Interview:	ONLAP
Title:	DIY spirit in the blood

When the Parisians founded their band in 2006, there was still a lot of work ahead of them. Alternative Metal of the emphatically lively and damn catchy kind is the thing of these fun-loving guys, who come across as immensely playful on their current debut album „Waves“ as if everyone had eaten a whole packet of enthusiasm pills.

Yes, what has dragged on over several EP and single releases since then is now culminating in a veritable eruption. 


Band founder, guitarist and composer Florian Maume founded Onlap together with his friend, bassist Franck Renoux - today they run their own M&R Digital Agency and promote many artists and their shows, including their own combo.

Quite unusual - founded in 2006, the band only released their debut album 18 years later. All-round master Maume, known to everyone as ‚Flo‘ for short, explains:

„Actually it happened that way for a reason right from the start. In 2015, we saw Spotify and Youtube growing for the artists, and we observed a lot of advanced American artists already practicing the "single by single" release strategy. That's what we did for the past 10 years essentially: release single tracks, regularly. We also released a bunch of EPs as ‚The Awakening‘, ‚Running …‘ and a compilation album entitled ‚Who We Are‘ for our 15 years of existence. This time, we have chosen to change things for this project: signing at a label, and make a "real" CD. We like experimenting. It kinda of work for us as Onlap is now around 150 million streams on Spotify only, and golden certified for ‚The Awakening‘. It also brought us a total freedom, considering each track as a whole project.“

What were the first songs that made you discover music as a child - and which ones do you still like today?

„Wow, so much! Actually, I think I or we still like the exact same banger tracks the most that got us into this music and have never left us to this day! At the moment I'm thinking of songs like ‚Last Resort‘ by Papa Roach, ‚Bring Me To Life‘ by Evanescence, of course dozens of songs by Linkin Park as ‚Numb‘, ‚In The End‘, ‚Crawling ...‘, ‚Still Waiting‘ or ‚In To Deep‘ by Sum41, as well as so many songs by Slipknot, Simple Plan, System Of A Down ... still the greatest. And hundreds of legendary bands like Falling In Reverse, As I Lay Dying, Bring Me The Horizon …“

Alternative / Modern / Nu Rock / Metal - which bands can you name off the top of your head as your eternal heroes from that genre?

„Oh, a lot ! Papa Roach, Seether, Hoobastank, Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, Deftones, Slipknot, SOAD, Blink182, Sum41, POD, Evanescence, Story Of The Year, Nickelback …“

Your music on "Waves" is highly original, very lively, beautifully fresh and full of lively surprises, and not a little catchy, so it can quickly convince me - what is your very own creative formula?

„Thank you for those words! To be honest, I don't really know. It all starts with the chorus, that's how I've always written songs. I'm a big fan of pop music, the greats are definitely the kings when it comes to making the best choruses in the world and creating a legendary song. I also listened to a lot of French variety music, with catchy choruses. I think that influenced my writing. I like efficient things, so this album is kind of in the middle between pop/rock and metalcore, as I'm also a hard listener of brutal metal and Metalcore - they're also talented for catchy choruses!“

Does "Waves" contain completely new songs, or did you re-record older ones etc.?

„Only new original songs! So you were indeed right when you said before that it's our very first album, in that sense. It looks like a year and a half of work, but it's definitely a huge project.“

How - difficult - was it to choose the songs for the album? Did you write more songs than are on the tracklist and then sort them out or did you polish the ones from the tracklist to the point of no return?

„Yes, I know this discussion and I like it. In fact, some songwriters write a lot of drafts and then only finish the best ones or something. I do the same, but at an earlier stage when it's just a dirty audio recording on my phone: I only develop songs that will be released and appear on an album/EP, I know that from the beginning when I find the chorus. The rest is producing/additional production to make it sound cool.“

Who out of you guys did the lion's share of the compositorical work on the new songs?

„I've been the songwriter and composer of all Onlap songs since 2006. Definitely a tough road when you decide to write music. It's always a struggle as there are no rules to figure out if a song is good or not.“

The collaboration with Kiiara in "Never Too Late" - how did it come about and what would you like to tell our readers about it?

„It was nice, she is very nice and took part in the promo to help us. It was thanks to our label, who found a contact in the USA. And then we showed them the track and they liked it! It was a very good experience with a great artist. She was the right person for this track, I'm very grateful that it happened. We like collaborations in general, as you can see on our Spotify, we have dozens of them.“

Do you have one or more personal favorites within the track list and - is there and in case yes, what is the o-ne- song with the most meaning for you and why?

„Wow, tough question! I'd say “Ghosts” for a couple reasons: the featuring artist is a longtime indie artist like me, we finally met again on the AFM label and ended up collaborating on this song, so it's cool. Then the melody, the song itself, it sounds very melancholic, I like this song. And finally the lyrics, because it's about the people who have passed away, so everyone is affected. And also because it's our last single release before releasing the whole album!“

Is there a lyrical thread running through your compositions? It can be assumed that your songs revolve around life itself due to the style you have chosen - or do the songs also deal with fictional themes etc.?

„Yes, first option! Looking at the song catalog, I actually write 95 % about life philosophical topics like love, passion, death, depression, friendship, the fast passing time, motivation, warrior spirit, and not about fictional stories, which I'm not good at by the way. There's also one thing I loved doing for this album: there are actually 5 layers of “Waves” in this album. We're going to reveal them to our community soon, and we're going to ask them to find them. That's something I wanted to do, and that's why it was even harder to write …“

Five individually thinking personalities in one band - pretty difficult to handle, or?

„At a time when we were a young teenage band, yes. But now things have been settled for a long time. Conflicts often arise when there are endless debates about the songwriting process. I don't think music can be written by 5 or more people. With the bands/musicians I listen to, that's almost never the case. It's always 1 or 2 people. That's the reason why there is a personality. We tried to combine 5 thoughts into songs back then, and a lot of bands we know are no longer around or had really hard arguments and conflicts: we're talking about taste, so I don't think you can really agree and be happy. It's a bit like entrepreneurship: everyone has a role and has to decide what they want to do. From what I've observed over the last 18 years, legendary songs are usually a meeting between a songwriter and a talented producer. That's how it works in the world of dubbing and cinema where I work now: a good producer/songwriter and good topliners who don't revisit the composition to keep it consistent. I admire all bands that manage to write songs together, it's great.“

© Markus Eck, 14.05.2024

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