I wanted to start this interview with a question about 2012. How has the year been so far for you guys?So far so good!
Has this tour with Black Dahlia Murder, Skeletonwitch and Hour of Penance been good so far?
Yeah. A lot of challenging and interesting moments but we are having a lot of fun. The Black Dahlia [Murder] are great friends. We are having a blast.
What kind of challenges have you had so far? Troubles with the bus?
This time it is not bus trouble. Our bus and our bus driver are actually “bang on” this time. The challenges would be that often times, in some cities, metal shows get put in places they really shouldn’t be. They don’t have enough space to get up all the gear you need for four bands. So, it kind of makes it a logistical nightmare.
Last night in San Francisco [April 4th 2012], the sound girl was way out of her “water”. She was really not prepared for a show like that. She really caused us a lot of trouble… cost us three songs. I was pretty bummed; because I am from San Francisco and I wanted to play a good show and had to cut 3 songs because of the problems that she caused… it was really disappointing.
You will be releasing a new album soon (“At the Gate of Sethu”). Do you already have a date for this release?
They actually have not given us a release date. I think that what they are trying to do is to prevent people from leaking the album. If people don’t have so much information then… maybe that won’t happen this time. Who knows? I’m keeping my fingers crossed and knocking on wood.
So you guys have had problems with that before…?
Last four albums have gotten leaked from the record company… people working at the record company. It’s so frustrating.
So, they don’t have any type of “risk management” in place to prevent that?
They claim they do but people find ways around it. You know? This is the 90’s (laughs). I love that saying… is not the 90s anymore! The 90s were fucking 20 years ago. But it still sounds fun to say: This is the 90’s! Get with it! Where have you been? Stuck in the 80s! (laughs)
Can you tell us a little bit more about this new record? What should the fans expect?
Well… if you like Nile you’ll probably like this record. It’s definitely got a lot of Nile trademarks. There’s some interesting takes on stuff we’ve been doing. We really worked hard on the guitar sounds. It’s kind of a very highly evolved, articulate version of the Nile guitar sound. You can really hear all the complex riffing.
In some records of ours I think it could have been a little less “m
uddy” (with the guitar sound). With the high speed and the low tuning, all the distortion, sometimes it gets tough to hear that, you know… all the intricacies of the guitar work. That’s one thing that we really wanted to achieve: encapture a guitar tone that would allow people to hear every last fucking note.Do you have a “theme” lyric wise, for this album?
I don’t think there’s any unifying lyrical theme other than, you know, of course a lot of ancient Egyptian mysticism sort of reinterpreted with underline modern themes.
Considering that you guys always have your lyrics based on this “ancient Egyptian” type of theme: have you ever felt “trapped” when writing lyrics, because of this constant theme?
No. It’s kind of like science fiction writing, in a way: through the medium of science fiction, writers often are able to talk about all kinds of different things. A quick example: like the old Star Trek series with William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy. They were talking science fiction but yet were tied in relevant issues of the day, for their times. And it kind of gives you a new way to interpret those ideas… through the eyes of something else. In our case, we are often examining modern issues through the eyes of ancient history.
Have you guys been to Egypt and spent some time studying or visiting there?
No… we [have] yet to go there but, it looks that it is a really bad time to try to go now. I was in Dubai not too long ago and I thought to myself: “You know, plane tickets from Dubai to Egypt is pretty fucking cheap… 100 bucks probably”. But, there’s left over turmoil, their upheaval. So no… it’s not a good time to go… God dammed!
How are you guys planning to promote the new album (tours, video clips)?
Tour, tour, tour. So far we’ve got some things in the works. Whether we get to make a video clip or not it’s kind of up to whether or not the record company is willing to help us with it. Last record they didn’t help us at all, we had to try to do it all ourselves and I wasn’t so happy with the results. So, I don’t know… who knows? But this record is a really strong record so maybe they will get behind it. We’ll see.
Any unexplored territories on the plans this year?
Actually, when this North American tour is finished we are going to India, Thailand, Singapore, Taiwan, Philippines and a few other places. It’s a little Southeast Asia tour.
Talking about the metal scene now: is still better to play in Europe than to play in the US?
Humm… yeah. I would say so.
Is that maybe because of the lack of Metal festivals here?
b>That could be a contributing factor, certainly. The European summer festivals, I think, support an entire metal subculture.
But I think also, there is some element of “trendy-ism” here in America. I notice in Europe there are people coming to shows for the last 10 years and will probably always come to the shows. But in America people listen to extreme metal for a little while then go get married and get a job, get a house and kids, and they stop listening to metal. So, every couple of years you have to keep rebuilding your fan base over and over again… because people don’t stay.
A lot of bands talk about the difficulties of selling albums in this “download age”. Do you think that this type of comment may change people’s behavior and actually motivate them to purchase the albums?
I don’t think that it does any good to “bitch” and moan and cry about downloading because there is downloading and it doesn’t matter how much you cry about it people are still going to download music… it’s just the age in which we live.
Having said that: regardless about how people feel about it, the fact is that if you don’t sell any CDs then you certainly don’t have a recording career anymore. And then one goes:” you can just make money out of tours”. It’s not so easy to make money on tour. I mean, it is the only way to make money but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Like for instance, if you buy a t-shirt from us (which is our way to make money), the venue takes 20, 30 and in some cities 40% off it. And I still have to pay for the shirts; I have to pay for the person who sells the shirts for me. And I have to pay the venue, the gas for the tour bus… Jesus Christ the price of gasoline right now is insane!
Someone told me that even the money out of the meet and greets with the fans goes all to the venue…
That’s why we don’t do meet and greets. Because we’ve realized (we’re not dummies), that the venue is just making money on us… mother fucking greed ripping off fans. You can meet and greet the fucking band for free, just come up and say “Hi”. We’re metal people, it’s easy to say “Hello” to us. We all love metal, we are like a big family anyway.
So, when the fans buy the CDs… do you guys get something out of it?
If you come to the show and buy the CD from us, then we make the money, and that’s better.
What about MP3s? If the fans buy MP3s, does that help the bands?
Well, actually that does. iTunes is very good about sending the money. It’s not a lot of money but at least is something. I think that’s fair.
Any messages to the Spirit of Metal readers?
I believe in the Spirit of Metal! I do… yes!
Interview done by Deesse_de_la_nuit
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