Liège, Belgium’s ILYDAEN caught our attention with their first proper full length release “Digression”. It’s definitely worth checking out if you’re a fan of epic, dark, heavy, but at the same time nostalgic and melancholic tunes. This chit-chat of ours includes the band’s introduction, a discussion about the new album, their upcoming plans (including adding vocals to their music), Liège post rock scene and a lot more. It’s a quick read so it might be worth a shot.
Hey guys! Thanks for reaching out! Please introduce yourselves to our readers.
We are ILYDAEN, a three-piece instrumental band from Liège, Belgium. The band exists since 2009, and to now we recorded an EP, Exordium, and an LP, Digressions, who comes out on Dunk! Records and on Wolves and Vibrancy records. We often play in Belgium but this summer we were on European Tour with another Belgium band TERRAFORMER.
Yeah, the album comes out in December, right? Any special events you’re planning to celebrate the release?
The digital release was on the 15/11/2012 (Digressions is available on Bandcamp and you could name your price, available on itunes, spotify, … too) but the official release party is the 08/12/2012. We will play with good friends. This release party is for us the end or 2 years work and the beginning of à new chapter for the band.
Will this new chapter include your appearance at Dunk!Fest 2013? [smiles]
Yes!:) and we are very proud to play, it’s an honor for us and we are almost very excited to give our best to show to the people that our presence their is not just luck.
Yeah, lots of great bands are playing there. Sharing stages with the ones that inspire you must be a thrilling experience. What’s your source of inspiration?
It’s a difficult question because everything is an inspiration and the inspiration of a day is not the same as the inspiration of another say. But I would say that our relation to time is a big inspiration and that’s why the new LP is called “Digressions”. Digressions because we wanted to address the notion of time. On the one hand the point of view of perception (basically, time flies sometimes, sometimes not, it’s that we can not feel as desired, or not enjoy, or just hate the time, be impatient, be angry, etc..) and secondly in terms of musical digressions are made using specific rhythms, mixing punch, quieter passages slower, sometimes faster and harder.
Ok, so.. to get the full picture. Tell us about the band’s name back story.
We were looking for a name without any music connotation. It was important because we try to not be assimilate to a certain music genre. The idea is to be a band who could travel in different music directions. All bands members have different musical preference, and all the members have the possibility to compose songs or parts of songs. We were 5 in a past music project but it was difficult to find a musical balance. We are 3 now and each members had to give its best on stage so that the people do not have the impression that we are just 3 on stage.
Do you use any samples or supporting backgrounds to fill the gap in the wall of guitar sounds? [smiles]
We don’t use samplers, but II use a looper for some parts of songs and some classic effects (like Delay, Reverb,..). It’s sometimes tempting to put a maximum effects on records but for me, the most important, is to sound on stage like on the record and I don’t want tracks just able to be listed on the record.
True that. Have you ever thought about adding vocals to your music?
On the record we have a little bit vocals, but in the future I think we will add more vocals. It’s important to have something to say. The vocals could be an instrument too, but we have to keep attention with them, they don’t have to put the instruments behind. Both are important.
Ok. How popular is post-rockin’ in Liège?
We are fortunate to have a very good music collective in Liege called SILENCELESS. they give us the opportunity to play with famous bands as THE SAMUEL JACKSON FIVE or KERRETTA. And other big collective with awesome concerts too is SABOTAGE BKG. In Liège it’s sometimes difficult to bring the people to concerts yet the concerts are very good.
In Liege you have many good bands, like our friends TERRAFORMER, with who we tour this summer and The K., and other friends band.
Alright, guys. Do you have any musical education?
I went to the music school as a child and I begin a singing lessons for 2 years. Our bass player take some lessons at a school academy. Our drummer learns everything by himself, but ok, it’s a drummer [laughs].
Oh come on, you think drumming is just banging some sticks around? [smiles]
No for sure no! [smiles] And to be honest I think the best element of ILYDAEN is his drummer because we have à drummer with a very interesting play. We try to put this part of the band in front in playing some concerts in the middle of the crowd, with the people around us while playing, it’s a very cool feeling when you are playing so and its interesting for the people too to see everything what’s happen during the concert and to feel this proximity with us, it’s then impossible to play hide and seek and it’s the honest way to play.
Ok, guys. What else? What’s next for yourself in the coming months?
At first we will have our release Party at the 08/12/2012. Then we have a few shows for the beginning of 2013 with a big concert at the Dunk!Festival. We are still looking further for some shows, so if people are interested, they could write us. We will prepare our summer tour 2013 too and then writing the album who will get release in 2014.
A lot of work but even more fun! [smiles]
Nice. Make sure to drop me a line when something news comes up. Thanks for taking some time with us! Any last words?
Thank you for your support, for a band a webzine like yours is very important. I hope people will enjoy Digressions and I repeat to the people who will be insterested, the LP is available at this address, and you can name your price.
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