PARADOX BY BAPTISTE BRUN
Formed by Baptiste Brun (guitars) and his brother Antoine (drums) in 2007 Stolen Memories is a Progressive metal band from Lyon France. The band has released three albums, The Strange Order in 2010, Blind Consequence in 2013 and Paradox in 2017. Stolen Memories, is a progressive metal band, with a groovy touch, that means that our music can be very dark, but you will always find if you listen to it, that there is also light everywhere. Our music reflects our perception of life, with dark and light, good and evil, hope and despair. Stolen Memories’ music can be very technical but also very melodic and catchy. So it is all about contradictions.
After a long break, about four years, we decided to come back with the most ambitious and powerful album we ever did. The whole process took about 18 mounts. Baptiste composed all the songs, and each of us appropriated the pieces and tried to bring them to the highest level. I wrote the lyrics as always by letting myself carried by the music. The album was recorded by our friend Olivier Didillon, who did our first record. We think that it is really important to record with someone who likes your music and not only do it because it’s his job.
The lyrics could be perceived as dark and melancholic as the music. But as I said above, I always put a spark of hope in it. I will tell you more about it in the next question. The artwork has been created for the album ‘Paradox’ by Stan W Deker http://www.stanwdartworks.com. A French graphic designer specialized in album covers; Stan is also a friend, a very good bass player too by the way. We only give him the title of the album; he likes our music and knows our universe, so we trusted him completely, and he offers to us this beautiful cover. Stan did covers for some great bands and artists like Vanden Plas, Jorn Land and Blackmore’s Night. In this cover, we can see the ferryman of souls framed by the endless staircase, which is also a ribbon of Mobius, the symbol of the infinity. It also symbolises the rebirth in death. The moment after sunset is melancholic and dark like our music.
We decided to call this album ‘Paradox’, because it reflects our life and our world, full of paradoxes, for example, in the song ‘Exile’, we talk about the paradoxical relationship between human beings and our beautiful planet, we love our world but we cause a lot of damage to it, pollution, war etc. In the song hidden hurt, we talk about the paradoxical love, how we can explain the fact that someone stays with another who is violent. In the song Another chance, death serves life.
I think that technology and the internet changed radically the music world, today, everyone can play music and share it with a maximum of people. There are a lot of bands, of styles and shading, so we have to deal with all of this materials, and it is not easy. Sometimes we feel some unfairness when we think about the time and energy we spend in making our music compared to other styles, we always struggle to plays gigs, when bands with a more accessible style don’t. We think that playing metal, not to mention progressive metal is very difficult, a lot of bands give up after a few years of a hard time. Playing music is a matter of money, to produce your album, to promote it to organise gigs, bands can’t always afford it.
We believe in good and evil, and we hope that good win in the end, good and evil is not only around us but within us. In our band, we have different beliefs, but we have this one in common. We believe in human being and the capacity for redemption. We must believe in each other if we want a better world. I think that we must believe in all the things that unite us and not in those which divide us.
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