Interviews: Interview with DAY SIX Guitarist Robbie van Stiphout
Posted on Tuesday, June 29 @ 10:42:44 EDT
Topic: Interviews
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Day Six:
Dark Grandeur
by Tommy “Hashman” Hash
Offering up darkened, melodic progressive metal, Day Six comes about with an impressive record. Filled with darkened overtones, melodic soundscapes, and an abundance of heavy riffage - this band knows how to keep their melodic vision in focus. Hailing from the Netherlands, this quartet has unleashed The Grand Design, a concept album that tells a story while keeping the music accessible with each tune standing out on it's own, similar to the way Operation: Mindcrime molded everything together, where nothing gets harsh to distract from the music - as the concept's presence enhances the music and lyrical depth, bringing more than just an assortment of songs to the table.
With the sheer atmospheric vibe of "Lot Identity" & "A Soul's Documentary" and the blatant metallic edge of "Castel Gandolfo" &"7th Sign" the clean glistening crescendo axework collides the thick wall of sound crunch with the sheer intensity of the challenging rhythmic overtones hearkening the melodic prog-metal sounds of Sphere of Souls, Age of Nemesis, and Circus Maximus. Guitarist Robbie van Stiphout speaks about how all this came together.
"It all started back in 1993 when Dolf van Heugten (synths) and myself (guitars/vocals) started a band called King of Darkness," begins van Stiphout , "Drummer Daan Liebregts joined the band in 1997 and the last line-up change was in 1999 when bass guitar player Nick Verstappen entered the band. These four musicians now form the current band line-up. Over the years, our music slowly and naturally changed from symphonic metal to progressive rock/metal."
The Grand Design marks a 180-degree turn in two ways for the band, one is that the album has a more in-your-face dark metal edge, leaving a lot of the overt symphonic metal overtones of their debut behind - also this conceptual album brings a heightened lyrical depth to the record. "The first full length album we've recorded in this band line-up was a symphonic metal album. The songs were separate stories, based on myths, and are told through symphonic musical atmospheres as well as through the lyrics." explains van Stiphout , "With The Grand Design, it was different in many ways. We've started writing this album in 2005 and even released two of the songs as a demo that year. In 2006 we did the pre-productions followed by the final recordings. We wanted to record everything in our own studio, so we had all the time to do it right. Split Second Sound placed the microphones and adjusted the sound, and later mixed and mastered everything. The Grand Design is a concept album. We wanted to stretch this concept through the music as well as the lyrics. Some melodies on the album are heard throughout different songs, and in the lyrics there are references to other tracks. The album has an overall lyrical theme, but each song is a separate chapter in the whole."
And the story behind the concept? "The idea for the story was based on the book Chariots of the Gods by Erich von Däniken. And furthermore, the lyrics are inspired by many theories, (historic) facts, documentaries and other sources like the Mayan calendar," states van Stiphout, "It was an interesting challenge to experiment with this way of writing an album instead of writing separate songs, each telling different tales. Having a concept in the back of your mind when writing music gave the album a certain goal, a sense of completeness even before we finished writing it."
Besides the standard guitar, bass, drums, keys, & vocals being in the mix - additional textures of female vocals and a sax solo were also brought in to enhance the album's melodic vibe as van Stiphout now explains, "We've worked with many other musicians on our previous albums, such as a 30 piece female choir, so the idea for guest musicians wasn't new. With The Grand Design, we wanted to accentuate certain vocal parts and add a female energy to it. The saxophone solo you can hear on "Lost Identity" replaced an organ solo – the organ solo was originally on the demo for this song and was replaced by the sax on the final recording. The ideas for this came from experimenting and trying out what would eventually fit best."
Within the circle of the core of the band, there is an additional fifth element that contributes to third songwriting circle, Tiny van Stiphout has been their from day one to supply an extra mind to Day Six, "Tiny has helped the band since the beginning. He came up with the idea for the concept of the album, and also did the photography and artwork. He created the soundscapes you can hear on the album, and during the recordings he was the producer and engineer, together with Myself."
Inked with Lion Music, the band's outlet for their musical efforts has been expanded with the label's promotion team, "We were advised by Roel van Helden (the drummer from Sun Caged) to get in touch with Lion Music. When we did, they were enthusiastic about our music and now they're giving us the chance to reach a wider audience through the worldwide release of the album."
Finally planning on hitting the road, the band is ready to present their stage set to the masses - they do have some mileage behind them playing dates around their native Netherlands, "After years of being too busy with the album to tour, we're planning new concert dates" hints van Stiphout, "For our 10th anniversary party, we've used a video screen in our show to make the songs stories come across, and we plan to do this more on future shows. We really want to play and present our album live! We've done some really nice gigs since that year. The Netherlands has a few good festivals of the genre, like Progpower Europe. These are the kind of concerts in our own country where our music is best received, because the audience are true prog-enthusiasts, from all over the world. But we've noticed that for example in the UK (where we've toured last year), the people in general can appreciate and listen to our music much better than on an average gig in The Netherlands."
Even though they might be taking it one day at a time with the new album and touring plans, the band is still looking forward to the future as van Stiphout concludes, "Promoting “the Grand Design” of course, touring, and we're busy writing the next album. Hope to see you at one of our shows!"
Copyright & Publishing: 2010 Tommy Hash for Ytsejam.com
Please Visit:
Day Six Website
Day Six at MySpace
Lion Music
Lion Music at MySpace
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