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Shortly
before the band were due to perform at the Peace & Love Festival in
Borlange, we catch up with lead singer Samuel Nyman to find out how
things are going with the band since the release of their stunning debut
album 'The Darkest Room ' on AFM Records.
MM - Hi Samuel
how are you today?
Samuel - I'm fine thank you.
MM
- Thanks for taking time to do the interview.
Samuel - No
problem.
MM
- Manimal is a fairly new band to me, how did you all come together?
Samuel - We
met the four of us in 2001. How it started was I always wanted to
play in a metal band.
MM
- I just wanted to say your voice on the album is very good indeed, it's
hard to believe you haven’t been in a metal band before.
Samuel - Thank
you.
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MM
- So how long did it take to put the album together?
Samuel - Well
we started recording the album in 2008. Due to expenses
and studio time it took a while but in retrospect we don’t
regret taking that time, because the album came out better than
we could have imagined.
MM
- Yes it certainly did. It must have been a roller coaster
ride since the album came out has it?
Samuel - Yes we released the album in February on our own
record label, when the album entered the album charts AFM took
an interest and things just started rolling and they just got
faster and faster. Yes it feels like we're living our
dream now. We knew the album was good but you never know
how good it is or should I say how other people will react to
it. Your own product you like and love it because you have
a special relationship with it, but you never know how other
people are going to take
it. So its become a very exciting ride so far.
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MM
- Did you have to do any re-recording for the AFM release or did you
just use the masters?
Samuel
- Yes,
just from the masters. That was an issue we had, we’d would have
liked to have some extra’s to add to this second release.
Unfortunately we had three more songs recorded for this release but they
didn’t make the masters. It's not because they were bad, in fact
two of the songs were very good, but we had to let them go. So
this release on AFM is the same.
MM
- Have you started working on the second album yet or is it too soon?
Samuel - The
progress that’s is going on now is that we have three songs already
and those three songs I mentioned. They were great and we don’t
want to let them go so we keep them and use them on the next album.
So progress is going on but at the same time we want to promote this
album.
MM
- So you're doing a show tonight?
Samuel - Yes,
we are.
MM
- Do you have any more dates lined up?
Samuel - Yes,
when it comes to touring we are looking for a support slot for a
European tour, but nothing is set in stone yet.
MM
- Why did you decide to release the album first time by yourselves?
Was it a case of that you couldn’t wait any longer for a label to pick
you up?
Samuel - We
are very critical when it comes to song writing and it wasn’t until
2007 that we decided that our material was good enough to be released.
We could have released an album earlier, say in 2005, but we didn’t
think the material was good enough, so I’m grateful for that fact.
MM
- The band have actually played Sweden Rock festival before the band had
recorded an album.
Samuel - We
are very grateful to be included in the Sweden Rock Festival and also to
be the supporting act for several acts in Sweden. We are very
grateful for that. The reason for that is that people thought that
our music had potential and people gave us that opportunity to play at
these festivals and tours. We used to go to the festival every year and
thought one day we will play here and in 2007 we did, it was great.
MM
- I can see the band on the stage next year.
Samuel - Yes,
unfortunately the album was released too late for the festivals as they
are fully booked before the New Wear, but hopefully we will be able to
do more festivals next Summer and hopefully we will have a new album by
then. Our mission is to release our new album in the Spring of
2010 so maybe we’ll be able to play Bloodstock and maybe Sweden Rocks
again, hopefully the Summer will be fully booked.
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MM
- So who actually writes the material for the band?
Samuel - About
half of the album is written by the four of us together, those
songs have become more varied in styles, but the other half are
written by me and Henrik. Those songs are more straight
forward and we think these two ways of writing are good because
you get a more varied album this way.
MM
- 'Spinegrinder' in particular is definitely more metal.
Samuel - Yes
that was a song written by the two of us. Also the lyrics
are written by the drummer Richard. Mainly the lyrics are
written by me or Richard, or the two of us together. We think we
will repeat this way of writing.
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Samuel - Yeh
do you think so?
MM
- Oh yes definitely, I mean it has so many different elements in it it's
just a joy to listen too.
Samuel - That’s
great to hear. We were a little afraid that the different aspects
on the album would maybe put people off the album, but we were wrong
when we thought that, by the reviews we have received and the comments
on MySpace about the album.
MM
- Yeh, I mean 'Ordinary Man' has a more gentle vibe then you’ve got
'Human Nature' which is more of an all out guitar track. There are
so many different vibes that it doesn't make the album sound stale.
It sounds refreshing to hear as you go from track to track picking up
all these different vibes.
Samuel - If
you think so then I think we have accomplished what we were going for.
MM
- Yes I’ve read quite a few reviews and they’ve been good across the
board apart from one which I think was from an Italian reviewer.
Samuel - We
have received one bad review, it was really bad. He thought our
guitar player Henrik did quite a good job but the rest of us and me in
particular he thought I was awful and annoying
MM
- I don't know how he came up with that, I think you have a great voice
for metal, for me it reminded me of Geoff Tate and Ronnie James Dio in
places and on 'Spinegrinder' you have a little Rob Halford in there as
well.
Samuel - All
these guys you mentioned are great influences on me, especially Geoff
Tate and Rob Halford. Also Michael Kiske of early Helloween, so
yes you can hear that. The way I sing is nothing, you can come up
with it yourself because it's a
bit unnatural way for a guy to sing, so I tried when I started singing
to copy my idols, and I tried to make my own thing of it. You have
different ranges so I tried to find my own style.
MM
- I believe when you rehearsed for the singer in the band you actually
sang Helloween ‘Futureworld’?
Samuel - Ah
yes.
MM
- Will you be trying it
again live?
Samuel
- It
didn’t song very good that day, but we have been playing ‘Save Us’
at some gigs. We love the early Helloween stuff, the Seven Keys
stuff.
MM
- Does the band have a mission statement say for the next five years?
Samuel - Well
now we want to get out on the road to promote this album and meet our
fans. Hopefully the next step is to write and record the next
album for release in 2010. In five years I hope that we have
released at least three albums and built a fan base big enough for us to
tour on our own, because for now we will tour as a supporting act.
It's hard to tour on your own with just one album, but hopefully in five
years time we can make a living from this. It’s not the most
important thing but it’s a dream to make a living from what we do.
MM
- Hand on heart I can honestly say this album is definitely one to push
the album forward in a big way. I know it's only been four months
since the album's release, but there is already a buzz around about the
band.
Samuel - As
you can imagine it's our first album and every day is unreal as everyday
we receive something in our mailbox about a new review, or someone
wanting to do an interview with us, it’s unreal
MM
- Well thank you Samuel for taking the time out to chat with us this
evening.
Samuel - No
problem.
MM
- Good luck for new album and I hope to see you very, very soon over
here in the UK, either as a support band or main band.
Samuel
- Thank
you.
MM - With that we
leave Samuel to return to his sound check with the band and hope
everything goes well with the show tonight and the new album.
Fingers crossed if the Gods are feeling kindly we might see Manimal on
our shores before too long and get to hear their great songs performed
in the live arena.
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