Band: November-7
Location: Switzerland
Link: http://www.n-7.ch/
What’s the story on November-7? How did you guys get together?
Anna: It’s a good question… We’ve always played with friends, other bands or just solo and, suddenly, what started out as another jamming session with friends ended up being November-7. We did not make a conscious decision… Little by little we realized that we had some good songs, so we continued to rehearse and compose and then… November-7 just happened.
Your name is a little different compared to “regular” band names (it’s great, by the way!). Does the date indicate any specific event or is it simply just a band name that has a nice ring to it?
Anna: Well, we do like the month of November a lot, although some people find it bleak… It’s a very good month to compose and encourages introspection. And 7 is my lucky number, so I had to find a way to throw it in there.
You’ve been around for more than ten years, already released a few albums on an independent label and managed to create a presence in the scene. Tell us a bit about your career so far.
Steph: We are just passionate musicians, that’s all 🙂 But now to be honest, it is becoming harder and harder to find gigs. Not many people, apart from those in the music business, know that if you want to play a good gig you actually have to pay for it. Unless you are a superstar, obviously. It’s true that the music scene has drastically changed in the past ten years, and even those musicians who are relatively well known find it really hard to make a living out of their music. It’s not a nice situation, but that’s the way it is. As for November-7, I’m not sure “career” is the right word… Actually I think we are still here because we have not made November-7 our career. It’s our passion, our need, our engine.
Your music is a unique mix of rock, electronic and industrial metal – all with great and catchy melodies. How come you ended up doing this mix of styles?
Steph: We don’t really put barriers when we are composing songs. If we think the song is good, we don’t care about the style, we just play it. For example in the next album, there is a song with so many electro samples that it could very well be a song by Massive Attack. On the last album “Awaraxid 7mg”, the single “Another Day” was kind of pop-ish… I think there are good things in all music styles and all styles can be a source of inspiration.
You are from Switzerland. How’s the scene for your type of music – and metal in general – there? Any other up-and-coming bands you think people should check out?
Anna: we have played with a lot of bands, but unfortunately most of them split up, which is quite sad. But there are still some around, for example Chamber 69 and Silver Dust, which are really cool and you should definitely check them out! Switzerland is a small country, but we have a variety of cultures and tastes. So for example the German-speaking area of the country is much more rock and metal than the French part. We also have an incredible quantity of festivals, but oddly enough we have played much more gigs out of our country. There’s a saying that goes “No one is a prophet in their own land”… I guess it must be true…
You are using EZdrummer, Superior Drummer and several of our EZX and SDX expansions. How does Toontrack’s products help in your creative process?
Steph: I use Toontrack plugins to compose our songs and do the pre-production since EZdrummer was released. It helps me a lot to get the drums sound I need, in an effective and quick way. I upgraded to EZdrummer 2 as soon as it came out and now I am using Superior Drummer, which is fantastic because you can really play around with the different settings and get a very accurate mix, exactly the way you want it.
What’s next on the agenda for the band and what is your ultimate goal?
Steph: Our next step is to release our new album. Actually, we will release two EPs of five songs instead of a full CD with ten songs, so that we’ll have new tracks to share with our fans more regularly. When you release ten news songs in shot, your album is already old after one year. Releasing one EP with five songs at a time will also allow us to produce more material to promote those tracks, for example more videos, making of, etc. We’ll focus on those five tracks and give them as much exposure as possible. And once we’ve done that, we’ll move on to the next five. Our ultimate goal is just to share our passion with as many people as possible and make them vibrate with our music.
What’s the best part of playing in a band?
Anna: I think we like all the activities related to being in a band: rehearsals, composition, recording, stage, shooting videos. It’s actually quite cool to see how a song evolves from music composition to lyrics and then on to recording and then to stage. And then the video can add a new dimension, sometimes giving to the song a completely new perspective… It’s chemical, it’s magic… You modify an ingredient and everything changes.
Finally….a green dinosaur named Dyno?!? 🙂
Anna: I know! Who would have thought, right? A dinosaur and, on top of that, green… Since he decided to produce us, he has been quite harsh with us… He has his own ideas, but he also kind of a sad lad: no one of his species is around anymore, you know, he’s all alone… it must be tough for him. That’s why he wants to save musicians from extinction… I guess he wants to spare humanity the sadness of a world without musicians, the tragedy of another extinction of a species… Isn’t’ that a noble cause? Isn’t that so generous of him? We love you, Dyno!
