M.S: Hi, how are you guys? This is your first time you’ve played in Spain, right? How was the reception in Bergara,Barcelona and Madrid?
M.E: Things are going great here in Norway , allthough it is " weird " coming home after beeing on the road for almost 4 weeks . And yes , this was our first time in Spain and it was just awesome ! We can..t wait to get back and play some more shows for you in the future , that’s for sure 😉
M.S: How did you guys see yourselves on stage?
M.E: I think we put on a good show and that people could see that " wow these guys have really been doing their homework " hahaha…I’ve been going through some of the videos that we recorded during the tour and I think I can say with honesty that we got better and tighter for each day that went by .
M.S: In Barcelona you guys didn’t play Glory of the Empire, was this because the song wasn’t included in the set list or because you had problems with the keyboards?
M.E: Well , the Barcelona concert was the only concert during the tour that we actually had to stop earlier . I guess we played no more then 30 minutes instead of the 45 minutes we usually did along this tour and yes I do believe that Glory was on the list that night ;-( The thing was that Lasse’s keyboard kept skipping sounds all the time , like there was some magnetic-field around him . It’s actually a funny story when you come to think of it . The day started of as usual by bringing in the gear and hooking up all the stuff that was needed for the show . And while the guys were hooking up everything I went upstairs to the dressing room to hook up my video-camera cause it had no more power left . So I took up the cables and such and plugged it into the wall and POOOOW the entire building went black and I was like " shit what just happened " . So we knew early on that there was "something " with the electricity in the building . Showtime : The intro was blasting through the speakers and the guys went on stage . I plugged in my JTS in-ear-system where I have 50% keyboards and 50% guitars , but there was something wrong with the keyboards . We opened every show with the song " A Darkened Mind " and as you can hear on the album theres is this cool keyboard-rythm going on while I sing , BUT this time it was like ( me singing ) : We -PLING-PLONG – walk alone -PLING -PLONG -TUSH – to the edge -PANG-TOING-CRASH…So as you see it was not easy to sing and certainly not easy for Lasse who I could see fumbling around with his feet , hands etc not knowing what the heck was going on hahahaha…I got the monitor-guy to take away all the keyboards from my ears so I only had the guitars and that went well , but as the show went along we knew that there was no way we could could continue cause keyboards is a huge part of the Circus Maximus- sound . We can laugh about it now hihi 😉
M.S: Due to this tour you have been forced to postpone your first American tour… Do you guys prefer to reassure the European fan market before crossing the big ocean?
M.E: No that’s not the deal ..we recieved an offer to go on the SX-tour and that is just something a band in our possition don..t say no to . The thing is that the Symphony X tour-dates crashed with the USA tour-dates . If it would have been possible we would have gone on the USA-tour straight after the SX-tour .
M.S: Depending on the results of this tour, are you guys willing to come to play to Spain by yourselves, or is it early still?
M.E: Sure we would love to come and play a full show by ourselves , allthough as you said it may be a little to early since we have just been there , but we will be back that’s for sure 😉
M.S: Once finished this tour, what is the overall average of this tour? What moments of it come into mind?
The tour with Symphony X and Dreamscape was the best time of our lifes , that’s for sure ! There are so many good memories and I still catch myself day-dreaming about the tour hihi 😉
M.S: What are, according to you, the main differences between the first chapter of Circus Maximus as a band and the Isolate stage?
M.E: I believe we have grown a lot between the two albums . The songs are now more to the point while as in The I’st Chapter we were more or less " testing " ourselves . You know beeing the first album and so you try out all kinds of different stuff .
M.S: I guess you know there’s a lot of people that will be hear you for the first time this night. How will you introduce yourself to this new audience?. For those that don’t know you, can you say us how was formed Circus Maximus?
M.E: Hopefully we..ll put on a show that people will enjoy and when they go to sleep they..ll have the melody of the chorus to " Abyss " in their head hihi 😉
Well we became a full line-up in the year 2000 , but it wasn..t untill 2004 we actually started getting more "serious" regarding the band . You know having a record deal and such gives you an extra boost hihi 😉 After releasing our debut album " The I’st Chapter " in 2005 which recieved great reviews from all over the world we started wrighting " Isolate " and in August 2007 it was released .
M.S: Your name is a little unnconected with the music you play or your songs words. What does mean Circus Maximus and why do you chosen that name?
M.E: The name Circus Maximus has no extra " meaning " to it other then we thought of it as a cool band name . The idea came when Mats and Truls was playing a computer-game long time ago . Within the game there was this password that you had to type to get to the next level and that password was : Circus Maximus 😉
M.S: If I’m not much mistaken, Isolate is supposed to be a sort of conceptual album, right? What does it talk about?
M.E: Yes , that is correct . It is more or less a story of one man and his struggles through life . As for those who has not yet heard the album it starts of with the sound of a door opening and inside the room the main character tells you his story . The album ends with you leaving the room and the door shuts behind you ..leaving the main carachter behind , inside his " cell " .
M.S: Another big Norwegian musician is one of the most acknowledged singer around, Jorn Lande. Have you met him? Is there a chance you guys do something together? (he tends to play with everyone he meets, lol)
M.E: Yes we’ve meet him many times , hell I even have his phone nr hahaha 😉 You know the Norwegian Metal/Rock-scene is not that big , so there is a big chance you end up " knowing " everyone at a time 😉 We have done a couple of shows/festivals together over the years and as you said he is one of the best singers out there . We did a festival in the states with him 2 years ago and Lasse ended up doing the keyboards for his show aswell . It is actually the show which he just released as a Live In America – cd .
M.S: Being a progressive rock band, what is your relationship with Frontiers Records like? Since they are known for being the bid Melodic Rock label…
M.E: The relationship is great . The thing is even though we are a " prog-metal-band " we still focus a lot on making good melodies and I think that makes our music more " avaliable " for everyone . A cool thing I just saw at www. melodicrock. com was the Melodic Awards 2007 and we ended up as the 25 best album last year . There’s not many other prog-metal bands on that list and that is cool to see . We also ended up having two song on the top 10 list of metal songs released in 2007 , AND that is great when there was probably tens of thousands metal songs released in 2007 ! 😉
M.S: It looks like progressive rock and metal is in a great time: Dream Theater + Symphony X tour, Opeth and Spock’s Beard new albums… What is in your opinion the moment this genre is living?
M.E: I think the scene is bigger then ever actually . More and more people are getting into this kind of music , and it is always fun when you have a signing-session and a 10 year old kid comes up to you and askes for a autograph on her/his Isolate cd ..prizeless ! 😉 It’s a good thing not every kid listenes to what the radio/tv tells them to .
M.S: What are your future plans and projects?
M.E: Right now we have more or less started wrighting new stuff for the next album and so far it sounds amazing 😉 The Symphony X tour really gave us a boost after we got home..everybody is wrighting like crazy over here now hihi 😉
M.S: Thanks for everything, good luck with everything.
Anything to say to our readers?
M.E: Stay tuned for the next Chapter and enjoy the ride 😉
Love Michael
David Aresté
LINKS:
Photo Gallery: Symphony X + Circus Maximus + Dreamscape – Febrero ’08 – Barcelona
Symphony X + Circus Maximus + Dreamscape – 29 de Febrero – Sala Razzmatazz 2 ( Barcelona )
Circus Maximus : Isolate // Frontiers Records ( Mastertrax )
Circus Maximus : The 1 St Chapter // Frontiers Records ( Mastertrax )
