After
the bad situation born in Milan, when the Dutch band Callenish
Circle left their tour,
we spoken with "Pat",
Patrick Savelkoul, their
singer, who explained us why they went home back, deleting
definitely mediterranean shows. Let we see what our dear
Patrick wanna tell us about some arguments: |
| |
| Webmurder: |
Just
a littel presentation of you and your great band. |
| |
|
| Pat: |
Well my name
is Patrick Savelkoul (a.k.a. Pat), vocalist from the Dutch
band Callenish Circle. For more info on the band just have
a look at our official website: www.callenish-circle.com |
| |
|
| Webmurder: |
Firs
of all, we wanna know why you have interrupted your European
tour. You told me something before this interview, but we
want that you explain us better what has happened through
you and Metallysee . If a band like you, that seems to love
live dimension, shows, audience and probably use it to spread
his music anywhere, decided to break a tour something bad
and big happened. Isn’t it? |
| |
|
| Pat: |
Well basically
the problem was that not enough people showed up in the
2nd week at the German shows… first of all there were
9 bands on the billing, 3 tour busses on the road and a
big roadcrew involved. So the costing (= costs made each
day) was pretty high. First week in the UK and the Benelux
everything was cool because the clubs paid guarantee-payments
so there was no risk for the touragency. But when we arrived
in Germany (here the clubs had %-deals so the more people
come to the show the more you get paid and the other way
around) most shows were really poorly visited (between 150-350/400)
while the tour needed at least 550 people every day to only
break-even. So on these shows the tour made a loss and even
though the 3 support-bands paid a lot of money on toursupport
the loss became bigger and bigger each day. So the rumour-machine
started that the tour was going to be cancelled and stuff
like that. Agent Steel already left the tour halfway in
Germany cause they didn’t get paid anymore. Several
other things happened and in Austria they told us that the
first 3 bands were going to be send home after the show
in Italy. So they still wanted us to play the Swiss and
the Italian shows. Because we were really fed up with how
things were going at the tour we refused to play the last
2 shows and decided to go home right away. I mean we expected
a lot from this tour, our recordlabel paid a lot of toursupport
and we invested a lot of our time and energy on preparation
so we were really disappointed about the whole situation.
That’s basically the whole story… |
| |
|
| Webmurder: |
Why
God Dethroned came with you, and why Carnal Forge not even
started the BBMOE tour. |
| |
|
| Pat: |
Even though
God Dethroned wasn’t forced to leave the tour they
also decided to go home 'cause they were also really disappointed
about how things were going. Occult took over their place
in the bus 'cause we didn’t want to stay anymore.
Carnal Forge didn’t even start on the tour because
they didn’t want to rotate with the 2 other support-bands
on the billing (Occult and Callenish Circle). At least that’s
the story I heard… don’t know if it’s
the truth though. So Prospect was added to the bill as opening
band. |
| |
|
| Webmurder: |
Let’s
talk about your latest album, “MPYP”. It’s
just a great work, a great Swedish Death metal product.
But you are from Holland….how’s happened it?
He he he... |
| |
|
| Pat: |
First of all
I would like to say that Callenish Circle is not a plain
melodic Death Metal-band cause we use a lot more Thrashy
elements in our music than your ordinary Gothenburg-band.
Ofcourse we also have a melodic approach in our sound and
YES we are from Holland… who claims that only Swedish
bands are allowed to play melodic music anyway??? Personally
I don’t even like most typical melodic Swedish bands
and I definitely think we have a sound on our own. Without
pretending we play something completely original whatsoever.
We just play the music we like ourselves… we always
did and we will keep on doing that in the future. |
| |
|
| Webmurder: |
How
do you define it? I’m used to compare “MP//YP”
with other works from other bands, like “Slaughter
of the Soul”, “Made me do it” or “Silent
Night Fever”…….are you agree with me? |
| |
|
| Pat: |
I agree with
you on Slaughter of the Soul cause MP//YP has the same intensity
in the songs but I definitely don’t agree on the other
two. The Haunted sounds way more Thrash (Slayer)-oriented
than Callenish Circle and to be honest I haven’t even
heard the Silent Night Fever-album… nor the other
people in the band have heard that record I guess so any
comparison with Dimension Zero is out of question. |
| |
|
| Webmurder: |
Are
you happy about how’s going “MP//YP”….speaking
about sales, success on reviews and live responses? |
| |
|
| Pat: |
Definitely
yes… even though I don’t have a complete overview
on the sales yet I heard that it’s selling much better
than the Flesh_Power_Dominion-album. The reviews on MP//YP
were simply overwhelming and we did over 150 interviews
in the press to support this album. I guess you have seen
our ugly faces in the media a lot lately…hahahaha.
The response on our live-shows has been pretty good as well
but ofcourse Callenish Circle is not a newcomer band anymore
when it comes to live-shows. Up till now we played between
150-200 shows in our history so we have some experience
by now I guess… ;o) |
| |
|
| Webmurder: |
With
“MP//YP” you kept your promise: “ Violence,
High speed and no compromise! ”Great!!
You are at the 2nd adventure in MBlade Records, and you’ve
signed for other two Albums. Right?
So………are you, like band, happy about this?
Are you satisfied about how M-Blade goes on towards you? |
| |
|
| Pat: |
If I make
a promise then I make sure it happens you know… no
fucking compromise in Callenish Circle!!! If you have a
look at our musical development you will notice that we
started out as a rather Doomy Death Metal-band and with
each new album during the years we became better musicians
and we developed our sound more and more into the extreme.
Most bands do it the other way around… they start
really extreme and with each new album they go softer. Anyway
we are really happy about the cooperation with our recordlabel
Metal Blade Records so far. They do a lot for us you know…
excellent promotion and a good distribution worldwide. Besides
they support us when we go on the road. What can you wish
for more? |
| |
|
| Webmurder: |
In
these special moments, that “Heavy Metal” in
all his kinds is living. In that 2nd boom age for our favourite
kinds of music. How do you see European and American scene? |
| |
|
| Pat: |
Personally
I like the European scene and bands more than the American
ones. Just a matter of taste I guess but ofcourse there
are also plenty killer American acts around! Don’t
get me wrong on that. |
| |
|
| Webmurder: |
What
will you say to an Italian band who wanna grow up and try
to became a great band like Callenish Circle? |
| |
|
| Pat: |
Never give
up! Keep on working on your ideals and most important of
all… play the music that you like yourself and not
because it’s a trend or because other people think
it’s cool. Also play the music from the heart and
soul and not from your mind. Guess that’s basically
it… |
| |
|
| Webmurder: |
Everybody
knows about your roots, that were Death….Pestilence….or
Paradise Lost!!
But now……what are you listening to? |
| |
|
| Pat: |
Well I listen
to a wide broad of bands in the metalgenre… mostly
the older bands at the moment. I am a little bit bored with
all these new bands offering nothing really exciting so
at the moment I am listening to some older stuff. Besides
I listen to other musicgenres as well… like trance
and clubmusic… just to have some variation you know.
As you might know I work full-time at the Dutch recordlabel
Karmageddon Media (formerly known as Hammerheart Records)
so I already listen to metalmusic the whole day in the office.
So when I am at home I also listen some other stuff, just
so I won’t get bored… |
| |
|
| Webmurder: |
Which
was your first approach to music when you were a boy? And
which with extreme music? |
| |
|
| Pat: |
Mmmhhhh…
let me think… can’t really remember but my dad
used to play in band as well. He was the bassplayer of a
band called “Highlight”. They played some kind
of country-rock and they were pretty successful back then
(mid 70’ies it was). They even had a recording deal
at major label EMI and they scored a few hits that reached
the top-10 in the charts in several European countries.
In a couple of countries they even landed on the first position…
no bullshit here… hehehe… :o) So they were
also often to be seen on TV back then and you can easily
say my old man had a commercially more successful career
than I have. They used to live from their music as well.
So as a very young kid I already got in touch with music
though my father’s band. First time I listened to
metal/hardrock was at a friend of my mom… she had
LP’s from bands like Van Halen and AC/DC and she
recorded them for me on cassette. From that day on I was
lost for normal music I guess and I started buying my
own metal/hardrock LPs from bands like Iron Maiden and
AC/DC. After that I discovered Thrash bands like Testament,
Nuclear Assault and Exodus. Shortly after I noticed the
Leprosy-album (Death) and got interested in extreme Death
Metal with Entombed, Dismember, Death, Obituary…
you know the oldschool Death Metal bands. I never was
really into the Black Metal-scene even though there are
a few cool bands that I like in that genre as well.
|
| |
|
| Webmurder: |
Could
you tell to us something about your instruments? Many of
our readers are musicians, and they need to know about your
material and if you are under contract with some of the
instrument production houses! |
| |
|
| Pat: |
Difficult
question since I just the vocalist… well let’s
give it a try… our guitarist Ron and Muuk are playing
on Mesa Boogie amps and Marshall cabinets. Gavin (our drummer)
is playing a Yamaha Stage Custom kit. Don’t know exactly
about Rocco’s gear though for the bass. Personally
I am using a Sennheiser wireless microphone system…
I really hate the cables in a microphone cause it limits
me too much when I am on stage. I want to thrash around
like a madman when I am on stage… :o) |
| |
|
| Webmurder: |
Now
I’m finishing and I leave you with a simple question:
“How do you pass your free time?”
An after you’ve got your free time where you can say
something to our readers!
Bye Pat, and thanks a lot for your time, hoping to see you
in Italy as soon as possible! |
| |
|
| Pat: |
Hahahaha…
well first of all I hardly have any free time. As I said
I have a more than full-time job as promotion-manager
at Karmageddon Media. Besides I am the vocalist in Callenish
Circle but I also take care of the band’s management
and bookings. So that also takes a lot of my time. Furthermore
I have a girlfriend and try to have some kind of social
life too… so as you can see I am not bored that
fast. Well I like to go out in the weekends, sometimes
to a pub (Rocco has his own metalpub) and I often go to
the VersuZ-club in Belgium where they play all kinds of
house-music ‘till early in the morning. Sometimes
I go to the movies with my girlfriend or we just visit
some friends. Pretty boring isn’t it? :o)
Well unfortunately we didn’t make it to Italy with
this tour but I promise we will be back one day to thrash
the fuck out of everybody and create a whirlwind on stage.
For more info and latest news keep an eye on our website:
www.callenish-circle.com
THRASH TILL
DEATH!!!
Cheerz, Pat on behalf of Callenish Circle.
|
By
Webmurder .
|
|
Indietro
|
