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MINDFIELD
Something different this way comes..
By Adrian ‘The Energizer’ Bromley
You don’t get much more expressive than German
act Mindfield when it comes to writing songs, harmonies and guitar
riffs. The band’s debut disc for predominantly hardcore/noisecore
label Lifeforce Records, titled Be-Low, is a powerful display of
musicianship that showcases just how hooky choruses and metal should
be matched up.
A metal band on a hardcore label? Yes, it is quite odd, but the
world of rock ’n’ roll has always been about taking chances.
Both parties couldn’t be happier with the way things are going.
Mindfield bassist Phil Akato got in touch with UNRESTRAINED! via
e-mail to discuss the new album, the German metal scene, and what
plans they have for 2003.
UNRESTRAINED!: Tell me about the recording process for the
record.
PHILIP AKATO: We followed a kind of double-edged musical
strategy writing Be-Low. On the one hand we knew that we wanted
the stuff to be as catchy as possible; therefore we really took
our time to arrange the songs. We thought out anything that disturbed
the flow of every single song. On the other hand we wanted to keep
a certain heaviness and power within the music. For us there was
no doubt that Andy Classen had to be our producer once again and
because of his high-class work he is becoming better known in Europe
right now. We [singer/keyboardist Danny Kabus and guitarists Marc
Zirnsak and Rainer Sickler] enjoyed a few weeks of intense recording
sessions, and during that tine we tried to create a certain passionate
atmosphere on the record. Every single song, both lyrically and
musically, could also be seen as some kind of emotional picture.
That was one of our main goals. It really is up to the listener
to determine if we did just that, but in our minds we did very well.
UNRESTRAINED!: When you go in to make a new album, do you
ever think about past works or not? Is it hard to come up with new
ideals/paths to follow?
PHILIP AKATO: It’s not very hard for us to get over
past ideas. After you played a bunch of even really strong songs
thousands of times, it’s great to move on and start up another
chapter. The hardest thing about new material is to please ourselves
and get the perfect compromise together. We are all completely different
individuals with very different ideas and musical backgrounds. Finding
the perfect combinations is taking most of our creative time. There
are no certain paths we chose to follow; we do that more by instinct.
UNRESTRAINED!: Tell me about the influences of the band. Can
you still hear them in the music?
PHILIP AKATO: The musical influences that made us get the
band together back in 1994 are hardly to be recognised within our
sound of today. We started up as a melodic death metal band in the
vein of Edge of Sanity, early Amorphis and stuff like that. That’s
the music most of us grew up with. We, as well as our influences,
slightly changed. We do like bands like Paradise Lost, Sentenced,
Fields of the Nephilim or Pink Floyd, and I am not the only one
in the band who really enjoyed the last few Katatonia or Anathema
albums…but I don’t think we are directly inspired by those
bands.
UNRESTRAINED!: There is a lot of variety in the music. Was
that something you wanted to make sure Mindfield consisted of from
the get-go or did the band just evolve that way?
PHILIP AKATO: We just evolved. As I said it is always hard
to bring our ideas together and make sure every one of us is completely
satisfied with the whole music. That may be a source of variety.
We also wanted to keep it interesting for ourselves. There are a
lot of cool records out there that tend to get boring after one
has played them for a while. We’ve always tried to avoid that
for our music. It’s not only important that we like to play
the songs thousands of times after they are finished; we ourselves
must be able to enjoy listening to them at least twice as often
without getting bored. With Be-Low that’s the case so far.
UNRESTRAINED!: I love the song "DESTINATION 666."
What are your favourite tracks? Are there certain songs you think
best represent the band's sound?
PHILIP AKATO: My favourites at the moment are "Made To
Measure," "Desperate," "Dead End Love,"
and "Below," but that’s different if you ask someone
else in the band. Our sound is somewhere between those songs, I
guess. "Dead End Love" has got everything we do in just
one song—first of all a stunning melody and chorus, a little
passion, a little melancholy, some power and also anger. I think
it’s a very good song to represent what Mindfield is all about.
UNRESTRAINED!: Tell me about the German hard rock/metal scene.
Lately there has been a lot of great bands coming from there. Where
do you guys fit in?
PHILIP AKATO: Over here in Germany thrash and death metal
are becoming bigger again within the underground. Black metal is
not as big as it was two or three years ago. I don’t know if
there’s a genre of bands we perfectly fit into. The scene is
strong and vivid but also very spread all across Germany. When it
comes to music like ours the whole scene seems to be influenced
by Scandinavian bands like In Flames, Sentenced or even H.I.M.
UNRESTRAINED!: Mindfield is a much different band than the
types of band on the Lifeforce roster (a lot of hardcore/noisecore)—not
to say that is a bad thing—but do you feel a bit different
being the black sheep, so to say? How did you hook up with Lifeforce?
PHILIP AKATO: We hooked up with them because they really
liked the album and had a very good offer for us. To us it doesn’t
matter what kind of genre Lifeforce usually stood/stands for in
past and future. All the Lifeforce bands I have heard so far contain
a variety of styles like we do. The label has done a great job for
Be-Low and there is nothing to complain about. I think they always
did high-quality releases. Therefore it’s an honour and good
opportunity for us being part of that right now.
UNRESTRAINED!: Having done this for some time now, what keeps
you focused and interested in making music after all these years?
PHILIP AKATO: It’s the music itself. Writing as well as
playing our own music always gets us a new rush of adrenaline again
and again. It’s still extremely exciting and a damn great joy
to evolve and express our creativity through the music.
UNRESTRAINED!: What is next for Mindfield? Plans for 2003?
PHILIP AKATO: The record has been out for while now and we’ve
received good responses. We’ll see what we can do to promote
the album by touring as much as possible. Everyone should visit
our homepage www.mindfield-webhq.de
to keep up with our latest news and tour dates.
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