Monday 4 November 2019

Interview: HYBRIDISM


Belgian djent quartet Hybridism released their self-titled debut EP in February. They speak for Metal Horizons about it, inspiration, and more. Read below.
Alright, first thing is first. Before we dive into all the music stuff, how's life?
Fine! We can’t complain. We want to thank you very much for having us. We feel appreciated.
Speaking of music, you have an album. What can people expect from “Hybridism”?
Well, people can expect a very ambient album with a lot of ups and downs. We are an instrumental djent and prog band so there’s a mixture of heavy riffs all in the name of „DJENT“ such as calm moments packed with beautiful melodies. The songs were actually written for people who like this particular style and heavy music, but also for those who are not so familiar with heavy music. This is why there are heavy and more soften moments on this record. As we are all instrumental we are trying to reach people with a large variety of melodies and samples to replace the vocals in some kind of way.
What was it like working on the record?
It was quite a challenge for a few of us who never played „DJENT“ before. Obviously we were all listening to djent bands at the time, so we liked the unique sound and it’s challenging approach. We all played in rock and metal bands before, but for us all, this was the first djent project we were involved. Jeffrey, who wanted to start as a one-man project, had already written a whole bunch of songs. As we developed them later as a band, everybody was free to bring some ideas and input, so we all felt very satisfied pretty fast. The initial idea starting out with a singer was dropped before entering the studio. For the recording sessions we chose Babylon Studios in the Czech Republic. The album was produced by none other than Thomas Raklavsky, owner of the studio and mastermind behind the very well known djent band „Modern Day Babylon“. Coming back home with a very satisfying result was an awesome experience for us all.

Are there any touring plans in support to “Hybridism”?
Of course, there are future plans like a few small tours with some bands already established in the scene. It’s not that easy in the beginning, but we are trying to snag some support slots and play as much as we can. Three of us have permanent jobs, but we are all trying our best to manage everything. Touring and bringing your music to an audience is indispensable for a young band like us. But we are lucky enough to have some good contacts and got already some nice offers for a few festivals later next year.
While we are on the subject of touring, what countries would you love to tour?
For the moment our main goal is to spread the name all over our greater region (Belgium, Luxembourg, France and Germany). This is a small step, but it should be achievable. We are pretty confident about that. The next step would be some European countries in the south or behind „the iron curtain“. But playing in more „exotic“ countries we had never been to would be great for sure. Meeting people and their culture would certainly be a really nice experience for us all. Every bands dream is to play great tours in foreign countries far away but coming back to the question and answering very quickly, touring in South America, America, Japan would definitely be the number one destinations. 
Who and what inspires you the most?
I would definitely say the beautiful art of music itself. I mean music is the key. We hit the nail on the head by quoting Friedrich Nietzsche: „Without music, life would be a mistake“. We are all stressed with our daily routine and all the shit which is going on out there in the world, wars, media manipulation, greed for profit, social problems, etc. We are not a political band, this is just my personal kind of view. Coming back home to relax then, listening to our favourite tunes makes us nearly forget everything. I mean, why are we listening to music, it certainly means a lot to us and gives us the satisfaction we need in certain moments.

Another kind of inspiration is certainly the way and the perfection instruments are played by certain musicians in the genre. What one simple person can achieve just using his mind to let it’s inspiration flow is quite impressive. Using the perfect technique therefore pushes us further and motivates us „trying“ to reach them on a similar level.


What other genres of music do you listen to? Have any of the other genres you listen to had any impact on your playing?
I think we are a very open-minded band. Next to metal music we all listen to any kind of music. We have some heavy gamers in the band which might have a little impact on some of the samples used on the record. Our drummer listens to a lot of Jazz if I’m not mistaken. For the rest I think electronic music and more ambient music will always be a guiding light, creating a certain mood, melodies and the atmosphere of our future compositions.
I really appreciate you giving us your time today. Is there anything else you would like to tell us and the fans before we wrap things up?
You are welcome! Thank you very much for giving us the opportunity talking about our project. 


Yeah of course! The message is quite simple: Just listen to the music. This is who we are. We even want to invite all of you to our website, and our social media pages to get a better idea who we are, what we are doing and where we want to go with our music. For the real hardcore fans and collectors, we have a merch shop on our Bandcamp page with a lot of different goodies. So if you want to support the band just check us out. Thank you very much in advance. Remember Nietzsche ;) Music is the key! Cheers!

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