Please list all of your band members and their roles in the band.
Bastien Deleule: Guitar and Clean vocals
Vincent Vidal: Drums Trevor Birnie: Vocals
Alex Stap: Guitar
Andrew Loeppky: Bass
For starters, what bands were you guys a part of prior to Nightshade? How long has the band been around?
Trevor used to play in Annex Theory and Quo Vadis, Vincent is in Eternal Redeemers and Alex played with The Residence. I founded the band almost ten years ago, and the final line up are 2 years old now.
What’s the origin of that name and have you changed the band’s name before?
The origin of “NightShade” is from an interview of “hide” guitarist of the japanese band X-Japan .
He screamed that name and I thought it would be a great name for a band. We never changed it.
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?
I have written the songs since the beginning and Fabien Letren joined me in the writing process after our first album.
About lyrics, on the new album, Trevor wrote many of them too.
It's about our living experience, what happen in our life and affect us.
What bands are currently inspiring the music that you’re making?
Many different one... from Hans Zimmer to The Black Dahlia Murder, going through Borgore.
We're listening to many different kind of music, and I think each of them influence on what NightShade is today.
Was there a particular band/artist or concert that inspired you to start a band?
X-Japan! Blue Blood album and Last Live DVD. As soon as I heard and saw them, I wanted to play guitar and start a band (and also color my hair in pink like“hide” but it never happened haha)
What do you do to prepare for a show? Any flexing, exercises, ect …
We like to relax and hang with the other bands. We usually warm up on our instrument 30 min before our set starts.
What has been the biggest highlight of the band’s career so far?
I would say touring Asia. It was a lot of work to be able to tour overthere, had the chance to share the stage with bands such as The Black Dahlia, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Obey The Brave and it was an amazing experience.
If you could tour with any bands, past or present, who would they be and why?
X-Japan, Queen, The Ghost Inside, ERRA, All Shall Perish… simply because i love all these bands and would be sick to share the same stage.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
Thanks to you for this interview! It was a pleasure! I hope you and the other people reading this will enjoy our new album! Don't hesite to check out our new music video “Uchronia” on Youtube and if you like it, you can pre-order the album with the links in our video description! See you on the road!