Artist:  Orden Ogan  

Date: 9 February 2010  

Hailed as the new saviour's of German melodic metal, we catch up with main man and vocalist Seeb to find out more about this metal phenomenon that is Orden Ogan.

MM - Firstly thanks for taking time out for the interview with us.
Seeb – No problem, you're welcome ! 

MM - The band must be really proud of the new album 'Easton Hope', it's a really powerful melody rich metal album.
Seeb – Thank you very much.  

MM - This is the bands third release, how do you think your sound has matured since the second album ‘Vale’?
Seeb – You don’t know the first release? 
MM – No, I’m afraid I don’t. 

Seeb – Then I have to take you back in time a moment. The ‘Testimonium’ album is quite the same sort of album as 'Easton Hope' is as regards to the sound.  It just turned out a little more Folky and medieval than was intended in the beginning. 
MM - Ah right!

Seeb – On the first demo’s we did in around 2000 we were way more of Power Metal band and I think the difference between 'Vale' and 'Easton Hope' is that on 'Vale', it's more of a classic Metal record, which itself wasn’t meant to be that way because we recorded a lot of orchestration’s for it and it was arranged with many orchestra and choir parts.  Do you know of the band 'Mystic Prophecy'?
MM – A little.

Seeb – The singer of Mystic Prophecy he mixed it with us.  He thought it would be better to scale back all of those orchestral elements and force through the guitars more. We thought ok at the time, but now 'Easton Hope' is more of what we wanted Organ Ogan to sound like from the beginning, with all those orchestrations.  At the moment we are thinking of remixing the ‘Vale’ album to bring all of those orchestrations back.   

MM - The album is a concept piece based around the character Alister Vale, will you be continuing the theme onto the next album?
Seeb – To be honest we don’t know at the moment.  The 'Easton Hope' album takes place in time before 'Vale'.  If we do another album with the Alister Vale theme then it will tell the story of before 'Easton Hope'. 

MM - You're now signed to AFM Records, how important is this for you and did the fact that they are a German label sway you to sign with them ? 
Seeb – We are a band that did a lot of things ourselves and we still do.  I don’t know if you’ve seen the ‘We Are Pirates” video.
MM – Yes. 

The best thing for you as a band is that when you sign to a label, the people working there are also fans of the band.  'Vale' was only released in German, Austria and Switzerland, but 'Easton Hope' is our first release to be out in the US and Japan as well as the rest of Europe, so it’s a big step for us. 

MM -The band have been labeled as a Power Metal band but how would you describe yourselves musically?
Seeb – Yes we don’t really like the term Power Metal for our music.  When I hear the term Power Metal I think of bands like Rhapsody and such with very high vocals.  I think we are more like a Heavy Metal band with a very melodic sound.  I think we are Melodic Metal but Timo says that that is also a very difficult label to put on a band.   

MM - Back to the album, how does an album come together, who does the song writing and who does the music?
Seeb – Yeh, I’m a very creative guy, so most of the things I do myself.  I also have a small studio together with a friend of mine, who is also a sound engineer.  So it's very cool for us to record the ideas from the beginning when they come into our minds.  Also all the other musicians in Orden Ogan are very good musicians, for instance our guitarist Tobi is a guitar teacher and Nils our keyboardist is doing a lot of film score and so on.  So of course they bring their own ideas to the band.  Most of the time it’s me who brings things together.

MM – One of the high points of the album for me is your vocals, and I’m not just saying that because you're on the phone!  You have a rich vocal sound that isn’t pushed to screaming, it has power without that scream element you get with some vocalists who seem to be pushing too hard.  You can go from the folky elements of ‘We Are Pirates’ to my favourite track off the album ‘The Black Heart’.  You just seem to have it all vocally.
Seeb – Thank you, the funny thing is ‘The Black Heart’ I wrote completely by myself and it’s the song I dislike the most!

MM - Dislike?
Seeb – It’s the only track on the album I don’t like.  I love the rest of the tracks but that one when it comes to this track I skip it.  But it’s interesting because a lot of people say that that track is the best on the album. 
MM - Well I mean you only wrote it so what do you know! (laughs). 

Seeb – Concerning the high-pitched vocals, there are two sides to it, I could do it but I don’t really like to do it because I haven’t the technique to carry it off. Also I'm not into that really.

MM – I think that kind of vocal wouldn’t suit the bands sound.  There is a great deal of melody in the album and it would be spoilt with a screaming vocal. 
Seeb - Sometimes I think there might be a little too much.

MM – No, No, the album has just the right amount, you don’t what a screaming guitar solo, you want something you can listen to. 
Seeb – What I want to say is there is a lot of information in the songs, a lot of orchestration, a lot of melody.  We like to work on things a lot to get them perfect.  But a lot of people, especially journalists who don’t have much time only listen to the album once, and they can't understand the complete album.  But also I’ve heard that this album grows the more you listen to it. 

MM - The band also has its own festival WinterNachtsTraum, "Wonderful Winters Night", can you tell us how this came together and who can we expect to see on this year’s stage? 
Seeb – We started the festival in 2004.  We’re all from Arnsberg, that’s in the middle of Germany and there is a lot of countryside outside there. (laughs)  When we were starting this festival there was no location that you could play as a band, so we just wanted to have a platform where bands could represent themselves.  Another thing is that we've had to eat a lot of shit in the past on a lot of other festivals.  

As a small band it is always hard.  We wanted to put on a festival that featured the best of the German underground scene and give them a chance to represent themselves on a big stage.  We are recording all the bands that play on video and they get this video cut from us for free to help promote themselves.

MM - Am I right in saying there are around twenty-eight bands playing this year? 
Seeb – It has been more in previous years, it has been around thirty-three, but this year I think it is twenty-four.  

MM - I must be a large undertaking, I mean you're now putting bands on from Norway and France this year.  
Seeb – It’s a lot of hard work but it’s also fun. 

MM - What does it mean to the band to be playing Wacken this year? 
Seeb – Yes Wacken is the biggest thing for us this year and the biggest thing also in our career.

MM - For a lot of Metal bands Wacken is the pinnacle festival to play. 
Seeb – The first time I was at Wacken was in 1988.  As a small teenager your dreaming and saying one day I will be playing on that stage ... so twelve years later I’m finally playing.  Of course we’re really looking forward to it.

MM - I’m sure you’ll blow them away, if the live show is anything like the album. 
Seeb – Thank you very much.

MM - Do the band have any plans for a headline tour this year or is it just festivals? 
Seeb - Yes we are discussing quite a few options but nothing is really solid yet, but I’m sure we’ll be on a European tour before the end of the year. 

MM - Where do the band go from here?  Do the band have any plans for the future, or are you taking things as they come?
Seeb – I’m not sure if you can plan things out.  Sometimes things don’t go the way you want them to.  The first thing we want to do is put on a good show at Wacken and then a European tour.  I guess in the beginning of 2011 maybe re-releasing the 'Vale' album, the remixed version of the album, maybe “Re-Valed”.  We’ve started writing for the new album, which we hope to release at the end of 2011, but it's always hard work and nobody knows where we will be then.

MM - Thanks for taking time out and good look with the new album and the festivals.  You’re sure to blow them away at Wacken and hopefully we’ll see you in the UK very soon. 
Seeb – Thank you very much.

MM - We'd like to thank Seeb for taking the time out to chat with us today and wish him all the best with the new album, the bands appearance at Wacken and also their own WinterNachtsTraum festival.  Hopefully it won't be too long before we see this band play our shores.

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