Interview - WhyOceans @ RE4CT (Online Art & Music Platform) (05-Dec-2010)

Original Interview Webpage - http://www.alivenotdead.com/RE4CT/Music … 25712.html

RE4CT Official Website - http://re4ct.com/

Q: Tell us a about WhyOceans and the people involved?

A:

WhyOceans has been 5 people for about 5 years, and is now 6 from the beginning of this year. Jase, Jackal, Tommy and Kev have always formed the core of the band, then Ellison joined about 2 years ago, and finally Guill dropped by. We’re a good mix of what can be found in Macao and around: Kev is from Portugal, Jackal, Jase, Tommy and Ellison are Chinese from Macao and Guill is French. It might sound a bit special, but it’s actually how it is in daily life here!

Q: Where is your band located?

A: We’re all living in Macao and rehearse in Macao as well.

Q: What genre of music do you consider your work to be ? Who are your major influences?

A:

We used to play kind of pop/rock songs, close to Coldplay and Oasis for example but we finally found our style since last year. We’re playing what you could call psychedelic post-rock, going from the Pink Floyd, the Doors to Sigur Rós, Mono, Explosions in the Sky…

Q: When did you form your band ? How long have you all known each other ? How did you meet?

A:

Tommy, Jackal and Jase used to stay together since high school. Some years later they knew Kev from friends, with the band’s previous drummer they formed the 1st generation of WhyOceans. After the divergence of the previous drummer, we met Ellison by chance.

Guill used to follow the underground music scene in Macao, we’ve met him at many of our concerts. We’ve heard about his compositions on his myspace and were interested to work together.

Q: What inspired you to make music together?

A:

It’s all about passion and fate. Although each of us may have different music tastes but we always have the same goal and direction on the music we make. Combing different styles and cultures to form our unique sound, this is really interesting and we all love what we are doing.

Q: Where have you performed ? What are your favorite and least favorite venues?

A:

We’re having shows in Asia, mainly Macao, Hong Kong and Mainland China. We just came back from a festival in Guangzhou a few weeks ago and finished a show in Macao with bands from Japan and Hong Kong.

Q: Being a musician in Asia, what is the advantage and disadvantage?

A:

At least speaking about Macao, yeah, both advantage and disadvantage. It’s actually pretty easy to organize shows or to play for underground venues. But it’s much harder to play in official festivals if your music is a bit out of the beaten track. Post-rock is not common around, and pop & metal are much more appreciated by organizers. Then music and even art in general is not that spread, and doesn’t interest as much people as it is in Europe for example so you have to expect sometimes that not a lot of people show up at the venues or don’t care a lot.

Q: Can you tell us more about your upcoming event?

A: We’re expecting to release our debut album very soon and planning a tour in Mainland China, Hong Kong and may be Taiwan also.

Q: How can fans-to-be gain access to your music and latest news ? Do you have a website with sample songs?

A: We would like to introduce the band’s official website and other social platforms.

Mainly:

Official Webiste - http://www.whyoceans.com

Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/WhyOceans

Myspace - http://www.myspace.com/whyoceans

Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/whyoceans

Alivenotdead - http://www.alivenotdead.com/whyoceans

Weibo (Sina) 新浪微博 - http://t.sina.com.cn/whyoceans

Douban 豆瓣網 - http://www.douban.com/artist/whyoceans/

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