W A S T E F A L L

Interview date

January 2007

Interviewer

Yann G

I N T E R V I E W

Hi Alex & Domenik, thanks a lot for accepting this interview for the french metal webzine http://www.auxportesdumetal.com/.
As Wastefall is a new band for the french audience, can you please sum up your biography for the readers ?

(Alex) Yes, of course. Wastefall was born in February 2003 with Domenik and I. About three months later we released our first album "Fallen Stars And Rising Scars" in June of 2003.
And we got some good reviews but we had really the ambition to work again. In November 2004 we released our second album "Soulrain 21" and the feedback was amazing in Europe.
So we started playing some gigs, we covered Pain Of Salvation, Fates Warning, Black Sabbath... that was very nice yeah ! An then we signed immediately with the management agency Intromental and they allowed us to find record companies for a worlwide distribution, Replica Records for distribution in France.

How would you describe your latest album "Self Exile" ?

(Domenik) It's the most hard and the most dark album. It's not a concept album, it doesn't have a common base. Alex, please tell more about this, because, you know, he wrote 90% of the lyrics !
(Alex) It's a really dark and deep album musically and lyrically. He has to do with self-searching, with silence and exile, as a way to change yourself and then return after the exile. We say to the people that being alone and solitude is not something you should be afraid. This is why this is a very dark album and agressive.

How did you get the idea to mix so many influences such as funk, metal, progressive rock, female voices ... ?

(Domenik) Maybe because everyone of us has different ground.
(Alex) We have a lot of influences but we have decided to play, to create an emotion. We try to use the best of it because when you write a riff, an heavy one, you're going to look in a hardcore way like Machine Head or Slipknot. You have to follow an example and find your sensibility. We're following our influences but we're under own perspective.
Domenik did classical studies, Kostis is more to brit-pop and brit-rock, Chris is in jazz. We put all these influences in our music. We never say "we're gonna make an heavy metal song or an electronic song". Our music is like a river that should flow.

Can you please tell us the influences of each member of the band ?

(Alex)Domenik did classical studies, he is a piano player.
(Domenik) I used to be a piano player and a solist. I admire classical piano composers, I really like the band Muse.
(Alex) I enjoy Porcupine Tree, Nevermore, System Of A Down, Slipknot, Machine Head but also traditional music I would like to study more.
Nick, the bass player, is more into heavy-metal. He's a true-metal fan !
Kostis in more into brit-pop and alternative but he loves bands like Tool and Messhugah.
Chris, our keyboard player, is more into jazz, funk-jazz.

I'm surprised because in all the names you told me, I never heard the name of a progressive metalband. How do you explain this ? I didn't hear Pain Of Salvation, Dream Theater or Evergrey.

(Alex) We really enjoy Pain Of Salvation.
Dream Theater, to be honest, we're not so big fans. We love the ideas of music presenting emotions and not so much technical things. This is why we don't like so much Dream Theater and Evergrey.

Fates Warning ?

(Alex) No I don't like Fates Warning !
(Domenik) I like it ! It's a great band.
(Alex) For me, progressive music shouldn't have to do with the style. It has to do with the work "progress". Opeth are progressive, Nevermore are progressive. That's how we see progressive music.

"Self Exile" is very well reviewed in France.
It is described with superlatives such as a complex, deep, captivating, brilliant progressive metal.
How do you explain such a success ? Do you meet also success in other countries ?

(Alex) First of all, I think this is because of our true music because we don't try to show ourselves. Whatever we can, from our experiences or from our emotions, from many things, we are a honest band, we try to be musicians, we are artists.
I think that french peoples admire that because they're very cultured people, they've a really big background. We have the same tastes of music.
If you see the history, Greece gave birth to civilisation and France gave birth to Europe. There is a common ground between these people, between these 2 countries.
Concerning the rest of the world, the reviews of the CD are very encouraging, from Germany from "Metal Hammer, from magazines in Greece also. But in France there's something special, every single review is perfect.

The production is very very great. It was done by Tommy Hansen. How did you work together ?

It was a great experience for us. We recorded the tracks in our studio in Greece and we sent him the files to Denmark. He did a fantastic job because he understood our music. We didn't expect that because he had an experience with power-metal in his career. But he just did the job very well ! He let the music flow !
He didn't try to add and add... He just let the music breath !

How old are you inside Wastefall, you're very young, am I wrong ?

(Domenik) I'm 23. Kostis, the drummer, is 20. Nick is the grand-father, he's 25. Chris is 23.

Your music is very mature. It's a little bit contradictory, how do you explain this, what did you study ?

(Domenik) I've studied a lot of years piano and this stuff. Alex never studies, he has his own talent. He has a very good express with the guitar and the way of playing.
(Alex) Domenik studied, I not, Kostis studied, Chris studied Nick didn't. Music's like a game. I don't know theory. If I knew theory, maybe sometimes it would be helpful, but sometimes not because I couldn't further.

Before composing "Self Exile", you planned to record a concept album about deranged personalities but at the end you didn't.
Why did you change of orientation ?

(Alex) We tried it but at that time we didn't work.
(Domenik) When we'll record a concept album, we'll be 100% ready.
(Alex) At the first time, we felt really right to do it. I mean especially with "Soulrain 21". It was a tragedy accident in Greece, children lost their life. The whole society was shocked. We had an idea there but we didn't have the right feeling so we dropped it.

You are greek. Can you please tell us about metal in Greece ?
Does metal have an important part on the musical stage ?
Which greek metal bands are famous ?

(Alex) There are a lot of bands in Greece but these bands are not really compassioned. I don't know why but there's a really big competition between bands. It's really, really strange.
We've a lot of musicians there. Grece has traditionally a very good black-metal scene like Rotting Christ, Sceptic Flesh, Nightfall ... But nowadays the progressive scene is growing.
I think that in the future you'll see more and more good bands in the metal scene.

If you had to vote for the best album in 2006, which one would you choose ?

(Alex) We had the same question yesterday !! And we replied with albums of 2005. We didn't hear any albums in 2006 :-) This year is a strange year
(Domenik) I would say Porcupine Tree.
(Alex) Soulfly - Dark Ages.

This afternoon, you're going to play an acoustic gig in Paris. Is it the first time you will play in France ?

Yes !

Do you feel anxious ?

(Alex) No, we like that and we like french culture anyway. French people will like everything, it's gonna be great !
There'll be 7 songs. Of course it's not an orchestra, there'll be 2 guitars and 2 voices. We have some acoustic versions of some songs and we're gonna play also some old stuffs from our first and from our second album. It will be like a presentation of Wastefall but in a really really strange way.
The songs we're gonna play were never played before in an acoustic version, it's really the first time. That will be really unique for us and for you I think.
(Domenik) And there's a challenge also for us to arrange all these songs with 2 guitars and 2 voices, it's really weird but we're gonna do it, we're gonna do it for you :-).

All the reviews I read about "Self Exile" and more generally to Wastefall always do a comparison between you and Pain Of Salvation. How can you explain this ?

(Alex) Yes, we understand that. It's partly because of Domenik's voice and we're from the same school. But it's not only because the voice, it's because the atmospheres, because of the same emotional characters.
It's like Midnight from Crimson Glory and Geoff Tate from Queensryche, they have the same teacher, they belong to the same school, there is a comparison in the atmospheres.
But we're going to follow different paths in the future because we're more heavy, we have more strange tempos... Pain Of Salvation with Scarsick took a different path and our next album will also follow a different path.

What are now your future projects ? : A tour, the recording of a DVD, a new album ?

(Domenik)Mmmm.... Recording a DVD is a nice idea :-) But we think it's too early now, we're at the beginning with our third album. We have now to focus on many many many gigs.
(Alex)So France will be definitively the first stop, there are some things that are going to be arranged but I can't say anything yet...
Of course there is the next album, we're composing songs.

Do you already have an idea of the next album ?

(Alex) Yes...What I can say ... It's gonna be a concept album. It will have more orchestra, classical music as much as possible.
(Domenik) We'll also integrate some elements of our music, the greek music.

Thanks a lot for your time and good luck for this afternoon !