Interview with Elysian Divide

Can you give us a brief history of the project?

We started in 2016 and have released an album "Face Behind The Mask", currently available on all good streaming sites and physically via BandCamp. Jon and Atashi are the remaining original members and steer the ship at the moment, but we have a really good lineup now and looking at the latter half of 2019 with great interest. The band is Atashi Vocals, Jon Guitar, Troy Bass and James Drums.



What are the plans for the future for your project?

We have had some line up changes over the last 12 months but have secured a solid line up to complete 2019 with and go strong into 2020. We are completing our as yet untitled EP which will be out soon to coincide with a few good band announcements and plans. We are looking to do a new music video to be put up on YouTube and a whole host of other good things.



How does the band handle mistakes during a live performance?

You have to take it in your stride. Most of the time nobody will notice you screwing up unless you make a big deal about it. While it's good to be tight, the passion of the performance matters the most. So long as you are projecting a solid energy from the stage and engaging with your audience, you can get away with almost anything short of abysmal failures.



What do you think is the bands favourite moment/time?

We have been busy planning what the end of 2019 will look like. There are some amazing ideas flying about. We are lucky to have so many good plans that we have to pick and choose which ones we will go for. The line up changes have allowed us to refocus our energies into new material and ways to promote that new material as well as giving the live performance a nice new shine up. While there are great memories, we are a very happy band with all the plans and organisation going on.



What has this projects biggest challenge been? Have you been able to overcome that challenge? If so, how?

We had a few little disasters towards the end of 2018 with the departure of first Leigh then Rui. They are sorely missed but life things happen. Instead of staying dormant, we decided to bring forward our recording schedule and put together the new EP. We used a session drummer for the recording and it's worked out really well. This is the EP we are due to release. We like to take our time on recordings to make sure it's where we want it to be so between that and training up new members, we have overcome the loss of half the line up by ensuring we remain creative and maintain our course and direction.



What advice do you have for people who want to form their own bands?

The point of playing music is to get out and do it. It's never been a harder time to be a musician and the amount of musicians who just don't give a damn far outweigh those that do. If you have the ability, get to recording your own stuff entirely solo if need be and get it out there. It's better to have at least something out there rather than sit in a bedroom on your own. Attend the local shows so people will know you exist.



Is there anyone you'd like to acknowledge for offering financial or emotional (or any other type of) support?

Support comes from everywhere. They can be friends who support what you do, family that allows you the time for what you do without giving you a hard time, it can come from the local scene, from the thriving industry of eager and ambitious journalists on social media and almost anything in between. The best support is yourself and maintaining the belief in what you do. Ignoring your detractors is the biggest support you can give yourself. Ignoring the people who want to see you fail, who demand you no longer continue for whatever reason and don't allow you the room to grow as you need.



How can fans-to-be gain access to your music? Do you have a website with songs or a demo CD etc?

The current album, "Face Behind The Mask" is available on bandcamp. We maintain a healthy YouTube presence too with live videos and other bits. There are not many CD copies left but they are special edition digipaks. We also shot a music video to support the album called "Love Is War". You can catch it on YouTube.



Do you have any upcoming shows?

We have some out of town shows booked at the present time. We have a day festival in St. Ives Huntingdon with a bunch of our Hertfordshire friends and a female fronted night in Rotherham.



Do you have any upcoming releases?

The next EP is almost complete and will be out shortly! It's currently untitled but it marks a real evolution for us as a band!



Any last words?

Jon is partial to the words "fartknocker" and "boobs" while Atashi maintains her healthy relationship with "Aw fack off!"