You just signed to new management, Intromental. How will this affect
Eternity X as artists and will the "average" Eternity X fan notice anything
different because of this?
KS: Intromental Management is a company dedicated to working for
their bands as hard as they can to get them signed, as well as exposure and everything
else that comes with the title of Management. They represent us as a band, leaving us the
ability to focus more on writing and playing, then on the business side of a band. I think
the average fan will notice better music, and a much more widespread availability of our
cds and merchandise. Basically, they will see and hear more of us!
You've recently compared your upcoming album, From the
Ashes, with Queensryche's Empire. To me this is a fascinating comparison. I feel that the
Edge (From the Ashes's predecessor) is your Operation: Mindcrime. You seem to be heading
in a direction Queensryche should have or could have taken. Is this a conscious decision
or is this the natural "evolutionary next step" for Eternity X?
KS: I think that it is both a
conscious decision, and the next natural step. This band is dedicated to a simple
philosophy, and that is that what matters most is the songwriting and listenability of the
music. To this end, as we write, we do whatever we feel like the song warrents. For
example, if the  part feels like it should be progressive, then we make it so. We don't set
out to make a progressive song and then write it to fit that model. Because of this, our
songs more than ever are better written, and more accessable to the average listener. I
think it is comparable that now we are doing an "Empire" type album, but then
again, Queensryche is highly respected by ETX. So, even though there was a conscious
effort to make our music more listenable, I think it was what was meant to happen anyway.
There seems to
be a lot of debate generated by the whole Napster/Mp3 controversy of late. Could you
please explain your side to those who may have not read your posts at eternityx.com?
KS: This is an issue that we have
sort of come to accept as misunderstood by most people, or at least it seems that way.
Basically, the potential of the masses to obtain our material without compensating us is a
scary thought. In terms of Napster, I don't think many of the users realise that they are
literally stealing from us, and every other band that they download. Many people have
written or said that they think it helps the band by giving them exposure, but what they
don't realise is that even free advertisement is pointless without a product to sell. If
our music is downloaded for free, then we in effect didn't sell it, and our company
doesn't pay us, and the might even drop us for failing to sell albums. It is a scary
thought that we might do all of this work and spend all of this money to put out a cd, but
not get paid, even if everyone likes it and has it.
Click the cover to read the review!
Alot of people
use mp3s as a sampler for the album - by these means figuring out whether or not it's
something they want to buy and the demographic for people who avoid buying albums in favor
of getting mp3s is quite small so why do you believe you would be at any sort of a risk
here?
KS: To download a sample (not a
full song) of an MP3 is fine with us. Also, if there were a way to limit the download of
any song to just be used for review purposes that would be great but the reality:
Unfortunatley, that facts are that in reality, MOST people don't buy an album after
downloading it to preview it. The risk is great, and the proof is already there, even in
our case. We have already caught people putting unreleased material on their own personal
websties, available to everyone who goes there. What if this person was a Napster user?
Then it would be available to everyone who uses Napster, and we all know that is alot of
users. There are other sites that do this kind of thing as well, such as Wraptser, and
Gnuttella. I know that Metallica is not too popular right now because of the whole
"sue everybody" thing, but they are not going to sue Napster users, they just
want the piracy stopped. In their suit, they state that around 325,000 people downloaded
their music, and I just read today that Chuck De has a list of over 200,000 people that
did the same. Yes, They are two rich bands, but the rest of us aren't. Just because
Metallica "has enough money" doesn't mean the deserve to get stolen from.
How do you plan
to further your goal for artistic integrity and prevent people from getting those mp3s?
Exactly what steps have you taken thus far?
KS: We have taken two main steps
so far. One, we have opened a forum on our site as well as on other sites, such as the
Perpetual Motion Board, with the goal of educating people on what is happening. I truly
believe that if people really understood what they were doing, then they would not use
these sites to get "free" music. The second step is that we only made sections
of our song available on our site, so everyone can come to www.Eternity-X.com and hear samples of our songs. I
think this is a pretty fair compromise. We want people to enjoy our music, and we want to
play it for them, but if no one buys our album because they downloaded it, we won't be
able to make any more.
Do you have any
opinions on the state of the music industry today? Especially in the United States where
metal has all but disappeared?
KS: Well, the industry is just
that, an industry. Their goal is to make money selling a product. That is what they do.
Metal has sort of disappeared, but then again, bands like Korn, Pantera, Machine Head, and
others are "keeping it real" so to speak. I think the music industry has over
saturated the market with so many bands, that it is easy for them to come and go, one hit
wonders and such. I don't even know what to say about "fake" bands like the
Backstreet Boys, and N'Sync. They are radically different from a band like us, pretty much
in every way from writing their own material, to being sold to the masses in the form of
pins, and posters and even dolls of their likeness. I think it is going to take a sort of
musical revolution from the people to change that.
What vocalists
do you consider to be most influential to you?
KS: Geoff Tate, Bono, Joe Elliot,
Peter Gabriel, Rob Halford, Freddie Mercury, Steve Perry and a million others that were
just plain great and had character and style.
Who do you
think are the best vocalists in the business right now?
KS: All I mentioned above, plus
Tori Amos, Chris Cornell and a bunch of Broadway singers that are far too numerous to
mention..
Because of
Eternity X's move towards a more accessible sound (along the lines of Queensryche's
Empire), you are in a position where some fans may begin accusing you of "selling
out". What is your answer to those fans and the whole sellout debate?
KS: We haven't sold out, we've
bought in!! Just kidding. We are probably just as concerned as they are about selling out.
The fact is that to us, selling out means changing for the dollar. We are changing because
we think the music is better. I'm quite sure that we will offend some of the fans along
the way, and truly I am sorry about that, but we have to remain true to ourselves. If you
are looking for great songs, we have them. If you are looking for great playing, we have
that too. There is just no point to us to prove how good we are, only to make what we
consider to be great music. And as always, we know we can't please everyone, but we are
going to please as many as possible.
You have
recently removed the word "progressive" from your web site in an effort to
distance yourself from that genre. Is this because of the confusion that has arisen
surrounding what is and what is not progressive music?
KS: Although that is confusing,
especially to us, that is not why. For one we felt the the term was too limiting, and the
other, that it didn't accurately represent us. I guess if I had to come up with a term, I
might say Melodic Metal, but even that limits what we are. We are a rock band that plays
well, writes well, and is concerned with great music. We have heavy guitars, and classical
guitars. The voices sing, scream, and whisper. Some is fast, and some is slow. Too many
people thought we were not progressive, and too many thought we were too progressive. It
just got confusing, so we tried our best to avoid the problem as we saw it.
Click the cover to read the review!
Can you give
some details on the upcoming album? will it be another concept album?
KS: Well, a semi one sort of along
the lines of "The Edge." I suppose it's just in my nature to do albums that have
a common theme. Although "The Order" which we are almost completed with is an
actual story along the lines of Operation Mindcrime. "From The Ashes" is a theme
album but each song can certainly be taken independently from the next.
Anything
amusing ever happen in the studio or on tour that you could share?
KS: Yeah, on tour I had this habit
of throwing water all over the place. In Munich Zeek fell on his ass because of it. He
moaned and told me not to do it again. In Switzerland I did it again and he...well you get
the point. He fell again. In Erfurt Germany the guys from Edguy got soaked during their
show. Let's just say everyone got me back in the middle of one of our shows and doused me
thoroughly all at the same time.
Click the cover to read the review!
I think the
concept of the "Zodiac" album is brilliant, but what inspired you to do an album
based around the zodiac signs?
KS: I felt it would be a universal
theme. If anyone could understand something worldwide and through many different cultures
it was that.
Where do you
see Eternity X heading toward in the future (musically)?
KS: More melodic and less frilly.
(YAK, nice word =) I'll let you decide when you hear the new material. |
