Hello and greetings from Gatineau, Canada to Pittsburgh, USA! Thanks for accepting this great interview occasion. May you please introduce yourselves to our readers?

Lee Prisby – Vocalist and Guitarist

Bob Moore - Drums

Please tell us more about the history of your band. How did you guys come together? What kind of music did you play in the beginning? What were your first concert experiences?

Lee: The band originally started with my friends in high school. It was really just “I know this guy plays drums; let's have him do it. I know this guy plays guitar; let's have him do it.” So, it really started just as a group of friends who could play the appropriate instruments getting together. The music we played in the beginning was all covers. Bands like Wolfmother, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, and Helloween. The first original song we performed was “Talons” from Primed For Destruction, followed by “Serpent” and the originals grew from there. The first shows we played were a few school events but it slowly grew from there and eventually we even had a place from Ohio contact us to come out and play there.

The current line-up is still me from the beginning, and my brother Jesse plays bass with us. The only recordings Jesse hasn't been on were the Primed For Destruction album. We added our drummer, Bob, to our lineup in 2012. The recordings he hasn't played on were the Primed For Destruction and It's Alive albums. We played a few high school grad parties to get Bob into things and then the first real show we played together was at the Hard Rock Cafe in Pittsburgh.

 

 

From left to right: Bob Moore, Lee Prisby, Jesse Prisby

 

What made you play classic heavy metal instead of more popular styles that may have attracted a larger audience?

Lee: Since the beginning I never really decided that we should be playing metal. When I started, we played things more along the lines of hard rock as it is. I'm the one that writes 95% of the music, and I just write what I want to. It just happens to come out mostly as metal, so that led to us being a metal band. But we have calmer songs like “Nightfall” and even “Queen of Nightmares,” which is one of our more known songs, has a section reminiscent of The Doors. Metal has never seemed to discourage a lot of our listeners either. We've had tons of people tell us, “normally I don't like that kind of music, but you guys kicked ass.”

Bob: Before I had joined, I never would have expected I would be playing in an old-school metal band. I was always pushing to be in a modern metal band such as Machine Head, Trivium or Unearth. But when I first heard Klaymore’s music, my first thoughts were “Jesus Christ, this kicks so much ass!” And I told them I wanted to audition as soon as possible.

What inspired you to choose the name “Klaymore” with a K?

Lee: The name was chosen years before our current line-up. I was sitting around with the (at the time) second guitar player and the drummer and we were bouncing name ideas around. I had a list of names I was pitching to them and Klaymore was what we thought worked best for a rock/metal band. The “K” was chosen just because we thought it looked more archaic and runic, and since a claymore is a sword, that was the feel we were going for. Basically, “a group of 10th graders thought it looked cool” is the short answer. And if anyone thinks Klaymore is a dumb name, then be glad we didn't choose “Flametongue,” “Steel-Plated Aggressor,” or “Sex Falcon” which all showed up on our collective list of possible name ideas.

There were a couple of line-up changes during your early years. Why did these changes happen and do you think that your current line-up is stable?

Lee: All of our line-up changes just happened from the past people not being interested in continuing. After we recorded Primed For Destruction, I was the only person who wanted to keep it going, so I found more people to make it happen.

As for our current line-up being stable... no. We recently just fired our second guitar player. A lot of reasoning went into it and it was all issues built up since as far back as when Bob joined our band. We all put a lot of effort into this band and things don't just fall into our laps, and we want a fourth person who is willing to help us push ourselves. We aren't actively seeking out a new guitarist at the moment though. We're pushing on as a trio at the moment, or as I tell our nerd-metal friends, a “Tri-Force.” We're doing this so that we don't have to take a break. We've played a show with just the three of us and have even more booked. We have new material recorded as well with just the three of us that we're working on releasing. We're trying to make this the most seamless line-up change a local band has seen.

If/when we find another guitar player who really wants to be in a metal band and wants to do his part of the work while juggling the rest of his life like the rest of us do, then we'll welcome him in, but right now we're just going to keep going.

Your first record “Primed For Destruction” has been released back in 2011 and the great follow-up “It’s Alive!” followed less than one year later. After an EP with cover songs entitled “Respect Your Elders”, you have now come around with more original material on the great “New Breed” EP. Could you please describe the dynamics in and the evolution between each release?

Lee: Hey, don't forget “Sector X” that we put out last year too. *cue laugh track* For me nothing has changed over the course of all of it (to be unhelpfully general in my response). I've always just been writing the music that I want to write. I didn't start writing music for “It's Alive” and think, “these songs need to be more intricate than 'Primed For Destruction,'” and I didn't go into “New Breed” with the idea that it was going to fork off into directions we'd never been or that I was going to grunt like a wildebeest like on “SR388” and “Sacrificial Lamb.” I started writing music when I was 16 and I'm about to be 22. What I like hearing has just been evolving over the years and that's really what's made our sound evolve over everything we've done. I mean, you start out as a teenager writing music about how much a certain girl is pissing you off, and 5 years later you still write those songs but now they're getting on the radio... so some things also haven't changed at all. You just get more and less poetic in certain areas. It's also weird thinking about the fact that when we finally get our music to our fans, they see it as where we are musically at that moment in time. In reality, all of our songs are written well before anyone hears them (to mildly state the obvious). But, what I mean is that I recently came across my first instrumental demo version of “Smoke and Mirrors” from New Breed. The song was released in August, 2013. The date on the original demo when I had put the music together initially? August 29th, 2012. Sacrificial Lamb first hit demo form in December, 2011. So really, the evolution of our material is a weird combination of what we're doing currently, and what we realize were still good ideas from sometimes a year earlier. Bob: I’d also like to add that my music influences on playing drums are from much heavier and include some modern bands. I love to play hard and heavy and I also think that gives Klaymore a stronger punch in the sound. Even some of our older songs sound much different live when I play them, as opposed to who recorded them before I joined up with these guys. This could also be a reason why New Breed is drastically different from It’s Alive.

How comes that you guys are putting out excellent heavy metal records at such a high pace? What’s your secret?

Lee: Are we? But seriously, we're glad other people appreciate it. We've just always thought that a good way to get out to more people is by having more and more stuff to show them. Most bands put out an EP or LP that they worked on for a year and then their twelve friends get it and after a week they're ready for something new. Since May, 2013 we've been consistently putting out material onto YouTube and our fanbase has done nothing but grow. We've gained almost 1,000 subscribers (starting from 12) on YouTube since doing so, and when we put out “New Breed,” our album downloads have been twice as high as they were when we put out “It's Alive.” Most bands also tend to hype an EP or album, and then after putting it out they fall off the face of the earth. We put out “New Breed” and then followed it up with three music videos and a handful of our metal remakes of video game soundtracks. Unlike other bands, we don't take a break, so I guess that's our secret. Being in a band is like running a small business, so we take it seriously like that. We also aren't constantly drunk off our asses and partying like some other bands we see. It's hard to hammer out material when you spend your only time after work doing completely non-constructive things. I think our other secret is that we're all just legitimately proud of our work (spoiler alert). We love putting out new material and being able to show people what we worked hard on, and they appreciate that from us. I guess our other “secret” to things going so quickly is that we don't record in a studio. We do it all from our houses. We don't have to book time at a studio or pay anyone. I'll demo a couple songs and show them to everyone and that weekend we can be doing a final recording of it if we wanted to. Working on completely our own schedule has really made things easy on us. So I guess our secret is actually wanting to make something of our music, doing our own recordings for time convenience, and as many people have told us to over the years, “don't suck.”

Have you ever been approached by a label over the last months and years?

Lee: No. We've been meeting some helpful people and gaining new fans over the last year, but no label interest yet. We aren't too concerned though. We're still just trying to get a bigger fanbase and are enjoying how things are going whether we're signed or not.

You are always open for original ideas. Recently, you have come around with a cover version of the Metroid game soundtrack. How do you get these crazy but excellent ideas? What are the most unusual songs you have covered? Do you have more ideas for upcoming cover songs?

Lee: First, it always warms my cold, dead heart to meet another person who knows what a Metroid is. The video game stuff was Bob's suggestion. It wasn't really too outlandish since we had just gotten “Sector X” on the radio and that's an original piece about a level in Starfox64, and we were in the process of getting “SR388” mixed and mastered. We just think that old Nintendo games have surprisingly metal soundtracks and wanted to do a fun kind of side project. We were just sitting around one day before a show and listening to music from Megaman, because, you know, that's what the cool kids do; and we thought it would be fun to take a crack at them. What verified that it was a good idea was when we managed to talk to Grant Kirkhope (composer for Banjo Kazooie, Donkey Kong 64, and Perfect Dark) and he told us he liked what we do and that we could cover some of the material he's written.

As for most unusual songs we've covered... I'd have to say “Rolling in the Deep” by Adele. Mainly because we hadn't planned on it. And Bob had never heard the song before. Someone at one of our shows yelled it out after another stereotypical asshole screamed “Freebird” at us, and I was just like, no, you know what, we know the chord progression, and I know the words to it. Let's rock some Adele since these people aren't actually expecting it.

As for future covers, I have a huge list of actual songs that I want to do, it's really just up to the other two to agree with me on them. In terms of our video game covers we still have plenty in the works from games like Megaman, Metroid, Kirby, Final Fantasy, F-Zero, and of course now Banjo Kazooie since we told Grant Kirkhope we would.

This being said, I think that your cover songs just find the right mixture between the traditional approach of the original and your very own touch. I really appreciated your sped up version of Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid” with keyboard sounds and extended guitar solos. Other people might obviously always prefer the originals and criticize you. How do you react to both reactions and how do they influence you in your creative processes?

Lee: Much like everything else, we just go in and do our thing when we're covering a song. With Paranoid, we're a dual-guitar metal band. We play solos. A lot. So our cover reflected that. Also, it's a 70s hard rock song. Those tended to have keyboards in them. Deep Purple wouldn't be the same without that. We did what we wanted and what we thought made sense. We covered Megadeth and didn't really change much at all to it. We covered Black Sabbath and put a lot more of our own spin on it. We got an equal amount of people criticizing both. You can't please everyone. Luckily with our stuff, the people who hate on it are severely outnumbered by the people who tell us they love what we did. We'd only be concerned if more people told us they hate it rather than liked it. But, with all the covers we've done, we've had a small handful of people stand in opposition to them and literally hundreds telling us good job.

How long do you work on rearranging these cover songs in general?

Lee: It depends. If we're changing the structure of the song, it takes a little longer, and we have to make a demo of it so that everyone knows what's going on. The stuff like maybe altering a riff or where to put some extra guitar or drum fills just kind of comes out in the recording process.

Bob: Honestly, rearranging Paranoid took only about 10 minutes. One day at practice before a show, we decided to add a few cover songs to the set list. One of them being Paranoid, and we just jammed. During the jam, we got to the part were the solo kicks in. and we just so happened to extend the solos. This ended up turning into a 10 minute jam. After that we stood there and my response was “Fuck yeah let’s keep it like that!” And that is usually the version we play live. We cut out the extended solos and used that as the actual recording.

You are also having tons of fun when you hit the stage. Sometimes, you perform cover songs requested by the crowd or even switch instruments. How do you explain these unpredictable spontaneous live stunts? Do they all work out well or do you also experience more embarrassing moments from time to time?

Lee: And sometimes it all happens in the same show. The pictures of me playing bass and Jesse playing guitar were from the same show that we took random cover requests from the crowd. Once we started taking those requests we were having more fun with it than with what we had actually planned on playing. We pulled out Adele, Wolfmother, Iron Maiden, and I think some Judas Priest. We also sold our CD to everyone in the audience that stayed to watch us, so that risk definitely paid off. I don't know how to really explain why we do stuff like that or when we think “this is totally a good idea,” but weird things keep happening. With the bass/guitar switching, Jesse got done playing his bass solo and came over to me and just said, “hey, trade me.” Not much more thought going into it than him deciding he wanted to play lead guitar for a few minutes. There's been at least half a dozen shows now where I grab a pair of drum sticks and help Bob make an unnecessary amount of noise, more where Jesse has played a bass solo behind his head, and even more where Jesse and I have started singing “No Scrubs” or “Boyz in the Hood” instead of the actual lyrics to our songs. Shockingly we've never had a “train wreck” on stage where everything goes wrong. One of our “poorer” ideas was the time that I fed Bob a quesadilla while we were all still playing... No musical mistakes were made, but by the time we got on stage that quesadilla was old. And dry. And slightly stale. But, metal bands are kind of supposed to look pissed off, and the two of us soldiering through that old piece of Mexican cuisine definitely didn't put us in a good mood. Our strange stunts always seem to work out for us, so however it's working, we're glad we've been able to keep it together when trying to evolve our stage show with spur of the moment antics over the last year. We've been told that “bands play shows, and it isn't interesting unless the bar burns down,” so that's why we figure instrument rotations, behind the head solos, eating food in the midst of a metal onslaught, and white kids rapping is a good way to keep it interesting.

As for embarrassing moments... I don't want to get into it too much, but our most memorable one we refer to as “The Dimebag Darrel Rant of 2012” where some interesting things were said on stage that we weren't expecting... Other “embarrassing” moments that I can think of were just when I'd try to have a humorous back and forth with our other guitarist and he thought we were actually arguing or starting a fight.

Bob: My first concert I ever went to was Ozzfest 2006. I was 13 years old and I still remember so much of it. Every band there put on such a great performance, whether it was insane guitar solos, screaming at the crowd to pump them up, or just head banging their asses off while playing was awe inspiring to me. Nowadays, so many musicians in bands (mostly local bands) just stand in place and play their songs. And that’s all there is to it. It’s flat out boring. I can just put a CD in my stereo and listen to the songs instead of paying money to not see them do anything. Because of this, when I’m on stage, I play as crazy as I can and I never stop moving. I do my best to put on a show for the audience because Entertainment and the whole image also has an impact on what the audience thinks of you rather than just the music.

Even your merchandise products are quite funny and original. Who had the idea of the “Let It Breed” shirt for example?

Lee: It's kind of an odd story. Jesse and Bob and I more or less all had the same idea at the same time, which if you've seen our live show you'd know how rarely that happens. I have no idea what sparked it, but Jesse started making those caricatures of all of us. Bob's turned out hilariously well (in our opinion) and before we knew it he had all of us done like that. The original images aren't what made it to the shirt though, They weren't big enough to translate onto print so we had to redo them. I say this because the original versions weren't all cartoon. Jesse took actual images and MS painted them on top of us. I had Steven Tyler's hair and Bob had the hair of a female model. Not that he doesn't in real life, of course. I was looking at all of them at the same time and had them in a block shape like they are on the shirt just so I could see them and thought it looked like “Let It Be.” A few days later someone must have whispered me words of wisdom, because I came up with “Let It Breed.” Without telling Bob, a few days later he pitched us the same thing (our pictures in a grid saying “Let It Be”). If we were as good at getting people to buy our shirts as we were at designing them this would be a whole different story. Maybe it's something about “breeding” and four guys smiling at you that's deterring some potential customers...

You are quite active with Kickstarter campaigns and putting up your music on Bandcamp or Youtube. Do you think that social media are a big advantage for young musicians like you or do you think that they also have their bad sides because people can easily listen to your music on the internet and don’t need to buy your albums anymore?

Lee: Regardless of whether we like them or not, they're there and other people are using them. Bandcamp has made it extremely easy to have a platform to display our discography and easily embed it elsewhere on the internet. YouTube (when used correctly) has gotten us thousands of views/listens on our music that would have been impossible without it. Kickstarter was great because it allowed our then current fanbase to help us put out a CD that would have taken us much longer to finance if we were just trying to do it ourselves. I think the advantages of social media and the internet really outweigh the negative aspects. If we didn't put things on YouTube and Bandcamp for free, we'd still just be out somewhere handing out our crappy looking burnt CDs for free to people. No one's going to spend $5-$10 on a CD from a band that no one's ever heard of. The internet just keeps us from having to go out to find people every day. The money making part really hasn't changed.

You’re also pretty much involved in your local scene. Your music is played on several radio stations. You play some concerts at rather famous places such as the Hard Rock Cafe for example. How are you able to manage all these different activities and get in contact with the right people?

Lee: Like I said earlier, step one: don't suck. I only say this because that was the first rule given to us by the first radio station to play our music, so we must not be sucking somewhere along the line. We get in contact with the right people by just going out there and doing it. We started to make a lot more connections with people that could help us when we got out there and starting playing shows. Stuff like playing at the Hard Rock just happened through contacting whoever books the venue. But we also haven't actively tried to book our own show since March. After that, it was all people hearing about us and coming to us to get us onto bills for shows. We've played some of the bigger venues in Pittsburgh that local bands get into just by word of mouth from other people seeing us and telling others.

Apart of your musical career, what are you doing for a living? Do you hope that you could one day live from your works with Klaymore only?

Lee: If you've ever seen the movie “Office Space,” that was pretty much my job this summer. Working in a cubicle for a health care broker while simultaneously trying to get “New Breed” finished was... interesting. And conflicting. To say the least. Jesse and I also both go to college full time. He goes to Penn State's main campus, and I go to Capital University in Columbus, Ohio. So yes, all of our songwriting, marketing, show scheduling, and everything Klaymore happens while all of our band members have a total of 400 miles between us.

Bob: I just work part time at a local retail store in my home town. Most of my time is spent dedicated to promoting Klaymore to new people and talking with our fans. I am constantly on Facebook and Twitter talking to our fans, answering questions for them, and just showing them that we actually care about our fans who support us. They really appreciate it and that’s what I think makes them keep coming back to us for more. It’s a great feeling to see the same faces commenting on different videos and statuses we put out. I am also always on the lookout for people and pages that are into Rock and Metal music and just saying, “hey, check us out.” 90% of the people we run into usually don’t respond, or respond much at all. But the other 10% usually freak out and share our stuff with their friends, and slowly we have a cult following... haha

Lee: One day, yeah, it would be great to be pulling in substantial money from Klaymore. We're still in the beginning stages though since we only started playing shows this year and started actively and effectively promoting ourselves for the last 6 months. We've still got a long way to go before we can make any real amount of money from doing what we love, but we're trying to set up that path right now so that it's possible in the future. Bob: Playing in huge amphitheatres and large venues such as the Rock Am Ring has always been a huge dream of mine. Touring and playing festivals would be absolutely amazing. The money would be great and everything, just living off of what we love to do, but all I want is to push our music out to new people for them to hear. Hearing people’s responses is what makes me keep wanting to do this.

Please tell us more about the metal scene of Pittsburgh. Are there any other young and yet to be discovered bands worth to mention?

Lee: The metal scene in Pittsburgh hasn't always been kind to us. We sort of stick out in a bad way... most bands are the ones a lot younger than us playing post-hardcore music and people think of that as metal so we get lumped in with them, and the rest of it is people who aren't too fond of us because they've been doing it for a lot longer and we've been quickly encroaching on their territory after less than a year of playing shows while sitting on a few dozen songs that we recorded in a living room. We're usually seen by the people who don't take the time to get to know as those punk-ass kids who came in and started wrecking things up for them, which wasn't really our plan or attitude.

We have met some awesome people though. Vinni Belfiore who runs the magazine “Musicians Hotsheet” in Pittsburgh met us back in January and has booked us at at least half a dozen shows since then and has been our “indian spirit guide,” as we call him, when it comes to asking for business advice. The people from 105.9 The X who play the music that we give them (Queen of Nightmares, Sector X, and Smoke and Mirrors) have been awesome in getting our music into the mainstream.

As far as bands go, some of the ones we've met that we've enjoyed playing shows with or enjoyed getting to know would be Theia Collides, Homicide Black, Sun Hound, Talion, Chaos Reigns, Stationary Pebbles, and I'm sure there are a lot more that will give me flack for forgetting them right now so I apologize to them in advance.

What are Klaymore’s plans for the upcoming year 2014?

Lee: It's looking even more loaded than 2013 was. We still plan on continuing our video-every-two-weeks-on-YouTube idea, so the new endeavours will be pretty closely intertwined with that. We're planning on hopefully two new EPs of original music as well. We already have one completely recorded and in post-production right now, and we have half a dozen more songs demoed waiting to be worked on further. Obviously there will be more video game music covers too because we've been having a great time doing them. Hopefully we can figure out a way to get some better live recordings or get more concert footage or something new like that. We don't want to just keep doing the same things over and over, so we'll be trying to find new avenues for us to go down and keep things interesting for both us and our fans.

Bob: Lee, don’t give him that bullshit. Our plan for 2014 is world domination.

Thanks again for this interview. As always, the last words belong to the artists. What is the message you would like to send to our readers?

 

Lee: I mean, I think I've said enough already. A quick, final message we'd like to stress is that if you hear an unsigned band and you like what they're doing, tell someone or buy their CD. If no one does, you probably won't be hearing from them again. Anyone who wants to know more about us can find us at www.klaymore.com. Also, we just wanted to say thanks for interviewing us, and we're always glad to meet/talk to people who appreciate our music.

 

Hello and greetings from Gatineau, Canada to Pittsburgh, USA! Thanks for accepting this great interview occasion. May you please introduce yourselves to our readers?

Lee Prisby – Vocalist and Guitarist

Bob Moore - Drums

Please tell us more about the history of your band. How did you guys come together? What kind of music did you play in the beginning? What were your first concert experiences?

Lee: The band originally started with my friends in high school. It was really just “I know this guy plays drums; let's have him do it. I know this guy plays guitar; let's have him do it.” So, it really started just as a group of friends who could play the appropriate instruments getting together. The music we played in the beginning was all covers. Bands like Wolfmother, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, and Helloween. The first original song we performed was “Talons” from Primed For Destruction, followed by “Serpent” and the originals grew from there. The first shows we played were a few school events but it slowly grew from there and eventually we even had a place from Ohio contact us to come out and play there.

The current line-up is still me from the beginning, and my brother Jesse plays bass with us. The only recordings Jesse hasn't been on were the Primed For Destruction album. We added our drummer, Bob, to our lineup in 2012. The recordings he hasn't played on were the Primed For Destruction and It's Alive albums. We played a few high school grad parties to get Bob into things and then the first real show we played together was at the Hard Rock Cafe in Pittsburgh.

 

 

From left to right: Bob Moore, Lee Prisby, Jesse Prisby

 

What made you play classic heavy metal instead of more popular styles that may have attracted a larger audience?

Lee: Since the beginning I never really decided that we should be playing metal. When I started, we played things more along the lines of hard rock as it is. I'm the one that writes 95% of the music, and I just write what I want to. It just happens to come out mostly as metal, so that led to us being a metal band. But we have calmer songs like “Nightfall” and even “Queen of Nightmares,” which is one of our more known songs, has a section reminiscent of The Doors. Metal has never seemed to discourage a lot of our listeners either. We've had tons of people tell us, “normally I don't like that kind of music, but you guys kicked ass.”

Bob: Before I had joined, I never would have expected I would be playing in an old-school metal band. I was always pushing to be in a modern metal band such as Machine Head, Trivium or Unearth. But when I first heard Klaymore’s music, my first thoughts were “Jesus Christ, this kicks so much ass!” And I told them I wanted to audition as soon as possible.

What inspired you to choose the name “Klaymore” with a K?

Lee: The name was chosen years before our current line-up. I was sitting around with the (at the time) second guitar player and the drummer and we were bouncing name ideas around. I had a list of names I was pitching to them and Klaymore was what we thought worked best for a rock/metal band. The “K” was chosen just because we thought it looked more archaic and runic, and since a claymore is a sword, that was the feel we were going for. Basically, “a group of 10th graders thought it looked cool” is the short answer. And if anyone thinks Klaymore is a dumb name, then be glad we didn't choose “Flametongue,” “Steel-Plated Aggressor,” or “Sex Falcon” which all showed up on our collective list of possible name ideas.

There were a couple of line-up changes during your early years. Why did these changes happen and do you think that your current line-up is stable?

Lee: All of our line-up changes just happened from the past people not being interested in continuing. After we recorded Primed For Destruction, I was the only person who wanted to keep it going, so I found more people to make it happen.

As for our current line-up being stable... no. We recently just fired our second guitar player. A lot of reasoning went into it and it was all issues built up since as far back as when Bob joined our band. We all put a lot of effort into this band and things don't just fall into our laps, and we want a fourth person who is willing to help us push ourselves. We aren't actively seeking out a new guitarist at the moment though. We're pushing on as a trio at the moment, or as I tell our nerd-metal friends, a “Tri-Force.” We're doing this so that we don't have to take a break. We've played a show with just the three of us and have even more booked. We have new material recorded as well with just the three of us that we're working on releasing. We're trying to make this the most seamless line-up change a local band has seen.

If/when we find another guitar player who really wants to be in a metal band and wants to do his part of the work while juggling the rest of his life like the rest of us do, then we'll welcome him in, but right now we're just going to keep going.

Your first record “Primed For Destruction” has been released back in 2011 and the great follow-up “It’s Alive!” followed less than one year later. After an EP with cover songs entitled “Respect Your Elders”, you have now come around with more original material on the great “New Breed” EP. Could you please describe the dynamics in and the evolution between each release?

Lee: Hey, don't forget “Sector X” that we put out last year too. *cue laugh track* For me nothing has changed over the course of all of it (to be unhelpfully general in my response). I've always just been writing the music that I want to write. I didn't start writing music for “It's Alive” and think, “these songs need to be more intricate than 'Primed For Destruction,'” and I didn't go into “New Breed” with the idea that it was going to fork off into directions we'd never been or that I was going to grunt like a wildebeest like on “SR388” and “Sacrificial Lamb.” I started writing music when I was 16 and I'm about to be 22. What I like hearing has just been evolving over the years and that's really what's made our sound evolve over everything we've done. I mean, you start out as a teenager writing music about how much a certain girl is pissing you off, and 5 years later you still write those songs but now they're getting on the radio... so some things also haven't changed at all. You just get more and less poetic in certain areas. It's also weird thinking about the fact that when we finally get our music to our fans, they see it as where we are musically at that moment in time. In reality, all of our songs are written well before anyone hears them (to mildly state the obvious). But, what I mean is that I recently came across my first instrumental demo version of “Smoke and Mirrors” from New Breed. The song was released in August, 2013. The date on the original demo when I had put the music together initially? August 29th, 2012. Sacrificial Lamb first hit demo form in December, 2011. So really, the evolution of our material is a weird combination of what we're doing currently, and what we realize were still good ideas from sometimes a year earlier. Bob: I’d also like to add that my music influences on playing drums are from much heavier and include some modern bands. I love to play hard and heavy and I also think that gives Klaymore a stronger punch in the sound. Even some of our older songs sound much different live when I play them, as opposed to who recorded them before I joined up with these guys. This could also be a reason why New Breed is drastically different from It’s Alive.

How comes that you guys are putting out excellent heavy metal records at such a high pace? What’s your secret?

Lee: Are we? But seriously, we're glad other people appreciate it. We've just always thought that a good way to get out to more people is by having more and more stuff to show them. Most bands put out an EP or LP that they worked on for a year and then their twelve friends get it and after a week they're ready for something new. Since May, 2013 we've been consistently putting out material onto YouTube and our fanbase has done nothing but grow. We've gained almost 1,000 subscribers (starting from 12) on YouTube since doing so, and when we put out “New Breed,” our album downloads have been twice as high as they were when we put out “It's Alive.” Most bands also tend to hype an EP or album, and then after putting it out they fall off the face of the earth. We put out “New Breed” and then followed it up with three music videos and a handful of our metal remakes of video game soundtracks. Unlike other bands, we don't take a break, so I guess that's our secret. Being in a band is like running a small business, so we take it seriously like that. We also aren't constantly drunk off our asses and partying like some other bands we see. It's hard to hammer out material when you spend your only time after work doing completely non-constructive things. I think our other secret is that we're all just legitimately proud of our work (spoiler alert). We love putting out new material and being able to show people what we worked hard on, and they appreciate that from us. I guess our other “secret” to things going so quickly is that we don't record in a studio. We do it all from our houses. We don't have to book time at a studio or pay anyone. I'll demo a couple songs and show them to everyone and that weekend we can be doing a final recording of it if we wanted to. Working on completely our own schedule has really made things easy on us. So I guess our secret is actually wanting to make something of our music, doing our own recordings for time convenience, and as many people have told us to over the years, “don't suck.”

Have you ever been approached by a label over the last months and years?

Lee: No. We've been meeting some helpful people and gaining new fans over the last year, but no label interest yet. We aren't too concerned though. We're still just trying to get a bigger fanbase and are enjoying how things are going whether we're signed or not.

You are always open for original ideas. Recently, you have come around with a cover version of the Metroid game soundtrack. How do you get these crazy but excellent ideas? What are the most unusual songs you have covered? Do you have more ideas for upcoming cover songs?

Lee: First, it always warms my cold, dead heart to meet another person who knows what a Metroid is. The video game stuff was Bob's suggestion. It wasn't really too outlandish since we had just gotten “Sector X” on the radio and that's an original piece about a level in Starfox64, and we were in the process of getting “SR388” mixed and mastered. We just think that old Nintendo games have surprisingly metal soundtracks and wanted to do a fun kind of side project. We were just sitting around one day before a show and listening to music from Megaman, because, you know, that's what the cool kids do; and we thought it would be fun to take a crack at them. What verified that it was a good idea was when we managed to talk to Grant Kirkhope (composer for Banjo Kazooie, Donkey Kong 64, and Perfect Dark) and he told us he liked what we do and that we could cover some of the material he's written.

As for most unusual songs we've covered... I'd have to say “Rolling in the Deep” by Adele. Mainly because we hadn't planned on it. And Bob had never heard the song before. Someone at one of our shows yelled it out after another stereotypical asshole screamed “Freebird” at us, and I was just like, no, you know what, we know the chord progression, and I know the words to it. Let's rock some Adele since these people aren't actually expecting it.

As for future covers, I have a huge list of actual songs that I want to do, it's really just up to the other two to agree with me on them. In terms of our video game covers we still have plenty in the works from games like Megaman, Metroid, Kirby, Final Fantasy, F-Zero, and of course now Banjo Kazooie since we told Grant Kirkhope we would.

This being said, I think that your cover songs just find the right mixture between the traditional approach of the original and your very own touch. I really appreciated your sped up version of Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid” with keyboard sounds and extended guitar solos. Other people might obviously always prefer the originals and criticize you. How do you react to both reactions and how do they influence you in your creative processes?

Lee: Much like everything else, we just go in and do our thing when we're covering a song. With Paranoid, we're a dual-guitar metal band. We play solos. A lot. So our cover reflected that. Also, it's a 70s hard rock song. Those tended to have keyboards in them. Deep Purple wouldn't be the same without that. We did what we wanted and what we thought made sense. We covered Megadeth and didn't really change much at all to it. We covered Black Sabbath and put a lot more of our own spin on it. We got an equal amount of people criticizing both. You can't please everyone. Luckily with our stuff, the people who hate on it are severely outnumbered by the people who tell us they love what we did. We'd only be concerned if more people told us they hate it rather than liked it. But, with all the covers we've done, we've had a small handful of people stand in opposition to them and literally hundreds telling us good job.

How long do you work on rearranging these cover songs in general?

Lee: It depends. If we're changing the structure of the song, it takes a little longer, and we have to make a demo of it so that everyone knows what's going on. The stuff like maybe altering a riff or where to put some extra guitar or drum fills just kind of comes out in the recording process.

Bob: Honestly, rearranging Paranoid took only about 10 minutes. One day at practice before a show, we decided to add a few cover songs to the set list. One of them being Paranoid, and we just jammed. During the jam, we got to the part were the solo kicks in. and we just so happened to extend the solos. This ended up turning into a 10 minute jam. After that we stood there and my response was “Fuck yeah let’s keep it like that!” And that is usually the version we play live. We cut out the extended solos and used that as the actual recording.

You are also having tons of fun when you hit the stage. Sometimes, you perform cover songs requested by the crowd or even switch instruments. How do you explain these unpredictable spontaneous live stunts? Do they all work out well or do you also experience more embarrassing moments from time to time?

Lee: And sometimes it all happens in the same show. The pictures of me playing bass and Jesse playing guitar were from the same show that we took random cover requests from the crowd. Once we started taking those requests we were having more fun with it than with what we had actually planned on playing. We pulled out Adele, Wolfmother, Iron Maiden, and I think some Judas Priest. We also sold our CD to everyone in the audience that stayed to watch us, so that risk definitely paid off. I don't know how to really explain why we do stuff like that or when we think “this is totally a good idea,” but weird things keep happening. With the bass/guitar switching, Jesse got done playing his bass solo and came over to me and just said, “hey, trade me.” Not much more thought going into it than him deciding he wanted to play lead guitar for a few minutes. There's been at least half a dozen shows now where I grab a pair of drum sticks and help Bob make an unnecessary amount of noise, more where Jesse has played a bass solo behind his head, and even more where Jesse and I have started singing “No Scrubs” or “Boyz in the Hood” instead of the actual lyrics to our songs. Shockingly we've never had a “train wreck” on stage where everything goes wrong. One of our “poorer” ideas was the time that I fed Bob a quesadilla while we were all still playing... No musical mistakes were made, but by the time we got on stage that quesadilla was old. And dry. And slightly stale. But, metal bands are kind of supposed to look pissed off, and the two of us soldiering through that old piece of Mexican cuisine definitely didn't put us in a good mood. Our strange stunts always seem to work out for us, so however it's working, we're glad we've been able to keep it together when trying to evolve our stage show with spur of the moment antics over the last year. We've been told that “bands play shows, and it isn't interesting unless the bar burns down,” so that's why we figure instrument rotations, behind the head solos, eating food in the midst of a metal onslaught, and white kids rapping is a good way to keep it interesting.

As for embarrassing moments... I don't want to get into it too much, but our most memorable one we refer to as “The Dimebag Darrel Rant of 2012” where some interesting things were said on stage that we weren't expecting... Other “embarrassing” moments that I can think of were just when I'd try to have a humorous back and forth with our other guitarist and he thought we were actually arguing or starting a fight.

Bob: My first concert I ever went to was Ozzfest 2006. I was 13 years old and I still remember so much of it. Every band there put on such a great performance, whether it was insane guitar solos, screaming at the crowd to pump them up, or just head banging their asses off while playing was awe inspiring to me. Nowadays, so many musicians in bands (mostly local bands) just stand in place and play their songs. And that’s all there is to it. It’s flat out boring. I can just put a CD in my stereo and listen to the songs instead of paying money to not see them do anything. Because of this, when I’m on stage, I play as crazy as I can and I never stop moving. I do my best to put on a show for the audience because Entertainment and the whole image also has an impact on what the audience thinks of you rather than just the music.

Even your merchandise products are quite funny and original. Who had the idea of the “Let It Breed” shirt for example?

Lee: It's kind of an odd story. Jesse and Bob and I more or less all had the same idea at the same time, which if you've seen our live show you'd know how rarely that happens. I have no idea what sparked it, but Jesse started making those caricatures of all of us. Bob's turned out hilariously well (in our opinion) and before we knew it he had all of us done like that. The original images aren't what made it to the shirt though, They weren't big enough to translate onto print so we had to redo them. I say this because the original versions weren't all cartoon. Jesse took actual images and MS painted them on top of us. I had Steven Tyler's hair and Bob had the hair of a female model. Not that he doesn't in real life, of course. I was looking at all of them at the same time and had them in a block shape like they are on the shirt just so I could see them and thought it looked like “Let It Be.” A few days later someone must have whispered me words of wisdom, because I came up with “Let It Breed.” Without telling Bob, a few days later he pitched us the same thing (our pictures in a grid saying “Let It Be”). If we were as good at getting people to buy our shirts as we were at designing them this would be a whole different story. Maybe it's something about “breeding” and four guys smiling at you that's deterring some potential customers...

You are quite active with Kickstarter campaigns and putting up your music on Bandcamp or Youtube. Do you think that social media are a big advantage for young musicians like you or do you think that they also have their bad sides because people can easily listen to your music on the internet and don’t need to buy your albums anymore?

Lee: Regardless of whether we like them or not, they're there and other people are using them. Bandcamp has made it extremely easy to have a platform to display our discography and easily embed it elsewhere on the internet. YouTube (when used correctly) has gotten us thousands of views/listens on our music that would have been impossible without it. Kickstarter was great because it allowed our then current fanbase to help us put out a CD that would have taken us much longer to finance if we were just trying to do it ourselves. I think the advantages of social media and the internet really outweigh the negative aspects. If we didn't put things on YouTube and Bandcamp for free, we'd still just be out somewhere handing out our crappy looking burnt CDs for free to people. No one's going to spend $5-$10 on a CD from a band that no one's ever heard of. The internet just keeps us from having to go out to find people every day. The money making part really hasn't changed.

You’re also pretty much involved in your local scene. Your music is played on several radio stations. You play some concerts at rather famous places such as the Hard Rock Cafe for example. How are you able to manage all these different activities and get in contact with the right people?

Lee: Like I said earlier, step one: don't suck. I only say this because that was the first rule given to us by the first radio station to play our music, so we must not be sucking somewhere along the line. We get in contact with the right people by just going out there and doing it. We started to make a lot more connections with people that could help us when we got out there and starting playing shows. Stuff like playing at the Hard Rock just happened through contacting whoever books the venue. But we also haven't actively tried to book our own show since March. After that, it was all people hearing about us and coming to us to get us onto bills for shows. We've played some of the bigger venues in Pittsburgh that local bands get into just by word of mouth from other people seeing us and telling others.

Apart of your musical career, what are you doing for a living? Do you hope that you could one day live from your works with Klaymore only?

Lee: If you've ever seen the movie “Office Space,” that was pretty much my job this summer. Working in a cubicle for a health care broker while simultaneously trying to get “New Breed” finished was... interesting. And conflicting. To say the least. Jesse and I also both go to college full time. He goes to Penn State's main campus, and I go to Capital University in Columbus, Ohio. So yes, all of our songwriting, marketing, show scheduling, and everything Klaymore happens while all of our band members have a total of 400 miles between us.

Bob: I just work part time at a local retail store in my home town. Most of my time is spent dedicated to promoting Klaymore to new people and talking with our fans. I am constantly on Facebook and Twitter talking to our fans, answering questions for them, and just showing them that we actually care about our fans who support us. They really appreciate it and that’s what I think makes them keep coming back to us for more. It’s a great feeling to see the same faces commenting on different videos and statuses we put out. I am also always on the lookout for people and pages that are into Rock and Metal music and just saying, “hey, check us out.” 90% of the people we run into usually don’t respond, or respond much at all. But the other 10% usually freak out and share our stuff with their friends, and slowly we have a cult following... haha

Lee: One day, yeah, it would be great to be pulling in substantial money from Klaymore. We're still in the beginning stages though since we only started playing shows this year and started actively and effectively promoting ourselves for the last 6 months. We've still got a long way to go before we can make any real amount of money from doing what we love, but we're trying to set up that path right now so that it's possible in the future. Bob: Playing in huge amphitheatres and large venues such as the Rock Am Ring has always been a huge dream of mine. Touring and playing festivals would be absolutely amazing. The money would be great and everything, just living off of what we love to do, but all I want is to push our music out to new people for them to hear. Hearing people’s responses is what makes me keep wanting to do this.

Please tell us more about the metal scene of Pittsburgh. Are there any other young and yet to be discovered bands worth to mention?

Lee: The metal scene in Pittsburgh hasn't always been kind to us. We sort of stick out in a bad way... most bands are the ones a lot younger than us playing post-hardcore music and people think of that as metal so we get lumped in with them, and the rest of it is people who aren't too fond of us because they've been doing it for a lot longer and we've been quickly encroaching on their territory after less than a year of playing shows while sitting on a few dozen songs that we recorded in a living room. We're usually seen by the people who don't take the time to get to know as those punk-ass kids who came in and started wrecking things up for them, which wasn't really our plan or attitude.

We have met some awesome people though. Vinni Belfiore who runs the magazine “Musicians Hotsheet” in Pittsburgh met us back in January and has booked us at at least half a dozen shows since then and has been our “indian spirit guide,” as we call him, when it comes to asking for business advice. The people from 105.9 The X who play the music that we give them (Queen of Nightmares, Sector X, and Smoke and Mirrors) have been awesome in getting our music into the mainstream.

As far as bands go, some of the ones we've met that we've enjoyed playing shows with or enjoyed getting to know would be Theia Collides, Homicide Black, Sun Hound, Talion, Chaos Reigns, Stationary Pebbles, and I'm sure there are a lot more that will give me flack for forgetting them right now so I apologize to them in advance.

What are Klaymore’s plans for the upcoming year 2014?

Lee: It's looking even more loaded than 2013 was. We still plan on continuing our video-every-two-weeks-on-YouTube idea, so the new endeavours will be pretty closely intertwined with that. We're planning on hopefully two new EPs of original music as well. We already have one completely recorded and in post-production right now, and we have half a dozen more songs demoed waiting to be worked on further. Obviously there will be more video game music covers too because we've been having a great time doing them. Hopefully we can figure out a way to get some better live recordings or get more concert footage or something new like that. We don't want to just keep doing the same things over and over, so we'll be trying to find new avenues for us to go down and keep things interesting for both us and our fans.

Bob: Lee, don’t give him that bullshit. Our plan for 2014 is world domination.

Thanks again for this interview. As always, the last words belong to the artists. What is the message you would like to send to our readers?

 

Lee: I mean, I think I've said enough already. A quick, final message we'd like to stress is that if you hear an unsigned band and you like what they're doing, tell someone or buy their CD. If no one does, you probably won't be hearing from them again. Anyone who wants to know more about us can find us at www.klaymore.com. Also, we just wanted to say thanks for interviewing us, and we're always glad to meet/talk to people who appreciate our music.

 

Bonjour et merci de prendre le temps pour cette petite entrevue d’un grand fan de vous. Vous venez tout juste de retourner sur scène avec votre prestation au Hellfest. Décrivez-nous en détail ce concert. Quelles chansons avez-vous joué? Comment étiez-vous accueilli? Quels étaient vos sentiments d’être enfin en mesure de donner un nouveau concert sous le nom de The Old Dead Tree?

Nous avons interprété notre premier album, "The Nameless Disease", dans l'ordre et en intégralité. Nous avons eu la chance d'être accueilli par une foule dense et enthousiaste avoisinant les 10 000 personnes.

Je dois avouer que lorsque j'ai émis l'idée de cette reformation temporaire je n'étais pas certain de l'attente du public. Ce concert m'a beaucoup rassuré. Je me rends compte de la chance que nous avons d'avoir pu rester dans l'esprit des gens malgré 5 années d'absence.

 

Vous allez participer à deux autres festivals en France au cours de l’été. Quels sont ces festivals et quelles sont vos attentes?

Nous sommes effectivement à l'affiche du Motocultor et du MFest cet été qui restent tout de même des événement moins gigantesques que le Hellfest qui a accueilli plus de 100 000 participants sur 3 jours. Le Motocultor est un festival en plein air dont la notoriété s'étend chaque année en France et qui accueille environ 20.000 festivaliers sur 3 jours. Nous y jouerons en compagnie de Therion, Exodus ou Annihilator. Le M Fest est, quant à lui, un jeune festival indoor plus centré sur les groupes français. Nous assurons la tête d'affiche du premier jour. Pour nous le Motocultor devrait se passer de manière similaire au Hellfest. La nouveauté viendra finalement plus du M Fest car nous y jouerons un set complet d'1h30.

 

En automne, vous allez partir pour "The Nameless Tour" pour donner des concerts en Belgique, France et Suisse. À quoi est-ce que vos fans peuvent s’attendre lors de cette tournée?

Le maître mot de cette tournée est «plaisir». Nous n'avons pas d'album à promouvoir et c'est, au final, une grande source de liberté. Nous avons donc travaillé 2 heures de musique pour l'occasion. Cette réserve de morceaux nous permettra de changer la set list chaque soir au gré de nos envies ou des demandes du public. Nous avons la chance de tourner avec Melted Space et Dustbowl que nous connaissons bien. Il y a donc de fortes chances que nous nous «mélangions» parfois sur scène. Rien n'est déterminé, nous verrons le moment venu.

 

Parlez-nous aussi un peu des deux groupes Melted Space et Dustbowl qui vous accompagnent et qui sont encore peu connus à l’international.

Dustbowl est un groupe de cold metal qui sort son 3ème album en septembre. Leur musique est très riche et possède une forte personnalité. Ils ont surtout travaillé en studio jusqu'ici et je suis vraiment heureux qu'ils aient accepté de nous accompagner sur cette tournée. Melted Space est, quant à lui, le projet d'un seul homme : Pierre Le Pape. En plus d'être un pianiste émérite, Pierre est un compositeur / arrangeur classique. Il a créé à travers Melted Space un opéra metal regroupant 17 chanteurs différents sur son premier double album et vient de sortir un EP sur lequel on retrouve des interprètes tels que Liv Kristine (Leaves' Eyes) ou Ashmedi (Melechesh).

 

Comment est la chimie dans le groupe quatre ans après votre séparation? Est-ce que les malentendus internes sont choses du passé? Est-ce que vous vous êtes liés à nouveau par amitié, par une envie de jouer votre musique de nouveau ou par carriérisme professionnel?

Si la pilule a été difficile a avaler pour tout le monde, il n'en reste pas moins que Nicolas ou Gilles font partie de mes meilleurs amis. Nous sommes tous adultes et comprenons ce qui a pu nous pousser les uns ou les autres à agir comme nous avons pu le faire à la fin du groupe. Nous étions arrivés au bout d'un cycle et chacun l'exprimait différemment. Après quelques mois nous avons repris contact et les rancœurs ont fini par disparaître. J'ai pris l'habitude d'organiser une ou deux fois par an des dîners en compagnie des anciens membres du groupe et du staff technique. C'est à l'occasion de l'un de ces dîners que j'ai proposé que l'on profite de cette réunion ponctuelle pour organiser une répétition pour le plaisir. Petit à petit l'idée d'organiser une date à Paris pour fêter les 10 ans de notre premier album a germé. J'en ai parlé à notre tourneur historique et tout s'est emballé.

 

Durant les dernières années, beaucoup de groupes français ont percé à l’international comme Dagoba ou Gojira et plusieurs groupes de longue date se sont reformés comme Satan Jokers. Comment analysez-vous la scène contemporaine du métal en France? Quels groupes sont vos coups de cœur personnels?

Je suis complètement sorti de la scène metal après le split du groupe. Il y a presque eu un phénomène rejet tant la coupure a été nette. Je lisais tous les magazines, me tenais au courant de la moindre news annonçant la tournée d'un groupe auprès duquel nous pourrions hypothétiquement postuler. Mais la fin de l'aventure a The Old Dead Tree représentait tant de choses pour moi que j'ai complètement cessé de m'y intéresser.

 

Fouillons un peu dans votre passé maintenant. Expliquez un peu à nos lecteurs l’histoire assez mouvementée de votre groupe et surtout les raisons qui ont mené à votre séparation en 2009 et enfin à votre réunion en début d’année 2013.

Le groupe a été créé en 1997. En 1999, peu après la sortie de notre premier EP, notre batteur, Frédéric Guillemot, a mis fin à ses jours. Cette tragédie inspira notre premier album, "The Nameless Disease", sorti en 2003 dont nous fêtons au cours de cette tournée le 10ème anniversaire. En 2009, après 3 albums et autant de tournées, j'ai mis fin au groupe vaincu par une usure qui nous minait tous.

Nous avions passé des années à investir tout notre temps et notre argent dans The Old Dead Tree. Nous avions tous passé la trentaine, avions un travail à temps plein et des enfants. Le grand écart entre vie "normale" et vie de musicien devenait de plus en plus intenable. Lorsque des tensions sont nées, aucun de nous n'avait la force de faire les concessions nécessaires. Le groupe avait déjà connu des changements de line-up qui l'avait laissé meurtri. J'ai préféré en finir plutôt que chercher à travailler avec de nouveaux musiciens.

 

Cette année, votre démo "The Blossom" de 1999 a été republiée sous format digital par votre label Season of Mist. Parlez-nous un peu de ces premières chansons que vous avez enregistrées.

Nous découvrions la musique, la construction d'un morceau. Pour nous tous c'était le premier véritable enregistrement. Les quatre morceaux qui composent The Blossom ont des côtés naïfs qui en côtoient d'autres très élaborés voire progressifs. Deux d'entre eux ont d'ailleurs été réarrangés puis ré-enregistrés pour "The Nameless Disease".

A l'époque, cet EP a été très bien accueilli en France et a même dû être re-pressé à 4 reprises pour un total de 1 400 copies. Aujourd'hui il est pratiquement introuvable.

 

Suite au décès tragique de Frédéric Guillemot, vous avez carrément créé une sorte d’album conceptuel sur son suicide qui s’intitule «The Nameless Disease». Qu’est-ce qui vous a amené à faire de cette tragédie le sujet principal de votre premier album? Comment est-ce que les amis et la famille de Frédéric Guillemot ont réagi? Comment est-ce que vous évaluez cet album aujourd’hui, plus de dix ans après sa sortie initiale?

Vincent, Nicolas et moi avons chacun réagi différemment à la mort de notre ami. Pour ma part, j'ai ressenti le besoin d'extérioriser mes sentiments dans la musique. Dans notre méthode de composition, la musique vient toujours avant les textes. Pour cette raison, on peut dire que la partie instrumentale de l'album aurait été la même dans un contexte différent. Enfin, pour ce qui est de notre entourage, je ne me rappelle pas qu'il y ait eu de mauvaise réaction lorsque nous avons annoncer notre démarche. La mère de Frédéric voulait que son fils continue à vivre à travers la musique, cet album y a contribué. 6 des 11 titres de "The Nameless Disease" ont été composés du vivant de Frédéric.

 

Mon album préféré de vous est sans aucun doute "The Pepetuel Motion", un album hautement atmosphérique et progressif qui jongle avec bien des styles différents. Je dirais même que cet album est parmi mes trois albums préférés de tous les temps! Comment avez-vous écrit ces chansons complexes, détaillées et fluides? Est-ce que vous pensez rendre hommage à ce chef-d’œuvre d’ici deux ans comme vous le faites en ce moment pour "The Nameless Disease"?

Rien n'est prévu en ce sens. Nous avons pris beaucoup de plaisir à nous réunir pour interpréter The Nameless Disease sur scène, mais la mise en place de cette idée spontanée a nécessité un gros investissement de la part de chacun des membres participants. Nous avons tous joué le jeu en sachant qu'il s'agissait d'un "one shot" et que cela ne nous engagerait pas pour la suite, mais faire la même chose pour "The Perpeutual Motion" reviendrait presque à reformer le groupe. Qui plus est nous serions tenus de recommencer pour "The Water Fields" deux ans plus tard.

En ce qui concerne l'écriture de cet album, on peut dire que "The Perpetual Motion" a été composé d'une manière très différente de celle de "The Nameless Disease" dont j'étais responsable à 80%. La plupart des morceaux ont vu le jour alors que Nicolas et moi répétions à faible volume avec de petits amplis dans ma chambre à coucher. Nous nous enregistrions avec un petit magnétophone cassette avant de coucher les harmonies basiques sur partitions informatiques.

 

Enfin, votre troisième et dernier album à date s’intitule «The Water Fields» dont j’adore particulièrement la chanson titre. L’album me semble plus calme, progressif et songeur que le précédant. Quelle est votre opinion aujourd’hui sur ce troisième album?

"The Water Fields" est le petit frère de "The Perpetual Motion". Nicolas avait quitté le groupe et je n'avais pas encore créé avec Gilles, son remplaçant, le rapport de complicité et de confiance artistique que nous avions. Par dessus tout, je voulais prouver aux fans que le départ de Nicolas ne changerait pas la qualité de notre musique, c'est d'ailleurs une des raisons qui m'a poussé à travailler une nouvelle fois avec Andy Classen (producteur des 2 précédents albums). Dans un même temps Vincent, notre bassiste, voulait pour que nous nous tournions vers une musique plus violente. Ces éléments ont beaucoup influencé ma manière de composer et d'arranger les morceaux. Peut être aurait il fallu laisser plus liberté à cette musique qui s'est trouvée limitée par des éléments extérieurs au processus de création lui même...

 

Lorsque vous vous êtes séparés en 2009, vous aviez déjà écrit quelques chansons pour un possible quatrième album. À quoi ressemblaient ces chansons? Est-ce que la pièce "Shelter" qui a finalement été enregistrée par le groupe de votre guitariste Gilles Moinet qui s’appelle Lux Incerta avec ta participation faisait partie de ces dernières chansons de The Old Dead Tree?

Absolument, "Shelter" est un des quatre dernier morceaux de The Old Dead Tree. Gilles a repris les éléments déjà mis en place et a réarrangé le titre avec Benjamin Belot, bassiste et chanteur de Lux Incerta. Pour autant, les 4 chansons étaient très différentes les unes des autres. Nous étions arrivés au bout d'un cycle, nous ne pouvions pas composer un autre album dans la veine de "The Perpetual Motion". J'étais déterminé à m'affranchir des règles que j'avais contribué à créer dans le groupe. Je voulais que nous prenions trois ans (au lieu de deux jusqu'ici) pour composer ce prochain album, nous avions commencé à travailler avec un producteur artistique issu du milieu metal, mais ayant travaillé pour des majors dans tous les styles de musique. Je voulais ouvrir The Old Dead Tree et en faire un groupe affranchi du carcan metal sans rien en renier pour autant.

 

En parlant de Lux Incerta, pouvez-vous nous dire ce que chacun entre vous a fait sur la scène musicale depuis la séparation de The Old Dead Tree en 2009? Quels sont vos nouveaux groupes, si vous en avez, et en quoi est-ce qu’ils se distinguent de The Old Dead Tree?

Gilles a effectivement enregistré un album avec Lux Incerta avant de quitter Paris. Il a depuis participé à des groupes de Rock ou de Hard Rock en tant que guitariste ou bassiste mais sans enregistrer d'album pour le moment.

Raphaël, notre dernier batteur et moi même avons jusqu'ici quitté la musique pour rejoindre la vie civile

Nicolas et Vincent ont créé Ommatidia qui a sorti un premier album en 2011 et dont le second opus est actuellement en cours de mastering. J'ai pu l'écouter brièvement et je peux te dire que j'ai hâte d'avoir en main le produit fini. Le groupe est vraiment arrivé à maturité. Ce nouvel album a d'ailleurs été mixé par François Boutault, le producteur avec lequel nous avions commencé à travailler avant le split de The Old Dead Tree.

 

Voici maintenant une question que bien des fans se posent évidemment. Est-ce que le retour de The Old Dead Tree est seulement temporaire pour honorer votre album «The Nameless Disease» ou est-ce qu’on peut s’attendre à plus de concerts et même un nouvel album par la suite? Les fans aimeraient vraiment que votre retour soit permanent et je m’inclus totalement là-dedans.

L'année 2013 restera pour nous une fantastique année car elle nous aura replongé dans une vie passée où tout semblait plus simple.

Je suis le dernier membre de The Old Dead Tree à habiter à Paris, tous les autres ont déménagé à plusieurs centaines de kilomètres et la logistique nécessaire à la préparation des dates fut souvent compliquée, surtout que nous avons presque tous des enfants. La composition d'un nouvel album serait, je pense, bien trop compliquée dans ces conditions. J'ai pour ma part besoin d'un contact réel avec les autres musiciens, je dois répéter les morceaux encore et encore pour pouvoir leur donner leur forme définitive. L'éloignement ne nous permettrait pas de fournir le travail nécessaire à la création d'un album aussi bon que ce que nous avons pu faire par le passé quand on jouait tous ensemble deux à trois fois par semaine.

Je peux tout de même te dire que plusieurs concerts de la tournée sont filmés et que nous comptons mettre en ligne un documentaire sur cette parenthèse qui sera réalisé par Julien Metternich (Dagoba, Mass Hysteria..) qui s'est occupé des clips du groupe depuis nos débuts. Nous parlons aussi de la possibilité de finaliser nos 4 morceaux et de les enregistrer pour clore proprement l'histoire de l'arbre, mais à ce stade, rien n'est décidé...

 

Merci pour toutes vos réponses. Les derniers mots sont à vous!

Un grand merci pour ta patience et ton soutien. A bientôt... dans une autre vie.

et un peu de musique pour terminer...

 

(version anglais de l'entrevue à suivre...)

Bonjour et merci de prendre le temps pour cette petite entrevue d’un grand fan de vous. Vous venez tout juste de retourner sur scène avec votre prestation au Hellfest. Décrivez-nous en détail ce concert. Quelles chansons avez-vous joué? Comment étiez-vous accueilli? Quels étaient vos sentiments d’être enfin en mesure de donner un nouveau concert sous le nom de The Old Dead Tree?

Nous avons interprété notre premier album, "The Nameless Disease", dans l'ordre et en intégralité. Nous avons eu la chance d'être accueilli par une foule dense et enthousiaste avoisinant les 10 000 personnes.

Je dois avouer que lorsque j'ai émis l'idée de cette reformation temporaire je n'étais pas certain de l'attente du public. Ce concert m'a beaucoup rassuré. Je me rends compte de la chance que nous avons d'avoir pu rester dans l'esprit des gens malgré 5 années d'absence.

 

Vous allez participer à deux autres festivals en France au cours de l’été. Quels sont ces festivals et quelles sont vos attentes?

Nous sommes effectivement à l'affiche du Motocultor et du MFest cet été qui restent tout de même des événement moins gigantesques que le Hellfest qui a accueilli plus de 100 000 participants sur 3 jours. Le Motocultor est un festival en plein air dont la notoriété s'étend chaque année en France et qui accueille environ 20.000 festivaliers sur 3 jours. Nous y jouerons en compagnie de Therion, Exodus ou Annihilator. Le M Fest est, quant à lui, un jeune festival indoor plus centré sur les groupes français. Nous assurons la tête d'affiche du premier jour. Pour nous le Motocultor devrait se passer de manière similaire au Hellfest. La nouveauté viendra finalement plus du M Fest car nous y jouerons un set complet d'1h30.

 

En automne, vous allez partir pour "The Nameless Tour" pour donner des concerts en Belgique, France et Suisse. À quoi est-ce que vos fans peuvent s’attendre lors de cette tournée?

Le maître mot de cette tournée est «plaisir». Nous n'avons pas d'album à promouvoir et c'est, au final, une grande source de liberté. Nous avons donc travaillé 2 heures de musique pour l'occasion. Cette réserve de morceaux nous permettra de changer la set list chaque soir au gré de nos envies ou des demandes du public. Nous avons la chance de tourner avec Melted Space et Dustbowl que nous connaissons bien. Il y a donc de fortes chances que nous nous «mélangions» parfois sur scène. Rien n'est déterminé, nous verrons le moment venu.

 

Parlez-nous aussi un peu des deux groupes Melted Space et Dustbowl qui vous accompagnent et qui sont encore peu connus à l’international.

Dustbowl est un groupe de cold metal qui sort son 3ème album en septembre. Leur musique est très riche et possède une forte personnalité. Ils ont surtout travaillé en studio jusqu'ici et je suis vraiment heureux qu'ils aient accepté de nous accompagner sur cette tournée. Melted Space est, quant à lui, le projet d'un seul homme : Pierre Le Pape. En plus d'être un pianiste émérite, Pierre est un compositeur / arrangeur classique. Il a créé à travers Melted Space un opéra metal regroupant 17 chanteurs différents sur son premier double album et vient de sortir un EP sur lequel on retrouve des interprètes tels que Liv Kristine (Leaves' Eyes) ou Ashmedi (Melechesh).

 

Comment est la chimie dans le groupe quatre ans après votre séparation? Est-ce que les malentendus internes sont choses du passé? Est-ce que vous vous êtes liés à nouveau par amitié, par une envie de jouer votre musique de nouveau ou par carriérisme professionnel?

Si la pilule a été difficile a avaler pour tout le monde, il n'en reste pas moins que Nicolas ou Gilles font partie de mes meilleurs amis. Nous sommes tous adultes et comprenons ce qui a pu nous pousser les uns ou les autres à agir comme nous avons pu le faire à la fin du groupe. Nous étions arrivés au bout d'un cycle et chacun l'exprimait différemment. Après quelques mois nous avons repris contact et les rancœurs ont fini par disparaître. J'ai pris l'habitude d'organiser une ou deux fois par an des dîners en compagnie des anciens membres du groupe et du staff technique. C'est à l'occasion de l'un de ces dîners que j'ai proposé que l'on profite de cette réunion ponctuelle pour organiser une répétition pour le plaisir. Petit à petit l'idée d'organiser une date à Paris pour fêter les 10 ans de notre premier album a germé. J'en ai parlé à notre tourneur historique et tout s'est emballé.

 

Durant les dernières années, beaucoup de groupes français ont percé à l’international comme Dagoba ou Gojira et plusieurs groupes de longue date se sont reformés comme Satan Jokers. Comment analysez-vous la scène contemporaine du métal en France? Quels groupes sont vos coups de cœur personnels?

Je suis complètement sorti de la scène metal après le split du groupe. Il y a presque eu un phénomène rejet tant la coupure a été nette. Je lisais tous les magazines, me tenais au courant de la moindre news annonçant la tournée d'un groupe auprès duquel nous pourrions hypothétiquement postuler. Mais la fin de l'aventure a The Old Dead Tree représentait tant de choses pour moi que j'ai complètement cessé de m'y intéresser.

 

Fouillons un peu dans votre passé maintenant. Expliquez un peu à nos lecteurs l’histoire assez mouvementée de votre groupe et surtout les raisons qui ont mené à votre séparation en 2009 et enfin à votre réunion en début d’année 2013.

Le groupe a été créé en 1997. En 1999, peu après la sortie de notre premier EP, notre batteur, Frédéric Guillemot, a mis fin à ses jours. Cette tragédie inspira notre premier album, "The Nameless Disease", sorti en 2003 dont nous fêtons au cours de cette tournée le 10ème anniversaire. En 2009, après 3 albums et autant de tournées, j'ai mis fin au groupe vaincu par une usure qui nous minait tous.

Nous avions passé des années à investir tout notre temps et notre argent dans The Old Dead Tree. Nous avions tous passé la trentaine, avions un travail à temps plein et des enfants. Le grand écart entre vie "normale" et vie de musicien devenait de plus en plus intenable. Lorsque des tensions sont nées, aucun de nous n'avait la force de faire les concessions nécessaires. Le groupe avait déjà connu des changements de line-up qui l'avait laissé meurtri. J'ai préféré en finir plutôt que chercher à travailler avec de nouveaux musiciens.

 

Cette année, votre démo "The Blossom" de 1999 a été republiée sous format digital par votre label Season of Mist. Parlez-nous un peu de ces premières chansons que vous avez enregistrées.

Nous découvrions la musique, la construction d'un morceau. Pour nous tous c'était le premier véritable enregistrement. Les quatre morceaux qui composent The Blossom ont des côtés naïfs qui en côtoient d'autres très élaborés voire progressifs. Deux d'entre eux ont d'ailleurs été réarrangés puis ré-enregistrés pour "The Nameless Disease".

A l'époque, cet EP a été très bien accueilli en France et a même dû être re-pressé à 4 reprises pour un total de 1 400 copies. Aujourd'hui il est pratiquement introuvable.

 

Suite au décès tragique de Frédéric Guillemot, vous avez carrément créé une sorte d’album conceptuel sur son suicide qui s’intitule «The Nameless Disease». Qu’est-ce qui vous a amené à faire de cette tragédie le sujet principal de votre premier album? Comment est-ce que les amis et la famille de Frédéric Guillemot ont réagi? Comment est-ce que vous évaluez cet album aujourd’hui, plus de dix ans après sa sortie initiale?

Vincent, Nicolas et moi avons chacun réagi différemment à la mort de notre ami. Pour ma part, j'ai ressenti le besoin d'extérioriser mes sentiments dans la musique. Dans notre méthode de composition, la musique vient toujours avant les textes. Pour cette raison, on peut dire que la partie instrumentale de l'album aurait été la même dans un contexte différent. Enfin, pour ce qui est de notre entourage, je ne me rappelle pas qu'il y ait eu de mauvaise réaction lorsque nous avons annoncer notre démarche. La mère de Frédéric voulait que son fils continue à vivre à travers la musique, cet album y a contribué. 6 des 11 titres de "The Nameless Disease" ont été composés du vivant de Frédéric.

 

Mon album préféré de vous est sans aucun doute "The Pepetuel Motion", un album hautement atmosphérique et progressif qui jongle avec bien des styles différents. Je dirais même que cet album est parmi mes trois albums préférés de tous les temps! Comment avez-vous écrit ces chansons complexes, détaillées et fluides? Est-ce que vous pensez rendre hommage à ce chef-d’œuvre d’ici deux ans comme vous le faites en ce moment pour "The Nameless Disease"?

Rien n'est prévu en ce sens. Nous avons pris beaucoup de plaisir à nous réunir pour interpréter The Nameless Disease sur scène, mais la mise en place de cette idée spontanée a nécessité un gros investissement de la part de chacun des membres participants. Nous avons tous joué le jeu en sachant qu'il s'agissait d'un "one shot" et que cela ne nous engagerait pas pour la suite, mais faire la même chose pour "The Perpeutual Motion" reviendrait presque à reformer le groupe. Qui plus est nous serions tenus de recommencer pour "The Water Fields" deux ans plus tard.

En ce qui concerne l'écriture de cet album, on peut dire que "The Perpetual Motion" a été composé d'une manière très différente de celle de "The Nameless Disease" dont j'étais responsable à 80%. La plupart des morceaux ont vu le jour alors que Nicolas et moi répétions à faible volume avec de petits amplis dans ma chambre à coucher. Nous nous enregistrions avec un petit magnétophone cassette avant de coucher les harmonies basiques sur partitions informatiques.

 

Enfin, votre troisième et dernier album à date s’intitule «The Water Fields» dont j’adore particulièrement la chanson titre. L’album me semble plus calme, progressif et songeur que le précédant. Quelle est votre opinion aujourd’hui sur ce troisième album?

"The Water Fields" est le petit frère de "The Perpetual Motion". Nicolas avait quitté le groupe et je n'avais pas encore créé avec Gilles, son remplaçant, le rapport de complicité et de confiance artistique que nous avions. Par dessus tout, je voulais prouver aux fans que le départ de Nicolas ne changerait pas la qualité de notre musique, c'est d'ailleurs une des raisons qui m'a poussé à travailler une nouvelle fois avec Andy Classen (producteur des 2 précédents albums). Dans un même temps Vincent, notre bassiste, voulait pour que nous nous tournions vers une musique plus violente. Ces éléments ont beaucoup influencé ma manière de composer et d'arranger les morceaux. Peut être aurait il fallu laisser plus liberté à cette musique qui s'est trouvée limitée par des éléments extérieurs au processus de création lui même...

 

Lorsque vous vous êtes séparés en 2009, vous aviez déjà écrit quelques chansons pour un possible quatrième album. À quoi ressemblaient ces chansons? Est-ce que la pièce "Shelter" qui a finalement été enregistrée par le groupe de votre guitariste Gilles Moinet qui s’appelle Lux Incerta avec ta participation faisait partie de ces dernières chansons de The Old Dead Tree?

Absolument, "Shelter" est un des quatre dernier morceaux de The Old Dead Tree. Gilles a repris les éléments déjà mis en place et a réarrangé le titre avec Benjamin Belot, bassiste et chanteur de Lux Incerta. Pour autant, les 4 chansons étaient très différentes les unes des autres. Nous étions arrivés au bout d'un cycle, nous ne pouvions pas composer un autre album dans la veine de "The Perpetual Motion". J'étais déterminé à m'affranchir des règles que j'avais contribué à créer dans le groupe. Je voulais que nous prenions trois ans (au lieu de deux jusqu'ici) pour composer ce prochain album, nous avions commencé à travailler avec un producteur artistique issu du milieu metal, mais ayant travaillé pour des majors dans tous les styles de musique. Je voulais ouvrir The Old Dead Tree et en faire un groupe affranchi du carcan metal sans rien en renier pour autant.

 

En parlant de Lux Incerta, pouvez-vous nous dire ce que chacun entre vous a fait sur la scène musicale depuis la séparation de The Old Dead Tree en 2009? Quels sont vos nouveaux groupes, si vous en avez, et en quoi est-ce qu’ils se distinguent de The Old Dead Tree?

Gilles a effectivement enregistré un album avec Lux Incerta avant de quitter Paris. Il a depuis participé à des groupes de Rock ou de Hard Rock en tant que guitariste ou bassiste mais sans enregistrer d'album pour le moment.

Raphaël, notre dernier batteur et moi même avons jusqu'ici quitté la musique pour rejoindre la vie civile

Nicolas et Vincent ont créé Ommatidia qui a sorti un premier album en 2011 et dont le second opus est actuellement en cours de mastering. J'ai pu l'écouter brièvement et je peux te dire que j'ai hâte d'avoir en main le produit fini. Le groupe est vraiment arrivé à maturité. Ce nouvel album a d'ailleurs été mixé par François Boutault, le producteur avec lequel nous avions commencé à travailler avant le split de The Old Dead Tree.

 

Voici maintenant une question que bien des fans se posent évidemment. Est-ce que le retour de The Old Dead Tree est seulement temporaire pour honorer votre album «The Nameless Disease» ou est-ce qu’on peut s’attendre à plus de concerts et même un nouvel album par la suite? Les fans aimeraient vraiment que votre retour soit permanent et je m’inclus totalement là-dedans.

L'année 2013 restera pour nous une fantastique année car elle nous aura replongé dans une vie passée où tout semblait plus simple.

Je suis le dernier membre de The Old Dead Tree à habiter à Paris, tous les autres ont déménagé à plusieurs centaines de kilomètres et la logistique nécessaire à la préparation des dates fut souvent compliquée, surtout que nous avons presque tous des enfants. La composition d'un nouvel album serait, je pense, bien trop compliquée dans ces conditions. J'ai pour ma part besoin d'un contact réel avec les autres musiciens, je dois répéter les morceaux encore et encore pour pouvoir leur donner leur forme définitive. L'éloignement ne nous permettrait pas de fournir le travail nécessaire à la création d'un album aussi bon que ce que nous avons pu faire par le passé quand on jouait tous ensemble deux à trois fois par semaine.

Je peux tout de même te dire que plusieurs concerts de la tournée sont filmés et que nous comptons mettre en ligne un documentaire sur cette parenthèse qui sera réalisé par Julien Metternich (Dagoba, Mass Hysteria..) qui s'est occupé des clips du groupe depuis nos débuts. Nous parlons aussi de la possibilité de finaliser nos 4 morceaux et de les enregistrer pour clore proprement l'histoire de l'arbre, mais à ce stade, rien n'est décidé...

 

Merci pour toutes vos réponses. Les derniers mots sont à vous!

Un grand merci pour ta patience et ton soutien. A bientôt... dans une autre vie.

et un peu de musique pour terminer...

 

(version anglaise de l'entrevue à suivre...)

 

Sebastian Kluth: “Hello from Canada and thanks for accepting this great interview occasion for me. Could you first introduce yourself to our readers?”

Asbath: “Hello, Sebastian! Asbath here. Darkestrah is an epic shamanic black metal band born in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan in 1999 and reformed in Leipzig, Germany, after me and Kriegtalith have moved there. We have released two demo tapes, five full-length albums and two EPs so far. Both demos and the first album were recorded by the first Kyrgyz incarnation of Darkestrah. All other stuff has been recorded in Germany. Right now Darkestrah are Krigtalith on the vocals, Ragnar on the guitars, Cerritus on the bass and the shaman drum, Resurgemus plays keyboards and takes care of the samples and I play drums in the band.”

Sebastian Kluth: “I think that your band name “Darkestrah” is quite interesting. Is it a mixture of the words “dark” and “orchestra” or does it have a different meaning? Why did you pick that name?”

Asbath: “In fact, the real meaning of the word Darkestrah can only be unveiled to those initiated to the “Higher Mysteries”. If the laymen ever knew it, the world would be doomed. Akyr Zaman, the end time, will come and humanity will be destroyed. We don’t want this to happen, don’t we? Haha.”

Sebastian Kluth: “Alright, sure. You describe your music as Epic Shamanic Black Metal. What do you mean by “shamanic”?”

Asbath: “Shamanism is an integral part of traditional culture in Central Asia which is the main inspiration for us. In our musical work we try to create a gloomy and mystical atmosphere of shamanic rituals.” 

Sebastian Kluth: “What and who are your main musical inspirations?”

Asbath: “As I wrote in my previous answer, our main inspirations are traditional Central Asian culture, music, history and beliefs. Other great sources of inspiration are the landscapes of Kyrgyzstan, its mountains, lakes and forlorn ancient ruins.”

Sebastian Kluth: “You started your career in Kyrgyztan back in 1999. How did you discover metal music? Did your works meet critical acclaim in your home country? How were the general conditions to record an album or play concerts?”

Asbath: “I first came in contact with metal music in the early nineties. Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” was on the radio and when I heard it for the first time my life changed forever. More extreme kinds of metal were not that easy to discover. There were some pirate cassettes but the assortment was limited and rather strange. Some pretty obvious titles were extremely hard to find whereas some of the more obscure ones were sold everywhere. Anyways, it was enough for me and the likes. In the late nineties, Kyrgyz scene was huge. There were a lot of great bands and live shows every week. But there were almost no recording possibilities. There were no decent studios, not a single one, so almost all the bands from that times left no trace. We’ve managed to record “Sary Oy” with a home computer but at that time a computer capable of producing a tolerable record was a rarity in Kyrgyzstan.”

Sebastian Kluth: “Can you tell us more about the rock and metal scene in Kyrgyztan or its neighboring countries? Are there any bands worth to mention? What about renowned concert venues or appealing festivals?”

Asbath: “All the bands that emerged in the late 90s are dead now. I could name bands, such as Neocrima, Extrimistic Noise Clan, Dambrtash and a couple of others, but as I told you before, they all left very few to no records. I’m not really sure about what’s with the metal scene in Kyrgyzstan now, but I’m afraid that there is nothing worth mentioning. As far as I understand the situation in Kazakhstan is getting a little bit better by now. On the other hand, especially the traditional music flourishes. Check Ordo Sakhna for starters.”

Sebastian Kluth: “A while ago, Darkestrah has been relocated to Germany. Why and how did this happen? “

Asbath: “Kriegtalith and I moved to Germany in the early 2000s with our families. All other members remained in Kyrgyzstan, so this could have already been the end of our band, but after a while it became clear to us that Darkestrah had to live again. So we’ve found new musicians in Leipzig and it went on!”

Sebastian Kluth: “Do you still have close ties to Kyrgyztan and what do you think about its current economical, political and social situation?”

Asbath: “I have strong personal ties to Kyrgyzstan, a lot of my good old friends and relatives are still living there. Concerning the politics and stuff, I’m really no expert in politics and I don’t want to talk about it too much. But, well, the current state of affairs in Kyrgyzstan is a total mess, as it was ever since the end of the Soviet Union. And everything will remain the same for decades. The current regime will be most surely overthrown by revolution as the previous two were in their turn, and then everything will repeat again. When traditional nomadic family-based views of life meet modern political technologies, the result is a catastrophe.”

Sebastian Kluth: “Recently, two new musicians have been added to your line-up. How did it come to this progression? How does it feel to work as quintet now instead of a trio? Did the new members integrate well and how much do they have to say on the artistic direction of the band?”

Asbath: “It feels great! Both new members have joined us as session live performers but after a while it was clear that they fit perfectly into Darkestrah. So right now they are both full-time members. Ragnar takes a big part in composing and Cerritus works with the lyrics and helped us with some press work ever since “Khagan”. He is also an old friend of mine.”

Sebastian Kluth: “Let’s take a look on each of your studio records. What is the concept and meaning behind “Sary Oy”? Tell us more about the different exotic folk instruments used on this album. Could you describe them for us? Where did you learn how to play them?”

Asbath: “This is our most nature-related album. It is about rivers and valleys of Kyrgyzstan, magnificent and surrounded by legends. For this album we used komuz, a kind of lute with strings amid of horse hair. We also played the kyl-kyak, a bow instrument. Imagine a kind of hybrid between violin and cello. We also played the sygit and an instrument called temir-komuz which is a Kyrgyz version of the jew’s harp. Our then-guitarist Oldhan played them all. He is a skilled professional musician and could master almost any instrument.”

Sebastian Kluth: “Your second album is called “Embrace Of Memory” and the atmospheric album cover immediately grabbed my attention. What’s the relation between the cover artwork and the lyrical content for this release? Who made that artwork?”

Asbath: “Well, “Embrace of Memory” is a militant heathen album. It is about war and ancient beliefs of the nomads that drove them to fight and to conquer. The Mongolian shaman on the front cover calls the spirits of the ancient warriors of the steppe to rise again. Also, the landscape on the background is the shore of the lake Issyk-Kul, which is a hint to the next album. The cover was made by Kriegtalith. She also made all other band artworks except of the “Manas” CD front cover.

Sebastian Kluth: “Your album “Epos” has in fact a quite epic concept but you didn’t write many lyrics for such a long track. What are the song and the album about?”

Asbath: “The record “Epos” is in fact a concept album dedicated to the lake Issyk-Kul in Kyrgyzstan and the legend behind it. According to this legend there is an ancient city at the bottom of the lake and this ghostly city can be seen at sundown by those who know how to look. Concerning the song structure and the lyrics, “Epos” is constructed in a way that we could easily split it into two parts, which could be performed separately on stage. Normally we play the first part and the main body of lyrics is concentrated in this part, so that it could be perceived as a finished work both musically and lyrically.”

Sebastian Kluth: “Your fourth album is about “The Great Silk Road” Which historical events, which countries and landscapes and which folkloristic approaches did you have in mind during this record’s creative process?”

Asbath: “Well, the Silk Road was a well known caravan route that went all the way from China, through Persia and Central Asia up to the Mediterranean Sea and to Western Europe. A journey through the mountains, steppes and deserts, both real and symbolic is the main topic of the album. One of the central songs of the album called “Cult Tengri” refers both to Tengri, Lord of the Blue Sky, a main deity of Mongolian and Turkic ancient beliefs and the patron of khagans, and to the mountain Khan Tengri in Kyrgyzstan, named after him.”

Sebastian Kluth: “Your EP “Khagan” treats the life and works of Genghis Khan. Have you ever been to Mongolia or did you study any particular Mongolian folk elements before you started working on this short album?”

Asbath: “Well, we actually had the insane idea to record the album in Mongolia, but as expected it didn’t work. Instead we’ve recorded the album in Leipzig but with a “Mongolian” sound-quality, which means that this album is raw, unpolished and rather cheaply produced.”

Sebastian Kluth: “If we don’t take into consideration the EP, it took you five years before releasing a new studio album while you released your first four studio record within four years only. How comes that it took you so much time to come around with a new release?”

Asbath: “There were some personal problems, which took us some time. We had a few line-up changes, and so on. This also resulted in rather large time gaps between the song-writing, the recording, and the release. By the way, we consider “Khagan” to be a full Darkestrah album. Unlike “The Way to Paganism”, our other EP, that was mostly a preview of the upcoming “Embrace of Memory” and a strength test of the then-new line-up, “Khagan” is a finished piece of work, with its own special concept and specific message.”

Sebastian Kluth: “This year, you have finally released a brand new album entitled “Manas”. For the very first time, you decided to sing in Russian instead of English. Why did you decide to do so? Was it easier or more difficult to compose lyrics in Russian? Why didn’t you include any Kyrgyz lyrics apart of the narrative samples?”

Asbath: “Vlad Paranoid (another pen-name of Cerritus, our current bass player) is a native Russian speaker. He wrote all the lyrics for “Manas” and almost all the lyrics for “Khagan”. I don’t think it was hard for him to write in his native language. We decided to use Russian because the language sounds raw, wild and gloomy, a perfect match for albums dedicated to war and strife. It was also a kind of joke directed on Russian and Ukrainian Slavonic Metal bands. The Slavs fought a lot with Mongolians and other nomadic people through their history and we thought that they will hate us for that. It seems that the whole thing did not work, since we are still on very good terms with some of these bands, haha.”

Sebastian Kluth: “Please tell us more about the conception behind this record. What’s the essence of the Epic of Manas and how did you approach this traditional folk tale?”

Asbath: “Let’s say that “The Epic of Manas” or “Manas Destanı” is a Kyrgyz national epic. It is considered to be the largest epic poem in human history. The plot revolves around the exploits of Manas, a young batyr whose birth was predicted. Manas unifies the scattered and partially enslaved Kyrgyz tribes into one strong host and recaptures the sacred land of Ala-Too, the Motley Mountains that were occupied by enemy tribes. A lot of side-stories, flashbacks and so on are also incorporated into the text. Since “Manas” is really huge, we decided to omit the song-writing scheme, that is standard for such albums, when the story is divided into parts and for each part a separate song is written. Instead the two songs from the album “Манас-мститель” and „Манас-батыр“ outline the general story and the other songs are more like reflections on such topics as the loneliness of an exile, enemy yoke, and the bloody price of victory that have strong relation to the epic.”

Sebastian Kluth: “Let’s talk about concerts. Are you able to bring and reproduce all your exotic folk instruments and different singing styles on stage?”

Asbath: “It is almost impossible to reproduce all these instruments live and to mix the whole thing with a metal band performance. So we use just some (shaman drum and occasionally temyr-komuz) and rearrange other songs so that the folk parts could be played by guitar or keyboards. We also use a lot of samples and a background video (if it is possible) to keep the atmosphere. Kriegtalith does all her vocal parts on stage as she does on the records; it was never too hard for her.”

Sebastian Kluth: “What have been your greatest and your worst live experiences until now and why?”

Asbath: “The best show so far for us was at the Crosne Medieval Festival in Paris. It was the first time we headlined a big festival and it just felt great! We also enjoyed our last show so far, the one at the Turkish Metal Battle Festival in Berlin. The atmosphere of this event was really unique. I don’t really want to talk about bad experiences. We surely had our bad moments, but these are not the things I would like to recall. We’ve learned our lessons and won’t repeat our mistakes.”

Sebastian Kluth: “Are there any special places where you would absolutely like to play one day?”

Asbath: “Yes, we would like to play in Bishkek or at least somewhere in Central Asia! We would absolutely love to come back to our native region now, as experienced musicians. We would also like very much to play overseas. A lot of European metal bands are in a way confined to Europe. But we carry the nomadic spirit in ourselves; we feel the need to travel “till the Last Sea” and beyond as the hordes of old were striving to, haha.”

Sebastian Kluth: “I would definitely support your idea of playing overseas but what are Darkestrah’s realistic plans for the upcoming year 2014 in terms of concerts and recordings?”

Asbath: “There will be no new album in 2014, it is almost for sure. We already have some new material, but we’d prefer to take some time to make the final release as perfect as possible. We already have some live shows planned for 2014 and I think more will follow. Right now our main goal is to play live as much as possible, since we are in the best form we ever were.”

Sebastian Kluth: “Next year will mark the 15^th anniversary of Darkestrah. What do you think about releasing a compilation record or a live album for old and new fans for that occasion?”

Asbath: “I really can’t say now. We have some plans, but everything is still rather uncertain…”

Sebastian Kluth: “Thanks a lot for this great interview. The last words to our readers from all around the world are yours!”

Asbath: “We would like to thank all our fans for supporting us. Darkestrah will never stop, so expect us! Also thank you for the interesting interview. Best regards, Asbath!”