A Q&A With I, Apokalypse

Extreme, fast and violent… from Canada

What’s the title of your latest release, and what does it mean to you?
‘Destroyer of Worlds’. It’s pretty self-explanatory. As of today, maybe people know a little bit more about the origin of this, because of the movie Oppenheimer. I felt at the time that it was reflecting the concept of our name and would fit well for our first album. It’s like a description of our name you know.

What was the hardest part about putting this release together, and why?
I think it was to tie everything together. For a first album, I was always finding it hard to make sure that you got the best sound, the good songs. When it’s on record, you can’t go back. So, I feel personally that it’s the hardest part. Make sure that these are THE songs.

Who produced the release – what did they bring to it?
We produced it with a friend of ours Mathieu Pleau. Was nice to work with him. This guy doesn’t do that for a living, and since we did some music with him in another project in the past, it was a smooth experience. Because he knows us very well, it was easy for him to tell us when things were not right and guide us in a good direction.

What do you want the listener to take away from listening to your music?
Just enjoyment and I hope that when people are listening to our music, it gives them the need to see us live.

How does a track normally come together? Can you tell us something about the process?
Well, it changes with the times. But lastly, we get together at our drummer’s house, where we rehearse and we come with some riffs. After that drummer does his thing and we get things together. We scrap quite a lot of riffs sometimes, but when we feel we got something we go deeper into it. Start thinking about the vocal pattern from the start, and that is it.

What band/artists have influenced you the most since you started this project, and why?
I don’t feel that we had a particular band that influenced us at the time more than a lifetime of listening to music and blending together what we like. We are four black metal old-timers, we listened to so much of this music that you know the direction you want to go, without needing a specific band as an influence.

What countries would you like to tour? Are there any standout venues you’d like to play in?
Pretty much all Europe would be a dream for us. Most of the bands we are listening to came from somewhere out there, the scene looks pretty crazy.

If you could pick one track for our readers to listen to in order to get a taste of your music, what would you pick, and why?
‘Leviathan Rise’. Why? Because it is a good song, but also we had a lot of comments lastly, from new listeners and it seems that this track is appreciated from them so, I think it’s a good way to know us. Personally, I find it hard to choose one, because I feel that the album is so well put together that all the songs deserve a good listening.

What ambitions do you have for the band/your career?
At this stage of our life, the goals are not the same as when we were younger. We are older dudes who have families and jobs, so it’s sometimes hard to align our band goals with our personal life. But I would say that if we could have a good label for our next releases and being able to tour in a somewhat healthy manner that would be awesome. We still want to share and play our music to the world so we will do as much as possible for that to happen.

Finally, as you leave the stage, what are your parting words?
Support your local metal scene. Everything starts from there!

For more information about I, Apokalypse go to: linktr.ee/iapokalypse