SuidAkrA // Interview with Arkadius

Interview by: Mary Evans (via email May 2006)

Photographs: Mary Evans // SuidAkrA
Label: Armageddon

Hi Arkadius, first of all I'd like to thank you for taking the time to answer these questions for us... How has this year been so far for SuidAkrA?

2005 was an exciting year for us we played a lot of gigs especially outside Germany for the first time. It was a nice experience to meet SuidAkrA fans in other countries, to talk to them and to learn a bit more about different metal scenes. At the end of the year we started to write the material for the upcoming album Caledonia. Til now it was the most inspiring and creative time we've ever had.

In September last year you played your first show here in the UK (Bloodstock Festival). Were you surprised by the crowd reaction?

The festival was a big success for us. We had a couple of fans in the UK but in general I think the most people discovered SuidAkrA for the first time. We had a lot of fun and the crowd made an amazing party during the gig. We hope that we will have the chance to go back to UK as soon as possible.

Following on from that, I know that a lot of this comes down to promoters, but should we expect to see SuidAkrA back in the UK in the near future?

If we will get the chance to play again in the UK you can be sure to see SuidAkrA live on stage as soon as possible, but as you mention, it depends on promoters who will invite SuidAkrA.

For your latest album, Command to Charge, you changed record labels, from Century Media to Armageddon. How do you think this affected things for you?

After releasing two albums on Century Media we were a bit disappointed with the promotion work and the effect was that the releases disappeared in the press. With Armageddon those things changed.

You also took on a new sound somewhat and for the first time used bagpipes. What gave you the idea to do this?

After releasing six albums we had the feeling that we wanted to do something new, that's why we changed the sound a little, but in my opinion Command to Charge still sounds like SuidAkrA.

We always wanted to introduce bagpipes in our music, because it fits very well, but unfortunately we didn't know anybody who could play them. Shortly before we entered the studio to record Command to Charge Marcus found a bagpipe-player via the internet. That is also the reason for using the bagpipes only in two small parts of the release, but you can be sure it will change on Caledonia.

Where does the Celtic influence come from?

Marcel made music in an Irish folk band before SuidAkrA. After he joined the band in 1995 he brought the influences to SuidAkrA. From this time we had the possibility to keep our sound as varied as we could.

As a band you are currently writing the follow up to Command to Charge. How is this going?

Better than ever! Til now we have finished writing all songs and there are two songs left without vocals.

Can you give us an insight into what direction the album is taking?

The next album is gonna be a lyrical concept album about the picts (the ancient Scottish) and their battle against the Roman Empire. The idea is to figure out the mystical aspect of the old tribe of the picts. There's a lot of space for interpretation and fantasy, because there is not that much historical tradition about them. So the theme we want to focus on, is the coincidence of two completely different worlds... On the one side people who live very close to nature only with oral tradition, and a rich folklore - on the other side an empire, that is heading out to conquer the world with a very effective method, because they used to overwhelm their enemies and then they gave them back some authority and started to mix up their culture with their modern way of life.

Musically the next record will be more into melodic / folk / death metal with a lot of bombastic parts. This time we are gonna introduce much more keyboards and bagpipes than on the previous releases.

The new album also sees the return of Marcel to the band… do you think this will make any major differences?

Definitely because on the one hand Marcel is responsible for all lyrics and on the other Marcel and I wrote six albums together before, so you can say we are a good song writing team… Every person is an inspiration for the other and it has a very good effect on the song writing.

Caledonia was scheduled for an Autumn release… is this still the case?

Our label's plan is to release Caledonia at the end of October and for now there are no changes planned.

Ok, we've already touched on the song writing aspect, but can you tell me more about who the main writers are for the band? Is it a democratic process?

Mostly the first ideas are written on the guitars before we enter the rehearsal room to work on them together. Every band member brings his own ideas and suggestions into the song writing process and a SuidAkrA song is finished when every person is 100% satisfied with the result, so I would say it is a democratic process. After the songs are musically finished we start to introduce vocals, keyboards and other stuff like the bagpipes for example.

Who are your main influences, both personally and as a band?

In both cases the influences changed from the beginning of SuidAkrA til now. I think you can hear that in all our releases. At the beginning we were more influenced by black, melodic, eeath bands like Emperor, Dissection or In Flames but it turned more into the folk / death style and bands like Blind Guardian or Skyclad but also some folk traditional stuff.

If I was to ask you to describe your sound, say to someone who'd never heard you before, what would you say?

A well balanced mixture of folk and death metal!

And which album, from your catalogue, would you suggest they listened to first?

I would suggest Caledonia at first to see how SuidAkrA sounds nowadays and after that to listen to the whole band discography backwards and end with the first record Lupine Essence.

You've previously had guest vocalists, if you could collaborate with anyone else, who would it be? and why?

James Hetfield before he stopped drinking alcohol :)

The band started out in 1994 and has seen some line up changes, and obviously some change in direction with the style of music, what has the highlight been so far?

For me the biggest highlight is playing on stage, releasing seven records and the fact of still having a band after twelve years with my best friends as band members. If somebody had told me those twelve years ago I wouldn't have believed it.

And lastly, do you have a message for your UK fans?

First of all I want to say thanks to all who supported SuidAkrA in the past and to all who made Bloodstock such an amazing event for us. Check out our next record Caledonia which will be released in October 2006. Keep on banging!

I'd just like to take this opportunity to wish you all the best with the new album and thank you for doing this interview for MusicXtra. As I'm sure your fans in the UK agree, we look forward to seeing you out here again soon!

Thank you a lot for the interview and your support. We also looking forward to kicking some UK-asses again :) HAHAHAHA