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-Epica - Piorno Rock Festival - Artafe, Granada (ES) 28.02.04

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DARKLIFE: What were your feelings, Mark, when you had to leave AFTER FOREVER, a band that you had grounded yourself? Because I think it has to be quite frustrating to create a group, manage to make it well known and then see yourself obliged to leave it...

MARK JANSEN: Yes, it was so frustrating. But life goes on and when there is a difference in opinion in a band you have to look for a solution and the solution was that the other composer of AFTER FOREVER wanted his own way and I made a new one with a new band. And now we are both satisfied. I'm satisfied with EPICA and he's satisfied with what AFTER FOREVER is now doing. So in the end everything's fine. But it was a hard period, of course.

DL: As I've read in some interviews, and you have just said, you left AFTER FOREVER due to musical differences with the other composer, Sander Gommans. How do you see the new work of AFTER FOREVER, Exordium?

MJ: I think it still has good things, I think it is still a quality work but it's not what I like. If I had been with AFTER FOREVER the new material would have sound totally different, more bombastic with film music. It would have contained still heaviness but also a lot of atmospheric parts. Now they are satisfied with their new album... I don't know if you have heard it already, not the Exordium, but the new one?

DL: No, I haven't... (note: That album is being released in March)

MJ: For me it's too poor, it's a lot of instruments going on and not very often a quiet part and I like a lot the quiet part and the heavy part, you know, having a good balance of both things. After all I think it's good quality but not much more I'm able to see.

DL: EPICA are playing two concerts, till this date, with AFTER FOREVER, one in The Netherlands (only with them) and another one at the Wave-Gotik Treffen festival in Germany. What will be your reaction when you will see them there?

MJ: I've talked already with Sander and Floor (note: guitarist-composer and female singer, respectively, of AFTER FOREVER) and we discussed some technical problems then. We talked about what it was going wrong, they gave me their apologies and I accepted them. Now we are happy with what we are doing, nothing is frustrating anymore. It is good now the way it is, I'm happy, they are happy so when we'll play together we'll have quiet reactions.

DL: Was a hard work to form EPICA?

MJ: Yes, of course, it was a very hard work because I had to compose songs, look for musicians... And auditions were made so many times that I hardly had any time left to compose. And when we had the group together, we had to work very very hard to finish the album because the studio was already booked... so we had to finish it. Fortunately, there was inspiration to make the whole album. Because an album has to be very good for me otherwise I'm not satisfied with it. So I was very happy that there was so much inspiration to finish the album.

DL: What did you see in Simone Simons to choose her to be the singer?

MJ: We already knew her voice, we were already in love with her voice but when we were searching for musicians, she was still very young, 16 years old, and we thought it was too young to be part of the group then. But we kept on looking and looking and too many vocalists and they were all not the right person for this plan... So when we were about 8 months later, she had kept on developing in the meantime, we realised she was the one.

DL: Which kind of aspects do you like of her voice?

MJ: I like the colour of her voice most. She has a warm and cool colour. And this colour in your voice, you have it or not and she has it. She's lucky for that. That's what I like most.

DL: How would you describe your music now in EPICA?

MJ: We're called about epic gothic metal, but that's because you have to fix a name. We combine film music with metal music with a classical voice and a choir everything together in one style of music. I think that's how I would describe our music.

DL: When I hear the beginning of The Phantom Agony I can't avoid comparing it to the soundtrack of a film. Have you ever thought in creating one?

MJ: Yeah, we're already working on one since a lot of time. It's a Dutch movie that they want to make it an international one and they want to add EPICA to do the soundtrack. But I don't know when the film is going to be finished. I hope that it will be finished.

DL: You include a few spoken parts in some songs. Why did you decide to introduce them, for example, in Seif al Din?

MJ: In Seif al Din we used a spoken part of Amanda. She was the spoken coach of Simone during the recordings of the CD. So she said sometimes: no, you can sing in this way that it is catchier or more powerful. And because she is American she has a very cool accent. And when we came to a good atmosphere to add a spoken part we decided to ask her to do it. And it worked very well. The other spoken part is from Tony Blair in the song Façade of Reality. And I think that was also good to the song.

DL: What is your source of inspiration when writing the lyrics?

MJ: I find inspiration when I read papers, when I watched the television, the news... So I get inspiration from everywhere. But I always try to focus on all the sides of the topic. So when I write about a topic, I read almost all I can find about it to have a good opinion, to avoid writing something about a new topic that you know nothing about.

DL: Can you tell us something about the concept The Embrace that Smothers?

MJ: That is a concept I already started with AFTER FOREVER first CD. I also wrote about it for the third AFTER FOREVER CD. I wanted to continue it. But then I left AFTER FOREVER. I had in mind that I had to finish it because I thought it has to be I, II and III from Prison of Desire (note: first AFTER FOREVER album), IV, V and VI on The Phantom Agony and also a VII to XIX not on the upcoming album but on the next one.

DL: Your third one with EPICA?

MJ: Yeah, our third one. And it's about religion. Religion it's good to give people a good feeling about what can happen in the after life. But a lot of religions say, we only tell the truth. And I think there's only one truth. Once there's a god, it's a god for everybody, not for the people who follow that religion. And that's the concept of The Embrace that Smothers.

DL: Did you choose Carsten Drescher to be the one to do the artwork or was Transmission Records who chose him?

MJ: When I was in AFTER FOREVER the record company (note: also Transmission Records) chose Carsten Drescher to work with. But I was so satisfied with working with him that I said: with EPICA we want to work with him again because he's the best.

DL: The style of the cover reminds a lot the AFTER FOREVER ones, was it on purpose?

MJ: Yes, it is on purpose because I always had in mind that the first album had to be a blue one, the second a green one and the third a red one. So with EPICA, it had to be a red one. And, well, when he (note: Carsten Drescher) makes something you will recognize it. For example, when you look to a cover of LACUNA COIL and Decipher of AFTER FOREVER, you see also the similarities. It's his sign.

DL: And what does the cover mean?

MJ: The background of the cover is paintings of war and that's the concept of Façade of Reality which is about the terrorist attack to America. And in the front you have Simone. To have her on the cover, it was an idea of the record company. They want to sell records... And the snakes are a symbol of surviving in the old Maya culture, from South America, Mexico. When I was without a band after AFTER FOREVER I was asking myself when I would succeed again. So it's the matter of surviving. That's what for me stands for, nothing about evil or something. It's the surviving thing.

DL: What do you like and don't like of the Arabic world?

MJ: I like of the Arabic world... I like to start with what I like... I like the Ancient Egypt culture a lot because it's really ancient you see it if you see the Egypt Museum, or cruise the Nile and visited all these Egyptian cultural places. And it's the source of a lot of cultures. You have Egyptian culture and in South America you have the old Maya culture and those are the source of what we have now. And what I dislike of the Arabic culture is fundamentalism. When you see old men in Islam... Well, I don't like extremism in all religions. But in Islam is most clear. I also don't like that in Islam women are less important than men.

DL: You told in some interviews that you are fascinated by classical music. What do you like of it?

MJ: I like about classical music... ahm... I think that a lot of musicians from the past nowadays would have done metal music. I recognize a lot of metal elements also in classical music, the heaviness and the bombastic staff... I like the Requiem of Mozart and I like to listen to Rashmaninov, Chopin... the masters of classical music. Beethoven, of course.

DL: You are studying Psychology, aren't you?

MJ: Yeah.

DL: First, I wonder how you can combine your studies with all the tours, promotion...

MJ: Yeah, it's very hard. But I just have to complete two things: one thing from the second year, I didn't get that, it's a demand thing. And I have to write my last paper, my very last paper from studying. It's just a matter of maybe two months work but I have a lot of work now... But I want to finish it, really.

DL: So, did you have any influence in your lyrics from your subjects at University?

MJ: Yeah, I think so, of course. You studied for five years and you get too much impression that I must have used something in the lyrics, that's for sure. But I can't say what exactly. You read too many things about Psychology and also about Philosophy.

DL: Let's talk a bit about tours. How is the tour going?

MJ: Very well. We started with a successful tour in the Netherlands and in Belgium. There are interesting places in the tour. Now is Spain. We got to play in Poland, we got to play in UK, we got to play in Turkey. Canada (??!). And it's very cool to visit all these new places and to come back to places you've already been before. But I like to visit also the towns and sometimes we don't have time for that. It's a pity.

DL: Which is the song that you like most to play live?

MJ: From EPICA?

DL: Yes, from EPICA.

MJ: The song I like to play most live is Cry for The Moon.

DL: And is it the same song that the crowd like to hear?

MJ: Yeah, yeah. We've got a poll on the site where people can vote for their fave song and it's also that one. I think it's a cool song. In second place is The Phantom Agony.

DL: And which is the non-EPICA song that you love to play?

MJ: I like to play Follow in the Cry from AFTER FOREVER a lot because that song means a lot to me; it's for me the best AFTER FOREVER song and that's why we play it also with EPICA. It's really cool to play that song.

DL: EPICA has had a very good reaction from people. In Spain, for example, you were chosen as the fourth international surprise band of 2003 by readers of two important Spanish metal magazines (note: I explain to him that those two magazines, Heavyrock and Kerrang, do what they call a 'Rockferendum' every year. They ask their readers which were for them the best group, song, musician, etc of the year. And I showed Mark the poster where all that info was published. He seemed quite interesting looking through it).

MJ: Cool. Yeah, sounds good. I think we are doing well in Spain so it's good to see that the audience like us a lot. It's really cool.

DL: Do you have new material for the new album? What can we expect from it?

MJ: Yeah, we are working now on it, between the shows. Yeah, it's very tired. But it's really cool to learn the new songs. In summer we will record a new CD. We have a good feeling on the new songs. It has more variation on it. So the heavy songs are heavier and the quiet songs are quieter. So it will be more varied the new album. And it will have catchier chorus, something like Cry for the Moon, choruses that you can sing along. We experienced that people like to sing along with our songs. So what we write now has catchier choruses.

DL: Well, that was my last question... Anything else you want to add?

MJ: I want to add that we are very thankful for the Spanish people because, besides the Netherlands and Belgium, Spain is the best selling country. So, we will have to come back again. This is the first time and I'm sure that we will be back very soon. I just hope people will keep on supporting us like this because it's great! And thank you to EPICA!

www.epica.nl

Amaia Talavera Gutiérrez

(Photos © Amaia Talavera Gutiérrez)

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