With the impending release of their second album, Dying Son (see my pre-review here) I am pleased that the band took part in a brief interview with me. Please read it below.
My thanks to Mike and Zak for their time – and I do seriously suggest you check out both their debut – Darkest Horrors – and Dying Son. Serious, proper classic metal/NWOBHM.
Here’s the interview:
NWOBHM: Darkest Horrors blew me away. It’s a phenomenal album of what I’d call “proper” metal. How was it received by the market? I’m guessing it put Starblind on the map somewhat and drew some wider attention to the band’s talents.
Mike: Well, since we never released or recorded any demos before Darkest Horrors we went from basically not existing to having release a debut Album, we had lots of press , interviews, radio shows and also a lot of very good reviews. We also did a three week long European tour supporting Tim Rippwer Owens which helped us establishing ourselves in todays metal scene
NWOBHM: How did you come to work with Pure Steel? Is that a step up in terms of promotion and record company support.
Mike: This time around we did it in a more old school way as we wanted to try out a new producer (Cedrick Forsberg/Rocka Rollas) and studio (Studio 2-takt) so we decided to do a test recording which resulted in a 3-song preproduction. We made this recording on a saturday and when finished our manager sent this to several record labels which resulted in us getting several offers for record deals. It´s kind of funny as before this was even done we had Pure Steel Records on our target list of labels we would very much want to work with, so it wasnt a very hard decision in the end.
The answer to your second question is yes, Pure Steels gives us great ton of support as a label and the promotion side of things can be described as a well oiled machine which is noticeable everytime there is a Press Release.
NWOBHM: I am an old New Wave of British Heavy Metal fan. It’s not hard hear to hear the NWOBHM influences in your material. Is that a deliberate intention of your approach to song writing – to give a sort of “modern retro” feel to things. I think it really works by the way……
Zak: Thank you! There is no secret that our influeces come from the british metal giants of the 1980’s. That’s nothing we try to hide and I think it’s shame that some bands try to do so… as if it would be shamefull to embrace your musical heroes’ work? We have no intentions of being a nostalgia act. We just write the kind of songs that we would like to listen to ourself. We record our albums the way we think it is necessary to being able to project our true sound on CD/LP. It if happens to sound retro to some people that’s fine with us but for us it’s just really… the only way for us to sound?
NWOBHM: I understand that Dying Son was recorded live in the studio with no overdubs or other trickery. Was that a deliberate plan from the start to allow a natural feel to the sound. Do you find it worked well during the studio time – is it an approach you would use on future albums do you think.
Zak: You couldn’t be more correct. All the instruments where recorded live and no metronome was used. That was because we wanted to be able to sound, as near as possible, the same on a CD/LP as live on stage. What you hear on this album is what you are going to hear when you come see us live.
We didn’t use any samples on the drums. No amp simulators for the guitars. Just a well tuned drum kit and a marshall amp miced up. Simply as that really.
We had our producer, Cederick Forsberg, working hard to make the mix sound leveled and even. We didn’t just want a wall of guitars, a big snare and vocals taking up the whole spectre of frequencies. We wanted every instrument to be heard and I believe that, because there’s no guitar dubs, everything sounds very even and distinct. Too many good albums has an almost an inaudible bass guitarist so we really pushed Daniels bass guitar track in the mix.
For us that’s really important and we are going to continue recording in that fashion on the next Starblind album. And the one after that, and the one after that and so on.
NWOBHM: The new album is out on 4 December. Will it be available from the usual channels – Amazon, iTunes and similar. How can people get their copy.
Mike: Yes, this album will have major distribution worldwide so it should be available at all these places and similar.
NWOBHM: Any plans to promote Dying Son. A tour perhaps.
Mike: Yes, a European spring tour in 2016 is confirmed but we haven’t released any dates yet.
NWOBHM: What next for Starblind after Dying Son. Can we look forward to the follow-up perhaps.
Zak: We haven’t released any info on a potentional follow up to “Dying Son” so we can’t really comment on that. Sorry!
NWOBHM: Any messages for the fans reading this interview
Zak: Give our new album a listen and see if it is to your liking? You can listen to our single, “A Dying Son” and “The Lighthouse”, for free on youtube and on soundcloud. If you like it, we welcome you to the Starblind family and hope to see you one day, if you don’t like it… well there’s probably something else for you out there!
NWOBHM: Thanks for taking the time for this mini-interview. My best to you for the release of Dying Son and the future.
Zak: Thank you for this interview, it has been my pleasure. And thank you for your words on our new album!
Mike: Thanks for a great interview, I hope we get more opportunities to speak again.
Starblind Links:
Dying Son on Amazon: http://amzn.to/1HR7Y20
Web Site: http://www.starblind.se/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/StarBlindtheBand