Interviews: A Chat With MIND’S EYE’S Drummer Daniel Flores
Posted on Friday, October 05 @ 11:10:21 EDT
Topic: Interviews
|
Daniel Flores
and the Eye of the Hurricane
by Tommy “Hashman” Hash
In these days of many progressive metal bands going the way into symphonic territories – it’s almost like a breath of fresh air when you hear the stripped down approach (if you really can say that) where the emphasis is on the melody and not the playing. Sure we love our playing, but the art seems to get lost sometimes. Keeping the melodic spirit alive are bands like Age of Nemesis, Sphere of Souls, Circus Maximus, Stride, Vox Tempus, and of course Mind’s Eye, who have released four records so far, with each one outdoing the last.
Their latest record, A Gentleman’s Hurricane is an elaborate concept album, created by a tight nit group of only three guys (vocalist Andreas Novak, guitarist/bassist Johan Niemann, and drummer/keyboardist Daniel Flores). The concept is so elaborate, that a comic book comes with the disc (as well as a ‘making of’ DVD), however, the music on the record remains accessible, not going on some elaborate tangent, following the same formula that Operation: Mindcrime did almost twenty years ago, where the music has hooks & catchiness, with all the technical elements put in the right place at the right times.
Flores, who is a multi-faceted engineer/producer/musician in his own right, has appeared on many different projects (including Benny Jansson, Deacon Street, Hubi Meisel, etc…), starts out by explaining how this (elaborate packaging) idea actually came about by the frustration with all of the piracy going on out there and to really bring their own niche to saturated world of music marketing, “Well, I came up with it but I had to ventilate it with the others in the band to see if they where on the same insane train I'm on right now,” begins Flores, “I'm just so fed up with the fact that allot of young guys feel that downloading is a natural thing to do. This package is made to prevent guys with computer fast finger on downloading our album.”
“It’s getting harder and harder to sell albums these days and it's up to us to bring in something new into the table. We can't just make good music these days; we have to break away from that fundamentalist of making a music package. We just came up with something that is as cool to listen to as to watch. Next time we will take this concept of cinematic feeling further... only the one's who can foresee the future know what we have up our sleeves.”
The evolution has been natural for the band since their first two more ‘grassroots’ oriented progressive metal albums, both A Work of Art & Waiting for the Tide to last years elaborate Walking on H2O, all the way up to the ambitious A Gentleman’s Hurricane, however, they keep their development at their own comfortable pace, still keeping the songs entact. “We have all developed, but not too much in the technical department IMO,” says Flores, “Yes, we have matured and yes we have taken a step outside our usual playing field but as pro musicians we have since a long time been known to been able to take on many tasks musically. The drumming on this album is not the hardest workout you'll ever hear, I have done more technical parts on other peoples albums because in our music it's not necessary. I think I'm speaking for all the guys in the band when I say that we all play for the song and only do what’s necessary for it. Our egos are not even there when we create songs. That's why we did the DVD with all the extra things in it, just to showcase the fact that we just play around and what we record is mostly jammed in the studio.”
“What we have learned trough all of this (evolution) is that if you don't have a good song, no hot drum fill or equilibristic guitar solo will help that song become better. It's all about the song.”
And when asked if they have ever wanted to do concept album like this, Flores surprises us by saying, “We never wanted to do concept albums, why? Mainly because we are lazy guys and making concept albums take time... Today we are (like I told you) different persons and a task like a concept record just felt right. Also to have a good story is very important, my lyrics have developed allot since the time with Fredrik G. on guitars so I could see my self take that looooooooong road this time.”
The story is apparently 80% fact/20% fiction, where he the drummer says that the main character (an assassin) has a big burden of guilt to carry saying “the assassinations are taking from actual facts and used to fit the story. I didn't redo these stories i just put someone in it. You know like that Forest Gump movie when he is in all these historical clips. That's how I saw my character, he was there when it happened.”
The band made a video for the track “Feed my Revolver,” where they worked with producers Fredrik Englund and Viktor Blanke, gaining a whole new respect for the who audio/visual aspect scheme of things. “It was a lot of fun,” elaborates Flores, “It's out first video and damn it's hard work I have gained respect for all people on MTV now. Anyway, that day when we filmed the band sequences the studio was freezing cold because of the heater shut down. There we where freezing our bums off trying to rock it out you know but luckily I play drums so I kind of got warm after a while the other guys where like two little snowmen. I learned allot by doing this video and next time we do something I will be more prepared as it's hard work.”
“(The reason we chose to work with both Englund and Blanke) was because of the huge talent both these guys hold. Fredrik has done some extraordinary things with graphics and Viktor has a great talent for movement so for me, that's all I need to hear. This is Fredrik's third or fourth video and he is really getting allot of great credit around the world for this video.”
“(As for another video) we are currently speaking about doing a new song but taking a step away from that cartoon thing; maybe something darker. Keep checking our site or the Lion Music site for more info on that.”
As far as a following up this release, the band has their ideas on the table and it might stay on the same past as Hurricane. “Johan has a great musical direction for the band and I have a good lyrical idea for it,” states Flores, “I will also try to incorporate more cinematic feeling to the story. We have some awesome ideas and ideas never heard of before. We will take this thing to a whole new level and push it as hard as we can.”
“There is a certain kind of responsibility when you release an album like A Gentleman's Hurricane and I want people to always know that when Mind's Eye is making something new they can bet their bums on that it will be something spectacular. What I said may sound cocky but that's the only way I will have it, there is no point in doing something 50%. For me it's always 100%.”
In closing, there are some tour dates in the works for next year, as for what that tour will include, ideas for that are currently in the discussion process as well, “We have some cool ideas for the tour and we will soon discuss them with our label,” concludes Flores, “a video screen would be cool but we will try to avoid the usual picture in the back of the band thing.”
Copyright: 2007 Tommy Hash for Ytsejam.com
CLICK HERE to read a review of A Gentleman’s Hurricane
CLICK HERE to read a review of Walking On H2O
CLICK HERE to read a review of A Work of Art
CLICK HERE to read a review of Waiting for the Tide
Please Also Visit:
The Official Mind’s Eye Website
Mind’s Eye at MySpace
The Official Daniel Flores Website
The Lion Music Website
Lion Music at MySpace
|
|
Find more news in our archives...
Advertise on Ytsejam.com
| |
Share
|
Video Channel
Shout Box
The Staff
Archives
