I happen to quit my first band at around the same time (June 2004) that Danny and Chris removed the singer of their band, then called Solace. So, after auditioning for several bands, and after they had auditioned several singers, we finally decided to keep one another! We then named ourselves The Tempest and played over a hundred independent shows in and around Quebec until recording our first album, which got picked up by Century Media. We are now called The Agonist and our album, Once Only Imagined is soon to be available world-wide.

We decided to change our name from The Tempest to The Agonist because the meaning of the word "agonist" is more fitting to our band, and "tempest" is far too popular a title. As a precautionary measure we decided to change the name before the release of Once Only Imagined, to avoid any possible conflict with other "tempest"s.

Once Only Imagined is a collection of songs ranging from the very first song ever written by The Tempest (Void of Sympathy) to songs written a few days before recording (Business Suits and Combat Boots). The title, Once Only Imagined, is an excerpt of "The Proverbs of Hell" of William Blake’s "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell". The entire proverb reads "What is now proven was once only imagined". We liked this title because it is very true; looking back on history, technology and discovery available nowadays would only have been imaginary a hundred years back. Even ten years back, some of the things we have today would have seemed impossible. Likewise, things we may only be imagining today may be a reality in the future, whether good or bad. For example, when we were recording the album, we could only hope and imagine it would end up on Century Media!!

I write all the lyrics and vocal parts, Danny writes and structures the instrumental of the songs, and Chris and Simon write their respective parts. The way we work best is to have Danny, Chris and Simon work together on perfecting the instrumental song, which is then handed over to me where I brainstorm it for a few weeks and then return with a completed song. The band dynamic lends itself best to this process of composition.

We recorded with Christian Donaldson (Mythosis, Cryptopsy) at Studio Le Garage, from the fall of 2005 until the winter of 2006. It was a lengthy process because Christian had to keep leaving to tour with Cryptopsy, but in the end, it was on said tour that CM heard our music and decided to offer us a deal, so it was worth the wait! Because of the time elapsed between recording sessions there is a noticeable variation of production and performance quality between songs. If you were to place the songs in chronological order you would hear the evolution of the band. I had fun layering endless harmonies into my vocals and creating synth-type sound effects with my voice to add a bit of ear-candy to the album. But, we didn’t want to over-do it so we ended up mixing these so low they are barely audible! Christian Donaldson is my favourite sound engineer to work with and I would love to record the next album with him as well.

The lyrics talk mainly of environmental and social issues prominent on today’s society. Being vegan, abuse of the planet and of animals really hurts and frustrates me, so I want to do all I can to help improve conditions and inform others of how they may as well. That’s why I have several short essays written about the underlying issue in each song, to be made available online as soon as the album is out. I find inspiration in personal experience. Every root to every song, whether its animal testing, drug abuse or eating disorders, has been made a part of my life in one way or another. I need to be completely committed to the message behind each song in order to poetically convey the emotion and argument behind it, so I draw upon topics that I really care about.

Probably Forget Tomorrow, Trophy Kill, Business Suits and Combat Boots and Born Dead; Buried Alive. It’s hard to say, I love all of our material. Forget Tomorrow was a challenge for me lyrically and vocally, and I felt accomplished upon its completion. Trophy Kill was actually the song that really got me to join the band; when Danny showed me the songs they had already written, I liked them but I told them "I need to go much heavier than that." Then Danny wrote the main riffs of Trophy Kill, which, although isn’t the heaviest song, is quite interesting and original. So I was sold on the band with that song, and we have evolved together ever since. Business Suits and Combat Boots is special because I didn’t focus on one topic lyrically, I really just let it all out. I pushed myself vocally and we have gotten great reactions to the song, even to the point that it was made into a video. Born Dead; Buried Alive is also one of the newer songs, and was written alongside Business Suits. It’s the only song on the album written in a lower tuning, and is just a lot of fun to perform. My previous bands had been usually in drop C or B tuning, so when I joined The Tempest the music was noticeably brighter.

As a band, we have a wide variety of influences. I personally really appreciate classical music, musical theatre, Arch Enemy, Bleeding Through, No Doubt, Queen, Jeff Buckley, Muse, Nirvana, The Casualties, Converge, etc. However, I can’t say that any of these styles/bands really influenced me. I’ve never listened to a band and said "Wow I want to be like them". I just started doing my thing in my first band, and people liked it. I got better and better with the years and I hope to be consistently improving. I can’t say for my band mates, we all have different tastes, and we appreciate pretty much all styles of music.

I like the way you can hear a band and almost know right away that they are Canadian or American or Swedish or whatever it may be. I find there are distinctive characteristics for each country (of course with some exceptions). The international metal scene is something I would like to know more about before devising an opinion. We have unfortunately only played in 2 countries so far, so I can’t really say that I’ve seen enough to speak knowledgably on the subject. But, I do know that metal fans are loyal for years and there is a strong underground following in many parts of the world. And, people that don’t know about metal don’t even realize this global underground army exists!! Metal is a devotion, a passion, more than a simple musical preference, and I think metal-heads around the world are united in this way.

Wow! There are hundreds!! Let’s see... How about the chaos that erupted trying to get to our first show we ever played after bringing Simon into the band? Let’s just say it involved a cop, a tow truck, being stuck outside in a blizzard for an hour and a snow-filled ditch... but not in the way that you think. Welcome to The Agonist Simon!
Another funny thing that happened was once in our jamspace, after we had finished jamming, a strange man walked into our room and asked Danny if he wanted to make some money. We knew Danny was pretty, but this guy was being a little too direct! The man told Danny he would pay him 100$ to come jam with him. He told us his room number and said "Think about it. I’ll be waiting". So, we were all completely creeped out, but also curious. Finally Danny decided to go and Simon went along as a safety measure.
I called Danny’s girlfriend (who has been my best friend for years) to let her know that her man might be a little late coming home. It turns out the guy was a drummer without a band. He paid Danny upfront and then started jamming, ferociously beating his drums as if it was his first chance to play in years. After 15 minutes, the guy was done! He thanked Danny and then we never saw him again! Easiest 100$ ever!

Yes, we have a rather extensive tour booked for the end of the year, starting in September. We will be touring all over North America with great bands like Sonata Arctica, Enslaved and Overkill. We hope to be touring during all of next year as well, and would love to get over to Europe as soon as possible.

We have several new songs written for album 2, and we hope to reach as many people in as many places as possible with our music. We just finished our music video for our single off of Once Only Imagined, Business Suits and Combat Boots, and we are excited to get out on the road and push The Agonist as far as it can go.

Just upon visiting your myspace page I was bombarded with tons of amazing metal. I think you are doing a great job in promoting really good music, and it’s nice to see that its 2 women taking their place in metal and radio and creating a name for themselves. I really like the fact that you have so many videos available to watch as well. Keep up the good work!