Amber Sea is a promising newcomer in the progressive metal scene that mixes heaviness, groove, and melody into a sound unlike any that has been heard before.

Please list all of your band members and their roles in the band.

Mathieu Rouland : Vocals

Guillaume "Guy" Tronel : Drums

Axel Richet : Bass

Kevin Chesnais : Guitars

For starters, what bands were you guys a part of prior to Amber Sea? How long has the band been around?

Mathieu used to play guitar and sing in the djent band "Cycles" and in the pop/punk band "Buddies Say Oh!", Kevin played guitar in the Parisian bands "Silence Sleepless Nights" and then in "INDREAMS" for a short period of time before leaving the group, Guy used to play in several metal and pop punk bands, and Axel didn't really have any band before.

Amber Sea was created in 2013 by Kevin and Axel, but the band is "officially" a band with a full and stable line up since last summer.

What’s the origin of that name and have you changed the band’s name before?

Our first name was "Recreating Shape" but we thought it wasn't catchy enough and way too cliché in the "djent" scene. We decided to start over and we chose "Amber Sea". We wanted something short, catchy, that you can't just forget 2 minutes later, non-cliché in the genre, and something related to the ocean, so we wanted something like "[Name] Sea". The word "Amber" naturally came out actually, it is for the colour of the whiskey we were drinking when we found the name. I think it's really simple and you don't really see this type of band name often.

Who writes your songs? What are the main themes or topics for most of your songs and do you think these topics will change over time?

The main songwriter and lyricist is Kevin, he writes everything (guitars, bass, synths, drums) using guitar pro and reaper, but he always asks confirmation from the others, and if they don't like a part they'll change it together. Honestly it's really easy to write songs together, we all like the same aspects in music, and we all hate the same things too!

Lyrically speaking, all the songs have one theme in common : They're about a feeling that changed our life. It can be the first love or the death of someone beloved, something that people can identified themselves to.

What bands are currently inspiring the music that you’re making?

We're currently writing our first full length, and we're into a really heavy period, so we pretty much spend our days listening to Thy Art Is Murder, Sworn In and Darke Complex, the new Periphery is also insane! So the next one is gonna be heavier and very "live" influenced. But we'll always keep that kind of "proggy" sound  really influenced by Monuments, Born Of Osiris and Periphery. We also like to listen to some pop or rap music, these days we're obsessed with bands such as PVRIS, Panic At The Disco, Schoolboy Q and the last Kendrick Lamar. They don't directly influence us on the writing, but it's always good to listen to something else to bring fresh ideas!

Was there a particular band/artist or concert that inspired you to start a band?

Speaking about the first bands we listened to and that really got us into creating music, for Kevin and Guillaume it's definitely Metallica, SlipKnot and Blink 182, for Matt it's Steve Vai, Led Zeppelin and Megadeth and for Axel it's Lamb Of God, In Flames and Avenged Sevenfold. All the old school all stars!

Now talking about the recent bands that inspired us to start Amber Sea, I would say : SlipKnot for their insane live shows, the violence they bring out and their powerful stage presence, and Periphery because they mix everything we love in music, they're basically the ultimate band ever.

What do you do to prepare for a show? Any flexing, exercises, ect …

Actually nothing really specific. We drink some cheap beers and some whiskey to get pumped up, then we chill with the other bands, try to know each other and have a good time. Then we prepare the gear and that's pretty much it. We move a lot on stage, so we always regret not to flex or stretch the day after because of the horrible muscle aches and such, but yeah, it's always a good moment!

What has been the biggest highlight of the band’s career so far?

We're a really small and new band, but the biggest highlight is probably when we released our first song "Deci(mate)". We had such an amazing feedback, we reached about 800 Facebook likes and 13000 Youtube views during the first week, it was really insane for us!

If you could tour with any bands, past or present, who would they be and why?

That's a really tough one... If we had to pick one ultimate and dream tour it would be : Metallica (Do we really need to say why? They're FRIGGIN Metallica that's why! LEGENDS)- Linkin Park (Hybrid Theory and Meteora are just PERFECT, we all know all the songs by heart, and Chester Bennington is one of the best vocalist ever) - SlipKnot (SlipKnot and IOWA are the heaviest albums ever created and they bring total destruction on Earth) - Bring Me The Horizon (All their albums are revolutions, they're ahead of their time and each of their albums include some of the best songs of our generation) - Deftones (This band is just unique, they bring a really special feeling everytime you listen to them and watching them live is an incredible experience) - Blink-182 (All their shows are parties, it's all about getting drunk with your friends and having fun) - Paramore (Their songs are SO catchy and Hayley Williams is simply the best vocalist of her generation!)- Thy Art Is Murder (Best deathcore/death metal band live.) - Periphery (Our favorite band...) - Monuments (Chris Barretto is life, Chris Barretto is love, Chris Barretto is God)-  Amber Sea (Yeah, that's us!)

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Thanks for this opportunity guys, hope everyone will listen to our debut EP "Infantile Vision", we released it last February through Famined Records, and we hope you will love listening to it as much as we loved making it! Thanks for your time reading this little interview, and don't hesitate to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram! Cheers guys!