Interview mit Glen Drover von Eidolon

Ein Interview von gargantouas vom 28.03.2003 (13329 mal gelesen)
As many of you may have read on my review of ‘Coma Nation’, Eidolon really impressed me with their last release. I wasn’t familiar with their past, so this record came by surprise. Powerful songs, riffs and melodies sum up a real masterpiece. Glen Drover took the time out of his busy schedule to answer to my questions.

  Hi Glen. Really thanks for taking time to answer to my questions, since I know that you have a lot of work –we are going to discuss about it later. For now I want to congratulate you for ‘Coma Nation’ since it is a killer album. I searched quite a lot on the internet for reactions, and I haven’t seen a bad comment for this record. You must be happy for it? Did ‘Coma Nation’ opened new recognition roads for the band?

Glen Drover:   Yeah, We have gained a lot of new fans with this one and we are all very proud of that album for sure!

 I don’t know if you have read my review, but as I wrote there, all the Metallica fans that are disappointed by their new direction, should buy this record. I feel that ‘Coma Nation’ is a perfect follow-up and to the standards of records like ‘Master of Puppets’, having also this 80’s feeling. Of course all this, with Eidolon maintaining a personal kick ass sound. Do you agree on that? Can you please also identify the influences that led you to the writing of ‘Coma Nation’?

Glen Drover:   Thanks for the high compliment!! As far as influences on the album, we have so many and we treat every album the same, we never try to sound exactly like someone else, although you are always going to hear similar things through inspiration. We just try to put our stamp on what we do to try to have some identity.

 You and your brother (Shawn Drover) are mainly responsible for the music right? I have to ask you about this epic, called ‘Within the Gates’. How did this come up? Did you sit down and said, ok now we are going to write a 19 minute song or did it came up as a need?

Glen Drover:   Both Shawn and I talked of writing a long piece, but we didn’t target a specific time, we just went with the flow and it came out to around 19min. we are all very proud of that track, it’s actually one of my favorites!

 Was there a tour for ‘Coma Nation’? I was unable to find anything about it, just know that you did a few gigs in Canada, if I am not mistaken. Either way, how was that tour and please tell me about your experience on Wacken. It must have been great!

Glen Drover:   Well, as far as Wacken, we have not played that festival yet. [Editorial Note:’Stupid Me, confused the festivals.’] We did the ‘Bang your head’ festival in Germany back in 2001, which was amazing! And we will be playing Wacken this summer, which we are all very excited about!! As far as touring for Coma Nation, we only did a handful of shows. One show was a festival in Montreal, Canada with Gamma Ray, Symphony x and Blind Guardian.

 As I have read on the website, you have two projects going on. First I am going to ask you about the re-release of ‘Sacred Shrine’. Are you going to perform the songs on the studio once more or is it going to be purely a re-release, meaning the material will be left untouched and please tell me, what are the main differences of the Eidolon of ‘Sacred Shrine’ and ‘Coma Nation’?

Glen Drover:   The Sacred Shrine album will be the Original recording, as we felt that it would be cool to let people hear the beginnings of the band. So after many people asking about that recording, we decided to do it. As far as differences between that one and Coma Nation, the production is a lot better now of course, and I think the songs are more mature now, but you can sure hear where we were going.

  Are you happy that you are going to release this demo? I ask you because I remember Mike Portnoy from Dream Theater talking about the Majesty demos saying that ‘Releasing the demos is like keeping friendly relationships with your x-girlfriend’. I don’t know, do you think it is the right move for Eidolon at this current state?

Glen Drover:   If we were not sure of releasing it, we would have not decided to do it. We have had many people ask about these older recordings and decided it would be a cool thing to do right now.

 Now, to your works of your 6th album. Please tell us how will it sound, what do you thing the main differences with ‘Coma Nation’ are going to be, how the process of recording is going and maybe reveal to us some titles or even the record title?

Glen Drover:   We are all very happy with the way Coma Nation turned out and we have decided to use that album as a template for the future, as we believe it is the best representation of Eidolon at this point. The new album will have elements of Coma Nation, but it will not be the same album. We always make sure not to repeat ourselves too much

  You also had a lot of line-up changes, with the most important being that one of the lead singer. Brian Soulard has departed due to musical reasons, which means? And I bet you are happy with your new lead singer, Pat Mulock. He has a unique powerful voice that has added a lot to the sound of Eidolon I believe.

Glen Drover:   Yeah, we are all very happy with Pat. As far as Brian, he was asked to leave. Things were not working anymore for various reasons, but I guess the main reason was that he was not the right singer for the band. Although we are happy with what we have done in the past, we knew he was not the right singer we needed for the future.

 No need to tell you, I am listening to ‘The Pentacle Star’ right now. I wanted to ask you, there are some progressive brushes on that one? Some, not many and when I mean progressive I mean something different than the rest of Eidolon songs. This particular song is maybe my favorite from the new album (along with ‘Within the Gates’). Maybe we will have the chance to listen to more songs like this on the future, since I believe it is a song that makes a lot of difference on the album. And by the way, what is the story behind that song?

Glen Drover:   The story is based loosely on Jack the ripper. And as far as the style of that song musically, it is more of a prog type song, as within the gates is. We will always have those types of songs here and there, maybe sometimes more than others. It’s funny, because we get labeled as a power metal band, but we actually do a wide variety of styles in metal. From slow sludge stuff, to old school speed, to epic, to prog, etc…

 Back in 93, you build a studio. Really how you came up with this idea? I mean it is not a regular thing to do. Do you like rent the studio to other bands or is it just for personal use?

Glen Drover:   Well, when we first started, we were only building the studio to accommodate the band, but now I have started recording other bands as well, which is great. The band Eidolon started when the studio was developed.

 Can you tell us a little bit about you participation on the King Diamond’s band? What was it like t work with one of the legends of the metal scene? Did you like ‘Abigail II’?

Glen Drover:   It was a ton of fun, met a ton of great people and learned a lot of things. Unfortunately I had to leave a little early, but shit happens sometimes in life. As far as Abigail 2, I think it’s great!

 How is it working with your own brother? To be honest, I cannot have a descent conversation with my brother. Is it a healthy competitive relationship you have with Shawn on the band?

Glen Drover:   It has always been easy because we have the same goals and share the same brain, when it comes to music anyway. I’m sure we will always be doing something together no matter what.

 Eidolon is a Greek word. I have seen that you took the name because it has the meaning of ‘a ghostly image’? I can tell you that here in Greece, the mainly use for this word is for statues of gods (if you know about Greek ancient mythology, the twelve-gods). The second meaning I got on the dictionary is the mirror image when you look on the mirror. How did you come up with that name? Just looked at a dictionary or something?

Glen Drover:   Yeah, I think Shawn did find it in the dictionary and we both thought it sounded cool. This is when we first started the whole thing in 93 and were only doing instrumentals at that point. We have kept the name ever since.

 ‘Coma Nation’. Somewhat the title reminds me of the situation here on Greece, with the government and political parties. It also reminds me of the situation with the upcoming war. No one reacts; no one says anything and just two people doing whatever they want. What is your view on that war matter?

Glen Drover:   I think I speak for everyone when I say, 'Let’s just hope everything turns out well and this stupid thing ends very soon'.

 Ok, I am really sorry for the big interview…So many things I wanted to ask you and believe me I had many more. Either way, maybe after the release of the new album and ‘Sacred Shrine’. All I want to add is that I really do hope that you will find the recognition that you deserve. ‘Coma Nation’ is an album that worth to be among the great releases of heavy metal in general. Nothing less. Please, if you want to add anything that I haven’t though of asking, please add it here. Thank you for a nice interview Glen. My heart-full wishes.

Glen Drover:   Thank you Dimitris, it was a lot of fun!! Glen Drover - Eidolon

 

Glen Drover:  

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