DEAMON INTERVIEW

STORM WIND FANZINE ISSUE:2

DEAMON INTERVIEW 

24-03-2014

SW: Hi bro. Thanks for accepting our interview. You have 3 albums in 15 years. Let us know some about your long trip in time. Tell us about the scene 1999 and 2014. What are the differences?

D: The main difference I think is exposure and social media. With the accessibility of music at the click of a button it has become very easy to find and hear music from different areas all over the world. You can easily discover bands and they can influence one another much easier. The downside of that is it is harder for bands to break through and make a few $ to support themselves and keep the bands going when so many people go to the shows but run home to download the music. Everyone wants a piece of the pie now and especially for death metal bands it is a constant struggle to not pack it in when you go out touring or play a few shows and come home practically in the hole. It is definitely a passion before any form of income at least for us. Also there has been an extreme change in the need to “doctor” music and fix it up in the studio to sound as tight and crisp as possible and stand out more than the next guy. A lot of the music you hear now has been so “fixed up” in the studio it is almost impossible to play tight live unless you are a band that tours and jams almost religiously and dedicates many many hours and days a week to it. It sounds great on cd but it is a shame to see more and more bands go that route. Much of it has lost it’s “feel”. As for our trip, it has not always been an easy one, with member changes and hurdles along the way at times it has taken much dedication to keep on going but we are still here.

SW: You have a brand new album named ‘Condemned to darkness’ What should we accept from the album and what are the differences between ‘Descend to dethrone’ and the new one. I see you have a new bass guitarist and a new vocalist. How does having a new line up effect to the new material?

D: The new album was  about 3 years in the making in various studios. With various member changes some riffs and songs had to be changed and scrapped to not step on any toes and new songs written to fill the void. As well we actually dealt with 3 different studios over a long period re recording and changing things. There has been 2 completely different vocalists and tracks recorded before this came out as well as multiple guitar tracks and 2 separate bassists and bass tracks. It wasn’t easy but some things needed to be changed and some just never seemed how we wanted them. We are happy with the final product though. Member changes are not new to us and as we speak we are searching again for a vocalist and bassist and our bass  player Mike Chambers is now on second guitar since it is and was his primary instrument. Descend did quite well and is a well respected album and a great collaboration of the members on that album. It was that line ups best work IMO and us coming together as a unit at that time with a bit of input from everyone. Condemned is more of a collaboration between long time jamming partners Shawn and Ron. Most of the riffs were written by Ron on condemned and arranged mostly by the 2 before the albums line up was final. The lyrics were graciously written by a good friend and outside source Mark Howitt who was never in the band, they were then arranged and edited by Mark and Shawn and were originally sang and recorded by Mark before the current version. Most of Condemned was not a colab of the members on the album like Descend. Our 3 current members have however starting writing new material as a unit.

SW: Who is writing the riffs? I see there is only one guitar player now and I guess mostly the guitar players arrange the music.

D: As mentioned in the previous question Mike Chambers is now a permanent guitarist in the band. Unlike before when he joined the band and most of the songs were existing and he simply played them, he is now collaborating and writing new material with us. The next album should be more of a mix again between all 3 of us and possible new members. More like Descend was. We have been going back in time a little bit also on the new stuff and trying to hit a bit more on our old school roots and stick with the feel as apposed to speed. There will always be speed but I think Condemned had a lot of focus on it. It always seemed to be a case of “ blast here” or :faster there” kinda thing and I think the new stuff should result in a good mix of Descend and Condemned. Hopefully a good collaboration and perfect mix of heavy and speed. We shall see what the future brings!

SW: Which countries metal fans mostly contact you about your music? Who mostly know and like Deamon’s music?

D: Mainly Canada has been very supportive and the States but our label has been really good at getting it out there and social media also. Like most bands we receive support from all over.

SW: What kind of music do you prefer to collect in metal categories? In which version do you like to collect your music. CD, LP or Tape?

D: Shawn and Ron being a bit older are more set in the old school kinda death metal from the late 80’s and early 90’s although we do follow and listen to lots of newer stuff. It’s what we grew up with and you can’t take that away once it’s engrained in you. Mike is a bit younger and probably more up to date on many of the newer bands and immerging styles. It makes an interesting yet good mix of ideas and style when jamming. As for format I think like most people it’s cd’s these days but we still have some tapes lying around, at least as long as they will keep playing without the old tape decks eating them haha.

SW: Are you playing live out of Canada? What plans do you have for presenting the new album?

D: We have not played outside of Canada due to past members not having passports and other various reasons. We would like to and it is absolutely a  possibility, As for the new album we were getting ready to set up some touring dates for it in support and once again we suffered some set backs with member changes. As of right now we are more focussed on getting the band back into a full functioning unit able to play live and play tight. When that happens we will surely head out to support Condemned if not even another album by then. We miss the live shows immensely and it’s tough and discouraging at times when you jam week after week and turn down shows and can’t get out there to do what you love. In the meantime we try to stay positive and keep on writing. We don’t want to jump the gun and want to make sure any new members fit the mix and will be around for the long haul.

SW: Tell us about the new albums cover art. Who draw it and who gave the idea for the cover art? Is the artist listened to music and just draw it or you helped with the idea situation?

D: The artist was Riaj Gragoth from Luciferium War Graphics. We had seen some stuff he had done and gave him a bit of direction as well as the lyrics so he could get a bit of a vibe about what the album was about. The rest was mostly all him with the odd change here and there from us. He did a great job. We are pleased.

SW: Do you know metal bands from my country Turkey and my city İstanbul?

D: I have to be honest I don’t. It does not seem to make it’s way to us very often. Although I am sure there is some great bands from your area, the U.S. and Canadian metal scene seems to dominate the media and what we hear here in Canada.

SW: Is there a plan to reprint the debut album ‘Synopsis of sin’. I ask this question because probably most of the new fans will try to collect your older material after listening the crushing new album ‘Condemned to darkness’. According to this question I also want to ask if you have plans to release the new album as LP for collectors.

D: As of right now we have no plans to release lp’s although it is not a “never” kind of situation. Synopsis we will probably never re-release . That album was recorded in an analog studio and at that time we ran out of money. The final production was never what we would of liked it to be and that is what we got with our budget at the time. It is what is is and we released it how it was. Because of the lack of funds we were not able to pay and obtain the master reels back then. As far as I know there is no surviving copies of those reels or any masters of any sort. There is also past members on that album that are credited with writing and have copyrights on it and at this point it would be a lot of hassle and trouble to try and remix, re-master and re-release it without the original reels and possible legal implications. It is unfortunate but that’s where Synopsis lies. We would love to re-release it especially re-mixed but it just is not going to happen.

SW: These are my questions bro. You may add anything you want to. Hails and greetings from Istanbul.

D: We would like to thank you for the interview and opportunity. Keep it metal!