Interviewed By ZeeZee (Senior Staff Writer) Myglobalmind Webzine
Myglobalmind: Well, firstly let me thank you on behalf of the staff and readers of MyGlobalMind webzine for taking some time to answer a few questions for us.
Myglobalmind: Can you tell us a little about how SCARLET ANGER got started?
Jeff: Hi! The band was founded in 2007 by Joe Block and Fred Molitor. They have been friends for a long time and played together in other bands before Scarlet Anger. But then the time came to start a real metal band – that was how Scarlet Anger was born. Right now, the lineup is: Joe Block as vocalist, Fred Molitor and Jeff Buchette as guitarists, Alain Flammang as drummer and me, Vince Niclou, as bass guitarist. We are playing with this lineup for 3 years now.
Vince: The band started in fall 2007 when Joe (vocalist) and Fred (guitars) formed the band. They did some auditions and the band started with Guy (guitars), Luc (drums) and me on bass-guitar (Vince). 2 years later, Luc quit the band and Alain joined on drums. 2010 Guy was replaced by Jeff on guitars and we formed the actual line-up : Joe, Fred, Jeff, Vince and Alain.
Myglobalmind: What’s it like being a Thrash Metal band based band in Luxembourg these days? Is the metal scene thriving over there?
Jeff: The metal scene in Luxembourg is quite big compared to the size of the country, we have a lot of different metal bands! There are some great bands like Desdemonia, Abstract Rapture,… At the moment there exists also a lot of Metalcore bands. So there are bands for every type of metal!
Vince: I think the metal scene is very active in Luxembourg, but many of the bands and mostly younger bands are completely into metalcore. I think that’s now up to date in the whole world, but the scene is also covered by nearly all styles of metal, reaching from doom, death, thrash and also some classic or melodic metal bands.
Myglobalmind: Congratulations on the release of your debut album DARK REIGN. Have you been happy with the feedback you’ve had about it so far?
Jeff: The reaction was very good! Almost daily, we get new reviews, from online fanzines and from the biggest real metal magazines. I think the fans share their opinion. Of course its great to see how the hard work in the studios and with the song writing is appreciated. We all hoped that we will have success with the Dark Reign Album, but we were really surprised in a positive way with all those top-reviews we got
Vince: We’re very happy with the feedback !! Nearly every day we get new reactions from every part of the world. It’s amazing to read all this shit and great to see our faces in metal-magazines. For example, Joe’s juste got a copy from an asian metal magazine. We’ve never thought that we could reach our metal friends in asia and the rest of the world so quickly.
Myglobalmind: The album has a very definitive “German” Thrash Metal sound to it and at times while listening to it I am reminded of bands like DESTRUCTION, ACCUSER and IRON ANGEL, three very fine acts. Are these bands that have influenced you directly? What other bands would you consider to be real influences on what you are doing?
Jeff: We all have different influences such as KREATOR, ANNIHILATOR, older METALLICA, MACHINE HEAD or even IRON MAIDEN and many more, we are all very open minded musicians. We listen to a lot of Metal bands. We don’t try to sound like one band, so i can say that all bands have an influence on us. We just write the music we like. We don’t try to concentrate on one style while writing songs. If it sounds good we keep it, if not we don’t.
Vince: Of course they are influencing us. As we are fans of german thrash bands, so we do our best to keep up with them. But, even if you don’t believe, Jeff and me are big MAIDEN fans and we try to involve some Maiden attributes to our music. Fred and Joe are big Metallica and Kreator fans and Alain’s favorite band would be Machine Head.
Myglobalmind: The album is split into two halves and I noticed that the first half is comprised of the same five songs that made up an E.P you released last year. Were these songs re-recorded or re-touched for the album?
Jeff: Well the Songs got remastered by Jeff Waters, so he mastered the complete album. as we recorded the 2nd half just 8 months after we recorded the 1st, it wasn’t really necessary to rerecord them.
Vince: Yes, as our album is mastered by Jeff Waters, so he also remastered the first 5 songs from the « kill the king » E.P. He did a great job, giving the songs more power and a massive punch.
Mygloblamind: I noted that the album was produced by none other than Jeff Waters (ANNIHILATOR). Can you tell us how this came about?
Jeff: We all know that Jeff is a perfectionist and pro! He got a lot of experience in mastering while mastering albums of his band Annihilator and other bands! So one day we contacted him and he wanted us to send him a song, so he could listen to it, his reply was “nice to hear those killer songs and great mixes” It was clear that he wanted to do the job and it was really nice to work with him! He helped us a lot to get the sound we were looking for!
Vince: Jeff (Scarlet Anger) knew that Jeff Waters also does the mastering for bands which he likes, so he has written him an email and asked him. Jeff Waters first wanted to listen to the songs, if he likes it or not…after few day we got an email back in which Jeff Waters told us that he’s really fascinated by our album. That was a great feeling for us you can imagine!!
Myglobalmind: It’s rare these days for any band in the metal scene to have some form of record label backing for their debut album, so you have any advice for the next crop on how to get noticed and signed?
Jeff: Yes it’s very hard these days! There are so many unknown Bands! We got lucky to find ourselves a deal. We just recorded our second EP Kill the King, which had great reviews, and sent it out to a lot of labels, until we got the deal we wanted. So you have to record something good to get some attention.
Vince: First of all you don’t have to stop working! That’s what Joe always says and I think he’s right. He’s the man who got in contact with different record labels. A band’s application should include a band promo-package with band-bio, pictures, perhaps video, list of your concerts, bigger bands you shared the stage with, reviews you’ve received.
Myglobalmind: I’d like to move away from the album for a little while and hit you up with a few sort of rapid fire questions. The first of those being, what was the last album you bought?
Jeff:It was the recent Overkill album “The Electric Age” Great Album in my opinion!
Vince: On our last concert in northern Germany, I bought an album by a Brazilian Band « Cadela Maldita » we shared the stage with.
Myglobalmind: Can you recall the first album you ever bought?
Jeff: Yes, sure! It was an Iron Maiden live album, I think it was the “A real live dead one” Maiden live is even better!
Vince: An Genesis Album, the second album I bought was Number of the beast by Maiden.
Myglobalmind: Everybody’s got one… What’s the most embarrassing album in your collection?
Jeff: Well i got a David Hasselhoff best of in my collection, sometimes it’s funny to listen to it, I got it from my sister when I was a little boy 😉
Vince: Hm, this would be « Looking for freedom » by David Hasselhof…haha, don’t hassle the HOFF 😉
Myglobalmind: What about an album you love that nobody else seems to have heard of?
Jeff: A really great album is “Existence” from “Desdemonia” this is a luxembourgish death metal band, which exists now for over 15 years! They are pretty good and well known here!
Vince: That would be a lot of local known bands, otherwise I can mention Riverside, a polnish band which I really like.
Myglobalmind: One of the best things about being in a band is the adventure of touring. Do you have any funny stories from being on the road?
Jeff: A concert can be a long day, and there are many strange situations we had. Just recently, our vocalist Joe sat on the toilet, when suddenly he heard a strange rustling and then noticed how a big fat rat came climbing up the toilet. When he ran to us with lowered pants and told what just happened, we almost died of laughter. Very awesome.
Myglobalmind: So, what’s next on the schedule for SCARLET ANGER? Is there plenty of touring coming up or is it time for a rest?
Jeff: Working hard! And to play on as many concerts as possible. We want to grow bigger and get many new fans. We already started to work on new material. Next Year, Scarlet Anger will hit the recording studio again. You can be curious!
And we just released a single called “Stupid Boy”, it was the very first track we wrote! To celebrate a successful year as well as 5 years Scarlet Anger, we rerecorded it and it is now available for free download! On this occasion we want to thank everyone who supported us during the last 5 years filled with fun, shows, hard work, which all hadn’t been possible without our fans, our label DOTT and Bernd Ramien, our promoter Markus from Metalmessage, MIG and all the bands we shared the stage with!
Vince: At the moment we’re looking forward to get some slots at the big Eurpean-Festivals next summer and of course we’re already writing for new material which is planned to get released end of next year.
Myglobalmind: Well, thanks once again for taking the time to answer some questions for us here at MyGlobalMind. Good luck with everything in the future and we hope to hear from you again soon. Traditionally when we do interviews we prefer to leave the closing words to our interviewee… So the final words are all yours mate….
Jeff: Metal fans are the best fans! Thanks for your support, we hope to see you on our gigs. MAXIMUM METAL, OUR FRIENDS!
Vince: Many thanks to everyone we got in contact, the fans, bands, our label, friends, family…it’s a really great adventure and we’re thankful that you’re going to share it with us J Metal is never going to die B-).
Webzine Review for Scarlet Anger – Dark Reign
https://myglobalmind.com/2012/09/12/scarlet-anger-dark-reign/
https://www.facebook.com/ScarletAngerBand
http://www.twitter.com/scarletanger
http://www.youtube.com/scarletanger
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