Back in 2020, we did an interview with the frontwoman of Elyose, Justine Daaé. Since then, a lot has happened around the band, and recently Elyose released a new album,  “Déviante” as well. We had a chat with Justine about the new material and the changes around the project.

-Last time when we spoke you broke the news: you decided to go on a different path and the old members left ELYOSE. What happened since then?

-ELYOSE became my solo project at the end of 2019 and I released an EP called “Persona” in February 2021. Anthony Chognard, who was a session musician on that EP, officially became an ELYOSE member in 2022. Together as a duo, we released ELYOSE’s fourth full-length album called “Déviante” in February 2023.

-How did COVID affect the band in the past years?

-It didn’t affect us very much to be honest because we already worked remotely, Anthony living in Montréal and myself in Paris. We are not either live musicians or a touring band so we could continue working from our home studios like we normally do.

-ELYOSE’s fourth album just came out – could you share with us some details about it and the working process behind it?

-We worked mainly from our home studios during the songwriting process. We were debriefing by email or WhatsApp almost daily. Finally, last September Anthony flew to Paris to record my vocals and we were able to work together in person for the final steps, which are the choices of arrangements, the musical production, and the mixes. Then we sent the songs to the American record producer Kris Crummett for mastering.

There is continuity with our previous albums as it’s still very melodic and mystique but this time we gave it a Metalcore twist. Thanks to Anthony the songwriting became more hard-hitting and modern. Actually closer to Djent and Alt-Metal! We feel strongly about this being our best record yet!

-What does the new album mean to you?

-It’s what I had been willing to create since I started to make music. It took me a long time and struggles to find the right persons in my professional and personal life (and most importantly get rid of the toxic ones) and this album represents the synergistic work between me and those two most wonderful persons and artists I met (Anthony Chognard and JB Thomas-Sertillanges). By synergy, I mean that the album is greater than just the sum of our respective work.

-Which is your favorite song from the album and why?

-My favorite song is “Déviante” because it represents exactly who I am artistically. I love its mysticism and the ethereal vocals on the bridge sound like the most melancholic lamentations I’ve ever heard.

-Are you going on tour in the near future?

-Unfortunately no, because ELYOSE is now a duo so going on tour with a whole band would be too expensive. We would need to hire session live members and we cannot afford it. Even less the production and travel costs. Making a living with music is our priority and touring is a luxury at this point.

-What are the plans for the future?

-I’m currently editing our new video which is going to be a guitar playthrough and we’ll also release a lyric video. We are going to keep promoting this new album and also the previous ones because many people still haven’t heard of ELYOSE yet! Anthony is already composing for the new album.