– Hi, thanks for your time. What are you currently up to? How is everything doing right now with VANISHING POINT?

Hi there , thanks for the interest 🙂 At the moment we are slowly preparing ourselves for a couple shows in a couple of weeks with Royal Hunt here in Australia and then we are off to New Zealand for our first run of headline dates for the album , so things are going relatively well , I have no complaints 🙂

– First off, how are feeling after the release of your first studio album in none less than 7 years?

It is first of all nice to finally have the album done and out there and its nice to personally have the weight lifted off my shoulders as I had the album in my head for so long , so its good to finally get it out there and to the people 🙂 The overall response has been very positive so I can honestly say that we are really quite taken aback from all the positive reviews we have seen so far and the main thing is that the small amount of fans that we have out there worldwide are really enjoying the album , so that to me is awesome 🙂

 

– And how do you think has the band evolved throughout these last 7 years?

I think in a sense we just did what we have always done but this time with a fresher perspective , there was no tension in the creative process of the album and to be honest its probably the easiest album that I have ever written , the songs just seemed to flow really well and I also had Christian assist me with the editing of the orchestration which was done in my own home studio so it was truly a smooth process. It did take a long time because of life in general sometimes getting in the way but mostly because we recorded a lot of the parts for the album in different studios and used a very DIY approach to the album due to not enough funds and also wanting to work with different people after all this time. I think that with the new guys being Simon Best on bass and James Maier on guitars its given us a little more edge as well 🙂

 

– This new album is entitled «Distant is the Sun». What are your expectations on it? Were you excited to see how your fans would react to it after such a long time?

To be honest with you my expectations on it were pretty much just to get the music out there to the people in a sense , it was more or less an album that came along naturally so it is nice to see all the cool responses so far to it .For me its always great to see the positive energy from our fans as they are the ones who gave us support and held their faith in us after all these years , so its always nice to see the feedback from the fans and when they send us a messages on our VP facebook page we always answer them with a reply of gratitude:)

 

– Digging deeper into this new release; what do some of its lyrical ideas deal with?

More or less life in general , the things we see , the things we feel , the things we miss and the hope we feel as well . You could say that in a sense the album has a relatively sombre feel to it, lyrically as the band was going through a hard time in the years when it was just Christian , Silvio and myself , theres no denying that , so the lyrics reflect that especially in songs like Distant is The Sun and Walls Of Silence directly. It was more or less a chapter of our lives together as musicians in VP and as friends in which we learnt to stick together and just encourage each other . When I write lyrics I tend to write about what I feel , how I see things around me and I like to leave the lyrics open to the listeners interpretation as Im not here to impart anything to the world , Im just here to enjoy the ride and sometimes the ride gets tough , when the ride is a little tough then I write about it , for me its the ultimate release or form of expression I can find without sounding like an idiot heheheh:)

 

– The album is really solid and tight, with shorter songs but it also feels to me like it’s more technical. Generally tends to be the opposite, technicality tends to be synonim for lengthier tracks. Was this something you were aiming for or did you just let things flow on a natural way?

Honestly it was just the way I wrote it , I didn’t really look at the lengths of the songs until they were ready for mixing heheh . In terms of technicality I hear what you’re saying and in some ways thats true but for me I always find that if I have a cool riff , chorus or orchestral section then I don’t want to milk it too much or have it overstay its welcome , not only for the listeners ears but also for my own heheh 🙂 I like to throw ideas here and there in a song and see how they sound , if they sound good then I work on them more intensely , if not or if Im not entirely sure about a tune I created then I generally go back to it the following day when my ears are refreshed and if it sounds ok , I keep it , if not then I generally scrap it . For me writing music is half the fun when I just go with the flow , it tends to sound interesting to me when I do that 🙂

 

– It also sounds more symphonic. Did you have a clear idea of how you wanted «Distant is the Sun» to sound like before starting the songwriting?

Yes and no to a degree , I knew that I wanted to create a bigger picture sound wise with the new songs and I wanted to encompass the ambience of strings , choirs and general orchestration to the album so I just went for it to be honest . It was a situation where I don’t know anything about music theory , I didn’t have a keyboard player who could decipher what ideas I was trying to describe so I just went for it and started arranging and writing the orchestral sections in my studio based on what I heard in my head , it was rather daunting in a way yet at the same time I was learning to record in my studio and learning to use some of the virtual instrument programs I purchased so it was more or less something I wasnt entirely comfortable with at the beginning of the writing process due to the sheer amount of time spent writing all the notes in with mouse clicks but when I started getting the feel for it and I started to hear the songs as they were unfolding then I just continued heheh.

 

– And talking about such; how was the creative process like?

Some days really productive and some days really boring , Im not the kind of musician who will force myself to write something because “it has to be done’ , I like to just go with the flow and create freely , this is where I feel the most comfortable . Now that I have my own studio set up at home, Im writing when I have a cool idea and just start working on something , sometimes I fire up the computer just to hit a few notes or find some cool sounds and then all of a sudden a couple of hours later I have the basic pretext to a song heheh , that happened with the start of Circle Of Fire , I just found some cool sounds , wrote a piece of music , wrote some piano then put some brass and strings then all of a sudden it was there heheh. The thing that I find most interesting is the sheer amount of sounds that are available to use and create music with , years ago we didn’t have this luxury , now more of less we do so I try to use it in VP’s music to give it some more character.

 

– All this about «Distant is the Sun» being said; how could you describe it in just 3 words?

thankfully that worked” ? heheheh:)

 

– For this release you’ve got a new drummer and guitar player, James and Christian. What have they both brought new to VANISHING POINT?

I would definitely say that they have brought some new energy into the band without a doubt 🙂 Christian who plays the drums has been with Vanishing Point now since early 2007 but he didn’t record on the Fourth Season so in a sense to the outside world he has made his debut with this album as well heheheh:) Simon and James are both great players and while the album was already written before they joined VP , they have definitely made a good impression to the rest of us guys in the band and I think in a sense the listener can hear some of their playing this time , especially James , his lead guitar work in some of the solos is really impressive and he’s a great player.

 

– This has also been your first opus with European label AFM: How is everything working with them thus far?

Really well , everything is going great and the communication is there which is always a positive thats for sure . We have been with many labels in the past so its nice to finally have a place for VP to call home so to speak , its definitely a little overwhelming in the positive sense that we have such a pro label with professional people who are into what we are doing , but thats a problem Im happy to get used to , we have very much been DIY for a long time so it will take us a while to get used to it all again hehehe. To be honest I couldn’t ask for a better company to work with , Im happy that we are with AFM and they are a grounded label with good people behind it doing good and realistic things with the music , for us it was never a case of “ we can make a shitload of money “ with the album , it was more a case of getting it out there and seeing who would be best at doing that 🙂

 

– You also did a video for «When Truth Lies». How went the whole process?

Relatively well , the clip was shot in Collingwood in Melbourne at a gentleman’s place , his name is Milan , he’s eccentric and very well off so he was more than happy to let us film the clip at his house , it was really one of the most interesting times Ive ever had , here we were to do this clip in an awesome warehouse type of home and everything just fell to place. We had Will Gaffney who’s the director for the clip do it this time , he’s very experienced with filming many bands and it was sincerely a pleasure to work with the guy , he knows what the camera should be doing during a film clip and he knows just that to do, so it was nice to have someone have creative control over the clip and oversee everything from the acting in the clip to the band playing. I think for the budget we had for the clip it all came together really beyond our expectations and it seems to be received relatively well which is cool 🙂

 

– You are hailing from Australia, which seems to have a really strong extreme Metal scene, in fact you are one of the exceptions going for a more melodic kind of Metal. Is it easy to play over there this kind of music?

Yes and no to a degree because it is true that we have a prominent extreme metal scene but we also have a really cool metal scene where we have many bands playing melodic metal like us . In terms of playing shows or playing in organised metal festivals its not so bad because the metal scene here however small it is at the same time is very open minded so its healthy. We seem to be having more and more new bands appearing out of nowhere here which is really cool because there are so many talented musicians here and Im sure that the bands they are playing in , in the future you guys will hear of them as well 🙂

 

– And what have been some of the most influential bands for the VANISHING POINT’s sound?

I would definitely have to mention Iron Maiden of course , Conception , Queensryche ( around the original Operation Mindcrime era ) , early Dream Theater etc , the list goes on and on heheh 🙂 I think in a way that these bands really inspired us to become musicians when we were younger so it is always the respectable thing to do and pay homage to the bands that we look up to 🙂

 

– Finally, what are your near-future plans?

In the coming weeks we are supporting Royal Hunt for their first Australian tour which is really cool , then we are off to New Zealand for our first headlining tour , back in Australia in May we have several shows coming up including a festival appearance and then later this year we are off to South East Asia for a small tour as well which we are very much looking forward to 🙂 In regards to Europe and touring I think that will happen more or less next year from what I know , things change who knows what could happen heheh , it could be sooner than we think , Im not sure , to say anything yet would be premature . All I know is that we really want to come back to Europe and play to all our friends there , last time we were there was awesome , we’d like to come back and do it all again , hopefully some promoters are out there who would like to bring us over heheh:) It would be especially nice to come back to Spain as it is one of the best places to play live and the crowds are absolutely amazing , so it would be great to see you all again 🙂

 

– That’s all, thank you once more for answering our questions. If you want to add some final words; feel free to do it.

Thankyou for your interest in VP and thank you for supporting us guys , it really means a lot to us and hopefully anyone who reads the interview and has interest in us will check us out 🙂 To all our fans and friends who have been patient with us over the years and kept the faith , we sincerely thank you for your support always , much respect 🙂 Please support the independent sites like Queens Of Steel as its awesome to talk with you 🙂

Cheers

Chris VP 🙂

 

Sergio Fernández

sergio@queensofsteel.com

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