance? Or you can assure there are no any mistakes during your gigs? Do you get nervous before a performance or a competition?
Yes we can do a lot of mistakes during a performance! When we do them I just try to don’t think about that and keep on playing as if there was nothing!
I think it’s not a problem, we play black/thrash metal and we are old-school, some mistakes are a normal thing, we don’t want to be perfect and formated. If the audience see that we are true to ourselves it’s the most important.
I can be nervous before a performance, because it’s always a challenge. When you play live you can’t cheat, if you do mistakes you can’t erazed them as it’s the case when you are in the studio. You must give the best at a precise time. That’s the difficulty. I see it as a fight in a competition!
What’s next? Thank you!
At this time we are recording the new Dawnpatrol album. I can tell you it will be the best we have done. Cendres has increased the speed this time, it’s incredible sometimes. And his martial way of playing the drums has reached a new culminating point! Some tracks will be very violent, some will be more in the speed metal vein. It’s the new orientation of the band. Old speed metal like exciter or agent steel. Some tracks will have a motorhed, venom rock n roll feeling. It will be more like the Doomsday’s March of the Dead EP. Even if there are some aggressive and primitive passages like you have in the Dawn of Steel album.
I can’t wait to release it!
It will be our first record with M’Cka. He plays the bass with fingers , not with a pick like I did when I was playing bass for the band. He plays old school and that’s perfect for us. He’s going to bring some groove. And maybe it was what it was lacking before.
After this recording we will try to do a lot of gigs this year.
So come to see us live to see the violence and to be a part of the post-apocalypse!
Thank you!
V.Wolfstorm