Greetings from Metalheads Forever Magazine, Cyril & Claire, a real pleasure to connect with you through this Interview, How are you doing today?

We are good, thanks ! It’s great to do this first interview in English and introduce ourselves to the American people !

Your debut album, “One Step Closer” was out on January 2023, would you like to tell me about the songwriting and production behind the album?

This debut album was totally self-produced. The easiest part was songwriting of course ! We had a lot to express and it took us 6 months to create the music, write the lyrics and record the 9 tracks of “One Step Closer”, along with 2 more. It was like a necessity to let feelings and emotions come out, turning into vibrations and sounds. Besides, it resulted in a 54min album, whereas an emergent project usually starts with an EP. It was risky, but impossible to edit what was created as a whole. After that, real trouble began ! Without any experience in music production, we had to quickly learn and integrate processes and took up different roles to make our music real and available to the audience.

Was there any concept behind the album?

Yes there was ! “One Step Closer” is a post lockdown opus and it would have been a lie to conceal the impact of this dark period into our music. But strangely in a positive way since it gave us time and space to dive and search within ourselves. Introspection is the main concept of this debut album, a universal and recurring theme, but also the identity of Pledge Of Healing. Actually, when we decided to create, we made a strong commitment to grow, face our dark sides and heal ourselves, also with music. And what an exciting adventure it’s been !

Talking about the album, it’s an amazing work by you, Great Vocals, amazing musicianship, Each song has been crafted into perfection, with great energy and a blend of everything, It’s rocking,It’s Progressive, It’s art rock and a modern touch with your own blend of awesomeness, as a creator how do you feel about the album?

Thank you so much for your words ! It’s not a common thing for French people to congratulate themselves, but it’s so meaningful to pause and appreciate the road ! We can now say that we are proud of this debut album and we thank everyone who has supported us in making this dream come true. Obviously it’s not perfect ! But it looks like us, with no compromise, through authenticity and sincerity. We are aware that music is a matter of taste and we don’t want to make music for everybody. We just want to have chills and send them to whoever finds the echo.

Are you currently touring and how has the touring experience been so far?

Since the beginning of the project, we have noticed that things happened when they had to happen, when we were ready to move on. So we built our path this way, first with songwriting, then with production, followed by promotion. Our current aim is on live performances so we focus on finding dates to build up a touring experience. We have already performed live 3 times and got great feedback. We can’t wait to get back on stage again !

Would you like to Introduce Pledge of Healing to the readers, how it all started?

We met through an ad, both willing to start a new musical adventure. It was clear at first sight that we had to share our emotions and create our own universe. We didn’t know what or how but we stuck to it and created our first song, “Rain To Light Up The Sun”, only 2 weeks later. Everything was fluent and easy because we had the same vision of the music, the same taste in chilling sounds and the same desire to sincerely express ourselves.

With a huge success on the debut album, how do you look into the future?

It was important for us to make this first album travel abroad, so we are truly grateful to you ! We are actually broadcasting our work through modern media. We fully embrace all the possibilities we have nowadays to be heard in the entire world ! As we said previously, our main goal is to perform live and we focus on that ! We also hope to soon go back to songwriting, we’ve got much more to create !

As we are reaching the end of 2023, are you planning to get back into the studio to make another album?

We haven’t planned a new recording session yet, but we are bound to soon get back into this creative space !

One way or another, we will manage to make a second album, perhaps including new sounds and vibes, close to what we listen to now. We also wish to get involved with a professional team before producing a new opus. Selfproduction is instructive and rewarding as a way to start, but if one wants to go further, one needs help and support !

What would be some of the highlights since the inception of the band?

This is the album of the first times ! We’ve had many highlights in our heads since the beginning of this project, such as our first magical meeting; but also our first music video shooting, “Thrill Ride”, along with an amazing team; discovering our vinyls that we really enjoyed making; and the first gatherings with our audience and its warm welcome.

Would you like to tell me about the songwriting process and the concept that you focus on?

All lyrics were written at the end of the process. We first composed, setting the tone and the atmosphere. Then, we thought of the vocal melody, relying only on feeling, not the technique. And only then, did we translate emotions into words. To us lyrics come second and we find important that music stands out to make us vibrate and lead us to imagination.

What would be the biggest dream for Pledge of Healing.

Probably meeting people on stage all over the world ! But step by step ! That would be the biggest dream, but for now, we have to work hard and with passion to further develop our project.

Finally what would be the message for the fans?

To the very first fans, thank you so much for your support ! This adventure is nothing without sharing !

To people who don’t know us yet, be curious, feel free to listen to “One Step Closer” and if you find an echo, join us and be part of the following steps !