New solid european EBM formation that revives a style that was begining to show some signs of slowing down. Skoyz originates from Lyon, France. The duo formed in 1995 consists of the forming members Stéphane Ayas (keyboards, programming & vocals) and Nicolas Ussel (vocals, keyboards & programming). After self-releasing 2 demos (Sofistik 8 in 1996 and Lies in 2000), they got signed by Matrix Cube, a subsidiary of Trisol Records in Germany. Their first "official" album, Decay (2002), has been well-received by the critics worldwide and is slowly but surely making its way to the club dancefloors. Let's hope the future will smile upon Skoyz!

Hi, Nico. First off, thank you for managing a little time off of your busy schedule and granting DarkSonus an interview. Would you like to introduce yourself and tell us the story of Skoyz ?
Hi, I'm Nico from the french band Skoyz.
Skoyz is born in 1995. The band has been created by Stef (the other member). Since we already knew each other, he asked me if I was interested to start a musical project with him. During 3 years (1996>1999), Skoyz has been a trio (with Stéphane B.) on guitars and we made our first demo Sofistik 8, a four tracks tape. In 1999, Stéphane B. left the band and our first cd was out : Lies, a five tracks CD-R. In 2001, we signed to Trisol/Matrix Cube and we made Decay, our first album.

Was the departure of your guitarist the incitative that shifted the musical orientation of your band to an more electronic sound or was it something you were aiming at all along ?
Nico: I don't think it's because of his departure. Our musical orientation was clear from the very start. Maybe he left the band for that....

What is the specific role of each members? All one can found out is that the lyrics, synths and programmation are done by Skoyz!!! There is no mention of what Nico or Stef are really in charge of respectively, neither on your official website nor in the Decay CD booklet. Why such a mystery, if you don't mind me asking ?
If there is a kind of mystery, this is not wilful!!! Simply, we thought it was not very important to know each members' role in Skoyz. Most of time, Stéphane creates a simple demo song with a basic structure and together we rearrange the song, choose and create the goods sounds and we add vocals (written by me). When we are satisfied, we start the mix together .
But sometimes we do everything in same time or differently because each song needs a different approach. Maybe this is the reason why we don't write anything about our role in Skoyz : we don't want to confine ourselves at making a very specific "job".

What inspired the lyrics on Decay ? And musically, what bands have inspired your EBM sound ? To some extends, Front 242, In Strict Confidence and early Mentallo & The Fixer come to mind... Are you fans of theirs? Where do you tap your inspirarion from ?
Concerning lyrics there isn't a special inspiration. It depends of the feeling of the song or the subject I want to explore (psychology, influence , loneliness...) But Skoyz has no message to deliver! I think the vocals are as important as the music, so we don't want to include them in booklet. If we do that, the listeners will automatically concentrate on them .
Inspiration? Very difficult to answer. Of course, we must be influenced by bands but we really listen to a very large range of bands (FLA, Front 242, Depeche Mode, Covenant, VNV Nation, goa trance and acid techno, ...) but we don't know who influenced us the most. I'm sure the machines are our biggest inspiration!!!

Talking about "machines", would you like to turn us gear fetishists on and tell us the about the equipment you used during the recording sessions ?
We really enjoy analog sound !!! We worked with two PCs as recorder and sequencer, and we used many synths. Our favorite synths are the Nord Lead and the Studio Electronics atc1 with 4 differents cartridges filters; they give a very impressive analog sound ! Also our complete gear list is available on our website.

What is to be excpected for the new album, if it's not too early to ask ? Any idea yet ? Any new material in progression ?
Actually, we work hard on our future album (10-15 demo songs). All I can say is that this album will be a bit different than Decay. Of course, it will be electro but with more atmosphere and melodies. We don't hurry. We hope it will be out in the beginning of 2004. But there are so many things which could put off this album that I prefer not to give a date.

Any possibility to see you guys on tour in North America ?
Maybe one day ... We hope to because we'd love that!!! But it's already difficult to play in Europe so in America I'm afraid it won't be any time soon... Anyway if someone wants us to play there we would be very pleased, of course.

In conclusion, if you had some words of wisdom (i.e. practical suggestions) to give to all those up and coming bands out there in search of a record deal, what would you say to them ?
I'm probably not the best one to answer that kind of question... Just believe in your music don't listen to people who say, for example, "No, you must do that, you'd better make your music like this ..." And for a record deal, don't hurry. Send your best demo and wait!!! You know, Skoyz exists since 1995 and we started to search a label in 2000 when we felt it was the good moment , so ...

Once again, thank you for your time. I wish you the best for Skoyz! Take care, Nico. Keep up the good work. I'll be waiting for the new album with anticipation.

Darksonus