I N T E R V I E W

Interview M. Eriksen & L. Finbrâten (face to face)

Hi, how are you? Are you enjoying the festival?

Michael: Fine. We arrived yesterday at the end of the day but we had some time to see some bands and hang around with musicians we’ve met over the years… so, yeah it’s been nice. We’re having a good time.

Lasse: And we had a great dinner.

Michael: Yes, absolutely, a good dinner! Really nice :)

Last year, came “Nine”. What does this title mean?

Lasse : Yeah, we read about symbolism and the whole album deals with the theme that you make your own luck and are your own architect of fortune, many of the songs are about that, and if you read about symbolism then you learn that the number 9 is a symbol for a lot of these thoughts… It should be a nine number actually because it’s a symbol.

(Then Lasse has to leave for another interview)

How is the album doing? Is it successful?

Michael: Yes, it’s working fine. The sales feedback from the company, Frontiers Records, is good. We get the numbers all the time to see what’s going on. So far, the sales have increased with every release.

Have you felt a positive consequence in terms of sales after the tour with Symphony X?

Michael: Yes, I guess. Being a support band for Symphony X, we drew some attention to ourselves. And the thing is that before that tour, we hadn’t played that much in Europe, just some festivals and gigs here and there… We talked about that with Symphony X because they did the same thing years ago when they had the opportunity to tour with Dream Theater. Four or five months after their tour with Dream Theater, when they started touring on their own again, I guess they expected a lot more, they thought they were going to fill larger venues, but it’s not that easy. You have to tour a lot more to get bigger, that’s how it is.

Have you got nice memories from that tour?

Michael: It’s the funniest time I’ve had in my life. We grew up listening to Symphony X. All the guys in Symphony X were great, we had a good laugh, talked about videogames… good stuff.

“Nine” is a beautiful and soulful album. It’s great to see such evolution between this record and the previous albums. Have you received any complaints about the fact that the band sounds less and less metal or does the world seem to embrace your new direction?

Michael: Of course, we have. There are always people coming up to us saying “your first album is the best”. And for some others, the new album is the best. The cool part is when die-hard Circus Maximus fans get surprised when they listen to “Reach Within” for example and say “What’s this? It’s nothing like "Isolate", what’s going on?” because it’s true that you wouldn’t expect that if you listened to songs like “Abyss” or “Ultimate Sacrifice”, but then, after five or six times, they start to get it and they say “Wow, it’s great, it has opened new doors”. You know, it’s still Circus Maximus but it’s different. Fortunately, 99% of the reactions have been like that. The people that have been following us since the beginning are still with us so it’s great.

I suppose everybody asked you this question but why five years between “Isolate” and “Nine”?

Michael: Many people seem to forget that after we released “Isolate” in 2007, we gave a lot of concerts. We did the tour with Symphony X in 2008 and gave other shows… So we only started writing the next album two years after “Isolate” came out. Then, it took us three years to make this album, for a lot of different reasons. During these three years, almost nine months went away because our guitar player, Matt, had problems with his arms and couldn’t write or play music anymore. Our drummer had some problems with his knees and had to have surgery. At one point, I messed up my voice, something happened to my vocal chords, and my voice didn’t feel right for almost six months… And we had a computer crash, everything happened to us. And of course, we’re picky. We could have released “Nine” a year before we did, but then it would have been 80% completed if you know what I mean. Now, it feels 99% completed, it can never be 100% because you always want to change things… If you’re 100% one day, then the next day, you’re not anymore, but you have to stop at one point.

Have you started working on the next album?

Michael: Yeah, we’re working on our next album, and we’re not gonna be that picky. We want to make a metal album, we almost have four songs ready from the “Nine” sessions that didn’t make it to the album, and they’re very cool songs. And you wanna know a little secret? I haven't told anybody so far, but we have a song which working title is “Glory 2”, it’s a sequel to “Glory of the Empire” and it’s almost done. I haven’t said that before, now it’s out there! Not that everybody’s listening (laughs).

There hasn’t been a proper European tour for "Nine" so far but apparitions here and there. Is there a tour coming our way?

Michael: Yeah, we’re talking about a tour for next fall, it’s in the making for now… And we’ll give some shows in South America next year, it’s not official yet but we’re working on it. We’re going to America next September, for the ProgPower Festival. It’s a great festival.

Will you come back to France any time soon?

Michael: Of course, we would love to come back. We have great memories from the show in Paris when we were with Symphony X. We got a lot of videos from that show, that shows that people loved it. It was great fun. I’m sure we will come back.

What bands would you love to tour with?

Michael: First and foremost, I think that Dream Theater would be a good choice for us. Because some people who have not heard of us could find some elements they like in Dream Theater, cool melodies, prog elements, great musicians… Muse, that would be cool. We’d get to play in front of a lot more people. But that’s probably a bit difficult to get :)

Is it too early to talk about a live album or a DVD?

Michael: We’re talking about it because we video recorded everything from our show in Japan last Fall and the footage is just crazy. I think it’s one of the coolest things we’ve ever done. The experience was great. We can release it but the deal is we can’t sell it. So, it’s probably gonna be free. But there’s something else we’ve been doing for the last four years. We have a friend of ours who has been following us everywhere we played: Japan, festivals, on stage, backstage, asleep, whatever… he’s been filming everything. So that’s a cool behind the scenes thing.

Are there any bands you like in this festival? What shows don’t you want to miss?

Michael: There are some bands I’d really like to see but the one I’m really not gonna miss is Queensrÿche. 

Anything you would like to say to conclude this interview?

Michael: We’d love to come back to France and we will. It was great fun playing there. Thank you for your support. We’ll see you soon.

Venez donc discuter de cette interview, sur notre forum !