Ætheria Conscientia 2024 Interview

 

            

1.Can you give us an update on what has been going on with the band since the recording of the new album?

The recording of the album started in October 2023 and finished in January 2024. It was quite a long process because we had to organize recording sessions according to our respective jobs and other projects, but we managed to wrap it up right before the deadline and hand over our work to Cyrille Gachet (Fange, Year Of No Light, Chaos Echoes…), who did a fantastic job at taking our music to another level. It was a very interesting and great learning experience for us working with him.

The last months went by quickly, preparing our live show, merchandising, vinyl records and CDs but as the date of the release is approaching we now feel more ready than ever to go back on stage and share our music.

2.You have a new album coming out in June, musically how would you describe the musical progress you have made with the new album from your previous release?

A lot has happened since the release of our last album (Corrupted pillars of Vanity) between line up changes and covid which prevented us from playing our second album live at all, which was quite frustrating for us.

However, this unscheduled break in our musical journey has allowed us to stop and think about which direction we wanted to explore next. It took us a lot of time, with many songs and ideas scrapped to find the right balance in our music. A new drummer, Valentin Henault joined our band and Paul switched from drums to lead singing and percussion. These changes gave us the kick we needed to put our creativity back on track and go forward with this album.

We tried a new approach on many levels for this record. First, we felt the need for shorter songs, with less complicated structures, and more efficient riffs. The title of our new album reflects that change with a shorter title, “The Blossoming”. 

We also wanted to explore new genres, with a more prominent psychedelic approach in our sound, while reducing the amount of Black Metal riffing which allowed us to make this record more eclectic.

We invited many talented artists to participate on this record, such as Cindy Sanchez and Dolores Anapeste, who added their voices to our ensemble, Hugo Champion who added synth textures and ambiances, and Guru Pope who plays saxophone on this record.

3.Can you tell us a little bit more about the lyrics you explore with the new album and also do you expand on the space and science fiction themes of your previous album?

The need for a change also happened in the themes we explore on this record. The sci-fi themes are still there, though the theme of this record is about the place of the human species in the environment.

The lyrics expand on the universe we already started building in our former releases, however one major change is that the action does not take place in the city of Hydhradh but instead follow a group of Maphoros, the Hydhradhian missionaries spreading the word of the Ætheria through the stars. Wandering in space for years on a decaying spaceship, they feel called to a specific place they will call Haesperadh, a planet covered in luxurious forest, something unheard of on their city-homeworld of Hydhradh. On this planet they will encounter the inhabitants, the Virikoi, who appear to be hybrids of humans and plants with a strong link to the forest and worship an entity called the Haespiria, which has a plan of its own for the Maphoros.

4.Can you tell us a little bit more about the artwork that is presented on the new album cover?

This artwork is the work of the incredibly talented Ëmgalaï Grafik, who has taken on the task of visually interpreting our universe. He designed our LPs, also with the collector edition, our CDs, and our Merch. As with the first albums, through our artwork we wanted to illustrate a part of the story in a figurative way. We always felt the need to give a rich visual experience to our listeners so they can better imagine the world we are trying to describe.

5.Do you have any touring or show plans once the new album is released?

For now we have 2 live shows announced, the release show will take place during the Frozen Fest on June 8, 2024 in Nantes, our city. We will also play at the festival “Les Lunatiques” on October 6, 2024, and many other shows are coming. We will try to tour as much as possible in the future because it has been a while and we all miss performing on stage.

6.The new album is going to be released on 'Frozen Records', how did you get in contact with this label and also are you happy with the support that they have given you so far?

Paul (our lead singer/percussionist) is the co-owner of the label, which is based in Nantes, so It has been pretty convenient for us because we could express our creativity without limits. Eddy, the co-founder of the label, is a fan of the band and was already helping us distribute the 2nd album (Corrupted Pillars Of Vanity) at the time, so it was pretty natural for us to keep working with Frozen Records.

7.On a worldwide level how have fans reacted to the musical style of your newer music?

We always had more fans abroad than in France until now, but with the help of Frozen Records the first single reached more French fans, and the feedback was very positive for now. We feared that people would be thrown off by the stylistic changes we underwent on this record but for now they seem pretty happy with what they heard.

Since the release of our single we had many pre-orders so it reassured us for the release of the album.

8.Where do you like to see the band heading into musically during the future?

We are just talking about it for now, because we have a lot of material we would like to play live, but we would like to accelerate the pace of our releases in the future.

We’re already planning the next album which will probably be shorter and more aggressive. We would like to create something closer to our own state of mind and daily preoccupations.

9.What are some of the bands or musical styles you are currently listening to nowadays?

We all have different tastes, but I would say we all started to listen to more Hardcore Punk music, Post punk, Shoegaze, Sludge, and probably less Black metal than before, which is going to influence our next releases for sure. We still listen to Black Metal but we yearn for more diversity in our music, to find new ways to approach music, and keep things interesting.

A few band names who come to our minds would be the last releases from Gouge Away, Frail Body, Papangu, Dvne, Frozen Soul,Thou, Gel, High Vis, Code Orange, French Hardcore (S/o Sorcerer, Cavalerie, Citrus) and modern Shoegaze (Nothing, Pencey Sloe). 

10.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?

Be nice to each other especially when you see our species edging always closer to its own extinction. You don’t have to be a piece of shit to play extreme music. Also fuck the police.

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