In case you are living under a rock and missed it, here is a recap of what happened last week and the statement from Lelahell in response!
I was contacted on Facebook Messenger by Redouane Aouameur to do an interview about his band Lelahell. Normally I schedule all interviews on my show through publicists and record labels unless i actually know the person, but I recalled hearing about this band before. So i figured what the hell I will give em a shot and let em get some air time on my show. The band is pretty good like a cross between old school Cannibal Corpse and new school Rivers Of Nihil. I tell him in Messenger that the only time I have available to do a live interview is during my show at 10pm est on Friday night August 3, 2018
This is quite late in Algeria which is where the band is located, 3 am to be exact! But he accepts the time. So we schedule the event on Facebook as I always do. He asks me if we do the call with Skype and I tell him no we can use Messenger since its free.
Friday afternoon when I am setting up things for the show I am looking online to find some new music from the band to play on the show after the interview, to help promote the band. All I find available for free download, is an old ep entitled "Al Intihar" from 2012.
I message him back on Messenger and ask if he has any newer music for me to play on the show. I get no response. So I grab the ep from Bandcamp. I start the show off with the cover song of Mayhems “Freezing Moon” from the ep.
Getting close to interview time, I message him again on Messenger. I tell him I will be calling him very soon. He responds by simply saying “Hi”? This is when things get strange. We go live on air and I call him on Messenger. The first call goes directly to voicemail, so I leave a message. Then I try again and get an answer the second time but it seems as though this is not the person I have been talking too on Messenger? it is like he has no idea what I am talking about and keeps saying “no no no no” I ask him "is this Lelahell?" He says no it is not. I say we have an interview and he seems confused. So I start thinking he is obviously fucking with me. So, we end the call. Then he calls me back and tells me it was a mistake? And still acts like he has no idea what I am doing. So, I end the call and carry on with the show and just figure this was a prank. Then he messages me something about the song we played? I am assuming he is talking about the Mayhem cover and he says “it was a demo from friends i am recording” and asks where I got it?
So now I know this man is in the band Lelahell. He obviously knows we had an interview set up and understood why I was calling him. He obviously had been listening to the show. Was he mad that I played a demo song from an ep his band has available on Bandcamp? If so why would you put that on the internet anyway? if it is something you do not want to be played? It is available for free download, see below. He responds with a link to a YouTube video for a newer song which i will admit is pretty bad ass. It's a shame he didn't send me this song in the first place so i could have played it. But it is what it is. Now why he chose to pretend like he had no idea who i was or what i was doing, I have no idea. He then claims it was a bad internet connection and says let's try it again.
But by this point I feel I have had enough with this game and I get pissed and tell him to fuck off. He then screen shots this and starts posting it on Facebook to try and sell me as an "amateur drunk asshole". Now i won't deny I can be an asshole at times if pushed enough like this situation. And i can admit on every show i do , i drink some beers. Anyone that has ever listened to my show, knows it is all about drinking beer and blasting tunes with my friends! I mean, my name kind of gives it away right? But i was definitely not drunk.
Now as far as amateur goes, sure this is not FM radio. But I have been doing this a long time and have had the opportunity to talk to some of the coolest cats in this industry from artists i grew up listening to, all the way down to some of the most unheard-of underground bands you can find on the net. I will talk to just about anyone on my show because it's fun and I don't discriminate between bands. If you are cool with me, I am cool with you. Plenty of bands, record labels and PR are emailing me on a daily basis to get interviews booked on my show, so clearly, I am doing something right. But whatever the reason was for this to happen this way, you can listen to the brief conversation we had on air.
Now after some back and forth chit chatter on social media, the band posted this!
Redouane Aouameur
"Hello guys!
After an attentive listening to the misunderstanding that happened yesterday on the Metal Devastation Radio, during the The Zach Moonshine Show I’m going to explain you in detail what’s really happened :
Z: Zachary Moonshine, R: redouane
1.03 Z: is trying to reach R via messenger R is trying to fix the internet connection
What you have to know is that ADSL internet connection in Algeria is sometimes shitty and we have many cuts and interruptions which unfortunately doesn’t not depend on our will
1.10: Z: “dude this is the Zach moonshine show man pick up the phone” R: is fixing the internet connection trying to use 4G mobile instead of the ordinary ADSL but this is the same problem
1.23: Z: “Let’s try it again man” R: ADSL Connexion , it works now
1.40 : Z: Hello R;Hello
1.43: Z: dude is this Lelahell
There was a music played accidently on my headphone when the connexion was established , and the music was coming from my computer, and I thought that Zacharia was asking if that music (that I thought the radio was playing)is from Lelahell
1.47: R: How are you? Z: Im doing good man, what’s going on dude? R: yes fine too
1.57: Z:is this Lelahell? R: No , No Z: who is this ? R: No, no , no it is not Lelahell Man
When I was saying no, I meant that the music played on the radio is not from Lelahell . I thought that Zacharia was playing that track by mistake on the radio which is a demo track from Friends that Im recording (see the chat screenshot) and when He asked who is this , I thought that He was asking what is the name of the band that is playing on the Radio
2:16: Z: this is redouane Aouameur ? How you say this? R: I don’t know
I’mp still thinking that Zach is talking about the music of the band, and it is a demo track of a band that is not named yet.
2.26: R: No it’s not Lelahell this Z: who is this? Z: who is this? R: no it’s a friend music it is not Lelahell
When zach is asking who is this? I understood that he is still asking about the music played on my headphone .Here im explaining that the music played now is not from Lelahell , not that Im not Lelahell
2.44: R: where you find it?
Im telling to zach , where you find that music track that is not from Lelahell
2.44:Z: Im supposed to do an interview with the guys from Lelahell right now
Zach think that it is a joke, that im telling him who is He?
2.55:Z this is your facebook fuckn messanger man, and I was taking to you a second ago
2.59: R: no, no you are playing this live?
Here I’m still having that music in the background on my headphones, and thought that He is playing a wrong music of Lelahell Live on his radio show
3.05: Z: yeah dude you are live on the radio man!
3.10: R: noo
I thought that Zach was making a joke , and he is talking about the music that was supposed to be Lelahell
3.14: Z: this is not Lelahell
I understand by that that the music isn’t from Lelahell
3.17: R: no it’s a mistake no
I still talking about that music and still thinking that he is saying that the music is Lelahell
3.20 : Z: what the fuck man? Sorry about that dude I don’t know man R: yeah
He I thought that zack is making a joke, and he played the wrong song and laughing about that mistake
3.30: Z: what the fuck is that shit man? That is facebook messenger dude, what the fuck
Is motherfucker fuck with me man? I don’t understand it man
4.06: zach is calling again
4.10: Z: Hello R: Hello, Z: this is zachmoonshine show im on the metal devastation radio , who is this?
R: tell me? Z: Hello, R: Yes, Z: who is this? R: no it was a mistake man, it was not lelahell
Here im sending him some video links of Lelahell music by facebook messenger to make him understand that he played wrong music on the radio, to show him how the music of Lelahell not the track that he played
Look at the screenshot: Zachary is asking so what was that all about?
And I answered it was a demo track from friends im recording
And Zachary is aksing why didn’t you talk when on the phone?
And here im telling him that the internet connection wasn’t good, and here I understood that it was a technical issue and the track that was played the same time during our conversation was a technical issue so I suggested him just to try again
Z: I talk to you earlier dude, you said you want an interview, so I fuckn called you up dude, I don’t know what’s going on man
R: and now you are listening to me?
Z: fuck this guy man, what is that shit ?
Here zach is insulting me in , and tought that im making joke
To be honest I don’t have time for that shit, you listened the conversation and listened that I was claiming that the music he is playing wasn’t Lelahell, it was a technical issue on my computer, and Zach thought that im saying that im not from the band lelahell
It is the first time that I make an interview via facebook messenger on that pc, in general im using skype for that, so this is why I had that technical issue
So I admit that I should have prepared before all the technical stuffs, and I wanna apologize for that but this still not justifies all those insult from Zach moonshine
I wake up at 2.45am for that interview, not for making any joke, Im not those kind of persons, I play music since more than 25 years and this is the first time that I had such problem, Im 42years old married with 2 kids so I don’t have time for such jokes! I prefer to spend my time with my family or playing music!
So I will delete the screenshot but first Zachary Moonshine have to apologize for the insults, and he also have to delete his publication on the MDR website , and let’s turn the page, we are here for fun for music and for metal!"
If this is truly the case then i apologize. If this was the case, then it truly was a misunderstanding of epic proportion! A technical error for the books! As far fetched as it may sound for many of the people that were listening, i will accept this as the statement from the band and give them the benefit of the doubt. I hope and wish for them to have better luck in the future with interviews! At any rate check out the bad ass video below. No matter what this song and video kicks some major ass! - Zach Moonshine
let us know what you think in the comments below!
fuckers!!!!
