(by JJ Koczan)
(photography by Kerstin Waldfee J.)
With an appearance at Wacken in 2007 and dates set for ’08 on the west coast of the US as part of Paganfest (the tour that will no doubt break folk metal to the wider American metal underground, featuring Ensiferum, Turisas, Týr and recent Nuclear Blast signees, Eluveitie), as well as a slot on the Chicago Powerfest (May 1-3), Suidakra, after nearly 15 years of plugging away, are finally starting to reap the harvest of their labors.
Their specific brand of Celtic-inspired, bagpipe-laden folk metal, nascent on early efforts Auld Lang Syne and Lays From Afar, is now fully matured and distinct on latest offering, Caledonia. Released in Europe in 2006 and the US in 2007 through Armageddon and Locomotive, respectively, the record sees the band place an emphasis on songwriting just as much, if not more, than on non-traditional metal instrumentation or parts. Rooted just as deeply in melodic death and black metal as it is in Celtic folk, Suidakra have come into full being without a doubt, and each song is as enjoyable singularly as it is a part of a greater whole.
Guitarist/screamer Arkadius Antonik — joined in the band by bassist Marcus Riewaldt, drummer Lars Wehner and, until recently, guitarist and clean vocalist Marcel Schoenen — recently sat down from his home in Germany for the following interview:
Metal Maniacs: You guys played Wacken last year. How was that?
Arkadius Antonik: it was very amazing and huge. It was the first time we played Wacken and the years before we played in the small tent. The last two shows we played in the tent and we had the feeling that the tent was a bit too small for us because we had too much people and some of them had to stay outside the tent because it was too full. This time we played instead of Vader because the cancelled their show. It was at 11 in the morning and I was really surprised because I didn’t expect that much people because we was the first band on Wacken but there were a couple of thousand people and it was very, very amazing for us and special.
MM: I saw on the website that you guys had bagpipes on stage too?
AA: Yeah, this bagpipe player we had worked with on our albums. He is a professional bagpiper so doesn’t have that much time to play all the gigs with us so we decided to involve him into something special and we had the feeling that Wacken is really special so it was the second time we played with the bagpipes.
MM: Do you usually have it sampled for live shows?
AA: No, no, usually we don’t use any keyboards or bagpipes so sometimes the guitar melody plays the bagpipe lines. But I have to admit it our music live sounds different than on the albums because on the albums it sounds more atmospheric and live it kicks more ass. The people say it’s okay and they do not miss the keyboards or bagpipes live.
MM: Well you’ve done acoustic shows before so generally it’s juts more of the straight-forward louder stuff that gets played live?
AA: Yes, exactly.
MM: I wanted to ask too, kind of keeping in line with the bagpipes and stuff like that; Caledonia — the Roman name for Scotland. Where did the idea come from to pay tribute with the name of the album to Caledonia?
AA: We did a couple concept albums before about ancient history stuff and this time we had a feeling to do something different because we were more into Irish history on previous albums so our guitar player come up with the idea to something about Scottish history because it’s very good to use it into your music because there are some mythology and also history parts from the Roman times. We just looked for a good name for this album and Caledonia is the Roman name for Scotland in ancient times. And we thought, “hey, this sounds cool,” and it explained what this album is about so we decided to call this album Caledonia.
MM: You said you’ve done historical concept albums before, as the music has developed over the albums and over the years, did you have any idea back when you were doing Auld Lang Syne and records like that this is where you wanted to end up sound-wise?
AA: It’s very funny that you mention this album because we are going to release a DVD in January. A sort of a best-of thing. We entered right after Wacken on Sunday the studio just for one week to re-record a couple of tracks from Auld Lang Syne and Lupine Essence. Because at that time we were satisfied with the songwriting, but not the result. We were disappointed with the sound and our musical skills but I think it’s normal when a band develops because you look backwards, at what you’ve done a couple of years ago, you can say, “oh man I would do this better now,” and so that was the reason we did that sort of best-of album. It’s going to be a package; a DVD, which includes the Wacken 2007 show, the acoustic show, and this best-of album. We just decided not to rerecord the tracks from the Lays From Afar too because they had a special feeling that we would destroy if we re-recorded, but the first two albums were re-recorded.
MM: Now what brought that on? Was there a specific time issue where you wanted to but couldn’t do it until now or why now for the best of package?
AA: Because now we have been a band for 14 years and we have released eight albums and our fans wrote us a couple of years ago with the idea. “Hey, why don’t you release a best-of album yet?” and stuff like that. We thought that now, after releasing Caledonia, it would be a great time because we have a lot of material that we can just release and we spoke with our label Armageddon just to do some re-releases of the whole CDs and they came up with the idea of doing the best-of album and later we just introduced the idea to do it in combination with this DVD so it will be all packaged for all the fans who supported Suidakra in the past. Another reason was, until two years ago, the fans had no possibility to get the older albums because they are all sold out, so the new fans, or maybe the American fans — which are really new for us because [only] our last two releases were also released in USA — they have not had the possibility to get the older stuff from Suidakra, so we thought it would be a chance to give the older stuff to the people.
MM: You mentioned Command To Charge and that one was tough to get a hold of but it seemed like the sound on that record was much more, kind of how you described your live show, much more straight-forward and kind of just focused on just kicking ass. Having Marcel [Schoenen] back in the band, did that make a difference in the outcome of Caledonia?
AA: Yeah. The only effect it must have had was on the clean vocals, not on the songwriting, because Marcel was also introduced into the songwriting on Command to Charge. The reason why this album sounds much different to the other Suidakra releases was that before Command To Charge, before we started the songwriting for Command To Charge, we had the feeling that we wanted to do something new, something different, because we had the feeling that the melody or riff that we came up with was like, “I listened to that before on another Suidakra album,” or what we missed was the fresh wind, so we decided to do something a little different. After Command To Charge, we needed to our real sound. I know that there are a lot of fans of Suidakra that were disappointed with Command to Charge. I understand, but for me it was a very special album to create Caledonia.
MM: So it was something you needed to get out of the way so you could move on.
AA: Yeah.
MM: What happened with Marcel? What was the situation there? How did he end up leaving and then coming back?
AA: Marcel’s problem is that he is a person who is really like to make music but he does not like to do some tours and stuff like that. He has his own priorities so the reason we he left the band was mainly he wanted to stop the band because the had to cancel a lot of shows because he had to work or had the feeling, “I’d rather stay home than go on tours with you,” and there were three other people that wanted to go on to bring the band on a new level and before we get some trouble in the band he said, “alright so just look for a new guitar player and you can do the things you want to do and I’m also happy with that.” And then he changed his job and now he’s in the band, but I don’t know what the future will bring because he’s also now has a new job and he spends a lot of time on the job so we will see. Hopefully it will continue with Marcel and Suidakra.
MM: So it could be something that’s ongoing then?
AA: Yeah but, it’s mostly an effect on the live shows because even when Marcel was not with the band on the stage he was every time involved into the songwriting and the lyrics and stuff like that so it’s not that much effect on the album. It’s much more on the stage.
MM: How was the recording process for Caledonia? Was it different from Command To Charge and in relation to the other Suidakra records?
AA: Yeah, it was very different to all the Suidakra albums, the songwriting process, because Caledonia was the first time that we had to do the songwriting with a special distance, because I moved about 350 kilometers away from the other guys. On the previous albums, we had a special idea in our minds and we worked it out in the rehearsal room who plays what parts and Caledonia we used a small home studio. Then everybody who had ideas just recorded it at home, then we put it on our server on the internet and then you can just download it and work at home, what different ideas I can do with this. Then we met and it has the effect that we came up with a very special concrete idea in the rehearsal room. It makes some things much easier to us.
MM: Do you feel that doing it that way made a difference in how the record came out?
AA: I don’t know. I do not think about effects on how the record came out. We are just musicians who just try to do our best and bring the record out where I can say afterwards, “that’s 100 percent Suidakra,” and I can not answer those questions if it has an effect of not.
MM: What first sparked your interest and the band’s interest in that kind of pagan folk sound?
AA: The interest is we are not a band that wants to point the finger at you and say, “do this, do that,” we just use the whole ancient stuff with mythology just to create. Ancient stories are just much more entertaining than politics or stuff like that. You have an awful lot of freedom when you use the ancient stuff. You can also introduce some fantasy into it or some relations to the present and stuff like that. So, we are very happy and also it is something new and interesting for us to figure out how circumstances in the past were in different countries and different religions and different cultures. We are just all interested in history so it is a good thing for us.
MM: I feel like on Caledonia, even more so than some of the older records, has influences not so separate from the song, from like the heavy parts of the songs. It seems like it’s all kind of meshing together to be one sound.
AA: Yeah this is also the main thing we worked on because, as you said before, our sound changed from album to album and that’s of course a normal process, because as you start with a band you don’t have the experience and the technical skills like you do 10 years later. We also worked on our technical skills but a good song is not the most complicated song; it’s just more whole song structure. And that was the main thing, we just concentrated on the whole structure and just didn’t want the feeling that the whole folk stuff sounds like it does not fit really to the sound. But we do it anyway, you know? So we think that on Caledonia it was the best mixture we did.
