Circe




	March 1999 witnessed the creation of Circe. Choosing the Black/Dark path with symphonic tendencies, the band has relentlessly striven to refine their compositions whenever they hit the stage. First demo got recorded in August of their debut year. Although it was issued in small quantities, the enthusiastic welcoming stimulated them to rework this recording in order to meet the public's demand and to spread their name in the French underground. The arrival of a new member on keys finally resulted in the desired symphonic dimension and the release in 2000 of the reworked demo (now titled "Once Upon Darkness") attracted the attention of the press, a few labels and some concert organizers. A line-up change brought along the incorporation of more violent passages in Circe's music - the cherry on the cake allowing perfect osmosis between Brutal/Death and symphonic Dark Metal. Early 2001, a new song embodying the new aspirations saw the light of day ("The Fall Of Athena") and was recorded for promotional purposes (namely to be featured on the compilation "War, Victory, Judgement and Death"). Later that year, the band got signed for a first full length under the aegis of Kaly productions and that is how "Aeaian Echoes..." came into existence. The album was recorded at Brethren studios with the aid of producer Chiof Canniaux (Morpheus). At present, the band are more motivated than ever and continue polishing the details of their set to better present their album on stage. This event won't go by unnoticed as the response Circe got during their show case at the FNAC in Reims was indeed already very promising. interview with Adrien on 04- 11-2003 Please give us a short introduction of yourself? CIRCé was formed in March 1999, in Reims, France by Stéphane (guitar), and the current lineup is composed of 5 other members: Gayelord (guitar), Erwan (bass), Adrien (drums), Simon (male vocals) and Malou (female vocals). We also have a friend who composes keyboard parts for us, but he’s not really part of the band. After a couple of demos, we managed to put out a full-length album entitled Aeaian Ecoes under the Kaly Productions label. Since that time, we’ve done a few concerts to promote it, encouraged by the many positive reviews we received from fanzines, and we’ve written a few new songs for the second album. What’s the meaning of CIRCé ? Did you forget to put the L for CIRCLE ? No, CIRCé is the real name. It stems from Greek mythology; it’s actually borrowed from Homer’s Odyssey, which recounts the adventures of Ulysses and his roaming the seas; one day he lands on an island called Aeaia, and that island is inhabited by a kind of sorceress, a very beautiful magician, called Circe; the story goes that she turns Ulysses’ friends into pigs, etc…Anyway, this is what our band was named after, by Stephane, because he likes those stories. And most of our songs are about legends and myths, so the name has remained fitting over the years. Can you define your musical style? Do you like putting a label on your style? Well, I know that very often, people don’t like having labels put on their music (or on any kind of art form for that matter), because all artists are different and produce original stuff that can’t be classified. But you can also create your own labels, especially in Metal; in order to describe my style as precisely as possible, I have no problems with using a specific definition; the thing is, now, a lot of bands tend to “hide” themselves behind those style names, like they can call themselves, say, a Black Metal band, without really knowing anything about Black Metal…Anyway, we describe our first album as a combination of Brutal Death Metal and Symphonic Black Metal, just because we mix ingredients from both these “predefined” styles. But we’ve evolved into a more brutal and at the same time progressive approach now, so I would define it as Progressive Brutal Death, just because these three words describe quite well what our music and our next album sound like: very brutal grinding stuff, quite complex, but also with softer elements like female vocals and keyboards… Why did you choose this style? Did you ever play other styles? Even non metal? I think everybody in the band agrees that we do what we do because we just enjoy playing this kind of stuff, it’s great fun for us to work and spend time creating the songs, and playing them just to ourselves at rehearsals…Then, it happens that a certain number of people like what we do, so we also want to give them more, and kick their asses even more.!!! We all play or have played other styles, mostly Metal, like Thrash, Hardcore, or Death stuff, but Erwan is the one who also plays non Metal stuff like Funk or Jazz; I personally (Adrien) would like to play tons of different stuff, but I’ve got no time for that, so it’s just a dream… Do you have any problems to share royalties? Isn’t it easier to be a one man band? Yeah, I suppose being a one-man band is much easier financially speaking and also on many other levels, but we just enjoy playing together and we need each other’s ideas to produce the music we produce; it makes it richer; as far as royalties are concerned, there’s absolutely no problem with that, simply because we do not earn a single fucking Euro!!! Actually, we do get some money from sold CDs or gigs, but we use it to repay the people who lent us money to pay for the recording of the album; so we haven’t made any profits yet… No royalties for us!!! Do you think you can live by the music? Do you live for the music? Ha ha, as I just said, CIRCE is not really a profitable institution - even if more people bought our CDs and if we did more gigs - our music is far too extreme to provide us with food and shelter…and booze…it appears as something virtually impossible for me to live by music. Live FOR the music? Well, I can’t say we do, to be honest, because we’re all students and we do other things as well, so CIRCE is not our only activity, and I don’t think we can say we live for the music; but it certainly is something very important for us, the result of our collective efforts, a huge passion, which we all want to keep alive. Is music the best conceivable art expression? I think all art forms are as good, as long as there’s talent. We don’t consider our music as actual art though, to be honest. It is true that we express ourselves through our music, but art is definitely a lot more than that. For me, music (not only Metal) is what moves me most and unfortunately, I haven’t been taught to appreciate painting or sculpture, although I know these are vast and fascinating worlds. I do agree with the distinction between “major art” and “minor art”: although I do love Opeth and I think they play magnificent artistic music, I still can’t put them on the same level as great authors like Shakespeare for one. But music remains the form of art that I enjoy most and on a daily basis; I do enjoy listening to Blackwater Park more than reading Macbeth… Who do you think is the most remarkable person who ever lived on the earth? Why? Wow, that is a good question…Let’s see…I suppose it has to be a famous and very popular person, but there are too many of them in history; I guess I’d choose someone who devoted their life to others, helping the poor and so on…but that’s too obvious, so I’ll go for…my stepfather, who is a truly kind and generous man. Not very original, but that’s too difficult a question! Who’s your favourite French historical figure? Now, this is a bit easier! I ‘ll definitely choose a man called “l’abbé Pierre”, who is still alive (he must be in his nineties now) and who indeed devoted his entire life to help the poor and the homeless…He’s a bit of a pathetic figure in our world and people tend to laugh at him, but I think his struggle is simply beautiful. Why are there so many historical French figures like Napoleon, Nostradamus, Joan of Arc, Zidane? Zidane?? Huh, he is not what I call a historical figure, but I guess it’s because I don’t give a shit about football! I don’t think that France has more famous people in world history than the United States or the United Kingdom…or other powerful countries that have made world history for centuries. In any case, historical figures are not necessarily remembered for the good things they’ve done. And we know more “western” figures because we are westerners ourselves and in our eyes, the world seems to be dominated by our civilization (which is not necessarily a good thing, but this is a never ending debate…). But it is true that, from our viewpoint, there are more famous French people in history than, say, Peruvian people… Why is tongue twisting called “French kissing”? Well, it is called so in English and, although I don’t know the exact origin, it must have been invented by the some English or American guy who once discovered that “way of communicating” by observing French people… How do you promote your releases? Why does Hardebaran help you? We promote our records through concerts and interviews primarily. Our label, Kaly Productions, has also sold quite a lot of albums in various countries, which is good. We use the internet quite a lot because it’s free and a very quick and easy way to get in touch with people and send them information about the band, and MP3 samples. Anybody can contact me via email for free samples or anything, I always reply to people who are interested in our music. Hardebaran is a company that we have contracted to help us with promotion, which they’re doing beautifully and professionally, and I thank them for that. Very few people who are part of the (French) Metal Underground are reliable and it’s quite discouraging to have so many organizations and people who do not reply to emails or letters…but I suppose that’s the game… If your albums are not sold do you still want to record another one? Well, yeah, because it’s a great satisfaction to be able to listen to our own music with a good sound, and the object itself, the CD, is quite a satisfactory achievement. Since the first album was very well received in the Underground, we want to see if we can make an even better one next time. Moreover, our label has made a fair amount of money by selling Aeaian Echoes, so they’re ready to pay us for a second album. And it is a natural cycle for a band: once you’ve done a record, you always want to do another one and try to improve your music. Do you think your inspiration will stop one day? Where do you get inspiration from? We’re inspired by all the bands we like (and with six people in the band, the list is very long indeed!). We just try to take the elements we like best in all those bands and use them to write our own songs. I think that’s how most bands work. If inspiration stops, then we’ll play crap music, but if we still enjoy playing it, we’ll carry on, even if people think it’s crap!!! Who are the musicians who inspire you? Have you got any heroes? Have you ever met them? As far as I (Adrien) am concerned, I get my inspiration from other drummers obviously, people like Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater), Mike Lopez (Opeth), Tomas Haake (Meshuggah) and many others, but my hero is Nick Barker (Dimmu Borgir): I just love his style, he’s a total kick ass. I met him once, but I didn’t really know him very well at the time; he was still in Cradle of Filth. There is one drummer who is an absolute god for me and his name is Flo Mounier, from Cryptopsy: this guy is an unbelievable monster!!! The other members of the band don’t really have any individual heroes, rather bands. Our singer is crazy for Dying Fetus; Stephane is a Nile addict; I think Malou is secretly in love with Peter Steele (Type O Negative)... In general, brutal bands tend to be our main source of inspiration. If you could form a band of heroes, who would it include? Well, if I wanted to do a really cool brutal band, I’d put Barney (Napalm Death) on the vocals, Flo Mounier on the drums, Dimebag Darrell (Pantera), Erick Rutan (Morbid Angel) and James Hetfield (Metallica) on the guitars, and finally Les Claypool (Primus) on the bass…but there are many other possibilities. I personally would enjoy playing with someone like John Petrucci (Dream Theater), or Mickael Akerfeldt (Opeth). Can you give us any good thoughts to think about? Yeah, I wonder why religion, which is basically a belief, a superstition, has become such an important aspect of human civilization over the centuries. It always strikes me how people can be so firmly entrenched in those beliefs. I know it’s a fairly common issue, but still, I find it very puzzling, especially among people who are intelligent and educated; not that I despise them, but it’s just intriguing… Last rites I want to send my sincere thanks to the very few honest people who genuinely make efforts to support Metal, and send my sincere curses to those numerous buggers who just talk a lot and aren’t able to turn their words into positive deeds. I know it is a very selfish world and every band wants to succeed more than the others and that is quite a natural instinct, but it’s good to idealize some times… website Circe email Circe BACK