Rockezine.com interview with Instil on Sep 20, 2004

with Sander Oldersma on Sep 20, 2004


		Hello there, I don’t think everybody knows Instil. Can you introduce yourself and the band? We’re a metalcore band from Groningen (nothern part of Holland) called Instil. My name is Sander and I’m one of the guitarists. The other members are Rene (vocals), Joop (guitar), Arnold (bass) and Jaap (drums). The band has been around for 3,5 years now. I joined them 2 years ago when they were looking for a second guitarplayer. Instil has released a mini-cd called “Questioning Like Only Consciousness Can Question” in 2002 on a German label called Bennihana-records. In the beginning of 2004 the split-cd with “Kyds Vs. Columbus” from America finally saw the light of day on the Austrian label Burning Season Records. In May 2004 our debut full-length album called “Fire Reflects In Ashes” was released on a new Dutch label called Garden Of Exile Records. This album contains 12 songs which are a mixture of Scandinavian metal (bands like: At the gates, The Haunted, In Flames, Arch Enemy and Carcass) and American hardcore/metalcore (bands like: Unearth, Shadowsfall, Hatebreed and Killswitch engage). We have played a lot of shows all over Europe and even got the opportunity to play a couple of shows in Iceland. We did 2 European summer tours and got to play with great bands like: Entombed, Pro-pain, Heaven Shall Burn, Undying, Caliban, Himsa, 18visions, Throwdown, Converge and Bleeding Through.
		The sounds of Instil’s last release “Fire Reflects In Ashes” is really different than the sound on the mini-cd “Questioning Like Only Consciousness Can Question”. Why did you decide to change it? We try to evolve and keep challenging ourselves and eachother as a band and as musicians. If you compare the mini-cd with our newest work you will notice that Instil has a lot more metal influences than before. We are all into metal as well as hardcore. I think we showed that we have found our way of mixing those two styles together and creating our own ‘Instil-sound’ on our last record. The Questioning…. cd was recorded before I joined the band. So this album features one guitarist. On the split-cd 2 out of the 3 songs were composed before I joined and weren’t really written for 2 guitarists. For this new album Joop and I spent a lot of time trying to make the riffs work in a way we thought would rock. We always try to make our music melodic, energetic and aggressive at the same time, on record but on stage as well. Becoming more metal seemed a logic next step to us.
		The artwork of the album is beautiful. Who made this? Thanks, all of those compliments have to go to Joop. He has done the artwork for all our records so far. We have talked about the artwork a lot. When we decided to call the album “Fire Reflects in Ashes” we agreed that the artwork had to match the title. Joop came up with this and we’re really happy about it. I guess other people are impressed as well; he’s doing the artwork/t-shirt designs for some other bands as well.
		You signed on a new label called Garden Of Exile Records, why did you choose this record company? We had some bad luck with labels in the past. Our split-cd was supposed to be released early 2003 and it came out in Febuary 2004. So we were bummed out about that. Rene started his own label called Garden Of Exile with some guys who have been in this line of work for a couple of years now. They offered us a good deal and came true totally. We were sure the album could be released shortly after the recordings. This was pretty important to us because we were only playing new songs live. We want to supply the audience with the songs we play on stage.
		Why is Instil popular and famous all over Europe, but not in your own country? I don’t know if we are famous and popular. We do get a lot of mail and reviews from all around the world and were asked to play shows all over. Because our first release was on a German label we were asked to play a lot of shows in Germany. In the past we played more shows in foreign countries than in our own. I guess that explains why those people have seen us before the Dutch kids have. Plus we don’t really feel the need to build up a reputation in our own country before exploring the rest of the world.
		How did you come to the idea to play in Iceland? That’s really easy, we were asked to play there and we thought it was an opportunity that we couldn’t resist. We heard the positive stories of other bands that had played there, like Heaven Shall Burn and Length Of Time. It’s not everyday you get the chance to play in the country where they have no trees and the water smells like rotten eggs. We also would become the first Dutch band to ever play there, so that’s pretty cool. We’re still waiting for the Guiness book of records to call.
		What is the weirdest thing that ever happened on a tour? We played a show in Italy in 2002. After the show we could crash at the house of the guitarplayer from a big Italian band. He wasn’t there and we went there with his girlfriend. She had to get up early to go to work the next morning. It was really late and we were pretty tired. The next morning we woke up because there was a little old Italian man standing in the room screaming all kind of things in Italian at us. The only words we understood were POLICIA, POLICIA. The guy was furious and we didn’t know why. We tried to explain the situation, it didn’t work. He didn’t speak English. And we really didn’t want anything to do with the Italian police. So we thought there were two things we could do, wait for the police or get the hell out of there. We decided to wait and solve the situation. After a couple of minutes a roommate came home. She could speak English. She explained us that the little man was the owner and that the house didn’t really belong to the guy anymore. There were new people coming to look at the house in an hour when he found us on the floor. Everything was solved after all. Pretty weird to let a band sleep in a house that really isn’t yours anymore. Some other weird thing are vans without breaks, playing in a theater with 800 people (Björk included!) just sitting down and kids that wanted our autographs and there picures taken with us. Made us feel like Guns ‘N Roses. The last two things happened in Iceland.
		What are the future plans of Instil? Our album is just been realeased and we’re going to play a lot of shows to promote this disc. Near the end of 2004 we got a Dutch clubtour planned, named The New Extremes Tour (37 Stabwoundz, Outburst, Instil). We’ll be playing shows in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium as well. In November we will join Byzantine from America on their European tour. Of course we will also keep on playing ‘regular’ shows across Europe. And the word goes that we will play in Japan in March next year, so help us hoping! We’ll finally get to do an English tour, probably in early 2005. So check out our website for showdates. We also want to put out a new album in early 2005, so were busy writing new material.
		Anything I forgot? Do you want to say something to the readers? First of all I want to thank you for your interest in Instil. Thanks for reading this interview. As you could read we’ll be playing a lot the following months, so check us out live. We won’t disappoint you. Check out our website www.instil.nl or www.gardenofexile.nl for showdates, songs, videoclips, naked pictures of Jaap etc… Cya in the pit.
(Jeroen Habets)