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War Tapes have announced an all new EP and released a new single titled "City Girls". Check it HERE.

Progressive metal band JOVIAC has memorable ideas to satisfy the masses for years to come. In fact, they have released two full-length album's, along with focusing on themselves since forming just not that long ago either. The band goes into much more chatter about all of this and more.


1. Please tell us about the history of your band and its members.

I founded Joviac in 2017 after burying my previous band that disbanded due to personal differences about a year earlier. Music has been the most important form of self expression and self actualization for me since I was a teen, so I just needed a new vessel for it. It made sense to start from scratch with a new name and with a new mentality based on everything I had learned up until that point.
Joviac began as more of a project. I did everything except play bass on the debut album. I felt it was easier to get the ball rolling and things moving forward if I had something to show to people.
Antti Varjanne was already with me back then playing bass on the first album, but it was with the addition of Rudy Fabritius (drums) and Janne Korpela (live-guitar 2017-2019) when the project really became a real “band”. Even though there have been changes here and there, and the live-guitar duties are now handled by Joona Niemi, it's really the symbiosis of us three core members that make up Joviac. Everyone brings something unique to the table and I never take for granted that I'm able to do this with such talented people and on top of that we're also extremely close friends. We're kind of like brothers really, or at least that's the way I feel!

2. What’s the origin of the band’s name?

When I was trying to come up with the name, I wanted something to signify that the band was an honest and personal musical depiction of myself. I'm the songwriter in the band and all the songs come from a very personal place and I wanted the name to be a representation of that, if at least to myself. My full name is Viljami Jupiter Wenttola, and no, it's not an artist name. “Jove” is an age-old English word for the Roman god “Jupiter” and so I just changed the ending of the word. It's just mainly to remind myself to stay true to my own goals when making music, to keep making music for myself.

3. Where is the band based out of and what is your music scene like there? Are there any local bands you could recommend?

Joviac is based out of Tampere, Finland, with the exception of Rudy who lives in Helsinki. Tampere is known in Finland as a rock'n roll city, and is playfully referred to as “manse” or “Manchester”. It's historically a working man's town and it shows in the music scene here.  While it's true that Finland is totally a metal country (more metal bands per capita than anywhere else in the world), it poses some challenges even though we refer to ourselves as a “progressive metal” band. Finland's a small country and the kind of metal that has broken through or made it big is basically what you hear on the radio on a very small loop. It's tough to stand out. We're doing our best though, and for the small time that we've been a band (about 3 years) we've gone forward so much, it's just tough to stay patient sometimes. There are however some brothers in arms here that share our passion for progressive music! I would totally urge anyone to check out our friends Everwave and External whom we will be sharing the stage with next week!

4. How would you describe your style?

We call ourselves progressive metal, but like I guess 90% of artists out there, I feel like it leaves a lot unsaid. What I'm going for most of the time is a marriage between progressive metal and other styles like pop. I'd like to think that we are a very genuine and honest representation of progressive metal wrapped up in an accessible package. I like to borrow the freedom and complexity from the prog side and try to marry it with memorable hooks and snappy choruses from the pop side. You should tell me if we've succeeded!

5. What have you released so far and what can someone expect from your works?

We've released two full-length albums and as of today 10.9.2020 we've released two stand-alone singles! We just came out with a new one, “Misplaced” today and we're very excited to see how it will be received. It was recorded as part of the “Here And Now” (2nd album) sessions but I felt that it didn't quite fit in with the rest of the material. It's definitely not a B-Side or anything like that, it stands on its own two feet as a soulful and deeply personal song with a simple, in-your-face kind of rock attitude.

As for our full-length albums, for a long time I felt like our debut was more like a glorified demo, a means to an end, but I went back and listened to it after a looooong hiatus recently and I was actually quite proud of it. I guess it's a good thing when an artist feels like his newest works blow the old ones out of the water. We've gone forward with everything we've put out, we've gone deeper, more personal, more expressive, heavier, lighter, softer, harder, we've gotten more complex but without sacrificing the catchy side...

I think if we just remember why we do what we do and keep going on the road we've been walking for about three years, we'll have a brilliant career behind us when we look at it from a rocking chair in a nursery home. If we make it that far that is!

6. Do you have any new music in the works?

I've been trying to use the Corona downtime as efficiently as possible, actually to the point of almost burning out during the summer. I came close to going over the edge in terms of psychological well being, I'm just glad I had the sense to pull the emergency brake when I did. I was hell-bent on writing our new full length album this summer, I gave myself a deadline and stressed myself out trying to live up to my own foolish expectations. Now I've luckily gotten past it and inspiration is starting to flow again. I keep having to relearn the same lesson again and again: I can't manufacture inspiration or command it, I can only give it the best possible circumstances and see where it takes me. In all the chaos of the “Corona Summer 2020” some promising material did surface though, and we're looking at recording some of it this winter. I have no idea what the scale will be yet, singles? EP? Album? All I do know is that we're definitely keeping ourselves busy creatively. I'll let you know once I find out!

7. How about playing shows and touring, have anything planned out?

When the first wave of Corona hit in the spring of 2020, everything in Finland except for grocery stores, pharmacists and essential services like that got shut down. Luckily Finns are really good (up to a fault) at isolating themselves so Corona all but got wiped out of the country for June and July. Numbers started to increase very slowly again during August though, and now in mid September they're still quite low, but definitely on the rise. There's a lot of uncertainty and everybody's talking about the second wave coming so it makes events difficult to plan out. There is a silver lining though! We were able to secure two shows and we are incredibly excited to climb on stage again. Tomorrow 11.9. we're playing Helsinki's Tiivistämö and it will also be our first streamed show, and 18.9. we're FINALLY playing our record release show here in Tampere which was postponed from the spring! We can't wait. On the grand scheme of things though, the one goal that I've always had is to build Joviac into an internationally touring entity and once circumstances are right, we'll definitely be hitting stages in other countries too!

8. What plans do you have for the future as a band?

Basically just more of the same! To keep writing the best music that we can, recording it, releasing it and playing it for the people that want to see and hear it! I think I answered this question more in detail already in the earlier questions, oops!

9. Where can we listen to your band and where can we buy your stuff?

You can find everything related to Joviac at our website: www.joviac.com. There you can find links to all of our social media accounts, you can buy physical albums, shirts and read the news blog that I try to update when I remember. I'm very absent minded though...

10. What is it you’d like a listener to remember the most when hearing your music for the first time?

You don't have to like us, but if you gave our music a chance, I truly thank you. That's all I can ask for as an artist, for a chance. Thank you so much for this interview! I hope you and your loved ones are safe.

U.K. singer/songwriter ELLIS JOHNSON has a style that blends acoustic and pop together to create a sense that is breezy yet cool. Two single's have been released so far with new music in the works as well. Ellis himself goes on to talk about his music and why he is the artist he is.


1. Please tell us about the history of your band and its members.

At present, there is only me in the 'band' and I don't wish to talk about my member, at least not until I know you better.

2. What’s the origin of the band’s name?

I wanted to pay tribute to both of the families from which I spawned. My last name is Ellis and most of my friends call me Ellis. My mother's side of the family are Johnson's (so to speak) So I put the names together, it sounded good to me so, here I am! Also, my real name is Adolf, so I had to do something. (It isn't really)

3. Where is the band based out of and what is your music scene like there? Are there any local bands you could recommend?

The band is based out of me, and I hail from Manchester. The music scene is great in Manchester, we're blessed with a laden history of great music, partnered with it's ever influential culture; it may be decades ago that the whole Madchester/brit pop scene was was the heartbeat of the city, but the veins still gush blood of the epoch. It is certainly present in my blood. I ran an open mic night in the city center for 5 years and this is where I met Guy Garvey from Elbow, he told me I have a "cracking set of pipes" and to me that man, optimizes the warmth of the city, someone that plays in front of thousands at arenas, but still has time for the small fry like me, just trying to turn some heads!

There's a lot of current local bands out there making some decent noise, It wouldn't be fair to highlight one and miss out a big list of others, because Manchester is a city that approves of all genres. From Matt & Phreds, the famous Jazz club, to the Indie pumping Night & Day Café and the Metalhead Mecca of Grand Central. I've played in tons of different bands, varying in genres, so I'm fortune enough to say I've played a lot of these massively important venues to different audiences, It's difficult to actually pigeon hole Manchester with a defining 'scene' because in truth, it has many scenes. Whether you like wearing musty charity shop tweed, but you're happy to pay top dollar for a pint in one of the many, amazing venues in the northern quarter, or you like dressing up to the nines and heading to a club for £2 vodka redbulls, Manchester has the perfect juxtaposition for you. I think that should be on a poster somewhere.

4. How would you describe your style?

Well, right now I'm wearing worn out shorts and a smile, but sometimes I also wear scruffy clothes. My music however, is I guess Indie/Pop/Rock/Acoustic. I have some songs that are layered with hooks and harmonies but I have some that need to be stripped bare to the steel of acoustic strings and vocals. I guess I write songs, without knowing if they're gonna be 'my songs' or not. The lyrics are always personal yet sometimes a story. It differs. I think some of my music would fit in the Indie Rock bracket, and some of it owes its origins to general pop music. Like if the Foo Fighters had a three way with Ed Sheeran and Coldplay.

5. What have you released so far and what can someone expect from your works?

 I've released two singles this year so far, 'Ghosts' & 'Waves' Both of which have been really well received, which makes me happy to say! Mike Sweeney on BBC Radio Manchester said 'Waves' is "Fantastic" and I recall Janice Long of BBC Radio Wales was very fond of 'Ghosts'

6. Do you have any new music in the works?

I certainly do! I have much music in the works. I have another single coming out on the 18th of September called 'Something Criminal' I'm really excited to hear what people think about it. I also have so much more music in the making as well as finished pieces to fire out.

7. How about playing shows and touring, have anything planned out?

Well, apparently there's been some sort of pandemic or something, i'm not sure. But I've gone from 15 - 20 gigs a month, to entertaining the grout and tiles of my shower. I hope things normalize soon, for everyone of course, but from a personal point of view, I've missed performing. I have been recording personalized versions of songs for key workers throughout the pandemic, and making music videos for said songs. I wanted to keep busy whilst giving something to those who are/have been working so hard throughout the pandemic to keep us all as safe as possible. So far I've done 17 requests for key workers all over the uk (from social workers to nhs staff to lorry drivers) which doesn't sound like much, but I've recorded full versions of songs from scratch, so it's taken a while! I have another 15 or so to complete!

8. What plans do you have for the future as a band?

A band would be nice. But before that, I plan on writing and performing as much as permitted, hopefully one day i'll swing on the chandelier of a swanky hotel after a sold out arena gig, but before that I really should see a chiropractor and get more fans.

9. Where can we listen to your band and where can we buy your stuff?

You can listen to my music on Spotify, iTunes etc etc... And I hope that you do! Spotify link as follows, https://open.spotify.com/artist/5zIxNQhXrR2EEgKDBKEQUh?si=O_SEAFffTZORG1JTuz7sWA  (Or just Search Ellis Johnson and you'll find me!)

10. What is it you’d like a listener to remember the most when hearing your music for the first time?

My name, probably. There's so much music out there, its so easy to skip to the next track on shuffle and forget whom you just listed to! But also, if the listener can relate to the lyrics and find warmth or otherwise from the music then that would be splendid as well.

Esprit D'Air is set to perform a special live concert to celebrate their 10th anniversary on October 24, 2020. The live performance will be streamed on their official website espritdair.com, where fans can purchase a virtual ticket to watch the concert live from their own homes.

Lead vocalist and solo project leader, Kai says: “Like every other musician who cannot tour right now, we are taking the opportunity to connect with our supporters online—broadcasting in a safe environment to the world. We originally planned the live concert in London, so doing the live stream will allow us to continue performing, but it will also allow fans from outside the UK to connect with us too, so I am really looking forward to it!”

Partnering up with Single Music, Kai will be joined by Yusuke Okamoto on guitar, Kazuki Nishigaki on bass, and Andre Joyzi (Breed 77) on drums for this one-off special event. This special show by Esprit D'Air will also include the debut of some brand new songs from the upcoming album, Oceans due to be released in 2021.

As featured on HuffPost, Louder, BBC Radio, and Kerrang! Radio, Esprit D'Air is an award-winning melodic rock and metal band based in London. Their critically-acclaimed debut album crowned them as winners in the best metal/hardcore album of 2018 at The Independent Music Awards at the Lincoln Center, New York, among an esteemed judging panel featuring Amy Lee (Evanescence), Slayer, Sepultura, Tom Waits, and more.

Catch the virtual experience live on October 24, 2020 at 10PM BST, where viewers can shop, tip the band, and chat while they watch online. Tickets are available now. For more information, visit www.espritdair.com.

Nuclear Blast artist Hatebreed will release their eighth studio album Weight of The False Self. The 12-track album is stocked with pit-stirring anthems. It arrives on November 27th 2020 and is available for pre-order HERE. The band has shared the lyric video for the title track. Watch HERE.

Eclectic blues rockers BORDERLINE have not one but four albums out and about currently. Each has a great variety of sounds, emotions and energies within each release. But they have released an all new single that was released this fall with all other new content currently in the works. The band then says a whole lot more about their music and future plans for the next year!


1. Please tell us about the history of your band and its members.

We are an eclectic Swiss band from Lausanne in the French part of Switzerland.

The band has 4 members - Marie at the violin, Greg at the drums, Ramon at the guitar and Laura the singer - and was born in 2013.

We have already released 4 albums.  The first two were electric albums and gave the band the opportunity to play a lot in Switzerland, around twenty gigs. The third one was an acoustic album that gave us the chance of crossing Swiss frontiers and starting a World Tour.    Our last album ETNIA, released in 2020, is an electric album and was recorded in part in Nashville at the Blackbird studio.

Our band draws its inspiration from the different musical cultures met during its tours and our musical identity is defined by original sororities mixing a variety of styles in order to make its public travel.

2. What’s the origin of the band’s name?

There is no connection between the band’s name and the psychiatric illness, but the name Boderline is linked with the concept of frontier. We like crossing the frontiers; geographical frontiers through our international tours but above all musical frontiers. We don’t want to be locked up in one style, we want to stay open and to integrate sororities from all around the world to our music. That’s what the name Borderline represents.

3. Where is the band based out of and what is your music scene like there? Are there any local bands you could recommend?

We are based in Lausanne, the French part of Switzerland. Regarding others local bands, we recommend you : The Two and Ignatius.

4. How would you describe your style?

We are an eclectic music band. We got our own sound but we always try to integrate sororities from other musical cultures in it : such as African, American, Argentinian, Spanish, Irish….cultures and so on.  On one side we want to find a great melting between our sound and other styles. And on the other side we want to take up technical challenges. I mean, when you want to play a guaracha but you don’t have all the typical instruments to play a guaracha it is a big challenge; that’s what we do and we like that.

5. What have you released so far and what can someone expect from your works?

As I said before, we released four albums mainly electric: WelKome released in 2015, Theatre in 2016, and ETNIA in 2019. But also an acoustic one Across the Rainbow released in 2017. We think that people can expect a nice travel through different continents and countries. A walk through a great variety of sounds, emotions and energies.

6. Do you have any new music in the works?

Sure, we worked on a new single during this summer called New Orleans, and it has been released on September 2020. You can find an electric and an acoustic version (with a cajon) of this new single. Now we are working on new singles, video clips, on our ETNIA’s vernissage and on our next shows.

7. How about playing shows and touring, have anything planned out?

We had the opportunity to play in a lot of countries and cities as : London, Madrid, Reykjavik, Prague, Copenhagen, New York, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Toronto, Beijing, Osaka, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Dubai, St Petersburg…. Last year we did an USA tour that took us along the road 61, the road of the blues, from New Orleans to Chicago…. 9 days, 9 concerts. We played in New Orleans, Chicago, Memphis, Clarksdale (Deep blues festival, Ground zero), Indianola (BBking club), Nashville……and we also stopped at the Blackbird studio to record part of our fourth album ETNIA. It was awesome to play in cities like Memphis, Nashville, New Orleans. These places have a particular bond with music and they are full of an incredible energy. The public was amazing so it was a wonderful adventure to be there and to share our music with it.  For next months, how you can imagine we will be in a period of expectancy, the sanitary situation complicate a lots of things. However, on November we will have our ETNIA album’s vernissage in Moudon, Switzerland and we are already working on new singles and videoclips.

8. What plans do you have for the future as a band?

We hope to be allowed to travel again in order to start our international Tour with the last album ETNIA.

9. Where can we listen to your band and where can we buy your stuff?

We have a website:  www.borderline-band.ch . But you can also find us and follow us on social networks : Facebook: Borderline-CH or Instagram : borderlineband.ch. Finally, you can listen to our music on Spotify or Youtube.

10. What is it you’d like a listener to remember the most when hearing your music for the first time?

That our music, the sororities we use, makes him travel from a country to another, all around the world.

Progressive experimental metal rockers ARYA have an all new album out this fall! With that they have gone into discussion to say much about this release and some bit on themselves as well as their future plannings!


1. Please tell us about the history of your band and its members.

Hi! I’m Luca Pasini, I play guitar and do backing vocals for the prog/noise/post/gaze/whatever band Arya, which at the moment also features Simone Succi on guitar and vocals and Alessandro Crociati on drums. Arya was born from an EP that I had composed recorded on my own, that later became our debut album In Distant Oceans. I met Simone at a lecture in the music school we both used to attend, I sent him the songs and asked him if he wanted to make music with me, while Ale was the drummer of our very first band when we were just teenagers, and he joined the band later.  The history of the band has been really troubled, with many line-up changes and really tragic turns of events, but despite that (but probably even thanks to that) we’ve managed to release four albums and an EP since 2015, touching many different genres of music. We’ve played shows in many regions of Italy, as well as Switzerland, Austria and the San Marino Republic.

2. What’s the origin of the band’s name?

When we formed for the first time as a full band and were looking for a name, I was studying for an Asian Philosophies exam at the university. I came across the Sanskrit word Arya, which is adjective that means “noble”, “aristocratic”, but is also a short and good sounding word that doesn’t imply any specific genre for our music, and didn’t seemed to be already taken by someone else. However, because of many businesses in any field being named Arya, as well as a character from Game Of Thrones, we quickly added “Italy” to most of our social media pages to make us easier to find.

3. Where is the band based out of and what is your music scene like there? Are there any local bands you could recommend?

We’re based in Rimini, a city on the East coast of Italy that’s quite famous internationally as a seaside resort. However all in all the music scene here is quite small, we pretty much all know each other. There aren’t many good venues that host live concerts because, and this is the main problem, there isn’t really a big dedicated audience interested in underground bands and music outside the mainstream, so we usually always end up playing in front of the same friends. We however tried to move a little around Italy and also abroad, and we had some really good experiences. For example we recently performed in Rome, where I’m studying and living (part-time), and we had a great time.
That said there are some really good bands around Rimini, like Solaris (noise rock), Built-In Obsolescence and Invasion Incorporated (progressive metal).

4. How would you describe your style?

Well, it’s hard: there’s for sure some metal in it, from modern progressive or djent to sludge, hardcore and even some black influences; however there’s also quite a lot of alternative and noise rock and shoegaze, and many jazz influences especially in harmony and rhythm patterns. Most of the people who reviewed our music on blogs have said that we sound very unique and different from anyone else, which is for sure a good thing and it’s mostly intentional, but it’s also a big problem preventing us to get more exposure, especially in this era where playlisting is becoming more important, as you really have to clearly fit into the criteria of a specific style to be included on most playlists and gain more followers on streaming services. Our music has always been many different things at the same time, so it makes fans of most genres feel equally lost and out of place.

5. What have you released so far and what can someone expect from your works?

I have to say we’ve released quite a lot of music since we started: in October we’ll officially publish our fourth full length album, called For Ever, but most of the song are already being uploaded on our Youtube channel in advance. This means there have already been three other albums: In Distant Oceans from 2015, Dreamwars from 2017 and Endesires from 2018, but we also released an EP called Zero in 2019, which was composed and recorded together with our upcoming album, but has a totally different style and vibe than our other mainly rock and metal oriented releases.
The main reason why we’ve been able to compose, record and release so much music during these years is that, since the beginning of the band, we always handled the production, recording and release process of our music ourselves: besides obviously avoiding spending money to pay someone else to record us, for me and Simone Arya has been the main vehicle to learn how to be better producers and engineers and to experiment with new recording and mixing techniques. Hopefully the quality of the music has gotten a lot better with time. In addition to that, being able to find stable members has always been a big problem for us; when someone new has joined, we’ve usually tried to quickly compose something new together, in order to perform something that could represent the taste and influences of all band members, and to have a record that each one could call his/her own. Nevertheless, the line-up often changed even faster than our releases.

6. Do you have any new music in the works?

We always have! However, as we’re releasing a new album in October and we’ve already accumulated quite a big discography, we have really no need to rush the composing process: we wouldn’t like to repeat ourselves and we’d like to take some time to find new ideas and new stories to tell.

7. How about playing shows and touring, have anything planned out?

Well, we’re living in a very difficult historical moment, so for us it’s difficult to plan anything related to live concerts. Italy is, at least at the moment, in a relatively better situation regarding the pandemic than most other European countries, and we have already played live once since the end of lockdown, even if it was a really special occasion with a seated audience and all the safety requirements. Some other live events have started to appear again as well, but I don’t think it would be a good moment to start looking for events ourselves. We should do at least a festival next year, meanwhile we’ll wait and see, and we’ll also try to find a full, stable and dedicated lineup.

8. What plans do you have for the future as a band?

Surviving in this horrible world could already be considered a big achievement! That said, making memorable music, having a good time together, finding a way to play live again, maybe even touring abroad once again would be wonderful. But I’m aware these are difficult times for all of us, and thinking about the future is more difficult than ever.

9. Where can we listen to your band and where can we buy your stuff?

We’re pretty much on every streaming platform like Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/artist/4WfuNd1szecUkB9alBgTdK), but we also have a YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/c/aryaitaly). If you want to support us financially, the best place to buy our music and merch is on Bandcamp, at https://werearya.bandcamp.com.  If you want, it would be great if you followed the band on Instagram or Facebook at @werearya.

10. What is it you’d like a listener to remember the most when hearing your music for the first time?

I’d really like to move people that listen to our music in some way, make them feel an emotion, inspire them to create something of their own or to make their life and the world better. I’ve always considered music as some kind of catharsis, a way to tell the world who I am and ask for forgiveness and understanding in a desperate attempt to feel at peace with it and everyone: this is even more true for our new album For Ever, that was created in the aftermath of a really dark moment our lives and is really personal for us. Those events probably also established that all my expectations stated above, about music making the lives of me and the people around me better, are complete nonsense, but we had to make the album anyway.