AXEL McDONALD - JAILBIRDS

💿 Hi it's a pleasure for us on Hardrockheavymetal Axel McDonald of JAILBIRDS! WELCOME! Thank you so much, we’re glad you guys got in touch with us! 💿 On July 5th will be out your debut album entitled THE GREAT ESCAPE..We had the pleasure to listening to it in preview and we were really impressed! Can you tell us somethin' about its composition process and style? Ah cheers! We’re very proud of this body of work. It’s been a long process but worth it for the result. In terms of songwriting it would mainly be a case of Jay and myself writing most of the songs, structurally and lyrically. Most of the time we like to keep our ideas behind closed doors, both of us would even go our seperate ways sometimes to develop one another’s ideas and then eventually we’d go to show Ed and Jamie a demo that pretty much has all the parts laid down. It’s never the same process but it’s just the way that seems to work, there’s even been times we’ve been in rehearsal and we’ve come out with riffs along with certain chord progressions. In all cases we jam the songs in rehearsals/soundcheck to see if they work and maybe go home to make some adjustments, after all we have to be able to play them live! The album was written purely for the love of music and the hard rock genre. It’s a style of music we all grew up with and can identify with, a form of music therapy to our ears. 

The album is an amalgam of our blues influences which shines on tracks such as Shadow of Love and Underdog, colliding with our heavier material such as The Great Escape and The Pilot. 💿 Can you tell us somethin about the birth of your band? The birth of band came from Jay moving to Ireland as him and I had played in bands together for years in France (we’re half French). We knew we wanted to start up a new project as we had written some songs and we wanted to record them/ go play live. Luckily I already had in mind who we needed to complete the band. We started recording our EP before our first show in September 2016 and have been making great memories since! 💿 There's a great return of format such as vinyl and cassette. What's your thinking about these classic format..love for vintage or is it impossibile a future for music outside digital? As a band we share a love for collecting vinyls and are always willing to pay the money to buy one if we really like the album/band. Personally I believe the rock/metal audience is attached to vinyl because it holds so much value. Owning a physical copy of a bands album is an object that you will be able to keep for the rest of your life especially if that music means so much to you. Its a moment in time captured forever but if you rely on digital all the time, it’s easily forgotten as we are constantly distracted online, always something new to see or to hear. I remember when I lost my iPod that had 64GB of music, that’s when I started collecting my vinyl! 💿 Your album will be out via Golden Robot Records. Can you tell us somethin about this partnership? Jay and I knew Mark (founder of Golden Robot Records) from being in Sydney and he had a kept a close eye on what we up to ever since we started the band and released the EP. We’ve been learning a lot since we signed with the label, understanding how the machine works and knowing that we are still a small band with a lot to prove, small fish in a big pond. We are eager to see this album hit the streets and with their help I’m sure it’ll get to the right audience.

💿 Inside your songs what's the role of lyrics in the composition process? Words follow music or vice versa? Music first, always! It doesn’t mean that lyrics don’t have any weight in the song, It’s just a matter of writing them last. Most of the time I might have a few words stuck in my head that will go with a riff or chord progression and that’s probably gonna be my starting point when I get writing. The album itself is about the challenges that a band faces in its beginnings, the frustrations and the barriers you encompass, the journey of wanting to rise up, going from unknown to known and all the exterior negativity that accompanies it. 💿 Can you tell us somethin' about your plans? We’ve got some nice shows coming up! In France where Jay and I spent most of our teenage years, around the Alps/Lake Geneva. So there we’ll be playing at Montjoux Festival and Rock A La Plage. We’ll then be heading back to Ireland to play Knockanstockan Festival along with our own headline show in Dublin. After that we’ll be going to play our first UK show at Bloodstock Open Air which is insane!! 💿 Thank you so much for your time! See you soon on Hardrockheavymetal! No worries, my pleasure! #pressagent BJF PR