Hi Stephanie, hi JP! You added a very interesting style into the current metal/rock scene. How would you describe your style for yourself?

Stephanie:   We call it power groove.

JP:   Yes, "powagroove" because you may find the power and the groove in every song, even the soft ones like 'Bereft' or 'Creed' I guess...

  Sometimes the crossover influences remind me at the german GUANO APES - not only because of the strong female voice, but the fairly non existent limits in the music. Which different bands would you describe as your influences?

Stephanie:   Conciously, we're not influenced by this band or that band, but we all listen to every kind of music, from STEVIE WONDER to MESHUGGAH. [laughs]. We're all open minded musically.

JP:   My own influences evolved all along the years since the seventies. The glam, punk, jazzrock, new wave, postpunk, industrial, electronic, trip hop and of course metal. I swallowed every styles. From SLADE and BOB MARLEY to JOE HENRY and KYUSS....

  You passed some limits which are passed not very often in the metal/rock scene. For example I hear some very strong reggae parts in 'Sad Song'... who sings the second (and very "black") voice?

Stephanie:   In 'Sad Song' the singer is Powa One (ex PANACHE CULTURE.) In 'Love you alive', we called Kaer (from STARFLAM). The others male voices are made by JP (guitar), a Belgian hardcore band called RUN AMUCK, and Micky (ex-DEWBACK member).

  And 'Shadow Puppet' is a typical song for a small jazz club. How does your live audience behave if you mix such songs with some hard NuMetal riffs like in 'Resurgence'?

Stephanie:   People always need a little time to understand our style, but I think that's clearly the interesting part of SHAH MAT. It's not only a live show made of pogos, it's a real listening and discovery. So you can touch different kind of people as well.

JP:   I can imagine that the public could be as disappointed as you are, but if you can listen to the album several times, you'll easyly find a continuation thanks to the voice of Stephanie. Live, it's the same...

  Hey, nobody told that I'm disappointed! Is it an intention to try such different styles, or did you spent just no thought about it before the result was finished?

Stephanie:   Yes, it has always been intentional to explore different styles of music, we don't want to stand in a small box. That's why we chose those featurings as well.

JP:   For myself I would not like to make an extreme style. I've never did before...

  You work with a transparent rock production, but with a large variety of sounds, guitar effects, clean and distorted riffs and so on. How do you play your live gigs? Are they a reproduction of the CD instrument sounds with a large board of pedals, racks and preamps, or do you decide for a more rock oriented interpretation of the songs with more power and only some basic amp sounds?

Stephanie:   We still have this variety of sounds and guitar effects. A live SHAH MAT show is definitely more powerful than the cd, 'cos the energy is not the same....

JP:   ...Everything you hear on the CD, we give it back live...

  Do you already plan some tourings or summer festivals in Europe?

Stephanie:   We gonna play in a great festival in our area called "La fiesta du rock". We hardly work on that and hope to find a good booker in Holland and Germany. We believe in our album and we give it time.

  Your bandname sounds like a persian spelling of "Schach Matt" (which means in english check mate). Does the name has a special meaning for you?

Stephanie:   Yes, definitly. For us, it's like we do or we die [laughs]. We are determined to go really far with SHAH MAT.

JP:   It's all or nothing...

  Finally, this is the place for your last words to our readers!

Stephanie:   You can discover some of our songs on myspace.com/shahmat and shah-mat.be. But it would be better to buy it 'cos you'll definitly be surprised [laughs].

JP:   Yeah, check it in your local shop then start running to see SHAH MAT live!