Doomed Confessionary: Antoine Thoron (Lowtone)
Photos by Orianne Mes
Lowtone is a three-piece doomed blues band from Strasbourg, France. Low tuning, bluesy riffs, guitars drowning in fuzz and heavy drumming.
The band released their debut album »Average At Best« on September 30th, 2025. All songs written and composed by Lowtone. Recorded live at La Turbine Studio. Produced and mixed by Antoine “Sam” Ramadour. Mastering by Kent Stump at Crystal Clear Sound Studio. Artwork by Léo Bragigand. Cover by Arthur aka “Tchatcheur” Weber.
Lowtone are Antoine Thoron (guitar, lead vocals), Julien Haensler (bass, backing vocals) and David Donati (drums, backing vocals).
Can you please say a few words about your band?
Lowtone is a stoner/rock trio or, as we like to say, a doomed blues band. We’ve been playing together for eight years now. Our music gets straight to the point with heavy riffs, a roaring sound and groovy drums. Our band was born out of a shared passion for riffs and loud rock music.
What was the biggest challenge for the band?
I think it was releasing our first album »Average At Best« that came out in October. It was a huge project, and we put a lot of energy into it.
What can you be most proud of so far?
We’re very proud of our album. As I said, we worked hard to make it but in the end it sounds exactly as we had planed and hoped. We were lucky enough to be able to record it in a great studio named La Turbine, not to fare from where we live, lost in the countryside during 5 days. We were also lucky to be able to do it with good friends who perfectly understood the atmosphere we wanted to create for the album. The result is an album that doesn’t beat around the bush and represents us perfectly.
What was your biggest regret?
No regrets here (for now), and I hope we’ll keep it that way aha.
What was the best concert/tour so far and why?
I think it goes back to when we were a little younger, back then I’m not even sure we had the name Lowtone, so it’s been a while haha. A guy we met at a previous concert asked us to play at his festival during the summer. Since we also like to party, we immediately accepted. The day we arrived at the festival, it turned out to be more of a rave party than a rock/metal festival. In fact, we were the only band playing that weekend and the other artists were DJs, so we were a little skeptical at first. But the night we played, the concert was really fun and the audience loved our music, even though most of them didn’t listen to rock or metal. I remember at the end of the concert, Julien (our beloved bassist) jumped off the stage and invited the audience to join us. They did, and for one song or two, it was chaos with everyone jumping on stage. We had a lot of fun that night.
What was the biggest surprise on the music scene for you?
In 2017, we went to the Keep It Low festival in Munich. The lineup was insane, and I think the bands that made the biggest impression on us were Monolord, Conan, and Belzebong. It was the first time we’d seen these bands and each show was a blast, sonically speaking and also in terms of atmosphere.
What is currently in your heavy musical rotation?
Personally, I listen to the band Pigs, Pigs, Pigs, Pigs, Pigs, Pigs, Pigs quite a lot. David (our drummer) is more into Deafheaven these days.
What was the best advice you’ve ever been given as a musician?
I think we’ve learned a lot from listening to or watching the bands we like, in terms of musical ideas, musical arrangements, or even personality. We have a lot of favorite bands in common, but we also listen to different genres on our own. So in a way it enrich our vocabulary and tips we can learn.
What are your guilty pleasures?
We must admit that… we’re all fans of JUL…
Can you say something more about the current music scene in Strasbourg?
Strasbourg is a nice place where the music scene is quite rich, with a lot of different bands playing different style of music. The only thing missing is that there aren’t many places for bands to perform. There are two or three famous venues, but it’s rare for small bands to play there, so the majority focus on the few bars that still want to support the music scene. It’s a shame because there’s really good bands and artists here, who have a lot to say.
Where can we see you live this year (concerts/tours)?
We will be playing in Germany in March (on the 20th) at Kehl and May (on the 15th and 16th) at Karlsruhe, as well as in France at Lille, on May 26.
What are your plans for the future as a band?
We are currently looking for other concerts in France and in neighbouring countries such as Belgium and Germany to promote our album and our band. We are a very small band after all haha.
How can people best support your band?
If you are interested in what we play, please feel free to visit our Bandcamp. You will find everything we have done there, and we would be very grateful if you did.
Do you have any message for your listeners?
We would like to thank everyone who supports underground music in general. Also we want to thank our good fellas Sam, Clément, Théo, Arthur and Léo for the job they’ve done on our album. We can’t wait to play in new places and meet new friends along the way.
Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well