Morning
Morning is a new atmospheric
metal band that comes from The Netherlands and "Hour Of Joy" is the band's
debut release under the Greek label Black Lotus Records. Morning is a very
promising band with interesting music and these are some of the reasons
that made us decide to interview Stijn Bannier, the band's keyboarder,
for your pleasure...
1. HELLO! FIRST OF ALL I HAVE TO SAY THAT
“HOUR OF JOY” IS A VERY GOOD DEBUT ALBUM, BUT HOW DO YOU FEEL NOW THAT
IT IS READY? DO YOU FEEL “COMPLETE” AS MUSICIANS OR TIRED?
It’s great to have a real release in your
hands: cool artwork, printed CDs etc. It’s a dream of every musician I
think!
2. ARE YOU ONE OF THOSE BANDS THAT THINK THAT
WHEN YOU LISTEN TO YOUR COMPLETE WORK YOU ALWAYS FIND SOMETHING TO CORRECT/CHANGE
OR DO YOU CONSIDER THAT “HOUR OF JOY” IS LIKE A MONUMENT THAT SHOWS THE
ABILITIES OF THE BAND IN THAT ERA?
Both! On one hand it is a monument, but on
the other hand when we listen to it now we also want to change some things…
3. YOU CHARACTERIZE YOUR MUSIC AS DREAM METAL.
SO HOW EASY IS IT TO TRANSFORM DREAMS INTO MUSIC AND LYRICS? DO YOU FOCUS
ONLY ON THE POSITIVE DREAMS OR ON THE NIGHTMARES AS WELL?
Well we call it that way because of the combination
between metal and atmospheric parts… I think it is a dream of us
to have a band like this with a label and an official release: this dream
has become reality! We want to express a positive feeling with our music,
so let’s choose for the first thing ;)
4. SINCE I ONLY HAVE THE PROMO IN MY HANDS AND
LYRICS ALWAYS INTEREST ME, IT WOULD BE NICE IF YOU COULD TELL US IN A FEW
WORDS WHICH THE THEME OF EACH SONG INCLUDED ON YOUR NEW ALBUM IS?
Saskia: The lyrics on Hour of Joy are actually
about three main themes. My feelings and thoughts are theme number one.
In songs like Inside, Kill the Silence, This Unreachable Mess, Captured
and Perception of Feelings you can hear me singing about a lot of stuff
that cross my mind. Theme number two you could call the songs that have
more society-critical themes, like The Unknown, Stop Drawing and You're
Setting Fire. Then we also have a song which is like the album title, Hour
of Joy. This one is about the fun we have while performing! When Shadows
is also a fun song, we call that one the love song ;)
5.SASKIA, IN COMPARISON TO OTHER FEMALE SINGERS
CHOOSES MAINLY TO SING IN A ROCK/METAL STYLE AND NOT IN A SYMPHONIC WAY.
AREN’T YOU AFRAID THAT THE FANS OF ATMOSPHERIC METAL MIGHT BE DISAPPOINTED?
DO YOU BELIEVE THAT IN A BIG PART THE WAY THAT SASKIA SINGS MAKES YOU DIFFER
FROM THE OTHER BANDS OF THE SAME GENRE?
Yes, we differ of course up to a point because
of the singing style of Saskia. But we didn’t choose to do it on purpose.
It just grew like this the past 5 years.
6. BEFORE YOU RELEASED YOUR DEBUT ALBUM, YOU HAD
ALREADY RELEASED 3 DEMOS. DID YOU INCLUDE ANY SONGS FROM YOUR PREVIOUS
DEMOS ON YOUR FIRST OFFICIAL ALBUM? HAVE YOU CHANGED THEM A BIT OR DID
YOU KEEP THEM THE SAME AS THEY WERE IN THE DEMOS?
Yes we included all songs from our last demo
“Inside” and two songs from our second demo “Circle of Power”. We rearranged
the songs and also changed a few parts.
7. ALTHOUGH YOU ARE FROM HOLLAND, A COUNTRY IN
THE CENTRAL EUROPE, YOU DECIDED TO SIGN WITH A GREEK LABEL THAT IS FAR
FROM WHERE MOST METAL EVENTS HAPPEN. WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO DO THAT? WHICH
ELEMENTS DID YOU FIND IN BLACK LOTUS THAT CONVINCED YOU TO SIGN WITH THEM?
After we finished the mixing process of our
album we decided to make a list of several labels who wanted to get our
CD. Bas (our guitarist) listed among others BLR. Since he is a big Savatage
fan he found their website through Chris Caffery (now a labelmate and Savatage’s
guitarist). We’ve sent several packages and got some positive reactions.
Some labels offered us a deal and we chose Black Lotus as the best. They
had a good promotion and distribution worldwide and for the Netherlands
and Belgium they worked with Theo The Rock, a good friend of us. Second
to that they also have some great other artists on the label, like Angel,
Chris Caffery and Eddie Ojeda!
8. YOUR ALBUM IS NAMED “HOUR OF JOY”. HOWEVER
THE MUSIC YOU PLAY HAS A NOSTALGIC FEELING IN MOST PARTS. DON’T YOU THINK
THAT THERE IS A CONTROVERSY BETWEEN THE TITLE AND YOUR MUSIC?
The title of the album is from the song “Hour
of Joy”. That song is about the fun we’re having when we perform live and
before and after the shows!
9. THE COVER ARTWORK OF YOUR ALBUM IS SIMPLY GREAT!
WHO IS THE ARTIST? HOW IS IT CONNECTED WITH YOUR MUSIC AND LYRICS? DID
THE ARTIST LISTEN TO YOUR MUSIC BEFORE HE CREATED THE ALBUM?
The cover is made by Nathalie Shau, from Lituania.
She is the girl on the cover. We think the cover really fits the music
we make!
10. YOU COVER ON YOUR ALBUM A QUEEN SONG AND MORE
SPECIFICALLY THE TRACK “THE SHOW MUST GO ON”. WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO MAKE
A COVER OF THIS SONG? DOES IT HAVE A SPECIAL MEANING TO YOU? ALSO IT’S
GREAT THAT SASKIA GAVE HER OWN INTERPRETATION AND DIDN’T TRY TO IMITATE
FREDDY MERCURY…
I’m a big Queen fan and we were looking for
a cool cover to do. Since everyone in the band agreed on this song, we
decided to cover it and to record the song.
11. SOMEWHERE IN YOUR BIO I READ THAT EVEN PEOPLE
THAT ARE NOT INTO METAL MUSIC LIKED YOUR MUSIC. DO YOU BELIEVE THAT MORNING
CAN CHANGE THE OPINION ABOUT HEAVY METAL TO PEOPLE THAT DON’T KNOW ANYTHING
ABOUT IT? DO YOU BELIEVE THAT NON METALLERS WOULD BUY YOUR NEW ALBUM?
We already heard several reactions on our
album from non-metal-listeners who really liked our music. Mostly because
of Saskia’s voice and the fact that we don’t make brutal or extreme metal.
We might open new doors for those people and they might to get to know
other bands through us…
12. LET’S SAY THAT YOUR LABEL DECIDES TO DO AN
EXPENSIVE VIDEO-CLIP FOR YOU. WHICH SONG OF YOURS WOULD YOU CHOOSE TO VISUALIZE
AND BASED ON WHAT CRITERIA? HOW DO YOU IMAGINE THE VIDEO CLIP TO BE?
We hope to record Hour of Joy. Of course
you would see the band playing live for a big and enthusiastic audience
and second to that there will be several shots from the band and crew on
tour, funny moments etc.
13. SINCE YOU CLAIM THAT YOU ARE A DREAM METAL
BAND, HAVE YOU EVER DREAMED OF A TUNE OR LYRICS THAT YOU HAVE INCLUDED
IN A SONG?
14. WHICH IS THE MEANING OF DREAMS ACCORDING TO
YOU? A WAY TO ESCAPE FROM OUR REALITY OR A WARNING FROM THE FUTURE?
For me it’s just an escape from reality, but
I let everyone to choose these things for themselves.
15. IT WAS A PLEASURE DOING THE INTERVIEW WITH
YOU! I WISH YOU THE BEST OF LUCK WITH YOUR NEW ALBUM! THE LAST WORDS BELONG
TO YOU, SO PLEASE SAY WHATEVER YOU WANT (IT DOESN’T MATTER IF IT’S ABOUT
MUSIC OR NOT)…
Thanks as well for the interview! Take a look
at our website www.morning.nl
or see you at one of our gigs!
Greetings and all the best to you!
Nick “William_Kidd”
Parastatidis
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