Vous pouvez également lire cette entrevue en russe sur le site de Dissound.

Greetings, Patryk! First of all tell a bit of your history?

Hi! Well, I started writing songs that were later used for Howling Syn in 1998, but it's in 2000 that Sophie & I decided to put our music on MP3.com. After an unexpected & overwhelming response, we decided to record our first studio album (Forebearers of Dusk). Before that, all the songs that were available were only intrumental demos recorded by myself on synths. In 2002, we signed a 1-year deal with Galy Records and we released Forebearers of Dusk. We did a few shows and promo and in 2004 we signed a deal with Escapi Music in Sweden for a few future CDs & DVDs. We now have a new CD called DEVILRIES. For now, it's only available in North America, but if you live outside North America you can order it from any good web store. We have many new songs ready so we plan on recording a new CD maybe sometime soon.

Are those histories that you tell in your songs have any historical basis? Where do you get inspiration from?

Some are inspired by movies. I love movies just as much as music. Some stories are just from my imagination and for the rest it's mostly real life facts or feelings mixed with some ideas coming from them. Sophie does write great stuff for Howling Syn. She really thinks and thinks, then she comes up with something magical! Éric's lyrics are always special. He likes to play not only with words but with the language itself. Our lyrical influences come from books, movies, real life stories and plain imagination.

What music have you played before you create Howling Syn?

I was in a few bands before! Most of those bands were very far from what Howling Syn has become. Éric (the drummer) played in most of these bands with me. The overall sound of those bands was like a blend between Kiss and Metallica. Even today you still can feel some of these influences in Howling Syn. But it's more subtle.

What was the reasons of changing your music interets to gothic/medieval?

It happened by itself. It was like a natural way for me. After the Glam & Hard Rock era, I was in search of a more challenging project. So I decided to write songs that I would love to listen to, but the only way to have those songs was to write them. I see Howling Syn on stage with a full orchestra! That's the way Howling Syn is meant to be. The hard work will lead us there.

Do you think you belong to goth culture?

Partly, yes, but there's so much more than just that. We can also say that we belong to the Metal culture, the Medieval culture. We're not just a Gothic band. We love so many different things that we can't only do one style. A Howling Syn CD is always full of surprises when it comes to music diversity. Among the many sides of Howling Syn, the goth is for the dark parts of the songs. The symphonic parts are for happy/intense or even sad parts. The fast/heavy riffing is for the hateful, aggressive, raging and "evil" parts. All those different styles tell the mood of the stories. With all that, you have an explosive cocktail! Not just made of Goth ;)

If you are goth-fan, what is the best gothic(metal) band to you?

The best of the best is Moonspell in my opinion. They are the ultimate Goth Metal band!

Can you tell about your gigs? Are they goes with theatrical performances?

Some of our past shows had a few theatrical elements, but when we play in small venues we like to concentrate on the music since there's not much place to move around. But when we get the chance to play larger venues we will definitely add some cool stuff on stage! We may add magic/illusion & more for the next gigs. Nothing official for now but we're working on it.

Is the band a full time job or a spare time filling?

We are working hard to make it our full-time job. Now with a worldwide deal in hand we have faith that things should be good for us in the next years. But for now we still have "regular" jobs.

What places have you visited already? Where do you want to play gigs in future?

All the shows we did were in Canada. But it's just the beginning. We really want to play everywhere! We'd love to play in Russia!

Are there some things that you want to change in your debut album since few years?

We did change a lot with our new CD Devilries. This is a more gothic/symphonic record, less power metal oriented. The new songs that I wrote during the last months are a good blend of the two CDs but this time the medieval, prog symphonic influences are back. And it's probably the heaviest & fastest stuff I wrote in years.

Don’t you afraid to change your already soft gothic sound to pop sound in future? Many bands like Crematory or Paradise Lost doing something like dance-metal, or other electronic shit now.

We are not afraid of evolution. That's what keeps us doing music. We've already done some electro parts in our songs and we'll have some in the future too. We are a metal band... but we also like a lot of things outside metal. We also think Rammstein is a metal band. To some they are not. They are not just metal but they fit in the style.

What reactions of your music have you from outside Canada?

Pretty good! We didn't have the chance yet to play outside Canada but we know we have fans out there! We get a lot of emails from all over the world and that speaks for itself! We need to do more promo outside North America because there's a lot of people who don't know us yet.

Whats the nearest plans for Howling Syn?

Promoting our new CD Devilries and playing live! In our spare time we will get our next CD ready! We got a lot of songs to choose from.

Do you have an interesting or funny story for our readers?

Éric has been playing drums with me for many years. We first started in the basement of his mother & grandmother in 1991, I was on guitar and he was on drums. We have formed a few bands after that but it was going nowhere. In 1996, we have formed a hard rock band called "Haute tension". All the lyrics were in French & during shows we were playing our songs blended with KISS classics, so it was like a KISS cover band with original songs. We recorded 3 songs for a demo at that time. Éric is also known for probably the only drummer who has lost both drum sticks at the same time during a show! You can imagine that the song we were playing was a bit unstable. We still laugh at this one today. After that band broke up, we were involved in another project and trust me this one was getting nowhere! So after one year of rehearsal and only one show, Éric and I decided to call it quits. So between 1998 and 2000 I was writing music alone at home just for myself & I even played in another KISS cover band but one day they asked me to put on the Paul Stanley makeup so I quit the band... I had the same look back then so you can imagine the look! And one day I met Sophie and started working on Howling Syn. So we were in need of a good drummer. Only one logic choice: Éric Mireault. The 3 of us are still together after 5 years & have a lot more to achieve with Howling Syn! It's only the beginning. To be continued...

Last comments...

Hello Russia! We hope to play for you in the near future! I've heard there's a lot of great looking girls! :D You can check our new website and our new CD Devilries at http://www.howlingsyn.net
STAY EVIL!!!!!

by Desekrator