So, you're on tour in Europe for the summer, last time you came here was for the Persistance Tour with Madball, Sick of it All, CBK and Terror. How was it ? How does it feel to tour with monsters like Madball and Sick of it all ?

Well, we actually have done tours with them before, we did a tour with Madball in the US and with Sick Of It All for the Persistance Tour in 2005. So, it was a good time, Comeback Kid was the new kids on the blocks for us, we didn't know any of them before, but they are sweet hearts, they are definitely a band of people you can get along with, we had so many good times, we played the Mafia, you know it's all about lying and pretending who you are and try to kill people. It was a great time and we were totally addicted to it, but it was awesome.

In talking about SOIA, how did you come to cover up "Us vs. Them"? Is it you who chose the song ?

Century Media decided to make a tribute to Sick Of It All and the band decided to pick which band will be on it ! We actually had tour with them before and we still get along with them and they asked us to do a cover song, and this is the one I like and we love this song!

Are you going to play it tonight?

No! Well you see, it's an honour for us to do it for a tribute album but it's their song and they deserve to play it. You know, we played it and recorded it for the tribute, but it's not an honour for them from us to play it live, to me ! I can sing it with them that is awesome, but only playing it with them!

So we're gonna wait to see you with Sick Of It All !

We actually did it with them at the Persistance Tour this year. Freddy came to sing his song, and then it was me.

You've just played at the Pressure Fest and the European Hellfest, how was it?

Pressure Fest was amazing! There was so many kids, something like twice more than the last time we played there, which it was like 2 years ago. There were camping out, it was such an amazing festival and the very good thing is that a hardcore festival can double its size, that just mean more support from the kids and so more band can come through. So that was great, that was a wonderful feeling to be there and pretty great to see kids really into your music, they are so dedicated to the band. In Hellfest we played with a lot of metal bands that was great cos I've seen band that I would love to see when I was a kid but the vibe is just a little bit different, you don't know if they are just there to mosh or to see you as a band. But anyway it was just great because the kids are watching you and the reaction that we had was just incredible. People were clapping with us, smiling and having good time, despite the weather which was horrible, it was like a mud city, you couldn't walk, I had flip-flops on I said 'what's going on?' it was just destroyed!! I felt so bad for those kids. And there was a band who have lots of fun about them, you know, but give them some respect, they are in this shitty weather to see you playing live!!

"With Devils Amongst Us All" is out now since a few month now, in hindsight, do you consider this album is good enough for you? Would you like to change something?

Well, I think everybody who is in band is never completely satisfied of the result and especially when you start to playing them live, you think "ho I should do it in this way" . But over all, I'm very satisfied of it, I think it's the best sounding record we did. I'm very happy with my vocals because every record we made was a nightmare for the vocals. For "All Hail The Dead", we didn't play for two years before recorded it, I didn't scream for almost two years, it took a while for me to rediscover my voice. On "The Bound Feed The Gagged" I was sick as a dog I couldn't even talk. It was just some bad condition to me to record it so I'm very happy of what I've done with "With Devils". And we recorded "No Saving Me" two weeks after the recording of hard screaming so I was really happy of what it came out! We just try to do different things and that's what I'm excited about.

In talking about "No Saving Me", I know you did song like this before like "Angel". Is it something you would like to do on each album?

You see, I love metal, I love hardcore, I love the aggression you can do as a band with metal and hardcore and I'm very passionate by the music that I do, but I'm also passionate by all the music, I've been to a choir in high school, I always wanted to sing. But you know I don't really like to mix the two, screaming and singing, I don't want to be in a band that sing and scream in one song all the time, I can do it if it fits but I don't wanna force it. So I like to see that we have this music, the hardcore and we have this music here, like the softer songs. We separated it even if there's passion in both of them and I would love to do more of it cause I'm very passionate about singing, I don't wanna do it because it's the new thing to do I wanna do it because I wanna sing a song to people and see that they know what I'm talking about, feel the emotion that coming with my voice. But the problem with hardcore and metal is that it's very emotional but people think it's always the wrong emotion. I can have a sad song with a long of emotion and people can mistake it and feel it as an anger song and is not. You know, you can have a positive song and scream it and people can think that I'm an angry girl and I'm singing about something negative, and I'm not, I just want the people have a look at the lyrics. But it's about passion, and I love to play live and see the people singing the lyrics and they understand the emotion and that is something they can related to. Cos it's so close when you see people at show, you see at the Pressure Fest, we played "Revival Never Goes Out Of Style" and everyone was singing along and I sang it more clearly, and the feeling that go when the people singing your song is so awesome cos they are so related to what you say. And I would be so happy to stop singing and the people continue to sing your song, but now, people are dancing, they are moshing, but singing along is the best thing they can do!
Nothing's better than that! I love to see people dancing that awesome, but the passion about what you're singing that's completely different when someone sing it with you.
There's nothing better than connect two people, that feeling the same thing both at the same time, it's like singing along with the radio, nothing can hit me better than a good line!!

We can see a clear difference between the lyrics of your last albums and this one, in "With Devil Amongst Us All", they seem more direct, was it a choice for you?

Yes! I wanted to face all the changes in my life like trying things more positive, you see the lyrics from the last albums were about bad things in my life, bad times, anger and aggressions, it's like growing up and think that I'm not a victim anymore or I am not this anymore, now it's like I am the master of my own life, I am the one who's got the control of the happiness that will going to my life. So this album's like saying stop, we look at this, but we can change it. You know, I am definitively a passionate person, my emotions drive me and surround me what I am and who I am and I try to grow and be a good person for my own self and so I guess the next one will be totally different ! (Laugh)

Can you explain me the lyrics of "Another Day, Another Idiot" which are for me the more direct ones?

Haha!! This song is specially about one person but it could also fit to a group of person around this one, this person is to me an ignorant person he knows that and he never wanted to change or wanted to make himself better, he's happy with who he will going on and I ever feel this person could be sweet at all and I don't like him but he's got a power in our scene and so many people had to be nice to him even if he's a completely asshole and there's a lot of people like this now, there's girls, there's guys, but he's someone who's in the scene, who uses the scene, he takes advantages of it and there's nothing that people can do because, they have to kiss his ass cos their band will take benefit the way he should, or the scene will take benefit the way he should, it's just a view of the power of our scene mustn't have, that is the song is about and I hate that person every time I look at him I just want to shock him, but I can't you know.

A good kick in the guts sometimes is good!!

Haha! Yes, but writing lyrics is my way to express my anger without causing drama, you know he knows I don't like him and his group around him, they know, but I'm not interesting causing drama in the scene cos I don't want making anybody uncomfortable at the shows, so I keep that shit to myself

We can see a hardcore revival this last 3 years with bands like yours, Terror, Comeback Kid, how can you explain it? Do you think it's due to tools like MySpace and YouTube?

I don't think that hardcore is reviving due to these tools, I think MySpace is a downfall of human kind (Laugh), if you use it correctly, to get contact with your band that you can't have easily or having contact with people you don't see a long time ago, it's good to keeping connection, but people who use it to look at each others that is horrible to me and the fact that bands come bigger with the help of MySpace I'm not really sure of that, you can write something and make it sound good and put it on the Internet and you never see that band and you don't know who they are and you're gonna support them just because you hear them on MySpace ! It's really shit to me and it's hard to explain what I feel about it, I'm happy to see happy people on MySpace, but when a band become popular just because of MySpace like they never played a show, they never toured, they never put any heart into their band or anything at all like no sweat, no tears they just became big cos they put songs on MySpace, where the hell is the heart in that?? Where's the passion? But until I don't see this band live I don't give a fuck! I wanna hear that shit, I wanna see what they are doing cos for the moment they are hust standing there thinking "ho we're sweet!" Fuck you! That's what I say about that ! Well, if you wanna be popular, if you wanna be huge, that's the way to do it, I'll respect for you to do that, but you don't have to think that you're a hardcore band! That's my only problem with MySpace

Yes, that's true but sometimes that's great, my boyfriend made his tour with his band thanks to MySpace!

Yes that is cool, but that's the problem with MySpacen but I don't hate MySpace, but I don't love it, they are positive and they are negative aspects, it's a bittersweet thing, I just want to see that people realize that there's a life behind MySpace, I just want people to realize that there is more heart in the music than just MySpace

I guess you see the same thing that kids don't go to shows anymore, particularly in France, because they can see a band on YouTube, and I don't know if it's the same in the USA…

Yes people now feel they don't have to go to shows anymore, they don't have the experience, the energy, the heart that you can get at a show, it's so different when you're inside a show, it's so different than only listening to a band with the CD, the music comes alive, it's like something you can relate to, that you can feel, this is why you really should to come to the show.

I agree with you, we're doing something about 50 show a year, we travel to Germany, we drive for hours just for a show, and sometimes, I talk to people, they say they don't wanna go to show because it's too far and one day a guy told me that he didn't want to see a band cause he saw them on YouTube and I guess that the same shit with P2P it was at a show of a French band, in front of the distro of a French label and a guy say next to me to his friend while he was checking album, "I downloaded it, this one too and this one also" and he told to my boyfriend just after that he was going to stop his label cos of guys like that.

Yes they don't realize that the scene lives and its there's for the kids too! The distros, the labels are there for the kids, they give them a better deal, they don't ripping everybody with high prices, we can be a part of it and we can support each other for cheaper! And everybody can be happy and honestly downloading things is killing the scene and some bands are definitively ripping the profit but they are so many bands falling down because of it and some of them are really good and they love what they do but nowadays, good luck can't do anything. Getting tour, in the US, is based on the number of sales' records, there could be a band that's been around for six months but sells thousands of million of records and another who could be around for years, which is very popular and its music is very downloaded but they don't sells as many records as the others and the first band will do the headline instead of the others because of downloading and stuff like that, you play before the other band because on paper, your band doesn't sell enough cds to play in a headline show ! And hardcore kids don't realize that they're a kind of destroying hardcore! And I think it was it's going to happen if people continue to downloading music cos hardcore is still underground, downloading is not giving hardcore the recognition that should getting, metal as more recognition that hardcore will never get

Go to show people!!

Yes, come on! Go at show, buy merch!
You know, we played big metal shows like and we were charged to sells our tee shirt $20, and kids doesn't care about us and prefer buy bigger bands shirts just for style and they don't care about smaller bands, for them smaller bands are just shit, small band need to eat too !! You know, I really love what I do, but I support the scene and so I don't care if people don't buy our shirt but they have to know what's behind a show.

In 2008, it will be 10 years that the band exist, what is your view of your band through those years?

It's been a fun ride (Laugh). You know, I don't even feel like it's been 10 years that we started the band, I feel like Earth Crisis, cos it's also been 10 years for them a few time ago, they are a legendary band you know, I think it's an amazing band, cos they started when we were young, and then I think "wow it's going to be 10 years like those band I love" so it's kind of weird!! There's song that we still play that I wrote when I was in high school, I was 17, 18 years old when I wrote some lyrics, we changed but there's still the same feeling about some stuff. We've just seen people just come and go like, share so many things with other bands that hardcore gives us. I don't claim to be anything, I love punk rock, hardcore, metal, I love pop music, I love music in general but you know what? I've been here for 10 years and not you, so just respect the bands never mind if you're punk, metal, hardcore or anything else!

If you could tour with any band, which one would it be?

There are so many different bands, so many!! Hum, I don't know ... Right now, if I could tour with any band, I think it could be Beck! It's only a band that I will probably never tour with, it's not a hardcore band, not a metal band! I love him, he's so great! And I will never play with him!!

Ho maybe in a festival !

I really wanna tour with him hahaha. In festivals, we play with so many band like Slayer, Sick Of It All, Deicide, just bands like when I was younger I couldn't imagine to share a stage with them! When I was younger, I drove with friends for 8 hours to Syracuse to see Madball, Path Of Resistance, a lot of band for a one day fest and I was so excited and never thought I could be soon one of those bands!

I've seen through the forum of your website that american people consider you more as a metal band whereas in Europe as a hardcore band, how can you explain it?

Haha, you know what? I think everyone is confused about that! Being consider as a metal band is sometimes good and sometimes not cos it drove us to some festivals here cos we're metal enough to play in those festival but in the US we're too hardcore for some others festival or too metal for another one, but you know we don't want to be consider as a metalcore band and I used to be obsessed by that cos we're not, we just play metal part and hardcore part and mix them up! Now I just fucking don't care about what people think about us, we do what we do! I just don't care cos our message is our message no matter what people call you.

We made at the Hellfest an interview with Sal from Sworn Enemy, he said now in hardcore there's no music, there's only a spirit, the show, the spirit makes that if a band is hardcore or not !

Ho, yes, it's true!

So where's your spirit?

Definitively a traditional hardcore spirit, now there's a lot of band that used to do hardcore and now they're making a true and strong metal but they are still some true hardcore band for us. So I think you can be a metal band, a jazz band, a pop band and you can still be hardcore because it's all about the heart and about passion, hardcore is about having a message and trying to make a difference.

I know it's a question you are often asked, but we can see that there's more and more girls and female fronted hardcore bands now, do you think it's due to the popularity of Walls Of Jericho and the fact that you are a girl helps others girls to do the same ?

No, I'm not really sure. When we started the band there were like no girls singing in a hardcore band and I had to fight so hard to let people know that I was not just a gimmick, I was there because I wanted to be there but I'm not those kind of persons who need those credits, I don't want to be like "Yeah, I'm the one who started this shit". It takes a lot of strength and a lot of heart, especially for a woman, to do that, to be in a hardcore or a metal band and to be good at it, and to get the respect you deserve to do it. People ask me what are my influences, I don't have any girl influences, I would search for a metal band that have good singers, but just you are a girl you've got something to prove, and there's a band, not a metal band, The Cranberries, this is a band I respect, I've been influenced by Dolores by her stage way, because that little girl is running around the all time, she sings her songs and give the spirit of them and I was on my ass, that is the way people should be on stage !!

Yes, but as my point of view, when I was in my band, it's true I was influenced by your band, but not only there were bands like Gather, My Ruin, All For Nothing and some others with male on singing, but people always told me that we were doing some Walls of Jericho !

Ho yes, you compare to somebody else and that's not fair, they don't do it with guys!

And I was saying to them, "do you really listen to Walls Of Jericho and do you really listen to my music "?

Ho yeah, they just see two girls on stage. I don't care if you are a girl or a guy I'm searching for good musicians all that matters is what you're doing is good, I will not give recognition to a band just because there's a girl on stage. But the problem is that there's always someone who try to compares to someone else, I'm always compared to Kittie! People don't even look, they don't observe. My friend Paula has been include in this shit, we just played the show and she watched the show, I was this hair it was long, she has short, very short, brown hair and a guy came to her, after we had play, and he told her that she had done a good show! So open your eyes people!! I am not the only girl in hardcore with tattoos!! And that's insulting because people don't give you the respect you deserve, and that's all we need. So don't ask me anymore if there's sexism in hardcore scene!!!

What's in your cd/mp3 player for this tour?

Actually I'm really stuck to Life Of Agony, Stone Sour, I'm a big fan of this band, I don't know I'm listening to so much stuff, ho Tom Wait too, I love him haha !

What are you doing when you're not doing Walls of Jericho?

You know, we're touring so much that I don't have a job anymore but when I'm at home I just try to do what makes me happy, things like I can't do on tour, I love to do things by myself, go shopping by myself, go to the movie by myself cos when you're on the road you have never time for yourself, I spend my weekend with my friend who do motorbikes, he's on national and I follow him sometimes, another friend is into car shows from the 50s and the 60s, I like to climb too and also typical things sitting around, watching tv ! Ho or getting up in the morning, putting music loud and dancing around with my underwear with nobody around is probably the most freedom experience I could get haha!

What is you dream with the band?

Ho just to see people in the room, no matter how many they are, we just want to make them happy, with people singing along and having a good time, that's the best show, it doesn't matter how many they are, they just have to have a good time

So thank you for answering our questions!

Thanks back!!

Interview Laureline & O.S.
Translation Laureline