Well, the most important moment I think was when we signed with Transmission Records and because of that deal we received a lot of attention and we could record the cd with a very good budget. We could work with the violins, with a real choir and this was very important for our career I think and because of the good production we also got good reviews and a lot of gigs. I think that was the most important moment, that we got signed to Transmission records.

Thank you!!!!

I would tell them that it’s a mixture of metal music with classical and soul music and we love the classical music style and the operatic vocals and the dramatic violins. You can express a lot of feelings with an orchestra and the metal and brutal part of the band, the death growls, the screams and the metal guitars and riffs is the combination we love to do and I think this is the best description I could give!

Yeah I think so too! Hahaha!

No, not at all, because Rhapsody are more… hmmm… they call their music Hollywood metal and it’s a totally other direction. We just have the orchestrations in common and we are more into gothic metal. So, we said let’s use Sascha on this, his best points are the orchestrations with a good guitar and drum sound, so we said let’s see what happens! I think we have other sound because we have other roots from bands like Rhapsody and Kamelot. So, we weren’t afraid at all because of our roots.

No, we had our own clear vision, but the funny thing with Sascha was that everything he told us we agreed with! Hahahaha!

Yeah indeed and this has never happened to me before with all the producers I worked with. We always had some arguments, some discussions, but with Sascha there were almost no discussions. It was the first time for me that I experienced such a nice cooperation with a producer.

Yeah! To be honest we have already booked him! Hahahhaa! It’s already sure that we will work with his again and it’s so cool! He was the only option we wanted to work with.

Ooohhh… I think nothing! Hahahaha! Of course when a band grows, we grow and develop too, but “The Phantom Agony” was the best we could do at that moment. So, I like to leave it as it is. When we will make a record now, it will be a bit different, because the band keeps growing and evolving, but I think “The Phantom Agony” is good as it is! We did totally our best and we got out exactly what was inside us! So, I am still completely satisfied with it!

I think it will be in the beginning of 2005. We will enter the studio this summer, but at the end of the year a lot of big names and too many albums are released, so the record label wants to avoid releasing it then, so they decided to release it in the beginning of next year.

Not totally ready, but the basics are all written and now we just have to work it out with the rest of the band members, write some lyrics and do the vocal lines… So, there’s still a lot of work to be done!

Yeah! It’s like “The Phantom Agony” but a bit catchier I think and it’s still metal with classic music and you will recognize it immediately I think. We might also work on this album with some Greek guys. I am not sure yet… I have some friends in Greece, I love oriental music…

Yeaahh!! Hahahaha! When I was in Greece the previous year I visited my friends and we had a lot of fun and we played music together and I love oriental music, thus the idea was born to do on the next album a track with just oriental music, but nothing’s sure yet so… we’ll have to wait! Hahahaha!

Yeah! I have their cd and it contains a lot of Greek music. Let me see I I have the cd here… It’s not a band, but many musicians playing together. It’s a compilation cd, it’s not metal, it’s just normal Greek music. Hahahaha! You also have very good metal bands over there… Hmm what was the name of that band from over there… It was a black metal band…

Yeah yeah! Hahaha! I forgot their name! These friends of mine have posters of Rotting Christ on their walls and they are very proud of this band!

6.YOU MANAGED TO COMBINE DIFFERENT AND CONTRASTING ELEMENTS ON THIS ALBUM. ON ONE HAND WE HAVE THE FAST, RHYTHMICAL AND POWER METAL PARTS AND ON THE OTHER THERE IS AN INTENSE USE OF CLASSIC MUSIC AND THERE ARE ALSO SOME ORIENTAL ELEMENTS. HOW DIFFICULT IS THIS MIXTURE TO BE ACHIEVED?

For me it’s not difficult, simply because I like all these styles and when I compose music they all melt together in a natural way, but I think when you are forced to do it, when you order yourself to do it, it’s much more difficult, when you don’t like it. I love all these elements, so it’s coming out naturally!

The philosophy maybe not that much, but the music mainly! It’s the music that attracts me a lot, but the philosophy… A lot of Eastern music is also Arabic music and lyric wise I write about fundamentalism. I am interested a lot in he Maja culture in South America. I like the way the view life, their way of life and to have a good balance with nature. Nowadays, people keep forgetting that there also is the nature and they have to be careful of it. That’s why I am interested in their philosophy! The next album also has some subjects on this culture. Music wise I like Greek music, Arabic music and also South American music. They are all native music.

Yeah I like it’s sound! The brother of this friend of mine plays the bouzouki and my friend… it’d be cool to mention his name… he is Dimitris Katsouranis he also plays the violin! He taught me a lot about the skills of Greek music and he likes a lot that we use oriental music a lot in our sound.

No! I think they got used to it nowadays! In the beginning there was some criticism when bands like Orphanage started working with a female singer, but now there are so many females in metal that people are used to it. I don’t experience any criticism, when I talk let’s say with die hard black metal or death metal fans, they also like our music. I think nowadays things are much broader and people more open minded.

I always start by composing the keyboards and then I do the orchestrations and together with our keyboard player, Coen, we make the arrangements richer. After that we work on the guitars and the drum basics and when this all is worked and passed on a computer, we start to work out the songs with the whole band. In this part Simone is involved, she writes the vocals lines and so everyone is involved in the composing process.

Yeah I write the basics and the structures…

Yeah! Exactly! That’s very important, from what I experience, cause this way everyone can write his piece and do his own thing in the music. So, everyone feels the music more and plays his own things. When everybody has this freedom, it’s more fun to be and work within the band! I also noticed that when everyone tells his opinion, the songs get better.

They were selected by Sascha. He has already worked with them a couple of times and he told us that these guys are very good but they are also very expensive! Hahaha! Then we called our record company and we told them, that we know some guys that are very good, but very expensive and then they said just do it! If it’s for the best do it!

Yeah, we were running out of budget at the time and fortunately they said that the album must be as good as possible so keep on working and we will pay it!

Hahahaha! No, no! Most of the time they are very difficult with this kind of things. I already work a couple of years with this label. When I was in After Forever we recorded 2 cds both at this label, so I know them very well and I know they are this way! That’s also why I wanted to sign with this label!

Yeah! We use choir samples and some orchestration samples, because they play an important role in our music and we can’t afford to travel with the whole orchestra and choir. We have to find a solution, so we have a mini disc with the choir and orchestration samples. The rest of the instruments are played live!

Hmm…What I hear a lot from other people is that lyric wise we do something really different and as for the music, we use a lot of film music and I think it will be even more from this on the new album! I think we are really developing towards the film music way, without forgetting our metal roots. These will always remain.

I’ve been influences a lot by religions and the way religions conquer people and the arguments they have among them and almost all religions try to win more followers…

Yeah! They say that they have the only truth, but I think there is one god for everybody and not just for those who believe for example in Christianity or Islam…

Yeah and I think that when people will see that we are one big family, then the borders will disappear and people will find the balance with each other. There is too much hate…

Yeah! When you read all these books, the Bible, the Coran, you always read that you should make friends with your neighbors. Even when the people believe in other religions we should remain friendly!

Yeah that’s the case! Most people forget all about that and they interpret things in their own way and they just want power and misuse power and then I think when you forget the basics of your religion… then what are you doing?

It means the pain of an agony which isn’t actually there… So, when I was forced to leave After Forever, it was a very hard period for me, because I had my dreams with this band and I was always going 100% for this band and there were so many things we accomplished like the Nightwish tour, we had some gigs, some tv exposure… a lot of great things and then I was forced to leave…

There were musical differences and I wanted to turn more towards the film music direction and the other main composer wanted the power metal sound to dominate. In the beginning it was good, but on the second album things were more difficult and then he told me “Well, I don’t want to make a 3rd album with you. It’s not gonna work” and so I had to leave…

Yeah! I’ve heard it and I also heard some songs from the new album which will be soon released! So, I actually heard what he meant when he said that he wanted to go towards a totally different direction. If I remained in After Forever they would have sounded totally different!

I still like their music, but it’s not totally my cup of tea. I still think it’s good music, but not exactly what I like.

I don’t think it actually changed the intention and what was going on during the last decades, but it was an eye opener for America. Those things happen a lot in other parts of the world. You see everyday in Africa or Cuba occur these terrorist attacks, but this was on American ground so this was an eye opener for them. They have a totally different foreign policy, they are considered the most powerful country of the world and they are more aggressive now…

Yeah indeed! When you say something they consider is wrong, they get angry! Hahaha! It is so silly and I don’t think anything will change as long as Bush is the president. Actually I don’t think things will change even if they have another president. 

Yeah indeed! But I think they have to be more careful now that no weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq and I wouldn’t be surprised if they tired to snick them on their own, just to avoid the fuzz against them. They have to be very careful with all these! A lot of people answers and we can’t find the proof anywhere…

Goethe in “Faust” speaks of Epica. It’s a place in the universe, where you can find all the answers to your questions about life and according to Goethe it’s a place in the universe, but we think Epica can also be found inside everyone. So, you can find the answers in yourself. It’s a place you can find all the answers you need, but you have to be very careful!

Yeah it has an epic feeling, because when you close your eyes you can see film pieces, you can see film piece along with the music…

I think a film like the “Gladiator”, because the guy who made the soundtrack for this music is a big influence for us and I think the “Gladiator” is a masterpiece! We are all dedicated to Gladiator! Hahaha! It has a really great music!

We mean epic music when we speak of film music, but when you look in the dictionary, you will find that epic means heroic. We mean film music with this term.

He is a German guy who is called Carsten Drescher. I also cooperated with him for the After Forever albums. He is a really great artwork designed and it was really nice to work with him again. You give him some examples towards which way you want to go and he starts working. Then he sends some covers, so you can choose and he goes on working on them. It is really good working with this guy.

Well, according to the Maja culture when you see a snake it is a symbol of surviving. For me this cd was a sign of surviving, because I had to stop with After Forever, but I still have so much music in me and this was my way to survive. A lot of people indeed think that I suggest the evil with the snake…

Yeah, when I visited my friends in Athens and Volos, they told me that their father was afraid of the cover because he thought when he saw the snakes that we are an evil band! I had to explain that we didn’t mean it this way… hahahaha!

I like the red color a lot! I like it when the album covers have a main color and I always used on my albums, when I was in After Forever, a main color, the debut album was blue, the second one was green… So, I always wanted the next album to have a red color.

Hmm… if you see the cover and the back, there is a war going on. Red is the color of blood, so a lot of lyrics deal with war and religious wars, so red is a good color for it!

We’ve done several tours especially in France, Belgium, Germany and The Netherlands, but we are now planning a tour at the end of this year in Spain, Portugal and hopefully Greece!

No! we have some! Hahaha! We have a booker, who is in touch with some Greek guys who really want to bring us in Greece. I hope it’s going to succeed!

We toured with Doro, she is from Germany and with Blaze Bayley. We play different kinds of music with these 2, but we tried it to see what happens. We have the same booking agency with them and they said “go on tour with them” and we said “ok let’s do it and let’s see how people react on it!”. It was very cool! Blaze and Doro are very nice people! They really cared about us and they often asked us how we did and if everything was good for us. We don’t experience that often when we are a support act. We were just supporting them in that tour, so things have been really nice for us! Blaze even asked us to go with him in the European part of his tour at the end of this year, but we wanted to make our own tour, but it was really great to play with Blaze and Doro. We also got some new fans, we sold a lot of t-shirts! It was good!!!

Yeah it is difficult especially for the sound engineers, because there is so much going on, but I like to do reproduce it live, because there are so many things in it that you can always keep the interest of the fans intact! If I go to a live show and I listen to all the songs sound close to one another, then I get bored easily. With this kind of music, I think it keeps interesting!

Yeah! It would be cool!

Yeah! This would be a problem, since they’d have to sit down! Hahahaha! It would be weird I think, but it would work out! When we will be asked to do it, I think we will do it!

Hmm… I think it would be sadness, but there is always some hope inside!

Hmmm… I think it would be something like the cover of this album! It would also have some light of hope in the horizon!

The best part? Ooohh… I think the bombastic choirs in combination with the opera vocals. This is our trademark! To choose the worst thing… Well this is difficult! Hahahaha! We always keep working on things in order to develop. I can’t see which is the worst part in our music…

Hahahaha! Yeah, when we think there is something that is not good enough, we keep on working till it becomes good! So, we know what we can do and what we can’t. Perhaps, if I have to choose for the worst thing in our music would be that it’s extremely technical. 

Somebody described it as a bridge between After Forever and Kamelot and I thought that it’s good since people can imagine what he means and how our music sounds. That’s very important, having a description that helps you realize how a band sounds…

Hahahaha! Let me think…(note: here we hear Simone answering this question). They ask as often if Simone and Jeroen are brother and sister and if me and (note:didn’t catch the name) are brother and sister. The funniest question was when they asked me if I was married to (note: it’s the same name again) when I as still in After Forever! Hahahaha! I had to laugh of course with that!

Thank you too! No! I think we have spoken about everything! Even for my Greek friends, I told you some of the Greek words I know (note: Simone enters the conversation once again mentioning some more Greek words)… I think we pretty much covered everything! So, I hope next time we can come with the band and play there! It will be fun! Thank you for your support on Epica and it was real fun answering your questions!