Soul Sanctuary

“Imagine the original Soul Sanctuary as an amoeba – sliding around, but never really going to get anywhere. The current Soul Sanctuary has sprouted wings and left the planet! That’s really the best way i can put it!” Mike Burrough- Vocalist

Soul Sanctuary are a Six Piece Alternative Metal Band from the South Coast of
England, formed in 2006.

The last few months have seen Soul Sanctuary go from strength to strength,
gaining much notoriety and appraisal from their peers for their outstanding and
energetic performances and original, but catchy song writing.

On a Quest to Conquer the world one song at a time with their unique brand of melody driven
metal, Soul Sanctuary leave a trail destruction and mayhem in their wake. A
show certainly not to be missed…. by ANY HEAD BANGER!

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Soul Sanctuary

Interviewee’s name: Luke Gibson
Position in band: Vocalist

Interviewee’s name: Ed Stevens
Position in band: Lead Guitarist

Interviewee’s name: Michael Burrough
Position in band: Vocalist

Interview by: Scream

The Interview

Headbang Today: We pierce the air above our heads with our metal horns and
welcome Soul Sanctuary to HeadbangToday.com with HUGE grins of glee and
excitement on our feeble faces! Welcome dudes, we are delighted to have you
sharing your dark insight with us!
Firstly, we need to know: Will South Africa
be on your international tour schedule in the near future?

Luke – As soon as we can make it we will be there, we go where the fans are!

Ed – Send plane tickets, we’ll be there tomorrow!

Mike – I’d like to see our music everywhere. So yeah, no question.

Headbang Today: You are soon to release your self-produced debut album
“Afterlife”. Tell us a bit more about the new album?

Luke – Well it’s been over a year in the making, we have recorded 90% of it at my home studio so I’ve spent a lot of time refining the sound to where it is now.

On this album we’ve tried to be as experimental as we can without compromising writing a good song. Over 30 songs were written and it’s been hard choosing, but we believe we’ve picked the best for this album. The album as a whole is very eclectic. Songs like “Gone Away” and “Heart Attack” really shouldn’t and don’t really mix when put next to each other without a reference to draw from, but if you listen to the album as a whole it keeps a very distinct and unique feel through out.

even the songs themselves are very eclectic metal tracks like “Killing Time” suddenly bursting into a drum and bass/slap funk bass solo in the middle 8, I’ve never heard it done before, but somehow it works.

Ed – Many words could be used to describe this collection of songs, to summarise though; powerful, melodic and the main one – hooky. As far as I’m concerned, in terms of quality of song writing, it could be compared to Dep Leppard’s Hysteria or Metallica’s Black. Every song is a hit single in its own right. It’s definitely ‘metal’, a metal feast, but at the same time doesn’t alienate a potential audience because of the genre, or as Paul (Gooding, bass) would say “Something for everyone”.

Mike – I can’t really elaborate much more on what Ed & Luke have already said. The main point being that there really are so many different ideas that somehow combine to form a unique and instantly recognizable sound which is heavy yet melodic and insanely catchy.

Headbang Today: How will ‘Afterlife’ compare to your debut album musically?
Have you perhaps made any slight modifications in your style and heaviness?

Luke – If you mean how does “Afterlife” compare to Soul Sanctuary’s first EP release, It’s changed beyond recognition .The band had a completely different line up barring our bassist (The bands founder) and rhythm guitarist (Monty) Soul Sanctuary was more of a rock based, funk and soul band. Hence the name “Soul Sanctuary”. It’s about the only thing we actually kept in terms of the music.

Ed – From funk to spunk, ‘Afterlife’ is like a MILF being fucked, mature and experienced, yet beautiful and never lets you down.

Luke – haha that’s a bit extreme Edwin, but ok!

Mike – To be honest i don’t really think they can be compared. From the off there was a fair amount of talent in the band but its escalated so far beyond what it once was. I personally have never played with such a talented set of people before. Everyone is fantastic at what they do – and even some things they don’t! Each member brings something different to the band and the greatest achievement is that we’re all like brothers, on stage, and off. Imagine the original Soul Sanctuary as an amoeba – sliding around, but never really going to get anywhere. The current Soul Sanctuary has sprouted wings and left the planet! That’s really the best way i can put it!

Headbang Today: I gave a couple of your songs a listen and ‘Heart Attack’ made
me an instant fan. You guys are keeping it heavy metal man! Who are your
musical influences and what inspires you to do what you do?

Luke – As far as lyrics go I guess my biggest influence is life itself, i try to draw from my own personal experience as much as I can, but i also like to take famous phases and twist them or write lyrics that have a sense of irony and contradiction, there is certainly a lot of that in the song “Heart Attack”.

But I take influences from a lot of places musically, some bands that come to mind are people like Threat Signal, Zero System, System Of A Down, Staind, Static X, Killswitch, Crossfade, Breaking Benjamin and Deftones, but also other kinds of music like Prodigy, Pendulum, Harry Nilsson, Eagles, Black Sabbath, White Snake, Adam F, Cypress hill, NWA, Green Day, Offspring, NOFX, Pennywise the list goes on.

I’ve never been anti commercial or an elitist in any way, I don’t care if the songs by Britney Spears or Cradle of filth, If it’s a good song, it’s a good song. OK Britney will never write a good song, but you get my point.

Ed – Like Luke says, it’s all about the songs, I just prefer to dress it in ripping metal rather than with pop music arrangements. Soul Sanctuary is the molten blood that runs through our veins.

Mike – Unlike most of the band who have core roots in metal music, i grew up listening to much softer music and actually disliking any sort of music containing scream vocals. I even used to wonder why Linkin Park ruined there awesome tracks with the screams! ( I grew to appreciate) Then something happened when Jay (Drums) started giving me compilations to listen to. Then Ed started throwing musical education my way also.

I moved on from Muse, Hoobastank, Creed, Nickelback, H.I.M and and the likes and started getting more into Godsmack, Metallica, Disturbed, Pantera, Bullet, Sonic Syndicate etc.
All of a sudden music was more complex, technical, and loud! And even I was sticking in the occasional scream vocal! Seeing the effect our music has on people, and all the encouragement i receive from fans, family, friends and most importantly my band brothers, really drives me to keep at it.

Headbang Today: Who writes your lyrics and what are they about in general?

Luke – I write a lot of the lyrics, but I always take on board anything the guys put to me, Mike also co-wrote the lyrics on “Zeitgeist” and “Afterlife”. I don’t think there can be any generalisation of our lyrics they cover too many subjects. Songs like “Packaged To Sell” and “Destiny” deal with the personal aspects of life, betrayal, loss, defeat, or taking an inward look at the person you have become and those around you. Destiny was actually written from a third person perspective of myself and what I was going thought at the time, it was how I believed people saw me.

Where as songs like “Heart attack” and “Zeitgeist” are to do with the anger I feel towards the ignorance of the human condition, so many people just don’t care about what is going on in the world around them. They run the rat race and just accept the knowledge of authority. As the famous quote by G. Massey goes “They must find it difficult… Those who have taken authority as the truth, Rather than truth as the authority.”

Ed – Well, you can’t have ‘nice’ lyrics in metal really can you? However we’ve managed to avoid the whole dungeons and dragons thing so far, best to keep it real and make the songs about issues real people can relate to.

Mike- Luke is responsible for the vast majority of the lyrics, but as we progress as a band, other people are starting to suggest ideas that have been floating around in their heads. I have certainly started to grow as a writer, and Luke and myself work very well together to make sure the lyrics give out the messages that they’re supposed to. I expect as more time is spent together and we develop and evolve, everyone will have a part in all aspects of song creation.

Headbang Today: You guys are trying to get signed by the worlds best known
Heavy metal record label, Road Runner Records. Has it always been a dream as a
band to get signed by them? (VOTE HERE)

Luke – Honestly no record deal is ever a dream, It’s ignorant to think so. A record deal is only an opportunity, and the bigger the label the bigger the opportunities, at least in most cases. A deal has been and always will be is the first stepping stone in gaining a larger appeal, but by no means is it a guarantee of success or fame. We have had bands we know from our home town signed to labels as big as Sony BMG who released their first album and flopped big time. Even after Nirvana was signed to Geffen Records (A multi-million dollar corporation) for the first 6 months they were so poor they were living in a house with no heating or Windows and had to sell their amps for food. But becoming signed is one of the band’s bigger goals, simply because it opens doors and the chance to move into bigger areas.

Headbang Today: Tell us about some of your other dreams and goals of Soul Sanctuary.

Luke – My only goal in Soul Sanctuary is to become a band that may inspire other people the way my favourite bands inspired me. If that fails i guess i could always run away with the circus! =]

Mike – World domination of course!

Ed – Sex, drugs and heavy metal!

Headbang Today: Here’s the plot. The band is surrounded by a horde of fresh
flesh craving zombies and only Luke has a shotgun with 5 shells in it. What
would you do to get out of the situation?

Luke – hahaha, well depends on what the chance’s of escape are? I think i would go seriously medieval on their asses, fuck the shot gun I’ll beat those bastards to death with their own broken limbs. I mean what’s the worst that could happen? You’re gonna die anyway and I’ve never seen a problem with becoming a zombie myself as a last resort, it would be better then becoming a fan of Cliff Richard! (My idea of what hell is like!)

Ed – I’d throw a can of lager as far as I could outside the ring of Zombies…… NOTHING comes between Luke and a cold one.

Mike – I’m with Luke and Ed on this one. Ed’s cold beer idea would certainly work, and i think i would also aim to go melee using anything that was around. There have been plenty of times where Luke and I have been surrounded by people, albeit they weren’t zombies too my knowledge, but we have punched our way out of dangerous situations more than a few times.
I’d say with Gooding (Bass) to stare them down and tell them “look mate, its not happening” we’d have a pretty decent chance.

Headbang Today: Tell us about some of the weirdest, craziest and most
embarrassing things that happened to you while playing live.

Luke – hahaha, for me there is a lot of them.

Ed – We have had a fair few punch ups at our gigs, people have actually come flying onto the stage in a full blown fist fight. strangely it seems to be girls a lot of the time. A girl that was filming us play, bottled a guy over the head for spitting in her face! Something to do with an argument that he was in her way.

Luke – Definitely one of the most embarrassing moments for me was quite recently. We were playing an open air festival, I had jumped off the stage during the second verse of heart attack and started walking backwards to get back up on the stage, I failed to notice a platform that was sticking out at the bottom, which took my feet out from under me. I went flying backwards and smashed my head against the edge of the stage. I bounced back up and carried on going but the rest of the verse was intermingled with bouts of laughter at what had just happened.

Mike – I was pretty embarrassed when Luke fell over! The only thing i can really recall other than that was when i was about 10 years old. Nothing to do with Soul Sanctuary obviously but embarrassing nevertheless. I was at a karaoke and decided to attempt “Always” by Bon Jovi. After the High chorus i forgot to come back down for the second verse and ended up singing it about an octave higher! Lets just say that a very humiliating falsetto display was on offer when i got to the already ridiculously high chorus. Not good.

Luke – If you count playing in rehearsal live I did break my front tooth on my microphone during one practise, that was a real bitch!

Ed – haha, yeah but 5 minutes later you still went on with the rehearsal!

Luke – Although it’s not related to live playing i feel it was so strange it’s worth mentioning. A while back, I was on route back from a personal visit to Australia. A fan of our music from Bangkok found out i was stopping at Bangkok airport on the way through to the UK and came and met me at the gate. gave me a free T-shirt and bought me a meal. Fun times lol.

Soul Sanctuary

Headbang Today: Give us your views on the metal industry today and how it is

affected by illegal downloads. Are you for it or against it?

Ed – Times have certainly changed, it’s now a lot easier to for band’s music to reach people, we just have to be more inventive with how we make it profitable. This isn’t for personal greed reasons, the music industry is a business just like any other, and consequently a profit is required to fund the the next project. If I was in it for the money, I’d have given up years ago, like many people I know have.

Mike – The Internet is here to stay. Piracy will only get worse. To be honest I’m a fan of free information and music. I think that its hugely beneficial as a much bigger audience is reached. There are still people who will buy a CD just to own it, even if they have downloaded it already. Decent bands will make more than enough money through live performances and TV/Radio.

Luke – I haven’t got a problem with it. Hell, it would be hypocritical of me to do so. There are tons of bands out there I would of never have heard of if i didn’t have access to the Internet and been able to download their music. One band I now listen to on a regular basis, along with other members of our band and I have even talked to online, was only discovered by complete accident when downloading another bands album discography. Their album had been thrown in randomly amongst the other songs. but once I know about a band and enjoy their music, I can help support them by going to see them live, buying their merchandise and telling other people about their music.

It’s a fact of the Internet and the world we live in now that album sales are never going to be the main source of income for a band anymore. The main market that any band needs to break into these days to earn money is game and film. mainly gaming because no matter what gaming is never going to suffer the same amount of piracy music and film does because it’s much harder to do, for instance games like World Of WarCraft are next to impossible to pirate because you need a monthly subscription to play them. I know our music isn’t the kind of thing you are likely to hear on that kind of game but you get the idea.

Headbang Today: Do you prefer mailing free merchandise to Headbang Today or
would you rather like us to fly over there and go fetch it ourselves?

Luke – We can send some stuff to you I guess, what’s the address? haha

Ed – Or come over and get it…..if you think you can handle a night out down the pub with Soul Sanctuary.

Headbang Today: Tell us about you best and worst gigs so far… What happened?

Luke – The worst gig we ever had, was probably our very first with our latest line up. Jamie our drummer and Ed had only just joined the band 2 months before hand and we were still in the process of debating mike’s (the second vocalist) introduction into the band. Jamie announced during the rehearsal leading up to the gig he didn’t feel ready and pulled out, unfortunately this rehearsal was only 2 hours before the show was about to start.

But I felt it was in the best interest of the bands reputation not to cancel a show at the last minute and told him “we’re going to do it with or without you, even if i have to play the drums and sing” which actually turned out to be what happened.

Also being new to the band and close friends with Jamie decided to abandon this sinking ship, leaving Me, Paul the bassist and Monty our Rhythm Guitarist to go it alone. We arrived at the venue with no drum kit and no lead guitar and only half a band. We had to borrow everything from the band we were supporting. We still went on the play as a 3 piece and everyone loved it, but still it’s not something we want to try again in a hurry. Playing Drums and doing vocals is very tricky business.

Ed – Ha ha, I remember that….. It wasn’t any loyalty to J that made me bum out….. First gig with a new band and the vocalist is going to play drums and sing unrehearsed…. Who can blame me?!

Mike – I’ve enjoyed every gig we’ve played. One of my best experiences was at a fairly small scale local festival. The sound was set up really well which is very important to our overall performance, especially vocals, and it was outdoor in the sun! Oh and Luke fell over! Other than the gig the other guys are talking about i can’t think of a bad experience – and i wasn’t even a member of the band at that point!

Luke – Obviously you’ve been a good influence on the band Mike. haha

Headbang Today: What’s the response been like from fans since you launched your debut album? Do you think there’s still room for improvement or are you
definitely heading on the right track with what you are currently doing?

Luke – I guess we can only get better, I think the album we have is a piece of work I’m finally happy with, as a perfectionist i find that very hard to do at times.
The reaction from fans has been fantastic, After the first hour of our album being up for pre-order ( I was still testing the website making sure everything worked correctly) someone from Canada bought a copy, so far we have already made sales in several US states and across Europe. Album isn’t actually out until 30th of September and being as underground as we are, receiving so many sales, so far in advance of the actual launch date has been really motivating for the band. As mentioned before, in a world were illegal downloading is the norm, It’s nice to know that people from all over the world enjoy our music enough to pay for it.

Mike – There is ALWAYS room for improvement. I’m really curious to see where we’ll be and how we will have changed in say 3 years time. The direction of the music is constantly evolving with the times and our true fans are loving every minute of the ride we’re taking them on.

Headbang Today: How many hours a week do you guys roughly put into rehearsing and practicing?

Luke – At the moment we only rehearse about 3 hours or so a week, we would like to do more but our financial situation with having to fund the production of the album has put some restraint on that. although in our own time me and the guys are always practising the parts in small groups or on our own.

Headbang Today: Tell us a bit about the processes involved in coming up with new material?

Luke – Having our own studio is a great benefit to writing new material, It’s gives us a great deal of room for experimentation. The first steps usually Involve us laying down some guitar riffs to a click and use sampled and midi drums to work out rhythms and changes which helps see which direction to take to song in. Once the general structure of the song has been completed I will start to come up with vocal melody ideas and lyrics. once we have a rough version of the song completed with vocals, the guys come in one by one a do finalized recordings of their parts and then Ed comes into lay down one of his crazy ass guitar solo’s. But things always change here and there even months after the first recording, if we feel the need that something needs improvement. I guess we are unusual in the way we go about things, because we record the track and then learn how to play it live.

Ed – I suppose it must sound strange to some people, but we do have to go back and re-cut tracks because once we’ve played them live and lived with them for a while, they do start to evolve. Usually the basis of the song remains, but the band all puts their ideas in as we rehearse. If the song doesn’t get to where we want it to be then it goes into the trash, In that way, music is like wearing clothes, you can wear as many different styles of trousers as you like, but it doesn’t make your dick any bigger. Basically, you can dress up a crap song to make it sound better, but no matter how you arrange it, it will always be shite, if it’s a good song it will always shine. “You can’t polish a turd!” as they say.

Mike – Sometimes i just sit on my own for days at a time with no food or water. Eventually with major hallucinations, ideas come flowing. Erm. No. That’s not right. Currently i see myself as more of an “edit” man. I have difficulty starting up my ideas as i have no recording equipment or knowledge of the applications I’d need. So i tend to just suggest changes to existing tracks. One day i will get Luke to show me around a mixing desk and have a little look as I’m busting with ideas. Currently i like to share any ideas to Luke and see what he can do about making them real.

Luke – Even though mike was joking about major hallucinations, I guess you could say I’ve been to places a lot of people haven’t.

Headbang Today: Have you met any rock stars from famous bands in person and if so, who?

Luke – I’ve met a few not many though, I guess my greatest claim is I met Joe Strummer from The Clash one week before he died. Really nice guy!

Mike – I saw the Cheeky Girls in Rye once! Don Powell (Slade) lives around the corner from my parents, and about 4 years ago we knocked at his door at Christmas and sung him his own song. That was quite amusing to say the least. Nice man, gave us beer and crisps!

Ed – I’ve met Soul Sanctuary, Does that count?

Headbang Today: I suppose that does, yes. Do any of you Headbang during live your performances?

Luke – I guess I must headbang, I always wake up with a sore neck! But I’m not sure what I’m doing live, I go a bit fruit loop, always jumping on tables running around and smashing things (mainly microphones, I’ve broken a lot of them) The crowd usually find me very entertaining even if it’s them laughing at my ass falling off something and smashing my head lol. I think it’s the only reason these guys keep me in the band, I’m a pain in the ass otherwise haha.

Mike – Headbanging is automated when listening to most of our tracks. Even if it feels like a bad idea the next day, you’ll do it anyway.

Headbang Today: I’ve Headbanged to Heart Attack, I can tell you that much. Do you have any music videos and if so, where can fans find
them?

Ed – We have a couple of home made video’s up on Youtube on our official Youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/soulsanctuarymusic1 but we have a friend from the BBC who is currently working with us on producing our first full on video. There is no set date for it’s release as of yet, but again it’s down to finances. Hopefully the latest we want to get it filmed by is the beginning of next year, but we will see what happens.

Headbang Today: Is Soul Sanctuary a full time job or do you guys have day jobs
to support your every day needs? How do you get about?

Ed – Well, we’ve all got to eat! Funnily enough, I’ve just heard someone on the television say that having a job is good for you, what shite are the British government going to try and poison us with next?!

Mike – 1 out of 6 of us are unemployed. That’s not too bad by today’s standards.

Luke – Lately for me Soul Sanctuary has been a full time job with over hours, unpaid. Sometime I spend more than 15 hours a day with online promotion on top of writing, mixing, mastering, production, recording, plus gig and tour arrangements. That’s plus my job working in a local recording studio and doing web design on a part time basis.

Headbang Today: Being in such a tough industry as is, what advice would you give to fellow bands that just started?

Luke – Never give up, I was born tone deaf and to some extent I believe i still am lol, Not everyone is born with the gift of music, you can learn it. My friend’s used to laugh at my singing and rightly so, I sucked ass big time. but it only made more more determined to prove them wrong and so far i think I’ve done a good job. Deftones got their name from the fact that everyone said they sucked and were “tone deaf” they went on to become one of the most influential bands in metal.

As far as building your band the people in your band should be people you love and trust or should be people that you become to love and trust, communication is so important to the working of a band. A band needs a leader and ego’s need to be squashed as much as possible when it comes to song writing and making decisions about the music. I do a lot of writing for the band and act as the bands main producer, but I never dismiss the opinions of the other band members, ever. even if i wrote what i believed to be a masterpiece. if one or more of the guys had issues with it, it would get scrapped.

But a band that wants to be successful should be treated like a business, you can’t make compromises. You need to give people a chance, but if a band member isn’t doing their job they have to go. The drummer before Jamie had issues with a lot of the bands double pedal work and in the end he had to be replaced. Even one of the founding members of the band and very good friend of ours, the lead guitarist before Ed was replaced. although he left of his own accord it was getting to the point were he was becoming a hindrance on the musical growth of the band and would of been replaced sooner or later anyway. If it meant the success of the band I would happily give up my place to see Soul Sanctuary succeed.

Ed – Everyone’s got to be up to the job, NO weak links. If someone isn’t cutting the mustard, get rid, don’t wimp out because of any friendship loyalties – If you were on a train, would you rather see a pregnant woman was left standing up or a fat woman sitting down crying?

Mike – Its all about team work. As the guys have said if it doesn’t work, get it the hell out. I would suggest that people work as hard as hey can to ensure the band is as flawless as possible in terms of ability and commitment.

Headbang Today: Give us your thoughts on the following:

What fans and potential fans can expect from your new up coming album?

Ed – The dog’s testes

Mike – Something new, something unique, something totally fucking awesome.

Luke – Lots of flying monkeys haha, I guess the only thing i can say is we’ve visited people’s myspace’s and they already have our song lyrics as their “about me:” sections, have quoted us amongst their favourite bands and have us first on their play lists along with big names like Metallica, Ozzy Osbourne and Bullet For My Valentine. We only hope that it lives up to their expectations.

R & B?

Luke – Just about the only style of music I fucking despise with every ounce of my being.

Mike – Re-e-wind.

Ed – Meh!

Cat litter?

Luke – It’s what cat’s shit in, and it smells fucking horrible straight out of the bag, even more so after it’s been used!

Mike – Is it illegal for cats to flytip?

Ed – I think they covered it!

Headbang Today…?

Luke – Fucking cool site and give major respect for having us on here!

Mike – ‘Fucking cool site and give major respect for having us on here!’ – Luke Gibson, Soul Sanctuary.

Ed – Woop Woop!

Headbang Today: Any last words?

Ed – I did this interview while under the influence of Stella!

Luke – Me and Ed Need Soul Sanctuary to get Sponsored by Stella, between the two of us we must drink 100 cans a week.

Mike – Hmm well i sure do hope they aren’t my last but what the hell; Watch this space.

Luke – If anyone’s read this far, I’m Impressed! I know I would of gotten bored of our bullshit by now. lol, but on a serious note I would like to thank you for having us on the site I really hope you enjoyed our interview. I wish you guys best of luck with the site, A big shout out to everyone in South Africa “KEEP IT FUCKIN’ METAL!” hopefully we will be along soon to play live. Peace!

Buy Soul Sanctuary’s Album: http://www.soulsanctuarymusic.com/buy-now.html

Vote for Soul Sanctuary on Road Runner Records HERE

Watch Soul Sanctuary’s Vids here: http://www.youtube.com/soulsanctuarymusic1

Visit Their Myspace Page! : http://www.myspace.com/soulsanctuarymusic

INTERVIEW BY:

scream@headbangtoday.com

Band: Inastait

Interviewee’s name: Sheldon Dorasamy
Position in band: Vocals and Guitar

Interviewee’s name: Shane Williams
Position in band: Guitar

Interviewee’s name: Tiens van Zyl
Position in band: Bass

Find more music like this on Inastait

Published: 04-08-2009

Interview by: Scream

What do you get when you try to combine heavy with mellow? Mix it down with a bit of rock, alternative, add some metal, a touch of grunge and perhaps a hint of punk? …you get an altered Stait of Mind… you get Inastait!

HeadbangToday: Welcome to Headbang Today! You are our fourth featured and third South African interviewed band here on HeadbangToday.com! Does that leave a sickening taste in your mouths or does it make you feel superior for being exclusively featured on such an awesome South African metal site? (either answer will be perfectly acceptable!)

Inner State Of Mind

Inastait:

Sheldon:It feels awesome bro! We are one of those SA bands that have been bubbling under for quite a while, just waiting to go BOOM! … And with an album on the way, it’s a really exciting time to be a part of INASTAIT

Shane: Well it is certainly an honour to be featured on HeadbangToday.com, as for superior… Well no, there are a bunch of other awesome SA bands out there that also deserve some exposure.

Tiens: It’s an honour to be featured and interviewed on HeadBangToday. Superior , not at all we are a down to earth bunch of guys and appreciate it a lot to be here.

Headbang Today: A lot of awesome bands there is, yes. We vow to get hold of all of them in good time… A number of your songs are quite mellow… but when I gave No Longer There a listen I could feel your energy. A good song that is.
Tell us more about Inastait. Where does the name come from and how did you originate?

Inastait:

Shane: Well, originally we started out as a three piece, myself, Sheldon and our first drummer Aurel, later Tiens joined the band and automatically transformed the band with an edgier sound. We started playing lots of gigs at this point, but soon Aurel decided to leave the band to start a family which is when Steven joined us. He has also brought a young fresh energy to our band. As for the name… We lifted it from one of our earlier songs – ‘Inner State of Mind’, and changed the spelling to make our name unique.

Headbang Today: As mentioned before, your style is a mix of chilled out rock, grunge and metal. Was this your intention as a band from the start or was this what developed from jamming together?

Inastait:
Sheldon: it’s kinda weird – I always ask people at gigs what they think we sound like and the answers are always different .. which is a good thing I guess . .. I personally like to call our sound ‘Mongrel Rock’ because it’s a blend of a few different styles, without necessarily trying to be anything in particular … except LOUD! J

Shane: Essentially we are more of a Hard Rock band than anything else, but I think we are also open minded to other genres. Our intention is to have our music appear to a wide range of people, but also to still maintain a sound that is of a Inastait flavour. Most of our songs though did start out from us just jamming together where our core sound spawns from.

Tiens: I joined Inastait with a set setlist. I was involved with writing a basic bass line for our song “Unfinished”. We have however started production on 2 new songs and everyone is involved with the writing process. Keep an open mind, play some riffs that either of us wrote and jam them ’til we get something that is pure awesomeness.

Headbang Today: Where are you guys from and what is the response like from the crowds you’ve played for in clubs?

Inastait:

Sheldon: I’m originally from Durbs. We haven’t played there yet, but we’ve played pretty much all over Gauteng. Every gig is different – we’ve played for 4 people … we’ve played for 204 people , and pretty much every number in between… but one thing that never changes is the fact that every time we go out there, we leave it ALL out on stage — blood n guts every time! … that’s what INASTAIT is all about ..  … most people that have seen us can attest to that – especially those crazy mofo’s in the Vaal - LOVE those guys!

Shane: I’m from the East Rand, currently I stay in Benoni. Strangely enough though, we haven’t played that many gigs on the East Rand. However, the crowd response has been amazing, especially form the people in the Vaal, we love playing there!

Tiens: I am originally from Sasolburg in the Vaal Triangle and have to say the Vaal is my favourite place to gig as it’s my home ground. Crowd response has been very good, surprisingly good when playing with the heavier metal bands too. I think we have a sound that everyone can relate too. Steve, our drummer is from Nelspruit. Over all, all South African crowds ROCK!

Headbang Today: I couldn’t help but notice Slipknot’s tribal S tattooed on your lead singer, Sheldon’s arm… As we are huge fans of Slipknot here at Headbang Today we need to hear you say that you are as well! Who are your musical influences and could you name a couple of international bands that you would love to tour and gig with one day?

Sheldon:oh yeah Slipknot is one of my faves – it’s the first tattoo I ever got, and I wear it with pride! … For me, Black Sabbath , Metallica  and Nirvana are the holy trinity of music. There will never be ANYTHING like them ever again… .EVER… when I saw Metallica for the first time at Reading in 2003, I was totally in tears dude!…

Shane: For sure, yeah, I enjoy Slipknot, but when learning to play guitar, I must say that Metallica had a huge impact on me. I also enjoy the sound of Chevelle, System of a Down, Audioslave, Tool and A Perfect Circle just to name a few, but the list goes on and on. It would be an honour to share the stage with any of these bands

Tiens: Personally I lean more to the old school bands like Iron Maiden, Kiss, Judas Priest and any band who’s music hits you in the bollocks. (Can I say that here?) Steve Harris and Gene Simmons are probably my biggest influences. Not too big a fan of Slipknot but saw them live at Download Festival and have to say it was one of the best live shows I’ve ever seen. With Inastait I’d like to share a stage with the likes of Stone Sour, Green Day, Billy Talent or Lordi.

Headbang Today: Slipknot, Chevelle, System, A perfect Circle, Stone Sour and Lordi…. I need to hang out with you guys! Those bands are keeping it metal! Now with a tough industry rocking every band’s ship, many bands sink to the depths of the metal ocean while a number of them stay afloat in pursuit of their dreams and goals. What are yours as a band?

Inastait:
Sheldon: Our album STAIT OF MIND is our pride and joy .. we put a lot of work into it and financed it ourselves… we can’t wait to take it on the road!

Shane: Rite now, we are all very focused on launching our upcoming album ‘Stait of Mind’ which will be our very first. Also, I’d love to just get our music out there, to as many people as possible, with the internet today, there are no borders and there are great opportunities to expose yourself internationally from an early stage.

Tiens: I agree with Shel and Shane, short term goal is to release Stait of Mind and gig the living crap out of it. You know, get it to as many people as we can. After that try and play bigger shows, more festivals and build a huge fan base nationally and internationally.

Headbang Today: You adopted quite an interesting logo. Who are the brains behind your lyrics and what are they about in general?


Sheldon: I write most of the lyrics.. I try to treat them like an ‘internal journey’ of sorts… I like writing cryptically – that’s just the way  I like to present my ideas lyrically. There are lots of hidden layers that I chose not to tell anyone about – its my own personal catharsis… private, yet in plain view.

Shane: Sheldon has written most of the lyrics and I have also done a few, but the whole song writing process happens as a band most of the time. Like the title says our upcoming album ‘Stait of Mind’ says, our songs are about that – love, lust, hate, sorrow, happiness, uncertainty, doubt, courage, anticipation, pride and ambition. These are things all of us can identify with.

Headbang Today: What is your outlook on the record industry today? Do you embrace or smite the idea of illegal downloading and why?

Shane:I have mixed feelings about the whole subject. If you download a song illegally, and this inspires you to go buy the bands album, its not such a bad deal for bands, but if people adopt the attitude that they can simply download music without ever having to buy another album, how can bands ever benefit?Sometimes you don’t mind if someone steals your music to listen to, they often pass this on to someone else, and then they pass it on and so on. This can be great exposure for your band and people who might never have heard of you get exposed to your music. But on the other hand, bands and record companies have poured money into the recording and marketing of that music, allot of investment has been made and if you steal that music, how can the industry ever sustain itself? After all, stealing is stealing at the end of the day.

Tiens: Who hasn’t downloaded music illegally? It’s a double edged sword you know. I usually hear of a band, download a track or two and if I like it I buy the album. If I don’t like it I delete the tracks to free space on my hard drive. (really I do J ) Bands make their money from shows, merch and stuff like that. The royalties they get is tiny compared to what the record companies take to pay for the marketing etc. etc. So yeah, is it that bad to download a song, taking a liking to a band, go buy their t-shirts and pay good money to watch them and all that for downloading a song? It’s debatable. Don’t steal, it’s a crime but what if bands put their songs out self produced and recorded as share ware. Let the fans pay x amount for an album depending on how much they feel it’s worth paying for. Naah it will only work in fairy fairy land.

Headbang Today: What had been the biggest obstacle for you as a band?

Sheldon: for me its balancing a full time corporate job with being my passion for music. There’s only so many hours in a day y’know … I just wish I could spend more of them on stage or writing songs with my kick-ass band …

Shane: Finding a place to practice has always been an obstacle for us. Good practice rooms are hard to come by.

Tiens: Money and time. To have a good sound live and in a recording you need proper gear. That’s expensive. If we had a few million in cash to spend then it would probably be so much easier to get the album out to people with little effort and gig all over the world. BUT, money does not solve all the problems. So yeah time is probably the biggest obstacle having a day job as well. Lots of bands made it pretty big with little money and just brilliant ideas and time management. (And no sleep )

Headbang Today: Day job, little time, little money… yet brilliant ideas! Yip, sounds familliar to us! Give us your thoughts on:

Your next shows:

Shane: We’ll be playing at the Evolution festival later in October, Inastait has never played at a festival before, so I am looking forward to that one!

Tiens: I’m currently busy planning the CD launch tour and we will probably play Rafterz in Vanderbijlpark soon. Then different venues in the Johannesburg and Pretoria area. Check out http://www.inastait.co.za for up and coming gigs.

Swine Flu:

Sheldon: I thought I had it once .. turns out it was just gas…
Shane: Well, if you’re not a swine, then you just have the flu
Tiens: Over rated and over reacted by the media. HIV/AIDS is a bigger issue.

The possibility of an existing universe before the existence of ours:

Sheldon: Time is not absolute …
Shane: I wasn’t around then, so who cares?
Tiens: We were all put here by marsmellow men to mine minerals for them. They will let us die as soon as all the mining is done. You know the game SIMS?

Your home town:

Sheldon: Holler to all me brown peepl down in Durbs!
Shane: In my hometown, the children bite the dogs!
Tiens: Originally from Sasolburg and the people there rock! My home town for almost 4 years is Kempton Park and I’m loving it. Hi to all the Kempies!

Headbang Today….:

Sheldon:Thanks for all the great work supporting local bands! It’s a tough game tho, so don’t take shit from nobody! The ‘Stait boys gotcha back!
Shane: Excellent, its great to have a website promoting South African bands and the metal scene!
Tiens: I love the idea. Brilliant idea, keep it going and don’t let it die a slow death.

Well Tiens… with the kind of bands that we have in que to get featured…. Headbang Today will be around for a long long time…

Dudes… best of luck with the band and your cd launch. You better send us a copy!

http://www.inastait.co.za

INTERVIEW BY:

scream@headbangtoday.com

Mind Assault – South African extreme metallers hailing from Cape Town joined us to share their inside story on the band’s existence, persistence and future domination in the hard rock and metal industry of our beloved country!

In October 2004 , Mind Assault made their first public appearance, and have not ceased in relentless conquest for greater success ever since.

Their Debut album as well as downloadable MP3′s can be obtained from our ONLINE STORE under the South African metal category!

These dudes are gonna be huge!!

Official Site: www.mindassault.com

Interview By: Scream

Interviewee’s name: Patrick Davidson

Position in band: Rhythm guitarist

HeadbangToday: We raise our fists here at HeadbangToday as a welcome gesture to Mind Assault. Obviously excited as can be to feature and interview the heaviest local band to date here on HeadbangToday.com. Could you give us your opinion on the metal industry and the response you’ve had from fans here in your home country, South Africa?

Mind Assault: Thanks Scream. It’s awesome to be greeted so warmly into your website! Phew! This is a big question to begin with… I’ll try to keep it short! There is much that can be said about the condition of the local industry at present. Recently, I’ve been led to view “metal” as we in Mind Assault understand it to be kind of split into two parts so far as “industry” is concerned. Namely, there is what the general public views as Metal, and then there is the other side just not really known to the general public at all, and that is what we call Extreme Metal. I think it is safe to say that all of Mind Assault and most of our fan base agree that we fall more within the “extreme” category which is much more of an underground movement. With that in mind, I’d like to comment on the industry from the point of view of an extreme metaller.

It would be wrong to say that the industry is non-existent, because by definition, we have services and products to offer, and amounts of money do change hands, and so an industry there is. However, at the level that the underground scene operates, the industry is completely crippled in the sense that there are very few individuals working hard to keep it alive. It is true that in recent years – almost specifically since 2007 – we have seen a major uprising in the underground scene, which has been fantastic! More venues opening their doors to extreme metal because we empty their bar fridges, more promoters creating events because they can afford to put in a little effort and make some pocket money, and legion upon legion of new bands bursting into the scene seeking glory. For us this has been fantastic to witness because the guys in Mind Assault all grew up in an environment where there was a severe depravity of blisteringly hot metal in circulation. Particularly as far as going out and seeing live bands was concerned. But then creeps in the big inevitable “BUT…”

Despite all the growth, we are no better off now than we were back in 2005 which was Mind Assault’s first year of conquest.  In fact, the band has even moved away from the status of a self-sufficient project to the darker waters of a very expensive hobby.  So even though the fans support is HUGE (for example, our first gig in Stellenbosch was to 60 people in the attic of a pub, and 3 years later 800 people at our album launch in a venue only one block away), there is very little financial reward for our efforts.  There is only really one answer to the question of why, and that is: Exploitation.  Because of our side of the industry being in such an infant stage, and even our most pro-active individuals remaining relatively uneducated in the actual business of music, there are a lot of guys now running around unchecked who are milking the suddenly popular extreme metal scene for their own gain.  Sadly, they are the sort of guys that when they have fed their fill and extracted every last drop of life from the scene, they will simply move on to another host to feed off of.  On the other hand, one must always hold onto hope!  There are some among us who are working very hard to try and set up a stronger infrastructure, and to build sustainability into the scene – kind of like the www.metal4africa.com project where the bands collaborate, and guys like Dave Sass, and like Headbang Today.

But in all of this, the fans and supporters come out tops with our respect!  We have great admiration for them and they are the reason why we keep going despite the odds.  These masses of guys and girls are also being exploited by the unscrupulous who churn out over-booked events every other weekend, featuring lame-ass sound and lighting, with the supporting crowd’s favorite bands being presented in a cheap and shabby manner.  Also some venue owners who allow this sort of thing, just in hope of pushing a few extra beer sales, not realizing that their lack of control or intervention is going to cost them later when things go bum.  And in all of this, the majority of bands rarely see a cent of the money that punters paid to come and see them.  We feel in debt to these supporters, and we feel akin to them.  That’s one of the most beautiful things about a scene that is viewed by the outside world as so ugly: we all stand together and face adversity together as equals – there are no pop stars here in South African metal.  And if there are, that’s because they left the spirit of metal behind and turned to pop instead.

HeadbangToday: You emptied their bar fridges? I better be at your next gig! Sounds like a jol! You’ve recorded and released a demo EP, a feature length DVD, “F*k Voort En Suip Baie” (loosley translated it means: F*ck forward and drink a lot – ED) and just last year you released your debut album “Stigma”. What inspires and fuels you to do what you do?

Mind Assault: Again, it’s back to the supporters. In the days when we started jamming together, it was because there were no venues where we could really gather and enjoy heavy music together, so we did it in some warehouse with our own instruments and loads of beer. It was only a matter of time before we had to move out of the warehouse because too many people were coming round to “kuier” with, and the owner of the business was getting nervous. The band room we rented after that was too small for guests, so gigging was the next step. It never even occurred to us to record until one supporter came and offered us two grand as a kick start. His only condition was that we use it toward studio time. As long as there are people out there who want to enjoy life and music along with us, we will be happy to share it with them.

HeadbangToday: You’ve smashed your way into the metal scene since 2004 and you’re planning to release more material at the end of 2009. Tell us more about your dreams and goals as a band. What can we expect from Mind Assault this year?

Mind Assault: This is a very subjective topic. At least as far as the next release is concerned. We’d love to spend more time in studio, as we feel that after almost five years of gigging, there is not much left that we can learn from playing live in this country. We believe that the only way our music can progress to the next level is by focusing on recording, and then adapting ourselves to be able to pull it off live. Unfortunately, recording requires vast amounts of money, and with times being harder than any of us have ever experienced before, it becomes impossible to make promises on future release dates, even though band members like to take stabs at it.

As a band, we would obviously like to ride this monster to the height of its potential.  To be honest, we feel that we have only really just scraped the surface of what we can do.  We all work day jobs – some of us really long hours.  Time available to play is scarce.  Some of us have family obligations too, so we often wonder what we would be able to actually achieve if we had more resources. Ie: time and money.  We would love to travel widely.  Mind Assault has already covered a good chunk of Southern Africa, but the world awaits.  Sadly, our bank managers are also waiting.  Patiently so.

HeadbangToday: We know what it’s like, some of us here are still in college, some of us also have day jobs… Life’s tough, but, you’re headlining for Metal 4 Africa’s WinterFest’09 for the 5^th year in a row. Can you describe your shows visually and musically?

Mind Assault: Actually, it’s the annual Whiplash which is reaching number 5.  That is a track record we are very proud of and grateful for, as we are the only ones who have done it, and Whiplash has become something of an institution in Cape Town.  It is true that we will also be headlining WinterFest’09, which is the bi-annual festival that has been running since 2007 and usually sports the biggest crowd.

Hmmmmm… a description? Visually is always a challenge. Our band is a real mixture of “Boer seun” country boys versus the “city slicker” sort, which makes uniformity a real challenge. Uniformity is what makes Slipknot or some black metal bands look so impressive on stage, but we are a lot more casual. Usually it’s a combo of cargo shorts and sandals along with some band T-shirt, or Flapper in his 80’s hair metal outfit. No, not too much thought involved, but true to self. Every now and again, though, we pull a rabbit out of the hat for which we have received great acclaim. But we don’t like to give people too much forewarning. That’s what makes certain shows so special – kind of a reward to the more dedicated fans.

As for musically, it gets even more simple. No, really, the music is simple. We tend to get very good crowd reaction because the music is mostly written with headbanging in mind. Basic riffs with plenty of catchy hooks. We keep the fancy bits to a minimum, otherwise we notice the crowd starts losing attention. We never began playing metal because we wanted to be top musicians, we just wanted to have a good time with our friends and play music that still sounds great when you have a few too many beers in. Don’t be fooled though, because the key songwriters in Mind Assault have a really good instinct for music and Flapper pulls off some really killer solo’s – even if he sometimes doesn’t remember after.

HeadbangToday: Dammit Flapper! Oh well, if it’s beer, metal, friends and an awesome time, I suppose award-winning solo’s are worth forgetting the next day. Who writes your songs and what subjects do they cover in general?

Mind Assault: Musically, it has become a lot more of a team effort since the first EP. In the beginning it was just Flapper and Jacques really, with a little input here and there from others. Nowadays, Flapper might arrive at practice with a whole thing almost finished, but just requiring a bit of polish from the team, or myself and Andries jam out loads and loads of killer sounding riffs on guitar and drums, then call on help from the original songwriters to help piece them together. I’m a lousy songwriter, but manage to spew forth riffs like there’s no tomorrow. Ultimately it remains a team effort.

Lyrically, most of the stuff is obviously written by our vocalist, Jacques. Sometimes Donovan will chip in, and I have even plucked up the courage to contribute just lately. Most of the subjects are about stuff like flying in the face of adversity and the joys of brotherhood and metal – our more positive, outward side, and then there is the darker side of inward explorations. Issues with self, issues with abuses of more psychological nature and all things bad. It’s kind of like a therapy, or a method of coping and our fans seem to relate. Also, one thing that makes Mind Assault very unique is that we have always performed a variety of English and Afrikaans songs. Afrikaans is a great language for metal because it’s got that brutal edge to it with the articulation of ‘r’ and ‘g’ and some other sounds. Also, being his first language, Jacques’ lyrics are at their best when written in Afrikaans. We never really thought about the language thing too hard, though – it just happened and nobody resisted it. Nowadays it works really well for us.

HeadbangToday: According to your biography, your album ‘Stigma’ was “recorded and produced independently on extremely limited resources, provided by the band members themselves”. You’ve done nearly the impossible. Not many bands can pull this off and this is also an excellent way of cutting out the middle man. So, what’s your outlook on the record industry today and what advice would you give to fellow bands?

Mind Assault: On this side of Heaven so close to Hell, nobody comes knockin’ so we know by now that if you expect help from the industry, don’t hold your breath.  When you are on the artistic “verge” of all things acceptable, you need to take matters into your own hands.  Although we were lucky with some financial grants with the demo EP, which was a considerably cheaper project, we had no such luck with Stigma.  No doubt, there is a LOT we would have liked to polish up in more detail, but at the end of the day you need to draw the line with how much energy you are prepared to pump into a project.  Considering the limited resources available, we are actually very pleased with the results and extremely happy with the people we worked with.

There is very little that the record industry can offer our lot and kin today. Putting out studio material is expensive and financially unrewarding, but it is the nature of the beast that every band needs to undertake this pilgrimage if they are ever to reach a higher state of being. It certainly won’t generate an income that can sustain 5 or 6 human beings, even if you are relatively big across the world. You have to be a global giant to achieve that! Sell merchandise. It’s hard to copy and people want it. Often, they want it more than your recorded work! Sell LOADS of merchandise. Use sites like Headbang Today…

HeadbangToday: We’ll be publishing an article soon on the impact that illegal downloading and file-sharing has on the music industry today. Although it’s been embraced by bands such as Radio Head, Slipknot and NIN there seem to be a large majority of bands that still disagree with this. What are your views on illegal downloading of albums?

Mind Assault: With the expense of producing large enough volumes of actual CD stock being so high, downloading serves us very well – legal or not. It increases the reach in getting our music out there and brings attention to our merchandise. We regard the CD market these days as the “follower” rather than the “fan”. There will be loads of fans who like what you do, but followers are the rare breed who will buy all your stuff and show it off to their friends. For those guys, it would be a crime if we did not cater for them, so again, it’s a necessary evil. This does not mean we are discouraging people from buying the CD or paying for their download from a legitimate site – God knows, we need the cash – but we understand that we live in a brave new world.

Creating large stocks of CD’s are a great risk and liability for an underground band. For pop music it may be different… who knows?

HeadbangToday: Your music is intense, and I mean that in a good way! How often do you guys get together for rehearsals and sound checks?

Mind Assault: From October 2004 till about the time of releasing Stigma in 2008 we religiously spent three nights a week in the band room.  That really did the job in letting us grow together.  As of last year, financial pressure (meaning work) has grown and some of the band members are now supporting family members.  We are lucky to get in two nights a week these days.  Getting prepped for a gig is fast work, however, so don’t fear that we will be slipping up.  There are very few metal bands remaining in Africa nowadays who have out-gigged Mind Assault and we’ve learned that there is no substitute for hard earned experience.

HeadbangToday: Tell us about your next shows and why we should be there… also, we’d like to know which international bands you would love to play with one day.

Mind Assault: We’re taking shows slow this year. As said a bit before, we don’t feel there is much more we can gain from endlessly gigging the SA circuit, so there is more interest on getting some new material sorted and exploring new avenues. This will also be rewarding for our supporters in that we will not be regurgitating old sets the whole time. At the moment, all of our attention is on metal4africa’s WinterFest’09 on August 1^st, but after that our only confirmation is Whiplash in December. If the right opportunities crop up between now and then we may take them.

As for why you should be there: let’s just say that scarcity raises value. These two high-profile shows are going to be big highlights for us as individuals, and we will ensure that we share every bit of that with those who attend!

International artists? There are too many bands to list. Obviously each member would like to play with their own personal favorites, so a good compromise would be to list the only two bands that every member of Mind Assault actually agrees on liking: Mors Principium Est, and Amon Amarth.

HeadbangToday: If there had to be a ‘Big Brother Bands’ reality show and you guys as band members had to live among each other, which band member would you evict first and why?

Mind Assault: Sheeeesh! Probably me! I’m way too diplomatic – the guys would find that incredibly boring and the least likely to result in a shoot-out, which is what the public wants, right? At the end of the day, our instinct for entertaining runs too deep to allow a bore like me to stick around.

HeadbangToday: Give us your opinions on:

The recession…

Mind Assault: It’s a real ball breaker. It’s placed insurmountable obstacles in our path at a time when we felt that the fruits of our labor have become ripe for the plucking. I’m sure we are not the only band to feel this way.

Zuma…

Mind Assault: Not much to say about Zuma. We find Julius Malema much more entertaining.

Future manned missions to Mars…

Mind Assault: Sign us up. We will bring metal to the Martians.

A dead frog…

Mind Assault: I s something we’d like to place in Jacques’ underwear drawer – as payback for that horrible green and purple frog shirt that he has worn at gigs where he wanted to get under our skin. Where did he get that thing anyway?

Slipknot…

Mind Assault: The new album is pretty cool. It seems to be headed in a much more traditional metal direction with the introduction of soloing and more groove orientated riffage. The older stuff was a bit too fresh for our old-school tastes. Except for Donovan – he tried to get me into Slipknot back in 2001 already, way before Mind Assault was even a blip on the radar.

Cape Town …

Mind Assault: Home, Sweet Home. The ocean, the mountains, the sunsets in Winter. We have a life here, with friends beyond count and the metal scene treats us well. If only it were a little bigger.

HeadbangToday.com…

Mind Assault: We’re looking forward to seeing where the site goes with growth and development. As always, it is a pleasure to see any initiative which will build towards sustainability for the alternative to mainstream. Well done!

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INTERVIEW BY:

scream@headbangtoday.com

Official Headbang Today.com Podcast 1

DOWNLOADING INSTRUCTIONS:

Download our first podcast featuring a selection of artists that we have featured, interviewed and reviewed during the coarse of this year.

8 headbanging tracks, conveniently mixed into one metal podcast!

Instructions:

Click The Link Below

1. http://www.mediafire.com/headbang

OR CLICK HERE –>

Download From FileFactory!

2.  Headbang!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TRACKLIST:

~~~~~~~~~~

Track No. – Band Name – Song Title – Album Title – Where to buy it.

1. (00:15sec) The Hollow – The Hollow – Album Coming Soon – http://www.headbangtoday.com/The-Hollow.html

2. (4:30min) Stone Drive – Breathe - A Moment Of Weakness – http://www.myspace.com/stonedrive

3. (8:00min) Juggernaught – Riverside – Act Of Goat – http://rhythmmusicstore.com/store/search.asp?q=juggernaught&x=0&y=0

4. (11:00min) Inner Demons (Featuring Jeff Korn) – Raging Fire – Album Coming Soon

5. (16:15min) Broken Truce – Lying Eyes – Album Coming Soon -

6. (20:13min) Hazy Hamlet – Funeral For A Viking- Forging Metal -http://www.hazyhamlet.com

7. (25:49min) Chromium – Set Me Free – Confessions Of A Hero – http://www.chromium.co.za

8. (30:00min) Soul Sanctuary – Heart Attack – Afterlife – http://www.soulsanctuarymusic.com/buy-now.html

Now before you race down to the comment field to abuse this article with a mindless response,  I would just like to let you know that this is not just another blog about the disastrous effects of illegal downloading nor is it an article to embrace it.

I have gone undercover and joined the forums of a notorious illegal file sharing website and got into heated contact with it’s members just to find out whether they think if there is any ‘sin’ in obtaining their favourite band’s material straight from someone else’s computer!

To start off, for those that do not really know what file sharing is, well, here you go:

(a) File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digitally stored information, such as computer programs, multi-media (audio, video), documents, or electronic books. It may be implemented in a variety of storage, transmission, and distribution models. Common methods are manual sharing using removable media, centralized computer file server installations on computer networks, World Wide Web-based hyperlinked documents, and the use of distributed peer-to-peer (P2P) networking.

While file sharing is not of itself illegal, the increasing popularity of the mp3 music format in the late 1990s led to the release and growth of Napster and other software that, while designed simply to aid in the sharing of electronic files, in practice led to a huge growth in illegal file sharing: the sharing of copyright protected files without permission. Other popular networks include Gnutella, Gnutella2, eDonkey2000, the now-defunct Kazaa network, and BitTorrent.

Many file sharing networks and services, accused of facilitating illegal file sharing, have been shut down due to litigation by groups such as the RIAA and MPAA. During the early 2000s, the fight against copyright infringement expanded into lawsuits against individual users of file sharing software.

The economic impact of illegal file sharing on media industries is disputed. Copyright holders and publishers refer to studies concluding that unauthorized downloading of movies, music and software is unequivocally damaging the economy, although other studies suggest file sharing is not the primary cause of declines in sales. Illegal file sharing remains widespread, with mixed public opinion about the morality of the practice.

Now that sounds pretty interesting don’t you think? It’s nice to know that you can almost instantaneously go and get hold of your favourite song by just searching for artist’s name and their song title – FOR FREE!

But this is not entirely free, you see. It comes at a cost and that price could ultimately be a total collapse in the music industry in the near future, leaving us with nothing but with unprofessional wannabe artists with cheap self produced and low quality music that will ONLY be available online. Or will it?

That is why I went deeper underground and salvaged the following data straight from the horses’ mouths.  I dare not name the torrent website’s name nor the names of my sources, but the following information can be confirmed by artists themselves, should you wish to. I started the topic off in an aggressive manner in order to get the best out of these illegal downloaders. To my surprise, without me getting flamed nor sworn at, these little critters that dwell in the darkness of the file sharing world posed as no threat to my presence in their community and were very sincere in answering all of my questions.

This is what ‘John Doe’ had to say in response to my inquisitive, yet attacking post, demanding answers as to why they would want to destroy their own favourite bands by not supporting them they way they should be supported:

“Dude, why don’t you go back to those bands and ask them how much of all the dollars that the RIAA is currently suing everyone in existence they are actually seeing. They are not even seeing a cent.

Sorry mate, but I’ll keep downloading as much music as I want, and I will spread it to my friends as well who want to hear it before they make the choice to buy it, and encourage them to do the same with their friends and family.

Oh, by the way, I too come from a line of work where I had not only interviewed a lot of bands, national and interstate, but I managed their shows when they toured, and I know from HANDS ON EXPERIENCE, that file sharing is possibly the one single thing that is keeping bands going at the moment. You don’t want to offer them free promo, then good for you. I can tell you that the small minority who are against it don’t know shit. It’s not piracy that will end all, its the friends of the RIAA and all associated that will do the honors for us.”

I could not believe my eyes. Yes, it made sense by all means, but what still remains hazy is the question as to why bands release albums in the first place then? Surely to earn something for their hard work and dedication in the name of musical entertainment.

‘John Doe’ knew better, and shared his insight with us once again:

“The only reason that they release albums is because the record label pays them 99% of the estimated worth of an album, give them some 5 cents per album sold, gives them enough to barely be able to wipe their ass, then tells them to tour to make a living, which the labels score even more money from.

Seriously mate, I know what I’m on about here, and I’m not trying to be an ass. Any artist who says that pirates made them broke is either a fucking liar, or is sexually involved with the RIAA. I respect that you don’t want to download music, good for you, go and give your money to those who are trying to sue our asses off at the moment, I just think that your reasons aren’t that great. The RIAA is making more money off piracy than we are ‘apparently’ taking from the artists. Now, who is the real criminal? I mean, if you really want me to continue, just ask. While you’re at it, go check out the artists who have started releasing their music under a creative commons, and how much their album sales have soared…”

Fair enough, but there are obviously two sides to any story! What about the bands we’ve featured? That’s right, those awesome bands on HeadbangToday.com. Most of them had something to say about illegal downloading too! Our very first interviewed band were StoneDrive, a very talented and energetic band from France. Below is an excerpt from their interview that they had with us:

Stone Drives Interview

Stone Drive's Interview

“(Fab from Stone Drive) : The music industry is collapsing and the whole music distribution system is changing. It’s pretty hard to make it big now or at least it takes a lot of time and perseverance. If you want to be heard, you gotta play hundreds of gigs, be on the road all year long … that’s the hardest part of it.

HeadbangToday: Speaking of the music industry collapsing…How do you feel about downloading music online?

Stone Drive:
(Dave) : Being on music platforms like ITunes or Napster has become absolutely necessary to exist as a band. We’re on ITunes worldwide and it helped us a lot to reach people around the world. It’s the good side of the music business globalization and the real benefit of internet for musicians.
(Fab) : If you mean illegal downloading, it’s part of the game, so to speak. People, mostly young generations, consider illegal downloading like something normal.
We don’t really care as long as people listen to our music. Selling CDs or MP3s doesn’t pay the rent anyway.”

Well there we have it.  As I said before, the music industry seems to be collapsing no matter how glamorous the big stars try and make it seem. The funny part is that it is all in our own hands as fans. We are left with the decision. Do we want cheap under-produced Internet music in the future or would we rather want to maintain what we have now and regain what we had and make an effort into buying an actual Cd of the respective artist. Not only to support them and keep them going, but also so that future generations will inherit that and also want to build up their own collection of music from their favourite artists in whatever format it will be in years to come. Even if it will only be MP3, spending your hard earned cash makes us appreciate it more anyway.

Oh wait, “John Doe” has more to say:

“File Sharing has opened up the way that we experience music in so many ways. Creative Commons, seriously, look at what Radiohead and NIN are doing at the moment, along with a few others that are seeing what a great tool it is. Make your tracks available for free, see your record sales boost. As many people buy albums today as they ever had. The loss figures are just made up in an attempt to scare people away from downloading.’OH NO’ ‘We’re not gonna have music anymore.’

Piracy in music is the biggest lie in music history. Piracy is a word that was created so that people can make more money for nothing. You think that single mother in Minnesota really was worth 2 million dollars for downloading 27 tracks? And how much of that 2 million dollars did any of those artists see? Nothing.

The RIAA only exists so that Lawyers can have a steady stream of work, and the greedy fuckers that exist within the RIAA can buy more rich cars and houses. What about the artists? They still live on tour buses, eat like shit… So, lets give them some free promotion for their work, maybe a few more records will sell, who knows.

Pirating aint anything to do with ripping people off mate. its about standing against those who are ripping the artist off. The artist is the real victim here, and if you are honestly that pissed off about artists losing out, then why not go and bomb the local head office for Sony Music or something. Think of how much they are ripping the artist off. We aint the villains here mate, they are. You can choose to follow suit with every single bit of propaganda out there, or you can stand up with everyone else and encourage change.”

I don’t remember illegal downloading ever being mentioned as a good “change” in any of Obama’s speeches ut then again, none of us in this article so far are American. So why care about change?  What about self produced albums? YES! We have bands that produce, promote and distribute their own albums to cut the middle man out. That means that these artists can actually earn even more if illegal album downloads are crippled. With this in effect, we can then experience more effort from the bands themselves which will result in even better quality driven material. Now another band pointed out that I am also wrong with my above mentioned statement.

While interviewing extreme metallers, Mind Assault from South Africa, whom also produce their own albums, we’ve learned the following:

“HeadbangToday: We’ll be publishing an article soon on the impact that illegal downloading and file-sharing has on the music industry today. Although it’s been embraced by bands such as Radio Head, Slipknot and NIN there seem to be a large majority of bands that still disagree with this. What are your views on illegal downloading of albums?

Mind Assault: With the expense of producing large enough volumes of actual CD stock being so high, downloading serves us very well – legal or not. It increases the reach in getting our music out there and brings attention to our merchandise. We regard the CD market these days as the “follower” rather than the “fan”. There will be loads of fans who like what you do, but followers are the rare breed who will buy all your stuff and show it off to their friends. For those guys, it would be a crime if we did not cater for them, so again, it’s a necessary evil. This does not mean we are discouraging people from buying the CD or paying for their download from a legitimate site – God knows, we need the cash – but we understand that we live in a brave new world.

Creating large stocks of CD’s are a great risk and liability for an underground band. For pop music it may be different… who knows?”

It now seems as if illegal file sharing is a give or take. Once again it is left in our own hands and beliefs. If you still feel illegal downloading is wrong, then you have to remember that bands see it as an opportunity to get their work out there. It’s a medium of exposure, that extra arm that reaches those who wish to try it before they buy it. But if you fully support illegal downloads and it’s the ONLY thing you do, then “John Doe” also has something else for you:

“Ok, lets look at it this way. I will use a real example here. Back when Static X did their album ‘Shadowzone’, their going price was a mere 10k Australian per show. This is all that they are worth. Now, you look at the cost of accommodation in Australia, youre looking at about 150$ per night. For 4 people this is 600$. You then have a staff of 20 – 30 people for a small club tour. Each of these people, depending on experience would get paid some 200$ or so for the night’s work. The qualified would get more. So, lets round that up to say, 4000$, including the cost of a very decent locally booked audio and lighting engineer. Then there is the cost of lighting and audio equipment hire, youre looking at about 3000$ for the night for a fairly average rig that they would carry around per show. Then there is car hire, in Australia, the Toyota Tarago is the vehicle of choice. Youre looking at some 80$ per day to book. Then petrol costs. To drive between cities is cheaper most of the time. Add petrol costs of say 100$ between cities, plus additional hire cars to transport permanent staff. you’re looking at easily an additional 500$ per day. Then you also have the cost of insurance, which I don’t even want to think about this one….

So.. we are looking at 7680$ roughly, before insurance is paid for, plus any additional flights and so on and so forth. For a band of 4 people, you’re looking at that leaving some 5 – 600$ per band member per day. I know less qualified people that earn more.

Then on top of that, their label, who mind you, really should be supporting the artist, takes everything but a measly 5 – 10 cents per record sold. For the average metal band, this generally means nothing more than 2 – 5000$ per year per band member. Whilst the labels will easily take home multi million dollars from an under selling record, and not even give a shit that it hasn’t gone platinum because hey… the CEO gets a new car, who gives a shit? ”

There you have it. You should still support the artist and buy their material if you like it. Whether or not the record label screws them over, if you continue to only download their albums for free and not go to any of their gigs, then the band has lost out whichever way you look at it.

Another featured band, Inastait, from South Africa also backed “John Doe” up with the following during our interview with them:

Headbang Today: What is your outlook on the record industry today? Do you embrace or smite the idea of illegal downloading and why?

Shane:I have mixed feelings about the whole subject. If you download a song illegally, and this inspires you to go buy the bands album, its not such a bad deal for bands, but if people adopt the attitude that they can simply download music without ever having to buy another album, how can bands ever benefit?Sometimes you don’t mind if someone steals your music to listen to, they often pass this on to someone else, and then they pass it on and so on. This can be great exposure for your band and people who might never have heard of you get exposed to your music. But on the other hand, bands and record companies have poured money into the recording and marketing of that music, allot of investment has been made and if you steal that music, how can the industry ever sustain itself? After all, stealing is stealing at the end of the day.

Tiens: Who hasn’t downloaded music illegally? It’s a double edged sword you know. I usually hear of a band, download a track or two and if I like it I buy the album. If I don’t like it I delete the tracks to free space on my hard drive.”

How many downloaders actually do that though?  “John Doe”, an expert in the promotion field and fan of illegal downloading says the following: “I mean, I aint gonna say straight up that you shouldn’t support the industry and all.

I am all for using File Sharing in music as a promotional tool rather than take a risk with all records not knowing if its any good. There is a lot of shit being released these days, and just the same as you wouldn’t pay a shitty electrician to wire up your house, I wont pay full price for music that is sub standard. If the artist delivers, then yeah, I will pay for it. My motto = Pay for it or delete it. If we go and pay for all these records all the time, what will become of file sharing? What will become of this progression in music?”

Good poin and it was rather well put. So do not go and download any of our featured artists’ albums illegally. They deliver, trust us, and their music reach global standards and that is why we are here. HeadbangToday.com will never charge any artist to get featured on our site. We do it for the love of genre and the only thing that we will ever require from our featured bands are to KEEP IT METAL!

If you are a culprit of downloading music illegally, then don’t go and repent your sins, you did it for a good cause and you actually promote the artist by sharing what you’ve just downloaded with your friends. It’s not like you are intentionally harming your favourite band by downloading their material. If it was your intention, then why download it in the first place, right?

The final conclusion though is: If you like what you see or hear, no matter where you got it from, IF YOU DON’T OWN IT, BUY IT. Support our music industry the way it was meant to be supported and help music with it’s constant evolution for the better!