Ivory
Knight
Ivory Knight is a very
special band to me. Except for the fact that they were amongst the first
to "believe in" us and trust in our work, well taking it to the musical
level they are a truly progressive band. Don't get me wrong! Their music
is technical, but above all it's an extremely catchy style of straight
forward heavy metal what they deliver. The progressiveness lies in the
veins of the band... in the constant need to evolve and move forward. John,
the man behind this band has offered us here some great and clever answers.
let's hear him out!
1.HELLO MY FRIEND JOHN AND MY CONGRATULATIONS
FOR YOUR NEW ALBUM!!! ALTHOUGH I BELIEVE THAT YOU'VE GOT "TIRED" OF LISTENING
TO GOOD COMMENTS. SO 4 YEARS HAVE PASSED SINCE YOUR DEBUT ALBUM. WHAT HAPPEND
TO YOU AS PERSONS AND MUSICIANS BETWEEN THOSE 2 RELEASES? WHY DID IT TAKE
YOU SO LONG TO RELEASE "UNCONSCIENCE" ALBUM?
John: Hi Nick! In fact I never get tired of
hearing good comments from our fans – that’s what makes it really special!
4 years, indeed, too bloody long! Ach, basically what happened was that
after the release of “Up From The Ashes”, we were a little bit impatient
with our expectation of having opportunities to play. When nothing was
forthcoming immediately, we decided to start work on a new recording. We
wanted to create something that the whole band had a part in, as opposed
to the first album, which I had more or less written myself before the
line up came together. Anyway, we started writing riffs and parts. A few
months later, once we were in the midst of writing, that’s when the offers
to play came in. Unfortunately by then we were committed to a writing schedule
and were unable to play shows at the time. The album took a while to record
because we thought we would try a different approach, a more relaxed and
casual approach. In retrospect, I don’t think we will use the same approach
again – better to schedule it in and get it finished.
2.IF SOMEONE LISTENS TO BOTH ALBUMS THAT YOU HAVE
RELEASED, HE WILL REALISE THAT THEY ARE QUIET DIFFERENT. THE NEW ALBUM
IS MORE STRAIGHT FORWARD HEAVY METAL. DO YOU AGREE? CAN YOU EXPLAIN TO
US WHY THOSE 2 ALBUMS DIFFER SO MUCH? WITH "UNCONSCIENCE" DO YOU THINK
THAT YOU HAVE FOUND THE SOUND THAT EXPRESSES YOU BETTER?
John: That’s a tough question to answer, Nick,
and I think it depends on which parts of the songs one tends to focus on.
I personally find that the second album is much more technical than the
first, but the technicality is largely underneath the surface of the songs.
The second album is certainly heavier and faster than the first. Certainly
because the whole band contributed to the writing of “Unconscience”, it
is much more representative of us as a band. The style and sound most definitely
expressed us at the time of writing. But to me, the beauty of music (and
art) is in its continuous change and flow – I can’t see writing another
‘Unconscience’ any more than I could see writing another ‘Up From The Ashes’
or ‘Voices in your Nightmare’.
3.THE LYRICS ARE ONCE MORE DARK, PESSIMISTIC BUT
NEVERTHELESS BASED ON THE HARD REALITY. CAN YOU TELL US IN A FEW WORDS
WHICH SOCIAL PROBLEMS OR LIFE SITUATIONS MOTIVATED YOU TO WRITE SUCH KIND
OF LYRICS? DO YOU BELIEVE THAT SOMEDAY YOU MIGHT WRITE LYRICS BASED ON
FANTASY OR DON'T SUCH THEMES FIT TO IVORY KNIGHT'S MUSIC?
John: Actually, one thing that is missing
from the credits, and this is completely my fault that it is missing, is
the lyrical credits. In fact our drummer George wrote about half the lyrics
on Unconscience. In a recent radio interview, we described the lyrical
split as “George writes all the nasty, violent, brutal lyrics, and I write
the social, environmental, and political stuff.” That pretty well sums
it up. George tells me that his lyrical motivations come from his own feelings
of anger and hate, and writing these thoughts into words prevents him from
acting them out! My own lyrics come from everything I see, read, and hear.
As far as the fantasy type lyrics go, I’d never say never, but so far I
really haven’t felt inspired to write in that style. I admire some of the
great artists who have written in this style, but so far, hey, it’s not
my thing!!!
4.ON THE BOOKLET OF YOUR CD IF I AM NOT MISTAKEN
YOU HAVE WRITTEN A MESSAGE AGAINST TERRORISM. SO HOW THE TRAGEDY OF THE
11TH SEPTEMBER HAS AFFECTED THE PEOPLE OF CANADA? WHICH DO YOU BELIEVE
IS THE BEST WAY TO FIGHT TERRORISM?
The September 11 tragedy was a horrible act
that appalled decent people throughout the world. I find any kind of violence
against innocent and unknowing victims to be a vicious act of cowardice.
On the other hand, the best way to fight terrorism, I would have to say,
is through education. When we can all learn that there is really not that
much separating each of us from each other, regardless of what we have
been taught about race, religion, gender, etc…, and we can accept each
other the way we are, that will be the first step to changing the thought
processes that lead people to believe that they need to commit such foul
acts.
5.ON THE OTHER HAND U.S. WENT TO WAR AGAINST IRAQ
AND AFTER A WHILE THEIR LEADERS STATED THAT THEY DIDN'T FIND ANY DANGEROUS
WEAPONS OVER THERE. HERE IN EUROPE THOUGH MOST OF THE PEOPLE KNEW THAT
THIS U.S. WAR WAS MADE ONLY FOR PETROL. SO DO YOU BELIEVE THAT AMERICAN
PEOPLE HAVE BEEN MISLED? DON'T YOU THINK THAT WITH THESE TACTICS THE U.S
GOVERMENT WILL CREATE A NEW BREED OF TERRORISTS SEEKING FOR REVENGE?
John: Well, I must admit, I am not as knowledgeable
on this sort of thing as perhaps I should be. Suffice it to say that I
personally don’t approve of any form of aggression or violence, whether
it is violence committed by terrorists or violence committed by nations.
I can only hope that we don’t see an escalation of this kind of behaviour.
6.ENOUGH WITH THE POLITICS, LET'S GET BACK TO
THE MUSIC. AN ELEMENT THAT I LIKE A LOT ON YOUR NEW ALBUM IS THE USE OF
KEYBOARDS THAT GAVE TO YOUR SOUND A 70'S HARD ROCK FEEL. HOW DID YOU COME
UP WITH THAT? DO YOU THINK OF GIVING PERHAPS MORE SPACE TO THE KEYBOARDS
ON YOUR NEXT RELEASES?
John: We come up with a lot of stuff by experimentation.
Once the parts are more or less together, I’ll start messing around with
keyboard parts overlaying the basic guitar / bass / drum parts. Generally,
I think the keyboards came about at the end of the recording of the first
album. I had put down a keyboard part to “Picture of Innocence” and maybe
another piece. So the boards were set up, and so during rehearsals I’d
experiment with the keyboards and try and come up with a fitting part that
would complement the song but still keep the rockin’ feel. As far as next
releases, the thing about this band is that there are no hard and fast
rules – if the songs sound like they need the keys in there, we’ll throw
them in.
7.THE MASTERING AND THE MIXING OF YOUR NEW ALBUM
WAS DONE BY THE GREAT GUITARIST JEFF WATERS. HOW DID YOU MANAGE TO COOPERATE
WITH HIM? WHAT DID HE SAY ABOUT YOUR MUSIC? HOW COME HE DIDN'T DO ANY GUEST
APPEARANCE? DO YOU KNOW IF HE PLANS TO PRODUCE THE ALBUMS OF OTHER BANDS
AS WELL?
Actually Jeff is a good friend of mine, going
back many years, all the way back to the first decent band I ever played
in, called Trojan Hammer. Jeff was the guitarist. We’ve kept in touch all
along. The original idea was to get Jeff to master the album. But he took
one listen to the horrible botch-up of an original mix that we had made,
pointed out what a horrible botch-up it was, and then we mutually decided
that the best thing would be for him to mix it as well as master it :-)!
Jeff did post a nice blurb on his web site
mentioning our band! You can see it at http://www.annihilatormetal.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=6664.
Unfortunately we only spoke to him about the
project after we were finished the tracking - we’d be honoured and delighted
to have him do a guest appearance. Hopefully on a future recording… Yes,
he is a producer and engineer in addition to his many other musical activities.
See http://www.annihilatormetal.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=5746
for details.
8.THE COVER ARTWORK OF YOUR ALBUM IS AMAZING!
WHO IS THAT ARTIST THAT CREATED IT AND HOW IS IT CONNECTED WITH YOUR MUSIC
AND LYRICS?
John: The artist is Gyula Havanscak, and he
is the same artist who did the art and layout for Annihilator’s ‘All For
You’ album. We basically sent Gyula a sample of our music and a copy of
the lyrics and credits, and he did the rest! I advise anyone who is into
great art to check this guy out – he is absolutely amazing.
9.IS "UNCONSCIENCE" ALSO A SELF-FINANCED ALBUM
OR HAVE YOU RELEASED IT WITH THE HELP OF ANY LABEL? WHAT EXACTLY DO YOU
WANT A LABEL TO OFFER YOU TO SIGN A DEAL WITH THEM?
John: Unconscience is again self-financed.
What we are looking for at the moment is European promotion and distribution.
The North American market still hasn’t woken up to this kind of music –
they still seem to be pushing the “screaming and yelling” nu-metal stuff.
10.HAVE YOU GOT ANY PLANS FOR LIVE SHOWS TO PROMOTE
YOUR NEW ALBUM? WILL YOU TOUR OUTSIDE OF CANADA TOO? DO YOU REMEMBER ANY
FUNNY SITUATIONS THAT OCCURRED TO YOU WHILE YOU WHERE PLAYING ON STAGE?
John: We’d love to play outside of Canada.
We’re hoping to attract the necessary connections to be able to do this!
11.THE BAND EXISTS FROM THE LATE 80'S. CAN YOU
TELL ME WHICH THE DIFFERENCES AMONG THE 80'S, 90'S AND NOWADAYS ARE? DO
YOU THINK THAT NOW THE BANDS HAVE MORE OPPORTUNITIES TO HELP THEM SUCCEED?
John: I think really only the tools and methods
of promotion have changed. In the old days, where we would have used mail
and phone, now we use email and web access. It’s easier to have a professional
looking and sounding package nowadays, thanks to the availability of modern
recording technology and modern graphic design tools, but at the same time,
these tools are available to everyone, so the expectations are a lot higher.
Our first demo, Voices in your Nightmare, was recorded on an old Fostex
250 cassette 4 track, and had photocopied covers with handwriting for the
song titles. There’s no way we could send something like that out today.
12.IF YOU SAW A PERSON DOWNLOADING YOUR ALBUM
FROM THE INTERNET HOW WOULD YOU REACT? DO YOU BELIEVE THAT THE INTERNET
HELPS THE NEW METAL BANDS OR NOT AND WHY?
I hope our fans will buy our album. We’ve
made the pricing very reasonable! If everyone downloads albums without
paying for them, well, eventually we artists would not be able to afford
to record more albums. Remember, every pirated copy comes straight out
of our pockets, meaning that it comes out of the budget for the next album!
So, while we would be honoured that people feel that our music is worthwhile
enough to steal, eventually we would be unable to continue to produce the
same quality of sound, packaging etc…
13.THANK YOU JOHN AND GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR NEW
EFFORT! LEAVE A MESSAGE TO THE READERS OF BEHIND THE VEIL WEBZINE...
Thanks once again, Nick. The boyz and I definitely
appreciate all your support for “Unconscience” as well as for our previous
album. Best wishes for the future! To our fans, many thanks for your support.
Here’s where you can help us out a bit - keep asking your local metal radio
stations and clubs to play Ivory Knight, always stay METAL!
Nick “William_Kidd”
Parastatidis
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