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The Distrolution / Distrolution Merch team had the chance to participate in the Hellfest Festival from June 19 to 26, 2022. The program included concerts, meetings... and several interviews, which you can find each week in FR version on Distrolution Merch and in EN version on Distrolution! Discover without further delay our interview with Jen from the band Dust in Mind!
To start this interview, could you introduce yourself and tell us about Dust in Mind (how the band was formed...)?
Jen: Of course! So, I'm Jen from Dust in Mind. The band has existed since 2013. Initially, it was a studio project founded by Damien Dausch (guitarist / singer). We had made an EP and we thought it might be worth making a real live band. And so, in 2014, we created the band, with the group members. We're from Strasbourg, we play metal. We play modern metal, because it's quite vague. As for our influences, it's Korn, Pain, Lacuna Coil, a bit of industrial metal with, at the same time, a really groovy side. And there you have it, we just released an album called "CTRL", which came out in November 2021.
Photo: Psyrus Studio
What's your view on the Strasbourg metal / hardcore scene?
Jen: I think it's cool, because there are more and more... There are bands that are now starting to stand out a bit and I find that Strasbourg, moreover... We have a metal scene that is quite active. We are lucky to be on the German border. I think that also has a bit of an influence. We have a metal culture that is a bit stronger than in other French cities, so it's a chance, in fact, to have that in Strasbourg. We have cool clubs. Of course, we'd like to have even more, of course! But I think we're super grateful to come from Strasbourg and the metal scene... there are really good bands in Strasbourg! We were talking about Piedbouche, who are friends.
There are bands that are really giving themselves the means to succeed now. And for that matter, it's true that we're happy, because we hope that as a band from Strasbourg that is evolving and growing more and more, we hope to be able to bring other bands with us and show that when you want to do things, you can achieve them! And showcase the Alsatian scene, you know... It's a source of pride for us too!
You're going to play at Rock Your Brain Fest with other local bands, like Piedbouche!
Jen: Yeah, it's going to be cool! We can't wait!
Since we're talking about concerts, you're in the middle of your summer tour. How's it going so far?
Jen: So, we're just back from tour... That is to say, 3 days ago, we were still in Germany. We had started a tour in March, we were for many the first post-Covid band to resume. It was a big, big challenge. We were even offered to postpone the tour, because we were told: "Yes, there might not be many people yet, people are not ready to come back", and it's true that depending on the country, it varied. There were countries, particularly in Germany, where, at that time, it was still complicated. We played when there were still restrictions. But we said to ourselves: "It doesn't matter! Even if there are 10 people, we'll do it!" Because there's no point in postponing indefinitely knowing that maybe in November, there would be a new variant or something else, and we would have missed a chance, an opportunity to be able to... to spread the message and share this moment. We said to ourselves: "No, never mind, we'll do it, even if the conditions are not ideal, it doesn't matter!"
So, it was super intense. Emotionally, it was just great. And then, we did a few more dates last week. We also supported Black Label Society, which was super cool for us, because it's yet another audience! And we really want to play with all types of bands. And then in Germany, we also did some shows, in Switzerland... And it just feels so good! We now feel that people... that's it, the hurdle has been crossed! "OK, Covid is still there, but we're moving on, we want to see concerts and it feels so good!" And then with all the festivals coming up, it's going to be great!
And how's your experience at Hellfest going?
Jen: Well, we didn't play, but that's what I find great. Even as musicians, we embrace, enjoy, and cherish these moments when we're in the audience ourselves, you know. Actually feeling the music! If we're on stage and want to give and share this energy with the audience, it's because when we're in the audience, we feel that and have felt that, and that's why we wanted to make music!
And so, coming to Hellfest, seeing lots of bands... Lots of French bands too! There are so many French bands this year, it's so cool! It's really, really cool! And then, sharing again, running into people... Seeing that in fact, for two years, everything kind of closed down, but nothing really died out. Seeing that it didn't die out and that it's picking up again, like this, it feels so good! And then, Hellfest... I hadn't experienced it with all these... I knew it a very, very long time ago on the old site, it was nothing like this! And then to see how it has changed, how it has evolved, I find it just... Just so classy, you know! We can really be proud to have a festival like this!
Wow, so you attended the first editions?
Jen: Yeah! It was the little tents, it was nothing like this! (Laughs). It's crazy! But actually, so, it can be surprising, and of course, you have less of the friendly aspect, sure, but in a sense, you say to yourself: "Wow, the conditions though, the decor... everything!" You go to any other festival, it's nothing like this. So no, we can be proud, because once again, it's the French image, it's the French touch that's being highlighted and it's so cool!
Let's now talk about your label, Dark Tunes. How did your collaboration come about? Did you approach the label, or was it the other way around?
Jen: Actually, it's the opposite. Dark Tunes contacted us in 2014 for our first album. It's a German label, but it's run by a French person living in Germany. So he knew a little bit about the French scene. He discovered us and approached us. And we've been with him since the beginning. He's really been our label, our distributor from the very, very, very start. So we're super happy to work with him!
Often, it's the bands that approach the labels!
Jen: Yeah, indeed, in this case, it went the other way and we're super grateful for that! It's true that it helped us a lot in the beginning. Without that... It's difficult to get a foot in the door, especially since it's a German label, so being able to export ourselves right away, it was really quite incredible for us!
You mentioned it at the beginning of the interview. Your new album "CTRL" was released in November 2021. How long did you work on it and how do you usually divide the roles within the band in terms of composition, etc.?
Jen: Well, Damien is the one who does 95% of the song. He's actually the creative engine of the band. He composes all the music, and he's also the one who makes our music videos, all the band's imagery, all the audiovisual work for the band, he does it all. He will compose the song and then I will write the lyrics, work on the vocal lines, we'll discuss it... Then it's proposed to the other band members and after that, everyone adds, modifies or gives their opinion on things to change or not. Generally, we hardly change anything Damien does, because he's the driving force of the project. He's the one who created the project, so naturally, he lives and feels it in a certain way. He's the personality of the band! And in fact, we've all had band experiences before, where we're there, we rehearse, we compose, and everyone wants to put a bit of their ego into the music, or everyone wants to add their own little thing and in the end, it results in something that's not necessarily coherent, you know.
In any case, for us, it's very good that Damien prepares the stuff, because the colors he brings to the songs are exactly where we want to go! And we totally trust him! Of course, everyone in the band is free to make changes, but generally, we trust him so much, we're so happy with what he proposes, that we don't change anything!
I think there was another question at the beginning, right? I don't remember...
How long did you work on it?
Jen: Oh yes, that's it! (Laughs)
We had started working on it before Covid. And eventually, Covid allowed us to take our time, because originally, we were supposed to release the album much, much earlier. We would have done it in a rush and in the end, it wouldn't have had the same quality that we can offer now. It's something that has really matured and, by the way, the lyrics have changed too. At first, there were supposed to be other themes, but with Covid, it triggered other things, I wanted to talk about different things. So it's funny, because the initial project has nothing to do with the final product! And then, we really took care to work on our sound. We also adopted a strategy for music videos, making videos for almost every song on the album. We're going to end up with 8 videos out of 10 for the album. So we really took the time to promote this album with all the imagery behind it!
On this album, there's a song called "The White Page". I understood that you had writer's block during the composition. Can we talk about that?
Jen: Of course! It was actually an overflow during Covid. In fact, I had a million things to say, but I felt like I was boiling over. I thought to myself: "It's incredible, I want to say so many things, but they won't come out!" And I think I was so frustrated and I couldn't write anymore. The more I thought about it, the more I closed up and it was really complicated. This song, as a result, wasn't written by me, it was Phil, our guitarist, who saw that I was really suffering, it was making me really sick. He said to me: "Listen, I can offer if you want, I can write what you're feeling" And of course, he showed me and I said: "Well actually, you've really illustrated it well" And yeah, so it's funny, because it's someone else who managed to write for me, about my problem! Symbolically, I find that really great actually. But yeah, it was really delicate, it was super complicated. And in the end, I'm super happy to have a song that talks about this on the album.
This is a song that must resonate with you more than others, since it's a situation you've experienced.
Jen: Exactly! And it's incredible, because I had always heard about writer's block. I know there are students or other artists who can experience this. Personally, it had never happened to me before. So for me, it was a thing... I always felt detached from that term, writer's block. And when you experience it, it's true that it's really intense, it's really, really peculiar. And so now, I'm happy, because I'll have a memory of that episode and it's something that, in the end, was overcome, so it's good to keep it somewhere on the album!
How exactly did you overcome it? Did you, for example, do research to see if there were any tips to get past this hurdle and this block?
Jen: Well no, it's something totally personal. I mean, I wanted to talk about lots of things, but I was in a dynamic where I wanted to write lyrics that were, how to say... quite soft. There was no anger in what I was writing. In fact, I wasn't heading in the right direction. At that moment, I absolutely needed to be in an incredible state of anger to succeed in getting it out. I really put myself in a state of anger, I thought back to a million things that had ruined my life, you see. And actually, it was from that moment, when I really put myself in this angry state, that I managed to rewrite and overcome the syndrome. But before that, I was too... I felt sadness, frustration, but it wasn't intense enough. And I think I needed that trigger, to be in a monstrous anger to be able to let it all out!
We were talking about music videos earlier. You're the first French metal band to film on the Eiffel Tower. How did that go? Who had the idea for this shoot and how did you set it all up?
Jen: (Laughs) Yeah, it's pretty crazy! Actually, we saw that PNL had done it. And when we saw it was possible, we thought: "Well, if they did it... we have nothing to lose by asking!" In fact, there was a song...
So, I'll start from the beginning! There were a lot of fans abroad who didn't know we were French. Several years ago, to be frank, I was getting torn apart in reviews, in critiques and everything by French media who told me I had too much of a French accent. And so I worked incredibly hard on my accent, because I felt really, really bad about it. I felt guilty, I thought: "Oh no, if we don't make it because I have a French accent, that's a bit stupid..." And so, I really worked on my accent, I really, really worked hard on it. To the point where we realized that now, abroad, people were asking "Where are you from?" and we were like: "Well, we're French" and then we thought: "Actually, that's a bit stupid". It made me think, I said to myself: "It's a shame, because when there are bands that sing, that speak and have an accent, you know where they're from." And actually, it's a bit stupid if everyone speaks the same way and there's no authenticity or personality left, you know.
So, I took a little step back. I said to myself: "I shouldn't be ashamed of this, I own it and we need to show that we're French, we need to be proud to show that in France, we have bands that want to make it". We said: "Alright, let's do a song, there's a little passage, we'll put 30 seconds in French, just to show. We show that we're French, the ID card is laid on the table!" And what better way to illustrate France than the Eiffel Tower! For sure! To shine internationally, the symbol is quite obvious! (Laughs)
But we said to ourselves: "Alright! Let's ask the question, we have nothing to lose" And so, I made a solid application to the Eiffel Tower filming office and I called them. And an hour later, they contacted me back and said: "Well listen, it's true that usually, we don't have bands contacting us, generally it's Dior, Adidas, perfumes or that kind of thing, but not for music!" So I was like: "Oh really? So it's possible?" They say "Well yes, yes, it's possible. Listen, do you want to come and do a location scouting on the Eiffel Tower?" "Well OK" So we knew exactly which areas we were going to use. We had the whole Eiffel Tower, from the top to the bottom, and we could choose! We could really choose! And we looked at each other and said: "This can't be happening, what's going on?" (Laughs)
Nobody thought of it before? (Laughs)
Jen: But that's exactly it! I think it seems so insurmountable, impossible, that we don't ask the questions! And that's where it really illustrates the fears we can feel, the preconceptions we can have too. And sometimes, you just need to ask the question, to fully defend your project, and it works!
And in the end, we had one hour. We were given permission to shoot for an hour in the morning, before the doors opened to the public. However, it was one hour. We were given the badges, and in one hour, we had to go up the elevators, which are super high (laughs), which are very slow (laughs), with the drums, the technical equipment, all that. Once at the top, set up the drums, set up the technical equipment, the lights, shoot, take down the drums, take down all the equipment, take the elevator, go down, drop off the badge and leave. And all this had to be done in one hour! And in total, we shot for 14 minutes. But as a result, what you see in the video is almost one shot. However, we had prepared, each person had a predefined task down to the minute, we knew exactly what to do. We had no room for error!
But yeah, so it was a pretty crazy opportunity. For me, it's really the symbol and the very image of the fact that if you want something, sometimes, you just have to... sorry to say it, but you have to "get off your ass" for it to work. And sometimes yeah, we hold ourselves back, we tell ourselves it's not going to work, and in this case, if we did it, anyone can do it too! Sometimes you just have to go for it, you know. You have to show that when you want something...
That earns you the title of the first French metal band to shoot on the Eiffel Tower!
Jen: Yeah, totally, absolutely! So cool!
Let's continue with the theme of music videos. You worked with Freaky Hoody, who is also on the album cover. How did you meet and how did you end up working together?
Jen: Actually, I discovered him through social media. I saw a video that was talking about... The first time I heard about him was because of these parents... Well, parents from a school, since he's a teacher, who were against his appearance and in the end, there was this wave of solidarity around him that showed there's no judgment, in fact, a message of tolerance. And we thought: "But this is great!" I mean, the guy already physically, he's imposing, and on top of that, it spread a message of tolerance about all this.
So we thought: "Well, we're going to ask him if he's not available for a video. Because actually, we had the song, the track "Take me Away" and we're going to write to him." Same thing, we're going to ask, if we don't ask, we won't get there. And then a message a few days later "Absolutely, I'm coming!" So he came from Paris and we shot near our place. And it went super well! He was even proposing ideas himself!
And in the end, we finished the video and we thought: "Hey, do you want to take some photos together?" We didn't really know what we were going to do with them, maybe it was just going to be for promoting the video, and when we saw the photos, we said: "But this is great, this is so cool!"
And then, to be honest, I was completely fed up with having my face on album covers! (Laughs). It was becoming... Well, it's been several albums that I've been sick of it (Laughs). This time, I really insisted on not having my face on it anymore, because it's becoming creepy actually (Laughs). And so I'm happy, because with the label, I managed to say "Please please please, can we put Freaky Hoody on the cover?" It happened like that! And in the end, it's good, because we stay a little bit on theme. In the end, it's still a person on the cover. We're super happy because it's a strong message! It can be disturbing. There are people who are annoyed to see a guy who is all tattooed and stuff. It's not that we don't care, but what we want to show is the message of tolerance. So those who are bothered by it, well too bad actually. You can move along, or you can go further and discover the album and another image. So it was very risky, but in the end we're super happy to have done it and it was a great exchange with him. We're super happy to have met him, he's just amazing!
We might do some live stuff together, on stage. It's in talks (laughs)! We'll see what happens, but yeah. When we play in Paris, he said: "I'm coming on stage and we'll do... We're going to do a performance all together!" It's going to be cool!
To wrap up this interview, can you tell me about Dust in Mind's future projects? What can we expect in the coming months?
Jen: So we're continuing. We're still betting everything on music videos. We just shot a video that will be released in the coming days. So videos. We have festivals this summer, and then... well... We'll see. Maybe another tour at the end of the year. Our goal, of course, is still to promote the album, since it was released during the pandemic. In a way, we already want to compose new tracks, of course, but on the other hand, it would be a bit of a waste not to promote it as it deserved to be promoted, you see. In the end, we've only done one tour split into two parts to promote our album, it's a bit light. So we're going to continue that anyway.
However, at the beginning of next year, we're going to release new singles, just to stay active, always active. It's very, very energy-consuming and demanding to always produce... You know, right, Spotify, you have to release content all the time, all the time... It's super complicated. But then, we're lucky to have our own studio, to have Damien who manages all that, to be able to make our videos. We're clearly a DIY band. Well, now, we're starting to surround ourselves with partners. Until today, I was doing the booking for the band, we've just signed with an English booking agency.
In terms of management, we never had management before, I was the one taking care of it, but we just signed with Jinjer's management. So it's the same thing, you see. Now, we're starting to surround ourselves with people. Things are starting to happen. But for everything related to production, it's still DIY. And so, having this chance, these opportunities, because we work for it too, allows us to offer content, so there are still plenty of things coming! New music videos and new singles coming for next year!
Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions!
Jen: With pleasure, with pleasure!
The band Dust in Mind recently suffered water damage in their studios. Walls, floors, and equipment were affected, as well as some of their merchandise. Don't hesitate to support the band through their official shop!
Source: Dust in Mind Facebook page
Shop: https://www.dustinmind-shop.com/
