Ögenix

Bio: So we’ve officially started in 2001, I’m the founding member and guitarist Set Landerich joined just a bit after.

I knew him from 2-3 years before when we were dating two girls who were best friends.

So back in 2001, I’m finishing a 12 hour shift in a coffee shop where I was working and my girlfriend of the time came to join me after my shift, she kinda begged me to go to get some pho (vietnamese noodle soup) with her in chinatown… I was tired but since my life is ruled by my stomach, I had to say yes… During that time, Set is driving on the highway with his girlfriend of the time and last minute, she says: lets go have some pho in chinatown! He didn’t really want to go but finally said yes and went. I was already in the restaurant when I see his girlfriend walk in and him just a few minutes later! So it went like: Wow! long time no see… Are you still doing your weird electronic sounds and all? I said yes, he then asked if I needed a guitarist, I said yes, as I didn’t wanna play guitar anymore… and that’s about it haha!

We’ve had a lot of band member changed did a lot of gigs and finally, wend on a five years hiatus in 2003.

So when we’ve started back the machine, we have all matured and our sound was really close to what we are now. Again, many musicians have passed between 2008 and 2011 to finally have a really stable lineup. Our current drummer joined in this year, improving the lineup even more.

So the current lineup is:

Set Landerich: Guitar

Dave Hazel: Guitar. Dave originally came in as a temporary drummer… We were searching for a drummer for a bout 6 months when i’ve seen this metal girl in the subway playing air guitar on a pole… So I’ve asked her if she knew any drummers, I gave her my email and Dave contacted me afterward… Finally he got promoted as a second guitarist.

Jérémie Martin: Bass He’s a friend of Set and his primary instrument is a guitarist.

Gabash: Drums. He’s a highschool friend of Jérémie. He actually offered himself to play for us when Salin, our former drummer announced that she would quit the band in february… The transition went really smoothly for once!

And me, Gabriel Duceppe: vocals, electronics

Genre: Well, we’ve always wanted to do something that sounds fresh and new but not alienating either… SO I guess that is that type of balance we’re aiming at. Also, mostly being fans of music in general, it’s hard to just stick to strict aesthetic boundaries. I mean I listen to so many electronic music, weird underground IDM stuff or Deadmau5 or MIA, I just love music in all its declinaisons… As the main composer until now, that had no choices to somewhat show. Set is now writing songs for the band too and all I can say, it’s the same direction we have! Which makes us pretty hard to categorize and gives headeach to show promoters… We have our own niche and we don’t care about what people say 😉

Ideas about the album: We have released our first album this year and we’re really happy about it, since the constant musician change have always been a stopping factor for us, lets just say that we have already a few songs ready or almost and a few other on the verge of being ready so we’ll have a new record out in the next year

Lyrics and themes: It’s simple, mostly anti-religious themes. But not the type that say: “fuck you Jesus, etc”. Because personally I don’t think that having some spiritual practices is wrong because it involves reflexion on yourself, questioning, etc. The issue I have is with organized religions. SO that is why our thematic is advocating for a total freedom of tought. Because right now, our charter of rights guarantee the freedom of religion, which I find fundamentally wrong. What if someone’s not believing in anything? That makes no sense to me!

Reception: Very good generally and people are pretty much all on the same wave length saying that they’ve never heard such a hybrid that does it like we do…

Preference; live or studio: Personally I like both as I studied electroacoustics at university and work a lot in studios doing mixing, recording and or sound design jobs! Playing gigs is great too, a totally different world. The downside is that a small band like us don’t have a team or anything so we have to carry all our things ourselves, setup our own lightings, etc etc… So after a 6 hour drive to get in some out of town venue, this can get a bit heavy at time but hey! No one is forcing us to do what we do right? 😛

Future ambitions: Hopefully good! But it’s way tougher now than back then. Yes we have access to so many tools for self promotion, social medias, etc but people in general tend to go out less and less of their houses and rather spend evening on fb or what not… weird era hahaha!

Composers: Until now it was me alone and Set was doing the guitars and bass arrangements. But as mentionned above, he’s now writing some songs for the band and the other seems to be willing to pitch in some ideas too… So why not? more than on ehead is always better than one!

Inspirations: From Slayer to Madonna, driving by Depèche Mode and D.R.I…. hahaha lets say that we don’t limit ourselves at being clones of our teenage time idols… I mean I go see many music concerts and metal festivals and honnestly, there’s less and less variety in the type of sounds and I feel like people are just copying the bands they worship and following some strict rules, which is to me really not metal in a philosophical manner… Follow the rule and imitate the others? Come one!!

Preference; cater to the audience or music for its own sake: I’d say that it’s music for its own sake mostly. Because in the type of music we do, if someone walks in a venue or bar where we play, they know what to expect. It’s not like a pub where you will have random folk/slam artists playing and they are part of the ambiance… Bands like us are the reason people will gather in a venue to see a show. Well, it’S like that most of the time, we’ve played in Québec city last month and there was two girls who were really randomly there, it kinda showed but they were lik eon some exploration night hahah! However as strangers they were from the metal scene, I ended up talking to them the most during that night and honnestly, they were the coolest people I’ve meet that day!

Greatest Accomplishment: Not having giving up with all the bad luck, musician changes that happened… Trust me, I tought of it many times hahaha!

Anything else? Eat vegetables, it’s very healthy and it makes you happy 🙂

Oh and get our album on bandcamp or itunes… it’s cheaper than 2 lattes at Starbucks and it doesn’t end up in the toilet!!!

Want to read more about them? Here are their Facebook Page, Twitter, Official Site (under construction), YouTube and BandCamp!