NEVERMORE INTERVIEW

Nevermore has, if any, become the biggest thing out there in the late nineties. When I had the chance to talk to main man Warrel Dane, nobody needed to ask me twice, so here's what came out of my half hour audience:

Interview by Lars F. Larsen

First off, let me begin with a big "congratulations" on your new album.

"Thank you!"

For this record, you have changed the producer. With the knowledge that you have used Neil Kernon for all your other albums, it seems like a big change to use Andy Sneap in stead?

"Well, we did 3 albums with Neil, and we decided that we wanted a different approach to this album, since we had recently become streamlined down to a 4-piece, we decided that we wanted someone who could really bring forth the guitars more, and make them as heavy and in-your-face as possible. Since Andy Sneap is a guitar player himself, he was the logical choice for us."

What did Mr. Kernon think about that?

"We still speak to Neil. He has just listened to the album, and thinks it sounds great. He thinks we made the right decision himself, so …"

How long time did you spend in the studio?

"We were there from July 3rd until July 31st, so just the better part of that month."

That's actually a short time for a band of your size?

"Oh yeah, I know. We work fast."

After listening to the lyrics from your previous albums, it seems to me that you are very "anti- American" in your view?

"Oh, it's not really "anti American" - it's more like "anti system", I think. There's some very serious problems with the justice system in America, actually all over the World, but I'm obviously more focused on what's going on in my own country, since I live there."

It appears to me that every time you put out something new, it doesn't sound as good as the previous material, but then it begins to grow, and after some 5 - 6 spins, it always precedes the previous record. How do you manage to write those "getting under your skin" songs all the time?

"Ha ha, I don't know. It just comes out naturally I guess. I think that for this album in particular Jeff and I were a little more focused on creating songs that were more memorable, and more catchy. We did the concept thing with our last album, so many people expected us to do it again on this one, but I think that when bands get their minds set on every record being a concept record, it gets so boring, so this time we decided to make a "balls out - HM record"."

Which brings me on to the next question: I know a lot of people who likes your music, and that includes non-metallers, who normally listens to Britney Spears or Ricky Martin.

"WHAT?!"

I'm not lying to you. A lot of my friends who listen to that crap, also listen to Nevermore, and like a lot of your songs! Have you thought about making a video for MTV for "Heart Collector" or "Believe In Nothing"?

"I do believe that we'll do a video for "Believe In Nothing". Hopefully MTV will play it."

I'll call them and threaten them to do it, hehe…

"Well, I'm not gonna hold my breath…"

No, that's unfortunately not the way it works. About the lyrics: What does "Narcosynthesis" mean?

"Narcosynthesis is a term used in psychiatry, for people being treated for severe neurosis with narcotics. What I'm referring to in the song is, how people in life will self medicate themselves to escape their problems, and it poses the question when you're doing this, when you're being self destructive: What are you searching for? What do you want to get out of it, and does it really help in the long run, or does it actually destroy your mind?"

So are we talking drugs here, or "mind drugs"?

"There can be many different kinds of narcosynthesis, I think. It could be someone sitting at home with a bottle of alcohol, drowning themselves,- it could be someone with a bag of cocaine, doing it 5 days straight,- it could be someone doing heroine. It's meant to be ambiguous that way."

What's "Evolution 169" about?

"Hehehe, that's a secret!"

You can't have secrets in this business!

"Ok, the title refers to something that deals with chaos mathematics, and that's one of those songs that I'd kind of like people to walk away with something different, you know when each person listens to it. Some times when I'm writing lyrics, I don't want them to be so defined. I want them to be a little vague, so… it was more entertaining for me when I was a kid and I was listening to my favorite bands - I loved to trying to figure out what exactly the lyrics meant."

What did you listen to yourself when you were a kid?

"Well, we've got the holy trinity of Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath and Judas Priest. "

How old are you (sorry for asking)?

"33."

What about Metallica then?

"Well, old Metallica of course. I think their old stuff is still a huge influence in Nevermore. You know, I have to respect them for what they are doing now, coz' they are still doing great rock music. It's just not metal anymore. Let's call 'em rockallica."

Well, actually you've got the perfect clone of Kirk Hammet in your band!

"We do?"

Yeah, Van Williams is definitely the evil twin!

"HAHAHA. Oh my God, people tell him, he looks like Tom Araya, Kirk Hammet and one more that I can't remember. He hates it when people say that. I think it's funny though!"

What's your opinion about Napster/Mp3 files and all that shit? - The fact that sometimes, the songs are on the net before the record is out?

"You can't stop it - that's my opinion. I don't really think it's gonna hurt our record sale. At this point, I think if anything, it's actually free promotion. I mean, I know that our new album is not released yet (at the time of this interview), and that the whole thing is available on Napster. THAT, I don't agree with. I don't think the whole thing should be there, but there's nothing you can do about it at this point. Metallica is suing them at the moment, but I don't see how they are suffering. Their bank accounts aren't suffering because of Napster. I don't understand that whole line of thinking."

Yeah, but how about the smaller bands, who have only released one or two albums?

"I'm not really sure about that, coz' you can look at it two ways. You can think: "This is free promotion" or you can think: "This is really going to hurt our record sales". Now, our last CD "Dreaming Neon Black" was available through Napster, and that record went on to outsell all our previous records, so I don't think it hurt us."

How much has it sold until now?

"Approximately??? Have you ever dealt with a record company that you don't get approximate numbers."

Actually, I have…

"They'll tell you country by country. I don't have a list in front of me, but I think it's somewhere between 80.000 and 100.000 worldwide."

Are you going on tour with this album?

"Of course. We start October 31st 2000 in the US with Fates Warning, (THAT TOUR GOT CANCELLED, red.), and we have some other possibilities in the States that are still being worked on, and I think by next year we'll be touring Europe. "

So there's a possibility of some festival jobs next summer?

"Oh definitely!"

Ok, I'll write Roskilde and tell them to put you on the bill.

"We already had offers for some of the festivals next year."

What about a new guitarist. Are you searching, or will you let Jeff handle things from now on?

"Well, he did the whole album himself as you've probably noticed. I don't think we'll be able to play these songs live with only one guitarist, so we'll need a tour guitarist. His name is Kern Murphy. He's playing in a Seattle band called "Aggression Core", and he has done some touring with us before Tim Calvert joined the band. His stage presence is unbelievable. He's like a maniac on stage, so it's going to be cool to have that vibe again. "

About touring: What is the situation in the States? I mean, every time we talk to American people, they say that there's nothing left of the metal scene over there?

"It's changing. It's not shit anymore. Last year we did a split tour with Mercyful Fate and it reaffirmed my belief of a HM underground in the States, because those were some big shows and it was just awesome to see that a band like Mercyful Fate can still pull in a 1000 people a night in the States, which really surprised me. I'm really hopeful for the future, and "Dreaming neon Black" did really well in the States, and we didn't expect it to - not at all! It doubled the sales of "Politics Of Ecstacy", and hopefully this one will do that too. So we'll tour as much as possible, and brainwash America into listening to Heavy Metal again. Let's get out of this stupid alternative rock dish they have been wallowing in for the last 5 years."

What's the difference between the crowds in Europe and the States?

"The crowds are pretty much the same these days. The crowds in the States are sometimes a little crazier. They are still doing this moshing pit thing. They don't really do that in Europe anymore."

Who would you compare yourself the most to. Dream Theater or Pantera?

"That's a trick question!"

It is…

"Hahaha…and here's a trick answer: I think we maybe have elements of both those bands, but I don't think you can define us to any of those particular styles."

What would be your favorite band to do a gig with?

"I'd like to play with Anathema - that would be cool. I'd like to play with Iron maiden, DAMN IT! I'd love to do the Rob Halford tour. There's tons of bands I can think of."

Britney Spears???

"I don't wanna TOUR with her. I'm pretty sure, I can find other interesting stuff to do with/to her -hahahaha."

…hahaha…..Without throwing mud at anyone, what would be the worst band to tour with?

"Creed!"

I don't know that band…

"GOOD!"

Here's another trick question. It's 2001/2002. You're doing your next album, and your first producer on Sanctuary, Dave Mustaine, is going to produce the album. What would he be able to give Nevermore?

"I really have no idea. I haven't talked to the guy in years. I don't even know if he's still producing bands, but I think at this point of our careers, it probably wouldn't be good to go back to having someone like Dave Mustaine produce a record for us, because back at that fase, people would say that we'd only sell records because his name were on it, and that wouldn't gain us anything today. The reason why we didn't use Dave on the 2nd album was, that we felt we had to prove ourselves on our own."

The two Sanctuary records were released on Epic, and now you're on Century Media, which is still kind of an underground label. Would you be better off on a major label today, like Sony.

"Well, my experience with Sony was so horrible that I'd have to say we're better off now. That's a double edged sword, because a major label has a lot more power - distribution wise, getting your records out to the stores everywhere, whereas a smaller label like Century Media, really knows the underground, and covers all the underground. A good example is, when I did interviews back then for Sony. The volume of them were far less. When we signed with Century Media, I had 100s of interviews for the first Nevermore record, and some of these people would tell me: "When you were in Sanctuary, I requested an interview with you at the record company, and they told me that it just wasn't possible"…! And I'm thinking: "Wait, this record company wants to promote the record, so we can sell the product and make money for them, and they're telling this fanzine that they can't have an interview"! I didn't understand the logic to that. That's the major difference between the majors, and for instance Century Media. The majors consider fanzines - even the bigger ones - worthless."

About the cover. I've noticed that all your covers, except for the first one, are compound pictures. Very diffuse. Is that your ideas, or does the artist have free hands?

"Well, Travis (Smith), pretty much had free hands to do whatever he wanted to do, although we were kind a picky about what we wanted on the cover. I wasn't really sure what I wanted, and we kept moving back and forth with ideas. Then he sent the latest one with this man growing out of the tree, with a rotten hole where his heart should be, and then I send him the lyrics for the title track, and he went: "Oh my God", coz' he had never listened to the lyrics before, and the lyrics are perfectly expressed by the cover artwork."

Last question: What's your favorite beer?

"My favorite beer??? That would be something called an Erdinger Hefeweizen (German beer brewed on wheat - tastes REALLY good). It's a Bavarian beer."

Yeah I know, I drink that myself.

"It's fucking great!!!!"

Yeah, with a lemon slice on top.

"I just had a glass half an hour ago."

Talking about Bavaria. One more question then: Do you ski?

"YES, I do. I haven't though for a few years, because of all the touring all the time. But in Seattle it's really easy, coz' you can drive 40 minutes out of the city, and you can be at a ski resort. We have about 5 or 6 ski resorts that are really close to the city. My next thing is, that I wanna get into snowboarding, coz' I've never really done that."

NOOOOOOO, don't do that.

"It looks fun though…"

Yeah, but skiers hate snowboarders.

"I KNOW that."

Well Warrel, Thank you very much for spending your time with Intromental Webzine, and good luck with the album.

"Thank you, and good bye Lars."