Please list all of your band members and their roles in the band.
Hanna - vocals
Ozzy - guitar
Patrick - drums
Sara - bass
Answering questions: Hanna
For starters, what bands were you guys a part of prior to Nocean?
How long has the band been around? We all had several small bands before, all in the rock/metal genre. Me and Ozzy started the band in 2013 with other members. This current line up has played since August 2016!
What’s the origin of that name and have you changed the band’s name before?
Before Nocean, me and Ozzy had a hard rock band called Lobos Libre, but changed to Nocean and it's a play with words: Notion - Nocean!
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?
We all write our songs and put them together during our song writing sessions. But Ozzy and I often write some foundations at home that we bring to the band. I write all the lyrics. The main themes are "change"; to push yourself to a better place in life. I always try to be positive in my lyrics, it's like letters to encourage someone who needs it. The lyrics will change when I change! It's reflecting what I feel or what other people feel at the moment I write the song. And I always write about true things.
What bands are currently inspiring the music that you’re making?
We are inspired by bands like Thirty Seconds To Mars and Muse, but we also have heavier references like Devin Townsend. We want our music to be memorable, heavy and grand.
Was there a particular band/artist or concert that inspired you to start a band?
No, we can't say any particular band since we all joined the band in different times. You could say that in our past, we have a mix of modern rock, classic/old school hard rock, metal core and death metal among us members.
What do you do to prepare for a show? Any flexing, exercises, ect …
Before a show, we try to rehearse close to the show date so that our "muscle memories" are updated and prepared for a good show! We are also at the venue in good time to feel the vibes of the place and to have enough time for everything.
What has been the biggest highlight of the band’s career so far?
Two things actually, if we are thinking this line up that started in August 2016. When we released our first new single with the new line up, "The Change", in October 2016, we also released it with a 360 music video. WWe uploaded it to Facebook since there were some problems with YouTube. The next day we all woke up really surprised. It had reached over 130 000 viewers. The response was huge... We increased our following on Facebook by quite a lot. And the second thing would of course be when we got the news that we were (are) booked for Sweden Rock Festival 2017! Sweden's largest festival will have us there this year, it's gonna be a blast!
If you could tour with any bands, past or present, who would they be and why?
Well we would like to say Thirty Seconds To Mars, Muse, Trivium or Devin Townsend! First of all because we would have a great time and it would be a great honor. But we also think you should tour with bands that have the same target audience. We would love to play in front of Iron Maiden's fans... but we're sure that Muse's fans would appreciate us more.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
To other bands we would like to say: don't be afraid to go on your own. We've tried having a label, and we hope to have a new one for our second album, but we also know that we can do just fine on our own. You have to learn as much as you can about the biz that way, but there's plenty of websites and people out there who are nice and wanna help. Thanks for your time reading about us and thanks to Kill The Music for the interview!