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After
witnessing the no holds barred Metal assault by the band way back in
2007 when they supported the mighty W.A.S.P. on their UK tour, to say we
were a tad excited at the prospect of seeing this band on these shores
again is an understatement. We caught up the band shortly before
their show in Newcastle to find out how the new album has been received
and the tour so far ...
MM - How
are you guys
feeling
today?
Memnock
– We’re feeling a bit rough today because everyone has come down
with a cold. You know how it is when you are on tour, one gets it
then everybody gets it! (laughs).
Cyrus
- But we’re happy and we’re glad to be back playing in Newcastle.
It’s a great city, very, very nice.
MM
- How has the tour being
going so far?
Memnock
– The tour has been great, the turn-outs have been great.
I think must be our 5th tour in the UK and gradually we feel like
we’re building up a good crowd. I
think it was maybe 5 or 6 years ago when we first started touring in the
UK.
Elvorn
– We played this venue 2 years ago with WASP.
MM
– Yes, we saw you at that show!
Cyrus – It
was a good gig.
MM – Yes, that’s why I
was so excited when I heard you were coming back because we enjoyed
seeing you at that show so much.
MM –
You’ve hooked up with Breed 77 for this tour but both bands have quite
different sounds. How has that gone down with the fans?
Memnock –
Yes, we've got
totally different sounds.
Cyrus – It
seems like they like it. The Breed fans are just down there and smiling,
which is really cool for us. It’s a really good give and take result.
Memnock – I don’t know if you know this but we used to be an
extreme metal band and now we’re more ‘happy metal’ if you like.
We’re used to having a certain role on stage and being quite
aggressive and then all of a sudden you can’t do that because it will
scare the good people.
Everyone is
just so happy and dancing. We think ... ah this is OK, we must be doing
good! (laughs)
Elvorn
– It
feels really good that we can present our music to a different kind of
people and not only the extreme type of metaller. I think the tour
is going very well and it certainly looks like a lot of people are
liking it.
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MM
– After the shock of Athera’s quadruple heart by-pass, did
you ever think this will be the end of the band? What thoughts
went through you heads at the time?
Elvorn -
I don’t think it would ever be the end of the band if one of
us was to die or something. Of course we got a fright and we did
not know what was going to happen with the tours and stuff.
Athera wanted us to go ahead with this tour and get a session
musician in. We’re going to play a festival in Norway in
June and then we hope that Athera's will have a huge come back
then. We had a few rehearsals with him before we went out
on tour and his voice is very strong and he’s doing very well.
He’s quit smoking and he’s recovering well.
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Memnock
– The question was actually quite interesting because Susperia has
always had a policy where we do not change members, and when he got
really, really ill because of his heart-attack, we did think ... how can
we continue if he can’t do it? In the spirit of Susperia we
would probably get a replacement as we have now if it was short term,
but if it was long term and forever then I don’t know. I think
we would have continued but it would have been so hard.
Elvorn – Yes, this happens when everyone has been together for so
long. If one of us isn’t able to be there with the others then
everyone really misses that person, as they are a real part of the band.
It has been over 10 years that we have been together, which is a long
time.
MM – I think if a band starts to drift apart and go in different
directions musically then it’s not so unexpected that you may loose
someone and decide to bring a new member in. But when it something like
a serious health problem that you weren’t expecting that can be quite
different.
Memnock
– Yes, thankfully he is getting
well again now so we will do a few more rehearsals when we get back and
then everything should be fine. His
voice is better than ever, maybe because he’s stopped smoking, I would
guess this is probably the reason for that! (laughs). He will be
back big time though.
MM – Excellent!
MM – You’ve brought in a temporary replacement singer for this tour
Bernt Fjellestad, how has he fitted in with the band?
Memnock – He is
like the clone of Athera! (laughs).
Cyrus – He is a really nice person to work with and he is a great
singer, and this is what we wanted for the tour so it has worked out
well for us. Everything
up to now has been great with him and he has the right attitude.
MM – How long did he have to rehearse with the bands
material before you came out on tour?
Elvorn –
Ah we had about 2 rehearsals with us all together. (laughs).
Memnock –
He had about 5 weeks before those rehearsals on his own though.
Cyrus – Yes but as the singer he had to memorize
the words to about 12 songs in the set and that is not so easy.
Now he probably knows the lyrics better than we do! (laughs all round).
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MM
– How has the new album been received by your fans and the
media in general?
Memnock -
Well we’ve just hit the 12th most selling metal bands in the
United States this week. So it seems like it’s been
received quite well. We are doing well in the US but in
Europe they aren’t so sure. They don’t seem to be into this
type of metal that we are playing, although I think we’re
starting to grow on them.
Elvorn – We’re getting good
reviews and also a lot of websites that sell the album have said
it is the most selling brand new album.
Cyrus – It’s still quite a fresh release as it’s only
been out one week so far but it’s all looking good so far.
Memnock – Ah well there you go, that’s me being negative
again! (laughs)
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MM – As
you mentioned earlier the band have been together for 10 years now,
looking back on your career so far, what’s been the highlights so far?
Memnock – For me personally probably when we played in Mexico.
We played 2 shows in Mexico City and that was fantastic. It was a
very good location also.
Elvorn – We worked it around so we got picked up at the airport,
got to the hotel and had a drink and then went out to watch the city a
bit before playing the gig. Then we had a day off before playing
the next gig. The gig was just awesome and the people there were just
fantastic. They were really hungry for music. When you play in
Germany for example, there are bands playing almost every night, so I
think the fans really appreciate the bands more in South America and
they gave us a very good response.
Cyrus – It’s fun to play in front of another audience no matter
where you play though.
Elvorn – It doesn’t matter where we play though, as long as we
perform well and the people like it. It doesn’t matter where it is.
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MM
– How do you think the band has progressed from your early days
to where you are now? Obviously in those early days you were
a lot more ferocious shall we say in your approach to your music
than you are now. Was that a conscious decision to move in
the direction that you are now or did it just happen that way?
Cyrus – Well we didn’t ever decide to start making
softer music, I just think all the way from day one to now it’s
been a natural evolvement for the band.
Memnock – Basically we just do what we want to do. If
the music turns out the way it does then it does. We don’t
set boundaries, that’s also why we called one of the albums
‘Unlimited’ because there’s nothing we can’t do and
basically that is what Susperia is all about. This is our
sound and this is what we sound like.
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Tjodalv –
Yes this is the music we like.
Memnock – Obviously we are inspired by the 80’s bands and the
different styles but there again who isn’t? In the end all music will
always have a touch of the older music in there somewhere.
Elvorn - You just have to find your own signature or your own sound.
On all our old albums you can always hear that this is Susperia.
The signature of the band is always at the heart of the songs, it could
be a guitar solo or harmonies that are our sound.
Memnock – Yes and we’ve heard this said by other people as well
so it’s not just us thinking that.
(At this point
I have to stop the interview to ask Memnock where he is from originally
because his accent is very broad Scottish in vocal sound and I’m sure
there’s a bit of Robbie Burns in there somewhere).
MM – Memnock, have
you always lived in Norway because your accent sounds very Scottish.
(The
whole room erupts into deafening laughter at this).
Tjodalv –
This is funny that you should ask him that ...
(laughs)
MM
– Has someone else mentioned this to you before?
Tjodalv
– Yes just
last night! (laughs all round again).
MM
– Don’t get me wrong, it’s a nice accent to have!
Memnock –
No I have always lived in Norway and there is not Scottish in me as far
as I know. I don’t know what you mean about my accent, perhaps I
should just speak in Norwegian to prove it? (laughs)
MM
– No don’t do that, I can understand you talking Scottish a lot
better than I would be able to if you spoke Norwegian!
(laughs).
MM – If you could go back to when you first started out, is there
anything that you would have done differently or would advise yourself
differently on?
Elvorn
– Ah yes of
course, but I don’t think there is any one particular thing I can
think of straight away that we would have done different, although I
know there are some things that perhaps could have been done more
differently.
Tjodalv – I think there are maybe some things we have had done to
us by labels that we would have chosen to have been done differently,
but that is all in the past.
Memnock – It
hasn’t all been bad, some have been better than others.
Elvorn – Yes,
we’re very happy with Candlelight Records who we’re with now.
It feels good to be able to say that for once everything is working out
really well with our label.
Memnock – They are a very nice label.
MM – The
fourth album that you released ‘Cut From Stone’ caused a few
internal conflicts, was there any problems with this latest album?
Elvorn
–
We are very happy
with the way this album went.
Memnock – Yes, but having said that our singer went out and had a
heart attack after it so ...
MM
– Maybe he just put a bit too much into this album.
It sounds like he really put his heart and soul into it.
Memnock – Yes,
as long as he didn’t plan to die for his music then we are alright!
MM – The
new album is quite diverse once again, was this your intention from the
beginning or the way it evolved? There’s a really good mixture of
songs on it.
Memnock – Well
again that’s just what happens.
Cyrus
–
We just met in my
studio and then we made some riffs and just wrote the songs.
Memnock – We didn’t actually rehearse the songs this time.
I wasn’t even in the studio when he was playing the drums! (points
at Tjodalv).
Cyrus – We recorded the album at different times in different
areas and in different studios.
Tjodalv – Elvorn was on tour with that other band when I recorded
the drums.
Cyrus – Also we had lots of good songs this time so we could pick
out all the best ones to use for this album. Unlike the other
albums we had maybe 15 or 16 really good
songs for this album, so maybe some of them may come out on our next
album, which we hope to have out some time next year. Or maybe
before Christmas, we’ll see.
MM – You had a couple of guest vocalists appearing on
this album I believe, Chuck Billy (Testament) and Shagrath (Dimmu Borgir).
How did these guys become involved?
El vorn – Well
Shagrath has been a good friend of ours for a long time now and we
thought it would be very cool to have him appear on the new album, so I
just called him and he said straight away ... yes, I will ... so it was
pretty easy.
Memnock – It was also pretty easy with Chuck Billy as well, we
were was on tour with him and I just asked him if he’d like to do some
vocals on our new album and he said ... sure, cool, let’s do it ...
and that’s the beauty of technology because he just emailed his vocals
back and forwards.
Elvorn – Yes we sent it to him on a private download site so only
he could download the material, then he just took it to a studio in San
Francisco and recorded the guest vocals and then sent it back, so then
we downloaded it and there you go! The wonders of technology!
Cyrus – It’s so much easier these days.
MM – Thanks goodness for ProTools !
Cyrus – Oh yes
I love ProTools! (laughs)
MM – What
does the future hold for Susperia?
Tjodalv – Conquer
the world! ... and we will play the big stage here next time we are
playing again in England! (laughs)
Elvorn – We really want to get some more festivals and some more
touring so we can spread our music.
MM – I
must say I think this album is the most melodic metal that you’ve done
to date, although the songs still have plenty of teeth to
them. I think this new
album will have a lot more appeal to a much wider market than perhaps
some of your earlier releases had.
Memnock – Well
let’s hope so. Also it means I get to play in the place where my
favourite drink is from, Newcastle Brown Ale. This city is really
growing on me!
MM -
Well it’s too expensive to drink a lot of that back home in Norway!
(laughs)
Memnock –
Ah maybe that is where my accent comes from, because I drink too much
Newcastle Brown Ale? (laughs)
MM –
Finally have you any messages you’d like to give to all our readers?
Cyrus – Yes
check out our website which is www.myspace.com/susperiafans
and our official website
which is www.superia.net
.
Check it out!
MM
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We'd like to thank the
band for taking the time out to chat with us
this afternoon. If you're a lover of Metal with proper melodies
then check these guys out, they're brilliant. We look forward to
seeing them on these shores again soon.
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