Interview

SATURNUS

Mercredi 17 avril 2013

How was the show yesterday ?

Thomas A.G. Nielsen : Really good ! Amazing actually.
It was the first time in Norway for us so we didn't actually know what to expect. But the venue was perfect. It was a jazz club, so the atmosphere, the club itself, it was perfect, and the show as well was really good. A lot of people and the atmosphere among the crowd was amazing so we couldn't ask for more. It was perfect.
Gert Lund : We had an excellent sound, a good sound engineer made the sound for us so it was cool.

What do you think of this festival ?

T.N. : First of all, I'm very proud to be here as a band because I think Inferno Festival is one of the most important festivals because it's the first festival in the festival calendar year and a lot of press is showing here. So for us it's an honour to be here. It's a great statement for us to be here and play the Inferno. We can add that to our CV, say that we've actually been there. We are proud of that.

© ChamO

You're playing an anniversary show later this year...

T.N. : Yeah, we have one anniversary show planned this far in Copenhagen on 31st August. We're not sure if we're gonna do more shows of that because we have a lot of dates around. More dates are coming for the tour and all that so we're not sure if we're going to do any single anniversary shows around. The plan was to do some but we'll see what the future brings. So far we have one anniversary show where special things are planned.

What are they ?

T.N. : We are doing a lot of acoustic songs that we haven't done before. The plan is to get some guest musicians that have joined us through the years, for example Michael Denner from Mercyful Fate

Mercyful Fate

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is going to play a solo. He's playing a solo on our last album, one album back. And we have some plans to get the violin player from our mini-CD. We have a song called For Our Demons, she will come play the song with us. And then some other guests who participated to our albums through the years and some old members as well coming and joining us. We're just planning to play some songs that are difficult for us to play on normal shows mixed together with a normal show and maybe some video things, I'm not sure. Many of the things are still in the making but that's the plan so far.

How come you did it this year ? I thought the band was formed in 1991.

T.N. : In the year 1991 we started a death metal band called Assesino and we changed the name in 1993 so the real start for Saturnus

Saturnus

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is 1993.

And why the change back then ?

T.N. : Because we played normal death metal in the old band and we wanted to change the style to more melodic stuff and we also thought the name Assesino was actually translated Slayer in Spanish so we didn't think the name fit our new style so good so we searched for names and we just found the name in a book and everybody thought it was a good name. It looks good and it's easy to remember. There's no deeper meaning behind the name. It's just a name.

Your last album was released a few months ago. How has been the response ?

T.N. : Overwhelming ! We didn't know what to expect. We are really happy to see all the reviews. It's also a great experience for me personally to still know that we're still a band that actually manages to make good music, even with all the difficulties with the old members and the new line-up, if you know what I mean. So I'm really proud that people received the album the way they did. I'm really glad.

What are the future plans for the band ?

T.N. : So far, for this year, it's just to play as many shows as possible. We have a tour planned with The Vision Bleak

The Vision Bleak

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and Dordeduh

Dordeduh

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and we have some shows in-between.
And then we are planning some things for the winter. In the new year we'll have some Scandinavian dates in the working.
And in-between all that, start composing the new album already because we don't want to wait another six years for the next one. So we just want to make an album as soon as possible. That's the plan, the short version.

Is there anything else you'd like to say ?

T.N. : Thank you for the support and thank you for showing interest in the band.