姓名: Betray-Ed 英文名:- 性别:男 国籍:- 出生地:- 语言:- 生日:- 星座:- 身高:- 体重:-
BETRAY-ED was born in 1996, when I (François, founder and creator of the band) was attending Primary school. At that time, the band was only there to cover some old Kiss songs, and none of the members knew how to play an instrument... A few years after, I was the only one to play in the band, but still wanted to achieve my dream, play more and more and record my own compositions...
Then, with a friend of mine who knew "how to do" I recorded in 2003 my very first demo CD : Stormy Sky. It was really cheesy : only keyboards and a silly voice... I sold something like 20 copies, essentially to my closest friends.
After this first demo, came from the past an old great friend : David, who had learned how to play the guitar... We recorded nine brand new songs, sung in French and English and then, the second BETRAY-ED demo was born : Escape. There were some nice ideas on this one, but sadly, we could only get a really, really awful sound ! We recorded it during the months of April 2004 and March-April 2005.
Then, I bought my own computer, a great new keyboard, and we decided to go a bit further, to work more seriously, and give to our work a much more "Metal"-lic sound. Metal has always been my favourite genre of music, and the only one I truly wanted to play. Of course, David enjoyed it too, but he was more inspired by classic rock, or blues stuffs. This mix of influences, with a sad and melancholic feeling, made the real sound of BETRAY-ED.
In 2006, spending an entire week with David was the long-awaited opportunity to record our new ideas, on the new demo (let’s call it our first real “album”) : "When Nostalgia Embraces My Soul...". Half of the titles would be very soft, ambient songs, or ballads like "Echoes of tragedy" that you can hear on this page, the other half would be more rock or metal influenced. This album was still very immature, but with a nice melancholic feeling. A lot of people enjoyed it, and I must say that we were quite proud of it, even if some stuffs didn't work as we wanted to...
It was the real rebirth of BETRAY-ED : we decided never to use a drummer, because it would have been too complicated to record, and the duet was already ok, with a kind of magic between us while we where playing... Sometimes, you'll hear synthetic drums on our music, but most of the time, drums aren't essential for our work. If I ever enter a real studio somewhere in the future, of course, things will change. With the experience, I have really understood the importance of great drum-playing and solid rhythmic basis…
In 2007, both David and I wanted to go further again. So, a friend of mine, Fabien, who could play the guitar and the bass as well, came to help us for this one. Two guitars and one bass, really good ! My elder sister came also as a guest to sing on one track and played the Cithare (zither), a beautiful ancient instrument which gives a very nice folkish feeling, and that we'll keep on using in the future. Julie, 12 years old, who had already sung choirs on the previous demo, helped us one more time ! It was another major step in the creation of BETRAY-ED’s real identity. A mix of many influences… With the evolution of my tastes, it would soon become quite clear that folk influences were going to become more and more important in my music…
So was realised Dreamful Slumber. To be honest, I'm a bit disappointed by this one. There are some good tracks, that you will hear on this page, but the Metal tracks f**ked up, and I can't bear my still silly voice on it... So, we promised to do better next time !
2008 came then, and was about to be the biggest and most important year in BETRAY-ED’s history. Due to the absence of David for one complete year, I became quite anxious about the future of the project. I worked on some demos alone, following a darker path, but what would I be able to do without guitars? I could do keyboards and vocals, of course, but what would be BETRAY-ED without heavy & acoustic guitars ? But fortunately, luck was on my side when I met Adelaïde, a very old friend from Primary School… The shy and mysterious girl had grown up, and turned into a beautiful and great young lady, playing the guitar and currently looking for a band ! April came, and we started to record what would be BETRAY-ED’s most listened record up then : “Haunting Memories”. Unlike David, Adelaïde had some rock influences, so she felt more comfortable than him on heavier & darker tunes. I started to improve my level as a composer & producer (even if my material remained quite poor and cheap… and it hasn’t changed that much today!) and we started to record. BETRAY-ED was already my project before being a real duet ; with Adelaïde, things became even easier. She was able to give life to much of my ideas, so I could bring into my work much more of myself. Those 11 songs were more personal than anything I did before, and were an honest reflection of what was happening in my mind back then. New influences came into my music : Folk, Dark Ambient, and Atmospheric Black Metal. I think we can definitely sum it up with these three names. Once again, my sister was called to help, as well as a dark ambient musician from Canada, A Bleeding Star. Our first collaboration is appearing here, but then, we recorded an album together under the name of BLEEDING & BETRAYED, which was unveiled in August 2008.
In 2008, I also started to promote my music, and to become more confident, and proud of my modest creations. Rosarius, bandmate & co-composer of my other main project ANGELLORE was the third guest in Haunting Memories. The fourth one was Julie, who seriously improved her skills as well since her first apparition in BETRAY-ED back in 2005. (She did choirs and played bass as a guest on a two songs of 2005’s demo “Escape”).
In July, I started thinking about a whole new concept, setting sails from the folkish and nature inspired side of my music, to develop a more “urban” feeling. So was born “The Modern End EP”, which was warmly welcomed by the audience on last.fm (where I started to post my entire discography, in order to reach new people and get some interesting feedbacks). My old buddy Fabien, who had started to work as a photographer, took some weird pictures of me naked in the street. For the first time, I attached importance to the visual side of BETRAY-ED. One of his works was also used as a cover for the Ep. “Dreaming Machine” was even broadcasted on an internet radio station, “La Grosse Radio”, thanks to MelonMan, great friend & awesome fan !
But once things are really starting, it’s quite hard to stop them… After the achievement of “Haunting Memories” in April, I started to work again with my sister Delfine, with Adelaïde and with Jean-Louis, an incredible acoustic guitar player/composer, on some more folkloric tunes, close to a more “nature-fascination” oriented spirit. “Songs Fom The Oak of Wishes” (dedicated to a sweet & dreamy childhood’s memory) was finished in November. 8 of my friends were playing on it, including Laetitia, met during the summer, an incredible girl who can sing, play the viola and the flute like no one else! I also met JJM thanks to last.fm, a great man that did several covers for BETRAY-ED and became a precious mate.
But the end of the year was a much harder period for me, forsaken by some important people, and spending much of my time alone… So, I started alone the recording of a much gloomier work, and gave birth to “The Depressive EP” at the end of the same month. Adelaïde helped a bit, but most of the work was only synth-oriented. Influenced by depressive and more desperate forms of Doom & Black Metal, “The Depressive EP” was like a howl from inside, and a way for me to express my most horrible emotions in music. And to see how extreme I could be with my vocals... Once again, most of the fans welcomed it quite warmly, and it was even reviewed on a very important French webzine called Obsküre.
From 2003 to 2007 (included) BETRAY-ED offered four works to the audience, three ugly & childish releases, poorly recorded. In 2008, four new ones were recorded, and four much better ones!
Always trying to go further is quite important for me, especially musically speaking. BETRAY-ED is a mix of many genres, and this wide musical horizon must be unlimited, and linked to my personal evolution… and to the changes of my tastes, too! So, we talked with Adelaïde and we decided to make everything possible to turn this new year 2009 into a greater year for BETRAY-ED. And now that the year is over, I can proudly say : yes, we definitely did it !
2009 started with an idea a fan gave to me : why would it be impossible to offer friends the opportunity to discover what BETRAY-ED was in the very beginning in 2005 ? So, as the sound of the first demo was really awful, and as compositions could be much better worked using the same ideas, I decided to ask Adelaïde to help me re-recording the six best songs of Escape, and to release a third EP as a result, that we would call “Another Escape”. So we did, and were satisfied with the result.
Then, we started to work on my most ambitious work to date. The fourth full length album of BETRAY-ED, that I wanted to call “Woods of Eternity”. We started to compose & record in October 2008, and the album was eventually released in December 2009. There are a lot of other stories to tell, but I'll write them down later...