Agankast
Well... What is there left
to be said about Agankast? This is our 3rd interview with this great and
promising band so I think you already know quite a lot about them. Lately
they released their second self financed album entitled "Welcome To Insanitarium"
and of course we couldn't lose the chance to ask them a few questions.
Find below the very interesting answers we received from Rob, the band's
mainman...
1. Hi Rob! Nice talking to you again after
almost a year from the release of your debut album!
Hi Antonis good to here from you again, it’s
great to have the support continue into our second year from you, your
readers and our other friends across there in Greece...
2. So now we have your second self financed
album. Why don’t you have a label once again? Was it your decision?
Since the release across the internet of our
debut CD dance of the dead.... We have had some interesting feedback. Our
debut really was only about introducing ourselves into the realms of heavy
metal, and for me shouting "Hello I’m back". We have had label interest
in the band, which has not become anything and at the same time we have
been made offers which I have turned down. The other guys having not been
on a record label have been keen to sign to a label but I have told them
that their is no hurry...and they understand that now, in fact the whole
band now will only accept a record contract from one of the bigger metal
labels. If I say here that Agankast consider themselves too good for a
smaller label then I will be accused of being arrogant....but well here
goes...I think Agankast are too good for a small label... Sorry about that.
I think small labels do a great job for cultivating new bands and we need
small labels. But! With the internet and bands like us doing our own entire
PR and recording etc, etc....it doesn’t leave much for the label to do.
If I sign a contract then it's going to have to be more than I’m already
doing for myself... and that more is money.
I’m in no hurry, I know we are being watched...
I know how the industry works, but Agankast have to prove themselves in
a "Live" situation now. This is something the band is 100% committed to.
Only gigs from now on, the industry people know we have great songs but
they want to make sure we are not going to be too much trouble? They want
Rock n Roll but they want to make money too so they will hold back and
watch. If for instance Agankast has not had any worthwhile approaches from
the industry over the next 24 months then obviously we must all be deluded
and our music must be shitty...
3. Many of our readers maybe know you from
your previous band Atomkraft. Can we say for someone that hasn’t ever heard
of Atomkraft, that Agankast and Atomkraft have a connection?
Oh yeah absolutely....the name for one is
similar. I thought if I’m returning to Metal after a gap of 20 years then
I want there to be a connection with my Metal roots, especially as I was
a major part in creating what was Atomkraft. I have to point out that the
Atomkraft we all know and loved, truly began in 1985 and it was formed
as a trio of musicians. I was only just 16 at the time of Atomkraft’s birth
and I was still learning guitar and song writing till Atomkraft’s end some
three and a half years later. But during that time I still managed to write
half of all of Atomkraft’s songs and contributed heavily on all the other
material. But I think the biggest connection between Agankast and Atomkraft
is the approach to the music itself. I was always more into bands that
varied things around a bit....I liked Slayer but preferred Metallica for
their time changes and more complex arrangements, that’s just my taste
anyway.
4. Before we speak about your second album,
tell me for the things we read in the Blabbermouth, about the battle of
the bands and why you didn’t play in the final… Many people believed you
were afraid to lose.
Yes well the truth of the situation about
the Battle of the bands, was I realised that I and my band were being "set
up to lose"....we won the semi-final and got into the final and the guy
organising the whole thing kept saying strange things to me like "Agankast
will not win the final...because my favourite band is in the final" when
you get things like that said to you and by the way this is the same guy
who picks all of the judges as well as organising the whole event...well...ha,
ha....I told Allan (Agankast’s singer) and he said that he had heard rumours
going around that "Agankast were going to be framed". Why? Why would any
of this take place? Well firstly these people felt that the "English Rockstar"
(me apparently) needed to be brought down to earth. Agankast have become
very famous very quickly here in Scotland and a lot of people (other bands)
don’t like us for that....It’s all about jealousy really. I told the guys
in the band this would happen and I have been proven correct. At the end
of the day if people have a problem with me then they should say it to
my face and not insult my band in the newspapers, I can handle it to me
it’s just pathetic...but the other guys in the band are young and they
took the criticism very personally and that was not fair.
5. Why did you choose this title for your second
album?
Okay so now comes the important stuff, this
is where all the people who are reading this have begun to like me...now
they will change there minds and hates me! I hope not anyway...I have made
my bed now I must lie in it....this is the concept of the new album and
what it is saying.....I don’t really know if I want to say it but I guess
it is to late now........I am a good guy......the bad guys are the ones
who stay quiet, they are scared to speak in case they say something they
regret and everyone sees the true them. and it affects their chance at
stardom, I am not like that I say it the way it is. "Welcome to Insanitarium"
the title of the new album is and means exactly what you are thinking about.
and that is "Immigration" . Immigration is the theme of the Album it’s
the cover and it is the concept. My view is this: In Europe many people
are getting tired of the amount of immigrants being allowed into their
respective countries. I will speak now in terms of Britain although the
same applies now to every country in Europe and others around the world.
"I believe immigration has to stop now" because the natives are becoming
restless. And when that happens then Politicians should listen, but unfortunately
they are not...and its creating the rise of the far right again here in
Britain and also across Europe.
I believe their is nothing wrong with protecting
your own Culture....thousands and thousands of years of Culture is being
destroyed today by our European Politicians, for the sake of cheap labour
and keeping themselves in power. Please don’t get me wrong I believe Black
Africans "for example" deserve everything we in the rich west have....but
take for example my country, here in Britain we are taking in tens of thousands
of African Doctors and Nurses....Why? To look after us rich whites....but
now their is a shortage of doctors and nurses in the home countries were
these people are migrating from.....that leaves the poor people out in
the African countries with no Doctors or Nurses because they are all here
working for us (slaves again) they are greedy like us now and have come
under the spell of money, chasing the Dollar while their own people suffer
because of a health system that has no health workers because they are
all here. It’s all fucked up and my anger is at these greedy Capitalist
Politicians messing the whole thing up.....Culture, people’s health, peoples
safety. I am a good person I say all of this out of concern for the future,
I don’t want to see any bad shit in my lifetime, but there are many people
out there who are more extreme than me and you....I am only a songwriter
and the tradition of song writing is to reflect the times we are living
in.......and unfortunately the big " Multi-cultural experiment" is not
working and I worry for the future of Europe. People believe that what
happened to the Jews in the Holocaust could not happen again believing
foolishly that the German people of the 1930s and 40s were somehow monsters
for allowing such a thing to happen. This is dangerous because they were
all normal people...Hitler did not brainwash them, they were sick of Immigration
because back then they felt multi-culturalism (the Jewish problem) was
not for Germany, etc, etc...sound Familiar?...are Muslims in Europe to
be the next to suffer in the second Holocaust??
There is unrest out there and it frustrates
me that nobody in higher profiles is speaking louder! They are scared to
say what everyone is now thinking. It is a form of cowardice that we all
are guilty of, Like the cowardice of the German women who everyday would
see plumes of Smoke bellowing out of the Concentration camp at Belson.
It was not that long ago only some 60 years...are we really now that far
advanced? Now put also the shoe on the other foot, If the amount of incoming
Immigration that Europe is receiving was put to say Asia....Millions of
Whites from Europe wanting to settle in India, would their response and
concern for their own culture not be the same as ours? Of course it would.
Cultural protection is good... It’s been good for millions of years. I
know some people will read this and totally get it all wrong..........
they can label me with whatever, but if I can do something for my own country
no matter how small then I will do it....to protect my own Heritage....
its the least I can do. Finally on the subject ......I don’t have a problem
with immigration, as long as it’s fair...and numbers are kept low in respect
of any particular country.....when the numbers get out of control as they
are now, then things have to be said. You say it too....If they brand you
a racist or a Nazi, then they are probably people with their own agenda
that has nothing to do with caring for the Human Race.
6. Do you believe that the cover is a little
bit extreme?
The thing is Heavy Metal even at its most
extreme isn’t really extreme at all it mostly follows the script… which
is of course why it works....I love Metal and I always have done and I
always will , but the thing is us old Thrash Metallers are as much punk
as we are metal and it was really the punk side of us that gave us that
edge. Judas Priest Back in 1977 wore leather and studs onstage which was
cool.....but it was the Sex Pistols who wore leather, studs and a Swaz
Sticker onstage...can you imagine how offensive that was in 1977. I mean
it would be considered offensive now. What I am saying here is within Agankast
that Punk/Thrash/Metal thing is ever-present we don’t want to be in the
safe crowd. Like many bands for example......they pick the safe song topics
every time...still singing about World war one in the trenches and all
that old stuff....why don’t they say what they really mean?... but hey
its all about money ain’t it!!!!.....
7. I know that many bands don’t like the labels,
but we can see that your music’s direction is old school metal or thrash
metal?
Yeah I’m one of the no-like-label crowd....so
I just say Agankast are a Heavy Metal band....I think old school sounds
a bit naff everybody is using that term now..for all sorts of things.....a
loaf of bread can be called old school......if its not a new posh chiabatta
from the supermarket. Maybe a new label needs to be thought up here....how
about "Trad-Metal" as in Traditional. Agankast are all into the same sort
of Heavy Metal....Dio, Maiden, Metallica, Rainbow, etc etc...70s and 80s
stuff. Agankast cannot be named an old fashioned band when three of the
guys are so young and the audiences are also very young indeed. Yes, I
will go along with Trad-Metal....spread the word but I thought of it first.
8. What is the procedure that you follow when
you write new songs?
At the end of my Garden I have a small Recording
studio where i work whenever i get the time. this involves writing a song
on the guitar, recording it to a click track and then working on a basic
vocal melody. I then write lyrics to the nonsense vocal i have recorded
I re-record the vocal and melody as a take. Next comes the Drums I have
a Roland TD 6 Electronic Drum kit...I used to mike up a real kit but the
technology especially on drums is awesome and the TD 6 is a work of genius.
The Drummer gets a copy of the CD gets to know the song then comes into
the studio and puts down his drum track to a click. This is standard recording
procedure. Next up is the Bass guitar, Allan records his Bass alongside
the finished drums. I redo my guitar parts and lay down solos...next up
is Ciaran who lays down his guitar parts and solos, lastly is Allans Vocal
which is put down. A few effects are added and I begin mixing the whole
thing… which is what I hate doing...Its not my thing at all and is always
a nightmare for me to get correct...probably because my hearing is now
destroyed after all of this Metal.
The way I have just explained is the way all
of our songs to date have been recorded this has saved us time and money
and the end result is quite professional, but it is the last time Agankast
will be recording in such a way. I want to get in the future a 100% real
feel on our recordings and this will involve studio time in bigger studios....and
that probably will only be possible with the backing of a large Record
Label.
9. You have young band members. Do you believe
that this thing gives a fresh air to the whole project?
I have to be honest here and say that from
the beginning I wanted Agankast to be a young band with the exception of
me. The plan has been to establish the band and begin to slowly take a
back seat within the band. I genuinely just want to be the guy in the background
on the guitar doing a great guitar solo every now and then. I am uncomfortable
with the mainman of the band title that I have been given, but this I know
has been inevitable after my being known for Atomkraft.
But after a little time people will see the
band for what it is "A great band" Allan Scott is a great singer/Bass player
and has a strong presence as a frontman, the women all find him attractive
which is great for any band...in fact Allans so Rock n Roll that he asks
to see ID ( proof of age ) before he does rude things to them...lol. Ciarans
got to be the fastest guitar player in Scotland and all will be revealed
over the next year as we get our teeth into the live circuit. Our New drummer
is James Savage...and he is Savage by name and Savage by nature....their
is no-way this guy is going to play with Electronic drum kits, his 18 years
of age and a future star... a real find...as are all of my fellow Agankast
Warriors.
10. Rob you are in the metal scene a lot of
years now. Which things did you "learn" from all these years?
Actually Antonis I have not been in the Metal
scene for a long time I’m afraid...After Atomkraft I was 19 years of age
and explored other forms of music, including Jazz and Irish Folk before
returning to college and then University...After that in the mid 1990s
I went travelling around the world.. before coming back home to Northern
England....If I said to you that time goes very quickly when your having
fun and that I don’t really understand were all of the years have went,
would you believe me?... its the truth it seems like almost yesterday since
I was in Atomkraft....and it probably is. That is why I can do all this
without feeling like a fraud...I’ve come full circle...I can see now all
of the thirty something nodding in agreement with me.. lol...we have all
come full circle and its much better this time around. And anyway Agankast
is not about me anymore its about four guys....and all with their own politics,
views on the world etc.....its great being in a really good band.
11. Do you have plans in order to support this
release?
Just to do what we can...in terms of gigs
etc....their is no pressure on us, we are a really cool underground band
and i really like that at the moment.....those words, Cult and Underground.....I
like that.....Remember ive had record deals before and they are not always
the answer.
12. How do you describe Agankast music?
Traditional -Metal?................ or here’s
another one: Millennium Metal????.........or Black Metal...no that’s been
done.
13. You have only two years of existence and
already two albums: I believe you have many ideas. Right?
Yeah well I do have a lot of ideas... I am
a creative junky if its creative I can turn my hands to it. Agankast has
in total of about 36 songs...two albums and a load of free stuff on our
website (www.Agankast.com)
that was the plan from the start to have a load of great music available
for people to listen to....and then the touring would begin...that’s were
we are at now.
We really are now an Underground act the Mighty
Agankast...I know people feel close to us "The Clan" as we call them....put
it this way if you are the Nerd of the Classroom, the Geek, the oddball
or the Bullied Guy, then you are instantly part of our Agankast family.
If you are a freak, cross dresser, gay, morbid, miserable, outsider or
loner, then you are part of our family......in other words if your different
to the brain dead Robots out there, then your our friend. If you have strong
opinions and make up your own mind about things...your our friend. If you
believe in Immigration but reckon its probably getting a bit out of control...then
again.... you are our friend.
If however you are a loudmouth lefty, consider
yourself normal, listen to Billy Bragg, money orientated, two faced, false,
clean, do not trust anyone who is not like you.....then we dont want to
be your friend. In my experience in life... its the people who were doing
the bullying at school for instance, who are now the " Left wing peace
not war people"..............those who have repented you know the type
the religeous fools too. But we the sane people have this centre political
bullshit rammed down our throats year after year by these morons.
14. Rob, thank you for your time and close
the interview as you want…
Thanks Antonis for the interview, and I will
be in touch more now I promise... because as you now know I have been Locked
in a studio at the end of my Garden lol. and to your readers I would like
to say this... I appreciate at the end of the day music is escapism from
the day to day bullshit in our lives, it is for me too but its diverse
and it can be used and is often used to make a statement on current affairs.....people
may read this and think our album "Welcome to Insanitarium" is all "Doom
and Gloom" and "overpolitical" but in fact its not....it is a work of art
that can be enjoyed as a great Heavy Metal album on its own. Many of my
heroes and my favourite albums make strong political points as an undercurrent
to a piece of work, this is what has been achieved with "Welcome to Insanitarium".
Please don’t think its extreme right wing because its not its just a comment
on the times we are living in today..... 2006. So thanks again to all of
you Clan members out there for your continued support of us....and could
you now sort out the spare rooms because when Agankast get down to Greece
you will all be looking after us.....it saves money on Hotels you see.
lol .......Also get yourselves along to www.Scotloads.co.uk where you can
buy the Album....for 79p a track which is what in silly euro money? 60
euros maybe?......anyway.... that’ s it from me and from the Boys up here
in the land of Rape and Plunder "Bonny Scotland".....................Have
a great day......... Stay True to the cause................GOD SAVE THE
QUEEN.............................
Cheers, Rob.
Antonis Maglaras
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