First off, just want to thank you for participating in this edition of Infidel Interviews. Could you start off by giving a little information about you to the audience? Whatever you feel comfortable with, but name, age, and where you live would be pretty standard?
Ok, I'm Dav Dralleon, I'm 33 years old and I live in France. I compose music for about ten years, I had a metalcore band before "PANGORA" that split and then I became interested in electro, epic and synthwave music for video games and movies. Afterwards, I made some chiptune / hardcore 8 bit and then I composed my last EP "DEPTHS" which is more in the darksynth / darkwave / synthwave style.
How do you enjoy where you live? Is there a vibrant music community where you are? Would you say you find that your local scene influences your attitude and/or creativity?
It is nice to live in a small town like Nevers where there is a good musical community, especially in hardcore metal, there are good local bands. This influences the younger ones a lot and pushes them to continue making music.
Would you say that your choice to pursue music has changed your life since you started? Would you say that creativity has evolved you spiritually, emotionally, or logically?
Music has changed my life and it has made me evolve emotionally, it makes me really happy in everyday life, I think this is what I'm meant to do.
What would you say are your biggest influences when it comes to art and music? Are there any bands that you would say struck you with the chord that inspired you to peruse your current path of musical aspirations?
I am influenced by metal, heavy metal, metalcore, death metal and deathcore and then I found the same dark sounds in Darksynth artists like "PERTURBATOR" that made me hallucinate, I thought it was so big... so it was at that point that I did enjoy the Darksynth / Darkwave / Synthwave.
Are you musically self-taught? Or have you had mentors along the way to help you develop?
I started the first 8 years as self-taught, and for the last 2 years I have been taking some guitar lessons to really improve my technique and find other ways to make music.
When you write music there is a lot of trial and error. Would you consider yourself a person who goes into production with a defined sound in mind, and you work at it until you achieve the closest to the results in your head? Or would you consider yourself more of a person who feels and grooves music, letting songs progressively evolve and define themselves throughout the creation?
I am someone who feels the music as it comes. I let the songs evolve gradually and define themselves throughout the creation. It's a question of feeling.
Musical composition nowadays can be aided by so many different tools and devices. Do you favor a complex approach of using lots of different instruments, or are you in the keep it simple until you have to boat of refining certain elements to their maximum potential? Or would you say your philosophy lays in between?
I would say my philosophy lies in between. I think today it's a great chance to have access to so many different tools and instruments but in some respects we have to keep things simple in order to make everything coherent.
Do you spend a lot of time crafting your own sounds? Or do you value song crafting and effects tweaking more? Or do you find it's a balance between the two? What's your relationships with presets? When you make music are you primarily a hardware or software oriented musician? Or do you do a fusion of both? Are there any particular instruments, programs, or effects that you would say are vital to you making music?
I spend a lot of time creating my own sounds, I usually work on Fruity Loops studio, Kontakt, Ozone ... and I use my guitar to compose and create new sounds. So yes hardware and software are essential for me. I'm using some presets at first but then I always modify them a maximum.
What would you say are your favorite themes and topics that inspire you to compose? What draws you to those themes?
I like a lot of themes: cyberpunk, dystopia, occult, horror, heroic fantasy, science fiction, superheroes, action, thriller, nature, light and darkness. I have always liked these themes since ever.
Would you consider yourself to be an overall political or spiritual individual? If so, if how what would you say are your strongest/most important views and/or causes?
Actually both. I think the world needs to slow down, everything is going too fast. We overproduce, we pollute to the environment, we go straight into the wall, and in the end, it will be a total self-destruction. The few who will survive will eat the roots, some will realize that gold can not be eaten. We could find a solution for all of us, so we must gather! We are living in a world of opulence while others are starving and struggling for life. It cannot last forever, but it is quite normal that our system cracks ... We must gather all the people but also our beliefs. Everyone has the right to believe in what he wants, as long as it is not imposed on others.
We, mortals of "low sphere", we can not do anything except sending a message through our art. It is up to the government to make the right decisions, if they were not so corrupted and starving for money and power as always. So it comes to us, "small people" to come together, revolutionize and topple the balance before everything collapses and that our world as we know it falls into the depths and the most abject darkness that the human mind can conceive. if we do nothing, a very dark future is awaiting us, we might not see it, but our children will surely suffer the most serious consequences.
What are your thoughts on genres in general? Do you find them creatively helpful as a template to work with? Or do you find them restricting? Or possibly somewhere in between? Now that the internet has caused so much crossover in music, would you even say genre labels are relevant anymore?
I do not rely on genres in general as a model of creation. But it's interesting to have several labels for each style of music because it's important to be able to diversify and have your own identity.
What are some of the biggest challenges you have had to overcome in your musical career?
My biggest challenge was making my EP "D E P T H S" in less than a year.
What do you see in the near, and far, future for your creative output?
I wish to continue to make EPs from various horizons, and also produce sounds for movies and video games, it would be very rewarding for me.
Outside of electronic music, what other genres could you see yourself composing music in? Or should I say, do you see yourself inspired by?
I could see myself composing music in metal, metalcore, hardcore, death metal, deathcore, chiptune, epic synthwave, synthwave and darksynth.
Do you have any other musical projects that you are involved with, or do you have any other musicians or artists that you collaborate with in some capacity? If you could collaborate with any musician or artist, dead or alive, who would it be? And what in particular draws you to want to collaborate with them?
I do not have any other musical projects at the moment. I have not done any collaboration yet, but I am open to any proposal.
Outside of music, what are some of your favorite past times and emotional engagements?
My favorite past times are video games, movies, martial arts... I'm also engaged in animals rights and for the protection of the environment.
Thank you so much for participating in this episode of Infidel Interview. Any parting words for your fans, or my audience?
Thank you Matthew and thank you so much to all my followers and their support.
Follow his latest activities on his Facebook https://www.facebook.com/dralleon/
Catch him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/davdralleon
Download his music on bandcamp: https://playmaker.bandcamp.com/album/d-e-p-t-h-s
Purchase a limited edition cassette tape of his Depths EP:
Stream his music on his Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/davdralleon