The date was December the 6th 2003, the night was very cold, the air was crisp and we could see the stars even in the middle Montreal. Philippe was sleeping in his bed and having beautiful dreams where utopia ceases to exist, where new coloured birds sing and where it is forever the night. He was about to learn how to ride the stars but suddenly his foot was grabbed by an evil monster who wanted to eat him. He then heard a panicked voice screaming “wake up!” so he listened to the advice and woke up to realize that his bed was on fire! So he ran to the kitchen, got some water, came back to the bedroom but the flames had already conquered it. So he called the firefighters and watched all he ever had gained go up in dark smoke and down in ashes. All the beliefs he was taught that success is counted with material belongings burnt down with his home. He was then left with nothing except for the magical feeling of being so close to learning how to ride the stars.
Канада
This is how it all began.
After a couple of months Philippe had a new humble bedroom and a new synthesizer. So he practiced and tried to color the empty spaces with new melodies. Then one day someone knocked on the door. Philippe thought an angry person wanted him to turn the volume down. But no, it was a young fellow going by the name of Adam who complimented the melodies Philippe was playing. He also mentioned the fact that he was a guitarist and he was looking for a band. Philippe was looking for a guitarist but he had no band. So both began to practice together and had lots of fun. They both felt this feeling only music can offer. Thereafter they wanted to complete and record the pieces so they went out to find new members.
They looked everywhere around the city and Adam had a friend, Marc, who was very good at playing the drums and was an overall amazing musician. And Marc knew a singing witch going by the name of Johanne. Then they all gathered and practiced together and had lots of fun but had no bassist. So they made a demo in April 2005, recorded and mixed by Marc, where Philippe also played the bass. And that’s when the band had to find a name, a symbol.
Ever since, the word Anemonia represents the music they are playing. They thought that since an anemone is a beautiful flower that lives in the water and it looks soft and harmless, it makes humans feel they can safely touch the aquatic creature. But when they do so they cut themselves. So the human hands, that are frequently dirty, cannot touch the anemones. They enjoyed the idea. And to their eyes it didn’t represent any artistic limitations whatsoever, which was an important point.
Then Marc announced he had to quit the band after around 3 months of jamming. Later on Philippe called an old friend of his, Guillaume, and asked him to play the bass even though he was a guitarist. And Johanne called an old friend of hers, Simon, who was very talented at playing the drums. They all gathered together and had lots of fun playing music and felt this feeling only music can offer. And in September 2005, Anemonia was complete for the first time. So they made a demo called “No Looking Back” in October 2005, recorded and mixed by Nicolas Michel. They played as many gigs as they could until November 2006, when Anemonia entered the studio to record their first full length recording… the first time. They also somehow managed to get to the Canadian finals of the international Emergenza contest in that brief period.
So the recording had begun and things were going smoothly. But in February 2007, Johanne left the band before recording her tracks. So they had to find a new singer quickly! Philippe then wandered in the stars for some time and thought to himself “why, oh why?!” and also “how, oh how?!”. Suddenly, a mysterious silhouette of a tall lady whose head was in the shape of a Moon appeared to Philippe. She told him to look for the W constellation because the secret of the Three Queens lies there. She then vanished gracefully like a sand statue into the Universe. Philippe didn’t understand a thing and seriously began to think he should stop drinking vodka. The next day he woke up still a bit numb and googled “W Constellation”. He learned that the heavenly W, the constellation Cassiopeia (sometimes called "The Lady of the Chair) is one of those constellations which can be easily found in the northern sky. In the latitude of Central Europe it appears nearly in the zenith. So that did not help him very much in his quest to find a new singer. So he googled “soprano rock metal Montreal” and found many links. But one of them was about a Soprano on the Rocks… and her name was Cassiopée!
Then all became clear. She was doing a concert the next week and Philippe felt he just had to go and see her live. The Lady-Constellation sang a rock version of Mozart’s Queen of the Night. Philippe was left in awe in front of the bewitching performance worthy of the secret of the Three Queens. The concert then ended and many of the artists who sang on stage went in the crowd to talk with the public. So Philippe introduced himself to Cassiopée, who already knew Anemon.