Forming back in 1994, Canadian metallers Neuraxis forged a unique identity, combining sheer brutality with a melodic and aggressive edge! By 1997 the band has released their debut album 'Imagery', which showcased the bands heavier side pushing Neuraxis into the death and grind-core sub genres. The band would tour Canada in support of the debut album before heading back into the studio to record the more melodic 'A Passage Into Forlorn', an album which would successfully show a different side to the band, introducing a more melodic and progressive influence to the bands evolving sound. By the time Neuraxis released their third album 'Truth Beyond' they had built up a reputation for being one of the most energetic, new live bands on the metal scene. Since forming the band has grown and developed a unique sound of their own which certainly helps them stand out from the metal peers. The band has been fortunate to complete very successful tours of North America, Europe and Japan. Neuraxis have shared the stage with the likes of Rotting Christ, Suffocation and Abigail Williams and recorded their first ever live album 'Live Progression' in 2007, an album which certainly captures what the band is all about live... neck-breaking, aggressive, extreme metal! Earlier this year the band went back into the studio to begin work on their fifth studio masterpiece 'The Thin Line Between', on Prosthetic Records and songs such as 'Wicked', 'Dreaming the End', and 'Versus' have proven to be amongst the stand out tunes on the band's latest offering. The bands fans and critics around the world have classed 'The Thin Line Between' as the bands best work to date, a more mature approach to the songwriting and a clearer musical direction are just some of the quotes that have made metal fans across the globe sit up and take notice! I recently had the pleasure of catching up with the bands vocalist Alex Leblanc to discuss the bands most recent album 'The Thin Line Between', his first musical experiences, the possibility of touring Australia and much more! As 'Darkness Prevails' we embark on a chat with Alex Leblanc! Metal Fanatix: Hi Alex, how are ya doin mate? Alex Leblanc: Pretty good actually. We are preparing ourselves for the US tour with The Faceless and we just bought a brand new van. I’m also hitting the gym, so I can be in the best shape possible for this tour. Metal Fanatix: Awesome dude! Thanks for speaking with me today mate and congratulations on your most recent album ‘The Thin Line Between’. A few months on, looking back over the whole process, is there anything you would have changed? Alex Leblanc: Well, not really except the lack of time to record it. We signed with Prosthetic [Records] in December with half of the album written. Don’t get me wrong, we had tons of ideas but with all the shows we had prior to the signing and the promotion for our live album, we didn’t have the time to build the songs yet. Prosthetic wanted to get the album out by the summer so we had to have the finished master by April 1st. So basically, we wrote the rest of the album, being at the local 5-6 times a week for almost two months. The day after we finished writing the last song, we were starting the drums. We had twenty three days to record and mix it. It was very intense. Metal Fanatix: How did you push each other musically and creatively to get the best results possible for the new album? Alex Leblanc: Well, it is the new Neuraxis line-up. William and I had been in the band for a while. Even if the chemistry was already there, we had to learn to work with everybody, getting the new writing vibe. I have a very different way of writing songs compared to the last singer. So we all had to adapt to each others. At the same time, it was interesting to learn everybody’s way to write songs and build this new chemistry.
Alex Leblanc: I would say the biggest factor is the teamwork. Compared to the other Neuraxis albums, everybody was giving his opinion on everything. It was not the traditional thing where the guitar player writes some riffs, build the song with the drummer and the rest of the band just learn it. We all gave input on every department of the writing mode. I gave ideas for drum beats and structures, so did Will and Rob, and Tommy (drums) wrote lyrics for three songs and some riffs. It was a big team effort! Another factor was the direction we wanted. Everybody in the band has totally different influences musically. We all agreed that we wanted a more “classic” feel through the album where every songs would have his own identity. Basically, more like classic metal albums of the 90’s and 80’s. (Testament, Megadeth, Morbid Angel, etc) Every song had its own universe. We just wanted to write songs instead of showing off our skills just for the sake of it. Metal Fanatix: ‘The Thin Line Between’ was produced by Anonymus guitarists Jeff Fortin. How did Jef push you to get the most from your vocal abilities? Alex Leblanc: Jeff produced our three-song demo last summer. We did it to send to labels. We also played couple shows with Anonymus, so Jeff knows me, my style and the band in general. Me and him realized that I always record my voice a bit lower than what I do live. We decided to try having the voice a bit more mid-ranged so it would be the same as I do live. Also, me being a French-Canadian, I wanted to have the best pronunciation possible, so we worked on that. It was pretty tough as Jeff would make me redo a lot of tracks because he “didn’t hear the s at the end of the sentence” kind of thing. Overall, it was a lot of hard work but Jeff being the cool guy that he is was great to work with; it was a very friendly experience. Metal Fanatix: Alex, I want to speak with you a little about life on the road... Can you remember the hardest time you had as an opening act? Alex Leblanc: Last year, we were touring Canada with Martyr. We were in Edmonton (Alberta) and we were playing the gig. Everything was super fine. After the set, I began having this toothache. It became so intense, I was shaking with pain; with tears coming out...I was going crazy. Two days later, we were driving to Vancouver and we hit a dear with our van. It broke the van of course... We towed it to the next town but there wasn’t enough room for all of us, so Tommy and I had to hitchhike to the next town to catch up with the guys, the van and the garage. After a 3-hours repair time setback, we drove to Vancouver...late. When we arrived, Martyr, who was headlining this tour, was playing their encore song. We had ten minutes to get the gear inside, get on stage and play. We had no warm-ups, no stretch, not even time to change clothes. What a rush!!! And that was just this tour. We could have a beer and I could tell you tour stories all night. And I’ve only been in the band for less than two years [laughs].
Alex Leblanc: Well, in the Quebec province, we are famous for our walls-of-death. We played the Trois-Rivieres Metalfest. There were about six hundred people there, a fairly big show. There’s three songs left in our set and I invite Ian Campbell [Neuraxis previous singer] to sing ‘Neurasthenic’, our official wall of death song. We divide the crowd and then, all of a sudden, I had this flash to let Ian sing the song, he wrote it after all, and go in the pit for the WOD. I’m standing right in the middle with two hundred people each side of me, ready and excited to crush me in pieces. I remember asking myself what I was doing there as Ian gave the signal and the riot started. The song is only 45 seconds long and was immediately followed by ‘Imagery’. I came back on stage just in time to sing the song, with my nose bleeding all the way down to my belly. That was one of the craziest nights of my life. There is actually video of it on YouTube! Metal Fanatix: [Laughs] That’s intense man, I will have to check that out! Are there any plans in place that will see Neuraxis touring Australia in the next year or so? Alex Leblanc: It is a dream for Neuraxis to tour Australia. We want to go there for ‘The Thin Line Between’ but we have a lot of shows to do in the United-States and in Europe first. But, and you can trust us on this, we will try to get there as soon as we can. Metal Fanatix: Who is the one band you would like to hit the road with? Alex Leblanc: There are tons of them [laughs]. We are friends with a lot of bands and we toured with a lot of them. As far as bands we never toured with, and having to choose only one, I would say probably a band like Meshuggah. There is so many more: Testament, Lamb of God, Suffocation, Gojira, Morbid Angel etc...It’s tough to choose. The fact is, we never really choose who we are going to tour with. We get offers, and we discover some bands sometimes like everybody else. We make friends with bands that have nothing to do with us, musically speaking. I guess we just enjoy good company on tour. Metal Fanatix: Alex, we have hit the part of the interview where our readers want to find out more about the REAL you! What was the very first concert you attended and how much of an impact did that have on you musically? Alex Leblanc: Wow! The very first metal concert I ever attended was a Metallica, Danzig, Suicidal Tendencies show. I was Fifteen years old. There were 32,000 fans in attendance. That was an unreal experience. I got hooked on metal forever with that show. But the one that really made me play music was a year and a half later, at age sixteen, a Suffocation show for the ‘Pierced From Within’ tour. I remember that night; I was so impressed, that I told myself I would do music for the rest of my life, to give people that same effect.
Alex Leblanc: My parents were just a bit scared when I was a teenager, thinking that this type of music could lead me to drugs or worst. I am really lucky to have a great family with great values. I was the oldest of the bunch so I was testing ground for my brothers and sister [laughs]. They always raised me to work hard for what I want and to still be responsible about it. I learned to work young and always made my own money. Today, my family is so proud of me, for signing this contract and traveling all the time. My parents come to Neuraxis shows whenever they can. They are really happy and supportive of what I do. Metal Fanatix: Tell us a little about your childhood, were you the weird kid at school, into metal growing up, did you always envision yourself as someone who would be in this industry or were your goals different? Alex Leblanc: Well, I was a bit of a weird kid for I was the total metalhead of my school. I come from a small village so there weren’t that many people into this kind of music. When I started to play music, I was fifteen and it was a dream to become a professional musician. Later I came to Montreal for school and work, always with the thought in my mind to try getting into a serious band. I was very conscious that it’s tough and that it happens rarely, so I would continue to work during day and play music at night. Now, four bands and eight years later, here I am... Metal Fanatix: What is the one metal song you wish you had written? Alex Leblanc: I’ve always been mesmerized by the song ‘Pierced from within’ from Suffocation. I don’t know... those lyrics plus this incredible song...Gets me every time. Metal Fanatix: Who have you been surprised to learn is a fan of you work? Alex Leblanc: Dennis Sibeijn who made the cover for the album. He made time to do it all because he was a fan. When I told the guys it would be awesome to have him, I thought we would never get him. He actually did it with our impossible deadlines. He is the best... Metal Fanatix: Mate, what’s the craziest rumour you had ever heard about yourself and or the band? Alex Leblanc: When we were recording the album, two songs from Cryptopsy’s ‘The Unspoken King’ were leaked through the internet. There were some clean vocals on it and a lot of fans reacted negatively to it. Couple weeks later, a friend of mine called me. He said he was at a party and some people were saying there was a rumor that I was singing clean on the new Neuraxis album. I started to laugh...I’m so death metal in the way I sing, It would probably be horrible If I did the clean vocal thing [Laughs]. Metal Fanatix: There is no doubt that with every album you guys are getting bigger and have an ever growing fan base, what would you like to accomplish musically over the next couple of years? Alex Leblanc: I think we just want to continue our evolution as a band. We want to write better songs, record better albums and tour everywhere we can. Get bigger tours, do better albums and pay our debts [laughs]. Seriously, we just bought a new van and we’ll need to tour a lot. We want to tour as many countries as we can...
Alex Leblanc: Ok...William is a guitar teacher, Rob is a horror-movie fan, Tommy is a huge Judas Priest fan, Yan is half-French, and I am a wrestler in my free time. Metal Fanatix: For the lovers of metal out there who still aren’t too familiar with your work, using only five words, how would you describe Neuraxis? Alex Leblanc: Intensity, heavy, unity, energy, progress. Metal Fanatix: Lastly mate a question I ask everyone I speak with... What is the one band you never want to hear again and why? Alex Leblanc: Savage Garden [Laughs]. Metal Fanatix: [Laughs] Oh that’s classic mate! Alex, thanks again for your time today, it’s a true pleasure, do you have any last words for our readers? Alex Leblanc: Thanks a lot...Check out our new album ‘The Thin Line Between’ on Prosthetic Records and check our MySpace for tour dates. You never know when we might hit down-under... To keep up with all the latest news & much more on Alex & any of the bands he works with check out the following websites: http://www.neuraxis.org - Official Neuraxis Site http://www.myspace.com/neuraxis - Neuraxis MySpace Site © Cameron Edney October 2008, August 2009 Not to be re-printed in any form without written permission. |
