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Hi Shannon!
First of all I want to congratulate you to your awesome new album „Angel In Disguise”. It´s a real highlight for this year!
Thank you in advance for taking the time to answer our questions and sorry for my bad English.
Olivier: Thanks for your compliments, I am happy to see that our new album pleases you. As for English, don’t worry, is not my native tongue and I am not sure that my English is better than yours.
S.T.: .SHANNON exists for long ten years now, but I guess there are some people who don´t know about the band. Could you please tell us a short version of your bio so far?
Olivier : Formed in the beginning of 1998 by Patrice LOUIS (Guitar) and Thierry DAGNICOURT (Keyboards), SHANNON plays hard rock covers (Bon Jovi, Van Halen etc). I joined the band the same year. SHANNON released its debut and eponymous album in November 2003 on the Anvilcorp. label and distributed by Wagram with Claude THILL (Bass, ex-DER KAISER) and Maxence PILO (Drums, ex-HEAVENLY). From the release of the album, the band takes the road and shares the stage with re-knowned artists such as AXXIS, PINK CREAM 69 and Jeff Scott SOTO in Paris. In the middle of 2005, SHANNON sees its first line-up changes with the departure of Claude THILL and Maxence PILO, immediately replaced by, respectively, Nicolas FIXY (Bass) and Benjamin BERGEROLLE (Drums), both formerly with French Epic-Progressive band TAÏ PHONG. Strongly encouraged with the success of our self-titled album, not only in France, but largerly abroad, the band has taken the path to the studio to record a follow-up, even more motivated than ever. Since that period, the line up is unchanged.
S.T.: .Well, what are the reasons of making 80´s influenced Hardrock nowadays? What are your favourites from the 80´s?
Olivier: I do not know if there is any particular reason of making 80’s influenced Hard Rock nowadays, what I know it is that it is the music with which we grew. For us it is something natural to play this kind of music.
The most part of the bands which appeared in these years combines potency and melody and it is what pleased us. It is besides just like that that we still conceive the hard rock today and I think that everybody can feel it in our music.
Numerous bands as Gotthard, Pink Cream 69, Bonfire, Danger Danger, Jaded Heart or White lion still perpetuate this tradition. I think that this kind of music have good future, even if the fans are less numerous than in the 80’s. The public who listens to this kind of music is faithful and does not hesitate to buy the albums and to come to see bands on stage.
If I had to name some bands I loved, I would say Judas Priest, Def Leppard, Iron Maiden, Whitesnake for NWOBHM and Bon Jovi, Van Halen, Mötley Crüe, Dokken, White Lion. There is so much. This period gave us so many good bands.
S.T.: The new album is a much rougher Version of SHANNON than the debut. Can you tell me something about why this happened? Do you make any plans how a song should sound or comes it all within the working process?
Olivier: That's true that since the release of our first album, our music have a bit evolved. The tracks from “ Angel in Disguise “ are more mature, the musical style too, although he remains melodic and heavy, more direct. The tracks are more homogeneous than those of the first album. I think it’s beacause when we recorded the first album, the band was not complete and we had not played the tracks before recording them. For this one, we had the time to work them in rehearsals and to play them on stage and this changes everything. One of the essential difference between the 2 albums is also the level of production. We brought a lot of attention to the quality of the "Angel In Disguise" production.
S.T.: .Is there a main songwriter or do write your songs as a band? Perhaps you can tell us a little bit how this works in SHANNON?!
Olivier : For the writing and composition of the tracks we did as always from the beginning. We work Patrice, Thierry and I. We build the tracks: riffs, vocal melodies and rhythm line. Then, we record this with a sample rhythm section and submit it to Nico and Benji for them to bring their own touch. Arrangements are done all together. This method suits everyone and works pretty well.
For the lyrics, generally, I do write them but there is no fixed rule, everyone can bring his own ideas.
S.T.: How important are the lyrics for SHANNON? Do you take own experiences or do you prefer some fiction?
Olivier : First of all, English is not our native tongue and we have seldom opportunity to speak it except in musical context. In France, even if it is changing, persons controlling English are not majority. The members of ShannoN, even if they manage, are not absolutely bilingual. To write lyrics in English asks us additional efforts. Topics approached in lyrics are just like the band : various. Today ShannoN cultivates this ambivalence between festive tracks in the lighter lyrics and more tortured tracks, with darker lyrics. "Do you know?" is a good example here. This song is a cogitation on death, on what we ‘ll go to become after we leave the world of the living beings. It is also an invitation to choose your way, to position you between good and evil. Besides, the title of the album "Angel In Disguise" and the girl on the cover with a strong visual sense are here to let you know that behind what we see, the truth can be quite other. Next to this, lyrics for « No better times », for example, is less serious, more fun. Our lyrics are a mixture between our cogitation, our experiments and sometimes purely imaginary. They are the image of the mood of the moment, simply.
S.T.: You also worked with Jens Walkenhorst of WILD FRONTIER, who is also a talented singer and songwriter. Can you tell please something about this collaboration?
Olivier: Our collaboration with Jens was a bit incidentally. It discovered us with our myspace. We got I touch with each other and the feeling was great. We were in touch with Mario too (Bass in Wild Frontier). He said to us that he appreciated our music and as we also liked what he made with Wild Frontier, we offered him to make some choruses on the album. He accepted. In fact, everything was very simple.
S.T.: You´ve got signed by the german label Music Buy Mail. Were there any other offers from other companies?
Olivier: We had other proposals but the ArtistService / MusicByMail deal fits us better. Furthermore by signing with them, we had insurance that they had habit to work with this kind of products and that our promotion would be really good.
S.T.: What about the reactions of the new album? Are you satisfied with the critics and the number of sold CD´s so far?
Olivier: The album has received a really warm welcome. It is quite positive and important for us. The reviews are not the whole thing even though they are important. Finally, the public decide. So we hope the same enthusiasm from all the fans of our kind of music as from the media!
It’s hard for a french Hard Rock band to be distributed worldwide. It’s an honour for us to have good reviews and this first good feedback from the fans everywhere too since the cd release on March, 28.
S.T.: You´ve got two new band members from formerly TAI PHONG. Do you think they brought some prog influences into the band?
Olivier: I do not think that the arrival of Nico and Benji brings a key Prog in our music. On the contrary, they brought a groovy side which missed us. In fact, both have Jazz / Funk influences, even if they always listened to rock. They especially brought an additional cohesion to the band and a solid rhythm section. It also brought something more to the band on the “human” point of view. The human dimension is for us as important as the musical quality of the members of the band.
S.T.: Are there any plans for touring Europe or especially Germany for the next time?
Olivier: For the time being, we are very occupied by the promotion of this new album. We spend a lot of time to be answered interviews and to participate in programs of radio. But we are not inactive from a musical point of view because we are working on the installation of a new set including tracks from « Angel in Disguise ». We hope we shall shortly tour to introduce these new tracks to the audience on stage. Some shows are already programmed in France and we definitely hope to have opportunity to play out of our borders soon. It will depend on the « angel in disguise » success.
S.T.: Is there any band in the world you´ve ever wanted to share the stage and play live with?
Olivier: They are numerous. We have already had opportunity to play with Pink Cream 69, Axxis, Jeff Scott Soto and Gotthard. We keep a very good memory of these moments. Personally, I would very much like to play with Bonfire, Jaded Heart or Danger Danger. Now if opportunity comes to play with bands like Whitesnake or others, we shall not refuse, but it’s another dream
S.T.: Can you please tell me something about the French Rock scene today. I guess there are not many bands playing melodic 80´s influenced and timeless Hard Rock?!
Olivier: As you may know, France is not a country were rock is dominant. So you can imagine the difficulties met by hard rock bands. Though, there is a real audience for this kind of music. It is mainly due to media. Hard rock is not supported, is even ignored by major media. But there are still few magazines and lot of webzines that defend our kind of music. Lightseekers and Manigance or Snake Eye, for example, are really good French Hard Rock bands and play good music. There’s not a lot of french bands signed by Major/Label. In France, I think, nobody believe Hard Rock can live. If you look back you will see that 10 years ago and more, a lot of big bands played in France (Skid Row, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard …) … Now, for new hard rock tours, it seems that France is not on their road …
It is clear that our future is first abroad, even if it is no question to neglect our home country. R’N’B, Hip Hop and Techno are everywhere here, but it’s really not the kind of music I listen to.
S.T.: Did you ever wanted to play another style of music than you´re doing with SHANNON?
Olivier: No, I think that, definitely, I feel very well with this kind of music. The melodic hard rock is really the music I like and I take a lot of pleasure to play it.
S.T.: .Are you already writing new stuff for the following CD? What is your next step?
Olivier: We already have begin songwriting for our next album and we already have several tracks which are practically finalized. If everything takes place as we want, we would like to release our next album at the end of 2009.
S.T.: .Now you have the chance to say some words to the german fans: here we go!
Olivier: A big greeting to all readers of Rockingboy. We hope that our new album will please you and that we shall have fast the possibility to the meet the German audience.
For those who still do not know our music, you can come to discover it on our myspace page:
http://www.myspace.com/shannonbandrock
S.T.: Well, that´s it for now, thank you so much for the interview. I wish you all the best for the next time. Stay rockin´!
Cheerz from Germany!
Olivier: Thanks to you to have given me the possibility of introducing Shannon to your readers and I wish to Rockingboy all the best.
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