| 27/08/2002 |
| PARADISE LOST:
Interview with Greg Mackintosh
new album Symbol of Life - out 14.10 |
| by Dalia "Gryphon-spirit" Di Giacomo and Stefan "Absolut_evidence" Vogelaar |
24/08/2002 - Abtsgmünd (D) at SUMMER
BREEZE OPEN AIR- 
|
Greg Mackintosh and Dalia - pic taken by Stefan |
| WE ARE OLD FASHIONED ABOUT CERTAIN THINGS |
| Dalia: The first question is
"obviously" about your new upcoming so much by fans awaited album Symbol of
Life. Could you please
describe some of the new songs, because there are some rumours that some new songs are
Industrial oriented... Greg: I read that, i read that...., i wouldnt say that it's Industrial, it's ... big atmospheric.. it is hard to describe... it is like One Second album, but much more like that, much more Gothic in it, you know....very big sound in it. Industrial i dont know, i mean, there is a lot of effects on Nicks voice on it we didn't do before, maybe thats what they mean, but i dont know... Dalia: And the role and the sound of your guitar, would it be like Icon or more like Believe in Nothing? Greg: The rythm guitar, Aarons guitar, sounds a little bit more like Icon, my guitar a bit more..... i dont know, very effective , Gothic acoustic stuff and things like that, it's very different, every song is very different, so you know...... Dalia: Why have you chosen to make two new covers? Greg: Well, one of them was for a joke at first, the Small Town Boy thing, just messing around, it wasn't really meant to be serious, but, it turned out really good, its not to be on the album, but it turned out really good , it sounds so depressing but we covered 'Dead Can Dance' Xavier, its absolutely stony, me i love the song anyway but we always wanted to do it and never did it , so we did it for this record. Dalia: At the moment we know that the album will be released in October, but only in Scandinavian and German area like Germany, Swizerland, Austria, ...... do you have an idea when it will be released in other countries like Portugal and Great Britan? Greg: They all trying to release at the same time, we know it will be released in every country, but it dipends of each country's schedule, you know... , BMG England has other schedule times than Germany, so it meight be a week later or two weeks later so it would be around the same time... Dalia: Everybody is waiting for it.... Greg: I know.... even Jon Marks is (everybody's laughing) Dalia: The other big news of this year was the change of label.... Greg: Yeah.... Dalia: .....do you think that Gun is the right label for Paradise Lost? Greg: Well, i dont know what a right label is, these people release records, i think we are better on smaller labels, indie labels however, because thats what we started with and they understand, and with EMI we didnt realy understand how they worked, and they didnt really understand how we worked... you know... and it was difficult sometimes because we just couldnt collaborate with the EMI too well, maybe two people in the whole company understood what we are try to doing, but most of the people dont have any idea, so.... but the people of GUN, you know... i met them all and to me it seems that they are pretty all in to it .... it's hard to tell, but i think it could be good... i dont know, but it could be good Dalia: Time will say... Greg: ..they seem entusiastic, but all labels seem entusiastic at first, so...... Dalia: What's your first impression of the Summer Breeze festival and beeing here? Greg: Oh, we arrived about 20 minutes ago, i ate a jacked potato and coming here... it seems ok, this tent seems nice.... i havent seen more yet Abs: I think you will enjoy it....... Greg: I hope so, this sounds like full on metal what is on now... who is that? Dalia: End of Green on the Pain Stage... Greg: is that the stage we are playing on? Abs: No, the pain stage is the secondary stage....you are playing on the Main Stage.... Greg: Ah, i see Dalia: the last of the "obvious" questions...., what are your future projects about tours and so on... Greg: Well we are suppose to do some showcase things around the release of the album , so its like a kind of release party in different places, but we play at these release partys aswell so i think it will be past middle of october, but we have to release the album first, but we will start touring around after middle of October to wherever.... Abs: Do you come to Swizerland? Greg: No Abs: sh*t... Greg: (laughing) of course we will Abs: (dalia is laughing her a**e off) you will? Greg:Oh yeah.... definitely Dalia: And now to the "exciting" part...., is it true that one can recognize a Paradise Lost song from the scales and chords you are using, like the misolidian scale? Greg: Well maybe not from the first album , but from Gothic onwards right onto the last album i think its possible , because we write the "same" music since Gothic and we do it all in certain way, i dont know .... we dont try to, but this themes are running out that way... Dalia: Which are the venues you always like to play in? Greg: I like nice buildings, the one in Paris... l'Elysée -Monmartre, it is like an old opera... or one in Portugal, its like a big theater, ..... i walk around to have a look before we play a concert you know... and i like these buildings. Dalia:A question i have promised to ask you, if i could ever have the possibility,... do you like Venice? Greg: I've never been , my brother's been and i played two miles from it, it was the day Nick's Dad died, so we didn't go to Venice because of the thing happened, but it would be nice to go to Venice, .... my brother told me that it is fantastic Dalia: Dark music and atmosphere is influencing more and more the various Genres of Rock and Metal, do you like this trend or do you think that there are coming up too many rivals? Greg: It's weird, it seems that from the moment we did the Gothic album, all these bands started all over Europe with sound that imply that record, but a lot of these bands found their own way which is good, you know, like Tiamat or Gathering, they come out doing something like the Gothic album but then they did their own thing after that , and so it is good if you find your own style after, but with the first record everyone sounds like someone else. But i'm not too sure if i like the trend in it, because its not genuine.... these people will be someone else in too less time, i think its just big fake..... Dalia: Let's talk about your gear, why dont you use a wireless guitar? Greg: Oh, it's stupid , but we are old fashioned about certain things, .... Aaron decided to use a wireless system, cant remember well when, and it just fucked up and everything went wrong, and then we say ....'oh no!' and we are scared of wireless systems since then... i prefere a long lead i can fall over.... Abs: ... i remember a gig at London.... do you remember it? Greg: Oh yes i do! ....... Dalia: In the webpage of an other band i found this sentence: 'every strong idea generates a conical shadow in the world of light'.... Greg: ....yeah.....very deep... Dalia: ... but what could music generate in the phyisical world? Greg: I know what it does for me, i cant speak for everyone... and it is very individual... every kind of music gives different feelings to different people, and it dipends aswell from how you feel, sometimes you like to hear classical and an other time really heavy stuff, but music can affect .... it is in everyone of us... Dalia: Have u ever thought about side projects? Greg: Oh... kind of messed around, but not really anything, because whenever i try to do something on the side it will turn up Paradise Lost into anyway, and anything i try to do as a side project is not as good as Paradise Lost, so....but maybe in the future , who knows... if we get for a long time off at some point.... maybe, but at the moment i'm just thinking about our next..... Dalia: You are on the stage since more than ten years being one of most valuable and original guitarists on the scene. Are you satisfied with your professional career, or, if you could turn back time, would you change something? Greg: No, i think i'm pretty satisfied, because i think to look back on things is a horrible thing to have, i don't want to look back and think about things in the past. No i'm happy,..... i'm happy with what i've done, who can say what happens if i play guitar like in Draconian Times for ever and ever........ Dalia: So you would take the same decisions again ..... Greg: Yeah, because all means something and every decision leads to something, and if we think about a thing which in the past dont exist, what does the future looks like?..... i'm happy with the music i'm doing at the moment, so if we change the past it will change the now and the music i make .... Dalia: What do you think about Black Metal? Greg: I like the originators of Black Metal, i like a lot the earlier bands,..i like Bathory, the early stuff of them, the first three Bathory albums are great i think, i like the first two Darkthrone albums, kind of stuff like that, you know....... Dalia: Would you play in a Black Metal band? Theoretically spoken.... Greg: ah... yeah i would play in a band like Bathory, just for something to do, but it wouldn't be musical fullfilling to me, you know, it would be funny Dalia: I've read in an old English article that one of Paradise Lost was saying that usually fans can not find the right questions to put to the band, cannot find the right way to communicate with the band.....but shouldn't the band itself find the right way to communicate with the fans ? Greg: well, i cant remember that article, but i think it is refering to some press conference. Dalia: Symbol of Life has many meanings, one of them can be the ancient symbol of Ankh... Greg: hmmm.... when you see the lyrics you will understand what it means, it is very visible Dalia: Would you leave a message to your fans, in particular to the Weepers? Greg: I actually went on the message board some days ago, because we were recording all the time, and i finaly got the time, and it was interesting to read how the people think how Symbol Of Life would sound and these other people say ' dont discuss again' ! I think it's quiet amusing, i don't mess with this people because i think these guys are the best fans in the world and we have a great relationship with them , so its good! Dalia: And now my last question i'm usually doing to every band i interview....., it is called the Game of the Tower.... Greg: ... the Game of the Tower.... hmmm.... Dalia: There is a very high tower and on this tower there are three bands and u have to push down two of them saving just one.... for you Greg the three bands are: Vader, In Flames , Dark Tranquility... Greg: So i have to kick down two of them..... hmmm...... propably ...... i will save Dark Tranquility !....... Dalia: Thank you a lot Greg! |
Niederrohrdorf
- Switzerland