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Can you fill us in on the band's history up to this point? I heard of a band prior to After Forever called Apocalyps and some line up changes.
"In 1995 it all started when Mark Jansen and I teamed up in what can be described as a low-key home project. Fond of metal's great guitar players, we played along to the CDs of our idols, learning their licks and tricks. This cover project was indeed called Apocalyps. With the addition of keyboards, bass, and drums, along the way we evolved into a band. We then dropped the covers in favor of original songs. Our focus was on dark metal, mixed with inspiration drawn from classical music. Basically a death metal outfit, we changed the band name to After Forever. A name I took from a song off the Black Sabbath album Masters of Reality. We played in this formation until 1997, when Floor Jansen — then backing vocalist — saw her quality recognized when we asked her to step to the front of the stage to sing lead vocals. For us the female, high-singing voice was perfect, because bands like Dream Theater and Iron Maiden featured high vocals too. Still, After Forever remained rooted in heavy music, as we kept on playing melodic metal."
How did things progress from this moment on, especially on a recording level?
And then? Did things take off from then with gigs?
These new songs lead to the second album Decipher?
So there was more touring ahead of you?
Now that you mentioned Nightwish, what do you think of bands like Nightwish and Within Temptation and the never-ending comparison in the media between After Forever and these acts, amongst others?
Did the success of Strange Machines (hit single off Mandylion, by The Gathering) and Ice Queen (hit single off Mother Earth, by Within Temptation) pave the way for you?
About your music, it does seem to incorporate some experimentation in the shape of Arabic influences. How did this come about?
Lyrically too, the Middle East plays its role.
Is there a message to be heard in your music, a certain point you wish to convey?
With a rocketing career for After Forever now, opening for Nightwish coming up, did you open for other bands in the past on your way to success?
But if I'm not mistaken, you did open for HIM at Paradiso. How did that feel?
With the success coming so rapidly and it being so huge, how do you see your position now, and what can we expect in the future?
With yet another album in the (pre-)works, an opening act tour with Nightwish, and a lot of summer festival shows throughout Holland coming up, After Forever has a good chance to make it big this year. The show in Tivoli (NL) later that night showed a perfect example of After Forever at its best, as do the albums and the gig at Pinkpop (click here for our Pinkpop review). http://www.kindamuzik.net/interview/after-forever/after-forever/1636/
"Two years later, in 1999, we recorded Ephemeral, our first demo. We used this recording basically as a booking CD, to get the band on the road, to get us gigs to play. We were very surprised when labels like Transmission and Hammerhead showed interest in this demo. A review in Dutch metal magazine Aardschok, full of acclaim, pushed our case even further. In the end we were signed to Transmission, and in 2000 we recorded Prison Of Desire
"We always have been able to play quite a lot, but because of the very positive reactions to Prison of Desire, we got the chance to learn and grow a lot as a band. On the other hand, with our drummer and keyboard player leaving the band and an awesome load of concerts, we pretty much got confronted with the downside of being a touring band too. But we gained a lot of live experience, and seeing people enjoy the music, our confidence grew as we started to write and play new songs during this tour."
"Yes, indeed. It was very soon after our debut we got the opportunity in 2001 to commit to tape the follow-up. Decipher
"Sure! We played Lowlands Festival last year, which was amazing. Unforgettable too were concerts in Spain, but the absolute highlight has to be the show we played in Mexico City. The people there are so much into what we are doing and so grateful! It's totally amazing and one of the best memories. Right now we are playing several club shows in Holland and will be touring Europe with Nightwish. We hope this tour will break some ground for us in parts of Europe where things still are fairly difficult for us, like Germany for example."
"Nightwish is an absolute favorite of mine. A superb power metal act. Like Whitesnake. Within Temptation and The Gathering: To be quite honest, we had never heard their music when we started out and recorded Prison of Desire. The comparison to these bands in the reviews on the album made us go out and check their music. Both of them are great bands with a huge focus on technique, just like we have. Also, they know how to write great songs."
"We would love for After Forever to continue our success story, and I am sure the exposure these bands get brings along an acceptance of our style of metal music to an audience outside of the normal metal audience. Which, I think, is great. We, in fact, love to play general festivals, where we can win people over for this music, as much as we love playing for metalhead festivals. Frustrating, though, is to put a lot of effort into a music video and not see it played on MTV or TMF because our music is deemed too loud. But maybe a united effort by the fans will get our video played after all, due to massive request."
"Basically we always played around with these themes. You just play a metal scale, alter things a little bit, try some new tunings and it sounds Arabic..."
"Yes, our former guitarist Mark Jansen (now replaced by Bas Maas) was highly interested in this part of the world, its culture and its problems. Lyrics about the Palestinian case and fundamentalism are by him. Floor's lyrics are more introspective and philosophical."
"No, we're not a political band. Lyrically we want to show things, things we care about, feel. Taken from thousands and thousands of subjects, the choice of subject alone might seem to be stressing a point. We however don't want to force our opinions onto our audience. We merely want to raise an issue. If it is possible to open the eyes of our audience to a subject that matters to us, our goal has been achieved. It's up to everyone personally to make up their minds; there's nothing more to it from our side. When After Forever has one central message, it is to keep your feet solidly on the ground and not lose your head."
"In fact, no. We did open for Within Temptation, but strangely, we were able to play headline shows surprisingly fast."
"Well, this gig was arranged by the promoter, Mojo Concerts. Of course we saw it as a great chance and it was. But we don't have any connection to the whole gothic odium surrounding these guys. In our audience, a good, fair share might be called (or call themselves) gothic, and we appreciate their love for our music totally. We ourselves however aren't gothic; neither is our music. We play melodic, powerful metal. After Forever is no gothic, fairy tale band."
"The success did indeed come very fast for After Forever. And we worked very hard for it. We always wanted to be a big band. We have a huge ambition to achieve the absolute top, without compromising our musical ideas. The sudden emergence of attention maybe has been a little bit too fast for us though. You see, acclaim has been off-the-wall ever since our first demo. Of course it is flattering and we love good reviews. Sometimes however, since we ourselves have such a strong focus on technique and
composition, reviews with genuine analysis and critique can help us to try even harder and maybe take another look at our own output. But then again, we drive ourselves to the limit with everything we musically put forward, and we will keep on doing so, because our fans deserve nothing less. Right now we are working on an outline for a new album. Still a little bit sketchy, we are thinking in the direction of a concept album like Operation: Mindcrime, by Queensryche! Of course we like to play live as much as possible. We're very happy to have found a superb guitarist in Bas Maas to fill Mark's place so quickly. He's been amazing in learning the songs and playing under pressure. Just over a week in the band he played at the Paradiso for Leidsekade Live radio show, and will play the Pinkpop Festival too. So expect a lot of powerful live performances and eventually a new, strong album from After Forever!"
Meer After Forever op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/after-foreverAfter Forever audio en video:
» Audio: Follow in the Cry (3voor12)
» Audio: Leaden Legacy (3voor12)
» Live opname: After Forever live op Noorderslag 2002 (3voor12)
Meer After Forever op KindaMuzik:
» Live-recensie: After Forever
» Bezoek de After Forever artiestpagina
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