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N:
We started
playing in bands about 1994/95; later the Dark Suns project idea was born
and after the first demo-CD (‘97), which meant to be the end of this two
person project (Tobi – meanwhile ex-guitarist and me), the line-up
changed into a complete band. There never was a general masterplan to
become more known or something like that; well, we played a lot of gigs in
our home regions, had a lot of crazy fun together, wrote a vast number of
songs but we guess, the time really passed by too far. Later, in 2002 we
proudly finished our debut “Swanlike” which gave free reign to a lot
of new things like the first distribution, promo-and label connections
(Voice of Life Records) as well as many successful live-shows (f.e.
support-band for the Germany shows of Katatonias’ “Viva
Emptiness-Tour” 2003). Another very important point of our climbing
esteem during the last three years was the move to Leipzig, but also
following plans with Disillusion, good friends of us since then.
Unfortunately, different problems with VOL followed and we decided to end
the contractual relationship. Again we were looking for a label that may
come up to our expectations. Meanwhile, the collective band status
developed on and on. So, we made great demands on our new materials;
“Existence” is finally the result of our last two years process. And
of course we are very happy that Prophecy Productions placed their
confidence in us. The hiding time ends now. We have faith in the future. I
like very much your new album and honestly I didn’t except to listen to
a band, which would combine so good the best elements of Opeth, Anathema
and Porcupine Tree. I still can’t believe why I “discovered” you a
couple of months ago. Why the band was staying in the underground all this
time? N:
Thank you for
this approval. You’re right, sometimes during the first five DS years
everything seemed to move very slowly, almost aimless in one way; but for
five guys who tried to improve their individual musical skills, it was
surely the normal way of development. I don’t know, but I think, if
there is an easier answer, it hides somewhere between the lines above. If
I didn’t know that you are coming from Germany I would bet that you are
from Sweden!!! Maybe you love very much the Swedish and the Scandinavian
rock/metal scene… N: As
you know, there are a lot of amazing bands coming from Scandinavian;
Paatos, Opeth, Pain Of Salvation, Extol, In The Woods, Madder Mortem,
Vintersorg, Borknagar, …to name only some of them; and yes, in a way
they are an important part of our all time inspiring background catalogue.
We really like this scene. Third
album for the band and now in a big label… it is time for you to make
the big step? N: We
don’t really know the definition of “the big step”, and what it
could be for us. We only try to do our best in musical ways, try to
develop on and on, try to enlarge our live presence and we hope to
increase our degree of familiarity. In connection with Prophecy
Productions we are absolutely happy about the co-operation so far. They
did a lot of important promotion activities for “Existence”, and in
this connection they even helped us to realise a 12 days European
Support-Tour together with Pain Of Salvation, the Godfathers of
progressive metal. So, we’ll cross the german borders for the first
time, which means a big step for us, but also the hopeful chance to
communicate with such a creative and very pleasant band at all; this
wakens “the euphoric sense” in us. The exact tour-dates can be seen on
our homepage at: www.darksuns.de So,
before we talk about the new album please tell me why did you call the
band Dark Suns? N: For
us, the band name Dark Suns embodies the conflict or dichotomy between the
dismal, ominous melancholy and the glittering shine of euphoria or
esthetic charm. It tries to verbalize but also to reflect the seeming
borders of our musical urge. By the way, we also think that the name
sounds simply good. Ok
let’s talk about the new album now… why did you call it
“Existence”? Is it a concept album? N: “Existence”
is no concept piece in the classical meaning; we just started writing new
materials two years ago. Later all members knew about the main points of
my growing lyrics and their combining function at all. There are three
allegorical parts on the album our protagonist has to move through.
Childish innocence and the developing emphatic wish to cross the borders
of it are only some facts of the beginning, very metaphoric scenes. Later
the human being tries to enlight the gloomy collage of fears, doubts and
love. The tragic destiny goes on and on, and the writing style gets a much
more direct note. The last part can be seen as the ultimate quintessence
of the drama. A fragile existence, lost in the recurring spiral of its own
experiences of life. So, it’s an album with a text-concept... you know. How
the artwork is related with the lyrics and the album’s title? Is this
the light of birth behind the door or the light of death that probably
people see in the end of their lives? N: Very
interesting interpretations. It’s no question that the artwork,
especially the front image keeps a lot of open space to build up ones own
explanations towards the story. In uncountable night sessions in front of
my computer I created the “Existence” Artwork. 24 booklet pages and a
weekly changing frontcover idea had to be combined in a fitting way.
Though I didn’t always feel inspiration while preparing a new page or
gloomy collage, I’m very glad now about the existing results. For me,
the door, the light and the silhouette of this femme fatale are the
embodiments of an unknown level of confidence, which helps the protagonist
to escape his mental drama. On the occasion of his fragile existence I
decided to use a colder colouration to emphasize the seeming emptiness.
The paralysed shape, the pavements grey, the rain and the surrounding
fragments of time improve the visionary and introspective scene. The
ultimate, allegorical moment of the story. Since
I do not have the lyrics of the album can you tell me a few words about
each one of the songs? N: Here
are only the main facts (lyrically) of each song: “Zero”:
The returning point of our existence, childish innocence inside a gloomy
collage of rain, houses and kindly simplicity. “A
Slumbering Portrait”: The balance of a childhood, a never-ending world
of confidence, first thoughts of breaking out, thirst for knowledge. “The
Euphoric Sense”: Adolescent outbursts inside an all time growing
environment, metaphoric scenes of a youth full of idealism, first signs of
the spiral. “Her
And The Element”: The ultimate role-play between both sexes inside of
promising waves. “Daydream”:
A kind of an intermission and important keyrole for the lyrical context. “Anemone”:
The first monotone experiences, hypocrisy instead of being real, the
mental mask grows, stillroom for hope, enter the Unknown. “You,
A Phantom Still”: Memories, a failed relationship, growing melancholy
and the fears of being alone, lost in a neurosis. “Gently
Bleeding”: Suicide of the femme fatale, sadness, madness, suppression of
the protagonist. “Abiding
Space”: Dreamlike chaos, mental absence, reflections of the end
(beginning scene), time and space artefacts. “Patterns
Of Oblivion” + “One Endless Childish Day”: The allegorical
quintessence, a tragic awakening, failed wishes, lost ideals, mind
explosion, hopeless realisation of a recurring spiral, will I be fallen
for the same, the circling end… You
know I like the way that you combine heavy guitars along with dark
atmospheric sounds and piano. Also the moody atmosphere of the songs along
with your vocals creates a very “strange” melancholic music. Once I
believed that Opeth would take a leading part in the specific music kind
and that they were the best, but hey man… you managed with your third
album to make me believe that you have a golden future ahead of you… and
you are ready to dethrone them! N: What
a praise! Thank
you… but we are more careful towards such statements. Glad about your
words, we know that it is still a long way to be a famous guarantee of
musical quality like Opeth are. Nevertheless, we will try to kick them
down the ladder… Hahahaha... we should not think in ranking lists… Which
are those bands that have influenced Dark Suns except those that I
mentioned before? N: At
the moment we listen to very different kinds of music... for example
Porcupine Tree, Blackfield, Pain Of Salvation, Opeth, Anathema, My Dying
Bride, King Crimson, Tool, A Perfect Circle, Tori Amos, Bartok, Nevermore,
Devin Townsend and his projects, Necrophagist, Cryptopsy, Dream Theater,
Pink Floyd, some kinds of jazz and blues, Ulver, The Gathering, The Ocean,
The Cancer Conspiracy, Alicia Keys, The Flower Kings, Amorphis, Peter
Gabriel, Meshuggah, Katatonia and much, much more... but I think there is
no main band influencing us the most. It definitely seems to be an
emotional cocktail of all inspiring works, not only music; a general
mixture of conscious and unconscious things, translated through ones own
creativity. We were often compared with Opeth in the past and of course it
was always an honour for us. It would be a lie to announce that Opeth, but
also Anathema, Pain Of Salvation or Porcupine Tree didn’t influence us
in separate musical ways. Nevertheless, I think that with “Existence”
we’ve done an immense step towards more independence, without denying
our all-time growing palette of inspiring backgrounds. By
the way, how you could characterize the music style of your band? N: We
talked about it very often, especially during the process of our recording
sessions, what kind of music or style will it be at the end? The answer
can be seen in different ways, it all depends on the individual effects of
each listener. I guess, it’s hard to find a standard term for describing
everything on “Existence”, but I think dreamlike, progressive metal
full of melancholy could name it the best. Can
you tell me which are your favorite songs from the albums and why? N: Actually,
it isn’t that easy to state our individual faves since we all have
different likings. By the way we think that our difficulties in deciding
“the best song” is a rather good sign. If I had to decide it would be
“Patterns Of Oblivion”, “Anemone”, “One Endless Childish Day”
at the moment. Do
you personally compose all music and write lyrics? And if yes, how do you
manage to compose so dark melancholic music? N: Maik
(guitars) and me (vocals/drums) wrote the first basic materials and
collected a lot of different ideas. Later the whole band started combining
everything together and worked out the detailed arrangements. Although I
am responsible for the lyrics as I already said, we often spoke about
personal feelings together and individual expectations towards a
changeable existence. Sometimes it wasn’t that easy to find a common
sense. Who
made the production of the album? Are you completely satisfied with it? N: The
drum-recordings took place at Salvation Recordings, the studio of our
friends Disillusion, engineered by Andy (Vurtox). The whole rest, that
means vocals, guitars, keys, samples, bass, … were recorded at our own
Space-Sound-Studio in Leipzig, engineered by our keyboard-player Thomas.
Later we mixed the album at TAM-Recordings, a very innovative studio…
and last but not least we travelled to Belgium to master “Existence”
at Galaxy-Reference-Mastering-Room. Finally, we are definitely satisfied
with the result of these studio periods. The sound on “Existence” is
much better than on our debut “Swanlike”. Which
are those things that you would change if you had the chance again? N: Of
course we learned a lot during the last two-years production-process, so
meanwhile everybody of us could name different things to improve better
next time. And the answer of “which things we would change if we had the
chance again?” is: Nothing! What
are the expectations from this album and your future plans? N: The
expectations we put into “Existence” are quite big. We think the album
can open up the ears of the listeners not only in a local metal but also
in an international one. The next album is supposed to take this to an
even higher level, but this is the demand to every new album a band
creates anyhow. Are
there any details about the album that you would like to share? Funny
stuff, way of recording it? N: There
were a lot of highs and downs during this process… taking us from
euphoric and confident moments to emotions that let us cry actually. We
didn’t always believe that the world could like our unload. Personally
I’ve got funny remembrances when I think about the short time planning
growl-passages and their realisations with the help of a bottle of whiskey
to roughen my voice and to emphasize the wanted aggression. Fortunately I
failed!!! J What
is the first response for the album so far? N: The
reactions are very good so far, almost amazing. “Existence” creates a
lot of individual effects and it’s very interesting for us to enlight
these verbal manifestations (for example: Metal Shock Italy Feb. 05 –
Album of the month with 10/10 points). Have
you delivered this complex material live on stage? How was it? N: We
played the complete new album live at our record release show. And believe
me it was pure fun. On the upcoming tour we won’t be able to play all
songs. We’ll be doing a 40 min-set with excerpts from “Existence”.
This should be enough to spread the taste of Dark Suns across Europe. Are
you totally happy with your co-operation with Prophecy? N: As
we realize so far the Prophecy-deal pushes us up to a former unknown level
of promotion and professionalism. So, as I said, we are totally happy with
the co-operation. Let’s
go to some more general questions now. Do you believe that is so easy for
a band to differ in today’s music industry than in the past? And if yes
what shall it do in order to achieve it? N: Except
the all-time growing pallet of shitty casting bands, which will always
dominate the market, I think that it is still possible to differ from the
mass-market. There is a huge number of upcoming bands today, especially in
the metal-scene, so, we hope that quality breaks through. Surely it seemed
to be easier in the 60’s or the 70’s for example. Do
you consider Germany as the capital of metal music in the Europe? N: For
us there is no main-region of the underground-music-scene in Germany. The
percentage seems to be well distributed... but the intern communications
could be a bit better, I think. Germany as the metal-country in general
would be a little bit too high located, I think. Do
you already have plans for the next album and what direction you will go
in? N: Until
now, we’ve got some approaches to the new album, but nothing specific.
The only thing, we know for sure is, that we’ll sound dark, melancholic
and most of all: angry. Ok.
So how far do you think you can go with Dark Suns? N:
As far as
possible… we will see. And
some weird Questions to relax somehow!!! Do you prefer dark melancholic
rock or extreme metal music? N: In
generally, we all like the melancholic and somehow progressively charming
music more than the thousands of death-metal bands. Yet, we can also
identify with aggressive acts like Dillinger Escape Plan, Cryptopsy, Dying
Fetus, Extol, Necrophagist, Mr.Bungle, Fantomas, Meshuggah… What
would you tell to someone to convince him to buy your album instead of
hundreds others that are being released every month? N: It’s
a great album with long-time discovering guarantees made by crazy dudes. How
do you imagine that the music world could be, one thousand years from now?
And why? N: …1000
years from now? If there is any earth left, the music will be totally
optimised for the use as ring tones, probably horrible and machine-made! J What
would you do, if you had supernatural power? N: I
would answer interviews within the blink of an eye… Which
band do you consider that can take a leading part in metal music in the
future? N: It’s
a hard question… I don’t really know but hopefully the double
“D”-section from Germany/Leipzig will take over a leading role! J Which
are the things that piss you off from today’s music industry? N: We
really hate the uncountable self-copying retorting garbage, spitted out by
the major music industry… switch on the TV and you know what I mean.
Fuck that shit… Which
is the most overrated band today? N:
Manowar!! Imagine
that your girlfriend is selling your whole album-collection just to buy
for herself an expensive ring. How would you react? N:
If I had such a
girlfriend I wouldn’t have a CD collection… I wouldn’t even make
music. All
the best with your work Mike! Thx very much for your time… Leave a
message to Grande Rock readers for the end… N: My last words: Feel free and let your feelings flow, so, you will be able to fly! Remember what you wanted to be and to see, and what you’re now! Retain your childish dreams and the simplicity of human dignity! Take this time to enter the unknown! Your days run. Thanx for the interview… stay real… Dark
Suns (Niko). by Thanos Aggelakis |
Hi
Niko… since we it’s the first time we talk can you please give me in
brief a bio of the band?