Interviews: My Own Fear

This is a new interview with the Thrash Metal/Death Metal band My Own Fear from France. Check out the interview and follow the band on their FACEBOOK PAGE.

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

I think this is the first time in over a decade that I have been asked this question. Long story short, when we founded the group, Stephane had some problems with some of his superiors from his job at the time. He's a pretty sanguine person so his biggest fear was to get angry and tell his superiors what he thought of them or worse ... a bit like Hulk, but less green.

So the name My Own Fear is the result of a moment of introspection: what scares me the most is my reactions, it's losing control.

2.Why did you want to play this genre?

We wanted to play a mix of Thrash and Death Metal because it was and it is still our main influence. We couldn’t choose between one or the other so, when we began to write songs, naturally, we found out Thrash and Death riffs and beats. But we aren’t locked up in those two genres. We listen to much other metal and non-metal music. It probably brought us many ideas for our own songs.

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

We were only two to know each other. Steph (lead guitar) and Seb (drums) used to play together in a band before creating My Own Fear in 2011. Fab arrived in the beginning. Nico and Gilles arrived in 2019.

4. Each band member's favorite band? 

Steph: Death

Fab: Metallica

Nico, Gilles & Seb: Slayer

5. Who or what inspires you to write songs? 

We don't really need the inspiration to write songs, simply because music is a passion. Composing music is something quite natural for us like it's a real need. Then of course each member of My Own Fear is consciously or unconsciously inspired by his own references, for Steph (lead guitar), Dave Mustaine and Chuck Schuldiner are solid sources of inspiration, for Fab (rhythm guitar) we can mention James Hetfield or Dimebag Darrell. Seb (drums) brings a different approach by setting a beat to Steph and/or Fab ideas as he is inspired by drummers like Dave Lombardo or Gene Hoglan but he also gets his inspiration from Mille Petrozza of the Björler brothers to propose different ideas. We won’t talk about Nico and Gilles right now as they arrived in the band after all the songs from this album were written but for the 2nd album, why not?

Our lyrics are inspired by subjects as different as literature, history, science fiction, or simply our personal experiences. On our new album "Violence made history", each song is inspired by a historical episode, whether real or fictional, such as The horsemen of the apocalypse, the witches of Salem or the Roman Empire... Of course, it is often our personal interpretation of these themes.

6. Where was your last gig? 

It was in Gisors, a town of Normandy located at the crossroads with Ile-de-France and Picardy, in 2017. Then we started writing our 1st album but we had to manage line-up changes and just before recording, the Covid changed our plans... 

7. Where would you like to act?

Everywhere we would have the opportunity

8. Whom would you like to feature with?

So many bands !!!

9. Who not?

Let's say Poison and Manowar … We don't really like glam and leather panties :D 

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

We’ve all suffered from stage fright, in different ways, and at different levels. For example, your heart beats faster and faster or you start sweating a lot or you feel something heavy in your chest… We don’t really have any advice because we believe it’s pretty sane to feel this excitement before going on stage. Just think that this overflow of emotions is something positive that you and the audience will feel together and everything will be fine !!! 

11. What bands have inspired you the most?

As we are 5 in this band, we have many different tastes for a lot of different bands but what we all like and what made our music like that are bands like DEATH, SLAYER, SEPULTURA, THE HAUNTED, KREATOR, MORBID ANGEL, OBITUARY, etc.

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

Really hard question but we have two anecdotes about that. The 1st one is about a drunk guy, we didn't really understand what he was saying so we told him something like "yeah man, absolutely, let's have another drink" and then we drank a beer with him but we didn’t understand more… the 2nd story is about a woman who asked for taking a picture with her husband because he was too shy to ask us directly.

13. What do you think of your fans?

It is so amazing and important when you’re not very famous to find out people like what you do. They are the reason we want to do better than before, they are very important, very helpful and we miss them a lot. And of course, on stage, we are fed with their energy, their aggressiveness too and it boosts us. We can’t wait for coming back on stage just to enjoy ourselves together !!!

14. What do you think of our site?

It’s clear, interesting, and varied. You represent a helping hand for bands like us to touch more people.

15. Something to add?

THANK YOU VERY MUCH AND KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK !!!