1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?
We are Efflore, a metal band from Taiwan. Our early songs were inspired by personal growth experiences, or horror myths (ex: H.P. Lovecraft). After the change of band members, the current song style is more focused on Taiwan's local culture, such as some Taiwanese history, ghost stories, horror legends...etc.
Every live performance of the band is carefully arranged, and each member also has his own character setting. In the setting, we are all messengers from the abyss, and we also use this identity setting to interact with the fans of the band. And there will be some black humor and black witty plots.
2.So far you have released a couple of ep's, musically how do they both differ from each other?
We have released 2 EPs, 1 single and 1 collaboration single with Laang so far.
Our past works such as the EP "Abyss" were written with a single guitar structure, the rhythm guitar was added at the end. The synthesizer sound effects accounted for a high proportion of the music structure, and the recording aspect was relatively simple.
For the music of the new EP <Haunted Island >, we have greatly reduced the proportion of synthesizer sound effects, which are only used for the final embellishment. We used the thinking logic of two guitars to construct the music from the beginning, and selected some special scales in the arrangement. Of course, we also paid more attention to the quality of recording and mixing.
3.The lyrics on the new ep cover cover ghost stories, horror legends and urban legends from your home country of Taiwan, can you tell us a little bit more about the stories you have covered lyrically with the new release?
We have selected some popular stories in Taiwan, such as "Wraith in the old Well", tells the story of a woman who crossed the sea from China to Taiwan in search of her husband hundreds of years ago. She was betrayed and killed by her husband, and her body was thrown into a well. In the end, she turned into a spirit of resentment, climbed out of the well and take terrible revenge on her husband.
Another story, “Spirits of the Green Lake”. It is believed that the soul of a drowned person has no rest and is trapped in the water. They will turn into water ghosts and wander in the water until they find another human being and trick them into the water to drown them, so that the water ghosts can rest in peace and get out of the water. Taiwan's famous green water lake "Bitan" has countless people drowning in it every year. Over time, people believe that there are terrible water ghosts living in the green lake.
4.The main religions in Taiwan are Chine Taoism and Indian Buddhism, what roles do these religions play in your songwriting?
In Taiwan's religious view, there is no distinction between good and evil forces, and hell is also a place under the jurisdiction of heaven. The gods who manage hell are more like wardens sent by heaven than devils. Therefore, most of the ghosts described in the EP are souls who stay in the world because of hatred and do not want to go to heaven for trial, or evil monsters who practice sorcery.
We focus more on the state of mind and stories of these evil spirits, telling everyone that they are scary and at the same time telling some of their own thoughts and the reasons why they became like this.
5.On the first ep you also covered the Cthulhu Mythos, can you tell us a little bit more about your interest in the writings of H.P Lovecraft?
In the first EP, we didn't have the main axis of the whole work, we just wanted to tell scary things. So under the influence of the video games "Bloodborne" and "World of Warcraft", we studied H.P. Lovecraft.
After knowing the horror and vastness of the world of Cthulhu mythology, we even studied the language of the ancient gods, and used grammar to create some lyrics and put them into songs.
Up to now, we are still deeply fascinated by the world of Cthulhu mythology, loving the trembling unknown fear.
6.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Efflore'?
In the early days of the band, people thought about what the music of the black metal genre would look like when translated into images. And we all thought of the word "wall cancer" in Mandarin, which is a bit like the painted walls are mottled and moldy due to factors such as moisture.
Later, I found out that there is no word "wall cancer" in English, and a closer word is "Efflorescence", but "Efflorescence" has been used as the name of many bands, so we decided to take only the first few letters and change it to "Efflore". A word that is special but does not deviate from its original meaning.
Therefore, EFFLORE means "wall cancer", an irreversible weathering and moldy phenomenon of walls or buildings
7.Can you tell us a little bit more about the artwork that is presented on the new ep cover?
We used a drawing method similar to Ukiyo-e.
The cover is the Tigress Witch, one of the legendary monster in Taiwan, which is also one of the songs in the album. The Tigress Witch in folklore is actually not as huge as in the painting, which belongs to the exaggerated style in Ukiyo-e, and also emphasized that tiger witches usually eat children.
The mountain forest in the blue background is a reference to the "Wangyou Forest" in Nantou, Taiwan. Due to past earthquake disasters, Wangyou Forest has created a group of dead trees that are rare in Taiwan. Some people think the forest is beautiful, and many people think that the forest is full of death.
8.Has the band done any live shows or open to the idea?
Yes, the band has done a lot of live show in Taiwan since its establishment.
From the moment we put on the face makeup, we enter the role we set, performing on stage or interacting with fans. We will arrange different bridges for each performance, so that the audience can be more immersed in our world.
9.On a worldwide level how has the reaction been to your music by fans of melodic and symphonic black metal?
We found that fans of melodic black metal and symphonic black metal in Europe and America found our music very interesting, and some even called our music genre "Melodic Darkwave Synyh Black Metal".
People in Asia and elsewhere think our music is distinctly different from the melodic black metal of the West, a bit unorthodox, a bit experimental, but overall fun.
10.When can we expect a full length and also where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
Since the band changed members, our main axis direction has become more clear. We believe that in two to three years we will continue to have several new singles and even full albums.
We are thinking about adding more Taiwanese percussion instruments to the songs in the future, and digging into more and deeper Taiwanese horror legends, such as the shaman belief legends of Taiwanese aborigines.
But in the near future, we will first concentrate on the promotion of the EP <Haunted Island >. We are also very much looking forward to the opportunity to perform in countries other than Taiwan.
11.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
We were influenced by the early works of Taiwanese bands "Chthonic", "Anthelion", as well as "Dimmu Borgir", "Draconian", "Cradle of Filth".
Nowadays we've been listened a lot of thrash metal bands, like Dust Bolt, OverKill. Also, very immersed in the work of "The Great Old Ones".
12.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
It is a great honor to have the opportunity to participate in this interview. EP <Haunted Island > is our new attempt, and we are honored to have everyone's support.
We will launch better works in the future, so stay tuned!
Band Email: effloretw@gmail.com
Instagram: @effloretw
Facebook: www.facebook.com/EffloreTW/
Bandcamp: effloretw.bandcamp.com/
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