Interviews

How is the tour going so far ?

Everything went well. It gave us the opportunity to present some songs from „Eternal“ which we actually never played live before.

Where did you get the best reactions ?

It was actually quite good everywhere. I few places I can remember as being nicer were Paris, Strasbourg, Vienna, Grannada but we enjoyed it all at the end.

The topicality of Samael is the Black Trip DVD. Did you elaborate the DVD together with Century Media or did they come up with the idea and the product themselves ?

We weren‘t involved into that DVD except for the shows themselves. A few things would have be done in a different way otherwise but all in all, the result isn‘t that bad.

What do you think of the aforementioned DVD ?

As I mentioned, it‘s a bit impersonal to us since we weren‘t consulted. As far as I‘m concerned, I’m not satisfied with the cover, title & some things regarding the sound. Also, none of the people who were with us at those shows were credited, which is a bit unfair to them.

How are things going with Century Media now ?

Still not really good. This is definitely not the right place to be for us as a band. We‘ve been with them for too long now and they changed a lot over the last few years.

Did you compose any new song during that time ?

Well, we‘ve worked on an electronic project called „Era One“ which was deliver last summer. We have some ideas but nothing is really finished at the moment.

Any chance to see a new album sooner or later ?

We still want to tour in the US later this year before to go into an intense writing process. We‘ll try our best to make this happen the soonest.

What is the main idea behind the Era One project ?

That was something we had in mind for some time and as Century were asking for an album without offering any budget; we thought it was the right time to go deeper into this concept. It‘s quite different and based only on drums beats, electronic elements & vocals.

How would you define the music behind this project ?

I can‘t really define it. This was something quite spontaneous, we didn‘t had a red line to follow and just took things as they were coming. I did some basic music first and then we added vocals to it. Following that, the music had to be adapted and changed. It might be interesting for some people but as I said, it‘s different from anything we did so far.

And how would you define the musical of Samael today ?

I think you are in a better position to describe it.

You said to me that Century Media wanted to release Era One as the new Samael album, but music wise it has nothing to do or very little with what you did on your two latest album.

As far as I know, the plan is to release it under „Era One“ but we‘re not the one to decide about it. There‘s also no official release to date so we‘ll see what they‘ll do with it.

From what I have heard before your show, the music of Era One is very different from Samael. So what can we expect from a the future new album ?

It‘s hard to say but I would say something closer to „Eternal“. We might try to include new elements to still offer something a bit different. We‘ll try to give more info as soon as something more concrete is there.

You released an EP after Ceremony and Passage. Why didn't you release any EP after Eternal ? no leftover songs from the studio sessions of Eternal ?

The idea crossed our mind. I believe an EP is a good opportunity to experiment a bit more or to record songs which would fit less on an album.

Will you keep on rerecording some of your old songs as you did on Rebellion and Exodus ?

Apparently, those EP just extended our contract although the label was requesting that and they includes mostly new songs.. We might do something like that if we feel it at one point but at the moment, the main idea is to move further so an EP wouldn’t help.

Have you ever thought of incorporating some female vocals elements in your music ?

A few times but never really seriously. I would enjoy to work on a side project with somebody but this is just an idea so far.

You have released an instrumental version of Passage under the moniker of Xytras. Why didn't you renew the experiment with Eternal ?

Not really. I had something in mind at one point but the idea was to make it in a different way, including more sounds and some rhythmic to it. But once again, at this point this would only be a contract extension.

By the way, who is the new band member and what happened with Kaos ?

Kaos decided to do something else, also due to the fact that we were facing those problems with the label. It was his decision which we all respected. We‘re still in touch together from time to time. The new guitar player is called Makro and things are going really well so far.

About bandmembers, why don’t add a permanent keyboard player and concentrate only on drums ?

When we first started to work with drums machine, it was due to the fact we couldn‘t find anybody to take over the keyboard spot. I‘m quite sure it would be easier to find a keyboard player nowadays but at the end, we all like the way we took back then. I believe it‘s an interesting & different line-up. To come back on your question, the idea to incorporate full real drums again crossed our mind but it won‘t be in the near future.

Lots of our readers are from outside Europe. Can they expect Samael to tour the US, South America or even Australia and Japan ?

We‘re trying to work on something for the US at the moment. Hopefully this will take place sometimes this fall. As for Australia and Japan, we would love to go there but weren‘t invited to date. Actually Samaël is not distributed in Japan which is a big mistake.

What will you do once this European tour is finished ?

We‘re on the way to the Metal Mania in Poland, followed by a similar festival in Ostrawa. We have a few festivals for this summer ( Graspop, With Full Force & Gampel Open are confirmed so far). For this fall, we expect this tour in the US to take place. After that, we‘ll seriously start working on a new album and will look into the best place to release it.

You started your career as a black metal band (although I have never considered you as a black metal band). Are you still interested in this scene ?

For some reasons, I get a bit sick of it as I felt there was a lot of intern competition there. As for the music, I still like some of it. I could enjoy to be investing into something like that.

Xy, as Samael's sole composer, do you get influenced by classical music ?

I supposed but probably less than I used to be. You can get interesting influences almost everywhere.

Do you make a good living out of Samael or do you have to work outside the band ?

We‘re not making a good living but I‘m also not really working besides. The status the band has nowadays should allow us to make a proper living out of it.

Last but not least, if you had the opportunity to go back in time, what would you change in your career ?

I would say nothing as when we did things, we‘ve always tried our best. I don‘t mean that looking back, there wasn‘t any mistake but nothing I can regret, if I consider all factors surrounding. Things might looks wrong to you at one point but I believe there‘s always a reason behind.

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