Reinier Schenk
Saille
Thanks, hope you're doing well yourself.
Well, life brings changes: people move, get married or even worse, have children. Those guys don't like being away from home much and they quit after a while. Then you have some guys who are just totally useless, they want to be the rockstar, but are basically acting like dickheads ruining the hard work of the others. We had both unfortunately.
After 10 years and 4 albums you can continue doing the same over and over and over again, but it gets boring at some point. I felt it was enough and musically not challenging anymore. Also, Saille was not interesting for the extreme black metal-head before and at the same time too aggressive for the symphonic subgenres. And those symphonic and classical layers in our music were limited, while we wanted to expand. In my opinion, for me, the essence of metal music is all about drums and guitars, next to the vocals. All the rest is design, extra, ballast, frills and curlicue. Cool, but basically unnecessary.
Not much, besides being annoyed and suffering from the cancel culture for live performances, of course. Other than that I refuse to sit in a corner and cry, waiting until "it is over". It gives us time to look at the past, make things better, record new stuff, think things through and prepare.
We were actually happy all these years at Code666. They were always good for us and we're still in contact. It's like I said, Code666/Aural Music preferred to wait longer and I wanted to release the album asap. I mean, what's the point? We were late already, since we normally release an album every 2 years. Album 6 is almost ready, since we have this overload of time on our hands being at home and I'm pretty sure all other bands are in the exact same position. And since I am in contact with quite some metal labels professionally I asked Black Lion Records first. That's how things go in the small Metal world.
I guess you're referring to releases of other bands? I don't know really. I am not going to say I am absolutely not influenced, because we all get our portions here and there subconsciously, but I can't really point it out. I am definitely influenced by old stuff from Emperor or Dissection, I always hoped my band could sound like Dark Funeral or something like that, but at the same time I am crazy about Morbid Angel, Bloodbath etc. The best recent album for me was Vltimas in 2019, because it was the perfect mix between old and new, black and death influences. Did it influence me? Maybe, at least it pushes me to do better, because that kind of high level albums make you feel bad as a musician, hahaha.
I don't write lyrics, that's not my thing unfortunately, but I am quite fond of the lyrics of Fetid Flesh and Terror Tapestry, which are both gory fairy tales for adults about women devouring men and making clothes or tapestries of their skin and bodyparts. Not the most original tales, but the way how it is written is amazingly cool, creepy and hilarious at the same time.
Well, we are in the amusement business, right? Isn't it all about having a good time, while reality is already shitty enough? Also, who are we kidding, aren't all gory movies funny? We are not political and we most definitely don't have a certain message. We are serious about what we do and how we do it, but not about the content.
It's difficult to explain, because it's like drawing, those things just happen in the process. There is no overthinking and planning. You make something, it sounds cool, you add something and hey, it sounds better. Or not...What I at least wanted to try is making it more interesting along the way, for the listener. Keep the attention, something has to happen music-wise or the listener quits and goes somewhere else. Every song and album has to have an apotheosis, a climax, surprises every now and then, catchy shit so you can bang your head etcetera. Not too much melody here, faster there, deeper there. It's like cooking a great meal for your guests, hoping they want more. And during the years you should get better in this, I think.
The lyrics are written based on the music, so the words fit perfectly on the riffs and the singing style changes according to the necessary feel of that part. That's why you can hear so many singing styles.
Jesse Peetoom is an amazing frontman, which is almost more important than having a good vocalist. Luckily, he is an extraordinary talented singer, he can do it all. On top of that, he plays drums and guitars, so he knows what he is doing as a musician and not just someone who has a cool voice and long hair. I've known him for some years and I regret I didn't ask him earlier. It would have saved us a lot of misery and we would have had better performances in the past. Since he also knows how to make fantastic songs we are working together now for the next album. It is better than what I did so far!
The only new person on this album V is the aforementioned vocalist Jesse. All the others (drums and bass) were in the band for many years. It's true, I'm the only guitar player on this album. For live purposes (oh, the irony in this time) and for the future we have new guys in the band, that's correct. But they didn't appear on this album yet, so I can answer this question after we released our next album, hehe.
Nothing probably. That's also not a goal. In 50 years of metal, fantastic albums have been made already. We can merely try to bring something fresh and we do, we try, but nowadays every kid can record every shit he wants in his bedroom. The competition is killing, it's a tsunami of ideas, riffs and attempts on the internet every day and it gets difficult to stand out. But we made a great album, I'm sure of that and skills + experience will make us stand out
This is one of my favorites. It's fun to play, it has a typically Saille-melody, but I think it's also the least heavy song of the album. It felt like a necessary breathing moment after the speed of the 2nd song and it's quite groovy. It has a Dark Funeral (of the last album) feel in it, which I like.
That is not entirely correct: I have recorded all albums, but mixed only the first two and this last one, yes. We paid shitloads of money for mixing albums 3 and 4, but since no one buys cd's nowadays and everything is streamed and listened to on smartphones, we simply don't have money for that anymore. So, it's back to DIY. I certainly didn't want to sound like all the other albums, I honestly hate artificial guitar- and drum sounds, no reamping guitars and drum replacements like most recordings.... it is difficult, but I tried to make it sound as Saille. I have always been jealous about bands that sound like themselves. You can recognize the sound of AC/DC, Slayer, Pantera, Iron Maiden, Amon Amarth, Carcass and that's great. You don't have to like them, but you recognize their sound immediately. I am aiming for that too, one day.
Well, since we live in three different countries, we can't get together. Not even for a simple band photo or a videoclip. That means improvising. We manage, but it's not ideal. The internet has been a life saver for many occasions, but doing a few release shows would have been better. For the rest we didn't suffer from it during the recordings and mixing process, but it's not ideal either.
It looks bad now, it's a mess. We have some rescheduled gigs, some even postponed twice, but I don't think we will be able to play this year or even the beginning of 2022. I stopped worrying, because as soon as the booking agencies can breathe and festivals are up and running again we will push our asses back in.
Nope. Not going to happen. I have enough of videos with bands playing in their living room and streams of concerts without an audience. I don't even watch them anymore. It's horrible, it sucks and I don't like it. A show is with real people, otherwise it is like having sex with an inflatable doll. The result is the same, but doesn't feel good and looks silly.
Thanks for your time and effort and I'm honestly glad to see you appreciate our hard work! Cheers!
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