Divine Side talk about latest record, “!! System failure !!”

Hello Divine Side, thanks for your time. Would it be possible to introduce your band to our readers, as well as your roles in it? Hi Valentine, it’s a pleasure to have this interview with you. We’re a band from France (Limoges precisely) and we’re playing “groovy metal” as we call it. We don’t like labels, but we chose this one because we try to melt everything we like in music and play it our way; a “heavy” way. The band is composed of Guillaume (drums), Maxime (bass), Erik (lead guitar/backing vocals) and Olivier (myself: rhythm guitar and vocals). With a worldwide pandemic going on, how have you handled the management of your band so far? It’s been quite difficult for a time (and it still is for some reasons). At the beginning, our country has confined everyone, so we weren’t able to see each others and rehearse. But we used this “isolation” time to work on the mix/mastering of the album. We used internet to discuss and work on it with our friend Déhà (Opus Magnus Studio), and we hoped so far that it would be for a short period of time. Anyway, we managed to finish the record and get everything done (visuals and else so Distrolution Merch can make the work). After that we managed to make rehearsals again but, for a band like us (a bit more than huge bands that everyone knows well), it’s difficult to sell records without being able of playing gigs. So we’re working to be ready when it will be possible and we’re trying to set up a live performance (with a good sound quality), but it requires investments and stuff so we’re doing our best so it can be done as quick as possible… You guys have revealed, back in June, your new album titled “!! System failure !!”. Where did you find your inspiration? We find inspiration in almost everything but this album has a red line. Everything in “!! System failure !!” is about our actual society and the fact that being “ultra-connected” is in fact disconnecting people from each other. We see everywhere people that give so much importance to their “network life” that they forget to live their real life. Sometimes, what they post on social media is completely fake (or doesn’t reflect reality) and it’s a bit sad… And it’s true for people like you and me as well as governments, celebrities and else… We also try to talk about how human beings destroy our planet (and relations between human beings or species) just to get some more comfort, money, or any other reason. But we’re not trying to give lessons about it, in a way we’re a part of it too, but we think it’s important to be aware of it and, why not, try to ameliorate ourselves. Any funny story to share from your recording or writing sessions? Mm… The only thing that comes to me is our working titles… In fact, as we were working on this album, and until the lyrics were done, we use working titles for the songs and for this record, every song had a working title about food. For example, a song written in April was called “Easter Egg”, another one was “Christmas turkey” (I think you have an idea on when it was written)… The recording has also been fun of course… Between takes we needed to laugh just to get a distance on what we’re doing. We put videos at this time on our Facebook page with Max reading lyrics with a beautiful English accent, but people can check it out on our Facebook… It’s not easy to describe! If you had to pick one song that, according to you, best reflects the spirit of your album. Which one would you pick and why? I think I’ll choose “Machine” because we chose it to open the album. It’s powerful and the lyrics seem to be a good introduction on what’s coming next. But for me, the one that I prefer to play is “Tyler” because of its changes and variations. Releasing something often means tour support. Do you guys already have some dates planned for the end of the year or 2021? At the moment, everything is a bit stopped because we don’t even know when it will be possible (as much as concert places). But we’re working on it and if anyone wants to make us play, it will be a pleasure to try to schedule something. Do you have any other projects in the making? As I said earlier, we’re working on setting up a “live performance” with good sound conditions to show people what we can do and make them discover “!! System failure !!”. Of course, it will be different from a real “live show” and surely more like a moment with us in rehearsal but stay tuned, we will be able to make it quite soon. The last words are for you. If you have a message to convey, here’s your chance! Thanks for the interview. We hope people will get interested in discovering Divine Side’s universe and we think the best way for it is to check out our new album “!! System failure !!” on every well-known streaming platforms or on our Bandcamp! See you as soon as possible (we hope really soon)! Thanks for your time!
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