Black River Sons discuss the creative process behind “Skins”

Just one week after the release of their new record “Skins”, French rockers Black River Sons took time to answer a couple of questions for us. Learn more about the creative process behind this album in our new interview! [caption id="attachment_203852" align="alignnone" width="650"]
Picture by Peurduloup[/caption]

Hello guys! Thanks for taking time to answer a couple of question for us. Please take us back to the roots of Black River Sons and share the story of how the band came together in 2016!

Emeric: Well, I've been playing years on different tribute bands (Led Zeppelin, Thin Lizzy, Lynyrd Skynyrd, etc...) and felt the desire and need to built an original band. I started to work on songs. The good news was that some of my friends are musicians. Vincent, our drummer was my first choice to create the backbone of the band. Same vision. We were fans of bands like Black Country Communion, Black Stone Cherry, Black Label Society, BlackBerry Smoke, Black Star Riders. He found the name of our band logically. The rest of the story was rather classical for a band, some comings and goings.

Your debut EP caught the eye of various medias and your debut LP “Poison Stuff” solidified your presence in the music scene. How would you describe the growth and journey from this EP to your debut album?

The debut EP was like a statement: we're here! It was an act with ugency. A spontaneous and straightforward move. But as an original band in a land full of tribute bands, the growth was tricky but led us to take some experience in terms of perfoming and writi ng. The debut album "Poison stuff" was then more sophisticated, but after almost five years, way less than our new album. You told the word. Growth. And it's a constant motion.

Having performed over a hundred concerts and opened for artists like Laura Cox, can you share some memorable moments from your live performances?

Emeric: Yeah, a weird situation when we were perfoming just before Laura Cox. I've poorly parked my car before the show, and the organiser of the show had to interrupt us playing and came while performing to get my keys. The show was stopped around five minutes and fortunately, the rest of our set was great and the audience did not blame us. This is the kind of situation that learns you to stay focused whatever happens on stage.

Your new record “Skins” is set to mark a return to your heavy rock origins. Could you elaborate on the creative process behind this album?

We started writing music almost three years ago keeping unawereness to write an album. Each song has its story. In this process, we definitely wanted to keep spontaneity and freedom for each one. Then, we shaped them for the album and rejected some. What we wanted to do is find the good balance and avoid damaging a diverse and colorful purpose with the homogeneity obsession.

What can fans expect in terms of the overall sound and themes explored in this release?

We think that we were driven by an angrier and darker mood on this one. Kind of. With a more modern sound and production. You'll find our roots, direct "in your face" riffs and dueling lead guitars, but no boundaries in term of adding flavours, from texas blues to stoner and progressive rock and metal influences. The key theme of the album is hypocrisy and sham appearances.

Looking ahead to the promotion of “Skins” in the upcoming months, what excites you the most about taking this album to the stage and sharing it with your fans?

Playing in front of an audience with new material is exciting. This album is the picture of what we are now inside the story of the band. You know, time is passing by and things changes so quickly. These days are a constant rumbling. A new album is kind of a brand new and fresh beacon.

The last words are for you, thanks for your time!

Big thanks to you. We hope that you and all your readers will hear and like this new album.