Rockezine.com interview with Callenish Circle on May 05, 2003

with Pat on May 05, 2003


		Hi there and congratulations on the new album! Just to kick off easy, how are you after another hectic recording? Very comfortable… the first reviews have been coming in lately and the response so far has been totally crushing. Top notch reviews everywhere, very good sound check-results, the band is overloaded with interviews and we even made it to “Album of the Month” in Norwegian leading metal publication Scream Magazine. So that’s not bad at all I guess…
		How have the reactions been so far? Killer… the F_P_D album already got a tremendous response last year but the new album is received even better. I guess you can imagine we are really happy about that, because stagnation is not good for a band.
		Can you tell me what you think is so different about the new album? Well, on F_P_D you can hear a very angry and frustrated Callenish Circle because with that album we ended a very negative period of 5 years with all kinds of label problems. So the band was really frustrated about all the shit we been through, something you definitely hear on that album. It hits you in your face extremely hard. With the new album the band is more relaxed since we have a descent record label backing us up this time. We knew the album would get the attention it deserves, enough advertisements and a good distribution so this time we had more energy left to focus on writing good music. And that’s of course what a band should do… writing good music instead of worrying about all kinds of business related crap, just because a record label fucks you up. On the new album I think there are more dynamics and variation in the songs, simply said there is more music inside the songs but without losing the intensity and aggressiveness of F_P_D.
		You also decided to work with pretty much the same people for this new record. What’s the reason behind this? The reason is because we are totally happy with the sound and the artwork of the F_P_D album. Never change a winning team was the slogan and I even think we improved the sound on this one again, cause it sounds as fat as a ten ton hammer yet still crystal-clear, so the details won’t get lost in the big wall of sound. Without wanting to sound too cocky, I think this is one of the best produced metal albums emerging from the Netherlands. The sound also can easily stand the competition with the famous Scandinavian studios. The reviews prove that as well. Also Niklas’ artwork is of a very high quality in my opinion, although that’s also a matter of taste of course.
		The album cover displays two “people” growing out of each other. Does this have anything to do with the album title? If not, what should people see in the artwork? After the album title My Passion//Your Pain and the title of the song “My Passion//Conflicts//Your Pain”, we wanted the album cover to reflect the contents of the lyrics of the song. The contrast between the individual who has the passion to cause pain to the other individual, and the everlasting connection between both individuals. After discussing this with Niklas he came up with the idea of the ‘Parasitic Twin’. You see the left one of the Twins controlling the right one. The right one is really suffering, while the left one is in control. As you see… no matter what happens, the Twin will always be connected.
		Callenish Circle already has quite some albums under their belt, but still remain somewhat underground in Europe. Does this bother you? That’s what people here in the Netherlands think yeah… here in the Netherlands Callenish Circle is still a little bit underrated if you ask me. Outside the Benelux however, Callenish Circle has grown out to being a respected metal-act. In countries like Germany, Czech Republic and Spain for example we have build up a quite good reputation the last couple of years. With MP//YP things really start rolling for the band because we will play the two biggest metal-festivals in Germany this summer (Wacken Open Air & Summer Breeze). Furthermore we will do an extensive European tour with Exodus and Nuclear Assault in October so I definitely don’t think Callenish Circle is still an unknown band in the rest of Europe. Perhaps people over here in the Netherlands (who don’t know any better) think so but the fact that we did over 200 (!) interviews for F_P_D says enough. We received killer reviews for the album and huge coverage in almost every European magazine. Not many bands from the Netherlands actually achieve that. In the Netherlands we have a couple of bands that have a very big reputation, but no one cares about them in other countries. With Callenish Circle it tends to be the other way around since in other countries we do get the recognition. Typically is that we again didn’t receive an invitation for the larger festivals over here. Maybe we are too “Dutch” and the organizers rather book an average foreign band instead of giving Callenish Circle the chance to kick some serious ass. And be sure… we will crush most of the foreign bands in our genre when it comes to playing live. The U.S. is another story because with F_P_D we started from point zero in the U.S.. But even though not that many people knew us there we received quite a good feedback on that album and the new one is getting good reviews as well. Another thing is that the European office is pushing us much harder than the American office. Which is understandable in a way since we are a European band and already had a small reputation over here before we signed with them.
To be honest there aren’t many bands that knocked me off my feet lately		The melodic death metal scene is getting more and more attention in the past two years or so. What do you think of this change? That’s a good thing of course even though I don’t like to put Callenish Circle completely in the melodic death genre since we have a much thrashier sound than most of these bands. Personally I prefer to label our music as death/thrash cause we have more in common with a band like At The Gates than with In Flames or Dark Tranquility. If there are still people who compare us with IF or DT they obviously don’t know what they are talking about or perhaps they are deaf (or just stupid)…To be honest I don’t know why this melodic scene is getting more attention lately, perhaps people are fed up with only extreme and brutal stuff. I don’t care too much either cause with Callenish Circle we always played the music we liked and we never adapted our sound to current trends. We just kept on doing our own thing during the years and maybe now we are a bit lucky that the melodic thing is getting more attention. Anyway, everything we achieved till now we did ourselves because we worked our asses off for over 10 years and keeping faith in the band is now finally paying off a little bit.
		Lots of bands have been complaining about their labels lately, so the obvious question here is “Are you guys happy with Metal Blade?”. YES!
		In what part of the world do you think Callenish Circle is appreciated the most? Over here in Europe, definitely. In the U.S. the response on F_P_D was also pretty good but we really started there from point zero, since our former record labels had a shitty (read “non existing”) distribution network over there. MP//YP will also be released officially in Japan and I guess we can do very well in Japan as well. People there go crazy over bands like The Haunted and Soilwork, so there is a market for Callenish Circle as well. We’ll see what happens there in the coming months.
		Last year, you also did a few festival appearances (Ozzfest). So do you have any festival dates planned for this summer? For now only the two biggest German festivals Wacken Open Air and Summer Breeze Festival.
		Okay, now for some personal questions… what bands have you been listening to lately? To be honest there aren’t many bands that knocked me off my feet lately…
		In your own honest opinion, is metal being corrupted by the commercial society? Yes but that’s the case everywhere…
		Do you prefer alcohol or a fresh drink? Definitely a fresh drink… I don’t like alcohol too much! (oops, there goes my reputation as the front man of a metalband, hehehe).
		Cover songs; is it stealing or paying tribute to another band? Paying tribute of course, it’s obvious that it’s not your song.
		Your thoughts on the war in Iraq? Don’t care too much about it.
		Internet: Great way of getting in contact with people or now morphed into a criminal medium to steal music, software and such. Both.
		Final question; best Dutch acts of the moment are…? Personally I like God Dethroned and Flesh Made Sin very much. Mangled is a cool band as well even though music wise it’s not really my cup of tea.
		Okay, that’s all. Thanks a lot for the opportunity to interview you guys. Good luck for the future. Anything to add? Thanks for the interview and check out our website: www.callenish-circle.com There you will find all the latest information and tour dates on Callenish Circle! Now get ready for some ass-kicking death/thrash on LSD!!!
(Robert Graalman)