Hailing from Cork in Ireland, Forbidden Son are a young rock/metal band with a lot of potential.  Today we catch up with drummer Barry Wilson to find out more about the band and their new album 'The Balance Of All Good And Evil' ...  

MM - Hi Barry, thanks for agreeing to take part in this interview with us we really appreciate it.
Barry - No problem, it is our pleasure! We don’t often get to do these sort of things so thanks for the opportunity.

MM - Would you like to give us a brief history on the band, how it all came about, how it’s evolved and where you call home etc?
Barry - Well, to be honest, we’ve been under so many different names and we’ve gone through quite a few band members, it's hard to pinpoint when exactly ‘Forbidden Son’ came about, but our first solid line up began in mid 2005, where we started and remained a 3 piece (drums – Barry W, bass – Peter W and guitar/vocals – Jamie S) and have had one line up change, as our long time bass player Kevin Barry left shortly after the recording of our second album.

We’ve released 3 albums of originals overall, one in late 2005, one in summer of 2006 and one a couple of weeks ago. We play many gigs around Munster but find it hard to branch elsewhere due to the fact that we currently have an underage member in our band. Once we’re all eligible to play over 18's venues, hopefully our gig roster will increase a bit!

	MM - How do you feel the bands sound has developed since it originally started? Barry - Our first two albums were very much rooted in the thrash genre with metalcore influences and also a strong emphasis on Melodic 80’s-esque guitar work. Our newest album has retained the heaviness of the first two whilst adding more progressive and experimental elements to the songs.
Our musicianship has improved as well and with that comes more technically challenging riffs on the album, for example, we have a 9 minute instrumental on there, which would not have been at home on our earlier offerings. I guess in short, we’ve become more spontaneous.

MM - How would you describe your music and who do you see as your target audience?
Barry - I would describe our music as a bit eclectic in terms of where we draw influences, but primarily heavy metal. We don’t really want to have a target audience, we hope all sorts of people give our music a chance. We hope Metal and Rock fans like our music I guess, but we hope fans of other genres appreciate what we’re doing too.

MM - At what age did you become interested in being a performer and what/who inspired you to join a band?
Barry - At about 11 I got my first drum kit but it was only about a year later when I really got into it. I guess just watching and listening to other bands made me very interested and my whole family is full of musicians so they inspired me too.

MM - Where did the bands name come from and what does it represent to you?  Can you remember any of the other names that were considered at the time? 
Barry - Haha, well I’d like to think ‘Forbidden Son’ actually represented anything, but musically it doesn’t really. We have a song on our second album called ‘Servants of the Forbidden Son’, which is all about religion and being a slave to its laws and we just thought it would be a cool band name. We’ve had lots and lots of different names, which would literally take up a whole page so I’ll just say this: ‘Trinity’. Cringe away.

MM - The band currently have a new album out called ‘The Balance Of All Good And Evil’.  Would you like to tell us a little bit about the songs that feature on it?
Barry - Well the songs are a lot more complex than our oldies. We have lots of different sound effects and keys going on throughout the whole album so in that way its a lot more interesting. One of our songs reaches the 11 minute mark so we’re quite proud of that, haha! A lot of our songs also reference the album title. Arise for example, is an instrumental, where the first part is very melodic whilst the second part is quite dark and ‘evil’ sounding, which provided a cool contrast.

MM - How does the song writing process work within the band?  Is it down to one particular person or do you all get involved?
Barry - Basically, our lead guitarist/Vocalist, Jamie Stanton, jams some new riffs he has and we all just play along, adding as we go. The foundation is built firstly by Jamie, then we all just build on that. Its definitely a democracy when it comes to constructing songs.

MM - What song is your personal favourite to play live and which one(s) really get the crowd going wild?
Barry - 'Symphony in the Sky' definitely goes down best and a lot of our speedier ones get the crowd going. My personal favourite to play would have to be 'Arise', as the structure is fairly all over the place and therefore is always very interesting to play!

MM - For you personally what bands do you think were the most influential from: (a) the 70’s, (b) the 80’s, (c) the 90’s, and (d) today.
Barry - From the 70’s, it would have to be the likes of Deep Purple and of course, the mighty Thin Lizzy. From the 80’s, the big ones would include the obvious Metallica and Iron Maiden, which I feel have influenced almost every band. Then there’s Rush, Megadeth, Fates Warning etc. There’s a whole lot of influencing from the 80’s! From the 90’s, it would have to be Dream Theater, which I feel are one of the biggest influences on our band as of now. Nightwish also have a big impact, both from their 90’s material and today's material, same goes for DT. A lot of bands today, 2000 onwards, are major influences. Killswitch Engage, Trivium, Mastodon. So much good music is being released constantly.

MM - How has the internet helped spread the word about the band and do you feel downloading is harming the scene of helping to keep it alive?
Barry - Firstly, the internet is a massive tool in helping us promote. Sites such as Myspace are almost compulsory amongst bands wanting to make it big. Getting gigs has become easier, selling albums has become easier and most importantly reaching new fans from all over the world. Secondly, I feel there’s pro’s and cons to the whole ‘downloading’ problem.

Firstly, the music industry is doing it no favours, as most albums are 15 euro/pounds/dollars and consider that could be 15 euro/pounds/dollars worth of music you might not even like, it’s just simply too overpriced. All prices should be lowered so people who don’t have money to spend on a load of albums will be more inclined to buy a well packaged and good quality cd than to download it.

On the other hand, people are being illegal when doing this and they are getting free tracks that musicians have spent time recording, so, it's definitely a hard one to make my mind up about.

MM - If you were doing a gig on a desert island and could only bring one instrument with you for the whole band, what would it be and why?
Barry - A keyboard … As much as I hate the fact that keyboards can now replicate what us drummers have to work our asses off to master, I feel it would be the most practical. You can get whole friggin’ orchestral scores done on keyboards now!

MM - Are there any other upcoming bands that you'd suggest people keep an ear out for?
Barry - Well, from my general area, I would suggest you keep an ear out for a band called Itchy Trigger Finger. They have both a Myspace and a Bebo and no doubt one day they’ll make it big. I also made friends with a musician from Canada who’s in a simply amazing band called ‘Gates of Winter’, who are fairly well known but have yet to get signed. I also suggest erm … Us! Haha.

MM - Tell us one thing about yourself that not many people know and probably would never know had they not read this interview.
Barry - I met Jimmy Page … I guess that’s not really about myself but that was pretty cool!

MM - Finally is there anything you’d like to say to all our readers out there?
Barry - I’d just like to say thanks for reading this interview and I hope that if you listened to our songs you like ‘em. We always appreciate comments on our music and any support you can offer, it means a lot to us! Thanks again, Barry.

www.myspace.com/forbiddenson

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