Sick
Room 7
This was definitely one
of the most interesting and pleasant interviews I have had the chance to
do simply because what you'll get out of it, is honesty and passion for
what Sick Room 7 do. If you really love what you do then you can reach
out to people easier and your work will be surely understood better. Have
a taste and you'll see for yourselves what I'm talking about!
1. HELLO SVEST AND MY CONGRATULATIONS ON “HAIL
INTOLERANCE”. IT IS A VERY GOOD WORK. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT IT?
Hailz Nikos! Thanks for your words on “Hail
Intolerance”. I must say that I feel proud of the album and that I think
it represents the first era of Sick Room 7 well, but I will also admit
that I’m eager to release something new that is more coherent in a sense,
because the album is made up of 2 different demos and an exclusive song,
so even though I am proud of the album I’m really looking forward to releasing
an entire full-length album made up of songs that are written with one
specific album in mind.
2. FROM WHAT I READ IN THE BIO SHEET OF YOUR LABEL,
“HAIL INTOLERANCE”. INCLUDES 2 DEMOS OF YOURS. IS IT TRUE? HAVE YOU
INCLUDED THE SONGS OF THE DEMOS AS THEY WERE OR HAVE YOU CHANGED THEM A
BIT?
Yeah, the album is made up of two demos, but
we have not changed anything about them, so they sound just like they would
do even if they had been released separately. The second half of the album
is basically the first demo entitled “Crawling Words”, which we released
back in November 2005, but not that many copies of it were sold and distributed
before we were picked up by Sound Spheric Records from France. By the time
they contacted us, we were finished with what was supposed to be our second
demo named “Hail Intolerance”, so we all agreed on releasing a full-length
album consisting of the first demo, the second unreleased demo and then
a bonus song to round off the album.
3. EXCEPT FOR SICK ROOM 7, YOU HAVE ANOTHER BAND
CALLED FORLIS. CAN YOU TELL US WHAT KIND OF MUSIC YOU PLAY WITH FORLIS?
It is difficult to describe the sound of Forlis,
because it is quite original and “weird” compared to a lot of the music
that is out there today. Forlis often shifts between ambient-like parts
and more guitar-driven parts, and there are a lot of different moods and
ambiguous atmospheres present in the music, but the band cannot be classified
as either ambient or metal. Some people have called us “atmospheric doom”,
others have called us something like “minimalistic ambient-rock” and some
have even called us “Pink Floyd goes to Hell”, so yeah; it is not so easy
to put a label on Forlis I think. Some of the more calm parts of Sick Room
7 could perhaps give you a small idea of what Forlis sounds like in certain
places.
4. IS SICK ROOM 7 A PROJECT OR A NORMAL BAND?
WILL YOU CONTINUE WITH FORLIS OR HAVE SICK ROOM 7 BECOME YOUR PRIORITY?
It is not a project and we are very, very
devoted to Sick Room 7, just as we are to Forlis. They pretty much have
equal priority. Since Forlis was the first band Vuml and I put together
it has a special place in our hearts, but since we formed Sick Room 7 it
has become top priority as well and we try to divide our time equally between
the bands. We will definitely continue with Forlis and we are working on
a lot of material these days that will hopefully come out during 2007.
5. THE NAME OF THE BAND (SICK ROOM 7) BRINGS TO
MIND PLACES LIKE HOSPITALS OR TORTURE CHAMBERS. DO YOU AGREE WITH THAT?
DID YOU CHOOSE THE NAME AS AN INDICATOR OF WHAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO DO WITH
YOUR MUSIC?
I definitely agree. I think the band-name
sounds a bit disturbing and sick, and I think it suits our song-material
splendidly. The sick room is obviously meant to signify a chamber or room
filled with sickness, repression, madness, etc., while the number 7 is
related to the cardinal sins. So there is sickness and there is sin…two
very interesting subjects in my opinion, and, depending on how you look
at them, you can draw a parallel between the two. We chose the name because
for us it had these associations to things such as sickness, disturbance,
oppression and punishment, and we would indeed like our music to sound
and feel disturbing as well as invoke certain negative and oppressive atmospheres,
so we thought the band name was suitable for us and it definitely means
something to us. It was not just thrown together to sound “cool” or whatever.
6. “HAIL INTOLERANCE” IS A DARK AND DEPRESSIVE
ALBUM AND SOUNDS VERY SINCERE AND TRUE. HOW DID YOU ACHIEVE THIS ATMOSPHERE?
AS PEOPLE ARE YOU PESSIMISTS OR CREATING MUSIC SUCH AS THIS IS A KIND OF
HEALING PROCEDURE THAT HELPS YOU UNLEASH ALL THE BAD EMOTIONS THAT TROUBLE
YOU?
The way we did the arrangements, the melodies
and riffs we came up with, as well as the lyrics and generally just the
way we recorded the damn thing gave it that certain atmosphere. We wanted
it to sound like it does, so we did what we had to do to get the atmosphere
we wanted. The reason it sounds, as you say, true and sincere is because
we were just being very true to ourselves and only did what we wanted with
the songs and everything. If you are honest when writing music then I think
that will shine through in a way. A lot of people would probably classify
us as negative assholes due to the music we play and listen to, as well
as how we may act towards others under certain circumstances, but what
other people think of us has never been any concern of ours, nor will it
ever be. In some sense we are very cold and cynical when it comes to a
lot of things, and that shines though in our music. I would not call the
creation of our music a healing process, because I think of it more as
an exorcism where you can get everything out of your system and portray
a lot of thoughts, visions and feelings. Of course, writing certain kinds
of lyrics and songs does allow me to channel a lot of different things
through the music, and I guess that leads back to what I said about being
honest to yourself when writing music. When we write a really hateful song
or a bunch of hateful lyrics, it does not remove our hatred, but at least
we are able to use it!
7. ALTHOUGH THE SONGS IN YOUR NEW ALBUM HAVE BEEN
WRITTEN IN 2 DIFFERENT PERIODS, WHEN I LISTEN TO THEM, I HAVE THE SENSE
THAT IT IS A CONCEPT RELEASE, AS IF WATCHING A DARK MOVIE. DO YOU AGREE
WITH THAT?
I would say that there are some differences
between the two demos that make up the album, both in terms of song-writing
and the way they sound compared to each other, and since the songs for
the second demo were written following the first demo I would say that
there are some improvements here and there. It is cool that you get the
feeling that it is a concept-release when you listen to it, but that probably
has to do with the way we write songs and the subjects we take up in our
lyrics as I think they are very much in line with each other on both demos.
I take it as a compliment that you compare it to watching a dark movie,
but when I listen to it is more like an inner journey where I think of
the things we put into the songs both musically and lyrically, as well
as the atmosphere we managed to create in those songs.
8. I HAVE ALSO READ THAT YOU ARE NOW PREPARING
YOUR NEW ALBUM. WHEN WILL IT BE READY? WILL IT SOUND THE SAME AS “HAIL
INTOLERANCE” OR WILL IT HAVE SOME NEW ELEMENTS?
We are about to begin recording the drums
for the entire album within the next few days. Everything else is written
and recorded and so on, but back in the day we used programmed drums, which
we also used initially for the album we are working on now, but Vuml has
gotten a drum-set and has begun rehearsing for some of the tracks so that
we can record real drums on the songs instead of using programmed ones.
This will make the album more organic and “human” in our opinion. I think
it will be finished in the first half of 2007, but since we do not know
for sure what label is going to release it, we do not know exactly when
it will be out either. The album will be much improved in all areas, at
least in our opinion. It will contain better songs, better lyrics, real
drums, and overall it will sound more coherent than our first release,
but you will definitely still be able to hear that it is Sick Room 7.
9. WHY DID YOU ASK FROM DRUKH TO LEAVE THE BAND?
WILL YOU SEARCH FOR A NEW MEMBER OR WILL YOU CONTINUE AS A DUO?
He was asked to leave because things were
not really heading in the right direction for the band. He had some other
priorities that he needed to attend to that were extremely important to
him, so I called him up and told him that Vuml and I wanted to continue
as a duo, and he totally respected that, because he would have had to give
up the band just a few months after due to his other priorities. We are
still very close friends and there is no bad blood between us. He supports
us and we support him, which is the way it is nowadays. There will be no
new members in the future and we intend to continue as a duo in the future
as that is our preferred way of working, and the same goes for Forlis in
which we are also a duo. We plan to have a few guest appearances for both
bands once in a while in order to make certain songs really special, but
that is as far as it goes.
10. IMAGINE THAT YOU HAVE MONEY TO DO AN EXPENSIVE
AND VERY ARTISTIC VIDEO-CLIP. WHICH SONG OF YOURS WOULD YOU CHOOSE AND
WHY? HOW DO YOU IMAGINE THE CLIP?
I would personally choose “The Ecstasy of
Seeing You (Hitting That Wall)” as I think that could turn into a rather
violent and morbid video. I don’t know exactly how I would imagine the
video, but perhaps something a bit fragmented and surreal coupled with
small clips of burnt skin, weary people who have been grinded down to nothing,
and generally just portray what happens in the lyrics…it would just have
to be a really morbid tribute to glorious human perdition! You know, this
whole thing about videos is tricky, because how often do you see an interesting
video, let alone an interesting metal video? I have certainly not seen
many videos that have done justice to the music or anything and I think
the majority of videos out there suck monkey dick.
11. DO YOU REMEMBER, WHICH THE WEIRDEST QUESTION
THAT YOU HAVE BEEN ASKED IN AN INTERVIEW WAS?
I can’t really recall any weird questions
as such…one time I was asked what Sick Room 7 song I would play to my girlfriend…I
have also been asked why the chicken crossed the road…So far I have not
been asked any really weird questions where I just thought: “What the hell
is this guy up to?”.
12. THANK YOU FOR YOU TIME AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!
GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR DEBUT ALBUM. IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE THAT YOU`D LIKE
TO ADD HERE? ALSO LEAVE A MESSAGE TO THE READERS OF THE ZINE.
I want to thank you for offering me the opportunity
to spread the word about Sick Room 7, our latest album, and Forlis. Readers
are more than welcome to drop me a line if they are interested in knowing
more about Sick Room 7 and Forlis. Check out: www.forlis.dk
if you are interested. Contact us through the following email address:
[email protected]
Thanks once again for your support, Nikos!
Nick “William_Kidd”
Parastatidis
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