Welcome-X discuss second record, “WELCOME X – Vol2”
Hello Welcome-X, thanks for your time. Would it be please possible to introduce your band to our readers? So, we're a 5-piece band from France (Paris based) and we play a melting pot of style with elements of alternative metal, doom, prog, stoner and jazz among others. You will find tastes of Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Coroner, Fudge Tunnel or Faith no More. We come from different horizon. Phil used to play bass during 20 years in Magma. Joe (guitar) is a renowned bluesman here and Tom (guitar) and Julien (drums) participated to a lot of professional recording for various artists. For my part, I'm Sam (singer) and I come from the underground metal scene from Paris. I was member of Flesh and Dust (Power Stoner), Nekkral (Blackened Doom) and many other Death or Sludge projects. We've already released an album in 2019 and this is our second LP. You're back with a second record, “WELCOME X – Vol2”. How long have you worked on this release? This album naturally follows the first one. Most of the songs were already written when we released it before the Covid era. We recorded Vol.2 in six days (in almost live conditions) at the Triton studio in Paris during the first week of July 2020, with the sound engineer Martin Antiphon. How’s your usual writing process? Phil writes almost all the songs on bass and after sends me the model (apart 32GE by Tom on this album). I work on the melody and write the lyrics. After that, we just rehearse all together, have fun and change very few things. Is there one song that, according to you, best reflects the overall spirit of this record? If yes, which one and why? Oh, pretty difficult to choose one, but if you listen to “Thylacine blues”, you will have all the elements to make you an idea of what we do. Can we talk about the process of creating the artwork and the overall idea behind this visual? We've worked with the same guy since the first released, Paul Emgalaï from Emgalaï Grafïk. He came to our rehearsal and listened to the album when worked on the artwork you can find inside the booklet. I just sent him a few notes about the lyrics and the direction, and after that, it's all his mind. He's done that all by hand and pen and colorized after on his computer. We are very pleased with his work. It sticks totally with the band.
I’m sure you are, like a lot of people, missing live shows. Do you have some dates planned for the rest of the year or 2022? Of course, we missed them horribly. We had the chance to recently play in Paris and in the south of France on stage. It was heaven to finally go back at it! We are just booking some future dates right now, check soon our social media pages. We are still on research of dates out of the country. The last words are for you. If you have a message to convey, here’s your chance! Just listen to the album and you will be convinced (laughs). It's, I think, very different from traditional metal stuff! Hope to see you all on the road in the next months or year. On stage, you will have a unique experience, trust me. Cheers and thanks for the support! Sam. Thanks for your time!
Leave a comment
Log in to post comments