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French rockers Hazard are back with single “Lucid Dream”

It’s our little tradition here at Distrolution. We’re happy to introduce you today to the french rock / metal band Hazard. The guys just released their new single, “Lucid Dream”, and were kind enough to answer a couple of questions for us on this occasion!

Picture by @fernant.lacep

Hey Hazard! For those who might discover your band via this interview, would you mind introducing yourselves?

Hi everyone, we are HAZARD, a French prog rock band from Paris. We have been making music together since 2019 and we’ve just released our second single “Lucid Dream” earlier this year. We are influenced by a lot of bands like Haken, Porcupine Tree, Dream Theater and we describe ourselves as a prog rock and metal band. We love to create blurry atmospheres and dreamy melodies, as well as catchy riffs and complex rhythms. Now, as far as things go, we want to add new stuff to our setlist and play as many gigs as we can.

If you had to create a 5-song playlist that best represents your band, which songs would you pick and why?

Porcupine Tree – Blackest Eyes. Porcupine Tree and Steven Wilson are obviously really important for us. I like how catchy the melodies are and how violent the main riff is. Even though this band is often categorized as a prog band, this song is a great pop prog one. In Hazard we also like to keep things simple and catchy because we listen to a lot of pop music. Making a good pop song is really hard, and blending it with prog influences is even harder.

Haken – Falling Back To Earth. Haken is a huge influence of the band and this song shows perfectly what we like : heavy riffs, catchy chorus, along with calm atmospheres and an epic ending.

Other songs we love and get ideas from:
Anathema – The Optimist
Dream Theater – The Spirit Carries On ( and the whole Metropolis album of course !)
Caligula’s Horse – Slow Violence

You’re back with a new single, “Lucid Dream”. What’s the story behind this song?

Our single follows the story of a man thinking himself as a “sky-machinist”. He wanders among his harsh reality and lucid dreams he often makes. These dreams help him escape his unpleasant life, but having control of them slowly costs him his freedom and sanity: eventually he’ll lose himself between sky and earth.

This song started with a demo our guitarist Thomas brought. Then in one big session each one of us added some cool ideas, themes, the gloomy ambiance in the middle going to a five beat metal riff, and the epic guitar/keyboard duo at the end. It all mixed up so naturally and we were amazed by the result!

How would you describe your usual writing process and how do you split the roles between the different band members?

Well, the great luck we have in this band is that every single one of us is a composer. Composing sessions start with one of us bringing a demo of a song, then we start to play it and we add our special HAZARD sauce as we call it. We also have three writers which makes it really easy to write lyrics. We also do like “start from scratch” sessions, where we have nothing to begin with. Those take a really long time, but in the end the result is really collaborative, and everyone brings his own creativity to the table.

For the release party of this single, you’ve shared the stage with the Parisian rock band, Kahani. How was the show?

Both shows were really amazing. Our guitarist Thomas works with Kahani for a long time, and we just love the way they do their music. It was really natural to have them as the opening act. Plus, they had prepared an acoustic show they had never done before so it made the moment even more special to all of us. Then when we went on stage it felt really good because we hadn’t played in six months, and it was so pleasing to see the crowd responding to the new songs.

Speaking of live shows. What’s the best concert you’ve ever attended as a fan?

Sylvain: I think the best show I’ve seen is the Devin Townsend Project with Haken in the opening, playing at the Olympia in Paris. It was a three-hour show of epic prog metal, one of those nights you’ll never forget as a fan.

MAEL: For me it’s obviously the last Genesis show at the U arena in Paris. I’ve been a huge fan of them since I was a little boy and seeing them for the first and maybe last time was a really emotional moment. They played for two and a half hours, and it was a real blast.

And as a band playing on stage?

Probably Lucid Dream’s release party at Paris. It was very intense, and we had a blast playing and showing our latest songs to our fans. We received so much love and support, invaluable things we need as a starting band to keep on going and produce new materials!

The last words are for you. If you have any other projects in the making or a message to convey, here’s your chance!

First, we want to thank our friends and families for supporting us since the beginning, especially Thomas’ family for welcoming us to their house where we can freely rehearse! Thank you very much.

Then we want to announce that we are currently cooking something big and spicy, that will probably come out in the beginning of 2024. We’ll talk more about it in our socials, so stay tuned!

About Valentine

I've been writing for various music websites since 2011 and joined Distrolution in 2017. Huge fan of pop punk and punk rock music.

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