Dav Dralleon interview – 2019

French musical tour de force, Dav Dralleon, is back with a new EP.  HOLYWRATH is seven tracks of original darksynth, and fully demonstrates Dralleon’s capabilities as an electronic composer.

HOLYWRATH truly keeps the listener engaged throughout. The EP combines heavy quadruple meter grooves with dissonant ambient sounds, creepy vocal samples, and catchy melodies.  While it may be sensory overload for rookies to the discordant sounds of darksynth, HOLYWRATH delivers for fans of genre.  At times the EP seemingly floats on a cushion of aural bliss, only to be interrupted by a decaying wave of demonic bit crushing.

You never really know what’s lurking around the next musical corner…. A breath of air in synthwave/electronic music that is refreshing. When music becomes predictable, it’s replay factor decreases exponentially.  Perturbator’s New Model is a perfect example of this trend, and so is HOLYWRATH.  When the album ends it’s run, I find myself cycling back to the opening track.

Playing on the expectations of the listener, and eventually delivering a deeply satisfying groove, beat or melody, takes a caliber of skill that many electronic musicians fail to develop.  Dralleon has clearly been honing his composing chops since the release of his 2017 album, DEPTHS.

We caught up with Dralleon via email, and got some insightful answers to more solemn questions than our 2017 interview.

Slickster:  Holy Wrath is your newest full length album.  What would you like to highlight about the album?

Dralleon: HOLYWRATH is an Ep and I learned a lot about electro and composition in general by producing this EP.

Slickster: In the liner notes for HOLYWRATH you ask an accent question, “Is it our faith in our infinite beliefs, or is it our omniscient science that will save our souls?”  This is extremely ethereal query, and one which mankind has perplexed over for millennia.  Do you have an answer for this question, or do you pose it to make the listener ask the question of themselves? 

Dralleon: I force the listener to think more, and I do not have the answer to the question. But what I do know is that we have to believe in ourselves as much as we can while remaining optimistic and giving the best of ourselves. Whether in science or in our beliefs, everyone has the right to believe what he needs to believe in order to feel better and achieve his goal.

Slickster:  How have you developed musically since your previous album (DEPTHS) and the last time we spoke?

http://www.slickstermagazine.com/dav-dralleon/

Dralleon: A lot of work, always more research, and I learned a lot since I produced DEPTHS which has its authentic dark background. HOLYWRATH allowed me to explore more techniques, more finesse, while remaining raw and powerful, as the addition of metal guitar in WOLVESQUAD, which fits very well to the Darksynth universe.

Slickster:  In our 2017 interview you said this about the development of large-scale metropolitan areas, “I imagine gigantic megacities as far as the eye can see with its inhabitants slaves of their least desire and technology.”  Has the collection human species edged closer to your perception of reality in the previous two years?  And if so, how?

Dralleon: I think we’re getting close to it, big megacities already exist and it will continue to deteriorate our whole ecosystem. We never stop! We have a vision often too limited to basic needs based on pleasure and appearances, it will not change, that’s how mankind works. But we have to remember we will not be able to live in total opulence and leaving other countries to die on a hot soil… there will be a very violent backfire! If mankind does not learn by gentleness, he will learn through pain.

Slickster: Your vision for the future of humanity shares commonality with many synthwave musicians, especially darksynth.  The dystopian future, not dissimilar from a Judge Dredd comic book plot, or Terminator movie, perpetuates the story.   Why do you feel this way?

Dralleon: I think we are all influenced by our favorite sci-fi movies during our childhood, like Terminator, Blade Runner, etc … So it’s natural to have all these cultures in our electro darksynth musical universe.

Slickster: Is it possible to have a darksynth album, but shed the dismal outlook of a future society dominated by malevolent cybernetic organisms?  For example, could you create a “happy” or “upbeat” darksynth album, or is that purely impossible to do?

Dralleon: Funny question, because I’m actually working on a new EP with a more optimistic universe, creating hope for a better future, but remaining with some melancholy, epic, heroic aspects I would say, in line with the single ” Horizon Set Ablaze ” I released for “synthaid 2018”. It was a compilation of 60 artists whose goal is to donate the royalties to an foundation that fights for the defense of the environment. https://www.edf.org/

Slickster:  Romain Asenion has returned once again to create stunning original artwork for Holy Wrath.  It seems you guys have great working relationship.  Can you talk about Asenion and your collaboration.

Dralleon: Asenion is a group of Death Metal Prog from Nevers, https://asenion.bandcamp.com/
the city from which I am native. Romain is the guitarist and graphic designer of this group, he is a very good friend of mine for a long time now. We already played together in several bands, including “Pangora”.

Slickster:  What does the name of track #5 “M E K A Z A R Y O N”, mean?

Dralleon: Compared to the storyline of my EP, it is a music that evokes the passage of cybernetic souls from the underground mechanical world to an unknown outcome. This is how I call this « dark tunnel».

Slickster:  Holy Wrath is available for purchase on an extremely limited edition red cassette.  What prompted this, and are there any left for purchase?

Dralleon: Everything is going well with PLAYMAKER. The « DEPTHS » cassettes were quickly sold out.  So, when I presented them HOLYWRATH, they were very enthusiastic to produce cassettes again with this new EP, and yes there are still some left 🙂

Slickster: Dav, thanks for sharing HOLYWRATH with us and giving a sneak-peek of the record.  Your answers have been insightful as always!  Is there anything else you’d like to mention or talk about that we didn’t get to in the interview?

Dralleon: Thank you, and thank you very much for this interview, I would like to thank Romain Asenion, Pierre Crosnier, Ar, Jurgen from PLAYMAKER, my family, and all my friends who support me. 

Dav Dralleon Links