Dutch symphonic metal band Epica was a band that just came to my attention this year and they are near the top of my list of the most pleasant surprises this year. The band returned to the US for the last North American leg of their “Design Your Universe” tour and I was lucky enough to speak with songwriter/guitarist Mark Jansen pre-show. We discussed the epic music of Epica, the dangers and hazards of a CD case and his upcoming project MaYaN featuring ex-After Forever member Jack Driessen (keyboards), Frank Schiphorst (guitar), Jeroen Paul Thesseling (bass; Pestilence, Obscura) and fellow Epica band mates Isaac Delahaye (guitar) and Arien van Weesenbeek (drums).” Sit back and enjoy this one. This was a great way to close out an amazing year of interviews!
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Welcome back to the US! Epica is a name that I have been hearing for quite a while and after hearing “Design Your Universe” I was hooked. Are you finding that the album and tours are bringing in a new batch of fans?
Thank you. We definitely noticed that. The new album is a bit more heavy and you can also hear the influences of Arien (van Weesenbeek; drummer) and Isaac (Delahaye; guitarist) on the album. I think we have now found the perfect balance of music. Some people say that they like our older albums as well but that this new album is what made them come to our concerts.
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After hearing this album I was so blown away I hunted down everything I could on Epica. “Design Your Universe” is such a great album. The previous albums are all consistently fantastic and this new one definitely seems to be a progression forward.
I agree and I am happy that you say that. Of course most musicians like their latest album best but I think in our case it is really true and that is also what the fans tell us. We have started writing for a new album already and it’s going to be quite a task to make it even better.
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Earlier this year on a US tour you had an interesting thing happen where a fan almost caused some serious damage to your hand. What actually happened?
Oh, that was on the previous tour. Yeah. [laughs] This guy was ripping the plastic off of a CD for me to autograph it and hit my hand with the pointed part of the CD cover. In the beginning I thought it was just painful but then it got stiff and I couldn’t move my hand that well [laughs]. After three days of being in pain while playing it was OK again fortunately.
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So there wasn’t any permanent damage right?
[laughs] No, no permanent damage. I was a bit worried because it was really painful for three days. A CD case can really do something like that to you. It almost sounds like a joke! A CD case hits you and you cannot play guitar anymore. [laughs]
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How would you describe the kind of music Epica plays to someone that has never heard you?
Whew, that is always difficult. I always call it symphonic metal but nothing covers it all. I just say listen for one minute and that will do more than having me talk for ten minutes about it. [laughs] The music says it all and words cannot describe what music is. Music is beyond words and that is in general, not just with our music. Music speaks for itself.
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The idea of epic, conceptual albums seems to be a lot more common among European bands than American bands. What is it about being from Europe that seems to inspire this action in so many bands?
I have no idea. Much like how the grunge music from Seattle was bigger in the US than in Europe, symphonic and orchestral music is more present in European bands. I don’t think that there is a specific reason for that. It could have happened in the US as well. Transiberian Orchestra is a big US band that also influences bands to use more orchestral parts in their music. Symphony X of course is one of the biggest bands here that use lots of orchestral parts.
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In 2005, Epica released “Consight To Oblivion” which contained the first three installments of an epic called “A New Age Dawns.” What inspired this concept?
I had been reading a lot about the Mayan culture and the 2012 thing. These people had a lot of knowledge about things they couldn’t know with the tools they had. For example, they knew about many stars and many planets which they couldn’t see. They had great mathematics and they had a perfect calendar which was way better than the calendar we use now. Ours is based on the Christian belief and the Christian belief didn’t do so many good things to us. I hope that we get rid of this calendar and go back to the calendar which is based on the cycle of nature instead of a calendar that is just 12 months because 13 is an unlucky number. I think that many people find peace in believing in religion and that’s good but I think that people should not take everything in the books so seriously. Many people take every letter in the bible seriously but there are so many things that are told like a fairy tale and there’s a lot of extras added and writen with a lot of metaphors. You cannot take all of that stuff literally. [laughs]
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The latest album “Design Your Universe” contains the final 3 installments of the “A New Age Dawns” saga. Was it intentional that you waited until the release of this album to finish the story as opposed to finishing it on the previous album “The Divine Conspiracy?”
No, it wasn’t intentional. We just do what we feel and sometimes with lyrics, the topic just shows up naturally. I don’t look for it, the lyrics come to me and so it’s a natural evolvement. I never know what we are going to write about [laughs].
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So it wasn’t like you had the whole saga done and you just cut it in half…these three proceeding pieces just came to you when you were writing for “Design Your Universe”…
Exactly. That’s the way it is. Maybe some other three pieces will come up later on. You never know. I always like it when bands spread a topic over different albums. “The Embrace That Smothers” (the collective title for a series of songs) is also spread over two albums, even over two bands. I started that topic when I was in After Forever and I finished it when I was in Epica. [laughs]
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That’s great because then you don’t feel held back and you’re just working in your own flow.
Exactly. I just go with the flow. I don’t feel restricted from anything or anybody. Whatever comes, comes. I think when you go with the flow and you let inspiration just flow then you get the best results. I also learned that if you work together with other people and you let them do their thing you get great results. Every time someone comes up with an idea you try to add your own stuff to it. You have to use everybody on their strong points and just let it happen.
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On this tour I see that you are performing songs from various stages of Epica’s career. Are there any plans to someday perform “A New Age Dawns” in it’s entirety?
Maybe one day we will play the whole theme in one concert. That would be really cool.
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Performing this live could really be quite an elaborate production.
If we have the chance we will make the biggest possible show. In Europe we already do quite big theatrical shows but the in the US our budget is limited. Even now on this tour we brought our own light technician and we brought some extra lights to have a great light show. Every time we come back we try to add something so that people have a better show than the last time. Last time we were here in Atlanta it was the last night of the tour and everybody got really drunk and I think it was quite a circus on stage. [laughs] Tonight we’re going to do it a little bit different and give the people the show that they deserve to get.
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Since Epica plays some bigger venues in Europe, how is it playing small clubs in the US when you come here?
I love it because that’s the variation which is so great. For example in Brazil we have a venue with a capacity of 6,000 and 5,000 people in there going totally nuts. That’s a great feeling but when you play a small club and you can see actually everybody who is in the venue that’s also a more intimate feeling and I like both. I wouldn’t like one of them to disappear. Playing only big shows that would bore me. It sounds maybe a bit silly but it would bore me so I like the variation.
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That’s really cool to hear because I’ve heard bands who play clubs say that they wish they were playing bigger places. I can’t help but feel that they should be engaging the people they are playing to and be appreciative of where they are at.
Often musicians have their heads too much in the clouds and are fantasizing about what can happen in the future. We are living in the now and when we play a show we enjoy every second of it. I think that’s the reason why we are in a band because we enjoy being on stage. It doesn’t matter if we play for 30 people or for 30,000. The fun is what matters and if 30 people are happy afterward than we are happy too.
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That is such a great attitude to have and an audience can see that in a band.
That’s what they tell us as well. They come after the show and say, “You guys are smiling so much on stage and it gives us a good feeling too.” I never understand when bands are looking like they are taking a dump on stage [laughs]. Then I think, “Why are you doing it? If you want to do something else in your life then do something else. Don’t waste your time and the time of your fans.”
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When did you first realize that music was what you wanted to do for a living?
I wanted to be a professional cyclist and when I was 15 or 16 I got a virus infection and I could not cycle anymore. I was bored because I couldn’t train and I started playing guitar and thought, “I’ll become a musician instead.” [laughs] When you have something in your mind and you put your mind it you can reach that goal no matter what it is and for me it happened to be music. If I would have become a cyclist I would have done that with full passion but I I’m now in the place where I belong.
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I guess it’s safe to say that your injury was bittersweet then.
[laughs] Oh yeah or otherwise I never would have started playing guitar probably and never got into music.
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Besides heavy metal, what other types of music would we be surprised to hear that you were a fan of?
It wouldn’t surprise you to hear that I listen to a lot of classical music but I also listen to the band Muse. That might be a bit surprising. I think their music is not so different from what we do. You just take the heavy guitars and the heavy drums out and make it a bit more laid back and you have Muse’s kind of music. I think Muse’s compositions are really strong. For me it doesn’t matter what kind of music it is as long as the music is good.
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When touring here in the US, what is your favorite food to eat that you don’t get in your homeland?
[laughs] Spare ribs man! [laughs] I like to eat steak. In America the steaks are better than in Europe for some reason. I don’t know why. I don’t eat at McDonalds at all or Kentucky Fried Chicken. All these chains I avoid like the plague [laughs]. I like a good steak. Actually, for my birthday a few days ago we went to a steak house and they warned me that it was probably an expensive one. I said, “Ah, it can’t be that expensive.” We parked the car in front of the place and people got in the car to park it and I got a bit scared [laughs]. We got in and it cost me 70 bucks my food for that evening. [laughs] But it was my birthday and it was a really good steak.
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Happy belated birthday!
[laughs] Thank you very much!
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2010 has been a busy year for Epica. What is in store for 2011?
2011 is going to be a busy year as well. We are going to tour a lot until the end of the summer. We are going to do the 70,000 Tons of Metal cruise which will be a good experience. It’s really going to be fun. Then we are going to do a Latin American tour then we go back to Europe. We are going to do the UK, Netherlands, Turkey and after that we are going to do the summer festivals. Right after the summer we go back into the studio to record the new album. I really look forward to going home after this tour. I’m going to write some new music for Epica but over the last year I have been writing for my other band.
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Oh, MaYaN correct?
Yes!
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What can you tell us about this band?
It started as just something for fun but soon it grew into something that had to be perfect as well. I thought it was just for fun to make music with old friends but now it’s as serious for me as Epica is. Of course Epica remains my priority band and that’s the band that’s doing the most of the tours but MaYaN will fill in the gaps and maybe we will do some touring with Epica in the future.
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That would be awesome because you could pull double duty playing with both bands.
Exactly. That would be easiest especially in the US. That would be a really great opportunity next time that we come to the US. MaYaN could do a 30 minute set.
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Conceptually and lyrically will the MaYaN material be similar to Epica?
Lyrically you will find a lot of comparisons because it’s my style of writing. I didn’t attempt to write about completely different stuff. It could have been lyrics for an Epica CD as well but music wise it’s completely different. It’s way more grunge and way more heavy. It is still symphonic because I love that kind of music. It’s like a mixture of Symphony X and Opeth style. That kind of direction.
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It sounds really awesome and you seem very excited about it.
I was already excited because it was fun to do but now I’m also really excited because it has also reached a great level. Nuclear Blast (Epica’s record label) heard the stuff and they offered us immediately a deal!
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That is amazing. Congratulations!
Thanks! I told Nuclear Blast that I am really happy about them and with Epica that they are doing a great job. I said, “If you like this stuff and you offer us a deal we are not even going to look for other record companies and we will sign with you right away.” They made us a fantastic deal and it was great. Nuclear Blast wrote me back when they heard the material and they were all listening to it and headbanging at the office [laughs].
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I cannot wait to hear what this new MaYan material will sound like. Mark, thank you so much for taking the time out to talk to me. It has been a pleasure to meet you.
Thank you Don. You had some good questions and it’s a pleasure to do an interview with you.
The Brainfart & Mark Jansen of Epica
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