Elyose is a France-based musical project formed by Ghis M (bass) and Justine Daaé (vocals) back in 2009. They released 4 albums as independent artists in the industrial-alternative-symphonic metal genre. Fans describe them as Epica and Rammstein‘s lovechild.

In the 20th of May I’ve seen the band’s newsletter, which contained some unexpected news:

I saw the band last year during the Female Metal Voices Tour, so I am quite a new fan and I felt quite devastated after this statement… So I immediately contacted Justine, who shared the whole story – and it turned it that this is just the beginning of a new era.

The beginning of a new era:

“I’m the founding member of Elyose with Ghis, my former bass player. We met through one of his friends who had heard my demos on Myspace in 2009 (yeah I know… MySpace!). Since then we had 3 different guitarists but the rest of the band remained unchanged until May 2020, which is the date when I announced I was going on on my own until a new line up is set up.”

 

Behind the name:

“I came up with that name because I liked the way it sounds and wanted a name that was not an aggregation of common words you find in the dictionary, something invented, with mystery as to its meaning. I wanted something that established a strong identity, with a feminine twist. Also without a complicated spelling and not ending with « a » or « ia » like many other female-fronted metal bands.”

Inspiration:

“Music inspires me the most. I’ve been very much influenced by the Gothic Metal from Scandinavian countries with bands like Theatre of Tragedy, The Sins of Thy Beloved, Tristania, Draconian, Trail of Tears… Some of my big influences today are the bands In This Moment, Paradise Lost & SepticFlesh.
Besides music, I like Sci-fi, Thriller, Suspense book or movies. Abandoned places, urban fantasy, gothic beauty and landscapes, nature, video game sceneries… is where I find inspiration. I’m also a gamer and Tomb Raider & Resident Evil fan. “

 

Teamwork:

“With my former bandmates, we were 3 songwriters (including me) and one lyricist. So it wasn’t just me behind the music. We used to try to end up with songs that we all liked, even though we have different tastes. I confess this is one of the many reasons I parted ways with them, I’ve always wanted to go more extreme while others were very much into poppy melodies, standard chord progressions, easy-to-remember ostinatos… All of which I do not really recognize myself into. Music aside, because being in a band is not just about writing songs, I was the only one handling the social media, newsletter, management, production, and relationships with fans. We are independent artists so we need to be our own label. On that part, I was totally on my own. To me, when you’re in a band, versus being a musician for a solo artist, you also need to share and talk to your fans, post on social media, create relationships with those who support you. You can’t just upload your music on Youtube and wait for success! The fact that they never bothered at all to do this kind of work, despite my incentives, was a very big issue for me… A lot of people actually thought I was a solo artist…

The main reason indeed behind that separation was that I went full-time recently and don’t have a day job anymore while my former bandmates only see music as a hobby. It took a lot of guts to me and sacrifices to make that decision and I wish they had respected my choice rather than mocking me and pulling me down on social networks and by contacting the fans individually by Messenger…

But they’re not the only one with this mentality you know, lots of musicians believe music should remain only for fun…

I really took this separation as an opportunity to contact some musicians that I knew and loved already. We’ve been now working together for a couple of months and I feel like a whole new world opens up to me where my creativity and dreams are just thriving! I definitely needed to go heavier, more metal.

I just need now to figure out who among those great people is going to become a permanent Elyose member, who’s gonna be a guest musician, who’s gonna be a live member… and this will not only be my decision but theirs too, according to their wishes and goals. We are currently putting together Elyose’s next release, which is due to later this year. I couldn’t be more excited about it!”

The Way of Success:

“In my opinion, the first thing you need to do is get rid of the myths from the 80s. The first one is that you need a label to succeed. That is not true anymore. I know it’s a bold position but today in 2020 in the digital age, there’s nothing much a label can do that you can’t do for yourself. Second myth: that you need to tour to get famous. For this one, I’d like to refer to someone that is a lot more legit than me – even if I do consider myself legit too. I’m talking about Bill Corgan from Smashing Pumpkins. Listen to what he said in a recent video: ‘If I was gonna give you 60 seconds of advice, I would put your whole focus into reaching people through the internet’. That’s his advice for musicians today in the internet age and that would be mine too, especially for beginners.”

COVID-19:

“My life didn’t change a lot during this crisis as I work mainly from home already. I used this time of isolation to write music with my new colleagues and prepare for the new release. The only issue though was that our fulfillment times for Elyose. The shop took longer than usual! Fortunately, the fans have been very supportive and understanding.

I’m currently also working on two side projects. One of them is Symphonic Metal and the other one is Dark Ambient. I can’t wait to go public about them! And stay tuned for Elyose’s new release: I promise it’s gonna kick some serious butt!”