SUIDAKRA (Eng.)
– Hello, lots of thanks for answering our interview. How is everything going into the SUIDAKRA’s camp right now?
Oh we are all doing fine. I mean we are so happy with the new release and right now we enjoy the time after the release of the new album…
– You have just released your new album, entitled «Eternal Defiance». How is its feedback being so far? And what are your expectations on it?
The reactions are really awesome both by the press and the fans. We are happy after ten previous releases still to be able to create something new and fresh that capture our fans. To be honest I’ve never though about any expectations on any of our release. For me the most important thing was always that we as a band have the feeling of not repeating ourselves and always create something new.
– Once more, you have created a concept album so, would you mind to elaborate a bit on the concept behind this new record?
It’s not that easy to go into details because it’s an extensive story. Basically, the lyrical concept is based on the welsh story called “The Dream Of Macsen Wledig”. This album tells the story of Macsen who joined the roman army, became a Celtic Emperor Of Rome and immortal and after being decapitated who was earsed from history.
– For this new album you have got two new band members: Tim Siebrecht and Marius Pesch. How have they fitted in?
It wasn’t hard for both to fit in into the band because Tim for example is a long-time friend of us and he joind the band in the past off and on to play the live guitar. He played our USA tour 2012 and was involved in the songwriting for “Eternal Defiance” from the begnning. To be honest, his motivation brings a real positiv vibe into the band. And Jussi joined the band right after the release of the previous album “Book Of Dowth” so he is in the band for more than two years now.
– Once more, Axel Rómer and Tina Stabel have brought their cooperation, but this time around they have also been involved in the songwriting so, what have they both brought to the album?
In the past I’ve written the songs for Tina and Axel and after the songwriting was I’ve sent them the material and decided what they had to play or sing. But not on this record… Both were involved into the songwriting even before a single note was written. Tina even played the Piano in “The Mindsong” for example and we both wrote this song together.
– And talking about such, how was the songwriting process this time around?
It was a real intense creative process for us. I really enjoyed being captured by such a great story. But at the same time it was also much more work than on the previous records, because I had to compose all the orchestrations and combine it with the metal parts without loosing the heaviness. To be honest sometimes it was a real challenge for me. But at the end we all are really proud of what we have created.
– This time I’ve noticed certain Power Metal elements along to your usual Death/Folk basis. Is there always room to broaden your influences?
Oh yes because we all are very open minded musicians and we love to let each single Suidakra album a bit different. That gives us the freedon to broaden all kinds of different influeneces. It’s really excited for me to work with new elements and sometimes to mix different type of music in a way we never did before.
– There’s also a superb mix between brutality and melody, is this important for you? As I personally think this enhances both sides of the band, not to say it helps leaving a bigger impact on the listener.
Yes you’re right. I mean our biggest aim on this record was not to loose the brutality by using too much orchestral parts. We always tried to enrich our sound and keep it interesting full of different influences. But at the same time we also didn’t want to loose our own typical “SuidAkrA-sound” .
– Anyway I think with each new album you are digging deeper into Folk. Is this just a natural evolution or something you aim for?
To be honest we don’t aim for this. I would say it’s a natural avolution which comes on every album with the concept story itself. I would say the lyrical concept decides in which direction the new material will go. The more epic the story is the more epic the songs sound like for example.
– On this new «Eternal Defiance» you have covered the popular Irish Folk song «Mrs. McGrath». Could you please tell us how and why did you choose it and what changes have you done to the track?
We love the way the story of the song is told and the message behind it! This song seemed to fit perfect to the SuidAkrA sound and I knew from the beginning that
Tina Stabel is the right musician for the female vocals. Our drummer Lars loves Bruce’s music and when we had to make a decision what song we should cover for the bonus track it was Lars who came up with the suggestion to cover that song. We didn’t make too much changes. Of course there are the heavy guitars and a Banjo… I love the final cover version but for Lars it’s even more than that;-)
– All this about «Eternal Defiance» being said; how could you describe it in just 3 words?
Epic, Heavy, Emotion
– And finally, what are your near-future plans?
First of all we will play a few summer festivals here in Germany. In September/October we’ll hit the road with Ensiferum, Turisas & Equilibrium to play a big European tour. These are the plans for the year so far. But we also plan more shows and tours for 2014 and hope to go back to USA, India Brazil and China.
– That’s all, thank you once more for answering our questions. If you want to add some final words; feel free to do it.
Thank you for this great interview and I also wanna thank everybody who supports us! Check out the new release “Eternal Defiance” and let the metal do the talking \m/
