Consider It Core.

is a French Symphonic Deathcoreband who recently signed to Listenable Records (FR) and Sumerian Records (USA). Their debut album will be out September 19^th, you can read our review to the album here. Overwhelmed of their great debut album “Breathe in Life”, we hit up Valentin (Bass) and Baptiste (Guitar) to ask them out about the new album, their future plans and more!

Hey, thanks a lot for taking the time to do this interview! Let’s start with the question you’ve probably heard a thousand times already: How did you come up with the band’s name?

We took this name as a reminder, people every day, everywhere fight for their beliefs and try to make this world a better place (Christian or not). Friendship, respect, generosity, solidarity, helping those in distress… And no one talks about them, no one reminds them. We want to praise those people and we try to do our part. When we act as a bad person we betray those people.

What’s the idea behind the album’s title “Breathe in Life”?

That’s what the whole album is about. Life. Life is precious, you have to respect it, protect it and enjoy it. Live your life, deserve your dream. Even when you feel in doom or in pain, you have to fight those bad emotions to get back on the road again, still walking

The album’s artwork shows a young woman floating in the water. Who created this artwork and is there a special meaning to it?

The original picture was created by a great photographer called Goldensilk. We saw the picture and in our mind we just thought that was the perfect image for our album. It’s a bright picture, a beautiful image with lots of light, the water soften the lines. We wanted something that was opposite to what we mostly see in extreme metal. And with her head out of the water it just captures the album’s name. I just reworked the picture a little bit and create the whole CD artwork out of it.

Who did you record your album with? “Breathe in Life” has a great mastering, who is responsible for this result?

The marvelous Charles J Wall from Sonic Assault studio from Florida. Before recording the album we were searching for a good producer. Charles answered us right away, he was just so motivated, we couldn’t take someone else! It was a true pleasure working with him. We recorded everything in France with our guitar player Lucas and sent him the whole stuff. What he did is pure magic. He gave us a true modern metal sound, but at the same time it’s a personal sound. The album doesn’t sound like every modern record, you have that dirty ultra disto bass, those massive keys and choirs, the atmospheric synth and the inhuman voices of Aaron, Lucas and Victor. Not everyone can mix our music, we are not an ordinary metal band, we have three different singers, orchestral instruments, electronic and ambient sounds, massive guitars, in our album we do have tons and tons of instruments at the very same time. On our EP the computer crashed during the mix of the hurt the divine the light outro, he couldn’t take all the layers. Now we have even more layers, on the last song of the album we invited some friends  - we have six singers on that song! I don’t know how Charles managed this but he really did a great job. He took our music to another level.

Are you going to record a video to one of the new songs?

Yep we already shot the video, in Sheffield UK, Tom Welsh is editing it as we speak. It will be out 15th of August. We shot it during our breathe in life tour, on a day off. We used the song “Man Made Disaster”. 

In your opinion, how did your sound evolve since the band started?

We got more and more mature. We mix a lot of different style in our music, from extreme to symphonic or hardcore. We basically learned how to better blend those influences together, our songwriting improved a lot. We also pushed the boundaries, adding more brutal stuff but also much lighter ambiance, atmospheric guitar and keys. We took all that we liked on our EP and pushed it further on the album.

Is everyone in the band writing the music in equal measure or is there a head in the band who writes most of the music?

We’re six, that’s a lot of people. Mostly one of us comes with an idea then everyone put stuff in, changing, improving, adding rhythm… That’s why our music has a great range of influence, because it’s done by six different people with different backgrounds.

France isn’t that well known for Deathcore and Metalcore-Bands - how hard is it for a young band to build up a fan base there?

It’s easy and hard at the same time. Easy, because all the French kids, all the teens found of American deathcore bands will find out about you, since the deathcore scene in France is very small. Then hard because we have to face all the old school metalheads that don’t accept this new trend at all!

Speaking of France - how did you get in touch with the American label Sumerian Records?

Guess what, we just sent them a mail with the album… and they really liked it!!! It sounds pretty simple but it worked that way!

Photo Credits: David Cilloni 

You are using a lot classical instruments like strings or a piano on “Breathe in Life”. How much did classical music affect your lives and how did you come up with the idea to use this in your music?

Victor and Eddie wanted to play symphonic deathcore, from the beginning, a combination of violent music enhanced with orchestrations. On the album we still use classical music but we also added atmospheric and electronic sounds. It really adds something different and it’s a “plus” that we’re really proud to have within the band. Not a lot of bands have the chance to have a really good keyboard player, hope you like that touch in our music!

Who’s writing the lyrics? Do all members of the band participate in the writing process? What are they mostly about? Furthermore, is there a certain topic that the album is about, some kind of storyline through the tracklist?

Same here, everyone brings up ideas. We are Christian and we want to deliver a specific message, lyrics are really really important to us. On the EP we took our lyrics out of the Bible. On the album we got confident and started to sing our own stories, something more personal. Most of the lyrics in Breathe in Life come from our lives, our experiences, things we’ve been through. All of the songs as we said are about life, keeping faith or hope, having a good life, without any regret, a well lived life.

The promo sheet says it’s important for you to use the music you love “to raise awareness on positive messages for the people out there”. Does being a deathcore band make it harder to get your message across to the world? Deathcore isn’t the most popular music and people might expect other messages in songs sounding that brutal.

I think that metal is a genre that can pull everything further than any other kind of music. It comes from the guts, it has this intensity that no other music has. We know that we sing a very positive message over some really dark and brutal music. Both of this comes from our guts, using the power that the metal music has, it makes the message more efficient. We won’t reach a lot of people, but we know that the people we’ll reach we’ll get the message for sure. After it’s up to them.

How was touring other countries for the first time? Did many people know you already?

That was pretty amazing you know. You play a gig, like 2000 km from where everything started… and you see tons of people, coming at you, speaking different tongues, asking for t-shirts, photos or signatures. And most of the times, we had a warmer welcome in those countries, Poland, Ukraine, Switzerland, than in our own country!!

How have the first months been after Fabien and Eddie left the band and Lucas and Aaron joined?

Lucas has always been around, he was our sound engineer, so he did not join, he just switched the instrument. When Eddie left, we were anxious, we were afraid that people wouldn’t like Aaron as much as they liked Eddie. But Aaron is such a nice guy, and such a vocal beast, everyone like him. Now they’re both entire part of the band and we couldn’t be without them!

What influence did the new members have on your music?

Aaron brought brutality in our music. He can really make every kind of extreme vocals, he learned hardcore screams in like a month, he’s inhuman. He has this violence, this flow, with him the songs won some brutal groove. And about Lucas, he’s a great great guitar player. With him we all improved our musicianship, our techniques. The album would be completely different without him!

Photo Credits: David Cilloni 

A lot of people either prefer or despise Christianity in music. What’s your opinion to Christian music?

We are Christian and we play music. So I guess you can quickly guess our opinion about that - the fact is we don’t know what can be called “Christian” music. Music played by Christians? Music that tells the story of Jesus? Music that makes you believe? Definitely, we believe and in a way that influence our music. We are musicians, we play music, that’s our job. We want to tell this positive message, because we believe in it, and because every day we act, according to it. But there’s no problem if you don’t agree with us. We don’t want to evangelize, that’s not our aim. We share our message, if you like it and agree with it it’s cool. If you don’t agree, it’s still cool, no one’s going to be mad and a lot of people even like our music without paying attention to the lyrics.

What are your future plans for 2011 are you going to play some big festivals?

We hope so, but to be honest I think the big stuff will be for 2012 - we just signed with two huge record labels and it takes time to make the machine start… but once all of that will be done (our album in the stores, all the contracts etc.) WE’RE GOING TO BE UNSTOPPABLE!!! You can already expect us to hit the US roads before the end of the year … and this is only the beginning!

What are your favorite bands you’d wish to go on tour with?

We all want to go on tour with Born of Osiris!! We already toured with a lot of bands and we’d also love to go back on the road with them, As They Burn, Promethee, My Autumn… awesome bands that you should check!!

Do you have any local bands from your area to recommend?

Check those guys, As They Burn, Checkmate, Black Curtains, Beyond The Dust, The Bridal Procession, Oceans for Backyard!!! French and awesome bands!

What’s the most embarrassing moment that ever happened to you as a band?

I guess having our engine explode in the middle of a forest in England is in the top three. We almost died on the road that day. That was really embarrassing. But that weird event had a great consequence, we met Aaron and spent three days all together sleeping on the floor of a pub in Leicester, waiting for a bus to take us back to France.

Thanks a lot for the interview! The last words are yours:

Thank you very much guys, keep supporting us, we’d be happy to see you on tour! Take care of you and the people you truly love!