Cloudscape
Cloudscape released a while
ago their debut album that set them amongst the promising bands in the
melodic power/progressive metal scene. The band surely has potential, so
if you are a fan of this sound, you should give them a try, cause it's
more than certain that they can offer you many great moments! Behind The
Veil thought it was necessary to conduct an interview with them. So, read
the answers provided by Mike, the band's vocalist, who proved to be a really
nice and fun to talk to guy!
1. HELLO MICHAEL! HOW ARE YOU? YOUR DEBUT
ALBUM IS VERY GOOD FOR THE STANDARDS OF THE PROGRESSIVE METAL GENRE. HOW
DO YOU FEEL ABOUT IT, SINCE YOU ARE ONE OF THE CREATORS OF THIS ALBUM?
Hi Nikos. I´m fine thank you:) Well,
what I feel about our debut album? I´m very satisfied with it in
all kinds of ways. The production turned out great thanx to our producers
Anders “Theo” Theander and Pontus Lindmark. I think there are lots of “things
to find” on our album that makes it last longer in the CD player;).
2. ON MY SEARCH ON THE NET I READ THAT CLOUDSCAPE’S
ROOTS START SOMEWHERE IN 1992. CAN YOU TELL US A FEW THINGS ABOUT IT? WHY
DID IT TAKE YOU SO LONG TO RELEASE YOUR DEBUT ALBUM?
In our previous band (Doctor Weird) that led
up to us forming “Cloudscape” we recorded a self-financed full-length album
that was finished in 1999 so, we tried to send out promos to different
record labels in order to get a proper deal of releasing it but, the response
was mainly uninterested. The music of Doctor Weird was a bit more progressive
and when I´m looking back at that period of my life I somewhat understand
why the response turned out like it did. The songs ain´t bad or anything
but, I think they were too monotonous. We didn´t had any good contacts
to help us out either so, we were a bunch of guys with a dream that seemed
too far away;). However, we struggled a long time trying to get attention
from record labels so, one day in 2001 we decided to start all over again
with completely new songs as a new band (Cloudscape) so, we contacted production
and management company “Roastinghouse” in order to get assistance from
them due to their influence on the music industry. They listened to our
new demo recordings and decided to help us out so, here we are with our
first album released.
3. SINCE YOU ARE NOT SO KNOWN HERE IN GREECE I
WOULD LIKE YOU TO GIVE US A SHORT BIO OF THE BAND AND TELL US WHICH IN
YOUR OPINION ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT MOMENTS OF THE BAND SO FAR? ALSO, PLEASE,
PRESENT THE CURRENT LINE-UP OF THE BAND…
Well, Cloudscape was formed in 2001. Our music
can be described as “melodic metal with progressive touches”. We released
our debut all over Europe in early 2005 and in Asia in late 2004. We all
live in a town called Helsingborg in the south parts of Sweden. The most
important moments in the Cloudscape world so far has been our live performance
at “Progpower Europe” in The Netherlands. Of course recording and releasing
our debut album is the most important moment so far. There are so many
wonderful and important moments during 2004 and 2005 so, I could honestly
go on writing about this a few more hours but, I won´t;). The line-up
(still) is:
Mike Andersson – Lead & backing vocals
(Keyboards)
Björn Eliasson – Guitars (Keyboards)
Haynes Pherson – Bass and backing vocals (Haynes
has changed his name from Hans Persson to Haynes Pherson)
Roger Landin – Drums & Percussion
4. TO TELL YOU THE TRUTH I READ YOUR LYRICS, BUT
I COULDN’T UNDERSTAND ALL OF THEM. SO CAN YOU PLEASE TELL US IN A FEW WORDS
WHICH THE THEME OF EACH SONG IS?
To make some long stories a bit shorter I´ll
try to explain;).
AS THE LIGHT LEADS THE WAY is about a person
that recently lost someone dear. So, the message in the lyric is that the
person the story is about should get hold of her/himself and find a meaningful
life again and not live in sorrow too long. There are always bright sides
of life even if it seems dark sometimes.
UNDER FIRE carries a quite simple message which
is, “don´t complain about your own small problems before thinking
about our worlds misery”.
AQUA 275 is written by our drummer (Roger Landin)
and it´s inspired by the movies “The island of Dr Moreau” and “Deep
blue sea”. The message is; do not experiment with innocent lives (Humans
and animals) if you don´t know you can handle the outcome. Do not
play God.
WITCHING HOUR is a distant lovestory about
a guy who misses his ex-girlfriend he shared his life with in the past.
IN THESE WALLS is written by Roger and also
this lyrics are partly inspired by a movie which is “Rose Red”. A spooky
house is transforming and expanding by itself;).
OUT OF THE SHADOWS is inspired by the “Balrog”
that appears in the first “Lord of the rings” book/movie but, in present
time ;).
EVERYDAY IS UP TO YOU is about a guy who recently
parted ways with his girlfriend and how he lives his life on his own.
DAWN OF FURY is a tale about a heroic knight
(typical power metal lyrics ;) that takes revenge for his family.
SLAVE is about a woman that escapes from a
psychopath. The lyric is a little bit inspired by a book by Dean Koontz.
THE PRESENCE OF SPIRITS is also inspired by
a movie which is “The sixth sense” so, the story is about sensing the appearances
of ghosts/spirits.
SCREAM is about being bored.
LOSING FAITH is yet another kind of lovestory;)
5. YOU HAVE ALSO PARTICIPATED AS A GUEST MUSICIAN
IN THE BAND OF CHRISTIAN RIVEL (THE NARNIA SINGER), AUDIOVISION. HOW DID
THIS COOPERATION WITH CHRISTIAN OCCUR? DO YOU PLAN TO INVITE HIM AS GUEST
TO YOUR NEW ALBUM?
I´m a very good friend of Christian
and I have known him for about 7 – 8 years. One day he called me and asked
me if I was interested in composing a song for the Audio Vision album so,
that´s what I did (The king is alive). Christian will not guest on
our forthcoming album. Maybe we´ll do something together in the future
but, we haven´t planned anything. I´m quite busy musically
nowadays and so is he of course.
6. ONE OF YOUR GUITARISTS, PATRIK SVARD, PARTICIPATES
IN OTHER METAL BANDS. IS THAT A PROBLEM TO YOU? HOW DOES HE FIND THE TIME
TO PLAY ALSO WITH CLOUDSCAPE?
The other band (Second Heat) that Patrik is
involved in is more or less a “studio band” that doesn´t take any
time from Cloudscape. However, just like the rest of the members in Cloudscape
we all put the first priority to Cloudscape. If we have spare time or so
for other projects/bands it´s up to each others own decisions of
how they want to use their time “outside” Cloudscape. I for instance am
involved in a Swiss progressive band called “Silent Memorial” that will
release their second album sometime during 2006. Silent Memorial released
their debut called “Cosmic handball” with Thomas Vikström (Stormwind,
Brazen abbot, ex Candlemass) on vocals in Asia in 1998. I will record the
vocals for that album in February 2006. I´m also involved in various
projects with some really, really well known musicians so, keep your eyes
open during this upcoming spring when a official statement about one of
the projects will see the light;).
7. YOU HAVE ALREADY DONE A VIDEO-CLIP FROM YOUR
FIRST ALBUM AND IT IS THE SONG “UNDER FIRE”. WHY DID YOU CHOOSE THIS SPECIFIC
SONG? WHO IS THE DIRECTOR OF THE VIDEO-CLIP?
We think that “Under Fire” is the most representative
song telling the listener what Cloudscape sounds like. The director is
Rainer Holmgren who also did a few videos for “Pain Of Salvation” etc etc.
8. YOU PLAN TO RELEASE YOUR NEW ALBUM IN JUNE.
CAN YOU TELL US A FEW THINGS ABOUT IT? DO YOU HAVE ANY SONGS READY AND
HOW WILL IT BE TITLED? WILL IT MOVE ON THE SAME MUSICAL PATH AS YOUR PREVIOUS
WORK OR WILL IT BE DIFFERENT?
All songs are written and rehearsed so, the
recording sessions start the 26th of December in the Roastinghouse studio.
The new album will follow the same pattern as the debut but, “we” think
it will be more melodic but, still as heavy as the debut. Some more progressive
elements will also appear. I think generally that the new songs have more
hooklines and that we have developed as musicians and composers a bit more
since recording the debut. We really hope that our fans will like our new
album and that we will get even more fans ;). The album title will be “Crimson
Skies”. All artwork will be handled by Mattias Norén (www.progart.com)
9. WHEN WE SPOKE, YOU TOLD ME THAT YOU HAVE VISITED
THE ISLAND OF CRETE FOR VACATIONS. WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER FROM GREECE? IS
GREECE A PLACE THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO LIVE FOREVER OR DO YOU PREFER SWEDEN
AND ITS CLIMATE ? :)
I love the warm climate in Greece and I really
loved the island of Crete so, I will go back there for sure. I haven´t
been in Greece but, Crete was beautiful and filled with mountains. However,
I also love Sweden of course. When it´s snowing in the south parts
of Sweden it´s really beautiful here but, it´s very rare. You
have to go further up north in Sweden if you want to see snow. A winter
where I live is normally wet, grey or cold. I love the fact that we have
different seasons however.
10. HOW DID THE PRESS AND FANS ACCEPT YOUR DEBUT
ALBUM SO FAR? WAS THERE A REVIEW THAT YOU READ AND YOU THOUGHT THAT THE
REVIEWER DIDN’T UNDERSTAND WHAT EXACTLY YOU WANT TO DO WITH YOUR MUSIC?
The response from the fans and press has been
very good so far :) Most of the reviews I´ve read has been very good
so, if there was a bad one I honestly don´t remember what they disliked.
I remember 1 review where the reviewer didn´t like our music though.
He couldn´t say why he didn´t like, only that he didn´t.
When I read his personal profile on the site he writes for, I noticed that
he only like bands like Motörhead, Iron Maiden, (old) Helloween and
so on so, in that case I honestly understand why he didn´t like our
album ;) . However, most of all reviews has been really, really good and
we are damn happy:))).
11. WILL YOU DO ANY LIVE SHOWS OR WILL YOU WAIT
TO RELEASE YOUR SECOND ALBUM? IS IT POSSIBLE TO COME AND VISIT GREECE?
We have a few gigs scheduled in Sweden during
spring and early summer but, unfortunately we do not have any gigs scheduled
outside Sweden yet:( We would love to visit Greece for concerts.
We really hoped that our debut album would be able to take us outside of
Sweden but, so far we only performed at Progpower in The Netherlands.
12. THANKS FOR YOUR TIME! I THINK THAT THE READERS
OF OUR WEBZINE EXPECT A MESSAGE FROM YOU…
Thank you for interviewing me. Nice meeting
you... To our Greek fans and Greek future fans I would like to say KEEP
ON ROCKING AND PROMOTE METAL IN YOUR COUNTRY!!! Cloudscape releases the
2nd album in June entitled “Crimson Skies” so, if you haven´t heard
our debut yet you can always buy it and I´m sure it will tie you
up ´til June;) Visit us at: www.cloudscape.se
. You are also welcome registering at our forum to discuss our music or
music in general!!!
TAKE CARE and HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!!
Cheers
Mike Andersson (Cloudscape)
Nick “William_Kidd”
Parastatidis
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