I had the chance to interview Soror Dolorosa
before their amazing show at the SGM Festival, Madrid. Andy Julia
(vocals), Frank Ligabue (drums), Hervé Carles (bass), Nicolas Mons
(guitar) and David-Alexandre Parquier, called DA (guitar) squeezed in
the tiny backstage of the Gruta 77 to answer my questions. Thanks a
lot to the band, here is the interview…
Guillaume Renard
On tour
You're
touring since the release of the second album, I would like to know
what are your impressions on this tour compared to the previous one.
Andy:
"No More Heroes"
has been a transition for us. We moved from a not really looked at
band to a band that people are expecting. We clearly felt the impact
of this album. Now we have much better conditions on tour, the
feedback of the public is multiplied by 2 or 3. We took time to make
an album, we put everything we could into it, so it's good to have
such feedback. The album has worked for himself, with the press and
with the fan-base, which has grown, people have start to cling more
to our music. So for us it is a transition album... and we also
learned to compose music in a different way. All this leads us to
consider things to a larger extent, the scene as well. It has
expanded our vision.
You have
made mostly festivals this year, is it a formula that suits you
better than a proper Soror Dolorosa tour?
Andy:
Yes, for now festivals are
good for us. Our fan-base is not large enough for us to be able to
tour alone and make shows in front of 200-300 people, as we have done
it in all the cities that we have visited. The festivals are a great
way to get the public to know you, to meet other acts, there are many
people in the same place at the same time, it creates a special
atmosphere. And the afters in festivals are also nice, because there
are a lot of people and we like to party, we like people and in
festivals you get to meet people, it's nice.
Which songs
do you prefer to play on stage? How does the public respond to these
songs? Are you sometimes surprised by the audience’s reaction to a
song?
Frank:
I enjoy playing all our
songs, although there are some songs I would like to take a break
from, because we have played them so much, but people expect them, so
they stay in our set. All the songs from the last album are very
enjoyable to play, they are punchy, they are catchy and it is a
pleasure for me to play them.
DA:
All the songs give me the
same pleasure when I play them. We use more or less the same setlist
and the songs are more or less in the same order since the beginning
of the tour, and the transition songs in the set are the one I
appreciate the most, like "Silversquare”, which comes at a
time when I have had time to warm up and this is when I totally get
in the show and forget all the rest. I discovered Soror when I was
16-17 years , with the first EP , and became a total fan, so playing
songs like "Beau Suicide" is amazing for me. I used to
listen to it with my little headphones on my way to high school!
Regarding the "hits" I can understand Frank, but in general
we get such a fucking good feedback of the audience that I personally
love playing them.
Andy:
It also depends a lot on the
public's reaction , and it’s something you can’t foresee.
Sometimes we play a song like "Autumn Wounds" , which was a
hit on dance-floors, and when we start playing it I think "Well,
ok, let's go, let's play Autumn Wounds…" and then I look at
the people in front, they start dancing, people are waiting for the
lyrics to start singing along. It lifts you up and you rediscover the
song through the public. We don’t want to do all the time the same
concert, we adapt, as we are a live band. The songs don’t sound
always the same and the reaction of the public affects our behavior
and our perception of the concert, and we like that.
.jpg)
.jpg)
