|
D: It’s very good that we are playing together as a band again with the
guys. The whole band feels very good right now. Personally I feel very
nice. First of
all tell me why two years ago you told everyone that the band has spilt up
and then after some time we learned that Lake Of Tears were preparing a
new album! D: It was actually in the year1999 that the band split up, after the
“Forever Autumn” record. So, after almost three years “The Neonai”
album was released but everything was done from me, in the computer, but
of course I told also the other guys but there were not many possibilities
to play with the band again in that period. The band has split up already
when I released “The Neonai”. Which
were the reasons that forced you to split up back then? D: Well,
I do not think so much about it anymore. Of course some things have stuck
in my head like the bad support that we had from our company… actually
this was one of the main things that made us split up. How
difficult was to gather again the guys of the band and to re-start Lake Of
Tears? D:
It just happened… Maybe not naturally… but I just happened. We got
together one day and we had the idea on our head… we then tried to got
some equipment and to start playing in a rehearsing room again… so we
felt really good and it just moved on from there. So,
Lake Of Tears is not Daniel’s personal band huh? D:
No,
Lake of Tears is our band! I asked
that because many are saying that Lake Of Tears is Daniel’s project… D:
Well
of course Lake Of Tears is my project, Michael’s project and Ourth
project as well… Let’s talk about your new album now. “Black Brick Road”… Where is that road? What’s the meaning behind the album’s title? D: …(he
laughs)… I do no know where it is! It can be in many different places…
well it’s difficult for me to explain it. I mean “Black Brick Road”
is a title that fits well to the whole album’s atmosphere. That’s the
way that I write my lyrics… it can be many things. The important thing
is to get some kind of emotion out of our music and our lyrics. Dark
artwork… depression, melancholy again… Why? Are you a melancholic
person? D:
Yeah… probably! I do not know what to say about that. Music and in
general complex ideas… I do not know from where they’re coming from
but they just pomp in our heads. We probably are quite mellow, but not
pessimistic, guys I think. We have a rather sorrowful view about the
world… it just who we are. Well, is
not the weather that makes you so melancholic in Sweden huh? D:
Maybe…
I mean that many Swedish bands have many melancholic elements in their
music… so probably that depends on our weather too! Ok. Now I
want you to make a comment about each one of the songs of the album…
just a line or two? D: Ooohhh… it’s difficult but I can try. “The
Greymen”: talks about that we are recourses instead of people. “Making
Evenings”: talks about the loss… someone is going away and then
someone else is going away after. “BlackBrickRoad”:
is kind o metaphor over life. “Dystopia”:
is the place that we live in… “The
Organ”: is more about growing up and seeing life… and many other
things in life as well. “A
Trip With The Moon”: talks about a guy that has a psychological talk
with the moon… “Sister
Sinister”: is about a sister sinister woman… what she is doing and
things like that. “Rainy
Day Away”: is about dreaming yourself away for a while. “Crazyman”:
talks about the way that we are living today and it is a little crazy from
what it could be or it should be. Who
is the female that does the vocals on “Sister Sinister”? D:
Her
name is Tina. We got in contact from a guy from the studio… I tried her
out, I liked her voice and I decided that it would be a good idea to sing
in one song. What
happened to the well-known Jennie Tebler? D:
Actually
the first woman that came on our mind in order to sing to one of our songs
was Jennie. But she is doing a period and she couldn’t attend so we try
out another woman. Ok. Do you
think that “Black Brick Road” was the best comeback album for Lake Of
Tears? D:
No…
you always wanna change things in something that you release, so… I
think that we could have made the record a little better. Maybe we could
have done it ever worse! It’s something that we did in that very moment. And
which are those things that you would change if you had the chance again? D:
When you are playing music, it’s a part of your life. You put your days
and your whole life into the music and from many ways there are so many
things that you could change, about things that you said and done and
people that you worked with or not. The same goes when it comes to songs.
Let’s take for example melancholy. There are many ways that you could
describe it… that’s about the exact time you are composing music and
you can do this different everyday … there are always so many things to
change. Maybe
the album is a little short. You could have put more than only 9 songs in
it, I think. D:
Well
these are the songs that we have in that specific period. These were the
ideas that we had. We didn’t have any other songs when we recorded the
album. We are quit slow songwriters and we do not have so many songs. How
was the reaction of the fans till now? D:
Well
it’s very good actually. Everyone is so positive. It’s funny that
people like it. You meet people everyday and others say it’s good others
not… well that is funny. It’s very nice to hear that people are happy
by listening to our new album. Some more
general questions now… Why did you leave Blackmark records? D: As
I mentioned before, we thought that the support that we had from Blackmark
records was eating us up. I felt that for a while they were almost working
against us! It’s very difficult to explain but it was a very negative
feeling. But still we must be thankful to Blackmark cause this was the
company that released our first records. So,
the best thing that you could do was to go to Sanctuary records. D:
Well I do not know yet. It was a natural thing to do then. The band was
not active back then and we weren’t looking for a deal with a label
because we didn’t have any plans to record a new album. And then all
happened so fast. We got back together starting working on a new album and
we got in contact with some guys from Noise and everything went just fine. Ok. Now I
want to ask you something that I had on my mind for a long time… why did
you call the band Lake Of Tears? D: Ooohhh… what can I say? When we started playing as a band we sat down
one day in order to find a name for the band. You can’t have a band
without a band name. I do not know why we chose Lake Of Tears as the name
of our band. If we tried to get a name today it surely would not be Lake
Of Tears, it would be something else, but I do not what. How
do you manage to keep your voice in such good shape? D: I
do not think that I keep it in a good shape… (he laughs)… I smoke a
lot and I drink many beers and stuff like that! I really do not care so
much about keeping my voice in a good shape. I have met many other artists
when we were touring and I saw them singing half an hour before the show,
or even singing over hot water and stuff like that, but I was smoking
cigarettes and drinking beers! So, are
those the advices that you are giving to new singers? D:
No of course not. It’s not the same for everyone. Someone has to do it
my way someone has to do it another way. It’s different for everyone.
People like me I think it’s better not to think about it a lot. Can
you also tell me which album of Lake Of Tears do you consider the best? D:
I cannot say which album is the best. When I listen to my old songs I
think of what was going on in my life in that period. Every album
represents a part of my life and of what I was doing in that period. Of
course I like some songs better than others. But I can say that “Greater
Art” is probably the least good of all the albums and “The Neonai”
could have been done with a real band. Ok I
won’t ask anything else about that. Can you characterize Lake Of
Tears’ music? D:
From
what I read from the newspapers and from the press in general they put as
in the Gothic Rock category. Do you
agree with that? D:
Yeah in a way we have some gothic parts that may remind some other bands
from this music style. But if I was to describe our music to someone then
I would say that we are three guys, who are sorrowful, and we play music
with drums, bass and distorted guitars and it’s a little bit rockin’. I
do not agree with those who tell that you are a gothic rock band or a
heavy metal band. You’ve got your own music style… you have been
influenced by many music styles but you have given your personal stigma in
you music. D:
That’s
very nice to hear. We never wanted to be categorized as a band. What
inspires you in order to write so melancholic music? D: There
are small things or big things that happened everyday in my life and give
me inspiration in order to write music. As I told you before all the guys
in the band look at the world with sorrow and that’s why we write
melancholic music. Now as Lake
Of Tears are a full time band again are there any plans for a tour? D: If we get the opportunity we would love to do a small tour or something
like that. It’s difficult for us to tour as we have our jobs and our
life here but something will happen in the end. Will
you visit Greece? D:
We
have some plans about Greece… and to tell you the truth I think that it
had been arranged to play this autumn in Greece but I think it moved on to
next year. (Interviewers and
Alex's note: Hoooooray!!!!!!!) 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? D: I do not know. I’m not in the music industry so much. There are so
many bands out there and it think it’s very difficult from someone to
differ in today’s music industry. Which are
those missteps that hold back Lake Of Tears in the past? D: One of them was that we signed such a long record deal with a company.
That was our first deal and we didn’t know anything about the music
industry. But you have to go through some things in life if you wanna
learn about yourself. And
some Weird Questions now, to relax somehow!!! Which are the things that
piss you off from today’s music industry? D:
What
pisses me off, and not only in music industry, is the greedy people that
you meet everyday in your life. It’s very bad to put greedy people to
work in music where you have to do with emotions and things like that. Do
you consider yourself as a rock star? D: A rock star? It depends on what you define a rock star of course… but
no, I’m not any spectacular person in any way. What would
you tell to someone to convince him to buy your album instead of hundreds
others that are being released every month? D:
I
think people should listen to some songs and if they like they should buy
it if they do not like it then do not buy it. So, if you haven’t
listened to the album, better take a listen to it and decide whether they
like it or not. And
not downloading from the internet… D: I
do not know… what can I say. It’s good for the band if people buy our
records so that we can get some money out. But of course music and money
are so difficult to be put in the same place. If
Lake Of Tears’ carrier was a movie… which movie would it be and why? D: Oh… I do not know… I do not think that there is this kind of movie
out there. Maybe it would be a kind of boring movie I guess. Like those
movies that people fall asleep… (laughs from both sides). If you were
a God’s messenger what would you tell Him to do for the good of
humanity? D:
People
are so fast to judge nowadays. Maybe we should listen more to each other.
Of course we have the goodness inside us, and the badness of course but we
have to concentrate in doing good things in our lives. If you were
obliged to give just one album to extraterrestrials, which would represent
the whole human music… which album would it be and from which band? D:
Ohhh…
veryyyy tricky question… maybe it would be a Pink Floyd record.
(Alex’s note: I’m not amazed! The guy knows about good music!!! I
personally would give them “The Wall”, which includes the whole human
race.) Imagine
that your girlfriend is selling your whole album-collection just to buy
for herself an expensive ring. How would you react? D: Ahhhh…
I would never allow her to sell my album collection. I do not think that I
could ever choose a girl that could have done such a thing to me. Anyway I
would be very angry! Ok Daniel
those were my questions. Thx very much for calling me! If there is
anything else that you would like to tell to Grande Rock readers, just do
it!! D:
I
would like to say to people to buy our records and to listen to our music
and I also wanna thank all those people that write us letters and give
feedback, this is fantastic. by Thanos Aggelakis P.S.: A special thx to Alex for his great help! |
Hi
Daniel … so good to be back in action… although I feel that you had
never left!