Sorcerer – Interview 2020 – ‘Lamenting Of The Innocent’ – “Songwriting…is heart breaking…and painful”

 

When the opportunity arises to speak directly to one of the hottest metal bands on the planet right now, you’d have to be mad to refuse wouldn’t you? I definitely thought so, which is why I found myself mid-lockdown chatting to guitarist and co-songwriter for Sorcerer, Kristian Niemann, over possibly the worst internet connection in the entire history of the world. We both sounded like aliens or robots, and the buffering and delays were bordering on the ridiculous. However, no amount of technical issues could hide the fact that I was speaking to one of the nicest guys I’ve ever interviewed over a ‘career’ that has spanned 15 years so far.

“We’re still in the middle of the pandemic like everybody else but it’s alright”, Kristian begins in his wonderfully calm and happy tone, accompanied by an almost audible shrug of the shoulders. “We’re still working and still healthy. Same with the family too, everybody is still healthy.”

“In terms of the records, they have got a load of great reviews and had a good reception”, Kristian continues, perhaps revealing part of the reason for his friendly warmth. I mean it’s always nice when your music receives some acclaim, not that it is all plain sailing of course, as he explains. “But it is a different thing to turn that into merch sales at gigs for example, so we’re still a baby band when it comes to those things. We’ve done quite a few festivals since we started but we feel like what we really need to do is get out and tour; get in a van or a bus or whatever and tour with some other bands. That’s what’s really needed. The pandemic sort of stopped that.”

“But that’s the same for every other band. But it put a dampener on things I have to say. We were really looking forward to getting out there and play as much as possible. We have a great booking agent, Dragon Production, so hopefully they can promote us and do their stuff. But at the moment, it sucks.”

And yet Sorcerer decided to release their new album, ‘Lamenting Of The Innocent’ in the heart of such a difficult time. I’m keen to find out the thinking behind the decision and Kristian kindly obliges.

“Some bands will wait to release their new albums in the fall or whatever. We had that discussion with our label, Metal Blade, but we felt ‘nah, why not put it out now?’ The fans can hear new music and I don’t want to be sitting on an album that’s going to be a year or year-and-a-half old while nothing is happening. We’d rather just put it out so that we can start writing new music.”

With ‘Crowning Of The Fire King’ being such a massively positive release for the Swedes, there must surely have been a little pressure on the band to follow it up in a way that maintained the growing momentum?

“Absolutely”, Kristian responds honestly and with a chuckle. “I would be lying if I said there wasn’t any pressure, mainly from ourselves. No-one really put pressure on us, but we felt pressure. It was a little bit the same when we released ‘In the Shadow Of the Inverted Cross’. That was pretty well received also, but it came from nowhere. No-one knew anything about us or had heard anything except the 20-year-old demos maybe. When you’re starting a new record, it is about getting those first few songs to gel and sound really great. Before that, we always wonder if we have what it takes and can we do it again? So yeah, it was a bit nerve-wracking.”

“I just think it is a combination of all of our influences”, Kristian offers when I deviate a little and ask about the band’s influences and how they ended up creating such epic, heavy and melodic metal all in one glorious package, a package that continues with ‘Lamenting Of The Innocent. “Obviously we have the doom influences from way back – Candlemass, Sabbath and all that stuff; the really slow, heavy, grinding dirge-like riffs. But all of us are flans of melodic music as well and not just in heavy metal but pop music, rock music; those big choruses. It’s just an amalgamation of five personalities and we’re all suckers for those anthemic choruses. It’s a natural thing. Maybe we need to shake it up in the future but I think that element is never going to go away. We always want huge choruses that you can sing along to, and you can almost imagine the audience reaction to some parts. I think about that a lot actually, thinking about what the audience will think, what will it feel like and what will they respond to. You try to envisage it and imagine what will be the best part. I guess we’re lucky to all have this in common.”

“I think we wanted to expand the sound out in all directions”, comes the considered and thoughtful answer when I bring things back to the present day and enquire as to the initial master plan with ‘Lamenting…’. “We wanted to make it more melodic in places, make it more anthemic, make it slower, make it faster, just broaden the whole thing. We wanted to have more variety tempo-wise than we had on ‘Fire King’. For instance, we have ‘Institorius’ and ‘Hammer Of The Witches’ which are a bit faster. Those were the main focus points I believe. We wanted to keep the sound, to create a big wall of sound but we wanted more variety in the material.”

No musician I have ever spoken to has ever been 100% happy with the end result and Sorcerer are no different as Kristian explains.

“I hope that there is going to be room for improvement”, he states with honesty. “When we look back at this album in a couple of years from now, we are going to feel like we could have done this thing or that thing a little bit better. But right now, we are really happy with this album. We probably wouldn’t have released it otherwise, if we weren’t super happy with it.”

“It is difficult releasing an album”, Kristian continues whilst the Internet connection I have does its best to make him sound like a stuttering robot, “because you put so much of your time and your life into and you want to make sure that it is the absolute best that it can be. We have always done that with all our records. When you have the perspective of time and you go back and look at it, you might think ‘that song was too long’, ‘that bit got boring’, ‘this part didn’t sound great’. But that’s hindsight for you, you always see those things later on. And I hope we will be able to that with this one as well when we come to write the next record.”

“Haha, you are absolutely right”, Kristian laughs loudly when I suggest that Sorcerer are not a band to settle for anything less than the best. “We do not settle for anything. We give 150% to better ourselves and make it the absolute best we can. Of course, people are going to have different tastes and some will say that it is too long, or boring, or slow, or whatever. That’s fine because not everybody will like everything, I have no problem with that. And if we wanted to write any other kind of music, I’m sure we could. But we’d not be called Sorcerer anymore and we want to be honest and play what we want and like. If we can listen to it ourselves, that’s the thing. After working on the album for a year and a half, I still put it on and go ‘yeah man, I want to hear this part, that vocal part or that chorus’. I still get goosebumps and that’s the good thing. You can always tell in the writing process based on the goosebump factor!”

Credit: Marieke Verschuren

At this point, I want to get Kristian to do the thing that makes most musicians the most uncomfortable, and that’s picking out something that they are particularly proud of. It’s normally even worse when the band are from the UK because we cannot take compliments very well at all. However, I feel bad that I may have put Kristian in an equally uncomfortable position. To his credit, he does offer a reply nonetheless.

“Thank you” he responds, albeit reluctantly. “I have to say that I am proud of the solos, like all of them. I’m usually never that happy with my solos but this time, for some reason, I dig all of them. But I’m also really happy, and you mentioned it in your review, the song ‘Lamenting of The Inncocent’, especially the chorus. It’s one of the first songs we wrote for the album and made us think ‘yes, we’re going to be able to make another great record!’”

“But”, he strongly emphasises, “I don’t know exactly how good something will be until the vocals are on there. The way I work, or we work, is that I record a whole demo vocal-less with just the riffs and some other scraps. I then send it off to Anders and the others, and let them do their thing. I can be really excited, thinking how good it can be, but they have to put their parts into the song. When I get it back from them and I hear this amazing melody, I’m like ‘yes, this is so cool’. To me, the most important bits are the riffs and the vocal melodies. All the rest can be fixed. But if you’ve got the riffs and the vocal melodies, you’re in a good place.”

I think it’s because the interview is such a warm and friendly affair that I feel brave and try my luck again, cheekily asking whether or not new material is already in the pipeline, considering that touring is currently out of the question. As is the trend of the chat, Kristian takes my question in gracious spirit, answering incredibly honestly, offering a real insight into his mind in the process.

“I need to let this one sink in and let it go at least a couple of months before I want to start thinking about writing new music”, he answers before pausing for a moment. “Writing music is not something you want to dive right into, not for me anyway. I feel this way. It is heart breaking, it is painful and it takes a long time. You’re usually feeling like shit when you’re writing because you’re always second guessing, thinking ‘is this good, or is it shit?’ I’m looking forward to when the process is over, when the record is done. I love that bit but it is a struggle to get there and it isn’t always fun.”

I’m genuinely shocked. Here’s a guy that has contributed heavily to creating some of the best heavy metal that I have heard in the last few years and he has the same insecurities as the rest of us. I shouldn’t be surprised, I know that, but you get in the mindset of thinking that it’s just you that is plagued with doubt. I certainly do, reading, editing, and re-reading my work on this website a million times before setting it free. It’s strangely comforting to have it affirmed yet again, that I’m not alone with self-doubt. I must sound incredulous, but I have to clarify with Kristian that he really does feel this way when writing new material.

“Yeah, I do”, he answers with a chuckle after an interminable delay over the airwaves. “I mean not the other stuff. Not on stage or playing wise, it’s just the coming up with good songs that people care about. Sitting there riffing and thinking ‘didn’t Metallica already write this?’ Or someone in the band will say ‘that’s a Candlemass song’ so it goes in the garbage. That’s what it’s like all the time and you need dedication to do it.”

Fortunately, it isn’t up to Kristian to come up with everything, as he is eager to tell me.

“Oh no, hell no. I would not be comfortable with that”, he laughs with more than a hint of maniacal nervousness. “Peter (Hallgren – guitars) does as well, Justin (Biggs – bass) does, so does Johnny (Hagel – ex-bassist) – of course Johnny is also involved in the song writing. I write my stuff and I send it to the other guys. Peter does the same thing. When Johnny writes, he does demos and he needs Peter and me to flesh out the ideas. Justin is something in between – he wrote some stuff almost completely by himself, then another one he collaborated. Basically, everyone is contributing stuff for sure. Anders obviously, and even Richard (Evensand) our drummer comes up with stuff which is very inspiring. Everyone is creative and we are very happy to have it that way. It is one of the most fun parts of being in a band.”

It is a question I always ask when confronted with a scandinavian band, and this occasion is no different. I have to enquire as to why Sweden in particular has given birth to so many great bands. Naturally, Sorcerer are definitely in this bracket for me, but I also throw around names like Evergrey, Katatonia and Dark Tranquillity to illustrate my point.

“If I knew that, I’d try to put it in a bottle and sell it”, laughs Kristian with genuine amusement. “I don’t know, some people say that maybe it is because we have such long periods of cold, shitty weather and everyone stays at home and plays music. That might be true, I don’t know. We used to have a great system, like a music community where kids could learn an instrument after school. And it was cheap. I’m not sure if that’s the way it works now. All the bands that you mention, we all come from that generation; we’re getting old. We have to be real here because we are old. I’m not sure if the younger generations have he same creativity and drive, but we will see I guess.”

“Being the next Metallica would be great”, Kristian offers with cheekiness when I ask about the future plans for Sorcerer, “but I don’t think that’s on the cards for us. I want to keep on doing what we are doing. I would like to do some more touring, draw in more people and, like everyone does, I want to get a little higher on the ladder. But who knows? It feels like we can’t really do anything more to influence that or change that. All we can do is make the music we make, the best we can do, and if everybody wants to see a doom metal band, and play in front of like 10,000 people, we will definitely be at the forefront of that, I hope. But I don’t really see that happening. So I think we’ll concentrate on making more great albums for the next ten years…and then we’re sixty…holy shit.”

I’m just delighted that I got to see Sorcerer live on stage before the pandemic hit with all its might. They are a force to behold and make an incredible impact on me earlier in the year, even if they were ‘just’ the support for compatriots Evergrey in Malmö. Based on his last reply to me, it would appear that the stage is his happy place too.

“We do what we do, we have fun on stage, we love being on stage and performing for people. That’s our right element, I would say. The connection with the audience and seeing happy faces in the crowd, it means everything for us. And we’d love to play in the UK. We’ve played in Wales and Scotland before, a couple of years ago. But it’s just a matter of promoters taking a chance on us or people mentioning our name in the right places. We’d love to, but obviously we have no plans right now. I’ve heard people mentioning Bloodstock, they have some amazing line-ups and so yeah, we’d love to be part of that someday.”

At this point, the connection over Skype finally descends into unworkable territory, so I have no alternative but to end the interview at this point. Kristian makes a genuine offer to continue at some other time and I agree. Unfortunately, life, kids, career, and a little bout of ill health mean that I never really get the opportunity again. Nevertheless, speaking with Kristian is a joy, an experience I hope I can replicate again one day, hopefully face-to-face when the world returns a little more to normality. For now though, we can all take great enjoyment from their stellar new record, ‘Lamenting of The Innocent’ and imagine the songs being performed in all their glory in the live environment.

‘Lamenting Of The Innocent’ is out now on Metal Blade Records.

If you’re interested in reading my review, it can be found here.

And my review of the live show with Evergrey in Malmö can be checked out here.

Haken – Interview 2020 Part 1 – Virus – ‘music prevails in the end’

My love affair with UK progressive metal band Haken is well documented both on manofmuchmetal.com but previously in the pages of Powerplay Magazine where I was writing when this young band burst onto the scene in 2010. Their debut, ‘Aquarius’ was a glorious discovery, one of those records that is equal parts raw talent, genius, daring and absurd brilliance. Needless to say I have closely followed their career since, watching them release album after album of high quality material along the way, deservedly garnering new fans at every turn. It feels a long time ago that I sat in their beat-up tour van at ProgPower Europe in 2010 interviewing the promising newcomers.

“I remember that interview like it was yesterday”, responds vocalist Ross Jennings with genuine warmth over a surprisingly clear Skype connection. I’ve always been treated very nicely by the whole band, honouring me with a thanks in the liner notes for both ‘Visions’ and ‘The Mountain’. And it’s like I’m chatting with a long-time friend rather than an interviewee from one of my favourite bands.

“It’s gone pretty fast if you think of it like that”, he continues, “although we’ve crammed in quite a bit. Very happy with the progress we’ve made as a band and where we’re at six albums down the line. The prospects are promising still. In a sense, we still feel like we are trying to make it, but it’s good and we’re having a good time.”

If I’m completely honest, the growing success of Haken is a double-edged sword from a personal perspective. On the one hand, I’m delighted that a special band is getting the recognition that they deserve. But, on the other, I can’t help thinking back wistfully to the days when I could be in a small ‘crowd’, able to easily enjoy the music from right in front of the stage. These days, I’m lucky if I can get within 100 feet of the band, damnit.

“We found that was very much the case across the tour with Devin [Townsend – 2019]”, Ross agrees, with a surprised tone to his voice. “We went into that not expecting anyone to know who we were. All things considered, we did turn a few heads and make a new few fans. We were chuffed with how many Haken shirts were there already; it was good, a success for sure.”

“When this all started to unravel in a big way, we were still touring in the US”, Ross answers when posed with the inevitable question regarding the current Covid-19 pandemic. I mean, I had to raise it, given how it has shaken the very foundations of everything we hold dear, including the music world.

“We had to cut that tour short and took a bit of a financial hit to be honest with you. But it’s one of those things and we’ve had great support from the fan base, to the point where some made donations to tide things over and help to soften the financial blow a little. That was really, really appreciated and just goes to show the power of music, the effect it can have, and the support we have out there.”

So incredibly serious is the current situation in which we find ourselves, that everything else seems to have fallen off the radar, including the dreaded Brexit issue. But before the pandemic, that was the biggest threat to the music industry and I put all this to Ross, who responds in his usual, unflappable and relaxed manner with a hint of understated humour.

“Bit of a double jeopardy there isn’t there?”, he chuckles. “Brexit hasn’t really been on our minds though through this. We are lucky that we do have this album that was ready just in time, so there’s activity on that front. I do feel sorry for bands who don’t have anything to put out or had things postponed. They have to make ends meet elsewhere. We have the online platforms that we can utilise; we have embraced the Twitch generation. It is early days but we’ve been hosting some question and answer sessions, playthrough videos and other fun stuff. I’ve seen across the board lots of concerts from home and solo performances which are really cool. It is something that there wasn’t a lot of before. In terms of getting out there, doing our job, making money on the road, it really is just up in the air at the moment.”

“Charlie and myself put this concept together of ‘Vector’ and ‘Virus’ back right at the beginning of 2018”, Ross replies when I broach the somewhat prophetic title of the new album. “I traced an email from February or March of that year when we were plotting the course of the next two records. Like I’ve been telling everyone and it’s the honest truth, the concept was born then, the titles were in place, the overarching narrative was plotted back then as well as a lot of the music. But yeah, the irony is not lost on us, in terms of what we’re all going through. There’s just a bizarre synchronicity to it all; it’s crazy that we found ourselves announcing this album with this title at the very point that this virus was breaking out.”

Those that know me often accuse me of thinking too deeply about things, and I’m apprehensive that this may be one of those times. Nevertheless, having had it on my mind, I have to ask Ross whether he’s worried in the slightest about the fact that some might accuse Haken of callously cashing in on the current pandemic. Ross’ reply is incredibly honest and sincere.

“Of course, you can imagine the conversations we were having on the tour bus. We were wrapping up the mixes as things started to unravel in a big way. We were aware of it on the horizon with what was happening in China but we had no idea that it would unfold this way. We had thought about the implications of keeping the title, and what people might say. It was no surprise that on the day of the announcement people said, and maybe still do think, that it’s a bad idea and we’re being unsympathetic. My hope is that people will be able to separate the art from life. It reminds me of the situation with Dream Theater and ‘Scenes From New York’. They were releasing the live album with the Twin Towers in flames. It was due for release on the day that it happened or the day after. And they pulled the production. Some people said to me that they wish they hadn’t done that because it was like a memory of the time. In a way, thinking about it like that, I’m happy that we stuck to our guns with the title. The label did contact us to say that we could delay the record or pull the production. They told us there was no right or wrong but the option was there. We didn’t want to throw away two or three years of work and artistic expression. Hopefully it will act as some kind of sadistic souvenir to remember this time. The music prevails in the end, I feel.”

Putting the issue of the title to bed, it’s time to focus on the actual music on ‘Virus’ I’m in the middle of reviewing the album, so I don’t want to give too much away at this point. Suffice to say that it is the Haken album that I have most immediately taken to in a positive way for some time. I begin by inquiring about the writing process, which somewhat accidentally hit upon a positive new experience for the sextet as I find out. Ross explains:

“Obviously, we’d mapped out a lot of stuff but not all the music was in place. The touring that we underwent in support of ‘Vector’ took a lot of time out of what we had planned to spend on finishing the writing for ‘Virus’. Chunks of the ideas were in place but we didn’t have fully fleshed-out songs that we were necessarily happy with. It wasn’t there y’know? The touring set us back in a way, but we found this opportunity to utilise the time had together on the tour. It was a blessing in disguise that we had procrastinated in that way because the best stuff came together with us all in the same space on the tour bus. We made this makeshift studio in the lounge area of the bus and we were able to go back and forth with ideas. The creative energy that was there, really turned out to benefit the album tenfold. Coming to fully formed ideas can take a long time if you’re sharing files online. When you’re in the room bouncing ideas off each other, it feels like a real band and it was a really rewarding time.”

“I hope we do go back to that”, Ross offers, clearly enthused by this topic of conversation, “because it really proved to be beneficial and we all enjoyed the experience. I had been trying to persuade the guys to do that for ‘Vector’, to hire a place and stick together for a few weeks. For whatever reason, it didn’t come together and we just continued in our old ways. In light of this, I hope we do this again. We’re not like Nirvana, bouncing around three chords”, Ross jokes good-naturedly, “it’s complicated stuff, so naturally you have to come to the room with some pre-prepared idea of what you’re going to write. So it’ll probably start off individually but then I think if we did get together like that in the future, we’ll be producing good records.”

Before I get the opportunity to interject with another question or observation, Ross seems keen to further explore the writing process. Finding this topic fascinating, I’m more than happy to take a back seat and listen intently.

“It’s all a massive puzzle to put it all together”, he states with classic understatement. I wouldn’t even know where to begin and neither would a good 99 per cent of the population. “And it was even more of a challenge as it was stretched over the two albums. We already had a definite idea that we’d finish the two records with a long piece, like a grand opus to sum up everything. That was preordained and we had a 13 minute demoed version of that already in place when we were writing ‘Vector’. But there were also bits and pieces that didn’t fit on ‘Vector’, so we had to pull out and re-work the ideas into completely new songs. Once we had an idea of what was happening on ‘Vector’, we had a better idea of what to keep to the side to develop for later on. That’s pretty much it; bits and pieces, a couple of formed songs…but we even scrapped a couple of the songs that we had, completely scrapped them and started afresh when we got together. I believe that ‘Canary Yellow’ was one of those that was started from scratch.”

If I had one observation, not even a criticism, of ‘Vector’, it would be that it felt a little short in length and I missed a classic Haken ‘epic’. The reasons for this become clear once Ross addresses this comment.

“It was cheeky of us in a way because we knew this was going to happen and we were fully aware of the, not disappointment”, he muses, “but the comments about ‘Vector’ missing that big piece that the fans are used to us doing. All the while we had this up our sleeves and we hoped the penny would drop once people heard ‘Virus’ and the relationship between the two albums. We really wanted ‘Vector’ to be a really solid, shorter record anyway; that was always the intention anyway.”

“We were totally aware that this might be the reaction to ‘Vector’”, Ross further offers in direct reference to my observation. “But we were happy with the decision. As I said, it was a bit cheeky of us, I suppose.”

I have to say that I’m unsurprised to hear Haken acting in a cheeky fashion like this, because one of the most endearing qualities of the band has been their ability to inject a little fun and humour into their music.

“I totally agree”, Ross agrees when I suggest that this humour, occasionally self-deprecating, is one of the keys to their continued popularity. “We try to draw a balance between taking ourselves seriously and not taking ourselves seriously, which is often evident on stage and on our Facebook posts for example. But also the music as well. All the musical jokes are in there too; writing a double album about a Cockroach King is one of them, even though it can be, and should be, taken seriously as well.”

I was lucky enough to catch Haken as support for the afore-mentioned Devin Townsend in late 2019. I even wrote a review about it. Being a musical legend with such a varied back catalogue, I wonder aloud whether any inspiration was consciously (or subconsciously) taken that influenced the music on ‘Virus’. Ross pauses for a few moments, clearly thinking hard, before offering his answer.

“I can’t say that there’s anything that’s directly influenced. With anything in life, things can seep into the subconscious but off the top of my head, I can’t honestly say that we were, well, stealing from the master if you know what I mean”, he laughs. “We had a lot of this in place before the tour, but it was a great experience watching Devin. That tour we were doing with him was quite a left-field turn for him anyway. What was inspiring about him though, was his conduct backstage and the way he approaches his shows before he goes on. He’s always looking for a state of calm and zen, which was quite inspiring for me as a performer – not running on stage all tense was a real help to our performance. It’s no secret that I was a massive fan of him growing up. His work on ‘Terria’ was one of my favourite albums in high school and just to be able to meet the guy and share a tour with him was out of this world.”

And on that note, because it’s never a good time to pause an interview, we’ll leave it there. But join me in Part 2 when, amongst other things, we continue discussing the writing process, Ross’ vocals, concept albums, and the future for Haken.

End of Part 1…

‘Virus’ is out on 5^th June on InsideOut Music.

Evergrey – Interview 2019 – ‘I feel like we could do this forever’

 

Ever since I discovered Evergrey around the turn of the Millennium, I have seen them live on stage countless times. They have released seven or eight new records of original material and I have interviewed Tom on perhaps five or six occasions. But Evergrey, as we all know, are my number one band, and it never gets old. Never.

So, when I got the invitation via the AFM Records UK PR rep to come to London because Tom Englund and Jonas Ekdahl had personally invited me out for dinner whilst on their UK press leg, I didn’t have to think for more than a nano-second.

The day before travelling, my life changed immeasurably and unexpectedly. So rather than jump in the car and head to the capital, I bought a train ticket because damn, I needed a drink. On the train journey, I listened to the new album, ‘The Atlantic’ twice through and, at times, I felt an almost inexplicable wave of emotion crash over me. Evergrey’s music always moves me and I wasn’t in the best emotional state admittedly, but for some reason, I felt a strong connection with ‘The Atlantic’, which I could not quite place.

Upon arrival at the hotel, I was greeted by the giant figure of Mr Englund himself and was pulled in for a bear hug. Jonas Ekdahl, on the other hand, pretended not to notice me, feigning apathy as he strode purposefully past. The joke didn’t last long, as grinning ear to ear, he warmly greeted me too.

With an almost comedically bad phone interview shelved, I got the nod to jump in and make use of a break in proceedings to crack on with my interview.

Leading up to this release, Tom had mentioned to me over the Internet that ‘The Atlantic’ might just be the best album he’s ever written. With wine delivered to the table, I decided to kick things off right there and ask Tom whether he believed his own hype or whether it was the usual hyperbole that surrounds a new release. Did he really mean what he said? The response I got was an uncomfortably long silence as Tom stared into space, apparently collecting his thoughts, mulling over how best to frame his reply. Eventually, he answers quietly and deliberately.

“I am absolutely positive that this is within at least the top three albums anyone released this year.”

“It is deadly serious for us”, Tom continues with a face to match his answer. “It is sincere, with all of our blood, sweat and tears in it, it really is. It is my personal journey’s manifestation. It is also, in a way, a conclusion. Or a start. It has meaning for me on so many levels. That’s where it is at for me anyway – I don’t know where it is at for you”, he concludes, looking pointedly at his long-haired drummer and co-writer before breaking into his more familiar jocular manner, booming out his hilarious faux-British accent.

“It’s the worst, most boring album we have ever written. It doesn’t do anything for me on any level. I’ll be at the bar. Champagne!”

“I agree”, responds Jonas after the warm laughter subsides. “it has this seriousness which was there even when we wrote it. But we also had fun writing it and in pre-production. Everything went super-smooth but we were very serious, particularly in the early stages. All the little details were very important to us, even down to a synth sound or whatever.”

“Particular is the word, definitely, even down to an OCD level”, interjects Tom thoughtfully. “But we love that part of music-making. It’s not engineering for us, it is part of the music-making, painting the picture that we want you to hear.”

“Me and Tom would just go into a bubble”, Jonas expands without prompting as the interview starts to find a nice rhythm. “We find a vibe or an image or a place in our heads and then we know where we want to go. Once we are in that zone, everything just falls into place. It makes it very simple for us to write because we know what will fit and what won’t.”

That word ‘vibe’ is an important one in the context of Evergrey. After years of line-up instability, I was among large swathes of fans that rejoiced when Jonas and Henrik (Danhage – guitars) re-joined Tom, Rikard (Zander – keys) and Johan (Niemann – bass) for ‘Hymns For The Broken’ back in 2014. For many, it is the best and strongest line-up in the band’s history principally because of the vibe that was apparent within the reformed quintet. It is wonderful to know that this vibe has remained intact two albums later.

“That vibe is bigger now than ever”, Tom smiles. “It is more cemented – we know what we want and how to get there. We might not have trusted each other before in terms of composing but the band now knows that when me and Jonas start working on the songs, we’ll create the best Evergrey songs we can. The other guys come in with their brushes and their colours to enhance what we have written. Or we write songs from their ideas. Everyone is super-comfortable, which makes it more comfortable for us. And it is easier to work with one guy in every detail than with five guys.”

“All the guys in the band know that the way we work now is for the best of the band”, agrees Jonas. “It’s not because we don’t want anyone not participating. It is just a better workflow and the end result is better with fewer heads and less hassle.”

“There are different stages of the songwriting though”, Tom clarifies eagerly. “We listen to everyone’s ideas, and we decide on the ideas that we will use to create ten songs. The other guys are not involved in the mixing process at all. So, when we all five of us sit in a room together and listen to the album for the first time, it is extremely stressful but also very rewarding.
There were tears and everything – several times throughout the recording actually”, Tom reveals. Frankly, I’m not at all surprised.

It is clear that there is a huge amount of trust and understanding these days between Tom and Jonas, with Jonas becoming as important to the writing and recording process as Evergrey’s founding member. Jonas nods as I voice this to him.

“I’ve never been able to settle only playing drums. I have always been wanting to do more. I love playing drums but somehow it is not enough on its own. So it is great to be able to do more with Evergrey. It feels more and more natural every album too, even though you have to be focused and on your toes all the time. It is a different kind of confidence I think, because actually, I’m a very nervous guy.

The laughter returns at that point, especially as Jonas is slouched comfortably in his chair as if he hasn’t a care in the world as he talks. It turns out that around 15 beers will make even a nervous Jonas the coolest cat in London.

Returning to the issue at hand, after much deliberation and soul-searching on my part, I tentatively suggest that the first three songs on ‘The Atlantic’ are some of the very best ever written by Evergrey. But not only that, the album is littered with world-class material. To use a footballing analogy because we’d just deviated into some good-natured Manchester United versus Tottenham Hotspur banter, I’d suggest ‘The Atlantic’ is entirely Champions League material. I’m keen to find out from the guys though, what it is particularly that they are proud of with ‘The Atlantic’. Tom replies first.

“It is the coherent feeling of the album, that we made a painting that is beautiful everywhere within the frame, not just in certain spots. It tells a story, you go through an experience when you listen to it. And when you’re done, you think ‘fuck, I have listened to something that was really good’. I have heard the songs 500 times each and I still do not stray from my listening. That’s a good grade in my book.”

“Going back to the painting”, Jonas offers, “we put effort with every stroke. And since day one, until it was mastered by Jakob Hansen, that has been the same. We put all we had, all our energy into it for such a long time. I’m proud of the fact that we have worked our asses off, busted our balls off in the process to create this record.”

“And that’s exactly what ‘All I Have’ is about”, reveals Tom. “It is about putting all you have into something. And if it isn’t good enough, we wouldn’t release it. But in terms of relationships, if it isn’t good enough, you have to release it.”

Before delving further into the music itself, I first want to touch on the break-in that hampered the recording process and delayed the release of ‘The Atlantic’ into 2019. As I ask, you can see the frustration etched on the guys’ faces.

“Wake me up please, I’m living in a nightmare”, states Jonas. “We had no option but to tell the label and Jakob Hansen that we would have to postpone the release date so that we could do things properly.”

Tom continues the thread: “We had to start buying recording equipment and we didn’t know if they had stolen the three songs we’d recorded and if they’d know what it was. It is an accomplishment to get through that, but also an accomplishment to mix the record. We didn’t stray an inch from where we knew we wanted to be.”

“We had this super analogue feel on the album and it was our number one priority to have a dirtier, analogue sound. We couldn’t express this enough to Jakob – more wood!”, Jonas emphasises with a smile. I don’t think that was a euphemism, more a statement about the overall texture and feel to this record.

Having been led back to the actual material on the album, I remark that ‘The Atlantic’ is a very bass-heavy record, with Johan Niemann taking more of the spotlight than ever before.

“More than any other album”, Jonas nods, “me and Johan recorded so much of the record live, almost the whole album. So we need to have the bass present. Plus, it adds more of that dirt and grit and attitude to the sound.”

“But”, Tom asserts with utter sincerity, “if you had a bass player who is 10% less of a player, you couldn’t have the bass like this. I say this in the documentary but I would choose Johan over any other bass player in the world. Without a doubt, there is no competition. This, everybody should hear, so raise the volume. Without taking away from the production of course, but you can afford to have him this loud because he is so fucking good.”

One thing that I think all Evergrey fans worth their salt will recognise is that whilst ‘The Atlantic’ is the next logical step in the evolution of Evergrey, it also contains many elements of previous albums. I hear elements of nod towards all of the Evergrey eras, from ‘In Search of Truth’ to ‘Monday Morning Apocalypse’. Turns out though that this was not intentional.

“We didn’t think about that at all – it must have been a fluke”, smiles Jonas before Tom affirms, to close this particular topic.

“We never think about anything like that”, he emphasises with a gentle shake of the head. “We set out to create a vibe. But if any of our albums are close to this album, it would be ‘Recreation Day’. But no, we don’t try to deliberately do this.”

At this point, I feel the desperate need to actually home in on some of the songs on ‘The Atlantic’. It is still early days in my listening journey, but several moments have already made a remarkable impression on me. I start with ‘Departure’ which ironically enough signals the biggest departure from Evergrey’s core sound, very similar to the way in which ‘Waking Up Blind’ did on ‘The Inner Circle’. And, as it turns out, the catalyst for this track, which features acoustic guitars and what I can only describe as a US arena rock vibe at one point, didn’t even originate with my two friends across the table from me.

“That was Rikard’s idea actually”, Jonas reveals. “We had a weekend where all the guys sat down, worked together and presented ideas.”

“That’s the thing with Rikard”, Tom interjects purposefully, “he usually presents a part and on this occasion, when we heard his part, everyone was like ‘woah, let’s make a song, right now’. And we made this song within two or three hours. Not vocally, but the song was done the same day.”

“It was the same with ‘Currents’”, Jonas continues with barely a pause for breath. “That was the next day and it was started by a synth riff. He presents his parts and says, ‘go do what you want with it’. He knows that we will do our best to make the best music out of his ideas. But everyone gets super-excited. With ‘Departure’, Henrik went out for ten minutes and came back with an acoustic guitar. He tuned it in Nashville tuning, whatever that is. Tom started doing all this finger-picking stuff and we just had to record it all. That was my favourite song when Johan and I practiced for the album. We had all these horrible songs to practice with all these difficult parts and so we named them terrible names because we hated them. ‘Departure’ was the song where we could relax and enjoy ourselves.

And now for the lyrics. Having had the words for a little while, I sensed that this was not a light-hearted or easy-going record. Yes, I can hear a certain amount of positivity at points, but I also hear strong undercurrents of emotional turmoil going on, with lots of darkness, despair, disorientation and soul-searching at play.

“You are way off the mark!” Tom chuckles before admitting the opposite and providing more detail.

“This is the final in a trilogy. ‘Hymns…’ was an album where I felt I had to do something – my subconscious was telling me I had to do something. Uproar, frustration. ‘The Storm Within’ was really about realising you’ve mentally left, you know. ‘The Atlantic’ is the manifestation of the actual leaving. It is also the first album that Carina (Englund) is not on. That is symbolic enough.”

Right there. That’s the moment that everything clicked into place and explained why I felt such an emotional connection with ‘The Atlantic’. It is about the break-up of Tom’s marriage and the feelings surrounding this ending of a chapter as well as the beginning of a new one. A torrent of feelings assaults me because, literally, the day before this interview, my partner called an end our nine-year relationship, a relationship that blessed me with two wonderful children and some happy memories. If I’m honest, I could see it coming as we’d grown apart over time, but the reality of having to start my life over again whilst trying not to destroy my little girls’ lives was suddenly my full focus. I didn’t want to put my children through such a thing but suddenly, I had no choice, I was trapped within my worst nightmare. Fortunately, I was in the right place – surrounded by friends, one of whom understood exactly what I was going through. The look on Tom’s face as I revealed my own personal turmoil nearly brought me to tears. No judgement, no irritation at derailing the interview, just genuine sympathy and a deep understanding of where I was mentally and emotionally.

“It can be a good thing”, Tom eventually responds in kindly fashion and with a Sage-like wisdom. “It may not at the moment but it will. Some changes are not only bound to happen but also necessary. It makes you”, he pauses searching carefully for the right word “…better. I feel as strong as fuck. I’m stronger than I’ve ever been. More confident, more certain, more secure, more relaxed.

And you know what? I believe him. Tom sits in the chair across from me and I notice for the first time just how relaxed he looks. He looks alive and there is a sparkle in his eye that maybe I’d not seen for a while. If Tom can go through something like this and come out the other side this strong, I begin to feel a little better. And then, as if a damn has burst, all three of us burst out in laughter, a little unsure of exactly why.

“But confident is a good word”, Tom sets off again as the unexplained merriment subsides. “I’m confident that I…that we…have done the right thing. If you’re a grown-up, you have kids and have been together for a quarter of a century, you need to deal with things in those terms. But life is to short and everyone deserves to be happy.”

Reluctantly, as time marches on, I start to wrap up this intense and hugely significant interview by asking the guys to reflect on the early feedback they’ve had to ‘The Atlantic’.

“We’re so early into the process that I don’t even know what response we’ve had”, jokes Tom but with a thread of truth. “But someone said to me that if it was released this year, it would be in their top five for the year. And others have said that this has the coolest cover we’ve ever had. It sets the tone and 100% represents the album visually.”

“I feel like we could do this forever”, offers Tom as his final thought, in response to my inevitable query over the future of Evergrey. “That’s where I am right now. When things start to deteriorate and become less rewarding, things might change. But we’re on a huge rise at the moment. We’re getting more fans, we’re selling more albums…that’s the advantage of not being huge. We sold two more albums – that’s a 100% increase”, he chuckles as he looks in Jonas’ direction. “Let’s celebrate. But seriously, that’s what it is all about. What more can you ask for than to improve and to go to new places, see more people?”

What more indeed?

And with that, I recede into the background for a time to allow others to chat to Tom and Jonas. After all, I had the rest of the evening to come, an evening which, as it turned out, involved one of the nicest and hottest curries of my life. It also featured plenty of alcohol and the kind of friendly chat and camaraderie that I really needed.

‘The Atlantic’ is out on 25th January 2019 on AFM Records.

Redemption – Interview 2018 – “…there is a lot of good material on here and the best is up there with the best we’ve ever written”

Picture the scene: It’s a Saturday night and I’m sitting in the back of a plush Mercedes, being driven to the O2 to catch the final night of Iron Maiden’s ‘Legacy Of The Beast’ European tour. And who happens to be sitting next to me? That’s right, none other than Nick Van Dyk, the founder, principal song writer and guitarist for progressive metal band Redemption.

We’d chatted like friends all evening having only properly met that very afternoon, so much so that we were almost certainly going to miss the start of the show. However, the quiet surroundings and diabolical London traffic meant that it was a perfect time to quiz Nick ‘on-the-record’ about all things Redemption, particularly given that their latest record, ‘Long Night’s Journey Into Day’ has only just been released.

‘High octane progressive metal’ – this no-nonsense description of Redemption’s music seemed as good a place as any to start the most formal segment of our evening.

“We might revisit it because it has been about 12 years since I coined that phrase”, Nick begins in his quiet but rich timbre whilst a certain mirth dances on his face playfully, momentarily eradicating his chagrin about our lousy timekeeping. “There is a fair amount of progressive music that doesn’t keep the metal and I wanted to emphasise to people who might think we’d turn into some widdly, wanky contemplative acoustic band, that we are fundamentally a metal band. There are some progressive elements to it and it tries to be highly melodic but the music has a sense of urgency to it and if you listen to the opening of this record, I hope it still kicks your ass. So it is probably still an apt description, but I might revisit it and see if I can maybe be a bit more nuanced about it.”

I then take a step back and invite Nick to take a trip down memory lane to fill me in on exactly how one of my favourite bands sprang into existence.

“I suppose it’s a lesson in possibilities and being good to people”, Nick replies honestly, a theme that develops throughout this interview. “I grew up playing music and was a fan of the genre. I had fiddled around and written a bunch of music over the years, but didn’t think anything would ever come of it. I was a huge fan of Fates Warning and I bumped into Ray Alder (vocalist) at a Flotsam & Jetsam show in LA. I did the fanboy thing, ‘Hey, I love your music, thank you so much, blah, blah, blah.’ We connected. Two nights later, Saxon were playing in the same venue and my buddy I was supposed to go with cancelled on me. I thought, ‘God, how big a loser am I going to a Saxon concert by myself?’ And this was not when they were at the peak of their popularity. But I decided to go and I saw Ray there. I don’t know what possessed me, but I went over to him, and said ‘hey, I saw you two nights ago at Flotsam, can I buy you a beer?’ We started talking and we hit it off. I gave him my business card, not thinking he’d contact me. But a couple of days later, he contacted me, we went to a basketball game together and we wound up being friends.

“Ray mentioned he wanted to do a solo album. I said that I had all this stuff written, but he wanted to do something that was a big departure from Fates Warning. So most of my stuff wasn’t a good fit for what he wanted to do on his solo album,’

‘Long story short though”, Nick continues, “Ray said that If I ever wanted to do anything with my stuff, he’d love to help. Because of that, I wound up actually recording the music. We brought together some musicians and I recorded the first production record. Ray was gracious enough to sing vocals on one track. I went from pure hobbyist to having a renowned vocalist helping to produce a record simply by good fortune and because I was nice enough to buy him a beer and have a conversation.”

For long-term fans, news of Ray Alder’s departure from Redemption was a bitter pill to swallow. Some may have even walked away from the band as a consequence. For the rest of us, the pill has been sweetened somewhat by Ray’s replacement, none other than Tom Englund of Evergrey. For me personally, this is the best possible outcome, as Tom remains my favourite voice in heavy metal. I ask Nick to explain how Tom became the new Redemption vocalist.

“One of the most important elements of our music is the subject matter of the lyrics and the human connection that is established through delivering them with passion and conviction. We sing about the human condition – fear, anxiety, love, frailty, all the complicated parts of what it’s like to be a person. If we had a singer that wasn’t able to invest emotion and conviction in those lyrics, it wouldn’t work. There are any number of really competent, technical vocalists that would not bring home what our music is about if they’re not sufficiently passionate.”

“So we need to have a vocalist who can sing well, but it also has to be someone within that family. Now Tom has written and performed music over the past 20 years in Evergrey that very much comes from the same place. He is not only one of the pre-eminent vocal talents in the genre because of his vocal capabilities but also because he sings with tremendous emotion and passion. I think he was a perfect fit from that standpoint. Of course the fact that we have been friends for a long while and have a mutual respect for what we have accomplished musically, it certainly helped as well. At the end of the day, I’m not going to get rich off this – Evergrey might do fine – but for me, this is about creating with people that I love and respect. The fact that we are friends is very important because this should never feel like a job because it won’t pay like one. It has got to be friends having fun creating together.”

“Wither and die?”, interjects Nick with a wry smile as I probe into whether he ever thought of putting Redemption to bed after Ray left.

“We had more music in us, so I knew I didn’t want to stop in that sense. Some people have very kindly suggested that we have underestimated why people like our music. I did feel like we needed a vocalist of consequence with a name and a body of work and a following. Not only because I wanted to maintain the popularity of the band, but also because it was an answer to people who might be concerned that we wouldn’t be able to generate our core sound anymore. When you lose someone who is as iconic as Ray, to have someone who is also iconic step in, you have momentum. Instead of us withering away, saying ‘lets just get someone who can sing’, having somebody with Tom’s capabilities step in and do it, it was more of an affirmation of our continued intent.”

Ok, so Nick never thought to quit writing and creating music, but did he ever consider putting ending Redemption and starting again under a different name or via a different band altogether?

“Interesting…I never really thought that”, comes Nick’s considered and thoughtful reply after a moment or two of contemplation. “That’s an interesting perspective. It reminds me of the band Kansas who broke up and then reformed. They went under a different name when they shot their demo because they didn’t think anyone would be interested in it being Kansas when Steve Morse joined the band. I’m glad we didn’t consider that because we might have done something.

At this point, I can feel the daggers from Redemption fans the world over for putting this treasonous idea into Nick’s head. So I’m relieved when the conversation moves on without dwelling on this point too much. Nick continues, allaying any lingering fears in the process:

“We don’t have a huge following but we have a very passionate following and I think the people who have been invested in us deserved us to try and continue. I felt an obligation to Bernie (Versailles – guitarist) and even Ray I think would not have wanted us to necessarily hang it up. I’m glad. I’m a huge fan of Ray and Ray is a large reason why many people heard of us in the first place, so I can understand peoples reticence to embrace that change. But the only ones that bother me are the ones that wrote us off without listening. The ones that listen and don’t get it, it is what it is. Evergrey have fans who aren’t fans of Fates Warning, just like there are fans of Fates Warning who don’t care for Evergrey. So I’m sure we’ll have new people come to us because of Tom as well.”

“There have been a few bumps”, Nick laughs warmly when I suggest that Redemption’s path has not always run smooth to say the least, and that perhaps this might have given the band greater resilience to Ray’s departure.

“That’s also pretty insightful”, he continues kindly, albeit more seriously this time. To be fair, the subject matter demands it at this point. “Look, the reality is – and I don’t seek to portray myself as some brave warrior – but when you get knocked in the head with a potentially fatal diagnosis, you realise that there is not much else in life that should rattle you. And then seeing what happened with poor Bernie and realising how fragile all of this is, at the end of the day, losing a vocalist is maybe not as big a deal as other things. And because it’s not what I rely on to put food on the table for my children, we sort of trundle along. I suppose if people had completely written us off, we may have actually fizzled out but I don’t think they have and I don’t think we will.”

Speaking of Bernie Versailles, I am compelled to find out how the diminutive guitarist is, and whether he may ever find himself in good enough health to return to the Redemption fold.

“I’m not sure that’s in the cards”, Nick sighs with genuine regret. “We haven’t really spoken about it but he was in a very bad way. For those that don’t know the specifics, he had a brain aneurism. First of all, it wasn’t lifestyle related – Bernie was very healthy. He was a vegan, exercised every day, didn’t drink to excess and never did any drugs. He was fit. It must be hereditary I suppose, he had a weakness in a blood vessel. You don’t get any warning signs. He felt nauseous and had a headache. He was with friends who thought he had a migraine and were going to let him sleep it off. If you’re brought to the hospital within a couple of hours, it’s almost like a nothing thing. But it was 36 hours before he was brought in. So he was in a coma for a month and we were concerned he might not emerge from it. And if he did, he might have no mental faculties whatsoever. So the fact that he is not dead first of all and he is able to have a somewhat functioning life is a triumph. He plays guitar recreationally from what I understand – I’ve not spoken to him recently because he has a lot of issues with short-term memory. I don’t know that he’ll ever be able to play again at the level he used to but he is continuing to recuperate in the care of his family who love him very much. He is doing better and he is happy, so I think that is probably about as much as we can expect from the situation. It is terrible and just goes to show how delicate life is.”

I feel the need to get the conversation back on to more positive subject matters, and I feel the best way to do that is by welcoming Vikram Shankar into the Redemption fold, as the new keyboardist. Nick is only too pleased to fill me in on the details.

“Vikram was introduced to me by Tom. I think Tom became aware of him because he had created these videos of piano arrangements of Evergrey songs. They are not just well performed but they are arranged with vision and real ingenuity. They preserve the character of the original songs including some of the bombast whilst being done in the mode of delicate classical piano. I think Tom had probably wanted to work with Vikram”, he chuckles, “and so he gently nudged the two of us to meet.”

“I had an incredibly talented keyboardist in Redemption for a few years called Greg Hosharian but he decided that he wanted to focus on classical music composition and conducting. He is of Armenian descent and his father conducted an Armenian orchestra in Los Angeles. I think he wanted to dedicate himself to follow his father and preserve the heritage of that music. We carried on because I’m a reasonably capable keyboard player but we started thinking in the wake of playing live shows that it is hard to pull it off without an actual keyboard player. It can be done but having somebody competent playing with us adds more richness and versatility to what we can do. So I liked the idea of having a dedicated keyboard player and frankly Vikram was so talented from both a performance and compositional standpoint that I knew he could really elevate what we were able to do. We sat down, talked and brought him to meet the rest of the band. He was game to do it, so we are really excited to have him and look forward to even bigger contributions from him on future records.”

“He came in and did a solo and a couple of other background parts”, Nick explains in terms of Vikram’s involvement on ‘Long Night’s Journey Into Day’. “He did some other really subtle things that you might not even notice unless you heard the song without those things added in. Tiny little things, adding some texture here and there. He was actually really helpful when it came to mixing the record because he is very analytical and he studied music and music production. He is also very helpful when it comes to arranging our music for live performances and the things that he is capable of doing all by himself are pretty astonishing.”

At this point, I feel it is high time to discuss the brand-new record, ‘Long Night’s Journey Into Day’, starting with the response from the public, critics and fans alike.

 

“Almost uniformly positive”, Nick responds, “which is somewhere between validation and a relief”, he smiles somewhat self-deprecatingly, before continuing.

“People have generally been accepting of the biggest change, which is Tom. I think by and large, people recognise it as a continuation of what we’ve been doing, but with probably better production than we’ve ever had as well as some pretty strong song writing. So far, the critical reviews have been great and hopefully our label deserves commercial success commensurate with the critical recognition. I appreciate Metal Blade giving us their confidence and in return, I hope people buy the new record.”

As with all Redemption albums, this new disc is something of an intense rollercoaster emotionally. I invite Nick to comment on this and then request his explanation of the specific lyrical content on ‘Long Night’s Journey Into Day’.

“If we’re good, they are all intense emotionally”, he responds. ‘Art of Loss’ wasn’t a concept album but it had a common theme about the notion of love and fear being opposites, and the idea that most decisions we make of consequence, are really decisions between love and fear. Do you love what you do or do you do it because you fear of failing at something else? Do you love the person you’re in a relation with or are you afraid of being alone?”

“There is no one unifying lyric that pops through on this new record”, Nick continues after a short pause for thought. “The title is a wordplay on a play by the American playwright Eugene O’Neill who wrote an autobiographical play called ‘A Long Day’s Journey Into Night’. It was about his childhood and his mother’s struggle with heroine addiction. I liked the idea of flipping that title on its head. We’ve always had lyrical content that looks at both sides of the human condition and how there is fear, anxiety, failure and pain; all these bad things. But there is also love, beauty, triumph and resilience; all these wonderful qualities. If there’s one consistent theme through all of our work, it’s that life can be frightening and hard to get through but it’s almost always worth it. So turning the title on its head, calling the record ‘A Long Night’s Journey Into Day’, was a nice way to acknowledge that. All the music fits under that big banner theme, but there is no real concept this time around.”

As we enter a dark tunnel somewhere in East London, Nick references a fundamentally important aspect of Redemption’s music. It is something that I had overlooked to a greater or lesser extent up until now, but having been flagged up, it makes perfect sense: “Make sure you make it through to the end of the last song because it’ll end on a high note.”

“However, there are a couple of songs on the record that end in places that are less positive”, Nick reveals as he explains further. “Take ‘And Yet’, which is a companion piece to ‘Someone Else’s Problem’. ‘Someone Else’s Problem’ is a recognition that when you’re in a relationship, be it a familial one, a professional one, a romantic one, you tend to make excuses if you’re infatuated and you put the bad things out of your mind. But when that relationship comes to an end, you might miss aspects of it, but all the stuff that would have bugged the hell out of you if you’d been intellectually honest, is someone else’s problem. But it’s not always easy not to miss that person, so ‘And Yet’ is the recognition that even though I know it was a toxic situation that was bad for me, ‘and yet’, I still miss them.”

“So that one doesn’t end on a particularly high note”, Nick grins wickedly, “but most of the songs do. I started noticing that one of my favourite bands, Rush, ended their albums with more of an epic song with an affirmational quality to it. I like the way I feel when I’m finished with a Rush record and I’d like to make people feel the same way if we can. So we try to end on a positive note.”

 

Most bands will get drawn into the ‘this is our best record ever’ trap during interviews, eager to demonstrate that their latest endeavour is worthy of as much attention as possible. In Nick’s case, he is much more reserved and considered in his response. In fact, I have to gently prod him before he will entertain the thought that ‘Long Night’s Journey Into Day’ might represent his finest hour.

“You never really set out to not make a great song”, he responds measuredly and typically honestly. “Every time you want to write a great song. But it’s an artistic endeavour and you don’t always know when you’re going to catch light. I had the feeling when we were writing ‘Indulge In Colour’ that ‘this is the stuff’. It reminds me of the best stuff we’ve ever done and it’s as good a song as I’ve ever written. That and the title track, which has the same kind of feeling. The end of that song took on a life of its own and kept building and building. Some of my band mates have other high points, but there is a lot of good material on here and the best is up there with the best we’ve ever written.”

“Every song is different”, Nick continues on the song-writing theme in answer to my query about his personal process to creating music. “Generally speaking, I will have the riffs and when the song is stitched together, I will sing a melody with nonsense lyrics to it, one time through. Usually, that’s 80% of what the melodies will be. But on the song ‘Memory’ (on the album ‘Origins Of Ruin’) for example, I had the chorus stuck in my head on the golf course one weekend. I remembered it enough when I got home, so I sang it and built the song around that. So it can happen any number of ways and you’ve just got to let inspiration strike when it wants to.”

And what of the comparisons between ‘Long Night’s Journey Into Day’ and my previous personal favourite Redemption record, ‘Snowfall On Judgement Day’?

“First of all, I’m glad that people do compare this record with ‘Snowfall…’ because it is probably the best record in our catalogue prior to this one. That record did a very good job of capturing that light and dark, plus I like the production on that one. So I get it, I appreciate it and I’m flattered that people think of this new record in the same way.”

It is interesting that Nick mentions the production of ‘Snowfall…’ and ‘Long Night’s…’, a subject that I’m keen to pick up on, especially given that most fans seem to agree that this album affords the band their best ever sound.

“We’re always struggling to get the record we hear in our head to come out of the CD player”, Nick once again grins warmly as he answers. “I love Jacob’s (Jacob Hansen) mixes – they are very contemporary, they have a punch and urgency to them without sounding cold. I knew that done right, that’d be the closest we could come to what we wanted to hear. The thing is, we’re a tough band to mix because we have an awful lot going on. We have a bass that has six strings and doesn’t follow the guitars, so the frequencies are stepping on the drums and the low end of the guitars. The guitars are tuned down, so that exacerbates the problem. And on ‘Indulge In Colour’, there are 60 tracks of orchestra. You can’t just hand it over and expect the mix to work automatically. The music had to be deconstructed very carefully and patiently. It was trial and error until we got what we wanted. It is, frankly, a testament not only to Jacob’s skill, but to his professionalism, patience and his flexibility that we were able to work together as well as we did over a long period of time to get these results. He was fantastic and I’d work with him again without hesitation.”

“If we stop having fun or stop thinking that we’re creating something of value, we’ll stop”, comes the response to my query about the longer-term future of Redemption. “But to use that phrase again, I know there’s more music in us. I’m very energised to write with Vikram and Tom and involve them in the process more. I think that’ll help our musical growth and take us to new places whilst still sounding like us. So I’m really excited to get to work on our next record. But I don’t want to lose sight of this record, one that I hope we get out to play some shows to support.”

Speaking of playing live, and as the O2 looms into sight over the horizon, Nick has a final word to say about ProgPower USA, a festival I shall make it my mission to attend one day.

“ProgPower USA really feels like a family and we’re going to pull out all the stops and do some really cool things for the family.”

And with that, the car pulls up to the O2 and we hurriedly head off to the venue, eager not to miss a moment more than we have to of the mighty Iron Maiden.

‘Long Night’s Journey Into Day’ is out now on Metal Blade Records – and, should you still be awake, you can read my review here.

Evergrey – Interview 2016 – “We’re getting stronger and stronger, every day”

Read my review here: Evergrey – The Storm Within

When you have a job and a young family, it can be tough to get out of the house sometimes, even if it is to just nip to the shops briefly. So you can imagine that it is almost impossible to get an entire evening off. However, when you are summoned to London by your favourite band to undertake an interview, you have to try. And you have to succeed. And so, late in the afternoon, I found myself heading towards the capital, in direct contrast to the 4th birthday party that I’d attended earlier as part of my ‘Daddy Daycare’ responsibilities. It’s the way I roll.

Knowing that I was running late, I abandoned the car, got on the tube and headed to Russell Square eventually arriving in a sweaty mess. The unmistakable shapes of Tom Englund and Jonas Ekdahl could be seen through the windows, enjoying a quiet chat on the hotel patio. The greeting is warm from Jonas, but I’m gathered in a bear hug from Tom who, since our last meeting even, has somewhat unbelievably become a closer friend. You ask why I do this writing for no monetary reward? This. This is why.

After the usual pleasantries have been exchanged and beers have been delivered to the table, we get down to business. I begin by asking the guys whether their present outlook is as positive as it was around the release of the highly-lauded ‘Hymns For The Broken’. Tom is first to reply and his response is emphatic.

“Yeah, for sure”, he nods. “Better. Now that we have had the amount of time that we have had in between those albums, our confidence as individual players and as a band has increased. We feel strong, we feel confident and we feel respected too which is an important part of feeling great.”

“Fuck no”, Tom fires back with brutal honesty when I enquire as to whether this confidence has always been present within the Evergrey camp. “I would say that it has been 20 years of self-doubt up until the last album. Even then we doubted if we were good enough to come back to do another album. You second guess yourself so much in this business, it wears you down. But it also makes you stronger. When things are going great, then you are the strongest person on Earth. But when things start to fall, then it’s just shit.”

The softly spoken and articulate Jonas adds his first thoughts of the conversation at this point.

“Especially nowadays”, he offers, whilst I silently admit to being jealous of the guy’s hair. “Because it is so easy to get a hold of your stuff on line, with all this social media stuff and people writing about you or your music. It’s like heaven or hell, highs and lows. So you have to be careful what you take in from that. You have to know yourself and that you are good at something, no matter what people say. Even if they think you are the best in the world or the worst in the world.”

“You can read 400 comments”, Tom agrees with his percussionist colleague, “where people say that you are genius, a God , gifted or the best band in the world. But then you get this one comment that says you are shit. For me, it is a matter of me being bullied when I was a kid. These comments stick to me immediately, so I don’t look. When we put the video online the other day, I didn’t look at the comments. I just saw how many views we had. It’s not good for me.”

This is a response that resonates deeply with me. I too suffer with self-confidence and mental fragility, often lacking the self-belief that what I’m doing is either the right thing or any good. Therefore, when I receive any kind of negativity, I tend to take it to heart. To know that I’m not alone in this is more than a little comforting.

“I’m trying to be better at it”, Tom continues. “I don’t care if people say that they don’t like it. That’s fine. But when people are stupid, unintelligent and say things because they want to hurt people, then it makes me want to tear them to pieces in text…but I don’t.”

I remember speaking with Tom and Johan Niemann around the release of ‘Hymns For The Broken’ and the return of Jonas Ekdahl and Henrik Danhage about the effect the feedback had on them. Tom admitted that the positivity almost moved him to tears. It is surprising therefore to note that this time around, a decision was made to consciously not look at the social media feedback. I ask Tom for his reasoning.

“I don’t know”, he shrugs, looking around for inspiration. “I just took the decision that I felt I didn’t want to look. Maybe it’s because I’m super tired right now from doing all this work for such a long time. I didn’t want to know if somebody hated it because we have done exactly the album that we wanted to do in every aspect; everything from the production to the final imagery of the videos. All of it. For us it might be one of…”, Tom pauses, “maybe it is the album. I don’t know.”

“That’s how I look at it”, Jonas agrees with a big smile. “I’m super confident. Usually I am über sensitive about the comments and things. I take in very easily all the bad comments. But here, I felt so confident when we released the video, almost like I didn’t recognise myself…”

“I didn’t” Tom interjects with a broad grin and a good-natured chuckle, emphasising the friendship between the two. Jonas responds with light-hearted laughter of his own before continuing.

“I almost felt arrogant”, he states with wide-eyed disbelief writ large across his face. “The comments don’t matter, because I know what the five of us did and what Patric (Ullaeus – rEvolver) and the five of us did. If you don’t like it, it’s your problem and maybe you should just listen to something else.”

“That’s just it”, Tom responds, bringing this particular topic to something approaching a natural conclusion. “It is weird if you make an effort to tell everyone as much and as loud as you can that you don’t like it. But we have to think about it differently. We have to think that people are caring about us. They care so much that they are pissed off that we don’t sound like we did before, based on their love for the band. If they can’t handle their emotions now that we sound different or can’t follow the evolution of the band, it’s up to them. But it’s not like those albums are gone. You don’t have to miss them, they are there.”

“Yes, they are”, I quip. “They are all in my car.”

“That’s what I’ll say next time”, Tom laughs, “they’re all in Matt’s car”

One of the most noticeable things to a long-term fanboy like me, is that ‘The Storm Within’ offers a number of subtle and not-so-subtle references to the now extensive back catalogue. Hints of ‘Solitude, Dominance, Tragedy’ can be heard as well as a vibe of ‘In Search Of Truth’ here or an echo of ‘Recreation Day’ there. ‘The Storm Within’ is definitely the next stage in the gradual Evergrey evolution but to hear these flashes is strangely comforting and entirely welcome as far as I’m concerned. What I’m keen to identify is if this was a deliberate move from the quintet.

“Some lyric lines were deliberate”, Tom counters referring to the line ‘…in search of truth’ within the song ‘Astray’. “But no, it wasn’t deliberate, we never thought about it like that.”

“We just went with the flow”, Jonas interjects before struggling to elaborate further. “It is hard to explain.”

“But it might be”, considers Tom, helping his friend out, “that we said ‘wouldn’t it be great if we had a ‘Touch of Blessing’ melody run here’ for example, but I don’t really remember that we did on this album. The guitar line melodies were done by Henrik just like that”, he clicks his fingers. “But it is good if we have influences from our old albums.”

And yet, from some of the comments on social media, some people have, after hearing only ‘Distance’, dismissed the new album as ‘Hymns For The Broken’ part two or worse. Having been lucky enough to hear the entirety of ‘The Storm Within’, I disagree vehemently with this point of view and am very keen to know what Tom and Jonas think about these comments as well.

“It’s like judging a four-course meal after the salad”, Tom quips with more than a hint of acidity to his words. “‘I know that the steak will suck because I hate this tomato’. We cook for ourselves. It’s not like we cook, think it tastes like shit and then eat it. We cook and then we’re happy. And if the rest of the customers don’t like it…”

“…Then go to a different restaurant”, finishes Jonas with impeccable timing. “We can’t help it. This is how it sounds and how it is supposed to sound.”

“And we are the ones who decide how it should sound”, adds Tom, now in bullish mood. “This is the right that we have. And this is what I mean by unintelligent comments. It’s like judging a TV show based on the first episode. ‘That sucked’. Yeah, maybe you didn’t get into it with that song, but we are not Britney Spears or Justin Bieber. We’re not writing hit singles. This is not a single; it is the first song to represent the album. A single? What the fuck is that? It is a video, the first video to set the tone for the album.”

“In general”, offers Jonas when I ask for the reasoning behind choosing ‘Distance’ as the first song, “it represents the album better, in the sense of the vibe and the atmosphere.”

“We wanted to make it dark”, nods Tom in agreement whilst taking a large glug of his beer. “We wanted to have the slower paced thing and it is one of the first songs that we wrote.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah”, continues Jonas eagerly, clearly engaged with this particular subject. “And it was the song where we realised the vibe for the album. This is it! The video goes well with the story and the concept of the record, so many different factors. It was the most obvious thing to do and we wouldn’t have been true to ourselves to release any other song. We need to follow our hearts with what we do.”

“Everybody said that we should have released ‘Passing Through’ as the first song”, Tom admits candidly, “but we’re not even making a video for that one.”

This isn’t the first time that the ‘vibe’ has been mentioned during this conversation. I ask the gents to elaborate and they duly deliver, in the process offering a brief insight into the songwriting for ‘The Storm Within’. Jonas kicks things off.

“We were sitting in the rehearsal room when me and Tom discovered this vibe”, he explains, smiling at his colleague and friend across the table. “We were thinking that it felt like Iceland where you’re so deserted and lonely. We got so inspired and had visions in our heads and we knew that this is what we had to aim at.”

“We had written stuff for a month or three weeks already before that”, Tom reveals. “All of a sudden, a lot of this stuff didn’t fit into that vibe at all.”

“It still exists for the future”, Jonas clarifies, “but that was hard because there was some really beautiful stuff. One evening we realised that we had to decide what we were doing. There were some songs that didn’t fit into this vibe; they would just clash if we put them on the album.”

Will we see these ideas on a future album?

“They are good enough for sure”, affirms Tom, “but it depends if they’ll fit into a vibe for another album. The thing is, we usually write and write and write and then we find the vibe. We take parts from ideas that didn’t fit previous albums to work on to see if they fit into the new vibe. All of a sudden, you have 30-35 song ideas to work from.”

The words used by Evergrey themselves to describe ‘The Storm Within’ are ‘eerie, desolate and cinematic’. These are powerful words, emotive words and entirely fitting with an album from the kings of dark melodic progressive metal.

“The first image that I had in my head”, reveals Tom fascinatingly, “was a guy standing on top of a planet on his own with his loved one orbiting around him, but orbiting in circles that were so far stretched that it would take light years to reach them. I have all these lines in the album, like in ‘Paradox of the Flame’ where Carina (Englund) sings exactly that, ‘even though there are light years between us’. That’s how we tried to create the vibe, using these interstellar terms as well. It is something that I am very happy with.”

One of the biggest strengths with ‘Hymns For The Broken’ was the intensely personal subject matter, reflecting Tom’s own health problems over the preceding years. Evergrey are at their best when dealing with such things so naturally, I want to find out if the bold and emotive concept on ‘The Storm Within’ has a basis in reality for the band. Tom thinks for a moment before responding in considered fashion.

“I think this album is still personal”, he says, “but it is more based on experiences of close friends over the past years. Of course, being an empathetic person as I think I am, I think I have the know-how of putting myself in a person’s shoes and understanding…well, not understanding them”, he qualifies carefully, “but understanding how I would feel being in the same position. And then writing about that makes it feel sincere and honest. Everybody has been heartbroken sometime, been left by someone or left someone. You can even draw influences from people who have died.”

Jonas and Tom both agree that the concept applies to any relationship with a loved one, not necessarily just a partner. It leads me to make a ridiculous comment that it could therefore even apply to the death of a pet goldfish. I’m rightly ridiculed but I’m glad I said it, as it prompts Tom to offer a humorous aside, one that leads to plenty of laughter around the table.

“I’ve not told you this”, Tom giggles to Jonas before composing himself. “When we were recording the video for ‘The Impossible’, I sing ‘I’ll cross the dark side of the moon’. We find this place in Iceland that we think looks like the moon. Patric and me were like ‘Let’s film!’ We come back after 4 hours of filming and we were so excited. We’re describing the landscape, saying it looks just like the moon, with this cool waterfall over there and…and then Patric’s wife says quietly ‘water? On the moon? Really?’ We were like ‘…oh fuck’. She ruined it all in one sentence.”

One story leads to another as both Jonas and Tom cut relaxed and happy figures in the last remnants of the late evening sunshine. It transpires, to more loud laughing that Tom managed to get a speeding ticket in Iceland from the police at around 2am. Apparently, the police car was the only other vehicle Tom had encountered in around two hours!

It genuinely feels by this point less like an interview and more like an evening out with good friends. However, the Dictaphone on the table reminds me otherwise and I pull the conversation round to hone in on one of the descriptive words in particular, namely ‘cinematic’. I want to understand exactly what is meant by this.

“For me, when listening to Evergrey, I get visions”, Tom offers more seriously than anything uttered in the last ten minutes. “Somebody wrote in the very early days that ‘Evergrey is music for the inner eye’. I thought was very well put because when we write, we get all these images.”

“It’s like this”, Tom then offers after a pause for reflection, apparently not satisfied with his previous explanation. “I listen to a band called M83, a French electronic band. I also listen to a girl called Susanne Sundfør from Norway. I listen to them a lot. All of a sudden, I watched this movie called ‘Oblivion’. I loved the music in the movie and I realised that M83 did the whole soundtrack. ‘Fucking great!’, I thought. And then the ending song comes and it’s Susanne Sundfør and M83 together. The coincidences were amazing and it felt like they did that just for me.

‘Ah, the smell of grass in the morning!’, mutters Tom in his best posh English accent, as the unmistakeable waft of cannabis floats in off the breeze, momentarily tearing Tom’s attention from the topic at hand.

“Anyway”, he continues after the brief pause, “I presented M83 to Jonas who started listening to it. When we started writing, he came in with some song ideas and I guess it had that M83 vibe with the synthesizer sounds. So then we started vibing on that. I started watching movies like ‘Oblivion’ again, ‘Interstellar’ and ‘Prometheus’. ‘Fuck, let’s do this, this is the world, let’s do that’, I said. Carlos (Fides – Artside) did the booklet artwork quite early and we were like ‘woah, he’s got it, he understands us exactly’. And then we discover that all of these movies were shot in Iceland. We didn’t know that. So we were like ‘we have to go to Iceland’. Luckily we had the means and the record label pushed us actually to finance it. So that whole build-up thing is great.”

“I remember sitting there with an acoustic guitar and a keyboard”, offers Jonas, taking up the story. “It was just me and you”, he says pointing to Tom, “and we were talking, saying things like ‘imagine this in Iceland’. We thought about shooting a video there, so we got back to work and were so creative.”

“And I can assure you, at that time”, Tom grins wickedly, “the music did not sound that good.” Cue the playing of an air banjo complete with dodgy sound effects.

As the guys are talking, I begin to wonder whether the song ‘Disconnect’ has been influenced by M83 a little, a band with which I have a passing familiarity. After brief internal wrangling, I decide to voice my query.

“That’s the first one we wrote”, cries Jonas animatedly, leading me to throw my arms in the air and couple it with a suitably smug face.

“They are very good at finding the sound or the vibe for the song”, explains Tom. “And that’s what Jonas did with he created that synth sound.”

“And the working title for ‘Disconnect’ was actually ‘M83’, smiles Jonas, allowing my annoying smug face to immediately return.

Changing tack slightly, I move onto the contributions of the female vocalists on ‘The Storm Within’. I’m delighted to hear Tom’s wife Carina involved again on the song ‘The Paradox Of The Flame’ and I’m intrigued by the guest appearance from Nightwish’s Floor Jansen on the song ‘In Orbit’. Both do great jobs but I must be honest. I therefore suggest, perhaps controversially, that I prefer Carina’s voice. Naturally the guys are too polite to either agree or disagree.

“I think you’re painting with a different brush when you use Floor for sure”, Tom suggests. “And Floor definitely does add something.”

Raw power?

“Fuck Me, yes”, agrees Tom vehemently and without pause, before Jonas takes over.

“Floor adds the perfect spice to the song and the lyrics, to where the story goes. When Floor comes in, it’s perfect and when Carina comes in, it makes sense too.”

With “The Paradox Of the Flame”, Tom reveals, “we wrote the vocal lines in half a day for that. Carina is just a tremendously talented singer, end of story. It’s not technical; it’s just raw talent and a quality voice.”

“She growled on Hymns”, Tom replies when I ask whether his daughter Salina makes an appearance having made such an impact on ‘Drowning Alone’ on ‘The Glorious Collision’. “And yes, she’s on this album too. She is part of the girl choir on ‘Distance’, with her class.”

One of the reasons why Evergrey are so special to me is because they connect with me on an emotional level like very few other bands out there. And I’m not alone. Based on the comments via social media and to the band directly, there are many fans who quote Evergrey as a big source of comfort, support and strength. I’m keen to find out how the band responds to this very positive by-product of their labours.

“It’s overwhelming”, admits Jonas with brutal honesty. “What do I say to this, how do I answer? We just do this for us. It is so weird that we do what we love but we can help other people in their lives too. I can’t get it into my head somehow.”

“We make music and if that aspect at all helps people then”, Tom offers before tailing off, apparently unsure of how to continue. “I get a lot of emails too and I can’t take it all in.”

“Somehow”, Jonas continues, “you need to draw a line because if you take too much of that stuff in and make it personal, when it comes to the next album, it might not be about us anymore.”

“We’re super happy of course”, Tom is eager to clarify, “but I don’t know how to respond when I hear the words. I don’t know how to describe it. It is such a big feeling, it has to be the music for us. If people find comfort in it and it helps them, then that’s an additional thing we’re grateful for.”

The sense of camaraderie and positivity that emanated from the Evergrey camp upon the return of Ekdahl and Danhage was like a breath of fresh air, welcomed by fans the world over. It is now a couple of years on but as the duo explain, the relationships within the band show no signs of diminishing like they did in the past.

“I think it’s even better now”, responds Jonas. “We’re getting stronger and stronger, every day and every week. Where we are now, it’s fantastic.”

“Also”, adds Tom, “we’ve been able to approach the music in the way that we want to. We know how to talk to each other now, which we didn’t before. It is just as easy as that.”

And how do you approach things?

“Everything is on our terms”, is the succinct and immediate answer from Tom. “We don’t have to do gigs just for the sake of it anymore. It needs to be on our terms and we need to look, sound and feel the way it should be to be a proper Evergrey show. Then it doesn’t matter if we play the Underworld or at a festival in front of 60,000 people, as long as we feel confident when we go up there. We play music because we love to play music and we don’t want to do that half-assed.

Tom and Jonas touched briefly on the songwriting of ‘The Storm Within’ earlier. However, I want to explore this a little more and the guys oblige, beginning with Tom.

“We found the format on ‘Hymns…’ where me and Jonas wrote most of it and produced it.”

“The other guys came in”, Jonas states, “with their parts and pitched in with their objective views.”

“They weighed in more than us sometimes”, Tom adds with an agreeing nod. “For example, the piano ending at the end of ‘Distance’ was initially removed but Henrik was really stubborn to keep it. There was no democracy there”, he chuckles. “But when someone thinks so strongly about something, they are usually right. But even though we do a lot of demos, when they come in and put their paint on the canvas, that’s what makes it what it is.”

At this point, I’m advised that Tom and Jonas have a table reserved at their favourite curry house in Camden. What I wasn’t expecting was the invitation to join them and to continue the interview in different surroundings. How could I refuse?

Read my review here: Evergrey – The Storm Within

Earthside – Interview – “we don’t write something with the idea of making it easy to play live”

Photo Credit: Ian Christmann http://ianchristmann.com/
Ian Christmann, Photographer

‘A Dream In Static’, the debut album from US progressive metal band Earthside ended up as my favourite album of 2015. I wasn’t expecting this to be the case at the start of the year but if you’ve heard it, you’ll not be surprised as to why it attained such a lofty place in my affections. Want to know more, here’s my review.

So when the opportunity presented itself to witness some of this music live on stage at the band’s debut UK gig, I couldn’t turn it down. Neither could I refuse the chance to sit down with the band and fire a few questions their way. I explored the background to Earthside and ‘A Dream In Static’ in some detail with drummer Ben Shanbrom prior to its release last year. If you’re after the Earthside back story, read part 1 and part 2 here.

I therefore thought it would be a good idea to probe the band regarding the feedback they’ve received since the album was released at the tail end of 2015 and find out how on Earth they have managed to replicate their fiendishly complicated and multi-layered music on stage.

“Let me start by saying that if I need a confidence boost, I’ll just google ‘Matt Spall’”, jokes guitarist Jamie van Dyck to much warm laughter. He is sitting across the room to me on a battered leather sofa in a ramshackle room that is somewhat misleadingly referred to as a dressing room, high up in the Camden Barfly building and he has a big smile on his face.

“But I think it has gone over really well’, he continues more seriously. “We’ve been surprised how many people in Europe know who we are, it’s stunning. It has been really cool to meet people who are really passionate about the record and are having the chance to experience it live and give us their feedback. Generally these people have been very happy about how we present it live. Also it is a fun challenge to win over people who have never heard of us and don’t know what to expect from us.’

It’s a big question and a very subjective one but, given how much effort, not to mention blood, sweat and tears went into this record, I’m eager to find out whether the response to ‘A Dream In Static’ has met their hopes and expectations. It is keyboardist Frank Sacramone who, perched on a table beside me, replies first.

“It differs for each person and you’re going to get a different answer from each of us. For me personally, I wish this album had reached more people, for the amount of work to reward, as far as popularity is concerned. The people who have heard it and love it, their love is very deep and that’s amazing. But in terms of how far I thought this record would go, I thought it would reach more people. I get a little down on myself, thinking ‘why don’t people know about us? What have we done wrong?”

“I don’t negate what Frank said”, Jamie weighs in. “Anyone who has lent a hand, in whatever way, they have all done a really good job and we’re grateful. When you put so much ‘blood, sweat and tears’ to use your words, I don’t think there’s any amount of success that would live up to our wildest hopes and dreams.”

“I think there is a number, I disagree”, interjects Frank to more laughter around the room.

“But I also think that once you get that new number, it becomes a moving target’, Jamie counters. “You have a new baseline and the dopamine addict in you feels like it isn’t enough; you always want more. You can view it as ‘why don’t more people know about us’ or, if you wake in a positive state of mind, it could be viewed as ‘wow, look at all those people who had no idea who we were five months ago and how passionate they are.’ As humans, we are so vulnerable to our own internal emotional states. The actual factors outside might be very different but that won’t matter. At the end of the day, we’re volatile, we’re artists.”

At this point, bassist Ryan Griffin chips in for the first time. Until now, he has been sitting on a really uncomfortable-looking seat beneath a grimy window apparently deep in thought, almost as if deliberately psyching himself up for the show ahead. In keeping with the rest of the band, Ryan is highly articulate and extremely focused.

“I would agree with these two guys but I would also add that these days in the music industry, there is more of an emphasis on churning out content rather than producing something that stands the test of time or has real weight behind it. All four of us, we’re not the kind of people who just want to get the music out there. We’re hyper-obsessives. Whoever we talk to, there’s always that question ‘What’s next?’ or ‘is there another album somewhere in there somewhere?’ We are definitely working on some new material but we’re in no way ready to close the book on the first album yet. There are so many more people that we feel need to hear this. Plus, as you said, given the blood, sweat and tears that went into this, we owe it to ourselves and to those that have supported us to continue with this album for the time being.”

Credit: Ian Christmann Photography ( http://catalystphotography.com/ )

If you’ve heard ‘A Dream In Static’, you’ll be aware just how complex this record is. Not just in terms of the arrangements and the intricacies of the music, but also by virtue of the guest musicians involved. Not only do Earthside employ a plethora of vocalists including Bjorn ‘Speed’ Strid (Soilwork) and Lajon Witherspoon (Sevendust), but there’s also the small matter of a full Russian orchestra being involved at times. I ask the guys how difficult it was to pull it all together and replicate the music in a live setting. Initially, the response is very jovial and light-hearted.

“On a scale from one to ten’, Frank pauses dramatically for effect, before breaking out into a grin, “thirteen or fourteen.”

“I think the scale is arbitrary”, smiles Jamie wickedly, “but it must be above ten”. Cue more raucous laughter from all corners of the room, before Jamie, today’s primary spokesman offers a more in-depth analysis.

“I think the biggest thing is that we have this collaborative spirit and when we’re composing, we’re envisioning the greater picture of the record and the songs. We enjoy the idea of working with other people with very different gifts that complement our talents. We feel that if someone is coming to see us live, this needs to be part of that live experience, especially if they have never heard of us. If they see us live and we don’t show them that, they are missing such a huge part of the story. That’s the hardest part I think.”

“Also”, he continues, “we have so many sounds among Frank’s keyboards and my guitars that are very specific and particular. There are so many different sounds we use on the record in terms of amplifiers and guitars, plus I play in so many different tunings. So there are lots things that we need to think about live. But we don’t write something with the idea of making it easy to play live or for a live setting.”

So it’s fair to say that you’ve made it difficult for yourselves then?

“It’s a bit of an aside”, Jamie explains whilst knowing looks pass between the band members, “but there are two ways that we write songs, songs we write individually and songs we write together in rehearsals. The songs we write together, by virtue of the process of being together in a room jamming them, those songs tend to be easier to pull off live. They tend to be the instrumentals and because we played them together in rehearsal, we’re able to play them from beginning to end with the technology that we have available. With the other songs, we had to kinda develop the technology to be able to pull them off. I think we’ve gotten a lot better at it.”

Although the subject of new material would appear to be unwelcome at the current time, I’m still interested to find out whether going out on tour has changed Earthside’s perception and approach in terms of future song writing. Frank is first to reply and his answer is typically vehement and honest.

“For me personally, no. The music has to be true to yourself so if I write something personally for me, I’m going to write what’s good for me and I’m not going to look any further than that.”

“I am a very firm believer”, adds Ryan equally intensely, “that whatever music we write and whatever we decide to do, there is a solution that we will be able to find to make it work live. Arguably, the reason we have a live show that so many people seem to be enthralled by is because we wrote these songs that are unplayable live”, he laughs as do the others, “and we have found a way to play them live. Sometimes it does feel bad when you have to find a solution that feels completely unattainable but when we succeed, I believe it is for the better in the long run.”

These comments are met with universal nodding around the room before Jamie adds a little practical context.

“To take a slightly alternate position, whilst I don’t think it will affect our writing in a dramatic way, but we are now writing and rehearsing using the equipment that we use live. It’s not in an intentional or conscious way but my conjecture would be that by virtue of using the same technology in rehearsals and live, from a technological standpoint, the music might translate better on stage. But ultimately, I agree with these guys that we’re going to write what we love; that’s what’s going to matter.”

“I don’t actually get any full thoughts when I’m on stage”, admits Ryan in response to my query about how it feels to pull off a live show in light of all the hurdles that have had to be overcome. “To me, when we have a really good show, it just feels really amazing. But there are no words in my brain, because I don’t work that way.”

Credit: Ray Hearne / Haken

“It really depends on the show”, adds the previously quiet Ben, obviously happy to let the other guys chat with me after our marathon Skype chat last year. “But being very emotionally attuned people, we are very hard on ourselves. So if something goes wrong or if one of us individually doesn’t feel like we gave the best performance, we have a hard time filing that away and thinking instead that the show was 90% awesome.”

Rather fittingly, not only is the last word from Jamie, but it is a very measured and positive set of comments on which to end the interview.

“One thing that we have to keep in perspective is that we are about to play our 25th show as Earthside. I think I’ve counted that right. So, to have this kind of big stage production with that limited show experience is important to remember and we’re learning on the fly all the time. We’ve been on tour twice, so we’re learning what a tour is like, what gear is reliable, what the headline band requires from us. The only way to learn this is to live it. The more shows we play, the more knowledgeable and confident we will become. Being on tour means you can learn from other bands that have done this many times and have learned from their nightmare scenarios. They can give you a great insight. Einar and Tor of Leprous both offered their suggestions, as did Danny of Voyager. Some of which we will definitely take and it’s another valuable resource for us. We are learning and we will continue to get even better.”

The rumble that suddenly erupts from the floor below indicates that Brutai have hit the stage and so, with that, both the band and I hurtle out of the room for another dose of quality live music.

Naturally, later that night, Earthside back up their words with a superbly intense live show, full of energy, emotion and technically adept musicianship. Want to know more, check out my live review here.

And for those of you who are either unfamiliar with Earthside or have yet to witness them live on stage, I urge you to amend this heinous oversight as quickly as possible.

Earthside – Interview Part 2 – “we will be a band that people won’t get totally on a first listen”

Credit: Travis Smith – Seempieces ( http://www.seempieces.com/ )

A while back, I had the pleasure of an in-depth conversation with Ben Shanbrom, drummer with Earthside, a new band on the block that threatens to become the hottest new prospect in the progressive music world. You think I’m being overly hyperbolic? Listen to this for starters:

Now I have your attention, you may like to check out Part 1 of this interview, which can be accessed via the following Link: Earthside – Interview Part 1 – “it will defy a lot of expectations in a good way”

However, without further ado, here’s Part 2, where Ben and I delve further into the intriguing world of Earthside…

A thought occurs to me at this point and not for the first time when I find myself chatting with musicians more within the progressive mould. I often worry that, in a world where the human attention span is shortening by the day it seems, music that requires effort from the audience is in real danger. Of course it is never going to be mainstream by its very nature but in playing devil’s advocate, I hypothesise aloud to Ben that maybe bands like Earthside are not so suited to the modern era.

“I think it depends on who the audience is”, Ben counters after a considerable pause before effectively and gratifyingly shooting my hypothesis down in flames .“There’s a lot of passive listening going on in this day and age. I think that a lot of these passive listeners will not really dig us or get what we are trying to do. In other areas though, I think people are more tuned in and more active in their music listening, sharing and conversing than at any other time in history. People we’ve never met chat to us and send us messages, people in India for example and I think we have a couple of die-hard fans in the republic of Georgia. I think this is really cool, we’re happy to interact with these people for sure. We want to invite these people back after the show to hang out with us and talk about music. I don’t think this happens enough.”

When I then suggest that Earthside are likely, from what we’ve heard so far, to be a band that requires effort from the listener, Ben agrees and admits to a certain extent that this was deliberate on their part.

“Yeah, I think that we will be a band that people won’t get totally on a first listen. It will take recurring listens to get all the different nuances and intricacies out of it. For me, those are my favourite albums and are the records that I come back to frequently, sometimes even noticing something new several years later. There’s a lot of that here I think and that’s good for the people who really want to dig in to our music. It might be a challenge, like you said earlier, with the mile-a-minute music consumption that takes place these days. I guess we’re hoping that with what we’ve put into this and the way we’ve gone about it all, we’ll manage to push people into digging a little deeper and actively listening and getting into the music. But not just to us only; to music in general.”

By now, most of you will have heard the track, ‘Mob Mentality’ and will know that Earthside are joined by Sevendust’s Lajon Witherspoon. It’s an absolute behemoth of a track that also features the Moscow Studio Symphony Orchestra. It’s epic in scope and the depth of atmosphere, emotion and drama is breath-taking. A few eyebrows may have been raised when the name of Lajon Witherspoon was announced but personally, I think the voice fits the composition like a glove. I put this to Ben before inviting him to put flesh on bone and explain how and why this particular collaboration came together.

http://www.allmusic.com/blog/post/video-premiere-earthside-mob-mentality

“We had a couple of singers in mind but he wasn’t the first on the list. Not because we didn’t think he could do it but because he was such a huge guy in our minds that the idea of getting him involved maybe didn’t seem possible at the start. We love music where there’s an orchestral element to it, so long as it’s not done in a hackneyed manner where it’s just a wash of fake strings or something. With a lot of these bands who do it, there seems to be a typical assumption about the kind of singer they’re supposed to have, like a power metal vocalist or a Lacuna Coil-type female singer. It works well for those bands but if you’re going to add something meaningful to the conversation, so to speak, bands today need to come at things from a different angle and break the rules.”

“For us, Sevendust is a band that we listened to in those transformative years. It’s funny because some people didn’t think they were metal enough but if you listen to djent now half their grooves and riffs are Sevendust; they did this fifteen years ago and no-one gave them credit. But as well as Sevendust being an important band in heavy music, Lajon is such an unbelievable singer. He straddles the ground between rock music and more of a soulful dimension. He is very versatile so having him on this song which is more dramatic and very dynamic, was perfect. He really adds a cool dimension to the song that’s unexpected.”

“I think that’s another one of our things too”, Ben offers on a slight tangent brought about seemingly by a sudden thought on his part. “We try to use unusual instruments in songs that you wouldn’t normally expect and which kinda throw you off balance and force you to hear something from a different perspective. We take the same approach to the vocalists that we work with. To whatever degree we can, we try to put them into a different context to challenge them and challenge ourselves. In many ways, it has come together beautifully with Lajon and we couldn’t be happier.”

And the inclusion of the full-on orchestra?

“It was definitely challenging logistically and in many other ways”, Ben responds. “They’re a great orchestra but the reason why we went with the Moscow Studio Symphony Orchestra was because we were already in Sweden. I didn’t personally go on that sojourn though; it was our guitarist who composed and arranged the whole thing that travelled over there with the keyboardist. As far as the song is concerned, it wouldn’t be the same thing if we didn’t have that real human element everywhere. It would be a knock-off of what it truly is. The orchestra breathes and ebbs and flows really nicely with the Lajon emoting over it all and me as the drummer struggling to play these crazy parts that Jamie wrote. We’re really pleased with how it all worked out.”

Having alluded to it in the preceding answer and fleetingly elsewhere during the conversation, I tackle the issue of song writing within Earthside head on. In light of the variety that we’re told to expect, I’m intrigued to find out whether it’s the work of one, a couple or the whole band collectively. As you might expect by now, Earthside do things a little differently.

“I’m glad you brought that up”, Ben answers kindly, “because I think in this regard, we’re different from many other bands. I think this reinforces what I was saying earlier about albums sounding like the same song reinforced ten times over; in a lot of bands today it’s commonplace for there to be a dominant songwriter. It doesn’t work that way with us. We’ve always operated as an absolute democracy and there’s no ‘Mr 51%’ or anything. Every member of the band has capabilities that go beyond their immediate instrument and every member hears music, has ideas and contributes. So there are two ways that we write. One is in practice and these tend to be the instrumental tracks that we do, the kind of thing that’ll begin with me playing a weird beat or Jamie or Frank experimenting with an unusual sound or something. The others will then come in and 25 practices later, we’ll have a song. All the parts for ‘The Closest I’ve Come’ were written in one practice but the song was finished after several more practices of us arguing about where things go and how many times ideas needed to come back within the song.”

“We’re not”, Ben ploughs on with barely a breath, “one of those bands that say ‘we wrote like 50 songs for this record and we arbitrarily think these are the best ten songs; enjoy’. We worked with very few ideas; we probably had ten or eleven songs on the table, some of which weren’t even finished. We kinda knew that if we had an idea that was worth working on, we’d play around with it and make it happen because we want it on the record and we’ll do what we have to do to make it great.”

“The other way we write is as individuals, as with ‘Mob Mentality’ for example, which was Jamie’s main contribution on the album. I think the individuality of some of the tracks really contributes to the diversity of the sound on the record. On that song, Jamie had me play some ridiculous drum beats, stuff that I’d not necessarily come up with but it works and when things don’t, we’re free to offer suggestions and open it up more democratically. So as I said before, there’s no ‘Mr 51%’ with Earthside and that’s definitely a strength.”

Credit: Ian Christmann Photography ( http://catalystphotography.com/ )

Not content with incorporating several notable guest singers, multiple musical ideas and a full blown orchestra, Earthside decided to enlist the help of highly regarded producer David Castillo (Katatonia, Opeth) to twiddle those knobs and make the album sound as good as possible. Living in a world where Katatonia occupy almost God-like status, I feel compelled to find out more about this eye-catching collaboration.

“He probably said yes because he’s a masochist”, laughs Ben heartily. “But seriously, we had a small handful of producers that we really admired and respected. It wasn’t that we wanted to deliberately go crazy and throw Sweden on the map because we had several American producers in the frame as well. It was like a dating process where we talked to a bunch of them to feel them out. There were hundreds of emails and skype chats, but there was a kind of comfort in talking to David, this kind of quiet admiration and dedication that we could sense from him talking with us. He’s mostly associated with Katatonia, Opeth and Bloodbath but, like us, he has very diverse music tastes. We still message each other very frequently and he’ll be like ‘you gotta listen to this band’ and vice versa. Like us, he was very open minded and isn’t concerned about something sounding sissy or not metal enough. He’s very tuned in to the balance of beauty, heaviness and atmosphere. He commands a mastery over those dynamics and that diversity of sound that we were going for. We were very excited to work with him.”

“His willingness to work with us to overcome what could have been a logistical nightmare and make it work was very telling”, Ben continues. “We knew that he was the right guy for the job. He’s insane as far as the work that he does and his dedication to it. We showed the album to a handful of close friends who are in production or mixing and they’re like ‘man, there’s no way you could pay me enough to do this project’. The sheer number of hours that he put into this project was humungous. We couldn’t be happier with the job he’s done and, more than that, he has become a close friend and we’re thankful to have him on the team.”

In closing, I have to ask Ben to look a little further into the future and perhaps unfairly ask him to consider what Earthside may sound like on discs two, three and maybe even four. The response is pretty much as I expected too.

“It’ll sound like Earthside as far as the sonic imprint that we make with the first record but it will probably explore totally different areas because that’s the whole goal of this, to not limit ourselves. The whole reason why we did this crazy and insane record was to enable us to have no ceiling to what we do next.”

And, with that, the best part of 45 minutes of interesting, intense and thoroughly enjoyable chat comes to an end. I may have only heard two songs, just like all of you who are reading this article. However, I cannot stress just how excited I am to hear more of Earthside’s material. More so having got an insight into the way the band operates and the way the band thinks. One thing’s for sure; the Blog Of Much Metal will be keeping a beady eye on every twist and turn in the Earthside evolution and I’m just pleased to have been there from the beginning to maybe help in a small way.

Keep an eye open for ‘A Dream In Static’ when it’s released later in 2015.

If you’ve enjoyed this interview, please check out some others that I have conducted:

Kingcrow – ‘Eidos’ Track-by-Track Part 2
Kingcrow – ‘Eidos’ Track-by-Track Part 1
Triaxis
Native Construct
Distorted Harmony
Kingcrow
Wisdom Of Crowds – Bruce Soord & Jonas Renkse

<a href="https://manofmuchmetal.wordpress.com/2013/07/24/maschine-an-interview-with-the-uk-prog-rockers/&quot;

Evergrey – Interview – “It’s a completely different band now”

Pic: Patric Ullaeus

Seeing as the very excellent Evergrey were making the effort to travel to the UK in support of the magnificent new album, ‘Hymns For The Broken’, I felt it would be rude not to make an appearance to support my favourite band and hopefully say ‘hi’ to my Swedish buddies.

I arrive in Camden and, within a few minutes, I’m spotted by vocalist/guitarist Tom Englund and greeted with hugs from the big man as well as keyboardist Rikard Zander and bassist Johan Niemann. ‘What are you doing here?’ Tom smirks, ‘come with us, we’re going to soundcheck’. Almost immediately, my decision to make the 150 mile round trip is thoroughly vindicated.

A little later, once the band are happy with their sound in the underground den of iniquity that’s The Underworld, I’m running through the pouring rain towards the tour bus upon which I sit with Johan, Rikard and returning drummer Jonas Ekdahl. I’m interested in getting Jonas’ perspective on his return as well as finding out how the new album, ‘Hymns For The Broken’ has gone down since its release.

My first question is directed at Jonas, who sits diagonally opposite me around the bus table. I ask him why he chose to return to the Evergrey fold after several years and two albums away.

“We realised”, he responds with a surprisingly deep and resonating voice referring to himself and guitarist Henrik Danhage, “that we missed playing music together, it’s as simple as that. But it took time because we needed time apart. If we had kept going with the vibe that was in the band at the time when we left, I don’t think that Evergrey would exist today. It was a very necessary thing to do.”

“We talked about it an hour ago actually”, Jonas continues. “It is so cool to see that it’s a completely different band now. The chemistry is like 180 degrees flipped. It’s so great and I could never imagine being back again in Evergrey and then to have this great vibe. It is great.”

I turn to Rikard and smile. It must be good to have your buddies back, I suggest.

“Yeah”, Rikard responds before Jonas cheekily interjects.

“No”, he says completely deadpan for a second before hearty laughter emanates from all corners of the table.

Composure regained, Rikard returns to his answer.

“At first of course we didn’t know how it would work because it wasn’t great before we split up”, he offers very honestly in his relaxed tone. “But its”, he pauses searching for the right words, “it’s just great. I can’t find another word for it – it’s going really well both musically and personally. Touring is fun all the time…almost.” Cue more laughter. “It’s hard work at times, we get tired of drinking. But everything is really good”.

“It couldn’t be better”, Jonas agrees.

The amount of smiles and laughter on such a grey afternoon in London leads me to believe all the positivity is one hundred percent genuine. The great thing for us fans is that the chemistry has led to the creation of a fantastic album in the form of ‘Hymns For The Broken’. After several months of steady rotation, I can safely say that it remains right up there with ‘In Search Of Truth’ and I cannot see that changing any time soon. Given that I consider the 2000 album as my favourite album of all-time, it gives you an idea just how special I consider this latest effort to be.

Pic: Patric Ullaeus

When I last spoke with Johan and Tom prior to the release, they were suggesting it was a special album. Now that the world has heard it, I ask Johan whether he is pleased with the almost universally positive reaction to ‘Hymns For The Broken’.

“Oh yeah, for sure, it’s amazing”, Johan replies in his typically soft and quiet voice. “I had hoped that this would happen but you can’t take anything for granted. Just because we like it and we have a good vibe, that doesn’t really mean anything.”

Everyone that I have spoken to loves the record and, in many ways, it feels like Evergrey have stepped up to the next level. The fact that the venue is awash with journalists speaks volumes in favour of this bold assertion.

“It’s amazing and we’re very thankful”, Johan replies with a genuinely happy smile before Jonas and Rikard both add to the answer.

“And we actually managed to be smart for once and build some hype with the return thing with Henrik and me”, Jonas offers.

“Exactly”, Rikard agrees. “But we also had the pressure that since they have come back, we felt that this new album would have to be really really good. If we’d have put out an album that wasn’t good, none of this would matter. But I’m surprised that we managed to do such a great album. I’m really, really surprised about it actually.”

The complete honesty from Rikard descends everyone into more raucous laughter. It really feels as if I’m in the presence of a completely new band. It’s almost as if they’re a group of best mates that just happen to be in a band together. I love it and I’m loving being in the middle of it, even for a short while.

Based on Rikard’s honest appraisal, the next question is obvious but a little thorny. With caution, I ask Rikard in particular whether he felt that perhaps, with hindsight, previous albums were not so good, or at least a little sub-par for Evergrey’s high standards.

“I don’t know”, he muses for a short while before Jonas deftly comes to his rescue.

“I know that you and Tom talked about it, that you weren’t even sure if you wanted to make another album before we joined.” Rikard nods in agreement before Jonas continues. “But then we heard we’d got a record deal and because the chemistry was completely different from several years ago we decided to continue.”

“But as you said”, Rikard re-enters the fray after a moment of contemplation, “this album brings it to a new level. We’ve done a lot of albums and we’re totally satisfied after every one when it’s made. I think ‘Glorious Collision’ is a great album and I was really surprised that we were able to make such an album after these guys left. So I’m super proud of that record. But it has been at quite an even level for Evergrey since the start so what’s so cool about this new one is that you can feel that we have gone up a level perhaps. That surprised me because after doing that many albums, you accept being at that level, I think. So we’re really thankful to be able to still do this and do it in a better way than before.”

“No, not really, I didn’t expect that”, Johan responds when I ask the guys whether they were ready for the increased level of interest. Everyone wants a piece of Evergrey these days it seems. “As I said, I hoped for it but you never know, particularly when you’ve been doing albums for quite a while and old members are back.”

Moving things on slightly, I ask about the latest video that has only just been released for the track ‘Black Undertow’. It follows the epic video for ‘King Of Errors’ that made everyone sit up and take notice but it’s equally impressive and has received a great reaction so far. Am I right in that assertion?

“The response has been awesome”, affirms Jonas, “but it should be because it’s an amazing video. We shot it in December, I think, and we’ve just been waiting for a good opportunity to put it out since then. We figured it was a good time now because it’s festival season and then we’re doing the North American tour.”

Seeing as the touring issue has been raised, I ask for more details about the North American tour. Rikard takes up the mantle.

“It’s our second headlining tour. We only did one headline tour before for ‘Glorious Collision’ and that was with Sabaton. They opened for us”, he laughs knowingly, referring to the fact that Sabaton poached Evergrey’s previous drummer, Hannes Van Dahl and appear to be the current darlings of the metal scene in certain quarters. “Before that, we only did support. They were bigger tours but they were with Iced Earth and In Flames, so you can’t really compare them. But now we’re headlining again, which is big.”

Continuing with the live theme, I enquire as to the reaction of fans at the shows to the new Evergrey material. Unsurprisingly, the theme of positivity continues, as Johan explains.

“People are saying to us that this is the best record that they’ve ever heard, which is very nice to hear. And people are honestly saying that.”

“I remember when it was official that me and Henrik were back”, Jonas recounts, “I got so many emails and messages from people. When they saw the ‘King Of Errors” video and saw us, people were crying because they were so happy.”
Of course, as a diehard Evergrey fan, I wasn’t one of them obviously. Judging by the smirks around the table, I don’t think the guys believe me and, to be honest, I’m not sure I believe myself either. There were certainly goosbumps galore and a strange feeling of elation, so I can empathise with the feelings of utter joy and excitement.

“There were so many positive reactions and comments about us returning and about the album”, Jonas continues.” I went to the restaurant where Henrik works on the same day that the video was released because I couldn’t grasp it. It was too much and too overwhelming that guys were sitting at home crying because we were back and because the album is so good. It was weird to take in but it’s also one of the nicest things I’ve ever heard as a musician. It has been strange to read stuff like that but it is awesome. Hey”, Jonas considers with a self-deprecating smile, “maybe they were crying because they were sad, saying ‘I saw the video and I hated it!”

Given the level of success that ‘Hymns For The Broken’ has been enjoying, it helps to put all the negativity of the constant personnel changes and talk of quitting way into the past. Even so, none of the three bandmates are willing to make any promises about the future. It appears that the entire mind set of the band has changed now. Rikard is first to enlighten me.

“That’s one thing that makes Evergrey so strong now”, he states. “I don’t think we look at things that way; we just appreciate the moment which we’re really happy about and then we’ll see. That’s the type of pressure that we didn’t want to have. I mean we probably will make another album but we haven’t done it yet, so you cannot tell for sure that we will. You never know what will happen but we live in the moment right now, which we like so much.”

“That really takes the pressure off”, agrees Johan vehemently, “because we don’t have to do anything if we don’t want to. If we don’t want to make another album, we won’t. It’s really simple.”

More good-natured and hearty laughter ensues when I beg the band to record a new album at some point. I’m not ready to say goodbye to Evergrey just yet.

Turning serious again, I recall to Johan that when we last spoke, he and Tom suggested that the songs on ‘Hymns For The Broken’ were not actually that difficult to play and that they were looking forward to playing them live. I ask Johan whether his expectations in that direction have been met. He doesn’t hesitate for a second.

“Yes, oh yes”, he nods and smiles emphatically. “But I also think that the old songs are more fun to play now too. I think that has to do with Jonas and Henrik being back and the completely new vibe in the band. We’re on stage, looking around and all you can see is happy faces, yaye!”

“I don’t know what it is”, Rikard interjects, “but there’s something different about the new songs. Usually, it takes a couple of tours before you feel that you have got the new songs. But these songs just clicked right away and personally, I think that they stand out from the rest of the material live.”

Pic: Patric Ullaeus

It’s a daft question perhaps but nevertheless I ask whether it has been tough to choose what to play on stage.
“Yeah, but we’re playing 50 songs so we can squeeze a few in”, Jonas chuckles, with a wink. “But yes, it is really tough. With ten albums and a bunch of videos, sometimes it can be a nightmare, especially on shorter sets because we can’t fit them all in. It can be really hard to pick.”

“Like yesterday, at Grasspop”, Johan offers by way of example. “We played 50 minutes, so it was like ‘ok, what do we play?’ But it is cool that we can actually play so many new songs from the new album because they’re so strong.”

“And the reactions to the new songs are kind of different to the old songs when we look at the audience”, Jonas adds. “At least for some of the new ones, the audience goes insane for them.”

Rikard then spookily pre-empts my next question. I didn’t even need to open my mouth.

“We actually talked about playing the whole album, every song. And I think we will when we get the time to rehearse them all. But we’ve not had the time at the moment. I think that would be cool to do that. We did it once at Progpower USA, with ‘In Search Of Truth’. We played the whole album but that’s the one and only time so far.”

With the evening advancing apace and with other journalists wanting their piece of Evergrey, the opening of the tourbus door signals the imminent closure of the interview. Based on the replies previously, I could have telegraphed the answers but I ask the question anyway: what does the future hold for Evergrey now?

“We have nothing really planned after the US tour at the moment, so we’ll see”, replies Rikard with a knowing smile before the last intriguing words come from Jonas.

“We have a bunch of stuff up in the air right now but nothing is certain at all. So we have the US tour and then take it all from there.”

And with that, I’m ushered out into the rain and into the Underworld where I take up a prime position in the venue and wait impatiently for me heroes to take to the stage and give me my first live airing of some of the strongest material that my all-time favourite band has written. Was it a good show? You bet your life it was!

If you’ve enjoyed this interview, please check out some others that I have conducted:

Abnormal Thought Patterns
Earthside – Part 1
Kingcrow – ‘Eidos’ Track-by-Track Part 2
Kingcrow – ‘Eidos’ Track-by-Track Part 1
Triaxis
Native Construct
Distorted Harmony
Kingcrow
Wisdom Of Crowds – Bruce Soord & Jonas Renkse
Maschine

Abnormal Thought Patterns – Interview – ‘This was probably the most challenging album I’ve had to do’

The Tipton brothers are big names within progressive metal circles. The hugely talented twins were responsible for the technical progressive metal behemoth that was Zero Hour and, since then, have created Cynthesis and Abnormal Thought Patterns, both quite different from Zero Hour and from each other but both delivering music of the very highest calibre. I was lucky enough to get an advance copy of the sophomore Abnormal Thought Patterns album, ‘Altered States Of Consciousness’, which comes out at the end of June 2015 via Lifeforce Records.

Suffice to say that the content has blown me away. Ostensibly an instrumental technical progressive metal band, this new record has seen the introduction of guest vocals as well as a number of guest musicians of real note. But it’s the overall final product that is so impressive, treading that fine line between technicality and atmosphere, melody and overt aggression. So impressed have I been that I just had to find out more about the band. I made contact with Jasun Tipton via social media and the rest, as they say, is history.

The interview did not get off to the best of starts thanks to a two-year-old who refused to sleep, leading me to be around 30 minutes late for my Skype rendez-vous with Jasun. I needn’t have worried though because Jasun is just about the friendliest, happiest and enthusiastic guy on the planet. Within seconds we’re chatting as if we were long-term friends and in fact, it takes a fair while before I can even think about turning to the subject of Abnormal Thought Patterns (‘ATP’)

I begin things by asking Jasun to give me his own personal assessment as to the differences between ATP and the other bands with which he is, or has been, involved.

“I would say that the new album for Abnormal Thought Patterns is definitely more groove-oriented”, he begins with his thick west-coast US accent that’s almost musical in its delivery. “It’s very technical at the same time but compared to Zero Hour, they both have their own intricacies, so they’re different in that way. Cynthesis is definitely about letting the singer do his thing, building a landscape or something like that. People say to me that it’s technical, but I don’t hear that personally. I’m a huge fan of Pink Floyd, Porcupine Tree and things like that and Cynthesis is doing my interpretation of that. There’s no way that I could do what those guys are doing because they’re the best at what they do. So it’s just my atmospheric way of letting the vocals breathe.”

“The last Abnormal Thought Patterns album in the studio and during the writing process was probably the most challenging album that I’ve had to do”, Jasun then admits just as I was about to go in a different direction of questioning. It is clear that the material on ‘Altered States Of Consciousness’ is extremely ambitious but based on some of these guys’ previous output, I’m still a little surprised by this admission and immediately ask Jasun to expand on the statement.

“The reason”, he replies with laughter, “was because I tried to get a little outside the box of what I do, y’know? Maybe to someone else, they might not hear it so much but I ended up getting an 8-string and there were plenty of parts that I ended up changing. I can play some of the material that I originally had but then when I compare it to the final result, it’s a completely different monster. I wanted to stay focused on keeping things more groove-oriented; of course using the different elements of styles that we like using but still keeping it focussed as a metal thing. We were totally re-working the drums over and over with Mikey (Mike Guy – drummer). We’d go down the studio, change things like crazy, think things were ok for two weeks and then we’d change it again. So the whole approach to the song would change and then also I was trying to change the way that I would solo a little bit in certain ways. I’d be like ‘I’ve done this before’. And of course there are things that I’ve done before because that’s the player I am. I’m not going to say that I can’t be who I am any longer, it was more about branching out and focusing on bettering things by being different.”

Speaking of the 8-string guitar, I can definitely hear a djent influence within the heavier riffs and the more extreme elements of this record. Jasun agrees and explains why this is the case.

“I’m a big Meshuggah fan; they’re one of my absolute favourite bands and I see them live every time. So yeah, I did add a little bit of that in there and I did bust out the eight-string for those parts. What’s cool with that low note, it does give you that little bit of groove that you can push. Plus it is good for extending your chordal formats, because live jazz players in the past were playing eight strings. I did fight buying an eight for a long time but it was the right time to do so.”

I have to admit though that it’s not the heavy riffing or the all-out technicality which catches my ear the most. As good as those aspects are, when the music on the album quietens down and the slower, more soulful and emotive guitar solos hit, they send shivers down my spine. This is one of those albums that confirms my belief that when a guitar is allowed to sing, it is one of the most beautiful sounds on Earth. Jasun unsurprisingly tends to agree, although he responds to my comments very humbly, almost bashfully.

“I love ‘feel’ guitar and when those parts come out, I want them to really breathe. I want them to stand out because after you do the crazy stuff to start with, those aspects will stand out a lot more. I’m a huge fan of Gary Moore, David Gilmour, Neal Schon, John Sykes; those were my guys and I’d get goosebumps listening to their solos. I’m therefore glad you point this out because it means a lot to me because I was loving the sound of the guitars and the way that the notes were ringing with the sounds behind and for anyone to say they got goosebumps, that’s an awesome compliment, man.”

Whatever the band, it seems that the Tipton brothers love to open up their music with crazy, lightning fast and massively complex solos. ATP is no different in this respect.

“It really is a thing that Troy and I do”, Jasun states when I ask whether this approach has become something of a ‘Tipton Trade Mark’. “What has helped develop my sound is playing off what Troy does and watching what he does. The cat is so clean with every run that he does, so I have to be the same way. It was really the balance of question and answer on our solos; when he says something, I have to say something to compliment it. And that’s what’s developed our sound. And with a name like Abnormal Though Patterns, we’re going all over the place. So yeah, it has become our trademark and people come up to us and recognise that Troy and I have our own thing.”

“Yeah absolutely, I can easily say yes to that”, Jasun continues when I enquire about whether that famous ‘twins telepathy’ phenomenon plays a part in their musical endeavours. “I remember that we did a show and someone kept asking us to do a solo sequence. Troy and I didn’t know what the hell we were doing and the crowd kept going ‘solo, solo’. So I was like ‘I guess I’m doing this’ and went in. At the very same time, Troy came in with me and then we both ended on the same note right at the end. We had no idea how we did that but it looked genius at the time. It’s crazy”, he laughs heartily.

In light of the sheer variety, ambition and technical prowess on display on this record, I’m keen to find out a little more about the song writing process. In the course of his interesting and full answer, I also get to understand more about the health problems that have plagued Troy in recent years. And, whilst he never overtly admits it, I get the distinct impression that this is, in part, what has led to the cessation of Zero Hour in favour of both Cynthesis and ATP.

“These days, I’ve pretty much become the main songwriter”, Jasun admits with a very slight and rare tone of sadness in his voice. “With Zero Hour, it was a real equal task with my brother and I. I’m sure you know that my brother had ulnar nerve entrapment surgery. It’s a sub-muscular surgery so what they did was insert his funny-bone nerve into his bicep muscle. In doing so, he has lost a lot of strength in the bicep muscle and it’s something he’ll have to live with for the rest of his life. He’s doing really well now but anyways, now I’m the guy who does the writing and I play everything for my brother. But he’s got a great way of telling me something to give me structure. I take everything to heart that he tells me. Sometimes I disagree and I’ll keep rolling with what I’m doing but most of the time I listen”, he laughs again and not for the last time.

“For ‘Nocturnal Haven’, Troy was instrumental because after three and a half minutes of me playing it for him, he was the one to say ‘couldn’t you hear Tommy Rogers (Between The Buried And Me) all over this thing, someone like him’. I was like ‘yeah right dude, that’s not going to happen’. But when he put that in my head, I started thinking throughout the song with his vocals on top of it. Then Troy went behind my back and contacted the label and asked for a contact for Tommy. Luckily, everything just lined up and Tommy said he was interested which floored us. Tommy helped us a little bit because he said he wanted to rearrange things just a little. As you can hear, the instrumental format is a little longer. So we made a couple of edits, which Troy was very helpful with.”

In responding in such a fashion, Jasun has helpfully pre-empted my next line of questioning, namely the array of mouth-watering guest artists on ‘Altered States Of Consciousness’.

“I have to admit though”, Jasun offers, “that with the Michael Manring (Into Eternity) and John Onder (Artension, MSG) track, ‘Synesthesia’, my brother did already have parts written for that. I think that’s one of our absolutely strongest tracks; I love the bass on it and I call it the bass track. I love how that came out and Troy was the biggest writer on that track.”

“Jeff (Loomis – Arch Enemy, ex-Nevermore) is a really cool cat”, Jasun continues apace, “and I spoke to him a couple of times at the NAMM show. I expressed to him how I was a fan and he knew who I was. We got into conversation and he’s a really nice guy – he’s definitely the guy that kept the shred flag flying. I contacted him and asked him to do a solo; he took a listen and said ‘yeah, let’s do it’. We’re really lucky because we were able to make it happen with all the guys that we went after.”

And does Jasun think that having all these guests on the album will help to create more interest in ATP?

“It would be awesome to get new listeners, of course”, he considers, “so having these guys on the record is fantastic. We’ve never done this in the past, so when we got one person involved, it spiralled. Jeff Loomis was the first guy, Onder came second and Manring was next. Once Troy heard I had talked to Loomis, Troy was like ‘well, hell, if you’re going to do that, I’m going to talk to some people’. All of a sudden, we got Tommy and my buddy Tim Roth (Into Eternity) who’s an amazing guitar player. What they brought to the music took things to a new level. What all those cats did was great and we’re stoked.”

Speaking to Jasun, I get the feeling that as positive and up-beat as he clearly naturally is, there’s a real sense of pride about ‘Altered States Of Consciousness’. Rightly so, but I nevertheless ask Jasun to explain what exactly he’s most proud of with this release.

“All musicians will go back to albums and think ‘maybe that song didn’t catch what I was looking for’. But I can honestly say that when I listen to this album, start to finish, it’s all there. There’s nowhere where I could say ‘I wish I’d done that or this’. I can honestly feel very pleased about it. Everything was very focused and I love the songs and the soloing. That’s not the same with some of our previous albums.”

I also suggest that the album benefits from a really nice flow that means it’s very difficult to dip in and out. Instead, I find myself listening from the album from start to finish without really realising it sometimes.

“You just perfectly helped me out there”, Jasun exclaims excitedly, eliciting a small puff of the chest from yours truly in the process. “That’s exactly how I feel. I can listen to the whole thing and when it gets to the end I’m like ‘wow, I listened to the whole CD and everything is cool’. That’s instead of doing a fast-forward on a track or two, which I may have done in the past.”

“We love instrumental metal material”, Jasun states vehemently without any prompting on my part, “and we’re going to continue as an instrumental metal band. People have asked us whether the next album will have vocals and the answer is no, it was a one-time thing. I mean, I’d love to work with Tommy again on another song because it came out amazing but this band is instrumental. Our vocal thing is Cynthesis and it’s good to have both of those outlets because they feel very different to me.”

Having raised the subject of Cynthesis, as a fan of that band also, I feel compelled to enquire about the current status of that band. The answer I get is somewhat surprising but very pleasing indeed.

“Erik (Rosvold) is almost finished with the vocals to the third one, so we’re working on it, man. I went writing crazy and at the time my brother was having his surgery. I kept writing and it was my escape. I finished writing the material for the third Cynthesis album over three-and-a-half years ago. So when ‘De-Evolution’ came out, I already had the music for the other two written. Erik was like ‘what the hell are you doing?’ So it has been a long time since I wrote anything for Cynthesis. Of late it has been all about ATP. Nevertheless, sometime next year, Cynthesis will come out.”

As intriguing as the Cynthesis news is, this is an interview about Abnormal Thought Patterns. As such, I ask Jasun to close up on a very enjoyable conversation by enlightening us about any potential live, touring plans.

“On the last album, we went out with Into Eternity but right now, we’re going to see how it will all come together. My brother is starting up with us and we’re getting things moving. We are going to play ProgPower Europe but hopefully we’ll get a few things come our way and we can put something together; we really want to go out and do things – that’d be cool.”

If you’ve enjoyed this interview, please check out some others that I have conducted:

Earthside – Part 1
Kingcrow – ‘Eidos’ Track-by-Track Part 2
Kingcrow – ‘Eidos’ Track-by-Track Part 1
Triaxis
Native Construct
Distorted Harmony
Kingcrow
Wisdom Of Crowds – Bruce Soord & Jonas Renkse

Maschine

Earthside – Interview Part 1 – “it will defy a lot of expectations in a good way”

Credit: Ian Christmann Photography ( http://catalystphotography.com/ )

It is rare that I undertake an interview with a band about which I know very little. Normally, I have been fortunate enough to hear the album in advance of the interview or, if it’s an established band, I can do my homework and be prepared. In the case of Earthside, they are a new name in heavy metal circles. As such, they have yet to release their debut album and to date, I have only heard two tracks from the impending release. I say ‘impending’, although as far as I’m aware, no release date has even been divulged.

Shrouded in secrecy they may be but there seems to be a buzz growing on the Internet about the band, a quartet hailing from New Haven, Connecticut, comprised of guitarist Jamie Van Dyck, keyboardist Frank Sacramone, bassist Ryan Griffin and drummer Ben Shanbrom. Hardly surprising really because if you’ve heard the track ‘The Closest I’ve Come’, you’ll already know that there’s something special about to be unleashed. Huge riffs, odd and complex time signatures, tempo changes aplenty, gargantuan melodies and a whole lot more collide to create a song that, within seconds of it finishing, had me busily emailing the band’s PR people asking for more information.

The result of my endeavours is this, an interview with drummer Ben Shanbrom to find out a little more about Earthside; what makes them tick and what we can realistically expect from the debut full-length upon its release. After the initial pleasantries, I ask a very friendly yet focused, driven and extremely articulate Ben to provide a little background to Earthside.

“As far as the world is concerned”, he begins in eager fashion, “we’re a very new band; not a lot of people are familiar with us. But as far as the group is concerned, we’ve been together for a very long time, over a decade this year. We’ve gone through some different names and it took us a while to find that exact sound and way of doing things that we were happy with, that really reflected what we ultimately love about music and the kind of band that we wanted to be. We used to do a lot of things for the sake of shock value, like ‘people aren’t going to see this coming’ or ‘let’s write this really weird part that has nothing to do with anything, just to throw people off’, he chuckles.

“People were saying ‘why don’t you just be an instrumental band because that makes more sense’ or ‘why don’t you get a singer already?’ None of that hit for us. We like so many different kinds of music and have so many different inspirations, so to settle for one of those things because it’s easier for a PR company or a label to sum up in six words or something is not us. ‘For fans of Dream Theater, King Crimson, blah, blah, blah’ – that’s not us. It was finding the right balance, the way of doing things that we were happy with. And that”, he chuckles again with real warmth and self-deprecating humour, “took close to a decade.”

“The nucleus of the band, myself, the guitarist Jamie and the keyboardist Frank have been playing together in a basement since we were 15-16 years old. Our bass player we met a little later in the process and he’s been with us for four-five years now. It has taken this time to get the core established and now people are beginning to see and hear us for the first time.”

A decade or more is a very long time for a band to emerge from an embryonic state but based on the quality of their output, I suggest that it has perhaps been time well spent. Ben agrees before admitting that it wasn’t just the formation of the band and the overall sound that took a long time. As he explains, the recording of the debut, titled ‘A Dream In Static’, was no whistle stop exercise either.

“It certainly has taken a lot of time”, Ben confirms. “Not just coming together as a group, but from when we decided close to four or five years ago to make this record and reach out to the producers that we love. It has been very time intensive. From the time we set foot into the studio to now it’s been almost 2 and a half years. It has taken a lot of time to get the right production people involved, the exact singers we wanted to work with, and the right additional musicians. In this era, one of the biggest things that people say is that all these bands sound the same and they ask why bands aren’t taking any risks. The answer is simple – the demand is there but a lot of people in the industry say that these kinds of projects aren’t the cheapest, most efficient, and safe way of doing things and there’s a constant give and take on each side. But if you really want to try to do something different, it is about as inconvenient and as much of an uphill battle as you can imagine.”

I suggest to Ben that this is what music is all about though, creating something that means something to the band and that conveys feelings and is driven by other motivation other than dreams of fame and riches. The details surrounding how it all comes together is, to some extent, a hurdle to be navigated at a later time.

“I fully agree with you.” Ben laughs heartily in response to my rather blasé assertion, a classic comment for someone who is not a musician in any shape or form. “This album, if I had to synthesise it into any root motivation, it was totally for us. It was not for what this or that website or taste-maker would think of it. It was totally for us, what we love about music, what we miss in music today and it is ultimately about us making a mark. But the details you mention, they can be a real killer. It’s all part of the process and at the end of the day, we’re all going to have our little nit-picks but we’re really proud of the record. We think people are going to be surprised by it. It will defy a lot of expectations in a good way and I’m just stoked for people to be able to hear it.”

Stoked Ben may be for us all to hear the record, but the band are not in any rush it seems to share the fruits of Earthside’s considerable labours; in fact, the secrecy surrounding the material is intense, as if the music is to be treated as a state secret. Not so, counters Ben.

“There is some secrecy as you picked up”, he admits honestly. “But it’s not to be overly clandestine or anything, it’s more because we’re trying to keep things simple. Even until recently we had nothing out and people were like ‘can we at least hear some music?’ But when you’re dealing with labels it can be tricky because everyone wants you to release the record, but if we just release the record they’ll tell us to go right back into the studio again after being in there for over two years. And if we do that, we’ll lose our minds”, he laughs with a slightly nervous edge before continuing apace.

“But as far as your question is concerned, I can tell you that the whole album is not in the key of C. I think they (the two songs released so far – ‘The Closest I’ve Come’ and more recently ‘Mob Mentality’) are a good baseline explanation of what you’ll be hearing. It’s funny because some places who have covered us have only heard ‘The Closest I’ve Come’ and they refer to us as an instrumental progressive metal band, for people who like Animals As Leaders or Explosions In The Sky. People are going to be surprised when more music from us comes out because they’ve not picked up on a lot of the other stuff that we’re doing.”

Throughout the interview, Ben has alluded to a great deal of variety within the compositions, something that’s evident from the two tracks aired. As Ben explains, there’s a demonstrable and tangible reason for this.

“One thing we’re bummed about with a lot albums that have come out recently”, he admits candidly, “ is there’s been a movement from creating a full record experience that captures so many dimensions of a band’s sound towards more of a ‘here’s our album, here are ten tracks of the same sort of song done ten slightly different ways’. For us, that was never an option. We knew that we wanted every song to really show a very different part of who we are and what we love about music.”

“Half the record is instrumental, half the songs have vocals”, Ben counters when I ask him to enlighten us just a little on what the album as a whole has in store for listeners. He doesn’t enlighten me as to the remaining guest vocalists but his descriptions nonetheless paint vivid pictures in my mind. “The vocal songs contain three more guest singers and every song is very different. There are the two songs you’ve heard but in addition, one of the tracks has no orchestration and hardly any keyboards, it is almost an orchestra of guitar sounds and is one of the most layered guitar songs I’ve heard recently. In fact, our keyboardist has to play guitar live because there are three lead guitar lines going on at the same time. Another track is more atmospheric and is perhaps Australian alternative-influenced.”

Credit: Travis Smith – Seempieces ( http://www.seempieces.com/ )

“There’s another which is crushing”, Ben continues, really warming to this subject, underlining his eagerness for people to hear the material. “It has string players on it and it is the most depressing, soul shattering eleven minute song. One of the other tracks is more visceral, like a punch to the face which is constant intensity and movement for five minutes. There’s one that’s more expansive and atmospheric and there’s one track that’s not even a rock band song; it’s more like a modern new-age composition which acts like a palette cleanser on the record. So it’s incredibly diverse and I’m sure that there will be some people who will turn their heads sideways and won’t be sure what to make of it. But to others, I hope that it will be a refreshing listen for them.”

I think you’ll agree that this brief overview sounds mouth-watering to say the least. The intensity and excitement with which Ben describes the music is infectious and only adds to the anticipation that an increasing number of us are experiencing. I pause for a moment to consider just how lucky we are to be fans of an overall genre of music that can offer so much, before back-tracking slightly. I want to find out more about the diverse influences that have played a part in the quartet’s life, helping to shape Earthside into the band they are today. Overall, it’s not the answer I was expecting, I can tell you.

“It’s a tricky question”, Ben replies cautiously at first, “because none of us want to be pigeon-holed. An older band that we were in was certifiably prog and I found it funny because we were in our late teens and people assumed that we listened to “our parent’s King Crimson, Rush and Yes albums.” We laughed because we weren’t into any of that stuff. It wasn’t our era; we grew up listening to Linkin Park, Incubus, and System Of A Down. Our parents didn’t even have those records. The first music that I listened to was funk music and I liked that before rock. My dad had Tower Of Power, Average White Man and really intense horn funk groups.”

“That was one of my biggest early rhythmic influences, all that syncopation and groove. That’s really filtered into everything in my musical development; whether it is funk, metal or prog, it has to have a real groove and a rhythmic pulse that drives everything. That’s definitely at the root of a lot of the writing that we do, particularly the instrumental tracks that tend to be more collaborative. A lot of them will start with me farting around on the drum set and the guitarist or bass player will be like ‘wait, what was that? Play that again.’ And then the whole song will stem from an initial idea like that.”

“Our guitarist and keyboardist have, in various ways come from a classical background”, Ben returns to the question via his slight detour. “Jamie, our guitarist studied music composition at Yale and he is very deep into music theory. He’s into Stravinsky and a lot of these more adventurous 20th Century classical composers that did all this really crazy harmonic and rhythmic stuff.”

“On the keyboard end, Frank is kinda funny because he’s not really a prog keyboardist in the way that a lot of people think about it. You don’t hear big synths or Hammond organs because a lot of his influences don’t come from prog. He has much more of a cinematic background and his favourite soundtrack ever is Hans Zimmer’s ‘Gladiator’. He’ll use the name ‘Textures Frank’ for himself sometimes as he’s more about creating epic walls of sound or textures within the music. It’s the same for us all actually; we have some more technical sections but it’s more about creating that overall expansive sound and intense atmosphere rather than shredding your face off for ten minutes.”

“But there’s also all kinds of other weird stuff in there”, Ben concludes with something of a curveball. “This will get us good press with metal sites”, he chuckles, “but Frank and Jamie like Coldplay. It’s not so much my thing but we’re just very open-minded. We’re music snobs, no doubt about it but we’ll listen to anything that has strong musical ideas, whatever it is. Even ‘ET’ by Katy Perry has a really nice minor key chord progression and its good until Kanye comes in. At the other end, it could be Gojira or Hacride, or the craziest French esoteric avant-garde stuff.”

End of Part 1…keep an eye open for Part 2, coming very soon, where Ben and I delve ever further into the intriguing and exciting world of Earthside.

If you’ve enjoyed this interview, please check out some others that I have conducted:

Kingcrow – ‘Eidos’ Track-by-Track Part 2
Kingcrow – ‘Eidos’ Track-by-Track Part 1
Triaxis
Native Construct
Distorted Harmony
Kingcrow
Wisdom Of Crowds – Bruce Soord & Jonas Renkse

Maschine