AS
IT BURNS
If you are fed up of listening
to the same bands and you are in a search of new and promising bands then
that’s the case for you. As It Burns have it all! Skills, inspiration and
impressive compositions that stick to your head! Although. their
music speaks for themselves, here we have their bass player Jeroen to give
us some information regarding the band and various other issues…
1. FIRST OF ALL POINT OUT SOME
OF THE MOST IMPORTANT MOMENTS OF THE BAND’S LIFE AND INTRODUCE YOURSELVES
TO THE READERS.
I’ll be answering your questions.
I’m Jeroen and I play bass. The other members are Rocco and Joost (guitar),
Gert (keys), Arend (vocals) and Jacco (drums). I guess the bands important
moments were our deal with Cold Blood Industries and surviving two carcrashes
on the road without any personal damage.
2. MORTAL DUSK IS YOUR DEBUT ALBUM
AND YOU HAVE BUILT AN INCREDIBLE SOUND. DO YOU THINK THAT YOU’VE MANAGED
FROM YOUR VERY FIRST RELEASE TO CREATE YOUR PERSONAL SOUND? WHICH BANDS
HAVE INFLUENCED YOU?
We’re very content with the over
all sound of the album. You can say that is has a real As it Burns touch.
Rocco and Jacco are very much into technical death-metal like Death. Joost
and me are more into the Swedish melodic death/trash metal (At the gates/In
Flames). The cool thing is that Gert is the one who is, besides black metal,
also very much interested in other types of music, like pop music and bands
like Godspeed You Black Emperor.
3. “MORTAL DUSK” WAS RECORDED IN A
VERY GOOD STUDIO, WHERE MANY FAMOUS BANDS RECORD AND YOU HAD THE HELP OF
A GOOD PRODUCER. DID YOU SELECT THE STUDIO AND PRODUCER AND IF YES, WITH
WHAT CRITERIA? ARE YOU SATISFIED BY THE FINAL RESULT? IF YOU HAD THE CHANCE
TO CHANGE SOMETHING, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
Franky’s Recording Kitchen was
the only option for us. It’s one of the best studio’s in Holland and is
the closest to Groningen, where we come from. Besides, we already knew
the guys who work there and know other bands in Groningen who have recorded
there and were very enthusiastic about it. So there wasn’t really any choice.
At this moment we couldn’t be more satisfied with the album considering
the time and money we had to record it. Of course there is always room
to improve, but hey, we’ll try to make our next album even better!
4. YOU PLAY A GREAT MIXTURE OF MELODIC
DEATH AND BLACK METAL. YOU COMBINE THE TIGHT RHYTHM SECTIONS WITH INCREDIBLE
AND STABLE DRUMMING ON ONE HAND AND ON THE OTHER YOU HAVE VERY ATMOSPHERIC
AND ENCHANTING KEYBOARDS THAT HAVE SOME 70S TOUCHES FROM TIME TO TIME.
HOW DIFFICULT IS IT FOR YOU TO COMBINE SO DIVERSE ELEMENTS IN YOUR MUSIC?
No, it comes very naturally. Rocco
and Joost and me write most of the songs. After that, Gert usually comes
up with some great key-parts to give it that certain atmosphere. That’s
the way we work and what creates that typical AiB-sound.
5. WHAT ARE YOUR LYRICS TALKING ABOUT?
WHAT INSPIRES YOU TO WRITE LYRICS AND WHAT CAN TAKE THE INSPIRATION AWAY
FROM YOU?
Arend writes the lyrics. Mostly
his lyrics deal with anger, frustration and the superficial world we live
in. Those are things that are on his mind and are his inspiration. Through
our music he can express those feelings. They just fit to the music.
6. HOW IMPORTANT IS IMAGE, PHILOSOPHY
AND IDEOLOGY BEHIND A BAND? WHICH IS THE PHILOSOPHY BEHIND AS IT BURNS?
Our philosophy is to write songs
that rock and to have much fun with friends and other metal bands. Image
means nothing to us. Most important is respect. Be nice, drink beer and
be metal!
7. HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN THE FACT THAT
ALTHOUGH THE NETHERLANDS DON’T HAVE A HUGE METAL SCENE, THE BANDS THAT
COME OUT HAVE A VERY GOOD LEVEL AND THEY ARE VERY PROMISING? WHY AREN’T
THEY MANY HEAVY/POWER METAL BANDS FROM OVER THERE?
The Dutch metal scene is uprising!
New bands emerge and other bands try to be better than the latest new band.
So over all, the quality of the Dutch bands keeps improving. I guess that
the Dutch are not very tradition-minded. They like to explore new or extreme
types of music. That’s why currently there are many death, grind, melodic
death and black metal bands in Holland and very few traditional heavy metal
bands.
8. DO YOU HAVE ANY PLANS FOR LIVE SHOWS?
WHAT SHOULD THE METALLERS EXPECT FROM AN AS IT BURNS LIVE SHOW? SHARE SOME
OF YOUR EXPERIENCES FROM YOUR LIVE SHOWS WITH US...
In 2002 we did a lot of gigs in
Holland. Because of an injury of one of the band members 2003 was not a
good live performance year for AiB. But we try to be back in 2004!! You
can expect a hell of a show! If you could read the Dutch reviews from fans
who have seen us play, you would read that, although they like our album,
they think of us mainly as a live band. We certainly have no problems reproducing
the album live.
9. THE COVER ARTWORK IS SIMPLY GREAT!
YOU HAVE COOPERATED WITH A FAMOUS ARTIST. HOW DID THIS COLLABORATION OCCUR?
Thanx! We got acquainted with Jacek
through Cold Blood Industries. He made the perfect artwork for our album.
We’re very satisfied!
10. WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO SOMEONE THAT
DOESN'T KNOW YOU, IN ORDER TO INTRIGUE HIS INTEREST? WHICH IS YOUR MOST
APPEALING ELEMENT ACCORDING TO YOU?
I think that we combine some cool
existing metal-styles with extraordinary keyboard parts, thus creating
our own sound. If you like melodic death/trash/black with a twist and got
a bit tired with the more famous bands, then I think you should definitely
try something new and check us out!
11. IF YOUR MUSIC WERE AN EMOTION,
WHAT WOULD IT BE? IF IT WERE A PAINTING, WHAT WOULD IT SHOW?
The emotion would be joy, melancholy
and anger. A painting would show a combination of beauty and ugliness,
of darkness and light and of the wonders of nature.
12. IF YOU HAD A PROPOSAL TO DO A VIDEO
CLIP, WHICH SONG OF YOURS WOULD YOU CHOOSE AND HOW DO YOU IMAGINE IT TO
BE?
I guess the song would be ‘God
is a Souvenir’. I’d say we’d be banging our heads of on a mountain side
or something, haha! Mostly it would be about fun. Metal is our life but
we take ourselves and the band not too seriously.
13. IF WE ARE ALL JUST A WORD IN THE
GREAT BOOK OF CREATION, CAN YOU SAY WHICH WORD COULD DESCRIBE YOU BETTER?
CAN YOU ALSO IMAGINE WHAT KIND OF AUTHOR WOULD BE THE CREATOR OF THIS BOOK
AND WHY?
Phew, this is getting difficult!
I really couldn’t answer to that. You’d have to explain more about the
question.
14. IF YOU HAD THE CHANCE TO TRAVEL
BACK IN TIME, WHICH HISTORICAL PERIOD WOULD YOU LIKE TO VISIT AND WHY?
I would like to visit a lot of
era’s. I guess I would go back to the Neanderthal-time, just to see how
it all began with homo sapiens.
15. LET'S SUPPOSE THAT WE LIVE IN A
WORLD WITHOUT MUSIC. WHAT WOULD YOU DO IN SUCH A CASE?
If I hadn’t known any better, I
wouldn’t miss music. If I had known music, it would have been awful. I
think the only thing you can do is to find other ways of expressing yourself,
or just kill yourself…
16. WHICH FAMOUS PERSON WOULD YOU LIKE
TO MEET AND WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO ASK HIM?
I would like to meet Osama Bin
Laden and discuss about fundamentalism, although I doubt it would do any
good…
17. IN WHICH MOVIE SOUNDTRACK WOULD
YOU LIKE TO HAVE TAKEN PART OR HAVE COMPOSED?
I would’ve liked to take part in
Diabolical Masquerade’s soundtrack of ‘Death’s Design’ because it’s a great
piece of music.
18. THANK YOU! HAVE I FORGOTTEN TO
ASK YOU ANYTHING AND YOU'D LIKE TO MENTION?
I couldn’t think of anything. Thanx
for this interview and good luck with your e-zine! Greetings to the Greek
metalheads!!
On behalf of AiB; Jeroen Smit
Christine
Parastatidou
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