Interview mit The Agony Scene

01.01.1998
 

 

Ok, for Europe you´re a newcomer and not many people know you yet – please give us a short survey about the bands history, where do you come from, who is currently in the band and stuff like that?
Well, The Agony Scene started about 2 1/2 years ago in the middle of America. About a year into the band, we sent a demo to our American label, Solid State, and they liked it and picked us up. We wrote an album over the course of about 10 months and recorded it in January of 2003 with Adam D of Killswitch Engage and it was released in America in June and in Europe at the end of September. We've been touring almost nonstop here in america since the album came out, about 5 months now and we hope to get to Europe soon, but no definate plans are laid.

The Agony Scene – is there any deeper meaning in your name? What are your lyrics about – your first full length was released on solid state records – a Christian label. Do you consider yourself as Christians?
We are not a Christian band, we've been asked a lot because of our relationship with our label here, but we're just a band trying to make a name for oursleves just like any other band. The lyrics are mostly dark imagery and metaphor about a relationship that our singer had that had gone bad. There are also several songs just about some of his personal experiences.

How Long did you work on your first Full Length? Did you do some demos before? How did you get your deal at Solid State?
We had two demos before we got signed, one live CD recorded at our 5th show ever, and one demo that Solid State signed us off of. After we got signed we had two demo sessions, in which we recorded 7 songs, but most of the songs were dropped before we recorded. The vast majority of the album was written between July and December, 2003.



Are you totally satisfied with your current release? Do you believe there are some details that could be better? What do you want to reach with this record?
I'm not 100% pleased with our debut, but I don't think anyone ever is with a release. We found our sound only shortly before writing for the album, so we didn't have a lot of time to explore the sound. I think we got done with this record what we needed, it's an intro to what the band will become and it serves that purpose, but you can definately tell its our first CD.

In my opinion your record is as strong as the current releases from bands like Killswitch Engage or Shadows Fall – premier league. What will be your next steps – are you gonna do some tours to promote it and get one step beyond to the champions league?
I say it'll be a couple years before we'd be anywhere in the league of names like Killswitch or Shadows Fall. We're shooting to get the best tours we can, trying to get some good press, and we have here and there. But there's only so much you can do as an unknown band, you have to pay your dues and bid your time, but we're looking ahead and hoping for the best.



Are there any upcoming bands from your region? Some bands we should take a listen to?
There isnt ANYTHING from where we're from.

How would you describe the music of The Agony Scene to somebody who never heard your stuff before and isn’t into metal or hardcore music at all?
Hmm, well it'd be very hard if they're not into metal or hardcore at all. I'd say its very, very heavy; heavier than anything the average person has ever heard. Lots of screaming and loud guitars and drums.

What would you describe your own musical influences? What were the first bands that were idols for you? What bands/songs/lyrics changed your life?
I grew up listening to MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice, then one of my friends wanted to get me into rock music. So he had me listen to Weezer, and they became the first rock band I ever liked. This was many many years ago, I think I was maybe 11 or 12 years old.

As for the band what are your plans for the near future?
Pretty soon we hope to start writing for a second record. This will be a big task for us, as we have a lot of expections for what we want, and it'll require a lot of work as we'll be pushing ourselves.

Any Last Words and Comments?
Hope to see you out in Europe soon.