The Best Of Both Worlds:

Despised Icon, a relatively new band have come into the spotlight recently thanks to a record deal with Century Media, that combined with a killer work ethic will soon I’m sure turn them into a household name, about a month or so ago I had a little chat with Alexandre Erian, vocalist for what just could be Montreal’s next success story. 

NoC – Brent Lockman
AE - Alexandre Erian

NoC: So in recently being signed to Century Media, and just the promotional machine which that label is, some people reading this might not actually know who you are, would you care to provide a little insight into how Despised Icon came to be?

AE: We formed the band in 2002, we actually did not play live, we played like a show or 2 and then decided to record. We released our first album I guess around October 2002 on Galy records, which is a Canadian record label. Basically the year after that we focused on playing shows in Quebec and Ontario but ultimately we had some lineup problems and had to do some changes. Marie, the singer at the time cause we’re 2 vocalists, and Marie one of the two at the time just got married to a Norwegian guy, anyways to make a long story short she planned on spending lots of time outside Montreal, and wasn’t that into our newer songs so she decided to leave. At that time I was the drummer, I played drums on the first album, and I decided to switch to vocals, and we found our friend Alex which is insane on drums, and we really got lucky, he joined the band, and that’s pretty much when things started to get way better. 

NoC: How did the deal with Century Media come about?

AE: When we first started sending out promos that just seemed like a long shot, I don’t remember saying anything like “well they’re Century Media they have Shadow’s Fall they could do without us” *laughs*. I’m not dissing the roster or anything cause I think there’s a lot of good bands, but I find what we do a little less accessible than some of the bands on that label so I dunno it just seemed like too much of a long shot. I didn’t send them a promo I just sent one to Abacus, which is their hardcore division, just for fun cause we were just starting out, so I figured why not. The guy at Abacus, Stacy actually really liked it and although we had pig squeals and blastbeats he thought it maybe too heavy for Abacus, so he started burning out copies for the Century Media and Nuclear Blast staff cause they all work out of the same office in California, and that’s just how it happened.

At some point we were going to sign to Listenable Records, working out a deal with North America, the states, Canada that kind of thing and it was almost a done deal, but all of a sudden Century Media got in touch so we just put everything on ice and restarted everything, and at some point is was just taking too much time so we decided to do our own thing and record the album without even signing, or no funding, we didn’t want to wait around for anyone or be dependent on anything, so we just did it and as soon as we sent them the rough mix of the album, that’s when things started to pick up fast, Relapse just called us to do that split and it was like “oh Relapse is in the game” or whatever you want to call it, and then Earache got in touch and it was just too good to be true, as *laughs* we’re Despised Icon from Montreal we’re not this freakin big ass band, but it felt good, it felt rewarding cause obviously, I dunno we’re not in this for money or anything, we just want to play music, but to get that much attention was really overwhelming and it motivated us to get where we are now. 

NoC: How were the recording sessions for this new album, how did you decide to utilize the producing skills of your own guitar player?

AE: Yannick has been around for a little while, he did Neuraxis, he did Ion Dissonance he used to be the sound guy for Cryptopsy and Kataklysm, and he’s in the band, he knows how it’s supposed to sound, and he’s easy to work with as obviously we make music with him, it just felt good so he ended up producing and recording and stuff, at some point thought he had a few problems with his personal life, so he had to put that whole project aside, so he produced the album and then we got our friend J-F from Kataklysm to mix the album, we kept it in the family if I may say so. Near the end Yannick started to feel better and helped out with the mix as well, but for the most part it’s Yannick producing and J-F mixing it, and like ¼ of my cds was mastered by Alan Douches so I said hey why not give him a call and ask if he could do it, so it worked out well. 

As far as the actual recording process it was pretty stressful as we wrote everything in about 5 months, which is short for us, we really like worki… well playing music and having fun together, it’s a better term than working, but we were really determined to do this, some of the songs we were still learning as we were recording, and some of them we just finished writing the week we went into the studio, it was pretty stressful but we did it, so it was all good. 

NoC: Is there a story behind the album title? The Healing Process?, as for how brutal the record that’s quite a little dichotomy.

AE: *Laughs* this is always the question I fear the most, I hate I… I mean well no, I dunno every time I talk about it, it just seems to come out a little cheesy, we’re basically well balanced individuals, and I’m a pretty positive guy but once and a while shit comes up you know, our lyrics, Steve and I write the lyrics cause we’re 2 vocalists, and he and I are on the same page for that, when bad stuff, or all that negativity sort of starts to take over we write stuff to just kind of cope with it. So when you do listen to our music which is pretty aggressive and when you read our lyrics which are not all that positive, so sort of wonder why you call an album the Healing Process which is the opposite, it’s that whole what’s that word catharsis? it’s that whole something positive can arise out of it. 

NoC: Looking down the roster of Despised Icon, you have quite a list of bands you have all played for, many different styles, does this myriad of influences help the creative process and you’re able to draw from it? Or does it make things confusing?

AE: Well as far as the bands in which we have played in, I used to play in Neuraxis it was, well it is as they’re still around it was melodic, and Despised isn’t really in the same vein, we’ve all played in other bands, but we basically decided to focus on this one band which is Despised Icon, and Eric the guitarist is the only member of the band in another band, but he plays in a prog band called Heaven’s Cry, which is in another league in the sense that it sounds nothing like we do, it doesn’t sound like what we’ve done previously. 

As far as bands influencing us, we listen to we don’t hide it, we listen to death metal bands like Suffocation and Dying Fetus, but at the same time we like metalcore bands like Into The Moat, The Red Chord, and Dead Water Drowning, which didn’t last long but they were awesome, we’re pretty much all over the place, we hang out in the metal and hardcore scenes, so we wanted something that represented us, and represented what we like as much as possible, without it sounding like it’s too forced or something, like we obviously switch from one style to the other, we worked a lot on song structures, and finding the right link between 2 types of riffs, have it more focused. 

NoC: For those yet to witness it could you describe D.I’s live show in one sentence? 

AE: Brutal as hell (not trying to be pretentious) (Editor’s note: he told me to put the brackets in, in an AUDIO interview, this guy rules)

NoC: I imagine this coming year is going to an insanely busy one for you guys, touring wise, how do you prepare for basically working your ass off? 

AE: Well I’ve been managing this band, and it’s a full time thing, my girlfriend is right next to me right now listening but pretending not to listen *laughs* and she’s really supportive cause I’ve been doing this day in and day out, and there’s a sense of self sacrifice but it’s all worth it, just working hard and writing stuff and planning things in advance, the problem is there are so many awesome bands from Canada and they release something, and then release something like 4 years later, I’m not pointing any fingers or anything as I like most of all the bands around here. 

NoC: Best example from your neck of the woods which comes to mind there is Martyr actually.

AE: Martyr are awesome and my guitarist Yannick is actually supposed to record them this year, originally they were supposed to record a year ago with Yannick and they didn’t, I think it’s a drag though as they are probably one of the best bands from around here, and they should really get things moving as I don’t want their fans to feel let down. 

NoC: Yeah I was talking to Daniel while he was touring with Cryptopsy a while back about it

AE: Yeah he’s on tour with them right now, and he’s basically a full time musician, that’s how he makes his living but yeah I love this scene, and I’m happy that so many bands like A Perfect Murder, and our bros in Ion Dissonance, and Comeback kid and even established bands like Cryptopsy and Kataklysm, are finally getting the recognition it deserves, like obviously you know about The End, and there’s Buried Inside as well I’m just freaking happy about that. 

NoC: What is it about the city of Montreal that has allowed for the creation of such great music, is there anything in particular, it seems like somewhat of a family at times. 

AE: Well you’re from Toronto, do you think that maybe I’ve just overestimating our scene that Montreal is like the metal headquarters of Canada?

NoC: It is, pretty much *laughs*

AE: Well there’s a strong sense of unity in the scene, when you go to a show everyone is friends, but I’m guessing that is the same everywhere though, there’s no logical explanation to why we have this many over bands here, all I have noticed though is we are influenced by the European scene and the American scene all at once and sometimes we just end up mixing both at the same time, but really… luck? I dunno I don’t think it can really be explained. 

NoC: What can we expect in the future from you guys?

AE: Well we’re nerds so we already started writing music, so what you can expect is to get something new out of us within the next year, 2 years tops, and I dunno playing as many shows as possible, most important though if you come out to one of our shows to have a lot of fun.