Genre/Influences: Wave-Pop, Cinematic.

Format: Digital, CD.

Background/Info: French musician Alban Blaising is back on track unleashing the fourth full length of his sonic alter-ego Feu Follet. Just like the previous album, he asked guest singers to join in. Isabelle B. Baumann, Alexander Donat and Pat Aubier were the guests. Blackjack Illuminist Records released “IV” on CD, cassette and as download.

Content: Feu Follet moves on exploring the influential path of 80s Wave-Pop. The songs have been composed by guitar playing and electronics. Together with the vocals it often creates an evasive sensation reminding me of Cinematic music.

+ + + : The album is an easy listening experience, which sounds as an evasive retro-like Wave-Pop experience. The songs “The Pillar” featuring Pat Aubier and “Under The Trees” featuring Isabelle B. Baumann both are my favorites. “The Pillar” definitely sounds like the best cut I’ve heard from this project. It has a great elevating effect.

– – – : Despite of the artist’s efforts and the good singers the album is missing a true climax.

Conclusion: “IV” takes me away for an entertaining trip, but is definitely not a must have.

Best songs: “The Pillar”, “Under The Trees”.

Rate: 6½.

Artist: www.facebook.com/FeuFollet54

Label: www.facebook.com/Blackjack.Illuminist

About Feu Follet

Feu Follet is the sonic alter-ego of French musician Alban Blaising, based in Nancy. Second album “La Forêt Oubliée” was released as an audio/visual experience in 2020. Third album “Beneath the Earth” followed on Blackjack Illuminist Records in 2021, released with an accompanying comic book that served as a prequel to “La Forêt Oubliée”. Unlike the earlier concept releases, fourth album “IV” was recorded without an overarching narrative, with guest vocal contributions from Isabelle B. Baumann, Alexander Donat and Pat Aubier.

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

Belgian Psy’Aviah is driven by the creative spirit of Yves Schelpe. The project is already busy for several years now and this year unleashed its seventh full length album. “Soul Searching” –released on Alfa Matrix, can be easily considered as a conceptual album for its lyrical content, but still for the renewed experience with multiple guest singers. Sound-wise the work remains a truly sonic enigma, which might be simply called ‘electro-pop’, but when you listen more carefully you’ll notice an amazing amount of influences. But more than the result of multiple influences, Yves Schelpe has for sure released his most mature work to date, which might appeal for lovers of Delerium, Conjure One, Lunascape and related bands. On stage Yves Schelpe (electronics) has been joined by singer Marieke Lighband  and guitarist Ben Van de Cruys. (Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: When you’ve a new album out, do you consider it as the best one you’ve ever released? Where do you place “Soul Searching” in your growing discography?

Yves: Honestly rating your own work, I think most musicians will tell their latest is the best as it sounds fresher to their ears, because as a musician you grow in technique, songwriting and taste. Hence why most musicians would rate their latest work as either their best or among the best if they’d had to choose. But in the end it comes down to the listener, I do my thing in my small bedroom studio, try to learn every day, try to bring new ideas, fuse genres and create stories.

As for where I place it in my discography, that’s an interesting one. I think it’s on the list of albums between 2013-present vs 2007-2012. As of 2013 with “Future Past” I radically changed in both style and wanted to bring the EBM and electro into different genres from jazz, to trip-hop, to classical, to pop.. Always with a dark hint and with a wink to the past. And that’s why I split my discography in those two ‘eras’ internally in my head. Since 2013 it’s also more focused in stories per album, as well as inviting guests to sing instead of just one lead vocalist.

Honestly maybe this could be the start of a third era in Psy’Aviah’s discography, where I go even further and incorporate even more other sounds and songwriting styles. Who knows, an artist always evolves… That’s so fascinating about music.

Q: What have been the influences and challenges to write and accomplish “Soul Searching”?

Yves: Writing the basic songs wasn’t the biggest challenge -as I always write the basic chords and melodies on piano first. You have to know that with “Soul Searching” it was the intention to create a soundscape that is radically different and alienates the listener from the daily Western sounds they hear -both so the sound from song to song is coherent, even if ‘styles’ change, and as well to transport the listener in a different ‘space’. Pull them out of the traditional Western sounds they’re so familiar with, I wanted to introduce something fresh. So finding those right instruments to tell the story was a big challenge. We have all the tools available: samplers, effects, digital instruments…

But I went for a radical approach to use real instruments, either pre-recorded or played by real people.

Q: I can imagine finding the right match between the songs and guest singers must be one of these challenges, but how did the final selection happened? Is there something like a cast? Are there specific criteria to choose a singer? What about the lyrics and how did the recording with The guests happened?

Yves: I always write the songs first on piano sounds, then the search for the ‘sound’ begins. Once I have a rough demo then I send either one or more demos to the singer I think they match with. About 90% of the time I have a strong feeling of how the melody of the lead vocals and backings should sound and I prerecord those with my own voice. But some guests do write their own lyrics -I do always give them pointers how I want it to sound or what lyrics need to deal with to match the story and to inject my ideas as well. But for Mark Bebb and Lis van den Akker they wrote their lyrics, vocal melodies and harmonies. Sometimes I co-write, as with Roeland van der Velde and Ellia Bisker -exchanging lyrical notes and adapting them.

The fact is that for each song I know the tone of the vocalist, and know what they can bring to the table by listening to their work and -with most of them -knowing them already for a long time. It’s a collaboration in the end, of course I do have my veto, as do they if they’re not happy. I always brief them of the concept of the album, the intent of the song -it’s maybe very over the top micromanagement sometimes, and maybe taken too seriously, but when you’re that passionate about what you do, you can’t help it (lol).

As for recording, most people record at their own home studio, or the studio of the band they play in. We exchange via the internet, and I give my feedback whether I want some extra adlibs, or extra shouts or harmonies… I once did a video with Mari Kattman on how we collaborate: [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_NMFZZ9a-A ] -it’s explained how she works, and how I work -it’s generally 95% the same for each song…

Q: Sound-wise, I don’t know if “Soul Searching” is my favorite Psy’Aviah album, but it for sure sounds as the most mature one! I get the feeling you’ve found ‘your’; sound while other albums were more like the exorcism of ideas and influences. How does it feel at your side and what did you finally try to achieve with this work?

Yves: Every album has a different sound, but it always has the ‘Psy’Aviah’ stamp on it. Maybe the reason why it sounds more mature is the fact that I wanted to draw people out of this world and this gave every song the alienated Eastern vibe -and that gives an extra layer of coherency. As for an eclectic approach on other albums, that’s part of the deal with Psy’Aviah. And I’m not alone -check for example the mélange of trip-hop to ambient to ballads to electroclash and to pure dancefloor driven tracks to even rock tracks by Moby, Praga Khan, Bowie, Die Antwoord, Junksista or Faithless on a single album, that mix given with their own take on it and their own sound, as I do as well, is not so weird in my mind… So I don’t get why people are so hung up on the fact a band has to stick to one genre, for me that is boring and hence why the bands listed before are prime examples why I’m a big fan of their albums, they can be on repeat for days because of the diverse take rather than a rehash of 12 tracks in the same genre with the same sounds being reused over and over again… 

Q: The opening song “Becoming Human” is for sure an essential track from the album. I get the impression this song with spoken words by the famous and mediatized Flemish psychiatrist Dirk De Wachter is the heart from the album to understand the concept, right? Tell us a bit more about this surprising guest vocalist and how did you get in touch with him and finally convinced him to contribute?

Yves: I saw some of his lectures online, then started reading his books “Borderline Times” and “De Wereld van De Wachter”, as well as his newest work “De Kunst Van Het Ongelukkig Zijn”. There were so many ideas in there that it already inspired my work on “Lightflare”, when writing songs for the EP “Looking For The Sun” I wrote a mini essay in the booklet (PDF in bandcamp release) on how these ideas are reflected in the songs on the EP, and by then I did contact Dirk to get his approval, because when you mention someone -I feel it’s only appropriate to ask for advice and approval. Later that year I met him at a lecture he gave at the University of Antwerp, and by then I had already written half of the songs for “Soul Searching”. We talked about the ideas, and then set a date via mail to meet & record -he lives just two blocks away so that was easy. We talked about the concept of the album, the reason behind those words, not a lot of convincing was needed -you have to know Dirk is a really nice and warm person.

The poem I wrote as an introduction to the rest of the album’s lyrical content as you understood correctly, but his deep voice as well as his attachment to the lyrical content, for me was a trigger to ask and include him. Recording was fun though, at his cabinet, cosy, greeted with a smile and coffee. Talking about each other’s interests, and then record. I’m grateful to have him included in this concept album as it really makes the journey complete from start to finish. But that fact is essential for each vocalist, the match in voice and passion for the lyrics has to be there -otherwise it does not work.

Q: You mentioned Dirk De Wachter’s book “Borderline Times” where he makes an interesting link between BPS (Borderline Personality Disorder) and the Western World we’re living in. I realized there also is a possible link between this psychiatric disorder and the music business from today. What does it inspire to you as an artist?

Yves: You are correct, he essentially goes through each of the symptoms of BPS and then diagnoses our Western lifestyle to come to the conclusion that we live in ‘borderline times’. Every part of it, from medical institutions, business world, politics – and of course the music business. It is the whole of our Western world that is affected by these symptoms, and especially when it comes to the ego: everything revolves around the ‘I’, the ‘Me, Me, Me’ culture. I see it a lot in this music business from small to big; it hurts the way we interact with each other unfortunately.

As an artist I try to break that cycle by not making this project about me alone, although I do have ambitions and try to put ‘myself’ into each and everything of what Psy’Aviah is -that in essence is no problem. But you should never ever forget the people around you that are helping you around the way, I guess that’s what I try to hold in higher regard after reading his books. Being a lot humbler towards achievements, because what are you with achieving something when you can’t share it but yourself. At the end a good relationship with the musicians I work with, the artwork artist, the live band Marieke & Ben, the fans… that relationship is important. Not for sales, but to stay grounded. And if you can help out other bands, then why not. I have no interest in beef or drama, so that’s how I try to act in this business as an artist. To give a concrete example, we played a benefit concert at the British American Theatrical Society (or BATS in short, yeah, they’re a bit gothic too then ;-)), as the theatre is in need of funds to move location (as their rent is being raised). We played there for free, [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ROR9lWOCXo ], we helped them out, they helped us out reaching a new audience. We had fun, it was a concert that’s on my high all-time list because of this fact. There is a ‘Great Disconnect’ in this society at the moment, and not only in the music scene. So looking out for each other is something that I take away from it, without devaluing/patronizing the person or organization you’re helping or listening to. Doing small good things should become a natural habit again instead of the ‘bol.com’ instant delivery for the ‘me me me’ society we are creating.

In that sense you could say that Psy’Aviah lyrics are of great importance to highlight these issues as well: “Voodoo Love”, “Becoming Human”, “Hold On” (as written by Mark Bebb) or even “City In Flames” are prime examples of that.

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

(By our Norwegian correspondent Jan Ronald Stange)

November 30th we were a gang of friends going to Sundvolden Hotel, 45 mins out of Oslo, spending the night at the hotel, having both a classic Norwegian xmas party (“julebord”) AND an Alphaville concert! As we were all teenagers at the time Alphaville started, we all had a connection to their first hits like ‘Big in Japan’, ‘Sounds like a melody’, ‘Summer in Berlin’, ‘A victory of love’ etc., and was really looking forward to seeing them live for the first time.

The concert started with Marian Gold (singer) jumping around, eager to get started, kicking off with ‘The jet set’. Early highlights were ‘Dance with me’ and of course ‘Big in Japan’, but personally I think they started getting better during ‘I die for you today’. After the ‘The flame’, ‘Summer in Berlin’ and ‘To Germany with love’, the song ‘Nevermore’ from their latest album (surprisingly to many that hadn’t heard it before) really kicked the whole ambience up a notch. From then on a hit parade stretch with ‘A victory of love’, ‘Sounds like a melody’ and ending the main set with all of the audience singing along on ‘Forever young’ – best moment of the show!
Extras were ‘The Rose’ and ‘Beyond the laughing sky’ before exiting the arena and start looking for the hotel suite for the interview. Arriving there I found the whole band and others were present, but my interview appointment was with Marian.

S-L: First of all; the gig tonight – how was it? Did you like playing here?
Marian Gold: Yeah, it was OK. Hotels gigs can be kind of mixed emotions, can’t be compared to a regular gig. People have paid for a xmas dinner party, maybe hotel, we’re part of that package for many of the guests, but we had a great time. And since we came straight from Moscow, so anything else is better than that! Moscow was a bit grey and depressing this time, and when we landed in Oslo it was all sunshine and snow!

S-L: You usually play clubs and concert arenas – and a xmas party at little Sundvolden?
MG: We’re been a touring band since 1995, playing 40-50 gigs every year, and our tour manager gets lots of offers from all over. It’s not that important where it is, as long as it fits our schedule we don’t need much other details. If we haven’t been there before, let’s go there! And this was a really nice place too.

S-L: Yep, it’s kind of winter wonderland here now, with the frozen trees and snow.
MG: It’s was really interesting as we came driving here on the highway, looking into the valley, having the clouds beyond with the light of the sunset – it was really beautiful!

S-L: What’s the strangest place you’ve played?
MG: Beirut. Just after the civil war in 1993, we had an invitation from the German embassy, and played in the northern part for local audience and Americans, in the Christian part. When we landed at the airport that was in the southern Muslim part, and we were escorted by heavy armored military car the whole way – three in front and three behind us. Some of the areas we drove through were completely destroyed. I especially remember a toy shop, with a Mickey Mouse figure outside, full of bullet holes. It’s was an absolutely bizarre trip, both heartbreaking playing for people who had been through the hardships of the war, but also one of the most fulfilling gigs we’ve ever done.

S-L: You’ve been touring for decades now – have the songs or the way you perform them changed through the years?
MG: Yes, we’ve been touring for almost 25 years now, and it feels like the songs change every time we play them. At this tour we’d been celebrating the earlier albums by trying to get the songs closer to the originals, but with more guitars etc. it’ll be a bit different anyway.

SL: Any future plans or releases? I read something about being in the studio recording “Thunderbaby”?
MG: That’s the working title of our upcoming album that we’re in the middle of doing, still collecting material for that one. I’m also in a collaboration with the Prague Symphony Orchestra, new versions of songs with a full orchestra.

S-L: Highlight of your career? A place, time, event?
MG: First time we played in South America we were able to visit Machu Piccu. We had a concert in Lima, and went there afterwards. We’ve had many highlights, playing in Trinidad and Tobago was also one of them. We’re basically a travelling band, oscillating between the studio and the stage. That’s our life, being introvert in the studio and extrovert on the stage, and we’re very happy with the differences between these two realities.

Thanx for an excellent evening, Alphaville, Jorunn, Beate and Finn, Kristin and Arne, Line and Roger, Line and Jan Kåre, Magnhild and Bjørn Agnar, Vibeke and Jan, Jostein and Vicky, Yvonne and Erik!

Jan Ronald Stange

Sometimes – when I’m not cooking, biking, listening to music or attending concerts, I write stuff for Side-Line.com. Mostly about Norwegian bands, but it’s been some Swedish, English, American, Danish, German and others too… 😉

www.facebook.com/jrstange

Genre/Influences: Electro-pop, dance-pop.

Background/Info: Four years have passed since the first chapter “Dare At Dawn”. French producer, composer, producer Peter Rainman strikes back with his solo-project People Theatre bringing us an EP with 8 songs and featuring guest artists.

Content: Among the guests you’ll find Henrik Iversen (NamNamBulu) singing on 2 songs, Operation Of the Sun, Tess Fries, K-Bereit, Krystyna Eller (Tristraum) and Steven Cochran (Eloquent, Royal Visionaries).

The music is quite diversified taking off with an instrumental intro to next experiment with dance-pop. Another cut is driven by EBM vibes while another sounds delicate and sensual-like.

+ + + : From a very personal point of view I have a preference for the most unusual song from the EP, which is the one composed together with K-Bereit and revealing an EMB style. I also enjoyed “Wandering” for the great duo vocals featuring Krystyna Eller and Steven Cochran. Sound-wise Peter Rainman also confirms his great writing- and producer skills. He has this talent to get a song down into a break, which progressively leads towards a pure sonic outburst. It has something transcendental and that’s what you can hear in a song like “Forever” featuring Henrik Iversen.

– – – : Some of the ‘dance-cuts’ have something pretty dance/commercial like, which is not my favorite part of the EP.

Conclusion: This new EP by People Theatre is more diversified than its predecessor, but clearly features several noticeable cuts. Time now for a full length album?!

Best songs: “Ultimate Meeting feat. K-Bereit”, “Wandering feat. Krystyna Eller & Steven Cochran”, “Forever feat. Henrik Iversen”.

Rate: (7).

Artist: www.people–theatre.com / www.facebook.com/peopletheatreofficial

Label: www.facebook.com/GoMProd /

www.facebook.com/FoundryRecordsUK

About People Theatre

People Theatre is the solo project of French producer and remixer Peter Rainman, also known for Waiting For Words and for remix/production work for IAMX, Nitzer Ebb, NamNamBulu and Apoptygma Berzerk. The project’s debut EP, “Acte 1: Dare At Dawn”, appeared in 2015 and featured Soe V, Rainman’s Waiting For Words bandmate, on “Again.” “Chapter II / Staring At The Sun,” reviewed here, adds guests including NamNamBulu’s Henrik Iversen.

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

Never mess with a Swedish audience, Peter Murphy is also aware of that now. Murphy, who is touring Europe with Bauhaus bandmate David J, was literally thrown out of his own concert during a concert in Stockholm last night. That’s what Dagens Nyheter reports.

As it seems Murphy threw a bottle right into the audience, unfortunately injuring a fan who got the bottle right n his face and who suffered injuries. The organisers intervened and threw Murphy out of the venue after which the police (or a security team, as the jackets don’t really show) intervened.

A picture of the incident was posted on Facebook by Tom Homlund as you can see above and here’s an instagram video of the actual moment when Murphy launches the bottle.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

#bauhaus #petermurphy #nalen #davidj #stockholm

A post shared by Angela (@d1zzydishes) on Dec 12, 2018 at 2:55pm PST

The concert promoter also reacted in a Facebook post:

“With one more song planned, the artists tour manager and technician decided to end yesterday’s concert with Peter Murphy since technical equipment had been destroyed due to incidents we at Nalen take very seriously. The artist acted in an unacceptable way towards the audience and our staff. We are currently trying to sort the situation out. If anyone in the audience got injured in any way, we would like you to contact us and report to the police. We also want to say thanks to the guests who helped us at Nalen and others in the audience.”

Only in Sweden.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com

Russian dark wave band The Guests was founded in 2002 and has since then released numerous albums and performed at various festivals. Out now is the band’s newest release, the “Highlands” EP.

The EP includes the title track next to several remixes of the song “Autumn Walk” by such artists as Bruno Kramm (Das Ich), Asper X and Fedor Arkhangelsky.

You can check out the EP below.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com

Coming out this Friday is the brand new Psy’Aviah album “Lightflare”, and as announced a while back, we are today offering you an exclusive insight in the deluxe version of the album itself (with the exception of 3 tracks thanks to SABAM). The album is available on CD, 2CD (order right here via the Alfa Matrix webstore) and as download on Bandcamp.

Attention when you buy via Bandcamp, don’t forget to use the special code sideline2518 and you’ll get an immediate discount of 25%.

We contacted the Belgian artist behind this international project, the Antwerp based Yves Schelpe. You can preview the album here (the interview is right after this embedded player):

SL: Yves, your new album has been a personal journey through the ups and downs you experienced. How has life been treating you the past few years?

YVES: Life throws all kind of unexpected situations at you, and the older you get the more frustration creeps in, or the more you look at things from a different perspective. I can’t complain, I think I did get bored with certain situations and that I grew frustrated with stale situations. My albums have always included personal stories – whether autobiographical stories or things I’ve seen from friends & family in daily life. But “Lightflare” is a more in depth look where I take the listener through the emotions of “feeling lost” towards strategies one evolves to “cope with life” to end with “happiness and joy”.

SL: Was this something you also transmitted to the guest singers? How did they react?

YVES: For sure, almost all the lyrics and vocal guides are written by me, and I explain the meaning behind my intent with some words in details to the vocalists. Mari Kattman & I did a video to explain the process, where she talks about those vocal guides & the explenations I give her (she starts talking at 104sec).

When the lyrics are written by the guests themselves (such as Ellia Bisker of Sweet Soubrette or Michael of MiXE1) – I do give them artwork snippets, reference to other lyrics on the album I wrote and a vision I have for the lyrical content I’d like to have on the album. So it’s an intense journey working with them, and as far as I know they all appreciate that way of working, being part of telling a story.

SL: The album has been receiving raving reviews the past few weeks from all kinds of press. Was that something you had expected or was it rather the result of hard work?

YVES: This album is far more delicate than the previous two, it touches upon personal topics and while it’s still “dark pop music with an adge” and rooted in EBM, there’s also triphop, pure pop and electronic rap on there. Which made it again an evolution in my exploration of boundaries in sound. But to be able to tell a story like I wanted on Lightflare I had to seek out those genres, as they convey the emotions – it was this a lot of hard work: two years went into the album, from recording, writing, sepending time on the artwork to have a visual image for the vision & story. So when I first sent out the album and received the reviews I was very nervous – but I am so happy things are positive and that Lightflare is being appreciated a lot – both on radio, podcasts and reviews! It’s strange to think of it as the songs I made in my “bedroom studio” are being played in clubs all over the world, and listened to people from all over the world – I couldn’t be happier to with the reaction I receive from those listeners and DJs as well.

SL: What kind of influences have played a role for creating the songs for this album?

YVES: Musically I drew inspiration from Moby’s & Faithless’ triphop sounding songs, as well as Röyksopp, Tove Lo and the classics as always such as Praga Khan & Lords Of Acid which triggered me to write my own music as a yound kid. Fun fact is that I always send off songs to Ludo Camberlin (aka CS Johansen), producer on PK & LOA as well as Poésie Noire and The Neon Judgement – a very influencial person for me, but for a lot of others too I guess. Ludo always gives me very good feedback and thus is a big influence for me.

But I guess the main influence of course is the story, and for each chapter in this Lightflare story I make a song, with the lyrics in mind shaping those sounds & hits and build ups to match the mood. Not always with a vocalist in mind directly – but when I have a demo finished I usually know immediately who to ask. David from Entrzelle was perfect for Ghost, I know that there I can create an electro track with a lot of ambience, and a riff but rely on his vocal performance a lot – the emotions. Same with Mari Kattman’s “Lost At Sea”, when getting back those vocals I usually change and shape the demo around their vocals so they fit perfectly.

The vocalist that pushed me most this album for sure was with my live vocalist Marieke Lightband, we had multiple sessions and recordings at her studio in Antwerp, trying to figure out together what would be the best – giving feedback to each other and coming to a song that is very much full of soul, triphop and influences of jazz. The same happened with Michael of MiXE1 – bouncing off ideas back and forth and the song was then shaped more and more tightly around his vocals – but in stead of doing it in person like with Marieke, the process with Michael was done online: Facebook is dead – long live facebook messenger ?.

SL: You’re very active on social media, with the recent ‘reach crash’ it seems that personal contact via the profiles is back. How do you look at the way all these platforms change the rules all the time from an artist’s point of view?

YVES: It’s frustrating indeed, but I’ve always been active on all kinds of social media. Instagram & my personal profile now play a more crucial role – as well as our own website. Most people forget they signed a contract when they register to a social media platform, it’s their right to change the algorithm. So be it, but I’ll abuse the system and use the medium the way I want it – game the system, and be honest. I love it that this time around a lot of people have more immediate contact with me through facebook (facebook.com/yves.schelpe) and instragram (instagram.com/psyaviah) – sending me pictures, their personal stories on how they interpret and experience the songs and lyrics. I don’t mind adapting thus, I still think social media is a cool medium.

SL: When and where can we see Psy’Aviah live again?

YVES: We will do some shows in Belgium being booked by private companies (so sadly those are private shows) and we’re in talks to visit Germany. But we’re always open for opportunies and kick some ass on stage with our dedicated live band: Marieke, Ben and me.

You can also check out the following videos on YouTube:

“Reboot Reset Relay ft. Fallon Nieves”

“Lost At Sea ft. Mari Kattman”

“Aftermath ft. Ellia Bisker”

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com

Motorhead guitarist and founding member ‘Fast’ Eddie Clarke is no more. He died aged 67 due to pneumonia. Clarke was the last original member of the UK based band which formed in the mid 1970s. He passed away in hospital yesterday. The news was confirmed via a statement posted on the band’s official Facebook page.

Clarke was working on re-fitting a houseboat, when he met drummer Phil Taylor. Taylor had recently joined Motörhead and introduced Clarke to Lemmy. Clarke left Motörhead in 1982, whilst on tour of the United States, becoming unhappy at the results of the “Iron Fist” album. The recording sessions with the US punk outfit Plasmatics were the final straw. Clarke was replaced by former Thin Lizzy and Wild Horses lead guitarist Brian Robertson after Anvil frontman Steve “Lips” Kudlow turned down the offer to play with Motörhead.

Clarke would perform a cameo on the later Motörhead album “Live at Brixton Academy”, released in 2003, on which the band featured many guest appearances from other guitarists. Clarke was one of the guests playing on the songs “No Class”, “The Chase Is Better Than the Catch” and “Overkill”.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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