Interview with Reality Entertainment recording artists:
My oldest son, Criticalnate, and I sat down with Drop (guitars, keys, samples) and Ben
(vocals) of Sybreed at the Masquerade in Atlanta for the Harsh Reality Tour exactly
one day after the Prog-Power Festival. Unfortunately for Sybreed, Lyzanxia and Freakhouse, the combination of the Prog-Power Festival and lack of
advance warning to the local scene about this tour resulted in a practically
non-existant turn out. There may have
been a total of 10 people in the audience at any one time, most of which were
members of the bands not on the stage at the time. Nevertheless, each band played their shows and were very
professional about it. Take my word for
it, while each of these bands are not yet well-known in America, nor has their
label yet been fully recognized for the quality metal acts, you all missed out
on a top-notch show. But be comforted,
they’re coming back in early 2005!
CRITICALTOM: please begin by telling us about some of your favorite groups and
influences.
DROP/BEN: In Flames, Meshuggah, Strapping Young Lad, Fear Factory, Front
Line Assembly, stuff like that. Of
course, every body in the band has their own taste in music. We all bring those influences to the band.
CRITICALTOM: What is your goal as a band?
Do you want to get rich and famous, or do you have another goal?
DROP/BEN: We like to make music to satisfy ourselves. We are more concerned about making good
music than getting hits.
CRITICALTOM: Tell us a little about the topics your songs talk about:
DROP/BEN: All the songs are loosely similar in theme. It’s not a concept album per se, but
all the songs converge into the concept of “Slave Design”. (Drop shows me the album cover where all
these wires are going into a man’s head on one side and out the other). It does get a lot of inspiration from things
like the Matrix, especially the song, “Take the Red Pill” (Criticalnate’s
personal favorite song). The themes
kind of revolve around the idea that people are manipulated in society, but
that they can escape if they try. There
is always a positive side to our songs.
BEN: The songs create an atmosphere.
The atmosphere of the music is very violent (I took him to mean, “aggressive”,
English not being his first language). The
whole is better than the parts …
CRITICALTOM: What inspires the music you create?
DROP: Feelings more than anything.
We try to create moods with our music.
CRITICALTOM: What about lyrics?
BEN: I try to picture the song in my head. I like futuristic things, and politics—not politics per country,
but ways for humanity to be free.
CRITICALTOM: Would you say you feel optimistic or pessimistic?
BEN: Both. But I always think
there is a spark of hope.
CRITICALTOM: Do you have any ideas of what your next album will be like?
DROP/BEN: We’ve already got a couple of new songs and we are working on
more. The next album may be a concept
album, but we are not sure. We plan to
write about 13 to 15 new songs and use about 12 on the album. We also expect that the next album will have
more contrast. The working titles we
have for the two new songs are “Hate Tech Device” and “Neurodrive”. (They played both songs and I especially
liked “Neurodrive”).
CRITICALTOM: Where do you guys
expect to be in five years?
DROP/BEN: (laugh). We don’t
know. Five years ago we would not have
imagined we would be touring the United States. The future is undefined, we’ll have to wait and see. We will get better and make our best music
one day.
CRITICALTOM: If any of you guys get
married, will it change things?
DROP/BEN: NO! If we can stand
together as a band we can do anything.
Time ran out on us because Lyzanxia was taking the stage. So we went and enjoyed the show.