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INTERVIEWS: Femmetal, Metal to the Bone, Music Waves, Snooze Control
Audrey Ebrotié is electrifyingly brutal as the self-taught lead vocalist in
death metal/hardcore outfit
Ianwill:
featuring
founder Mike
Gerardin (guitarist), then Tom Ségur (guitarist),
Mathieu Gelinotte (bassist)!
And they are unlike any other.
"The project has been created by Mike, guitarist
quickly joined by Tom, also guitarist.
What’s cool is that both are playing soloist and rhythmic parts.
There also are the two principal composers of the band.
The actual line up exists since 3 years now when I joined
the band, and then our bassist Mathieu." (Femmetal, 2019)
Mike elaborated on this in 2016, again as the first member/guitarist.
"Her arrival reinforced the deep identity of the group.
Audrey's strength is that she knew how to blend into the Ianwill
musical project while giving it another vocal dimension." (Music Waves (French), 2016)
Ebrotié sang for Diary of Destruction from 2008-2015,
a gothic metalcore group in Lille, and
joined her first band at 15 (link). Awesome.
IANWILL is “I am not what I look like”, she revealed
during their Snooze Control interview (Snooze Control, 2018)!
They hail from Paris, and have been shredding for almost
a decade.
Ianwill have played with Insolvency, Lurking, Deadwood
and more!
Ebrotié says her presence is somewhat of an anomaly,
but she shows metal’s diversity beyond the white- or male-only band!
“...When they see me at first, they really don’t know
what they are going to hear...
'cause yes, Black people in the metal scene is something rare,
especially in France or Belgium, women in the metal scene
is less and less rare, but still...so being both...
I wouldn’t say that it’s a lot more difficult.
I prefer to see the opposite and use it as a force.”
(Snooze Control)
“Maybe sometimes my presence bother some,
but most of the time it arouses the curiosity,
and then I just have to convince everyone that my band and I fucking kick asses!”
What does their music aim to tell us?
"There are human rights which deserve to be defended, but
only because so many people lack humanity and compassion." (Femmetal)
Ianwill's iconic debut album
One Credit Left released in 2019
after a seven-year hiatus and the acclaimed EP,
This Day.
We tend to work in order to create this natural blend of powerfulness and
beauty of the omnipresent melody that you can find in this album...
For ‘One Credit Left’, the lyrics are principally about life, death, destruction,
beauty of our nature and how we damage it everyday.
"As we’re all confined here in France because of the COVID-19,
it’s a good time to think about the next album..." (Metal to the Bone)
We got in touch with the band in early April as well!
Their hopes and motivation are high, even during a chaotic time.
NK: How did it feel first starting out, creating the connections from scratch?
"It's really exciting to share something we created, a piece of ourselves, and it's a
bit scaring at the same time because we don't know if our work will be appreciated.
But for us, it was all good because we always had a lot of support from the beginning."
NK: Do you meet up virtually during these times, and are you feeling all right?
"Yes, we are always in contact. The guys live in Paris and it's region,
and I live at 2 hours and a half drive from them, so we meet
all the time, but we're used to talk a lot virtually."
COVID-19 has changed up their routine and impacted art worldwide,
but definitely not stopped the creativity!
Also to compose, we often share new ideas and suggestions virtually
first, and then we meet to work on it together and hear how it sounds live.
So for now, we won't be able to meet soon, but we're already
working on some new riffs for the next album."
France's metal scene is blossoming as far as they can see.
They have several European shows (Metal Fury) and In Your Fest
in store, so stay tuned for more Ianwill!
NK: We're so proud of you. What are your plans in 10 years, more metal or other genres too?
"10 years is so far, we don't have plans already but I think I can talk for
all the band saying that it would be a dream coming true
if we become a bigger band, tour all over the world with
our favorite bands, and live from our music."
Rock on!