EPICA's MARK JANSEN Laughs At 'Old Bands' Who Complain About Diminishing Record Sales

Sebastiano Mereu of From Hero To Zero recently conducted an interview with guitarist/vocalist Mark Jansen of Dutch symphonic metallers EPICA. You can watch the chat below.

Asked about Gene Simmons's recent statement that he was not interested in producing another KISS studio album "unless and if there's a financial model that works" to make it worthwhile for the band to write and record new music, Jansen said: "Yeah, I noticed that these old bands, they are still pretty pissed about how [the industry] developed, and I sometimes have to laugh a little bit about it. 'Cause they are used to that standard of millions of CDs getting sold and being able to have a house with a big pool. We grew up in another era where CD sales were already not that high anymore, so we are used to be not millionaires. [Laughs] So then it's easier to be happy with what we have, rather than when you come from [the top] and then suddenly [see your record sales drop dramatically]. But there's quite some bands from the past that are still complaining about this."

He continued: "I think you have to look at the bright side. We can tour, we can live from our music, even though we're not millionaires. We do whatever we wish for doing — it's our dream — so we look always at the bright side of [things]."

Asked if he misses the old days when record sales used to be much higher than they are right now, Mark said: "We never experienced it, so we cannot miss it. I can imagine how it is to sell two, three million CDs. I can imagine it. It can be awesome too — I won't deny that — but the current reality is that it's not the case. So I'm not a dreamer or think, 'Oh, I wish it was still like this.' You have to do it with the reality [of how everything is] now."

EPICA's latest album, "The Holographic Principle", was released on September 30, 2015 via Nuclear Blast.