Molybaron was born in the Christmas of 2014 in Paris. Gary Kelly had already started working on the first record 6 months prior and was finishing his time as the guitarist of Human Faith. Jonathan Davenport, the drummer from Human Faith, introduced Gary to Parisian guitarist Steven Andre and the stage was set; bassist Sébastien de Saint-Angel arriving 3 months later and drummer Camille Greneror completed the current the line up in 2019.
They name many inspirations they draw upon and don’t limit themselves to rock and metal; for instance, the band also enjoys a motion picture soundtrack. Pink Floyd to Pantera, Muse to Mastodon, Metallica to Radiohead, Tool to Thin Lizzy; Hanz Zimmer, John Williams, Ennio Morricone, Thomas Newman, James Horner, James Newton Howard, Patrick Doyle, Trevor Jones, to name a few. One can also detect a clear influence of Alter Bridge, Gojira and Tool.
With such an eclectic legacy to draw from, Molybaron crafted a unique hard rock sound, full of riffs and catchy choruses as one would expect but also huge tech-grooves, powerhouse melodies and emotive vocals. Gary describes them as ‘eccentric’ and Molybaron no doubt stand out, bringing something fresh and diverse to the scene. They cross genre borders a lot, bouncing from tech metal to alternative and rock, and are quite aware of that. Gary explains though while they are conscious about it, it’s not intentional: “I know I’ve probably mentioned this many times, but I rarely listen to music. But music is everywhere, in cinema, in the supermarket, in an elevator, on my girlfriends’ playlists. I just hear music, and I suppose it’s stored subconsciously. I have no idea what people are listening to, what’s cool, what’s not. This has been pretty healthy for me, it allows me to write what I feel, without the worry of fitting a certain category.”
Genre-crossing in rock and metal is becoming more pronounced in the past few years, with many newcomers opening the doors of this historically quite purist community. The heavy music scene is evolving, no longer confined to its roots, and Gary has absolutely no issue with that; “good music is good music, it’s as simple as that. If it evokes a positive feeling after hearing, it works!”
The band released their debut self-titled album in 2017 to great acclaim, which earned them a few high profile support slots and festival appearances. Although it might seem like smooth sailing, Gary shares it has been a real challenge to make the initial break: “We weren’t prepared for how difficult it would be to build a real fanbase and to get your music heard initially. But after a little time we had a bit of luck; Charlélie Arnaud, a journalist for France’s biggest rock/metal mag, RockHard, became a huge fan of our first album and really gave us a lot of support. It helped spread the word! Another huge issue was finding good gigs (even finding bad gigs). We would send hundreds of mails, make calls, 99.9999% ignored. It’s not easy when the door is always closed, it can really dampen your motivation.”
Nevertheless, the quartet persevered, and their singles were picked up by the likes of Alex Baker (of Kerrang’s Fresh Blood show) and the word was starting to spread. They completed their second self-produced record The Mutiny before the pandemic hit. The sophomore album delves deeper into mental health issues and personal subjects, though leaving room to touch on political matters and social commentary. The decision to explore themes close to their heart was premeditated, as Gary explains: “The theme of many of the lyrics in the first album were highly influenced by the hysteria surrounding the 2016 US election and the corporate owned mainstream media fanning the flames. This time around I wanted to bring it closer to home and make the narrative easier to write about, so many of the lyrics are pretty personal to me, or people close to me. The overriding theme of songs describe the uphill struggle to overcome mental health issues, guilt, regret, depression, drug use.”
Just over a month later after The Mutiny was released, Molybaron secured a worldwide deal with InsideOut Music (Sony), home to some legendary names, like Dream Theater, Haken and Karnivool. The band are now re-releasing their second album on the 29th October, being able to give it an extra push this time with the label behind them. Gary shares: “it kind of feels strange, we put huge a huge effort in to the release the first time around, now we’re back in the saddle. We just hope we’re not annoying the shit out of everyone!”. It’s about time Molybaron go global and this upcoming re-release will help them do just that. Second single ‘Lucifer’ has already amassed over a million streams on Spotify and over 20k views on YouTube after just two weeks. Not to rest on their laurels, the band have already started the work on new material too and are hoping to tour the world in 2022. Great things are in store for the band and after years of working independently they will finally have help pushing their music out into the world. The majority of listeners – on Spotify at least – hail from Finland, Sweden and Russia – though the rest of the world may not be far behind.
‘The Mutiny’ is our now via InsideOut Music.