Interview с Skyclad : DARKSIDE.ru

Well, the first question which I'm going to ask you will interest every your fan. When will you release your new album and at what stage is the work on it?

Well we’ve written and recorded demos for about half of the album now and the rest we’ve been rehearsing with the view to recording over the next few months. I think for this album we would like to go into the studio with all the tracks learnt and to record a lot of it ‘live’ – so to speak. So the idea is that the actual recording process will be fairly short, as opposed to having lots and lots of overdubs and guest players etc. It would be nice to think that we could do this over the winter months; with the view to having a spring release but this all depends on getting the right promotion etc in place.

As far as I noticed you release your CD with big intervals in time. What's the reason for it?

There’s two reasons for this: one is our fault with having so many work commitments and so on but the rest is down to record companies and licensing deals. Basically, we have to wait for them to get things together sometimes and it’s annoying but th

ere’s not much we can do about it.

Are you still on Black Lotus Records? Are you content with the way this label works with you? Or maybe there's something that you don't like?

Unfortunately, not long after we signed to Black Lotus they went out of business – which was a shame for all concerned because they were really trying (perhaps too hard) to make something happen and we really liked their promotional ideas. This is also part the reason for the delay with the new album, of course, as I said it’s about getting the right deal in place.

The list of your recent concerts is not very long. What's the reason? Aren't you invited or you turn down the offers for this or that reason?

To be honest we’re such busy people now (outside of Skyclad) that sometimes we have to turn down gigs and tours, which is a great pity but a fact of life. We feel we are at a stage now where we can choose to do what we want, rather than go off on long tours that actually lose the band money and are of little benefit, and, therefore, we tend to enjoy the things we do and it’s not always about money. For exa

mple, we decided to try and play some places we hadn’t been to (hence the gig in Russia, for example), so we got to play in Sweden, Finland Portugal and so forth. In fact, we did play in ten different countries across Europe last year. We like to think that it’s a question of quality rather than quantity.

Kevin, is it difficult for you to be a producer of your band and at the same time to play in it? Or maybe you have found someone to take the responsibility of producing so that you could concentrate on music?

Well as time has go on (and I’ve gotten older) I have looked to get others involved with the production side of things (my ears have taken enough punishment). Also, I think it’s good to get other people involved because it gives a fresh perspective and helps keep the band up to date. For example, on the last album we worked with Dario Mollo in Italy and he did a fantastic job, as this was the first album we had done completely digitally. He was used to working a certain way and we were really pleased with the results. I am, obviously, very concerned that I can write, play, sing, record and produce the band, which, I think,

can be a little too much for one person. We are a band after all and I like to feel part of the band.

In the previous interview to our web-zine you said that several songs for the album "A Semblance of Normality" were left off and label asked you not to release them. And they were included into EP "Jig - A - Jig". And why did you change the label?

Normally when you work on an album you end up with a bunch of songs and you have to choose which ones to include on the album, which ones could be used as ‘promos’ or singles, bonus tracks and so on. As you’re never really sure how songs will turn out in the studio, there are always ‘spare’ tracks. The songs left over for the ASON session were, in fact, to be included as part of a promotional single/video idea which (because of the promotional stuff I mentioned earlier) never came to anything, so we ended up with some songs just lying there. After waiting for ages for the record company to sort something out, we just decided to take thing into our own hands and release these songs as an EP. But we added another track because most of the fans had heard the songs anyway by this time and

Jig-a-Jig was a track I’d talked about doing for years.

On your official web-site it was written that the "JIG A JIG EP" (APRIL 2006) is only available via your web-site or on tours. Why? Aren't there other opportunities to get it?

Well we decided to release this material ourselves and to make available to our fans on tour, firstly, as a way of giving them something special for supporting us at gigs (as opposed to everybody just downloading it from the internet). After the tour we made it available from our website for everyone – though we knew people would eventually just copy it anyway. We were hoping to make it something a bit special for a while. We have actually been approached to release it elsewhere but decided not to for the time being, this might change in the future but, for now, people can get the EP from our website or come and see us at a gig and get one.

Several years have passed since you released "A Semblance of Normality" and now you can judge this album more sober - did the idea to use the symphonic orchestra live up to your expectations? What did it record give you personally?

We’ve been asked a few times about ASON and, to date, nobody in the band has really changed his or her mind about the album – we all still love it. Working with the orchestra was a real eye-opener and worked better than we had imagined (that’s partly due to the players, who were excellent). It definitely gave that album an added dimension and we are proud of what we achieved there.

You'll be in Russia for the first time. And have you ever been invited to our country earlier? If yes - why didn't you come? What went wrong?

To my knowledge, this is the first real opportunity we’ve had to come to Russia. As I said, we decided to go to some different places, not that there’s anything wrong with Germany, France, Italy etc but we felt it would be good to try and get to fans in Eastern Europe or even further afield. So it was great to be asked to come over to Moscow; it was really something different to look forward to.

As far as I know you all work beside music. How do you manage to find time for rehearsals and all the stuff? Is it possible for the band to survive only by music?

You’ve really hit the nail on the head there because it is very difficult in today’s market for people to make money just from being in a band – if you want to have any decent standard of living that is. When you’re younger you might not mind roughing it a bit (and we’ve all done it) but as you get older your priorities change (for example, having a family) and sleeping o people’s floors doesn’t seem as much fun. So there are other things to do. Most of us, for example, teach music, one way or another, which is also very satisfying and means we get to work in music related areas. It’s great to help and encourage kids to get into bands and so on.

And what about DVD? Is there anything clear about it? Haven't you thought of shooting a Russian gig? I'm sure the Russian fans won't disappoint you!

We’re always up for doing a DVD, as I said earlier, we were waiting for the record company to get it together but… I think there is a lot of video stuff kicking about now – again thanks to the Internet – and this has also made making a DVD difficult as everyone just downloads it or it’s bootlegged whatever. Which is fair enough

but who is going to pay for the shooting of a DVD in this climate?

Can you remember the funniest gig you've ever played?

There have been many, many funny gigs for all sorts of reasons. Though some of them only appear funny looking back at them now. For example, when we went on tour in a makeshift bus in Germany during a winter when it was minus 25 degrees and the engine froze solid – great fun. Then there was a festival, again in Germany, where the generators failed several times during our set and a certain member of the band was rather worse for wear, given the lateness of the hour. Or, of course, the night I tried to drink four litres of Chianti by myself 9and failed miserably). The list is endless and a great thing to chat about with the band after the gig – over a beer of course.

You're an Englishman, so I cannot but ask you the following question. What sort of beer do you refer? And in general what is your attitude to this drink?

Well, from the above, you might guess that I actually drink more wine than beer. Nevertheless, I think I am also the one person in the band that

drinks ‘real’ beer (or ‘Real Ale’) as we call it in England. This ‘beer’ is flat and ‘cool’ (rather than ‘chilled’) and there is, literally, hundreds of different types as it tends to be ‘seasonal’ and brewed in small batches by ‘micro-breweries’. It is, I think, an acquired taste. However, I must admit that I am very partial to the Russian beer I’ve tasted and this is because (like German beer, for example) it isn’t brewed with a load of crap chemicals and additives.

Do you have your favourite bar where you like to go with the whole band to discuss some band matters and to drink some beer?

We do actually have a few ‘select’ watering holes we like to retire to to discuss band matters. They tend to be a bit out of the way however and there’s no loud music and so on so we can actually talk to each other.

Are you interested in football? Have you watched the football match Russia-England? What do you think of this match?

Yes, Steve and myself are quite into watching footie and, obviously, the Russian game was pleasing from our point of view – though our team still has a lot to do

if they want to make it to the championships.

Do you communicate with some other English bands' members?

Not really to be honest, though we do meet up with people at gigs – for example, we recently bumped into Blitzkrieg and Avenger (both bands from the 80’s) and they are both from the North-East like us.

In which European country are you he most popular? What fan-base do you like most?

To be honest I would have to say that Germany is the mainstay of the band’s support but I think it’s all about the people that make it to the gigs and not the country we’re playing in. It’s great to see that, even in England where fans are a little more ‘reserved’, people at a Skyclad gig really know how to enjoy themselves. Which, of course, makes it all the more special for us and keeps us going.
7 окт 2007 the End

Skyclad

To Russia with love