Na de Europese tournee in 2007 concentreerde The Eternal zich op het uitwerken en bijschaven van nieuw materiaal. De Australische band ging door een lang opnameproces en het meesterlijke resultaat, genaamd ‘Kartika’, ligt begin januari in de winkels. Een eerste verplichte aankoop voor fans van donkere, melancholieke metal! We stuurden vragen naar de andere kant van de wereld en vernamen van zanger/gitarist/componist Mark Kelson alvast het goede nieuws dat ze in 2009 weer de grote oversteek wagen om te toeren. Maar er was nog veel meer om over te praten…
Hello Mark! Very nice to talk to you again now that the new album ‘Kartika’ is about to come out pretty soon! It is Vera From Antwerp. How are you? Hello Vera! Great to talk to you again and thank you for looking after us on our last trip to Belgium! We had a great time hehe!
Last Saturday (13/12/08) you played a release party in Melbourne for the new album. Was it a positive experience? Can you tell a bit more about this evening? It was a fun evening, it feels great to finally release the album, it was a very intimate show with many good friends present so it was a very relaxing evening and was great to play some new material for the first time, I’m looking forward to getting some of these songs on the road.
First thing that struck me is that your two albums signing at Firebox Records is prolonged, since ‘Kartika’ also comes out at this Finnish label. So I guess both parties were quite satisfied with the cooperation and this means that the business things are arranged for now? Yes we parted with Firebox for at least a year, but during the process of recording ‘Kartika’ I sent a copy to them and they agreed to release it in Europe, so that was great for us to have a European release confirmed as we were still unsure as to what the future held for the band. It’s a slightly different arrangement this time and we actually have a different label we work with here in Australia. But for now ‘Kartika’ will hit stores in Europe January 2009 and in Finland it is already out.
The writing process has been pretty long for this album, at least before it finally saw the light of day. I remember six songs were already recorded when you came on tour in May 2007. Why did it take so long to the current release? There were many reasons for the delay, we were still completing touring commitments for ‘Sleep Of Reason’ a lot longer than we expected, then we lost some members, parted with Firebox and kind of had to pick up pieces. Lack of material was not the problem but all the obstacles we faced before we actually got to the recording stage did not help, the recording process it self was quite long and all over the place, many of the songs were very layered and maybe a bigger job than we expected. The album was complete in June 2008 but once we renegotiated deals most of 2008 had slipped away. So I guess it’s about three years since the release of ‘Sleep Of Reason’.
I guess most of the material is written by you in your home studio. When does the band come in sight? Is there still room for experiment when you try the songs out as a band? Yes, I write a lot of material at my studio here, so I’ll usually take a pretty comprehensive demo to take around to the guys, then we just jam it out and everyone adds their feel to it. With ‘Kartika’ we didn’t experiment too much once songs were written, I think in future we might try some more jamming and seeing what comes out this way. There are benefits to writing songs both ways. But I think now the new line up is settling in well we are getting better at jamming together and usually start with a good jam session at the start of rehearsal.
I think the album evolves again towards a more melodic, yet dark and emotive approach of music, which I like! What is your point of view on it as creating artist? Well yes, I wanted make a consistent album, something with a good flow, I also wanted to push some of the more melodic elements we displayed on ‘Sleep Of Reason’. I felt as far as the ‘doom’ thing it wasn’t really where I was at as a song writer, I wanted it to be damn and moody as hell, but also wanted it to be full of strong melody and energy. I feel we have achieved this with ‘Kartika’ and have managed to make a very diverse album with a lot of different textures and dynamics.
Which congenial bands or artists would you like to mention to give an idea to the readers what they may expect from The Eternal? It is hard, a lot of people like to say we are like Katatonia or Paradise Lost, but I really believe we do our own thing, but of course we are in the vein of dark and emotive music that moves you, so I’m fine being associated with these acts.
What does ‘Kartika’ mean and can you tell a bit more about the lyrical themes? ‘Kartika’ has a double meaning you could say. ‘Kartika’ is a knife used in a Buddhist ritual which is all about freeing yourself from your worldly bonds and material things in your life and I really like the idea of this, because it’s like, just focus on the music and not the things of the business, so ‘kartika’ symbolizes a personal freedom to beyond things that really don’t mean anything. It is also a girl’s name. This I found out later but it added another angle to the name.
The long epic one ‘Blood’ is one of my favourites. Can you tell a bit more about this composition? This is also one of my Favs (big smiley) I guess you could say this one was my baby. I really wanted this song to be huge, building the keyboards alone took a very long time, I also played a Chinese instrument called a ‘pipa’ which is that eastern instrument you hear throughout the song. I am quite proud of this one. At the time of writing I was sort of expressing some of my anger at the wars going on overseas and that no matter how much those responsible deny it, the blood is on there hands. It is basically a big eastern influenced epic with a million beautiful textures and tones, and is a blast to play live!
Once again you have an Anathema-relied guest on the album: Duncan Patterson (which is not so strange, since you also contributed on the Ion album). Can you tell a bit more about your friendship and cooperation with Dunc? Duncan and myself have been friends for quite a few years now, I did the artwork for the first Antimatter album back in about 1999 I think, but we have probably been closer in the last few years. Duncan is a great songwriter and lyricist and I hope one day he achieves all the success he deserves. I was very honoured to be asked to contribute vocals to the first ION album. So when it came time to record ‘Kartika’ I knew it would be great to get Duncan involved, he contributed Mandolin to the track ‘Kartika’.
I do not know the other guests: Nicholas Albanis on hammered dulcimer and the Russian female singer Emily A. Saaen, so it would be nice to hear a few words from you about them… Nicholas is from the band Dandelion Wine, here in Melbourne. They are a great goth, electro, world music band, ‘Dead Can Dance’ mixed with good pop sensibilities, Nick is an amazing guy playing many different instruments, also the other member Naomi contributed some vocals at the end of ‘Frozen Sun’ on the bonus disc. They tour Europe regularly so check them out if you get a chance. I met Emily through her work on Duncan’s ‘ION’ album, her voice is stunning and extremely emotive, so as we had became friends it was great to get her involved, she contributed vocals on ‘Blood’ ‘Kartika’ & ‘Walk Beside You’.
In May 2007 you did an European tour (great stuff on YouTube, fine memories hehe!) Can you tell a bit more about this trip? This was a great experience as usual! It was a very short notice tour as some thing else we were involved in fell through so we took it on our selves to piece together some more dates at a months notice, so it was a small eleven date tour, but still great fun with some great memories! We played in Portugal, Germany Holland, Belgium & Hungary. I’d say the most fun shows were De Rots in Belgium, Torres Noves in Portugal & the Hungarian dates were great also. I’m just looking forward to coming back (smile)
Mark, you did a lot of travelling in 2007 and even an American tour with Virgin Black. What were your impressions of Finland en then go to the States for three months? After my tour with The Eternal, I met the Virgin Black crew and we headed to America for the tour with To/Die/For. It was such an interesting three months, I also spent a lot of time getting around by my self between tours so after three months and 35 flights and months of driving I was ready to come home. Haha. I have been to Finland many times now and have many great friends there so it is always great to return. America was a bit larger than life at first but I got used to it and I was lucky enough to get driven around the entire country and see how beautiful it can be, from lush forests to the Californian desert, it was all an amazing experience.
When you came home, the new record was recorded at several studios in Australia. You worked again with Endel Rivers. Can you tell us about your journey to Tallinn for the mix with Endel? Before starting ‘Kartika’, Endel had told us he was moving back home to Estonia, which was a bummer for us as we would have loved him to record the whole album. So on receiving this information we decided to use a guy ‘Ian Miller’ to work on the album, we got hold of a great studio in Adelaide to record the drums, hence the huge drum sound of ‘Kartika’. We then proceeded to track guitars back at home in Melbourne. Shortly after this we heard Endel was returning to Australia for a month so we decided to enlist him to track vocals, bass & acoustic guitars in January 2008. Shortly after Endel head off back home to Estonia and we started to mix the album with Ian, it was at this point we were really hit with how huge the project was and it became a bit overwhelming for us all, so it was decided that I would head over to Europe in May 2008 and mix the album with Endel in Estonia, as he knew our sound and what to do with our music. Of course the result with Endel is always great and the actual experience of working with him is always easy going, relaxing and enjoyable.
For the mastering you chose John Ruberto at Crystal Mastering. Any reason for working with that man in Australia and what about this experience? We have worked with Crystal Mastering before and John is very passionate about his job. The last album was mastered by a Finnish fellow and although he did a great job, it was great to actually be able to be at the mastering session this time and make sure its perfect. Crystal Mastering have a world class studio and do some really big artists here at home, so they were a natural choice for the job.
Are there plans for touring in 2009? (I hope so!!!) I read there are negotiations… Yes! We have a world tour planned and are well into the booking process. We will tour Australia in Feb / March, then head to Japan for two shows at the end of March, then we will spend all of April in Europe hopefully for around 18 shows, including Holland and Belgium, so expect to see us mid April Vera! After Europe we are planning a week or two in America and then we will head to Mexico for a handful of dates, so this will be the most comprehensive tour the band has undertaken to date.
The artwork was done by Italian designer Diego Maniscalco. Can you tell something about this artist and how did you get in contact with him? I think Diego may have emailed us, and I liked his work, I am a Graphic Designer myself so I wanted to make sure we had the right guy, I tend to like to get an outside perspective on covers for my own albums which is why the last two have been done by other people, it gives it all a fresh feeling when it is done by someone not involved, a fresh interpretation. Diego and my self discussed the concept in great detail and when he came back with the cover I knew we had something really representative of the music. So a quick plug for Diego www.unspire.com is his site, so check him out!
There is a new video for ‘Lost Our Way’. Where is it shot? The video for ‘Lost Our Way’ was made and shot by our bass player Dave Langlands and myself. It was shot on a budget of nothing so we had to be creative hehe. It is all shot in Melbourne, firstly in some industrial areas in some of the northern suburbs of Melbourne and then up to the Dandenong Ranges for the ending. It was shot over a few days and edited in a few weeks. We are now editing a new performance based video clip for another track off ‘Kartika’ and should have that out in January.
For the first time you have an earlier release of a record in Australia and Finland. What are the advantages of it and so you can develop a bit about first reactions on ‘Kartika’ maybe? I don’t know if there are any advantages haha, I would have preferred a world wide release date but in the music business things often cannot work out this way. It just so happened with release scheduling this is the way it was going to happen. So far the response has been very positive with favourable reviews also, I was a bit nervous before the release but now I feel it may do OK. I’m now getting ready for the US & European releases in January. I’m just happy that the album is now out of our hands and we can concentrate on being a live band for the next year!
The limited first pressing comes with a bonus disc which seems very interesting to me. Can you tell the readers what they can find on this extra disc? When we wrote the material for ‘Kartika’ we had 16-17 songs and the demos were of quite a good quality, so once we had picked the final tracks for the album we decided instead of just holding on to the material we would just release the demo versions on a bonus disc as well as a few great remixes by our guitarist Terry. Terry remixed ‘Blood’ and ‘Self Inflicted’ and they are totally different than the originals, so we had a six track bonus disc on our hands, we thought as this was our third album that our fans may appreciate some bonus material. Now we have a clean slate, no left over material, so now the plan is to start recording some of our jam sessions and seeing what comes out, kind of a fresh approach to the writing. It will be interesting to see what material we have once we return for the ‘Kartika’ tour.
If there is any news I forgot to cover or if you want to add something, feel free to do so… We just look forward to seeing all our European friends in April and hope that some of your take the time to check out ‘Kartika’. Cheers!
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