Transcript of an interview with Mark Kelson from THE ETERNAL - 3/04/19. Full article here. MAL-
Right, on the line Mark Kelson from THE ETERNAL. Mark, thanks for joining me. MARK- My pleasure man. MAL- Now formed in about what 02/03? Give us the abbreviated history. MARK- I think it was late 02 into sort of start of 03 so we're, we're just entering our 16th year of existence, the end the 15 year anniversary of our first album in October. MAL- What sort of memories do you carry from those days? MARK- Oh, it was a fantastic time. I mean, I'd been playing in another Australian band, CRYPTAL DARKNESS up to that point where I decided to go out and sort of do my, my own band after feeling that things were sort of stagnant there. You know, sent some demos around, and you know, we, we sort of got a record deal pretty quick with Firebox records in Finland. And, you know, before I know it we had an album out overseas, we were doing our first European tour, my first European tour at the time as well. So it was just a really amazing time those early years of the band, you know, where we after 8 years of sort of trudging away in another band here to sort of believe in my own vision and then kind of get a bit of recognition for that. That was, that was a really nice time, you know, seeing the world for the first time and, and of course, in the years since playing with a lot of our favorite bands. So, you know, it's been a really long but good time. MAL- A European tour pretty early on that must have been a little bit daunting. MARK- Yes, I was in my late 20s around the time so it was a, you know, it's something I always wanted to do and to actually get to finally do it and then you know, I think we did it for the for the next two albums as well. So just kind of just kept us going there for a while and, of course, it was obviously other tours and things that that that first run with the first three albums, were kind of sort of coming relatively quickly it was a fairly (?) time for 'Sleep Of Reason', our second album was really well received. And now obviously we as we were talking about before we ended up doing the Australian 'Ghost Reveries' OPETH tour I believe it was, which was you know, our first big tour. Oh, no, it was our second. Within a week before that we we've done a tour with H.I.M. as well. So within a weeks period of sort of doing club stuff and then all of a sudden we had our first big supports on when the second album had just come out. So that was a really great experience. Always remember that. Typically an OPETH tour is a really positive experience, they were really great guys and you know, they knew we were a bit fresh to that kind of other thing so it was it was really, you know, enjoyable was really enjoyable time. MAL- I tell you what, if you're going to, you know, look back in time and pick an OPETH to to be on I reckon that would be the one MARK- It was it was magic really was it was just they were great. We were in pretty good form, good lineup and now we've had a bit of experience at that point. You know, and yeah, it was a was a great tour, great tour to be on that one it was it was definitely and I look back at around that time, you know being on our sixth album now that was around out second album and it was just a really sort of focused, you know, good time for us and, you know, we continue to this day to get some some pretty good stuff happening. Yeah, it really helps solidify, I guess, that I was on the right path with this thing that I'm doing. MAL- Right, the sixth album, as you mentioned, 'Waiting For The Endless Dawn', tell us about this. MARK- Oh, well. It's been five years since our other album which is 'When The Circle Of Light Begins To Fade' , we like our long song titles. But yeah, so it has been 2013 with the last album was kind of a bit of a difficult time for the band. We, you know, we didn't have a deal at that point. And, you know, it was really sort of hard to get that album to the international market. Sort of after the third album 'Kartika', we sort of took a few gambles I guess, and some things sort of, were a bit a bit of a struggle there for two albums. So, you know, with waiting, it was kind of like a, 'Fuck it' situation, it was just like, you know, I'm going to just, you know, not going to write any pretenses or anything or any outside influence, I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna write a 20 minute song to start the record, and that's the way it's going to be. And so, you know, I just wrote these really just sort of epic really heavy things, you know, just kind of really look back at our past and just just, you know, try to focus my vision and we have nothing to lose everything to gain I guess at that point. And I just, I just wanted to sort of try a slightly different approach, a bit more progressive, a bit more doomy, you know, just kind of go down there. So it took about three years to make that album. I'm an engineer and producer. So it was all done at my studio which is very convenient for us. Obviously, we didn't have a deal, we didn't have any money. So that was pretty much a rebuild of the band at that point, I guess. We were down to three members when we started the record, And we gained a second guitarist Ricky from DREADNAUGHT. Most Australian people know DREADNAUGHT. He joined the band sort of early on in the recording process and you know, that was a huge boost to me and to have someone's creative and talented team involved in the songwriting really gave me a massive lift and and had a songwriting partner probably for the first time so I think it really comes to the overall you know, complexity and also just how good the album came out because it was a really sort of team effort between me and Richie there. Five albums in when you've been writing everything yourself, it is just kind of great to have another season kind of musician get involved, I guess. MAL- Let's get back to that 20 minute song. I mean, I saw the video, let's not call it a video, let's call it a movie for for 'The Wound' and you know, I loaded it up on YouTube as, you know, we all do. And it's loading up and I see the time and I'm thinking, Hmm, that's ambitious. But yeah, it flows really well and really holds your attention. But yeah 20 minutes, holy crap. Yeah, I mean we're not the first band to write a 20 minute song but I guess another idea when we were tracking the album was the you know, would be great to put some kind of being that the sound was definitely more cinematic than probably the last couple of albums anyway and bit more ambitious in it's content. I mean, due to the, you know, sort of free studio time at my studio.. MAL- That helps, doesn't it? MARK- Yeah, it really does. And yeah, so so we need to get a film made but obviously getting a film made when you've got no deal at the time when we started the record or budgets we basically, I don't know, some film maker from Portugal contacted me, he was interested. And I was like, 'Well, hey mate, you know, we've got really minimal budget, but we've got this 20 minute song I'd like to make a film for'. And so, MAL- And I'd like it by Thursday. MARK- Well actually took about a year to make on a very small budget, and to his credit, he did a great job, you know, and it was just, it was just his interpretation of the song and that's kind of what I like because it gives it a totally different spin than, you know, if I had sat there and micro directed the video as well or something, right, so, so you know, it came and of course it was made in Europe, so it had a different feel to it. So just a bit different twist to the whole thing. And so we tried to present it a bit like a film. Now, of course, it's not a million dollar budget film production, but you know I still think it sort of encapsulates, that feeling for the song. and, you know, it's just quite ambitious, the whole the whole thing is being ambitious this return to form I guess and, you know, of course, then we signed to Inverse Records during the process of recording because I've known some of the guys and I was like 'Hey guys you gotta release this stuff for me', and they were like 'We'll think about it', and then eventually they signed us on and and then you know as it got released we really surprised by the response from the media which is probably being you know, usually six albums in a band is like oh yeah your best is behind you but I feel like we got the opposite on that record we got well, you know, we a lot of albums, you know, top 10 albums of the year and some people's Album of the Year and it was just I was a bit overwhelmed actually because because we started with nothing with no pretenses and to have it come out in the world and be well received was nice. MAL- Tell us how Martin Powell became involved. MARK- Yeah, so Martin Powell, for those who don't know is the violin/keyboard player for MY DYING BRIDE and CRADLE OF FILTH. But, Martin and myself go way back to the 90s when he'd just left MY DYING BRIDE. He'd actually come in and done some violins and keyboards, we'd flown him down to Australia for my other band, CRYPTAL DARKNESS, and he'd done some stuff with us. We became really good friends out of that so and also for a brief period I was in a band in the UK called ALTERNATIVE FOUR with Duncan Patterson who used to be in ANATHEMA and he'd taken Martin on as the keyboard player as well, so you know i've done some touring with Martin and some previous recording and so on our previous, Martin contributed the keyboard and so when it came to the new album was like 'Well hey man, you know, are you still on board you want to do some stuff?' and he did so you know we're probably friends first and foremost but he's contributions to the music and he has such a distinctive sound and it's just given the music something really unique and special as well i can't under sell his contribution to the final product particularly with the title track 'Waiting For The Endless Dawn', which is a sort of atmospheric piece at the end of the record, which was predominantly composed by Martin as well. MAL- Okay, so you've been touring Australia, albeit very slowly. This is culminating in the gig at Enigma Bar here in Adelaide this Saturday night with VOROS and OATH OF DAMNATION. It's going to be a hell of a night. Tell us about this. MARK- Well, it's our first return to Adelaide in God, must be 10 years to be pretty realistic about it. Yeah, it's been quite a while since I've been like, and yeah, this has been slow because we're sort of just been after not, sort of getting out regularly gigging for a few years, we just want to put out feelers out and sort of test the waters again. So look, I have not played with either of these bands before but I'm really excited about the lineup. We're excited about returning to Adelaide and there's some great bands in Adelaide so it should be, hopefully, an enjoyable night for everyone in Adelaide. I know there is another big festival a few weeks on. But yeah, hopefully we get some people out to enjoy kind of night of pretty dark music. MAL- Sounds good. How's the tour been going? MARK- Good. When we finished the record, we also, our drummer of 13 years parted ways just due to family reasons. So big part of testing the waters was to get our new drummer out playing with us. So you know, we've had some ups and downs, you know, definitely some teething problems, but, uh, I think it will really came together at the Melbourne show, which was my last kind of main show of the tour. And yeah, so that was a really great night for us. And, you know, I mean, we were playing an extremely long set that night, we're doing an hour and half, full light show and all this kind of stuff. So, yeah, that was a bit of a highlight, you know, after sort of, you know, having to replace a long term member and, you know, Ando coming in and just sort of having to sort of feel his way through these 20 minute songs and whatnot. So it's been really fun so far. And it's going to be really sort of fun to wrap it up in Adelaide this weekend. And we can move on to the next stage of things here. MAL- What happens after here? MARK- Well, we've already started writing a new record got about 50 minutes of music to be honest at the moment. So we've been working really hard. I mean, all our downtime. I know it's kind of strange considering we only released an album in August, but that was finished six months before but we'll be doing that and we do currently have one show booked in Europe and a couple other tentative ones in August. So it's looking like will be heading to Europe in August and coming back to record a new record. MAL- Mark from THE ETERNAL. Fantastic talking to you. Look forward to seeing you guys in action Saturday night at Enigma with VOROS and OATH OF DAMNATION. Thanks for taking the time to talk to me today. MARK- My pleasure Mal. I look forward to seeing on the weekend. Comments are closed.
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AuthorMetalhead who hates bad parking. |