Interview

Yeah, well. Probably the show is a good way to discover a band. I think itīs always this way. Back then in 1993 I discovered NEUROSIS live, it was a band I never heard before. They were playing in Germany and I didnīt even know the name. That was a really good surprise. I suggest, come to a show, I think itīs a really good way to discover a band. Otherwise one can obviously download a couple of songs nowadays, thatīs also a good way to know whatīs going on music wise. Somebody is doing it anyway. If you donīt know about a band you can check out their website. And then download some stuff, that will give you an idea if you want to go further with that band or not.

Yeah, but for example when you discovered NEUROSIS in 1993 the band had one album out and thatīs it. Youīre having a complete back catalogue. Funny enough about the same time as your album is coming out Fenriz of DARKTHRONE will bring out a compilation where you are featured with one of your first songs ("Into The Pentagram"). People who would look up your most recent entries will find a black metal song and "Reign Of Light" as well.

Yes, sure. Maybe it is a good start for those people to simply check out our official website (see link below - laetti). Usually when you search for something then you gonna try to get an official website first and thatīs gonna give you an impression. Obviously this band is existing for quite some time. But yeah, the compilation you mentioned, thatīs really part of the really early SAMAEL, itīs over ten years old now, so, itīs kind of - not that up-to-date anymore. But itīs probably still interesting.

Of course it is. You made quite a development in between.

Yeah, there was something, which was always really important for the band, to explore new things and to try to kind of surprise ourselves also. And by doing the same music over and over again I donīt think you realise that anymore. We try to keep an excitement within the band. And we always try to develop.

So is there a kind of competition between you and your brother to surprise the other one with songs?

Thatīs a good one! But nah, not really. If I create something Iīm trying to surprise and attract people who surround me. So it can be the band members first and then also friends. And actually those people might have an influence on what weīre doing, I think. Because those people that surround you, you may unconsciously try to seduce them, try to do something that would please them. Well, that could be. I donīt know if there is so much as a competition between us two. Not really.

Thereīs only a few people who know already the "Era One Project" - but if you compete both recordings, thereīs not really a difference between "Era One" and you new album "Reign in Light". If someone knows both, you can see the steps in between. Did you try to avoid some too close parallels to keep Samael different from "Era One"?

We experimented with "Era One". At that time we really didnīt know where to go. The band didnīt have a proper line-up since we didnīt have a second guitar player back then so we were only us three members. We were not really able to play life. The vibe, it was quite strange. Itīs probably highly influential because I think on this Era One we experimented some stuff with the voice for instance. It was a good way to try and thereīs some of those more rhythmical voices and more melodic also. And Iīm quite sure some of those things actually had an influence on the new album. Because thatīs something we have done between "Eternal" and "Reign Of Light" and itīs kind of - well, maybe weīd learned a few things from this experience and then included it into the new album. Although you know itīs quite a different thing from the other. But itīs still not released, so itīs apparent only for those people who have checked it. They said that itīs still quite close to SAMAEL in a way, even if thereīs no real guitar and only electronics.

Thereīs still lots of electronics on "Reign Of Light". Did you put on that new album all things that worked out in this experiment? Do you limit yourself by not using this or that amount of new influences?

We donīt really limit ourselves this much. "Era One" is still SAMAEL style. Which we tried to keep in a way, so there is obviously some stuff we do not try because itīs music that will be completely different. So that would not really fit. But on the new album weīre working with a really oriental touch and things like that. Actually itīs quite open and I donīt think Iīm really frustrated within SAMAEL. Basically itīs quite open so it is cool.

Where did you get those oriental influences, have you been travelling a lot?

I donīt know. Well, Vorph was in Asia a long time ago and I went there afterwards, maybe a bit of that. The scales of those songs have some really strange vibe, itīs something we were not really used to as Europeans anyway. Itīs a really different sound and it kind of creates a critical and magical tune to us, thatīs also why we really wanted to include those into SAMAELīs music. Once weīve tried it mixed really well actually, our straight groovy drums, the heavy guitar and more light oriental sound. We started with a few songs, "Moongate" and "Heliopolis" were first, those songs with a sitar. A song like "InchīAllah" was basically more classical oriental from the violin style, then we moved it to a rather Arabian thing.

Well, thatīs quite smart. I donīt understand the lyrics of "InchīAllah" in total but to have a quite respectful use of those patterns and influences and then to have lyrics like those, thatīs quite sophisticated.

The song is based on knowledge of human nature and the way you build up your own personage. It has no Arabian connotation, itīs just the title that really fits with the lyrics, thatīs why we choose it. And then also because of the music. Actually we changed this violin part at the end, basically the song was not really build up that way. So it is interesting sometimes how a song could develop during a recording process.

Are you planning to make a video of your first single "Telepath"?

Yeah, weīre discussing and there is some plan and I think weīre trying to do this before the tour, so quite soon actually. Probably weīre gonna do our first video clip with that song. Then weīll see whatīs happening and maybe we try to do another video clip for a different song next year. Weīre having a delay between the release in Europe and the US release so maybe the album is gonna be released in the US early next year and we try to have a different video clip for that.

Isnīt this quite difficult? Youīre having your own record company right now, doesnīt that mean that you have to pay for your video all by yourself?

Yeah, well, obviously. But we have some kind of support coming from the recording company again, we have a kind of collaboration. It is our money but we can spend it the way we decide within the label. But there is some kind of support. Itīs really a good collaboration weīre having right now so itīs an interesting mix we have right now. Also to use it in distribution things, and we do this together means we donīt have to go country by country. So itīs kind of working fine.

What is it like to be a label chief?

We founded the label to create an entity for SAMAEL to work on and maybe also for our different projects from within the band - thatīs the whole idea behind, but we always wanted to do this as a collaboration so itīs kind of - itīs not this much work, itīs not like you would really run a full label where you really need to develop, to create, to sign new acts and things like that, so itīs just to build up a thing to gain more control on what we are doing now.

Youīve had 4 producers or technical engineers for recording this album. Why did you use so many different people?

Basically we wanted to record the whole album around here to have access to everything that we are recording in our own place afterwards. So we did record everything in Switzerland. Some of the stuff we did record at our own place and for some like guitar or voice we went to different places and we used different engineers for different instruments actually. We also could afford to rent some stuff and that was the way we proceeded for the recording. The idea was really to have an access to everything we did record and to be able to listen to this with some feedback. And also to channel different things. Once we had the final vocals I could still change stuff with programming and things like that. It was really interesting for us to do it that way. All in all I think this is the album we definitely worked at the most. Also due to that we had more time available anyway. We could go over the clock in a way. If you do it in a regular studio set up, then you have this time to record, this time to mix.

How and where did you do the mixing then?

We went to Sweden, that was kind of planned already when we did the recording, we didnīt want to do everything in Switzerland anyway. And yeah, there was a different thing then, but with the total time which was needed we spent like almost 3 weeks in Sweden and 2 weeks only for the mixing which is also the longest we ever did. But I think it was worth it, because the whole album has much more details and we have been able to go as far as we wanted. And also from the mix, I think itīs a good step, compared to "Eternal" for instance which was maybe too large. And this one is kind of compact and colourful, yes quite bright. It has this kind of crystal sound which we were looking for a longer timeI think. And we kind of archive that in this album, I guess.

Now you did everything on your own and you gained control, finally. Do you think that all those efforts, all this time, those five years that youīve waited for this moment, that you now have a new musical baby made under your own control - was it worth it?

Yeah, I think. Because we were in a situation where it was not really possible to walk in a different way. We really needed this kind of control to follow what we were doing. You mentioned "baby" but - itīs different, but itīs thereīs a bit of truth behind. You know, you create something some time and then you want to still possess it, not to give to somebody else. I think it was worth it. And maybe we also had to go through something like that. You learn with everything. If you donīt go that way, you might not end up somewhere else. So weīll see in the future.

Ok. So you learned your lesson?

Yeah, kind of. I guess so. You know, sometimes even a problem can be something positive. Because you need to solve it. And once you solved it, and you know how you solved it you can learn out of that. And due to it we also had to understand a bit more the business side of music of which we had really no clue. Letīs say, not much, but not more than we used to. So at least itīs quite useful nowadays. And will be useful for us in the future also. So I think, all in all it was good.

Do you have any final phrases? Like "see you on tour", "buy our album" - thatī the usual last words.

So, probably we get the same, our greetings go out to your readers, and thanks for the time they spent to reading that, and yeah, hope to see them on tour sometime.

(laetti)