Elyose: An Interview With Justine Daaé

February 10th, 2020

We are thrilled to share with you a short interview we had with Justine Daaé: the mastermind behind France's leading female gothic-industral-metal act: Elyose.

If you do not know Elyose, check them out. If you do know them, then, this interview will most likely interest you.

With the intention of leveling up the field between old fans and people discovering Elyose as they read this, Elyose have existed for about 10 years. They have released three studio albums: Théogyne (2009), Ipso Facto (2015), Reconnexion (2018) and their fourth production, Live in Paris, came out on January 31st, 2020. Here at Fangtasia Music we love Elyose and female-fronted bands and, of course, we talked about Live in Paris on the day of the release.

As for the interview with Justine, here you can read all about it:

What does Elyose mean? Why did you choose that name?

Justine: Well it means… Us. The band and its music. I was looking for a name that wasn’t in the dictionary and didn’t refer to anything else. I also liked its sound, in a way it makes me think of a synthesizer and the synths are very present on our music.

How did the band form? How did you and Ghislain Henry meet?

Justine: We met through one of his best friend who’s also a musician and who had heard my demos on Myspace back then. That makes me look very old now! (laughs)

At the moment, your music video Rédemption has almost 2,500,000 views. To what do you attribute its success?

Justine: I couldn’t tell for sure. From reading all the comments on Youtube and such, the French lyrics seem to set it apart in the Symphonic Metal genre and maybe also the fact that it’s a short movie and not the band playing, like 95% of the other music videos? I also believe the Youtube algorithms have their very own secret rules that nobody can control, or very little.

As I was writing the questions, something clicked in my head... You are French. Your name is Justine. Your video Rédemption shows some BDSM activity. I happen to have read a book called Justine by a certain French nobleman known as Marquis de Sade. Am I connecting dots that do not exist or is there an actual link between Sade's ideas and you and the video?

Justine: That’s a very good question! I’ve never read that book to be honest and it was not an influence for the lyrics or the video script. It could have though! Maybe in the future?

How much of your personality is reflected in the video? Who is Justine in real life? / What is Justine like in real life?

Justine: Nothing like in the video. I’m not a very «rock & roll» woman, you know. More into the healthy lifestyle and self-help! I love discipline, working out, nature, animals, books, eating home-cooked vegetables, sleeping a lot... I even have a lovey! I’m like a sensitive little girl but who doesn’t like to be told what she should do!

You released your second full-length album Ipso Facto in 2015 and the physical release sold out in 2019. Based on that fact and seeing the number of streams that the album has on Spotify, it seems to be a fan favorite. Do you have any idea as to why this could be? What makes fans click with it?

Justine: I think you should give more time to Reconnexion because Ipso Facto has 3 years of advance! It needs quite some time for an album to be discovered by potential fans.

Ten days ago your album "Live in Paris" came out. It was recorded last year while on tour in France. How did you come up with the idea of releasing a Live album? Is it something you planned or did the show end up being so good that you thought it should be on video?

Justine: Oh believe me the show wasn’t that good given that it was the last one of the tour and that we were all very, very sleep-deprived!

I had planned to record the show anyways and release a live album because some of our older songs had been revamped and I loved the idea of giving those a second existence.

You have shared the stage with international acts such as Therion, Tarja Turunen, The Birthday Massacre and Stream of Passion. Could you tell us how big of an impact that has been in Elyose's career?

Justine: It has given a lot of experience in touring which is another job from the studio. There’s a lot to learn in terms of organization, team work, stage performance, music gear... It has also made us meet a lot of new fans, of course, from every part of Europe. Even some countries we had never stepped foot into!

But now I need to be honest and state that I totally agree with what Bill Corgan from Smashing Pumkins said in a recent video: “Put your whole focus into reaching people through the internet”. That’s his advice for musicians today in the internet age and that would be mine too, especially for beginners.

What is next for Elyose?

Justine: A new album this year with a slightly different genre, and the word that could summarize it would be HEAVIER! I’m very excited for I have the freedom this time to write the music that really is who I am.

Tell us a secret :)

Justine: There’s one actually I’m dying to tell, it’s a side project that I’ll start working on this month and for the background, it’s the very first time I’m accepting one in a 10-year career so you can guess it must be worth it! But for now I should keep my mouth shut, sorry!