Celebrating Heroes with Season Of Dreams

Celebrating Heroes with Season Of Dreams

The almighty French/ Swedish Heavy Metal band Season Of Dreams has been vibrantly prolific during this pandemic age.  First the release of their debut album My Shelter in the 2020, and Season Of Dreams now returns with their second thrilling magnum opus entitled Heroes (both albums available on Pride & Joy Music). The main part of the group consists of Jean Michel Volz on most instruments and singer/ keyboard player Johannes Nyberg.  In addition to the core musicians found within, special guests on  Heroes include the likes of Emil Norberg from Persuader and Savage Circus, Mikael Dahl from Crystal Eyes, and many more!  Highwire Daze recently interviewed founding member Jean Michel Volz to find out more about the celebration of Heroes within the songs presented by Season Of Dreams.  Read on…

Introduce yourself, tell me what you do in Season Of Dreams, and how long the band has been together?
Hi, I’m Jean Michel Volz, one of the two official members from Season Of Dreams.  I’m a composer, producer, mixer, guitarist, bassist, drummer and keys player. I met Johannes Nyberg (ex-Zonata ,Singer and keys player too) in 2018 first for my old band A Taste Of Freedom and we decided to create a new project together which is more European Power metal.

Where is the band based out of and what was the music scene like prior to the pandemic?
I live in France and Johaness lives in Sweden, we started like a CD project but we want to evolve like a real band in a near future. For us the pandemic for now had nothing changed as we haven’t played a show as of yet.

How did you wind up signing with Pride & Joy Music?
We were looking for a label deal to out our first album (My Shelter) and after many rejects due to the fact that we were not a “Real band” for the moment, Birgitt Schwanke from Pride & Joy Music accepted to sign a deal with us and gave us this beautiful opportunity ! It’s with no hesitation that we came back first to Birgitt for our second album Heroes.

Is there any overall story or concept behind the album title Heroes?
The concept of Heroes is like a guideline through some songs of the album but explained from different aspects . For example, in Heroes it is medical staff considered to be the heroes of modern times. In the song Season Of Dreams it’s more the idea of a roughed up childhood which, well guided by people of good will, can lead them to have a glorious destiny and therefore these people can be considered as heroes in a way. In the song To The Glory it is through music and belonging to a band that you can become a hero and bring joy and support to the people who listen to it. In the song Reign of Wisdom, the epic side of the hero who fights for his King.  Some other songs are totally out of this concept of heroes and are just stories I want to tell.

Who produced Heroes and what was it like working with them?
We produced Heroes, we decided to make everything (except mastering on this album) by ourselves.  We are a small band and we do not necessarily have the financial means

Who did the outstanding cover art for Heroes and how much influence did you have on it?
It’s the amazing and talented Stan W. Decker who did the cover . We discussed about my first idea who was a doctor in an epic battle, sword in a hand and injection in the other in an epic battle against demon on a side a warrior on the other.  But the idea was giving a confusing art so Stan proposed to me an alternative with a warrior doctor fighting a monster Virus with a caduceus sword!  And the result is just amazing as always with Stan!!!!  Thanks to him and see ya for the third album !!

So many outstanding special guests on this album! Let’s talk about a few of them. What was it like working with Emil Norberg from Persuader and Savage Circus and how did he become involved?
Emil is a good friend of my best friend and when we decided with Johannes to chose different guests for this album.  Emil is an amazing friendly and funny guy like many of my Swedish friends!!!  I have chosen the perfect song for him and gave him where he had to put his solos and let him free to create these leads parts.

Mikael Dahl from Crystal Eyes is another very special guest on the new album. How did he become involved?
Mikael is a friend from Johannes and they lived in the same town, so when Johannes proposed me to have Mikael on our album it was of course a BIG YES for me!  Working with him was like with Emil, so easy and friendly!!!!  He fully understood the spirit of the song and his resulting solo is wonderful with his Wolf Hoffman tunes.

With your previous album My Shelter coming out just a year ago, it’s amazing you and the band were able to create Heroes in such a short amount of time. What has it been like to create so much exciting new music during the pandemic?
It’s my way to create music. I could put out a new CD every 6 month Haha!  It’s so easy to work with Johannes. We have the same perception of our music and we are working on our 3rd album already.

What could one expect from a live Season Of Dreams show?
We will try to do our best to give a live show soon maybe first on internet, due to pandemic its hard for now to travel between our countries.

If Season Of Dreams could open for any band either now or from the past, who would it be and why?
For me it would surely be Gamma Ray or Hammerfall, two bands that I listened to so many times and still listen and made me grow as a power metal musician .

What do you the rest of 2021 brings for you, for Season Of Dreams, and for the worldwide music scene in general?
We hope that all the energy we had put in this album will have a good impact on our audience!  And a big hope for all the professional bands who are awaiting better days in the pandemic to make gigs again and again!!

Any final words of wisdom?
Thank you for this interview and spreading those words.  Take care of you, your family and friends!  Power Metal will never die!

(Interview by Ken Morton)

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