Destynation
Destynation may be a new
melodic heavy metal sensation, however, its members have quite some experience
in the heavy metal scene. From the ups and downs, the good and bad moments
they forged their will and were determined to create high quality music
that will please everyone!
So, read below the
talk we had with Ronny, who proved to be a clever, sincere and pleasant
guy...
1. HELLO! SINCE BEFORE DESTYNATION YOU WERE
IN THE BAND ETERNIA, I SUPPOSE THAT IT’S QUITE LOGIC TO BEGIN THIS INTERVIEW
FROM THE PAST. WHICH WERE THE REASONS THAT LED YOU TO DECISION TO DISBAND
WITH ETERNIA?
R: Hi there! Sure, there were a number of
reasons that led to this decision. I wasn't a part of the band at the start
in 1995 but I know that the name Eternia was taken from the He-Man cartoon
series (the home planet of Prince Adam), which sometimes made people question
our music and us as a band and it was often hard to convince people that
we were serious about this. People could easily take it as a joke.
And we noticed that the more attention we
got from around the world, the more tricky it would be to get reviews as
new bands "popped" up with the same or very similar name, also in this
fantasy genre.
But the main thing was that we began to strive
for a completely different horizon as we progressed musically towards a
sound that did not represent the name Eternia and all that it stands for.
With the arrival of Andy and his smooth, clean, David Coverdale-bluesy-inspired-voice,
it made us want to go back to our roots and write melodic heavy metal,
the way it sounded back in the 80s, when we grew up with it. The whole
fantasy theme was gone. It just didn't quite have that Eternia feeling
any more.
2. WHICH MEMBERS OF ETERNIA ARE NOW PLAYING IN
DESTYNATION? CAN YOU GIVE US YOUR CURRENT LINE-UP?
R: Actually everyone is former Eternia members.
The band originally started back in 1995 by drummer Magnus, guitarist Daniel
and bass player Patrik. At that time they had a pretty talented vocalist
called Joakim Zingmark. They were all from the same school class. I joined
the band in 1996 for some gigs and found it to be The Band I really wanted
to play in. Vocalist Joakim left the band at the end of 1996 and was replaced
by Mats "Dabbe" Dahlberg, a well-known metal singer from our hometown.
Although, due to family matters and some other issues he left the band
in 1993 followed by Andy's first appearance at the end of same year. So
everyone has been a part of Eternia, more or less. Andy was the third singer
and is now the one and only.
3. ETERNIA HAD QUIT? A NAME IN THE UNDERGROUND
POWER METAL SCENE. WHY DIDN’T YOU DECIDE TO CONTINUE WITH THE SAME NAME
AND INSTEAD YOU FORMED A NEW BAND?
R: Well, this question is very simple. As
I mentioned earlier, the music and sound changed dramatically from 1993
to 1995, there was also a lot of bands with the same and VERY similar names,
we left the fantasy metal style which was a major part of the Eternia theme,
and finally - there were some legal issues concerning the name Eternia
and the record label.
4. WHERE DID YOU FIND THE COURAGE TO START FROM
THE BEGINNING? HAVE YOU EVER THOUGHT TO QUIT PLAYING MUSIC ON A PROFESSIONAL
LEVEL?
R: Through the years we've always experienced
jealousy, ill-will, bad talk behind our back, rejections from record labels,
booking agencies, festivals and promoters etc... we've literally been through
hell. Starting all over, from scratch, didn't seem like a bad idea. And
I swear to you, it's the best thing we've ever done. It was like leaving
everything behind and moving on.
From the start of Destynation everything has
been going real nice and smooth. Not a problem as long as the eye can see.
We've never ever thought about giving up.
We love heavy metal, and playing it, too much to even consider something
like that. If I ask you: Have you ever thought about stop listening to
heavy metal? It's impossible.
5. NOW, THE TITLE OF YOUR DESTYNATION DEBUT ALBUM
IS “RISING UP”. IS THERE A HIDDEN MEANING BEHIND THE TITLE? DO YOU
MEAN PERHAPS THAT THIS TIME YOU ARE COMMITTED TO SUCCEED WITH YOUR NEW
BAND?
R: Yes, there is a deeper meaning behind the
title. It is actually a kind of a statement where we are as a band right
now. Rising Up, from the ashes of where we used to be. Where we saw no
future at all, things were going worse than ever and everyone seemed to
be against us.
This "Rising Up" is also pictured in the cover
artwork.
So both artwork, title and the story of the
band is represented here.
6. IF I ASK YOU TO COMPARE DESTYNATION WITH ETERNIA
WHICH ARE THE SIMILARITIES AND THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THESE 2 GROUPS?
R: The first obvious and I think the only
similarity is of course the members. I can tell you the differences with
one word - the sound. Eternia was all about fantasy, dungeons and dragons
and knights and swords. Fast pounding double bass and fast twin solos and
stuff. Very noisy music. And honestly, we weren't that good at it and we
wanted to get away from that and when Andy joined the band we felt like
we finally could start writing this kind of music we've always wanted to
play, melodic and easy-to-listen-to-heavy-metal. With a touch of Europe,
EdGuy, Nocturnal Rites, Dream Evil etc... with the clean, smooth and strong
melodic vocals, which had been a huge problem with Mats in Eternia, who
didn't quite possess the same music skills, technique skills, strength,
presence and awareness as Andy always has, both in studio as on stage.
He rarely misses a note.
I would say that Andy is the only reason to
this progress and we wouldn't trade him for anything in the world.
7. “RISING UP” IS A CONCEPT ALBUM. CAN YOU TELL
US IN A FEW WORDS WHICH THE STORY IS?
R: Hmm...I wouldn't say that it is a real
concept album, because there is no story throughout the entire album. But
the songs do have a common message which is: Basically to spread the message
about metal and, when you take it a little bit deeper, to leave all bad
things behind, no matter how bad they are and never look back to the past
but forward, into the future and see the dawn of the new day and the possibilities
that lie ahead.
You must always remember to live.
8. FROM WHAT I READ IN THE INFO-SHEET THAT YOUR
LABEL SENT ME, I SAW THAT YOU HAVE A VERY DARK CONCEPT LYRICALLY BUT YOUR
MUSIC IS VERY MELODIC AND HAS AN OPTIMISTIC FEELING. HOW CAN YOU EXPLAIN
THIS CONTROVERSY?
R: Yes, I think it has been a psychological
process, to start all over from scratch, writing new songs and new lyrics,
for things we know about. And what we know about is what we've experienced
in the past. Therefore the lyrics seem to be very dark at some points,
telling thoughts of the past, but no matter how dark they are you can always
sense something good approaching, there is always a light up ahead, in
the distance.
And the music is the way we always wanted
it to be, heavy, melodic for your ears to enjoy and as you said, has an
optimistic feeling. Because music should make people happy, not sad or
depressed, we want a smile from their faces when they listen to us, at
the same time I think it was necessary to get the demons out through the
lyrics.
9. THE KIND OF MUSIC YOU PLAY IS VERY FAMOUS HERE
IN EUROPE/ JAPAN AND RECENTLY BECOMES MORE AND MORE POPULAR IN THE U.S.A.
SO WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO SIGN WITH SONIC AGE RECORDS AND NOT WITH A BIGGER
LABEL FROM THE CENTRAL EUROPE?
R: We received a couple of offers from different
labels, some major and some smaller and believe me, Sonic Age is a very
competent label.
We've been in contact with them for a long
time, negotiating and discussing just about everything. For me, they are
as competent as any major label and they are doing their job as label perfectly…
They got the cd out, they are doing a good
job promoting us, we're constantly making new plans together for the future
and they've never let us down. Everything they have promised they have
fulfilled.
10. THE COVER ARTWORK OF YOUR ALBUM IS VERY GOOD
AND DARK. HOW IS IT CONNECTED WITH YOUR MUSIC/LYRICS? WHO IS THE PAINTER?
DID HE LISTEN TO YOUR MUSIC BEFORE HE CREATED THE ARTWORK?
R: Thanks! Yes, we're very satisfied with
it because it connects everything about us. The band situation, the songs
and the lyrics all comes together in this painting. You know, everything
is total chaos and decay but still, someone or something manage to arise
from the depths of this ordeal.
It is done by Greek Giza D. who has done a
lot of nice artworks in the past. We spoke to him and discussed what we
were expecting and how we would like him to visualize it, so we told him
a short story of the band and the message in the lyrics. And there you
have it!
11. YOU HAVE ALSO INCLUDED THE VIDEO–CLIP OF THE
SONG “RISING UP”. WHO IS THE DIRECTOR? WHY DID YOU CHOOSE TO VISUALIZE
THIS SONG? DO YOU HAVE PLANS TO DO ANOTHER VIDEO-CLIP AS WELL?
R: Actually no one was directing this video,
I just brought my old cam to the studio during the recording and whenever
there was "craziness in the air" anyone of us would grab it and shoot some
clips. Some of the clips turned out to be too crazy to have in the video...
We decided in the beginning that we were gonna
make a "documentary" about the recording, with focus on the title track
as it is such a strong song which connects to the band situation. We also
wanted people to see that we are a bunch of normal crazy bastards with
a lot of fun.
Still, sometimes there are fights and arguments
which are not represented in the video as it is not a common thing in the
band. That's just a result of sad circumstances, like being overworked
after 12 hours/day for 3 months, studio gear malfunctioning and such.
We're actually, as we speak, editing a new
video on the song “Back From The Dark”, which hopefully will be completed
at the end of this week.
There are also plans for a third video after
the summer which will be a "live" rock video for a song which I can't say
yet. You'll just have to wait and see!
12. I KEEP HEARING FROM MANY BANDS THAT THEY WANT
A GOOD PROMOTION FROM THEIR LABELS IN ORDER TO SUCCEED AND SOMETIMES THEY
GIVE ME THE SENSE THAT THEY DON’T CARE SO MUCH ABOUT THE MUSIC, BUT ONLY
ABOUT THE MONEY. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THAT?
R: I think it's sad that it's always about
the money. What ever happened to entertain people, to make them happy and
share some of yourself? Sure, we got to make a living too, but isn't the
wellfare of mankind more important? we don't care at all about the money,
sure we want good promotion but not in order to make as much money as possible.
That's totally wrong. We want to entertain as many as possible and let
the rest of the world know that we exist. Therefore we need good promotion
which hopefully gives money to be able to go on tour and to enter the studio
and to afford keep on doing what we do. Though I think music SHOULD be
free for anyone to enjoy.
13. WILL YOU DO ANY LIVE SHOWS IN ORDER TO PROMOTE
YOUR DEBUT ALBUM? IS IT POSSIBLE TO COME FROM GREECE TO PLAY?
R: Yes we will do as many live shows as we
possibly can because that's what we love to do, for the moment we only
have gigs and festivals in Sweden, but we're working real hard on getting
something bigger after the summer. We sincerely hope that we someday can
come to Greece and play. That would be totally awesome. Will you be there
if we come?
14. LET’S SUPPOSE THAT YOUR LABEL ASKED YOU TO
WRITE 1 OR 2 LINES IN ORDER TO ADVERTISE YOUR ALBUM “RISING UP”.
LET’S ALSO SUPPOSE THAT IT HAD TO BE SOMETHING INNOVATIVE AND CLEVER. WHAT
WOULD YOU WRITE?
R: Hehehe I think it would go something like
this: "Are you into metal? I know I am but my mom is not. She’? got the
album. I got it too. Now you get it! Rising Up by Destynation - everyone's
got it!"
15. THANKS FOR YOUR TIME! THE LAST LINES BELONG
TO YOU AND LEAVE A MESSAGE TO THE READERS OF BEHIND THE VEIL WEBZINE…
R: Thank you too! We hope that everyone gives
our album a chance, even if you're not into metal at all. Think of it as
a gift from us to you, because in a way it is, otherwise we could've kept
it to ourselves, and if you buy it that's your gift to us. Help us in any
way you can. Help us to entertain you! See you on the road!
Sincerely
//Ronny Blylod - Destynation
Nick “William_Kidd”
Parastatidis
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