Exclusive interview with Magnus Henriksson from Eclipse on their new album “Armageddonize”
What’s new on the Armageddonize album, compared to previous albums? It don’t differ that much in terms of production and music. I think the biggest difference is that the songs are more even and all the tracks on the entire disc are of the same standards and that there are no “fillers”. Otherwise, it’s not any huge differences. Compared with the last album, it’s a little of the same style, but a little more pop.
Do you still have a permanent keyboardist? We don’t have a live-keyboard player nowadays. Because it just doesn’t work out due to work and family and stuff like that. Our keyboard player is Johan and he’s only playing in the studios. So we will continue as a live band of four and we wont hire anyone new.
Why wont you hire a permanent keyboard player? ”Laughs”, it’s not easy to find keyboard players that are committed to just one band. They’re usually free spirits and like 10-15 bands they’re involved with. So it’s really difficult to keep them in just the one band. We thought about this and we came to the conclusion that the best thing for us was to just do this live without a keyboardist. Now we’re a core of 4 guys that always got the time and that always puts the band first. So our decision was the most practical solution. If we had been let’s say Bon Jovi or something like those guys having loads of money then it wouldn’t have been a problem. But not having that makes this the best for us.
But when you say ” If we had been let’s say Bon Jovi or something like those guys” it sounds to us that you think that you haven’t got that far yet with your music. But we think that’s far from the truth, considered that you’ve released many albums in just a short period of time. Well, I agree. We’ve come quite far with our music. But reaching that point where you can make a living on your music selling records is still far away. As of now our records isn’t the main priority. Our priority is to get our name out there playing live, and that’s how we survive.
How far are you from reaching your goal making a living on selling records? Oh, well that’s just impossible to say. And we haven’t been playing that much live as of yet.
How come? When we started out back in 1999 this music style were frowned upon. And this style of music was kinda out of fashion. The years went by and it wasn’t until 2006 we noticed that there were a change coming. The Poodels made won a Grammy in Norway just about the same time as we released our third album. And then we got some wind in our sails too. But before then it was really hard to get our music out there.
You’ve got your roots in the 80’s metal, and that genre has never really been dead compared to for example Grunge that came and went and isn’t nearly as popular today. What’s your point of view on this? I hope it has to do with the quality of the music. And there’s also a lot of kids growing up nowadays with parents with the 80’s metal in their hearts. And those kids are discovering this genre now. Let’s face it, the metal music wasn’t just a trend it’s true quality music.
Buy the Azaria No.6 to be released in May to find out just what they are willing to do to tour the U.S.
Frontiers Records
Eclipse on Facebook
Eclipse Official Website
