Mark Jansen: We are very curious how it's going to be this time. It's going to be our fourth U.S. Tour. It is very exciting to see if this tour is going to at least break even, which means we can keep coming back. I have high hopes that this does well, so that we'll be able to do a fifth U.S. Tour later on. The fans we have in the U.S. are thankful that we keep coming back, and they keep coming to the shows. It would be a pity if we wouldn't be able to continue. And what I heard from Nuclear Blast is that Design Your Universe was selling three times as much the first week as The Divine Conspiracy, so there's a huge growth of the band there. It looks positive, but it's a difficult market to break for a foreign band.
How do you decide whether you want to do a headlining tour, or be a support act for a bigger or more well known band?
It's what you get offered, but sometimes you get bad treatment by headlining bands. That's also the reason we always treat our support acts well. They can use everything they want, because we have had some not so cool experiences. That's why we are careful about taking a support tour. If a headliner is treating you like (crap), it's not a very pleasant tour. With a support tour, you don't make as much income, but you have a way bigger crowd, so there are advantages and disadvantages to a support and headlining tour.
Most of the time you're playing in a club or arena, but have you done some more unusual venues?
We've had some quite unusual venues. This summer we played in Turkey on a stage built on an island. It was surrounded by water, and we had to go to the stage by boat. It was funny to get picked up by a boat taxi and go to the stage. It was a great experience. I always love it when they build a stage in a nature area where you're surrounded by mountains or a forest. Once we played on a beach. It normally would have been a great experience, but that day there was a storm. We played, and right after the stage blew away, and no more bands could play.
How did you get started in music?
I started playing piano, because my grandparents had a piano at home Soon after I started playing guitar, which became my main instrument because you can run all over the stage with it, and with a piano or keyboards you can't. I still enjoy playing keyboards a lot, and compose a lot of music with it. Later I started doing death grunts. That was in After Forever, and when I founded Epica I continued with that.
What was your first band?
It was After Forever. I've only been in two bands, After Forever and Epica. Most musicians have a huge history of bands they can name, but I only have two.
Epica was originally called Sahara Dust. What led to the name change?
We were named Sahara Dust and our singer was Helena Michaelsen. When that didn't work out and we got a new singer, the music changed so much from Sahara Dust that we wanted to rename it. Sahara Dust had an Oriental connection, and people thought we only played the kind of music, but it was way more than that. That's why we changed it to Epica.
Have you kept in touch with any of your After Forever bandmates?
When I was just out of the band we weren't in touch, because I didn't leave under the best circumstances. But after some years we had some beers and spoke about all the troubles we had. We talked about what could have been done differently, and some guys apologized to me. After that, I was fine with it. Nowadays I go to their guitarist Sander Gommans' place and we sometimes make music. Maybe in the future there will be a project with both of us with some new music.
Didn't After Forever split up earlier this year?
Yes, it's a pity because they were doing quite well. But if there's no motivation to go on, it's better to stop than releasing a not-so-good album.
Are you able to make a living with music, or do you have a day job?
I can make a living from it now. I'm lucky, because I write a lot of the songs so I get some income from that. But the goal is every band member can make a living from it. Some years ago with the income we're making now, every member would have been able to make a living, but nowadays people have houses and families, so they need more money. I wonder when we'll have enough income where we can all live from the band instead of just me and Simone. That's the goal.
Anything else you'd like to add?
I'm really looking forward to the U.S. tour. It's always a great adventure to travel there. I cannot wait to play there, and hopefully we'll see a lot of people.
