| Greger: |
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Where did you get the name MIND MASQUE? |
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| Jörg: |
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The band was called OPERA as the first line up came together; this
name had a very clear connection with the world of theatre. With
the name MIND MASQUE we stayed a bit in this world ("masque" is an
old theatre term). We all liked that combination of words, because
it sets certain images free. The mask, which has been designed
after an earring of our guitarist Ahmet, symbolises both our name
and the idea behind it, which is that in our musical genre exists
the possibility and the freedom to do unusual and experimental
things more than in other genres. Further, this mask has not only
been chosen for the album cover, but it is an integral part of our
logo and as such it will also be featured on further MIND MASQUE
album covers as our trademark. |
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| Greger: |
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Can you give me a short history about MIND MASQUE? |
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| Jörg: |
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The progressive metal band MIND MASQUE was founded under the name
of OPERA in Osnabrück, Germany in 1993. The first demo tape was
recorded in 1994. After some personal changes (only Daniel
Bergmann (keyb.) and Ahmet Arkin (git.) are left of the first line
up of the band) the band changed their name into MIND MASQUE in
1995. The line up since that year is Jörg Piron (vocals), Daniel
Bergmann (keyboards), Ahmet Arkin (guitars & vocals), Nils
Middelhauve (bass & vocals) and Gerd Szuplinski (drums). After
various shows in and out of Germany MIND MASQUE decided to record
a CD with their up-to-date material in 1997. From 1998 on, OMEGA
Records, Munich (Germany) take care of the worldwide distribution
of the MIND MASQUE debut album. In November 1998 MIND MASQUE
supported AVALON on their tour through Germany and Belgium. |
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| Greger: |
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How do you feel about your new album? |
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| Jörg: |
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Due to the fact that the material on that album is about three
years old by now, it is funny for us to speak about it as the
"new" album. We would like to present some new songs to the people
in the near future, but this is a matter of money. We have
developed both abilities and style and we would like to show. But
the album as such is well balanced and displays the state of the
band at that particular time (of recording) very well. In fact, we
feel very proud about it, because we produced and financed it all
by ourselves, which took us quite an effort, and I think, we
managed it quite well. |
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| Greger: |
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Tell me about your lyrics, do you have any messages with your
music? |
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| Jörg: |
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There is no overall message that is to be found in every song, but
each song tells a story, deals with a special item and sometimes
it's even a kind of message as for example in the song "Free your
mind". This song's lyrics are an appeal to think for yourself and
not to be absorbed by mass media. "The eye of Horus" deals with
ancient Egypt mythology, "Loss of identity" tries to describe the
effects of sects on somebody's life and "Rain in Utopia" is about
a broken relationship. A bit of fantasy ("The other side of
yesterday", "The day of understanding") and a bit of melancholy
("What is the world") have also their part in our lyrics. |
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| Greger: |
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Germany seems to be a big market for progressive metal. Do you
have any ideas why? |
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| Jörg: |
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Frankly, no. Germans are judged as being a bit formal and not
relaxed. We don't have an ever-present party attitude as in the
USA, for example. The audience's expectations of entertainment and
its quality are different here. Maybe that's because more
complicated music gets a chance at all. But this is all
speculation, I don't know whether there's a "real" reason.
Probably it's a matter of local taste. |
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| Greger: |
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How do you look at the progressive metal of today? |
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| Jörg: |
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Recently, it seems as if this genre really goes through a boom.
But I think that the term "progressive" becomes a bit distorted or
a least stretched. Many bands are called progressive, but when you
take a close look, only some of them deserve this name (as Spock's
Beard, for example). Many of them play rather a kind of
"intelligent metal", but they are put into the same shelf, because
of the lacking of better terms. If you say that Rush have been a
progressive band in the early days than this term does not fit
many of the modern so-called progressive bands. Even we sometimes
don't know where we be-long. We like to write songs that are both
harmonically and rhythmically strong. They should be powerful and
create an atmosphere that won't let you go. And we want our music
to be filled with energy! And in the end, we don't care about how
people call this music, as long as they (and we) like it! |
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| Greger: |
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What is your future plans? |
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| Jörg: |
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Becoming famous, ha ha ... Serious, we would like to record a new
album as quick as possible, and we would really like to continue
the tour as support for Avalon outside of Germany, as it was
planned in 1998. Apart from that we write new material and play
some shows in Germany. |
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| Greger: |
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What are your favourite albums? |
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| Jörg: |
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It is very difficult to speak about the whole band's favourites,
because we all have different musical backgrounds and so also our
favourites differ a lot. The last album I know, which everybody in
the band liked was the latest Slayer output. Me, personally, I
adore Kiss and of course their "Psycho Circus" album (so does
Nils, our bass player, who even wears a Kiss T-shirt on the
photograph in our album booklet). Further, I very much like the
latest albums of Rush, Spock's Beard, Nevermore, Grip Inc.,
Avalon, Blind Guardian and Savatage. |
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| Greger: |
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When can we expect a new album from MIND MASQUE? |
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| Jörg: |
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Unfortunately, I don't know. This is very much a matter of money,
as I have stated before. We have to wait, how the sales of the
album will develop. But we would like to record new material as
soon as possible. |
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 Comments, remarks or ideas? Please mail us. |
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