Exposed Vocals Interviews Owl State
Owl State is an french metal band from Paris, formed in 2015. Originally formed byt the singer Laslia and the drummer Matth, they have introduced their first track Pulverize It. The group consists of Laslia (sing), Julien (guitare), Ben Hyde (guitare), Nico (bass) and Matth (drums).
Exposed Vocals: So tell us your story. Where did you grow up? What made you decide to become an artist?
Laslia: Actually, I grew everywhere, my parents used to travel and change countries for their job so I’ve followed them. I came back in Paris 6 years old ago but I think I gonna leave again soon (laugh). It’s still difficult for me to consider myself as an artist. I really don’t know if I am one. I’m a pianist for sure, I love to play and compose soundtracks. Surprisingly, I consider myself more like a huge music fan who tries to do this just for fun and so as not to have any regrets later. What made me decide to do this ? I think I didn’t decide, it was simply a need to express myself in this way.
Exposed Vocals: How did you come up with that name? What was your inspiration behind it?
Laslia: OMG, it was a long long long fight with my boys! At first, I wanted to call the band San Od Pero, that’s means “Feather dream”, but they didn’t want! So we’ve searched it for maybe 7 months. It was so long and they didn’t like everything I suggested. Otherwise, I didn’t like their names. So one day, I’ve found OWL DEPTH, and I loved it so much! But the guys found A-STATE, so I fought with them to finally find a kind of compromise : Owl State. In the end, I think it’s the best name for us.
Exposed Vocals: What do you think about online music sharing? Do you ever give your music away for free? Why?
Laslia: I love it ! I mean, I support every kind of music sharing and expression. Music is a good thing cause it makes you feel better, forget your problems or reveal them. For the moment, I’m not earning my living with it so if the small things I do can make people feel good, I’ll keep on supporting it.
Exposed Vocals: Since everyone was a start-up once, can you give any smaller or local bands or artists looking to get gigs and airplay some tips?
Laslia : Work, work and work! Don’t listen to people who try to make you feel inferior. Go to shows, make contacts, open your mind and consider all ways. That’s my best advice ! I think in music you can’t be afraid of starting underground.
Exposed Vocals: Where do you usually gather songwriting inspiration? What is your usual songwriting process?
Laslia :I write every lyrics. My inspiration is daily life, everything which can make me angry. Cause I make metal to deport this hatred deep inside me. I’m not an angry girl (laugh) but I think we all have hatred inside ourselves. So it’s often about politics, but I don’t really explain it like this, people who try to crush you, jealousy, something I know very well, all this shitty things you know. My second inspiration is spirituality. I consider metal like a tribal music, so I try that each song could be like a shaman ceremony. This is the fact what i sing with guttural voices. In tribute, when you can have this voice, people say that you can speak with spirits, I mean dead people and divinity. And people often forget guttural voices come from tributes. So it’s important for me to speak about divination in songs. But sometimes with a tinge of irony like in our next song Ysun.
Exposed Vocals: Do you have a band website? What online platforms do you use to share your music?
Laslia: Actually, the webside is still underconstruction so we share our music on :
Twitter : https://twitter.com/owlstate
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/
Soundcloud : https://soundcloud.com/owl-
Well, I love to promote music and band in my own page : https://www.facebook.com/
Exposed Vocals: If you were given half a million dollars and a year off, what would you do? How would you spend it?
Laslia: I would certainly give it to people who fight for the preservation of nature, real people who trust in and give their life for it, no society which makes you feel they gonna fight for it and they finally keep the money… I would give some to my parents, brothers and sister. I don’t need a lot of money to be happy so I should just keep a little bit for me. In my opinion, money is superficial, nature and animals are real. But sadly, people today trust more in money because society makes us think it’s the most important thing in life. It’s not.
Exposed Vocals: How do you find ways to promote your music? What works best for you?
Laslia: I really don’t know any other ways for the other kind’s of music, so I will only speak about the metal scene : the best way in metal is to play on stage ! So I’m excited to start concerts soon, I can’t wait ! And the main problem with internet is that people always think you add a lot of voice effect or you can’t really sing live so they often don’t trust you! You can’t lie on stage.
Exposed Vocals: So, what’s next? Any new upcoming projects that you want to talk about?
Laslia : For the moment, we gonna share our next song YSUN, which is one of our best songs for me. PULVERIZE IT is our first song, we’re still trying to find our ways and style to work together. Concerts are coming soon too and after we will see. You know music is difficult so we don’t want to count too much on this in case it doesn’t work very well for us.
Exposed Vocals: If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing?
Laslia: What I’m doing at the moment : music journalist and traveling everywhere! Maybe if music didn’t take me so much time, I could be in an association to take care of animals. That’s my thing and second drug.
Exposed Vocals: How do you juggle the rest of your responsibilities while trying to stay ahead in your music life?
Laslia: Oh I really don’t know, making music and others things it’s a kind of adventure but I like it! It makes me feel alive so maybe it’s difficult but I need to do this. Music plays a big part in my life, too big I think. Sometimes I don’t find any time for other stuff.
Exposed Vocals: What should fans look forward to in 2016?
Laslia: Making fans first (laugh) ! We’ll continue composing new songs to be able to record a first album. We’ll try to raise the number of our followers by playing live music and, even better, finding a label or a producer.