Mail-intervju - Oddleif Stensland, Communic So, what's going on in the world of Communic for the moment? Hi there neighbor! Well, these days are totally into promoting our new album that is up for release February 21st. Been in Germany at the Nuclear Blast HQ and done loads of phone interviews. Other than that we are preparing for our debut gig that will happen in Denmark together with Evergrey and Mercenary February 26th at Aalborg Rock Festival. Introduce the band and tell us how you all got started! Most people think that we are coming from out of nowhere, but we have actually been around for over 10 years, trying to get our music reckoned through different bands during the past ten years. Pushing demos and stuff through the underground and other sources, but as for COMMUNIC - its all fairly new born. The thing is that I wanted to approach it all from a different angle this time, and it turned out to be the right way for us. As I said, we had tried the "hard way", through the underground and through numerous concerts in our local area, but it didn't do it for us. It didn't get us anywhere... We knew that we had some cool songs, and wanted to make an as professional demo as possible (way to expensive), with as good production as possible, that really would show the potential in our band and material. The Idea was to NOT send the demo out to all and everyone, so we only printed 100 copies, keeping a low profile, and was aiming to get the band signed to a decent management as the first task, and it was found in the Danish based management Intromental soon after the demo was done. We had already been in contact with Nuclear Blast that really liked the demo, but together with Intromental we started to work more directly towards different labels that we had on our list, to get the band signed. Also at the same time, one of the demos found its way to RockHard magazine that put up it as the "demo of the month" in a review, and one of the songs ended up on a Heavy Oder Was magazine sampler, and I guess a few labels recognized this and kept an eye out for us, and after just a few months after the demo was recorded, we had a few interested parties that wanted to work with us, and the final decision landed on Nuclear Blast, and I couldn't be more happy right now. They have done a great job for us already, and we are a fairly new and young band on this label - but it´s well known that they put a lot of efforts into promotion of their bands, and also putting bands out on tour, so its like a dream come true to have our debut album ready for the masses right now. Please tell us about the new album! When did you start writing it, any fun stories from the recording sessions etc? Most of the songs are new, created within the last two years, but some bits and pieces in here are going longer back in time. The album was produced by Jacob Hansen and recorded in his studio in Denmark, in a place in the middle of nowhere called Ribe. The little town was OK, but the studio was placed a bit outside of everything and nothing really going on. I was really looking forward to have the production done with Jacob Hansen. Up front I did quite some research on some of his previous work trying to figure out if this was the right choice for us, and in the end I really felt that he had something to offer to our kind of music and to help us getting THE sound that would pay respect to the songs. We had never been in other than some minor local studios when we had done previous stuff, so it was quite exiting. I knew what sound I was after and I think we came pretty damn close. Maybe Jacob is into more extreme music, but he has a good ear, and was easy to work with, and did whatever he could to meet our criteria's, ideas and crazy stuff that we made him suffer for. The studio was placed in an old farm or something and there was a dog that took a crap on our doorstep almost every morning, and the fact that Erik stepped in it more than once was some of the most funny "shit" happening in this place... hehe. Let´s go through song by song! Tell us the basic idea behind them, who wrote it etc? I wrote all music and the lyrics for this album. These songs are quite personal to me and are quite hard to explain, because I want people to find their own meaning to them, so its not written in clear words!. A song like "They feed on our fear" is based on some experiences I had as a child. "Ocean Bed" is about my fascination for the ocean, and the powers that it withholds. "The distance" is also a story from my life, and I find myself in the other lyrics as well, but people will have to find their own interpretations of this, and its probably not what I have in mind... Well, its not a happy album - I can tell you that, and there is no happy ending... I don't have any rules when it comes to the lyrics or the music, but everything that affects me in the daily situations may end up as a lyric inspiration or something. Some of it comes to me as personal issues and stuff that irritates me in the daily life. Some inputs comes to me from watching the news and issues in the world today, and are the news actually telling us the truth??? The world is not a happy place to be these day, the complexity of this universe and how small we are as humans are in the total picture. A bit of modern technology stuff is always interesting and puts a special twist to it. There are no concept that are binding the songs entirely together, so it is not a concept album. They are more like small stories in their own, but there is a red tread to be found that are binding the songs together in some way. What was it like getting signed to such a major label as Nuclear Blast? Its feels totally amazing. Just one year ago we made our first demo, then signed the management deal, and also worked out this deal with Nuclear Blast. It was loads of hard work to finish up the album, but I couldn't be more happy right now. A dream come true. Please tell us about the artwork for the album! The artwork is made by Matias Norén at Progart I really like it and it match our music and the theme in some way. The artwork is more or less as the lyrics. Open for interpretations, and I guess that when people have read the lyrics, heard the music and seen the video, some clues will be laid to the puzzle... I believe you recently shot a video. What was that like? The video was directed by LowLife Media, that also has made videos for bands like Exodus and Primal Fear and many more, so it was as cool experience and they were very professional. I think the result turned out really good. The video is part of the promotion, as I see it. It is online for download, and will probably be shown on some tv stations as well. Some dvd compilations will include the video as well I think the video is a good thing to do these days. I don't think it will have a big issue on where the future is taking us, but it was a cool thing to do, and to promote the album. We had to make an edit version of the title track "Conspiracy In Mind", down to 5 minutes, but the complete version of the song is on the album, and the limited edition of the cd will hold the video as well I think. When did you start singing and what other bands have you been involved with? I formed my first band Clairvoya back in 1994, I played guitar, but we didn't manage to find a vocalist in our area, so it ended up with me doing the vocals. It was terrible, but it has developed to the better over the years, probably. After this I had another project of mine called Ingermanland. It was put to rest when I joined Scariot, and we released an album through FaceFront Records in 2003. I started Communic as a side project while I was In Scariot, and it was also here I first met up with Tor Atle. I see Communic as an continuing of both Clairvoya and Ingermanland, since I made, and still make the music. Off course we have grown to be better musicians and also learned each other better personally - especially the last 2 years while working on Communic. What singers have influenced you the most over the years? My favorite vocalist is Roy Kahn in Kamelot (former Conception) & King Diamond has also been one of my favorites. I´m more influenced by the bands and not only the vocalist. I merely have my interest in the prog and metal from when the 80`s turned into 90`s like Fates Warning, Psychotic Waltz, Megadeth, Testament, Death and so on. Im also a huge fan of Arjen Lucassen and his work. My guess is that the combinations of styles that you'll find in the music and my vocals is a mix of all this. What can we expect from Communic in 2005? The nearest future will be used to promote our new album. Then there will be a European tour starting up April 1st, together with Ensiferum and Graveworm that will last for 2 1/2 weeks, and we are also confirmed for the Rock Hard Festival this summer and its an honour to be able to play this gig. Then after the summer we will start to focus on the next album. We have nearly two songs ready by now already, and have loads of ideas for the rest of the album as well. If everything goes as I´m planning we will have our 2nd album ready sometime early 2006, but it depends on how much live jobs there will be supporting "Conspiracy in mind" and if we get time to do it. Only the future can tell. Any messages for old and new fans? As a final, I hope people will check out our album, as we think we have something to offer in the world of metal these days, and hopefully we can get out and play a lot LIVE... Communic - Official website
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