Interviews: Darkstone Crows

In this new occassion we have had the opportunity to interview the Metal band Darkstone Crows, from Canada. Check out this band and give them a like on their FACEBOOK PAGE.

1.Where did you get the idea for the band name, you planned it or came out just like that?

We were originally called “Pariah”, but after finding 12 other bands of the same name Russ made the point that it wasn’t easy to market, so Jiv suggested “Dark Storm Crows”. However, shortly after this, she was stumbling over her words and said “Darkstone Crows”. It stuck and we’ve been rolling with it ever since.

2.Why did you want to play this genre?

This genre is a constant challenge. It pushes our skills and keeps us on our toes. The lyrical content is almost always insightful, the music is dark and empowering. Creatively, metal is one of the most freeing genres in terms of choosing what you want to express. Song structure can differ very heavily from the norm and not be vilified for it. Rock and metal exude so much energy and the aggression and power a musician has to put behind metal to be very uplifting. Each of us uses that energy in some way to benefit ourselves both personally and on a musical level too. Our niche of metal isn’t even necessarily a background we all come from, though we have fused ourselves into a cohesive unit. The bottom line is metal allows us to express ourselves without censorship or rules holding us back.

3. Did you know each other before the band was formed? 

Elle and Jiv met at a music academy, and Matt and Nick had been in a band together previously. For simplicity’s sake, we’ll say no, we didn’t know each other before music made our worlds collide.

4. Each band member favourite band? 

Elle - Slipknot

Jiv – Lamb of God

Nick – Periphery

Russ – Tool

Matt – Avenged Sevenfold

5. Who or what inspires you to write songs?

Experiences and injustices, events and emotions that stand out. Even songs or movies, other media, what other artists are putting out into the world is vastly inspiring. Just life in general.

  

6. Where was your last gig?

The Nocturne Nightclub in Toronto, Canada, with Cadence Calling and Out of the Ruins.

7. Where would you like to act?

Anywhere and everywhere. Our goal is to become and international act, if not an international success. We’re a group of very interesting, very unique personalities, and we LOVE meeting new people and trying new things, drinking in the experiences, living life fully.

8. Whom would you like to feature with?

Any of the aforementioned favourite bands, but there are a lot of acts out there that can really bring the heat. Halestorm would be insane, Disturbed and KoRn too. A huge one would be Rage Against the Machine. Slipknot would probably break us, if we featured with them it would make our lives complete.

9. Whom not? 

Bands that just churn out crap, generic metal. We don’t want to crap all over the hardcore/metalcore genre because there are some great bands that came out of that, like Asking Alexandria, Bring Me the Horizon, Bullet For My Valentine, and Atreyu, but in general we try to distance ourselves from that type of metal, in part to stand out, because the airwaves are inundated with it.

10. Any of you has ever suffered from stage fright? Any tip for beginners on how to beat that? 

In moderation, drinking before taking the stage does take the edge off your nerves. Most of us (Nick, Matt, Elle) have some kind of nerves before hitting the stage. Matt says his go away as soon as he starts playing, Nick has a couple drinks and he’s fine, same with Elle, though her nerves are usually stretched to the breaking point by the time we hit the stage. Jiv got her stage legs pretty early on, and Russ has been doing this longer than the rest of us and has developed a kind of stage blindness that is borderline dangerously unaware.

11. What bands have inspired you the most? 

Hard to say musically, beyond our aforementioned favourites, but Tool, Slipknot, Avenged Sevenfold put on the best shows visually. That’s a big part of our show too, we want people to be awed by our playing and our personas.

12. What's the weirdest thing a fan has ever asked you for? 

A fan asked Jiv to lick his face once. She was not impressed. Elle was requested as a Christmas present by another fan. Russ, Matt, and Nick just can’t compete.

13. What do you think of your fans? 

Our fans are the best. It’s difficult to express in words the feeling of having your art, your creation, acclaimed and loved and possessed by a third party. Every time someone buys an album, wears a shirt, screams at us for “one more song”, it’s a gift. It’s hard to feel like you’ve given enough back to deserve that gift, but damn it, we’re going to keep on giving because nothing can replace that feeling.

14. What do you think of our site? 

Jiv would call it austere, Russ says modern. In general, great. Matt wants more pretty colours.

15. Something to add?

We’re releasing our follow-up album this fall 2016. It is our first full-length offering, with some exciting features including Lindsay Schoolcraft (Cradle of Filth 2013-present), and Jonny Rage (Toronto, ON).

Shout out to our friends in Odd Ones, too many great times with those guys and gals.