“In December 2013, ‘April’ retreated to work on the composition and recording of their debut album with the arrival of Remy Hachem on Bass as Charbel left to pursue different musical aspirations! The upcoming EP is fully composed and is being recorded to be released around July 2014. Teaser of “Ephemeral”, first track of the Ep was released on May the 28th, 2014″ – from facebook.com/Aprilised/info
- Interview with April
- Tell us about the new EP which you are currently recording. How’s that going? When are you expecting to release it?
We’ve started working on the Ep as of December 2013 after announcing a retreat from live gigging for that purpose. The process is a new fresh experience for most of us in terms of composition and recording as it is a fully self-produced Ep! It’ll be consisted of three tracks, to be included in the full-length album afterwards. It is basically of psychologically-driven themes dealing with different states of mind in each song. The EP title is still in discussion, to be revealed soon enough, along with our new official band logo! We just released a teaser of our first track “Ephemeral” and the Ep release is to be expected in a 2 months time.
In case you can’t see the ReverbNation widget, “Epheremal” Teaser link: reverbnation.
- You are covering the likes of Blackmore’s Night, Deep Purple, Dream Theatre, Porcupine Tree, Tool and Opeth. This is a diverse mix of sounds here, are you incorporating all of that in your upcoming EP? Should we expect something like Celtic Psychedlic/Prog Rock?
April has definitely been perceived as versatile in that sense, seeing that the band started with the Celtic genre to gradually shift into Progressive and Psychedelic, creating this distinguished mixture of influences that will be heard in the Ep. The latter carries out more Prog elements though than Celtic, a progressive rock/metal dominating sound with a touch of pyschedelic. However, such a blend is not too far-fetched in the coming works.
- You played several local gigs over the recent years, what’s your take on the Lebanese Metal scene from a band’s perspective? How was your experience with the event organizers, fellow musicians and the fans?
We’ve tasted both the good and bad, but mostly good, thankfully! It is a widespread known phenomena when it comes to how unstable our metal scene can get; or any scene anywhere for that matter! Nevertheless, we were always detached from that fluctuating situation, safe to say, we are blessed with amazing supporters (musicians and non-musicians) who have not failed us in their continuous support, we have had a remarkable attendance turnout in each event, considering that we are not sponsored at all, and the majority of the attendees are not exactly fellow metal musicians. We have come a long way, working extremely hard on ourselves by ourselves. The fans are really the main source of energy, they are our metal scene and we always hope for its growth, of course! April is also a supporter of a lot of local acts, metal and otherwise, and our support takes different shapes. We would certainly appreciate more exposure and recognition from fellow local bands, mutual support being a strong source for progress, as well as from event organizers for big festivals taking place in the country, we are always asked “why aren’t you participating in this or that?”, we do not strive at being friends with the right people for spotlight only, we want our music to get through, to be heard and to speak for us and get us places.
- One could notice that April has two sides, the Symphonic Rock band with the female vocalist, and the more technical side which covers Tool and Opeth. However you see it, the overall Progressive Metal sound is tough to pull with a female vocalist (what we see from relatively unknown bands like To-Mera, Akphaezya, Ambeon). Do you think having this band format makes it harder to create successful music in music nowadays?
This is a spot-on signature trait of April, you should read the reactions and comments of several people when we first started covering Dream Theater! The responses we got from the audience when we stepped into that style of covers, along with Porcupine Tree’s songs and more specifically our home-recorded rendition of “Open Car” released in 2013, certainly proved us the likability of this direction! Fans loved hearing some of their favorite male singers rendered with a female voice and we got quite the satisfying credits for that! It is indeed a twisted and tricky interpretation of Progressive Metal and we are very happy with the results so far, both in covers and originals, especially in our own song-writing where we can manipulate the female voice and Progressive Metal sound and mold them together to create an appealing overall new sound. This combination is not easy to work around but definitely opens new doors in music composition.
- Any upcoming events or other activity? What do you have to say to April fans worldwide?
After our last concert at the AUB fundraiser in November 2013, we hit the stage twice on May the 22nd for the AUB Outdoors and the “Dire-Straits Tribute” at Animal City, it was great to be back after several months off-stage! Next up, April will be hosted on 2famous.tv’s show at Radio Beirut on June 6, followed by our performance at Fete de La Musique on June 21, on the “Beirut Souks” stage at 11:40 pm. And then preparations for our release event!
To our fans and supporters, we would like to thank them individually for everything they’ve showed us and offered us, we get fan mail and feedback on daily basis and that is what keeps any musician going further and farther! Stay tuned as a lot of music and updates are coming their way, and hopefully with the suitable circumstances we’ll be able to travel and perform abroad, which is truly our ultimate goal!
- Links
Facebook.com/Aprilised
Twitter.com/Aprilised
Reverbnation.com/Aprilised
YouTube.com/AprilisedTube
