Interview- Tristmoon

Artist: Tristmoon

Interviewer: DJ Zeph

Date: 6/6/09

Dear readers allow me, Zephyrael, to introduce you to Tristmoon!

Zeph  How did you come up with the name of your band, TristMoon? Who are the current members of the band?

    Adel * From the beginning we wanted a name for our band that would reflect nature and man’s cruelty against it. So after a long search, we found that the name TristMoon best represented this idea. What made it so special is the combination of two different languages: “Trist” in French meaning sadness and “Moon” in English representing the nature.

      Currently, we are 5 members, Sako as the vocal, Serge as the guitarist, Gary as the bassist, Tony as the drummer and Adel as the keyboardist.

Zeph  When was TristMoon formed and what inspired you to create the band?

    Adel * The idea of the band started as a childish dream we had, the dream of composing music, writing songs that would be an inspiration to people. That dream turned into reality on the 4th of January 2004 when the band was officially formed. The dream became a serious reality with the composition and publishing of our song “As I Come to You” and the positive reviews it generated

Zeph  Tell us about your unique style of music and who are your major influences?

   Adel  * Our music can best be described as Melodic Black Metal. It’s about combining the classical and symphonic dark ambience with Metal, and that’s what makes it unique. Every single member is inspired by a different genre of metal music, but mostly Black, Death and Thrash Metal.

Zeph  What sort of equipment do you use in the making of your music?

   Adel  * Currently we’re using a Dean Dime-O-Flame electric guitar, a BC-Rich beast bass guitar, Roland E-70 synthesizer and G-800 workstation keyboards.

Zeph  Does TristMoon play live? If so what are your favorite venues? If not then do you plan to  do so in the future?

    Adel * TristMoon has played live in over 10 local Concerts/Gigs and few festivals with other local bands. We were not satisfied with any of them in terms of organization and sound, except for the last festival that was held in Mocean (Kaslik – Lebanon). We are willing to play in a good concert with good organization.

Zeph  What has been your biggest challenge with TristMoon thus far?

    Adel * The biggest problem we have faced as a band was finding the proper financing to cover the expenses of the recording as well as all the album production phases.

Zeph  What are some of the highlights of TristMoon and what are your goals for the future... such as where do you hope to be with Staubkind 5 years from now?

    Adel * Well… the highlights of TristMoon are the big fan base they have, and the most charismatic performances. As for our plans in 5 years, we plan to record more albums, play live concerts and sign with a good label in USA or in Europe.

Zeph  Are you currently working on or planning any new releases?

    Adel * We are currently preparing to release our debut full length album entitled: “The Dungeon” which contains 11 tracks, one of them is called “Funeral” and it can be found on our MySpace page (https://www.myspace.com/tristmoon)

Zeph  What are your views on the current Metal scene?

    Adel * The Lebanese Metal scene is shaping up for the better day by day. But we are facing some major problems: First not having a label company to support the local bands, and second the many political problems that are affecting our social life, and third the local media that supports only pop, trance, techno and nudity music.

Zeph  What are your views on collaborations and do you have any collaborations coming up?

    Adel * Recently we, along with many other Lebanese Bands, established what we called “The Lebanese Rock Society” in order to serve bands with talent, promote local acts and help invigorate our rock/metal scene. This society is based on the collaboration between established bands and major promoters of rock/metal music in the country. We’re putting our efforts to move the Lebanese Metal scene to the next level of professionalism, understanding and union.

Zeph  How long have you been in the music industry and how has it changed over time?

    Adel * We’ve been around since 2004. At that time we mainly focused on keys and dark romantic lyrics, so that’s why our earlier material was a beginning level in terms of guitars and bass. In mid 2007 things changed as we welcomed new members into the band, and our materials changed into more guitar dependant, and as for the lyrics, they changed into more realism from our social life.

Zeph  Where do you typically get your inspiration for songs?

    Adel * The inspiration for our songs comes from our daily lives where emotions and feelings are dealing with the cruelty out there.

Zeph  If there were one thing you could change about the music industry today what would it be?

    Adel * Metal music in Lebanon is a small part of the music industry diagram. That’s why we do not get enough support, whether financial or in terms of advertising and encouragement in the media. If that were to change this would make our lives as metal bands a lot easier and our climb towards international standard and professionalism would take less time.

Zeph  How do you feel about the issue of people downloading music and sharing music on the internet?

    Adel * Downloading what?! Oh yea I did that a couple of times. But after we finished recording our first full length album, we started to think seriously about that issue: how to protect our music from being shared on the internet? It is disrespectful to the band’s effort and creativity; they work so hard to give their best but due to the internet breaches they get nothing back of what they deserve.

Zeph  How is TristMoon being received by the public? Has the response been good?

    Adel * As I mentioned before, TristMoon has a big fan base in the area. People like our songs and lyrics and whenever we go live we can see the audience interacting with us, and singing our material with us, and yet we haven’t released the album. So I guess the response we are getting is very positive and encouraging.

Zeph  Have you ever played or do you have any plans to play the U.S.?

    Adel * We have never played outside of Lebanon, but it is a dream of ours to play in the U.S. and also in Europe.

Zeph  Is there anyone special you would like to acknowledge, and anything you'd like to add?

    Adel * Yes of course, first of all we would like to thank you for this interview, and we would like to thank Mia, a friend of ours, who supports us in everything. We would also like to thank anyone who reads this. We also thank Karim Sinno (Mixdown Studios) for all his hard work on our debut album, and thanks to many other people who keep on supporting us morally. Of course, we cannot forget to acknowledge all our fans who are always supportive.