What have been your musical epiphany moments? Back in 2004, when I was 12, I was bored at home and I started to watch a video tape about 9/11. After a few minutes, the documentary changed to a Metallica documentary on MTV (my brother had used this tape to record it). And I became a fan overnight, and while I was watching these guys in the studio working on the black album, I remember saying : "That's what I wanna do for the rest of my life". I started to play guitar the day after.
Talk to us about the song-writing process for you. What comes first, the idea? A riff? The lyrics? How does it all fall into place?Only once or twice in my life, the vocal melody came first, but it usually starts with a riff. Then I try to make this riff evolve, or I try to find another riff in my memos that could fit the song. Once I have a riff progression, I record it and add some bass and drums tracks. I would start to work on the structure afterwards, and finally I will find the vocal melody. Here is the demo version. If I'm happy with the demo, I record everything again properly, find some arrangements and write the solos. The lyrics are the very step.
Who has influenced you the most?Metallica, and mostly James Hetfield. I think he has influenced me more than anyone else in my teenage years. He's a very inspired songwriter and lyricist, and he knows how to manage an audience. I've been compared to him many times on my first album, which used to piss me off because I wanted to get noticed for my songs, not for my resemblance with Hetfield. But now that my style is slowly but surely falling into place, I gladly give him the credits he deserves about the influence he had on me.
Where do you look for continuing inspiration? New ideas, new motivation?When it comes to inspiration, I try to get rid of my thoughts. The best riffs I've found always came out of the blue. I like to do something else when I play guitar, like watching a movie or roaming in my house and watching the landscape. I also like to look for riffs on an unplugged electric guitar, because it sounds crappy. If a riff sounds good and has a groove on this guitar, it's likely to sound great with an amp. For lyrics, I like people's behaviours and reactions, mostly mine. And to stay motivated, I see it as a full time job. Things have to be done, one project is always followed by another one. Hopefully success will come along the way, but I just try to move forward.
We're all a product of our environment. Tell us about the band's hometown and how that reflects in the music?I and the guys of the Black Flames all live in the French Alps, near Chamonix. As the songwriter, I will speak for myself. I'm not a big fan of social media, and I'm not starving for discovering new bands. I have an awareness of what's going on in the world, but I'm a bit isolated from the forefront of the music industry. I consume music as a fan, meaning when I love a band, I love it for real, and I dig deep in their catalogue and in their history. As a result, I'm out of any trend, I write the music I feel I need to write. I have my favourite albums from Metallica, Pantera, Queen, Pink Floyd or the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and like to listen to them over and over.
Where'd the band name come from?In 2014, when I decided to turn the project from a band to a solo project, I wanted an international stage name which merges the names of two of my heroes. I chose Wallace after William Wallace, the Scottish war hero. And after spending weeks trying to find the right first name, my eyes got caught by a Dimebag Darrell poster (Pantera guitarist) in my bedroom. He was playing Dean guitars, so I created Dean Wallace. The Black Flames is a name that came very naturally to my mind lately, everyone loved it, so it's Dean Wallace & The Black Flames.
Hard to say, because we're talking about a movie that has not been released yet. But I think I could only write a soundtrack for a movie that I love (once again, hard to say, because we often change our mind with a big paycheck in hand). I don't picture myself writing a soundtrack for a Marvel blockbuster or another Fast & Furious. That movie you need to have a sense and a great story.
You now write for a music publication (The Ripple Effect?). You're going to write a 1,000 word essay on one song. Which would it be and why?I would write about "The Show Must Go On", by Queen. It's my favourite song ever, it has everything I want from a song. The music is great, and Freddie's performance is amazing, so emotional. He knew he was doomed at this point, they had already quit touring. I've been in Montreux, in the studio where he recorded his very last song (Mother Love). It was a sad but a very inspiring moment for me. I respect the guy a lot, and I'm bummed they didn't cover this part of the story in the movie Bohemian Rhapsody.
Come on, share with us a couple of your great, Spinal Tap, rock and roll moments?This summer, I've been playing in a festival with a tribute band to a french rock'n'roll singer, in which I was the lead guitarist. The catering backstage was great, we had some fridges full of beers and wine, and obviously I got a bit drunk. I knew my guitar strings were getting tired, but I was planning to change them within the 6 hours we had between the soundcheck and the show. I forgot to change them, and unfortunately I broke my B string during a solo on the second song of the set. There were about 3,000 people in the audience. When you have to run backstage to change a string as quickly as you can, and get back on stage like nothing happened, you don't feel clever, at all.
Tell us about playing live and the live experience for you and for your fans?I think we chose to listen, to play and to write this genre of music because it's a pretty noble genre, like jazz. You actually need to spend years on your instrument before you can even play in a band. Technology has improved, but the albums are made quite the same way than they were 50 years ago. And playing live and touring is the essence of it all, it's our goal. In the band, 3 guys (including myself) are pro musicians and are making a living out of playing covers, and the fourth member is a light tech. Which means a part of the dream has already been fulfilled for us, we just want to stop doing covers and make it with our own material. The project is pretty much starting from scratch, so we haven't really met our fans face to face so far, but everything we did in 2023 has been done to get the band on stage in 2024.
What makes a great song?I think my answer on "The Show Must Go On" gave a good idea on my point of view. To me, a great song has to carry a feeling, an emotion. Some songs are very well written (like most pop songs), but they don't create any emotion in me. I call it soup music, because it's not good, it's not bad either, it's easy to eat. When I need some motivation, I listen to Enter Sandman or Battery (Metallica), it kicks me on right away. When I'm doing sports, I listen to Pantera. When I feel like dancing, I like Micheal Jackson or Stevie Wonder. When I see someone bobbing its head or crying on one of my songs, I consider my job done.
Tell us about the first song you ever wrote?This song is Headshot ( https://open.spotify.com/intl-fr/track/3KZaOouqY3tDp1mS6bHmpP). We had just formed a new band with two friends in high school, and we did a weekend of rehearsals, covering some Metallica and Megadeth songs. At the end of this weekend, the other guitarist sat down and said "I have some riffs", and the bassist said "ok, let's try to write a song". I had never thought about writing songs before, I knew it would have been impossible to compete with our heroes. But it actually felt great. Few years later, when my brother and I were working on Metal Family, my first album, we used this demo (with their permission) to make a song out of it. These two fellas now play in some great swiss bands. One is the bassist of VOICE OF RUIN, and one is the guitarist of THE ERKONAUTS.
The new single "See What I'm All About" ( https://youtu.be/h0Ms8275EH8) actually makes me really proud. I took some risks in that song. It's a mix of hard rock and funk, and the video is very different from what I've released so far. I'm actually quite nervous to release it, because I really don't know how people will respond to it, but I'm proud to propose something different, and I think it's my role to do so. I'm also very proud of a short rock opera I wrote for my next album. It's a two parts 15 minutes track, and it's probably the most accomplished song I wrote so far.
Who today writes great songs? Who just kicks your ass? Why?I think that bands like Metallica, Megadeth or Iron Maiden still write some good songs, but it sounds to me like they have the know-how, but not much inspiration. I'm not as impressed as I was with their early releases, but they still kick my ass. I also think that Black Stone Cherry, Nickelback, Lamb of God, Trivium or Foo Fighters still write some great songs.
Vinyl, CD, or digital? What's your format of choice?CD, no doubt. I grew up with CDs, I still have my CD collection (most of them are in a pretty bad shape though). It could be the same with vinyl, but it's not my generation. I hate digital, because it killed albums. I love albums, they tell a story. The choice and the order of the songs have a meaning, the leaflet tells more about how and where it's been recorded. I don't like playlists, I put on Master of Puppets in my car, and listen to it over and over for two weeks, and then change and put on a Pantera album...
Whiskey or beer? And defend your choiceWhiskey. I like beer, but I'm trying to stay fit with a flat belly, and beer is definitely not your friend in this quest. But I love whiskey, mostly Irish and Bourbon, I drink it on the rocks. I'm a french guy, so I'm also very much into wines, obviously.
We, at the Ripple Effect, are constantly looking for new music. What's your hometown, and when we get there, what's the best record store to lose ourselves in?There are no such stores in my hometown. We have a ski shop every 100 meters, but no record stores. The closest one is an hour's drive, it's called La Fnac.
What's next for the band?We are going to release 4 singles between October 2023 and April 2024, and these four singles will be gathered on an EP called "New World Disorder", to be released in April with our label The Animal Farm Music. We have released two videos already, and we're gonna use them to find gigs. Hopefully 2024 will be a year of live music. I'm constantly writing songs, so if things go well, we're gonna release a full length album in 2025.
Any final comments or thoughts you'd like to share with our readers, the waveriders?If you are looking for the hot new djent or metalcore band, you won't be happy with our music. But if like us, you love the rock and metal from the early 90's, you should definitely check it out.
