Band Interview: _Echoseven

Games, Brrraaains & A Head-Banging Life are pleased to bring you an interview with alternative metal/rock band, _Echoseven.

1. How did you get started as a band?

After a tentative start in 2016 as a music project of drummer Allon McCall and guitarist Justin Larracey, the guys got serious about their music in 2019 and began recruiting more members to form a legitimate band. By early this year, _ECHOSEVENs lineup was, in addition to McCall and Larracey, Stefanie Roy (Lead Vocals/Guitar), Darrell Vautour (Rap Vocals), Andre Leblanc (Guitar) and Jamie Warren (Bass).

In true 2020 fashion things for the band went into a tailspin with the loss of members over the next few months. Andre, Darrell and Jamie all left the band for various reasons. The remaining members pressed on and were able to recruit 2 new members- Dylan Osmond (Guitar) and Mike Brooks (Bass.). In 2021 Mike and Dylan both left the band. That was almost the end. We auditioned a few bass players and guitarists but nothing was a good fit. Marcus, who Allon knew from the local scene over the years had reached out and expressed interest in joining the band. We found Bobby Hope who auditioned as a guitarist but offered to play bass due to the need for one on the band.

So late 2021 and early 2022 we had a full band. Then Bobby left. Luke was found due to a flyer that I put up months before looking for musicians. He reached out but we didn’t get back to him until Bobby has left. Fortunately he was still available and interested.

With all of that the current lineup is:

Stefanie Roy- vocals: her background is more in the solo folk singer/ songwriter genre
Marcus LeBlanc- guitar: lots of experience. Has played in many local bands. Has metal/80’s Hard Rock influences
Justin Larracey- guitar: Self-taught guitar player. Metal/alt metal influences
Luke Smith- bass: classically trained. Has a side project- Skullkracken a death metal band.
Allon McCall- drums: His third original project. Grunge. 90’s, Alt metal influences. Producer, Engineer, Songwriter, for ECHOSEVEN.

2. How would you describe your sound?

The official terms are Alt Metal/ Active Rock/ Post Grunge and we agree with those terms.

3. What bands/artists would you say have influenced your style of music?

We are a mix of many different influences- Stefanie is folk and K-pop, Justin is more thrashy and metal- Killswitch / Lamb of God, Marcus is 80s /90s metal, Luke is very technical- death metal, and Allon is grunge, emo, alt metal- all of this makes up our sound.

3. Has the rise of YouTube & music streaming helped or hindered you as a band?

YouTube is cool because you don’t need to wait to release visuals. And that’s a huge bonus. Theres no middle man. You make a video you release it that day if you wanted.

Streaming on the other hand is trash! Im not crazy about it lol Theres no money in it for artists. Period. The amount of money you need to spend to market to get 1 million streams to make 8K – you don’t break even. And people don’t want to buy music- they want it free which is insane and disrespectful.

5. What do you enjoy doing when you’re not making music?

We all have different hobbies , from painting to working on cars, to working on side projects. Or simply just spending time with family and friends.

6. What are your future plans musically? Tours?

We have our first EP “X-Ray In Use” that’s available for sale now on Bandcamp. It will be released on all streaming platforms Sept 30th with a video dropping Oct1st. We’re currently writing new material and have a local tour to support the EP.

Links

Website | Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter