Interview with Sean Horror, Singer and Frontman of DarkFlow
Cosmick View: Welcome to The Cosmick View! Thanks for taking the time to chat with us!
CV: What do you feel sets the band apart from other bands, especially those of similar sound and style? What's specific allure your sound and style have that has people taking notice?
Sean Horror: Well I think the important thing here is to find which similarities DarkFlow has, before separating into what is our difference. The first thing is that our music has a lot of similarities with other horror/shock rock and heavy/thrash metal bands, like King Diamond, Alice Cooper, Megadeth, Dimmu Borgir and Rotting Christ. Even if not all of them are influences in our music. The theatrical part comes from King Diamond and Allce Cooper, musically we have a lot of Megadeth-ish riffs and we also have many old school heavy/thrash riffs that you can say “it sounds like this or that”. The orchestration made by Brian Bendahan is absolutely what defines us as a symphonic metal band, which can approach us to Dimmu Borgir or Rotting Christ. But the whole picture: Old School riffs, with theatrical and unsettling lyrics, mixed with a powerful orchestration brings what DarkFlow is in its own essence. And that’s also why I say we do Shock Metal and not Shock Rock; We’re stronger than other Shock Rock bands and we take care to respect the old school metal with a new theatrical and scary approach, heavier and with a lot of sound elements.
DarkFlow is unique and very different from other acts and you can listen to it and you can find out why.
CV: For any band, dynamics is key to grabbing an audience's attention. What do you feel is the main ingredient to having such a captivating dynamic and being able to bring something more to the music?
SH: The compositions are very dynamic, my writing and how I sing has many changes and it’s so horrible what I write and I do so many different types of voices when I sing that it gives some people the chills. The orchestrations and also the progressiveness of our music can be captivating, but what is more, people see our image and immediately give the idea of “Let’s hear this guys.”
CV: How would you describe the ultimate musical experience for your fans? And how does the band go about creating that musical vision, while generating the impact the band wants to have on its audience?
SH: The album that is soon to be released has the characteristic of sounding like a film. An apocalyptic scary horror film and we definitely work all we can to give that feeling to our audience. But the main experience is to emerge yourself as you do in a movie and imagine from the lyrics what’s happening in this delicate and soon to be destroyed world. This album is not fiction, this album is a prophecy of what’s going to happen soon. I’m just giving you in an artistic way the petrifying truth of how this fragile planet comes to an end.
The band works a lot in giving this vision, specially Flow the co-founder of DarkFlow. Me, well I work a lot on my lyrics and melodies to also generate the impact that we want to give to our audience. Everything is about lyrics and music, but submerge yourself a little and you will have the impact of imagining everything that’s being told in each song.
CV: The music business has always been one that regardless of who you are, where you came from or where you've been, you can either sink or swim. Does this type of realism have any effect on how the band drives itself to succeed?
SH: Succeed is a tough word to say, “Survive” is much better, there are millions of bands working hard to arrive to something, I think the industry is hard in this moment because we’re not a big band so we need to play a lot to get known and to win money to have the resources to keep this going. But the problem is this: Nowadays you have to pay to play if you want to open for an act, you don’t win money unless you sell a lot of merchandise. It’s horrible and the music business has fallen apart, your music is heard on Spotify where you win 0,00001% of royalties, your music has to be pushed and you need to do marketing so you have to hire a bunch of people to create a team to make your music known. So this is the most expensive thing that bands are struggling with at the moment, since your music is free on Spotify why would people buy it? If you have to PAY TO PLAY if you’re an independent band there’s just one way to get through all this, be rich or have sponsors that help you through this difficult process. Things would be different if we signed with a major label, but those labels are struggling to, so they’re not taking new bands for anything. Even if your music is amazing. So the point here is that we drive towards success, yes, but we’re fighting a really discouraging war to keep, perseverance is the only factor to win, which is hard to have. At least I can’t surrender, I’m doomed with a terminal disease and this is the only thing I can do to keep me fighting for my life.
CV: In your opinion, is there any middle ground for a band or is it a do or die climate in today's music industry?
SH: Is a do or die climate, I don’t see how in today’s musical business there could be a middle ground, but it has always been like this. Maybe before it wasn’t that hard, today is all about paying the good people to do their jobs so you can persist on moving forward and keep your band alive.
CV: How would you describe the band's internal energy? Does the band’s outward appearance align with its true inward nature from your perspective?
SH: Even if we’re a “show” band with theatrics and a decorated stage, we show a lot who we really are and how we do things. You can see it from itself, we’re a strong team that aligns really well our inward nature form in it’s outward form.
CV: What's at the core of the band's songwriting approach? Are there certain elements that are considered when a song begins to take form and evolves?
SH: I write ideas of themes song by song, Flow take it from there doing to the music, then I go over what he has done to write the lyrics as in the meantime Briand Bendahan does our orchestration, then when the pre-production is done, we record and then we mix our songs and master them. The core of the composition is Flow who does everything, since he is a really an extremely good composer and I am the songwriter when we speak about lyrics. So the core is me and Flow, the two co-founders of DarkFlow.
CV: Do you allow things to just happen when writing; seeing where a song goes, or is there a certain course of action and structure you keep a song on, thus, essentially making it destined to achieve its overall potential?
SH: The potential of the band is how close we are me and Flow, that makes the magic of our music being so determined, we are best friends and we work like that. We love what we do when we do it together, our course of action is to create the music then the lyrics but each song has its own purpose since the concept of the song is worked out before the first notes are done. for example I say “This song talks about a Tsunami killing a whole continent”, Flow does his magic and then I adapt my lyrics to what’s been done. And that gives a result which gives the achievement we wanted for that song.
CV: Do you feel how the fans and critics describe the band’s music accurately reflects how you would describe the band’s music?
SH: Well I think everyone has the same point vis-a-vis that we’re a theatrical band, then there are many interpretations and that’s fun to see, some are accurate as we see it and some are interesting how inaccurate they are. But everyone is free to describe and feel what they have inside them. We’re talking about art, so how people’s perception is, you can hardly control it, and really I prefer people to feel different things.
CV: Walk us through a typical show for the band...what can fans who have never seen you perform expect?
SH: They can expect a powerful frontman trained to act each song, a band playing clockwise with our orchestration sounding as samples. It’s really strong and if you’re lucky to see one of our shows you can really see why DarkFlow is a strong and theatrical band. Keep your expectations high because we pull it off. Really we worked hard to pull a whole show.
CV: What more can fans look forward to seeing coming from the band?
SH: First of all, the album that will be released this the 27th of May. Then we will be producing live performances and of course in the meantime you can see artworks and new merchandising being released, we’re always thinking on making visual things for keeping people entertained.
CV: Thank you again for spending some time talking and sharing with our readers. I wish you all the best and continued success.
SH: The Pleasure was mine.
Check out DarkFlow at:
The Cosmick View
Where the stars always shine bright
www.thecosmickview.com
www.facebook.com/TheCosmickView
www.thecosmickvoice.com
www.anchor.fm/the-cosmick-voice
My name is Mick Michaels...I'm an artist, music fan, songwriter, producer, show host, dreamer and guitarist for the traditional Heavy Metal band Corners of Sanctuary. Writing has always been a creative outlet for me; what I couldn't say in speech, I was able to do with the written word. Writing has given me a voice and a way for me to create on a multitude of platforms including music and song, articles, independent screenplays, books and now, artist interviews. The Cosmick View is an opportunity to raise the bar and showcase artists in a positive and inspirational light. For me, it's another out-of-this-world adventure.
Pamela Aloia: Author, Energy Healer, Teacher
Spiritual Counseling and Sessions Available
Martial Arts of Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow
"a Martial Arts History Chronicle"
Want to see your logo here? Contact The Cosmick View for details and rates.
Comments
Post a Comment