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METAL PERSPECTIVE (www.metalperspective.com) Giannis (Greece) 2009 |
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1. 1. Dear Eddie hi. First of all, congratulations for your new work and thank you for speaking to our webzine.
A – Hey Giannis, thanks for the
opportunity. We really appreciate the support. It’s always nice to find people
who really understand where we are coming from both musically and conceptually.
A – We’ve reached a really
great place in our musical career right now. We are able to write and record
whenever and whatever we like. The basic songwriting and recording process was
done in my studio. Over the years I’ve built up a great little studio where I
do all my writing and recording. I personally do all the song arranging and
basics song construction before I get the other band members involved. Once I
have a basic song idea down I then begin work on the vocal melodies, harmonies
and lyrics. When I’m happy with the arrangement, musical content, vocal
melodies and harmonies and lyrics I then give it to the other guys in the band.
They have total control over their input. They are such great musicians I would
not dream of telling them what to play. They then take my musical ideas and
personally record all their parts at their home studios. Once they have written
all their parts they send me the recorded files and I import them into my
computers. So basically we all write separately and then bring it all together
at the end. This process may seem really disjointed and unconventional but it
seems to work for us. It really comes down to the quality of musicians that I
am fortunate enough to be working with. They just seem to know what the songs
need and they deliver exactly what is required. I’m really happy to be involved
with great musicians who understand what my music needs, it make my job a lot
easier.
A – I’m really happy with
everything believe it or not. At the end of the recording process I’m generally
pretty burnt out by the process but this time I really enjoyed every aspect of
the recording. Most of my work is done before the others get to hear the song,
then I get to hear their ideas right at the end of the process which is really
refreshing in a way. Both Evan and Conrad have a very distinctive style so it’s
always great to hear how the song changes with their input. A- The main difference is the two musicians I currently working with. Conrad is back on guitar, he played on the first Mech Org album “Flat Earth Society” but couldn’t play on the second album due to other musical commitments, but he’s back now and I think he really makes a huge difference to our sound. He brings so much to the table in terms of melody and harmonies not to mention heaviness. I’m really glad he’s back in the band and I’m looking forward to future releases to see how we evolve as a band. And of course there’s Evan on bass also, he has given the music a real touch of class. His bass work in second to none and I personally love his work. Evan is a genius. I’m a bass player by trade but he’s on another level. He makes his bass playing look easy but of course it’s not. I think you will continue to see our music evolve over the years so expect some more changes in the near future. We have a very hectic recording schedule planned so our musical journey will be evolution in fast forward. Other than having these two guys on board I think the sound is still very much Mech Org, which is to say that it is very unique and unusual. And I think both parts have that going on, and future releases will hopefully continue this musical evolution.
A- Well, as I mentioned earlier Conrad played on the first Mech Org album. I had finished recording the new album on my own and I was nearly ready to master the recording. Conrad rang me out of the blue and asked what I was up to musically. The timing was perfect and he decided to have another shot at playing in Mech Org. I sent him the song, he loved it and instantly began working on it. Towards the end of the recording he suggested we ask Evan if he would be interested in playing on the album. Evan is an old friend of mine, I used to roadie for Evan when he played in Taramis many years ago. I was always in awe of Evan, he is such a fantastic bass player so I was all for having Evan play on the recording. So we spoke to Evan and he accepted the invitation. I really couldn’t be happier right now.
A – This was a conscious decision to try something new in terms of releasing albums. I guess it is more of and EP. Our new release philosophy will see us putting out longer epic style songs, probably around the 15 to 30 minute mark in length. Each new release will have it’s own album cover artwork and be released separately. We will continue to further the “Disrepair” series well into the future. We have quite a lot material already written and planned so things are really moving ahead positively. At the moment we are passionately independent so we can basically do whatever we like, I love this freedom, it’s very liberating.
A – I’ve been involved in music
for a really long time now and nothing has given me the musically freedom I now
have in Mechanical Organic. I never really expected to be in control of
something like this, it just seemed to happen. I kind of grew into the whole
thing as I evolved musically and professionally. Mechanical Organic is really
exciting for me because it allows me to express myself both musically and
lyrically and that’s very important to me. It’s also very important for us to
remain free from the politics of the music business. We take great pride in
being independent and building our fan base personally. With each album our
following grows and our message reaches more and more people which is
fantastic. Right now the vision that drives us is the “Disrepair” series that
we are currently involved in. This concept could go on indefinitely as far as
I’m concerned so at the moment that is consuming all of our attention.
A – Yes and no. I still write
the basic song structure, vocal melodies and lyrics so in that way not a lot has
changed. But when it comes time to write the guitar and bass lines I step aside
completely. I guess different bands have different ways of working and our
style really works well for us. For example, we have already begun work on 3
new tracks. The first is around 25 minutes long the second is 30 minutes and
the third is around 12 at this stage. The first track is virtually complete,
I’ve done all my parts, Evan has finished the bass work and Conrad is now
recording the guitar parts. So we should begin mixing in a week or two. The
second track is also being worked on, I’ve finished all of my parts and Evan is
recording his bass lines. I’m currently working on the third song by myself,
I’m writing and arranging and it should be ready to hand over to the others very
soon. So as you can see things are happening all over the place. We have a lot
going on at the one time. Each track will be release separately and I hope we
can release two of these epic style tracks per year. Mechanical Organic just
wouldn’t sound the way it does right now without the efforts of Conrad and Evan
so I’m very happy to have some company especially, players of this caliber.
A – The whole “Disrepair”
series revolves around a common theme of shadow governments and The New World
Order. Each new song/release focuses on a very distinctive aspect of the whole
system which I think is breaking down and is in disrepair. Each song will
contain spoken word dialogue as well as lyrics and vocals to support the
conceptual theme. So the whole concept revolves around firstly finding
conspiratorial podcasts that support the current theme. And secondly we need to
get permission from the podcast publisher to use the spoken word material.
Generally they have been very accommodating and allowed the use when we have
asked them. So the main conceptual theme is conspiratorial, but we are very
selective about the subject matter that we cover.
A – The basic conceptual theme
for Disrepair Part Three examines the notion that the Aids virus was cooked in
the lab and then releases into the public. We have also mapped out the
conceptual themes for a sub series starting at Disrepair Part Four. This sub
series will focus on Mind Control and Satanic Ritual Abuse. This will be the
beginning of a very dark musical chapter in the band history. The theme is very
disturbing and the spoken word dialogue is absolutely fascinating in a very
distressed kind of way.
A – There is no proof that God exists either and people still believe. A lot of people don’t want to know about this type of thing, ignorance is bliss so to speak. I guess you have to look at the evidence closely and then make up your own mind. People also take the attitude of “I can’t do anything about it so why should I care”. I think if enough people open their eyes and begin to see what is really happening out there that things can change for the better. But people have to wake up, the world isn’t always what it seems and things aren’t always as rosy as we are led to believe. I’m not here to preach to you and I’m certainly not here to try and convert you. I simply have an unhealthy interested in this subject matter and I personally find it fascinating. It is astounding that more people aren’t aware of some of the darker things that have happened in our past and some of the things that are happening in the world right now.
Let me put it this way, money
is power and wherever there is money to be made there is corruption. If you
have enough money and power you can control anything, in fact if you have enough
money you can control everything. I guess that’s what it all boils down to. 12. Is the phrase ‘I Choose Not to Believe”, the only action one can take or just the beginning? Is this what you suggesting to do, to be more critical towards anything going on?
A – The message in that lyric
is, don’t believe everything you hear and read. Both sides of the argument have
been corrupted and there is so much disinformation around that it is very hard
to find good sources of news and information that can be trusted. The internet
has a wealth of information but I try to be very skeptical about everything I
hear and read. I also try to be as realistic as possible about the things I
write about. I will never cover an alien conspiracy as song subject matter
because I don’t personally go in for stuff like that. So “I Choose Not To
Believe” is just a warning not to trust, and a warning to be very vary about
where you get your information from.
A – We had some great times.
The majority of the time was fantastic but we were always an incomplete band.
We never found a full time singer so we could never really forge ahead as we
would have liked, which created tension within the band. I think we wrote some
really good music together and I am very fortunate to have been involved in an
album that is so widely respected. It’s a pity we couldn’t keep things
together. I think at the time we had no idea that the album was so highly
regarded. We put that album out when the internet was in it’s infancy so it was
much harder to gauge public reactions. It wasn’t until much later that we began
to understand the impact we had made and by then it was too late. I still have
a lot of respect for all the other guys in the band at the time, they were
really great musicians and it was great experience from my point of view.
A- I still get e-mail about
that album all these years later and I still get questions about whether there
is a possibility that we would reform with that lineup and do another album. As
I said I had no idea the album had done so well but I am so glad I had the
opportunity to be a part of it. There were some really hard times but in
amongst the conflict there was some really unique music being written. I still
really like the album, it has dated a little over the years but the mood and the
vibe of the music is still great and the songs themselves have stood the test of
time. A – Absolutely, everything I’ve ever been involved with musically has influence the way I write in Mechanical Organic. In fact everything I have ever heard and experience influences the musical content of Mech Org.
16. I know that “Disrepair Part 3” is already being recorded. When do you think it will be released and what format it will have?
A – To be honest we were hoping
to get it out before the end of the year but I don’t think that will happen. We
may hold it back for an early 2010 release just to give ourselves a little bit
more time with it. We’ve simply run out of time and we don’t want to rush it.
It is probably about 90% recorded at the moment but we still need to spend a lot
of time mixing and mastering. The artwork for the album cover is complete and
looks really good, I’m extremely happy with it. The album will be once again
digitally releases through
ITunes,
Amazon MP3,
Rhapsody,
Napster,
Puretracks
and many more. And I’m currently looking in to releasing all our albums on CD.
We would really like to keep the cost down for the fans of our music so we are
trying to set up something a little different with regards to CD release. It
will be all done independently so we’ll see what happens in the future.
A – Thank you so much Giannis. Your support of our music is greatly appreciated. I look forward to sending you our next release. And guys, don’t forget, if you are looking an eclectic synthesis of hybrid heavy melodic metal shrouded in a progressive conspiratorial veil look no further. Come visit our website at www.mechanicalorganic.com or our myspace page at www.myspace.com/mechanicalorganic Thanks again Giannis, until next time . . . .
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