Rockezine.com interview with Nile on Jul 03, 2002

with Karl Sanders on Jul 03, 2002

One of the most innovative bands in the new wave of US death metal-scene have just finished recording their new album “In Their Darkened Shrines”. Their use of native Egyptian instruments, throat singing, grunt choirs and guitar synthesizers combined with encrypted, chaotic and pure brutal metal filled with madness makes them stand out far above the mainstream. Of course I am talking about Nile. Rockezine decided to have a little chat with Karl Sanders to find out what keeps Nile running…
		So what’s up? My head hurts from doing all those interviews. The problem is that I ran out of headache-pills...
		Are you looking forward to doing this interview anyway? It all depends. There are people that are nice to talk to, and I look forward to those. And then there are some people that, you know... Like there was this one guy today who just decided he wanted to go skydiving. And there are some people who got the record but didn’t bother to listen to it yet. Those interviews are not so much fun. So what kind of interview will this be?
		I hope it will be a nice interview. But first I want to thank you for doing it. Hahaha. Well I should thank you because if it’s a nice interview than it is much to your credit. Do you have your tape recorder running?
		Yeah, I sure have. Oh good so all this will be in the magazine, that’s excellent! I like to read all the stuff, you know, the other stuff. You know, like, the stuff that happens just as people are talking. That’s much more fascinating than when you ask me, you know: “blablablabla when is the record coming out bla bla”
		I could not agree more. Just having a nice chat with one of my favorite bands… Which I still find unbelievable. I’m actually called by Nile! Well you know I’m just a metal fan just like any and everybody else. Sometimes, depending on what magazine it is, I’m the one thinking: “Fuck, I’m talking to blablabla from Metal...blablabla. I better say the right things or the record company will kick my ass.”
		I would like to start by asking how things are with your current line up. You have had some problems with Pete, right? Yeah we had a problem with Pete Hammoura, our old drummer; he had a very severe shoulder injury. He was also my best friend for many years, so it was very sad when he got, you know, hurts in the shoulder and could not continue with us. But we were lucky enough to find Tony Laureano, you know. He used to be in Angel Corpse and he’s a fucking excellent drummer. I think he made some excellent contributions to the new record. A lot of great new drumming ideas, a really kick-ass sort of drum playing. I think he really helped take the album to the next level.
		The drums in Nile seem to me to be all about the chaos that stems from the Egyptian background. I find it fascinating to see how you incorporate the whole concept within the lyrics as well as the music.
It’s a dumb thing to try and copy other bands.		Why did you choose to sing about this and not about the mutilation of small furry animals for example? Well, to our way of thinking someone like Cannibal Corpse has already done the most excellent job in writing about gore. So why should I write about that? It’s fucking crazy. Like, Emperor did their thing; Dissection did their thing. So why on Earth should I do what they do and do it not as good? It’s a dumb thing to try and copy other bands.
		So we’re really happy that we have found something to do that no one else is really interested in doing. That’s okay with us. It doesn’t bother us. At first, years ago, before people knew who we were, they thought about the Egypt thing; “what the hell are you guys doing? That’s not what metal-bands sing about.” But over the years perhaps we have changed some minds.
		It certainly gained attention. You helped to bring back Death Metal. That’s great. I love Metal and I hope Metal keeps going strong for many years. The fans who love metal, and buy metal records and you know even start metal bands themselves; that’s what keeps metal alive.
		And how does it feel to have so many fans admiring your work? Do you feel like stars? ;-) We’ve worked very hard for very, very, very many years. I’ve been playing Metal since, like 1984. So I don’t think of myself in those terms. One of the most embarrassing things that ever happened to me: The very first time we were on tour with Morbid Angel, we were in New York City. Trey and I were standing on a corner. And of course, in that time, you know, I was in complete awe of Trey Azagthoth. You know; he’s a God! And here I was; I had the chance to talk to him. And which is a very rare thing, you know, to have the chance to talk one on one with him. And of course there’s a million things you want to talk with him about, and hopefully a million things that he will say that I can learn from. And show my respect, and, you know... all sorts of things.
Fuck! I’m standing next to Trey and here this guy is, you know, saying these things that are completely embarrassing!		So here I am, you know, treating Trey very well, and then a fan comes up to us. Walks straight up to us. And, you know, I’m expecting everybody to come up and ask fir his autograph, the way it usually happens, and they don’t know who I am, so… But they sure know who he is! But this one day, when I finally got the chance to hang out with Trey, a fan comes up and starts going: “Karl, Dude! You guys are amazing, you know! You guys blow Morbid Angel off the stage!” And I ‘m thinking: ”Oh my God! Oh my God! I can’t believe this person’s saying that to me! And Trey is standing right next to me!” It was so fucking embarrassing. I don’t feel like that at all man; I think Morbid Angel, you can’t touch them. They’re an incredible band, they were certainly pioneers, they’re fabulously talented and deserve enough high respect.
		And… you know, here this fan is coming… you have every right to like whatever you want to like. You know, if people want to listen to Nile, that’s great! But, you know… Fuck! I’m standing next to Trey and here this guy is, you know, saying these things that are completely embarrassing! Trey was real nice about it, and we went to a little place to go out for a pizza. And another fan comes up and says: “Dude! What’s going on man!” and knocks Treys pizza on the floor. Yeah it was kind of a day. But he never lost his temper and he never got angry. He was always very cool. He’s an incredible guy and an incredible musician. I have a lot of respect for Morbid Angel.
		Morbid Angel probably has had some influence on Nile too? I think so. I think there were a lot of things we learned from Morbid Angel besides just, you know, how to play Death Metal. I mean, I don’t think you can really play Death Metal without at least acknowledging that they’re an incredible band and learn a few things from them. They also taught us how to survive in the music business, and how to not be in debt hahaha you know, things like that.
		And how about the lyrics of Morbid Angel? Did that inspire you too to sing about ancient Egypt? No, not really. The reason we decided to sing about ancient Egypt is pretty much because that’s what we like, and at the time that we had decided to go down this path we had no hopes or dreams that we would ever be successful or anything. We were just basically saying to ourselves: “Let’s do what we like and the world be damned!” hahaha
		Looking back you went down the right path, following what you wanted to do. I think people would be much happier if they did what they wanted to do and let go of the idea that you supposed to do this or you supposed to do that. Just make it metal.
		Exactly. Let’s talk about your upcoming album “In Their Darkened Shrines”. It is scheduled for august in the US and for September in Europe. What still needs to be done? The planning is done and it’s all in production right now, where they have to print it, and burn the CD-R at the plant where they manufacture them and all that; that stage we’re in right now. And pretty soon, within the next couple of weeks they will start ship into the stores.
		How about the artwork? Nile booklets are always very detailed and fit perfect with the concept. Are you heavily involved with the artwork? And do you plan it after the CD-recordings or is it an integral part of the concept? This time around we had some definite ideas about what we wanted to do. We talked with Wes Benscoter and told him what we wanted and he came back a few weeks later and what he had drawn had nothing to do with what we had talked about. So we said: “Wes, what are you doing? Fix this and fix that please.” So he came back two weeks later and had done nothing we had asked him to do and done this other stuff that I don’t know what the Hell he was thinking about. So we said: “Wes, what are you doing?” And we go: “Look”, you know, “alright: If you’re gonna do this here than, you know, fix this little bit here because that’s gay and this looks really silly.” So then he goes: “Well, I tell you what. I’m just gonna send you something that I’m not even gonna tell you what it is but I know you’ll like it.” So we went: “Well… okay”. So he sends us this thing and it’s just absolutely fucking terrible! So needless to say Wes did not finish our album cover. The new artwork is done by a guy named Orion and it’s an incredible piece.
		So, how did the recording go with the new line-up? I actually had a much nicer time recording this album than we recorded the last time. There were so many problems… Our drummer was hurt the last time, and there was a lot of fighting in the band. But now this time with the new members everything is going smoothly, there’s no more arguments, no more power struggles… It was very relaxed. Even though it was a lot of hard work to do this record, it was an enjoyable time.
		Good to hear. Of course your long-time producer Bob Moore also did this record. Yeah we like working with Bob and his studio is like two hours from where Dallas and I live, so that’s kind of good. If there’s a problem I can go home for a few hours and take care of it or whatever. Not be gone too long.
		Does Bob bring any elements on to the record; does he suggest things you have maybe overlooked? No, that’s not the kind of producer Bob is. Bob is more of a kind of producer... you tell him what you’re trying to do and he turns the knob or moves the mike. That’s the kind of producer Bob is. All the music on the Nile-albums, that’s us. We’re usually telling Bob: “Bob, but we want this part in there. It should go in there. It’ll be cool, trust us!” hahaha
		That’s a great producer to have for a band like Nile. Some bands are sometimes too dictated by the producer what doesn’t do their own sound any good. It sometimes even leads to conflict… I think we’ve never really had a fight with Bob. Bob has always been very excellent to work with. In fact, this time, when we were broke and we had no money to buy food or anything and we were hungry, Bob’s wife would come down to the studio and cook food for us. Yeah, Bob’s a really great guy; we really enjoy working with him.
		I noticed that the old website is down. Can you tell me more about that? We’ve moved. We’re no longer www.nile-catacombs.com, we are now www.nile-catacombs.net. Someone stole our domain name and put up a little shopping search engine. It’s a fucking cruel and stupid greedy world that we live in.
		What do you think the roll of the Internet play in the metal scene? I think it really has helped the underground. Because band can just go online, and, you know, check out all sorts of metal bands and read reviews, and go to band pages. I think it’s good. I think it’s nothing but positive.
If you want to exist in the modern world you have to use the modern tools.		Did it help Nile to grow too? Well I think it certainly probably been helpful. I would have trouble imagining not having Internet; it would definitely make things tougher. If you want to exist in the modern world you have to use the modern tools.
		Can you tell us more about the upcoming tours? In July we’ll tour with Arch Enemy, Hate Eternal and Origin in the US. In October we’re going to come in Europe and the line-up will be Nile, Sinister, Myrkskog, No Return and Ektomorf. I think we’ll start in London this time.
		What do you think about the European scene in comparison to the American? Europe is where the metal scene is. Here in the US things are very trendy. Real metal has a real hard time here.
Nu Metal is not metal!		New Metal is more popular I guess... And it’s terrible. New Metal is not metal. Nu Metal is not metal! They should change it from New to Not!
		How important are the Nile-lyrics to you personally? To us it’s kind of like a hobby-thing, you know. We don’t worship the ancient Gods. We just write metal songs about them. Haha.
		At live concerts you use three grunts. How did that came about? Well I think it probably has a lot to do with all of can do the growling and the screaming and blablabla, so if we each did not get the chance to sing we would be unhappy. Because we can all do it so we try to work together as a team and everybody can be a little bit happy.
		The last track on Black Seeds Of Vengeance is very dark and gloomy thanks to the three grunts and no guitars what so ever. If I turn up the stereo at home my glasses start to shake. Yeah I love to turn that song up, it’s so evil. The voices combine in a very evil way and its very dark and moody. I remember when I wrote that song it was really really late at night and I had to do it quiet because I didn’t want to wake my wife and child up, you know, they were sleeping on the other side of the house. So I had to do it really quiet and when I did it really quiet it was even more evil.
		Any last words to the fans out there? Yes, I’m very interested to come back to Holland. Holland has always been very good to us and we will definitely come back and make some more metal in Holland.
(Wilfred de Zoete)