Chad Bowar: How has the band’s sound progressed from The Grand Design to My Earth Dream?
A big change is the use of 7-string guitars. We tuned them down a half step to Bb to be able to use the Bb keys which sound much more melancholy and in the end heavier. This was a good decision, because due to the low guitars they blend much better with the frequencies of the orchestra, so you don´t always have to make a decision which one should be louder. During the songwriting I tried to keep one thing in mind: not to overdo the orchestral thing. So you will find parts where you find the riffs only with just drums and bass and when the rochestra comes in it sounds huge. This is bringing in a lot of diversification into the sound.
And you must not forget that in the end every song had between 100 and 200 tracks to mix. To come back to the orchestra, this was the most time consuming process in arranging. Sometimes you find yourself sitting a couple of hours for just 8 bars to orchestrate until everything is to your liking, but in the end it´s just the result that matters and this is overwhelming.
What’s the concept behind the album?
The title My Earth Dream symbolizes if the earth opens itself for higher energies that are filtered through the human mind, it can reach salvation through consciousness. This is also represented on the cover through the spiral and carried in the title track of the album.
But lyrically the songs can also stand on their own. “Shadowplay” deals with an episode of Star Trek DS 9 where a genius is creating his own holographic world on a planet. A long time they didn´t realize that they are holograms until people are disappearing going beyond the frontiers of the holo emitters.
“Whale Rider” deals with the equally named New Zealand movie. It´s about the unexpected female power, symbolized through a young girl. She is showing the way of the group, although she is facing the disbelief of the spiritual leader, who is her father, because she is the chosen one to ride on whales. She is handling that without any fights, just with her inner power and her belief.
“Fallen From Grace “ is about the movie “A.I. – Artificial Intelliegence.” I think most of people know this movie about a little robot boy. “Paramount” is my tribute to Mother Earth, the love to nature. “Adamantine” is about the iron will. “Undying Devotion” speaks for itself, the love and devotion for something in everybody´s life. “Place Of Higher Power” also speaks for itself. Many people have a special place where they regain energy. I was one of my places when the title came to my mind.
What has the European response to the album been so far?
The reactions are great so far, which makes us very happy. We got high grades in the important magazines here in Europe and big stories.
What are your expectations for North America?
I have to say, quite high. I hope that people will like our new album and it would be great if we could tour the U.S. soon.
You’ve had some lineup changes since the last album. Where did you find new drummer Max and live guitarist Dominik?
We found them both in our hometown Linz, which makes things easier. Last year we split with our long term drummer Roland, so we searched for a new guy. We found Sebastian Lanser who also recorded the album but didn´t want to go on tour for such a long time. Then I looked around in the scene in Linz and found Max, who plays in the death metal band In Slumber. With Dominik it was somehow similar. We made an announcement on our homepage that we were searching for a second guitar player and got emails from all around the world. Finally we auditioned 3 guitar players and Dominik made it. He´s also a great acoustic player and plays in the melodic death metal band Thirdmoon.
You recently finished a European tour with Rage. How did that go?
Overall very good, although it was not always easy of course. The reactions were good, but the fan bases are totally different. I thought Rage had done something with an orchestra, we also did so, so maybe there is some kind of connection. Well, in the end it was important to tour all over Europe and you cannot always find packages where you totally fit in.
What are your upcoming tour plans?
We have a festival in Germany next week, in September we are heading for Korea for the second time to play on a big Open Air festival with expected 10.000 people and then there is the Metal Female Voices Festival in Belgium in October. But we are hoping for a lot more shows to come.
You’ve never played in the U.S. Any plans or desire to do so?
Of course. We had the offer to play Prog Power USA but couldn´t do it because we had no support by our record label. So we are looking forward.
