Last week, I sent a email to the 6 members of the band, in which I asked them what was Between Illness And Migration to them. Nothing very hard, you will say, as this album is a journey that we’ve lived to the fullest, and still continue to live at this very moment. But here’s the tricky part: it had to be 110 characters long, so I could tweet it along with a picture of them. By doing this, I wanted to capture the very essence of what the album was for them, no sparks, no additional words. As bare and as raw as it came to them. After struggling a bit, they managed to all send me their short but powerful answer… with that one exception that confirms the rule!

What has this album become for you? Please let us know in the comments below!

– Stephanie

This album is an ode to faith in the invisible! It’s about challenging your deepest hope for the unexpected to be revealed! 
– Jeff

I started the album afraid to lose myself. So glad I did! Losing my little ME, I found freedom, I found US!
– Miss Isabel

Fears and doubts keep you in a box… Faith by letting go makes you walk into something eternal…
– Sef

When we started writing the record, we were 6 individuals trying to survive in all sorts of discordant make-believes and different kind of dissonant realities. But through the whole process, we found ourselves being so completely stripped down of everything we thought was personally ours to hold on to that it’s only when we entirely let go of our deepest illusions and all of their shadows that we found the courage to die to our self-preservating sorrows and self-alienating despairs… and the colors of a brand new dawn arose, leading us to believe once again in the collective light we had denied for so long. Only then, when we decided to die to ourselves, did we find our way back to each other. The record unveiled its unique nature thereafter, only for us to embrace its journey and to discover its true essence…    
– Alex

It’s a journey of honesty like we’ve never experienced before, beyond our own nature and doubts. A true rebirth.
– Ben

Between Illness And Migration is the truth that comes with assuming who I am, who we are together. It’s an ongoing walk.
– Moose

This is the official band picture that appears in the middle of the booklet of the Canadian version of “Between Illness And Migration”!

It is such a privilege for us to be able to share this album with you all! The album is available on the YFE Store, for you all, wherever you are around the world! And if you live in Canada, you can also find it in music stores near you!

Finally, finally! Today is such a GREAT day! Our album “Between Illness And Migration” is now available in stores in Canada! Words just can’t express how excited we are to be able to share this album with you all, Canadian fellows! 🙂 So head out to a music store near you, and get the album! Make sure you send us pictures of you with it, too! 🙂

Only 1 week left before the release of the album “Between Illness And Migration” in Canada! We’re really, really, and I mean REALLY excited! To think you will finally be able to put your hands on it is such an incredible feeling for us! Here is the cover of the album, the one you need to look out for on your next trip to the music store…! It’s unique, and specifically chosen for you in Canada…! Until then, the album is available for pre-order on iTunes Canada (and you get an exclusive song and video!)

We are honored and excited to tell you that our album “Between Illness And Migration” is now available for pre-order on iTunes Canada. This version of the album is exclusive to Canada, has a unique artwork, and also includes the bonus video “From A Moment to a Journey”, that follows the process of the creation and where the band members explain what this album means to them.

Pre-order now on iTunes Canada

At the very same date last year, Your Favorite Enemies were flying to New York City, where their album would get mixed by John Agnello! The whole recording process was like nothing they had ever done before, as they pushed the limits and boundaries of what they thought was “possible”. A journey to the end of their very own night… a pilgrimage of a big city vertigo looking for the ocean’s peaceful rebirth, a twisted sonic, uplifting spiritual journey of its own…

It is unreal to think it’s already a year ago that everything happened… It seems so close to each and every one of us… This album has become a part of our story together, as we’ve shared its songs together, as we’ve shared its emotions, as we’ve welcomed it in our discussions…

Thank you for being a part of this journey, much more than you would ever know it!

– Stephanie

Have you noticed the Japanese lyrics in the songs “A View From Within”, “Obsession Is A Gun” and “Muets Aux Temps Des Amours”? They have been sung by Momoka, and even though they are a mystery to each and every one of us, those lyrics and words are also an important part of the songs in which they appear.

Translating Alex’s words isn’t always easy, nor is embodying them. So in this blog, I invited Momoka to share about her experience.

– Stephanie

– How is it to translate Alex’s lyrics in Japanese?

To translate Alex’ lyrics in Japanese was the highest honor and also the most fearful adventure for me. Alex has a tendency to write in a poetic way even in his usual texts. I was worried and excited at the same time about what kind of unknown world I would see through his lyrics. When I translated the lyrics in Japanese, I didn’t even know the melody of the songs. It was really the world of the words and me. Every time I received new lyrics, I felt excited as if I could unfold a brand new story that nobody had read yet.

But I was always afraid as well. I knew how much he put his soul and he chooses the meaning for every single word, so that’s why I was afraid of translating it in Japanese. But when you start thinking about anxiety, it never ends. Nobody tells me what’s right nor what’s good when I translate. Then, all I can do is to believe myself and to give everything I have. This is how I did translate the lyrics. All the words are memorable for me and as much as I hate to read them (because I look for my fault with the texts), I want to cherish those words. So hopefully, you’ll take time to read those lyrics. And that, just like the songs you would listen to many times, I want you to read the lyrics many times too. For those who will have it in a future, I hope you will immerse yourself not only in the sounds but also in the world of words too!

– We can hear your voice on 3 songs, “A View From Within”, “Obsession Is A Gun” and “Muets Aux Temps Des Amours”. How was your experience in studio?

I will never forget the fear I had when I first stood in front of the microphone in the studio. I tried to have fun before. It’s such a rare experience, why don’t I enjoy it!? But once I stood in front of the microphone, I was panicked. I was nervous, afraid and feeling that I didn’t want to disappoint them. In my head, I was like “Alex is shy? No way!!!” lol

But at this moment, I really realized something. The band members often talk about how important it is to expose yourself and to trust each others. And I really understood why it’s that important. You speak in front of everybody. It’s just like that. But when you think about being judged, the fear comes to you immediately. What if they think that I’m falling short of their expectations? What if they think I’m different from what they thought? What if they laugh at me? Having those little doubts made me afraid so much. But I needed to go beyond all that and trust them. It’s ok, they know where I am at now. They’ve been through those steps as well… I told myself “it’s ok” many times. And I did feel that they cared about me and tried to make me relax. I was so thankful for their warm heart and I promised myself that I would give everything I have. It’s really my honor to be part of this album. It’s still unreal actually, but It was such a precious experience in which I was able to learn about “trust”.

Every album has its own soul, its own spirit, and I can say without a doubt that “Between Illness And Migration” is no exception to this. As they were recording the album, the band members had several discussions about what they wanted to infuse the album with, what the album was to them… Here are some of them, explained.

Find out more here

Every album has its own soul, its own spirit, and I can say without a doubt that “Between Illness And Migration” is no exception to this. As they were recording the album, the band members had several discussions about what they wanted to infuse the album with, what the album was to them… Here are some of them, explained.

All the illusions, all the comfort zones, all what we thought we were… It’s when we crafted this album that we realized we had a lot more living inside of us. Dark sides, and bright ones. We needed to embrace them before we saw them all leave us. They left us as we crafted the songs, one after the other, spitting our guts out, crying our soul out. We discovered who we were, for ourselves, and we also discovered the others. We had to be true to ourselves, and true to one another, in order for the music to be true. We knew there was no other way for us. We had to give it our all. We had to die. And be reborn again. Every day, we had to die to ourselves, take this leap of faith, and believe that whatever happened, we would be reborn, every single time we died. And as much as some day hurts, it’s a leap of faith we did every day with a great joy. And this is what makes the album so true. It really represents every step of our journey between illness and migration… a journey that is still ongoing.

”Between Illness And Migration” is a journey we all go through, despite our nationality, culture, language, religion, sexual orientation and personal values. It’s a path where faith and despair seem to be so much alike, a voyage where hope and misery are difficult to differentiate, a peregrinate where redemption and desperation look all the same. It’s a personal state of our heart and soul, where the darkness of broken dreams is obscuring the skyline of our bright desire to live. As much as we would like to avoid it or deny its implacable nature, we all go through that path at some point in our life. As much as we would have loved to help them and save them, we all know people and loved ones who have lost their way through their own journey…

Somehow, we all have to learn how to live or cope with mourning shadows. Even when sometimes, grief feeds itself of our own sorrows. But there are people who, despite their own desperation, bleakness and despairs, decide to give life another chance, to see if light could shine through the haze of their desolation and anguished moments of darkness… and they live through their deepest nights of dreadfulness because of that light, even if, sometimes, that light is the smallest of all glows and the blurriest of all luminescent reflections. And they witness the colors of a new morning dawn slowly covering the gloom of what used to be made of gloaming afflictions. And as they look at the horizon unfolding its promises of new vivid shades, they feel the warmth of a renewed vow towards what they believed to be forever lost… Embodying a new vision of life as they let go of everything that used to hold them back to the ground of personal miseries… Experiencing forgiveness, redemption, freedom and rebirth; warmness of a resurrected life covering their shivering skin and slowly sinking into the deepness of their heart and soul… free.

This album could be the liner notes of an intimate pilgrimage to the end of the night. It might be the testimony of a troubled foreigner who found his home of peace in Japan and fell in love with the wonderful people who are defining that new home of his. No matter how this record might be received and perceived, it truly remains a communal story, the narrative chronicle of so many personal renaissances and the soundtrack of a collective revival.

I profoundly wish that you’ll receive “Between Illness And Migration” as a heartening offering that, I sincerely pray and hope for, will be an inspiration for you to let go… Not to abandon, but to let go in order to fully embrace life… life, as whatever you want to make out of it, how many times you want to reinvent yourself through it. And as you taught me over the years, you don’t have to lose yourself in order to let go and be free. Between illness and migration is only one step of faith from rebirth. Your feet might be weary and jaded at times, you may be discouraged and disheartened on your way home… May love be the light that will guide you through dark times, as true love will never fail you. And I know it’s true, because you saved me so many times from my own moments of deep desperation.

-Alex