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Kamelot from Florida released one of the better symphonic albums last year. "Siege Perilous" is defenitly a worty follow up to the previous albums "Eternity" and "Dominion". Behind the microphone is nowadays the former Conception vocalist, Roy Khan with his charismatic voice. Thomas Youngbllod, guitars and origianl member, called me to have a little chat. |
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| Mark: |
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Since the first album, you’ve had some lineup changes. Why? |
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| Thomas: |
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I guess I’ll use the old cliché "it was strictly business, nothing personal". We had to grow musically, otherwise we wouldn’t be honest neither to ourselves or the fans. Mark and Richard din’t want to/wasn’t able to tour because of their jobs, and we really wanted to get out and play. |
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| Mark: |
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So that was the main reason? |
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| Thomas: |
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Yes. Sure, there were other problems. For example Rich said that it was he who should, and could, write the bands lyrics. That’s silly. The whole band had ideas and as you may npotice on the album everybody has helped with with the lyrics. |
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| Mark: |
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What is Mark and Richard up to today? |
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| Thomas: |
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They work. It’s actually kinda ironic. The reason that Richard didn’t wanna tour was because of his job, but a few weeks ago he got fired, haha! (a certain malicoius pleasure in his laugh). I’m still good friend with Mark. Actually, we’re about to do a project together which will be released some time next year (-99). |
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| Mark: |
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How did you find the new members? |
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| Thomas: |
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Me and Glen strolled around in an area here in Florida where a lot of clubs take their place, in search of a drummer. When we saw Casey play, we knew directly that he was the one for us. We talked to him, he came on audition and eveyrthing felt right. |
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| Mark: |
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What sort of band was it that he played in before? |
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| Thomas: |
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It was a cover band. They did everything from Rolling Stones to Aqua. There are an infinite amount of band which plays stuff like that, because it’s money in it. Casey is a fan of bands such as Queen and Fates Warning so he’s quite happy now when he gets to play with double bass drums, haha. When it comes to the singer, we auditioned quite a lot. We never went out officially though, that we were looking for a singer so there were never any famous vocalist who tried out. On the other hand, we weren’t looking for a famous one either. One day, I heard that Conception had split up. With the thought in mind that Roy is one of my favourite singers I eventually managed to get a hold of him by phone. Three weeks later he was in Florida recording the album. |
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| Mark: |
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Is he a member of the band or just a guest? |
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| Thomas: |
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From the bgeinning the idea was just that he would record the album, but the chemistry between us was great. He really likes the music so now he’s a real member of the band. |
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| Mark: |
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How will you deal with the rehearsals? |
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| Thomas: |
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I’ll have to go to Norway a few times each year and he’ll go to Florida sometimes. Mark came down two weeks before the recording so Roy will either way be a bigger part of it than Mark was. I will fly to Norway in March and finish a grat part of the next album with Khan. We’ll problably start recording some time in May or June. |
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| Mark: |
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What do you know about the split-up of Conception? |
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| Thomas: |
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It was a question about which direction the music should go, that is obvious on "Flow". When I was in Germnay latest, I met Toreand it seemed like his passio for meatl was dead. That’s all I know. |
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| Mark: |
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At the end of the summer, beginning of the autumn you were I Europe and apled live for the first time. How was it and how would you like to compare the european audience to the northamerican? |
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| Thomas: |
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You europeans are much more entusiastic of what we do. Both the european and northamerican fans was fantastic and I can hardly wait to get to tour again. |
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| Mark: |
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In the beginning of your career there were many who compared you with Crimson Glory. Do you think that is a advantage or disadvantage? |
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| Thomas: |
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Defenitly an advantage. On our first album you could hear influences from their two first albums, but I got kinda tired of those who still compared us to them on "Dominion". The only thing that is exactly alike sounding is Mark and Midnights voices. |
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| Mark: |
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You know what happened to Midnight? |
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| Thomas: |
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He lives in Texas and has quite the music business. I’m friend with Ben Jackson (rhythm guitar in Crimson Glory) och he has told me that Midnight has some problems which make him hard to work with. |
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| Mark: |
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Name three inspirations? |
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| Thomas: |
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Life itself, our fans and my own need to create. |
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| Mark: |
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Three favourite albums? |
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| Thomas: |
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Maidens’ "Peace of mind", Malmsteens "Rising Force" and "Operation Mindcrime" by Queensrÿche. |
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| Mark: |
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Your three latest album purchases? |
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| Thomas: |
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Strunz and Farah, The Soundtrack to "The Rock" and an album by Rammstein. |
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 Comments, remarks or ideas? Please mail us. |
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