Arkadius

AM : First, a question about the past: you were signed on the very big label Century Media, now you're on the smalle Armageddon, what are the differences between these ? Is Suidakra better on Armageddon ?

Arkadius : Armageddon do a really good job for us. All in all we are of course happier with them than Century Media, because they stand behind our music.
When we finished the rehearsal recordings for the “Command To Charge” album and sent them the pre-recordings, Century Media didn’t like the new material, and gave us the opportunity to write a new album that sounds more folk influences or could finish the cooperation. We as a band stand behind the music we made and there was no doubt for us to split with Century Media.
It was a good decision, because SuidAkrA as a band was for Century Media a small thing, so we were a small number of many (bigger) bands there.

AM : How about the composition of the new album ? Is Arkadius the main compositor ?

Arkadius : No, every bandmember is 100% involved into the songwriting process. The first ideas are of course written on the guitars, than every member works on those ideas to figure out if that works. After that we all meet together in the rehearsal room to combine all this and a song is finished when every member is satisfied with the final result. It is a very democratic way of songwriting. There is no special person who chooses the songs it’s a majority decision.

AM : Listening to "Caledonia" is nearly like watching a film or reading a story, there are many variations in the moods and music, it's epic, then aggressive, then melancholic, etc...

Arkadius : Yeah I agree with you. We try to keep our sound as various as we can and want to create this epic and melancholic atmosphere at the same time. I really think that "Caledonia" is our most compact and best worked out album since ever. We worked at that album much more on details and song structure than on other releases.
We were completely in a flow of inspiration and everything worked perfectly. Of cause, we had some songs that we didn´t liked that much in the beginning but after some time than we found some ways to give them the right shape. But thats normal because some songs simply need some time to ripen.

AM : The clean vocals are really better than in the past, how do you ditribute the vocals between aggressive and clean ones ?

Arkadius : It is also a method for us to bring some fresh wind into the songs and create different atmospheres. During Marcel’s break he started a new project, but without any ambitions for success, just for fun - it sounds like "Black Label Society" or "Clutch" and he did only the vocals. This turned out very positive for Suidakra, because he focused himself to improve his singing and surprised us all when we did the first recordings in the rehearsal room. So this is the reason why we introduced his voice much more into the new record than on the previous ones.

AM : Who are the producer and engineers who recorded "Caledonia" ?

Arkadius : After recorded 4 albums at the Stage One Studio we had the feeling to try something else, we needed a fresh wind. And we found all this in Gernhart Records Studio and producer Martin Buchwalter. We have more time to records there are no time limits and Martin is a great producer that is very open minded for some new ideas. This time it was the second time for us and we had a lot of fun.
Working with Andy was always great but after a few albums, we had the desire to look for a new studio, and there were some reasons for that. On the one hand it was of course the studiobudget. In the new Studio we have much more options to realize our visions without making compromises. We couldn’t put any acoustic songs on our “Sings For The Fallen” album for example because of that. On the other hand Martin is much more open for new ideas, while Andy had after 3 SuidAkrA albums his own special sound in his mind and it was hard for us to change something.
Martin is still a active musician and his priority is to record the best album he can.

AM : Who plays the bagpipe, a member of the band or session musician ?

Arkadius : It is a session musician. Axel Römer, who is a professional piper, is responsible for the bagpipes on the “Caledonia”. We worked with him on Command To Charge for the first time. It was the something new for us and we involved the bagpipes after the songs were already written. This time we introduced them into the songwriting, so we wrote special melody lines for the bagpipes. Axel is also a good friend of the band, and it’s always fun working with him together. We asked him to be part of the “The IXth Legion Video” and he accepted immediately. We decided to introduce the bagpipes to our music because it fits to our style and lyrical concept.

AM : "Caledonia" talk about the war between picts of Scotland and the Romans. What gave you the will to talk about this ? What is the message you want to spread ?

Arkadius : Well this ancient stories were part of our music since Marcel joined the band in 1996. He had, and still has, great interest in Celtic history and mythology and when we started to mix our music with folk elements it was just clear that our lyrical way also had to pick up this theme. We did with "Lays from afar" our first concept album where we had a fantasy story that was much inspired by Celtic myths and on "Emprise to Avalon" we had a story which has a real tradition that we mixed up with fantasy to get a good story. Just like the different styles that make our music, Marcel is very anxious to combine different lyrical aspects: there are Celtic myths which are flavoured with some historical facts and fantasy but on the other side he always tries to give it a deeper meaning in some political, social or philosophical way. The "Caledonia" theme is a good example for this, because it has a historical background but it is also completely mixed with oral tradition and a lot of facts got lost during the time. This is a good base for inspiration and a good story... But when you focus the theme it is absolutely necessary to understand also the political situation to get a imagination of how they lived during this time. You can find this deeper meanings in most of our songs - there are only few exceptions where the lyrics just have to create a specific atmosphere or have to express a feeling..
I’m in the opinion that when you haven’t got something to say you should not write lyrics! Do you know the song "Penny Dreadful" of Skyclad? There is a very cool passage that says: " Stand your ground behind the times and refuse to follow fashion. Write your poetry with anger and then sing it with a passion"

AM : What are your plans for 2007?

Arkadius : First of all finishing the promotion and play as much live as we can! We have a lot of gigs confirmed for 2007 in Russia, Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland, Serbia & also in Italy. So as you can see there will be many chances to catch SuidAkrA live next year ;-)
Beside that we are planning to release our first Live DVD at the beginning of 2007!

AM : Thanks for this interview, all the best for Caledonia, now the last word is yours!

Arkadius : Thank you for the interview and I want to say thanx to everybody who support us. Check out our new album “Caledonia. You can watch our first video clip on www.suidakra.com and another studio video on www.myspace.com/suidakra
Keep on Metal !!