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¬ Antiquus (CAN) - Waiting for Europe's call!
 As
far as I know, Antiquus is a rather new band... so please give us some
more background info about the band itself and about you and your fellow
musicians. When have you started playing your instruments, in what bands
have you played before Antiquus and why and how have you finally come
together to form this killer band?AB: Scott and I have been together for a very long time, and Jesse joined us about 4 years ago. We had another guitarist at that time, a guy named Jeff Dormer. Just after recording the album, Jeff left the band to move onto another project. We hooked up with Trevor, who’d just left his old band, Fireign, which was based in Newfoundland. We jammed as a four-piece for awhile, and then decided we really liked the idea of having two guitarists, so we hooked up with Geoff Way, a couple of months later. We didn’t release Ramayana until after Geoff had joined the band. We put together a show, and hit the live scene, and here we are! The rest is history!  “Ramayana“
is your first official release. But are there any unofficial demos or
live recordings from earlier stages of the band’s history available as
well? If so, what songs do they feature and will the fans ever get to
hear them?AB: We demo’ed three songs about 6 months before we did Ramayana, and re-recorded them all for the album - but we dropped two of those songs, “Ghost House” and “Anvil of Ice”. The album was already running a little long, and those songs were not representative of what we were doing musically any longer. They are still out there, floating around on the Internet… Even though “Ramayana“ is an independent release, totally realized by the band itself, it comes along very, very professional... no matter on what aspect you focus, from cover to booklet to sound to songwriting, everything has been done with lots of love and care and can easily hold even the highest standards! How the hell have you managed to get such an overwhelming result and how much and hard work was it? AB: Thank you for your kind words! We really appreciate that! We were very lucky to have access to a studio where we could work on it, a little bit at a time over the course of a long time. I’ve done a good deal of production in the past, and we worked with an engineer that I went to school with – that took care of the recording. Of course, Jesse came up with the cover concept, and painted it as well. We had the skills, and we used them. Overall, it took a year out of us. When it comes to the music, I guess that Iron Maiden is one of Antiquus’ biggest influences... am I right with this? If so, what do they mean to you, as a musician on the one hand and as a fan on the other?  AB:
Yes, Iron Maiden is one of the main influences, but we don’t do anything
to try to emulate what they do. However, knowing what it takes to make
music like this only increases our respect for Maiden. They are still as
musically relevant to day as they they were in the beginning…And apart from them, what other bands or musicians have had an impact on your musicianship and songwriting? JW: Nightwish, In Flames, Opeth, Rhapsody, Queensryche – amongst many others… Your lyrics always seem to have some kind of an enchanting, mystical approach, which I personally enjoy alot... so please let our readers know more about this... what themes do your lyrics deal with in particular, who’s responsible for ‘em and where does he get his inspriation from? AB: Jesse writes the lyrics, and comes up with the vocal melodies, but he offers the rest of a chance to have some input… JW: I’ve studied literature over the course of my academic career – so by the time I joined the band, I had plenty of inspiration to draw upon. I write about things that interest me personally, some of them from history and some of those things are just from my imagination. I try to be open-minded, but I’m actually not much into so-called ‘fantasy’. I think a lot of it is kind of silly… At least here in Germany, Antiquus really impacted into the underground scene like a cannonball! You got a raving 11 out of 12 review in Heavy magazine (one of Germany’s biggest Heavy Metal magazines) and only a couple of days later, the underground mailorders already started to sell your CDs and the fans began raving about your music! What do you think about these fantastic reactions and has “Ramayana“ got such a great response in the other parts of the earth as well (which I really hope!)? Or have there also been some less euphoric comments about it?  AB:
Germany has been very, very good to us – and we appreciate the
support. Europe generally has been very supportive of the record, and
that pleases us immensely. The United States hasn’t been as enthusiastic
so far, and the word is just starting to get out across Asia.What plans are next in line for Antiquus? Is a new album already in work, or will you head out for some live shows or probably just take a break for some time and relax a bit from the hard work on “Ramayana“? Or do you have some completely different ideas for what to do in the near future? AB: The new album is already in the works –, and we are very excited about it, because of the addition of Trevor and Geoff! For now, it would be really cool for us to hit the road, especially in Europe. If there is anyone out there in Europe that could help us connect with the audiences out there, we’d love to talk to them… Something that would surely be appreciated by the fans would be some cool merchandise! Shirts, Patches, Stickers or some other cool stuff. Is anything like that already planned or even available? AB: It’s on the way – T-shirts, pictures, stickers – the whole nine yards... We are going to be selling those things through the website, but again, we’d love to tour in Europe and sell that stuff right to the audiences at shows. Hopefully something like that will happen soon! Before we come to an end, please recommend our readers some more cool bands from your area... if the folks go really mad about Antiquus, what other Canadian underground hopefuls might they enjoy as well? AB: Check out our website (http://www.antiquus.net) – we list some Canadian bands that we are digging lately. There aren’t really a lot of bands like us in Canada, especially on the West Coast, but “Into Eternity” come to mind… We did a show with them a month or so ago, and they slay – they’re great! And where can they order your CD, find more info about Antiquus or get in contact with you for some other reason? AB: People can buy the CD online at our website, and also from CDBABY, Scrape Records etc. And like you mentioned, there are some mailorder places, like Else’s that carry the record too. Thanks alot for your answers! All the best & Keep up the fantastic work with mighty Antiquus... AB: Thanks! Stay Metal! |
| Homepage: www.antiquus.net |
|
Questions:
June
2005 by Tobi
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