RED CIRCUIT INTERVIEW
Chity Somapala is one of the best heavy metal vocalists all around Europe in my opinion. So when he released his latest project, RED CIRCUIT, I of course had to send some questions down to him in Germany ...

Interview by Claus Jensen
1) Let's start by talking about your career so far - you first came to light when you joined the German Avalon … but before that you actually sang with another German band called Court Jester - what can you tell us about the days in that band and how come we never heard of it?

ALL POLITICS IN THIS METAL BUSINESS SUCKS!!!! We were playing a very old styled metal/hard rock concept back then with COURT JESTER, no record label was interested as our sound was too NWOBH. They expected us to do more crossover sound ala Guano Apes/H-Bloxx and etc.. we were not interested at all! I joined the band in 1995 and recorded "Forced to Believe" and received very good reviews! I still don`t understand why nobody was interested in this band, afterwards such bands as Hammerfall/Stratovarius got really famous with that true metal style. I guess if we would have had a great manager.. we would be also in the business today ;-) MONEY MATTERS ALL huh? hahahahahahahahahaha

2) Then you went onto Avalon and did 2 great albums with them - especially the "Eurasia" disc was awesome, and was a highly original album combining European power/prog metal with Asian folklore. Was it your heritage from Sri Lanka that made all that shine through?

THANK YOU!!! Well after all.. with all this frustration trying to create honest music with balls.. I called couple of labels to go on with music after COURT JESTER disbanded as I only live from it! Then Limb has given my number to AVALON guys as limb liked my vocal style and I did go to the studio and recorded the 3rd album of Avalon with Charlie Bauerfeind.. it was succesfull.. afterwards we did "Eurasia" as all members wanted to have an exotic effect on their prog concept :-) so we tried few Asian elements with my influence, things turned out really great.. so we kept it that way :-)

3) After a short stint with an American power metal band, you decided to create your own solo project, the hard rock band Faro. Up until now you've released 2 albums under the moniker Faro. What was the idea for doing this band?

Claus, after AVALON disbanded things changed a lot.. I was everyday thinking to myself "WHAT DA FUCK" I have to go on with it.. so I did meet frank rohles the guitarist during his shows with his queen tribute band (myself as a guest singer), we started FARO as I was trying to calm down a bit from all these heavy/true metal scene. I loved AOR/HARD ROCK since I was a teenager :-) and still do! I`m still a teenager hahahahaha!

4) You then joined a young Swedish band called Moonlight Agony and sang with them on their debut album, "Echoes of Nightmare", and even did a few gigs with them. What can you tell about that band?

These are very young great talented guyz and I did have a great time with them.. but they couldn`t afford all those expenses and that's the reason we separated! I love that album and I wish them only the best… as they took care of me all the time I aw around them and we had great times! Very nice polite guyz!

5) After that you joined melodic metal band Firewind, something that immediately saw you heading for Japan to do a bunch of gigs over there, and then back to Europe for recording the album "Forged By Fire". Unfortunately also that came to an abrupt end, when you 8 months ago announced you were leaving the band - what happened?

When GUS called me up after he got to know about me through DAVID CHASTAIN.. I thought I have a great band going and it was more than great what I thought! Myself,Gus did write great songs together/great friends(in first place).. but somehow things changed! It was really bad luck and this hole will remain forever among both of us! I decided to leave the band after few discussions and etc…ALL I CAN SAY THE DAMAGE IS 50/50 :-)

6) Now you've got together with Markus Teske in RED CIRCUIT - tell us a bit about this band - how did it come together, and what is the purpose of it?

HOLY HELL! LOOOL … well I met markus during AVALON`s "Eurasia" tour in paris as we did support Symphony X! He was doing the "Live" recording for SX back then. After the soundcheck and etc..having lunch he did ask me "Chity are you able to work with me on some songs as I like your voice" I said straight away said to him YES and he did send me some stuff and I worked on it very carefully and I also did visit him few times with my ideas and he agreed! So that's how we created this band! Markus is a amazing charactor and a great musician/producer I must say! I do most of my recordings with him.

7) With RED CIRCUIT I feel that you've once again decided to bring forth some of those Asian influences. It really suits your style, and makes the product very unique. How big a part of you are those influences?

As you know we also worked with Andy Kuntz (vanden plas).. he also helped us a lot with the production and etc.. well most of the music was done by markus and co.. I did mostly the singing lines together with him and some lyrics on certain songs as markus had his crazy vision about mr.klaus kinski :-) hahahahah … I guess it's a great idea!

8) Musically RED CIRCUIT has a lot of melodies as well as more progressive things. It's a really strong disc, and in many ways I think it's a logic continuation of where you left off with Avalon 6 years ago … could you say that you've now done both hard rock and neoclassical stuff, but found your way back into the progressive metal?

To be honest! I have been always a rock singer and I always try to fit into any song how it is constructed! It dpoesn`t matter if it is prog or neoclassical. If it works i`m lucky.. if not.. i`m still lucky huh? hahahahahaha

9) Your next project is called Civilization One - what can you tell us about that?

All in all we all wanna do it as a band not as a project! the songs that we are working on it are sounding a great so far! I love that straight kick ass POWER METAL sound.. I have great musicians with me and I`m really happy with these guyz and I`m sure it`s next generation POWER METAL :-)

10) Thanks for doing this interview - if you have anything to add, feel free to do so …

THANKS A LOT CLAUS :-) you`ve been always a honest/great person and you are one of the tallest guyz i`ve ever seen :-)))))