Het kan vreemd lopen in het leven. Met het overweldigende ‘Sagas’ brak de Duitse simfonische pagan metal band Equilibrium twee jaar geleden door. Ik had toen een erg lang gesprek met zanger Helge Stang. Maar begin van dit jaar verdween die plots uit de groep. Verbazend vlug daarna is er een volgend album klaar, het derde voor de band en het tweede voor Nuclear Blast, met als titel ‘Rekreatur’. Gelukkig is Equilibrium in wezen het muzikale vehikel van René Berthiaume en is er niet veel veranderd aan het geluid van de band. Met hem hadden we dan ook een lang en gezellig gesprek.
The Heidenfest tour in 2008 must have been the tour that brought Equilibrium through whole Europe for the first time, I guess… Yes, that’s right. This was our first tour because the years before we did not have the time, because most of us were studying or doing a job we could not leave. This was the first time we had a real tour and the first gigs in some countries like Belgium, the Netherlands and France. Very exciting!
When did you start writing the new album? Well, this was last year, in 2009. At that time – it was in summer – we were on festival shows like Summer Breeze or Bloodstock in England and we felt we had proper success. At that time we still had our jobs and the things beside the band. We were wondering: shall we continue like this or shall we try to move a step forward to give a little bit more speed and just concentrate on the band. We decided to concentrate on the band and started song writing when we came back. We wrote all the songs before the end of the year, through the winter. Then we went straight into the studio (as always René’s Helion Studios - Vera) to record the album. This time we also had the change of the members, now it is already done and we are waiting to release it on the eighteenth of June.
Equilibrium is your baby. Did you write all the songs on your own or did they come into being cooperating with other members? Usually it is like this: at home I start to write all the music and then I show the music to the other guys. They give their remarks, what they like, what they do not like… Of course I listen to their suggestions and I am open for adaptations. But the lyrics have all been written by Andreas (Völkl - guitarist) this time. On all the former albums, the lyrics were written by Helge, our previous singer, this time was the first time that someone else wrote lyrics and this was Andreas.
Are these lyrics still dealing with mostly mythological topics? There are still some kinds of influences from mythology, especially from German old traditional tales, but on the other side there are also lyrics about more actual stuff, from experiences we had with the band during last years. It is a quite interesting mixture between traditional stuff and new personal stuff. For instance ‘Die Affeninsel’: On ‘Turis Fratyr’ and on ‘Sagas’ even more, we showed our passion for Caribbean/South American influences and this time we did it again with ‘Die Affeninsel’ (The Monkey Island’). Andreas and I are really fond of this computer game ‘The Monkey Island’. Why not write a song that honours this game a little bit and so he did.
You have plans for or already shot a new video clip, isn’t it? Yes. Two weeks ago we started the shooting of a video clip for ‘Der Ewige Sieg’. It is the second song on the new album and it was quite exciting and very interesting, because we went to different locations. We went into deep Bavaria to the mountains and into caves and woods near the Austrian border to find some really nice locations for the scenes. On the other side we also went to a big hall near Munich where we also did some shots. I think it will be a quite interesting video clip and very different from our first video, because the first one included a lot effects and digital stuff. This time we really wanted a natural, organic video and everything is smooth and real without effects.
That gives a different approach indeed and maybe it suits the acoustic performances of some of the songs you do these days… You mean the acoustic songs on the bonus CD?
Yes. Indeed and it also goes together with the new album, because it is more organic and more natural, because this time for example we recorded the drums with real microphones without samples, also the guitars sound more live. This fits better with the video clip and also with the bonus CD with really only natural instruments on it. On this package you can really see that we have very different passions to all kinds of music and styles and it is very interesting to combine them in our band.
Indeed, you have very harsh parts in the music and sometimes sudden acoustic parts. That creates a nice contrast… Yeah and that is really what Equilibrium is about I think: that we have contrasts in our music. We don’t have only happy or funny music, we also have a darker side and we have a harder and a softer side, so it is like life itself and humans are.
Did you have some guest musicians on the album this time? We had some female vocal parts by Gaby Koss. She was a former singer from Haggard and she also sang three parts on our first album. On the bonus CD there were some guest musicians. We had an accordion player and a flute player from Ecuador. That’s a funny story. I found him on the street, playing with his group, you know those guys who make Peruvian or Bolivian music by flutes… I really like that and just ask him to play some parts. Well, these people are really very kind and he was happy to join us in the studio. It was a nice experience.
The last track on the album ‘Kurzes Epos’ is a long instrumental one – more or less comparable with the lengthy ‘Mana’ on ‘Sagas’ and I think it shows all the different facets of Equilibrium pretty well… That is a very important thing for me. On ‘Sagas’ we had all the songs, except ‘Mana’ and I was not satisfied. I think it is important to have a song that you can really put in the beginning and at the end, not just a bunch of songs in random order. I really want to write a song for the opening and also for the ending. That’s why I wrote ‘Mana’ and that song became longer and longer. We did not have the time to write vocal lines or lyrics for it, so we decided to make an instrumental. A lot of people liked it and for me, it is one of my favourite songs of Equilibrium. I decided to continue this concept of having one instrumental on our next album. So we created ‘Kurzes Epos’ for ‘Rekreatur’.
With its length of thirteen minutes it is funny that it is called ‘Kurzes Epos’… (laughs) Yeah, compared to ‘Mana’ it is a little bit shorter and in my mind, for the next album, I have in mind to write even longer songs. I thought: this is some kind of epic music, because the music tells a lot of things even without lyrics, but it is not that long as other songs in the future or the past might be. So we decided to call it ‘Kurzes Epos’.
Can we see a kind of progressive influence there in your music? Yes I think so. When I started with metal and all this stuff, I really was interested in bands like Dream Theater and other progressive music. I think when you start playing guitar there is no way that you can ignore Dream Theater because they have such incredible guitars. It is far beyond the technical stuff that we use, but I really like this long and complex music structure, not only chorus and verse. I really like it when you can be surprised by a song. That’s what we also try.
On stage you mostly play guitar, but you are skilled on many instruments, isn’t it? Well, on stage I can only play one instrument (laughs). But yes, I play lots of keyboards but also real instruments like flutes, it is fun. I like to experience different instruments, for example, I like to collect exotic flutes. I have a collection of several exotic flutes and of course, in the beginning you cannot get some decent sound out of it, but by trying and trying it is satisfactory to make improvements. It is exciting. I really like influences from all cultures around the world. Of course they are very different from each other, but in some way they also can work together and create something new. I think this is an elementary aspect from the music of Equilibrium.
And it is a challenge to make it work together… Yes it is. When we first used these Caribbean influences, we had a feeling it did not fit, but in the end it really turned out well. I guess I just want to make music that sounds a bit warmer after this long, cold winter in Germany. Even now it is only eight or ten degrees here in Munich.
Via talking about the weather and the volcano, we came to the death of Dio…
The death of Dio yesterday, that shocked me too… Yeah, at the moment, also with Peter Steele, it is really strange what happens at the moment. Good musicians just go away. Our new singer is also a huge fan of Type O Negative and he was also very sad. You know, in the bus during the last tours, we always had music from Type O.
Talking about the new singer Robert ‘Robse’ Dahn: how did you meet him? Did you know him before, because he came pretty fast in the band after Helge left? Yeah, the whole band knows him almost since the beginning of the band, around 2003 we met him the first time and we really liked him. Then we did not have a lot of contact for a while but about two years ago I wanted to start a new project with new music and for this one I was looking for a new singer. I contacted him again and we saw that had a real good chemistry between each other. He was the first choice from us to be the new singer of Equilibrium, because we thought he would fit very well with his voice and with his look. It went really fast. A lot of people asked us if it was already planned before, but it wasn’t. It was just like: Helge is not here anymore, ah now Robse. We had a lot of luck that we were able to continue, with the album and with the shows also.
That was really announced last minute… I think we just had to cancel two or three shows and then just continued with the Paganfest tour.
The break with Helge appeared suddenly then? There were already problems we had with him all over the years. We started very young and of course people change from year to year. I think we just grew a little bit away from each other. He had other thoughts than we and then it was not that much fun anymore to work together. Then we concluded maybe it might be better to go separate ways, just like in a normal relationship. The problems were there for some years, but the decision came very suddenly. We really had to take a decision: do we want to continue like this or start a new chapter with the new album and a new singer? We decided to make a new start. Of course people have to get used to a new singer and it is a risk, also Nuclear Blast told us it was a risk, but what else could we do? We were not happy anymore and people would surely see this on stage and things would get worse. Now we really have a good atmosphere in the band, it has never been so good before. I think it was the right decision and after the shows with the new singer, people told us they liked the show and the new singer.
If you listen to ‘Rekreatur’, I think his voice is not that different from Helge’s… Of course we still have the harsh and the growling vocals, but this time you can understand the lyrics a bit better, for German speaking people I mean. Also he has a bit more variety, especially in the deep ranges. I really like that.
Robse went into the studio right after joining Equilibrium I think? I called him and asked him to help us with some shows. He did. Then he accepted to do more shows and after that I asked him to join us. He was shocked in a positive way. It was a stressful time because he had to record the album and rehearse for the show, but it went ace. Very nice. These were really extreme times and I think it was also a very good test for us to see if we can work together on this close base and these circumstances. A good challenge.
There is also a new drummer: Tuval ‘Hati’ Refaeli. How did you find him? He comes from far away, he is not from Germany. When we announced an ad for a new singer and drummer we got a lot of mails from drummers who wanted to play with us and they were all pretty good. One of the last days we got a mail from his friend in Israel and he introduced Hati as a good drummer. I liked what I saw and asked that friend: can he record an Equilibrium song and send it to us. Two days later I got a really good recording. We invited him, met him and had some first rehearsals. It worked very well. This guy is from Israel, but he fits very well with us. A lot of happen in a very short time.
Does he still live in Israel? No, at the moment he lives in Germany, but he had to go back a few weeks ago to Israel for some time but at the end of the day he really wants to move to Germany. That’s the plan.
What about your studio work? (Helion Studios) At the moment I am very concentrated on Equilibrium, but of course there’s always work to be done in the studio as well. But I am not alone in the studio, we are a team of guys working in that studio. There are periods that I concentrate on Equilibrium and other times when I focus on studio work. This is always changing.
There is even a Helion festival in Munich! Yes, this is connected with Equilibrium and the studio. This year is the third time we organize it. It is really a nice thing. When we started three years ago it was very small, but it got a lot of good feedback. We repeated it last year on a bigger location and there came much more people. It is fun because we can decide who is coming and it is also not expensive for the visitors.
What about the tour plans? We will play on several festivals, for example on Summer Breeze. We will play there on Wednesday in the tent, it is a kind of label night, also Rage will show up. In September we are part of a new Heidenfest tour, like in 2008. This will be nice, we are really looking forward to it. It will be pretty exhausting because it is more than three weeks on tour without any day off and there are a lot of countries.
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