Ex-ARCH ENEMY Guitarist CHRISTOPHER AMOTT Breaks Silence: 'I Wasn't Having Fun Anymore'

ARCH ENEMY's official French fan club The Dark Enemy Fan Club recently conducted an interview with former ARCH ENEMY guitarist Christopher Amott. A few excerpts from the question-and-answer session follow:

Q: Let us [bring up] a subject which astonished many people: Your departure from ARCH ENEMY. Could you explain us what justified your choice?

Christopher: "I wasn't feeling creative musically. I wasn't having fun anymore. ARCH ENEMY is a hard-working band and touring is great. But if you're not enjoying the shows it's no fun. I just wasn't into it anymore."

Q: Do you regret your decision?

Christopher: "No!"

Q: When you're looking at the past, what do you think about "Doomsday Machine"?

Christopher: "I haven't listened to it that much. It's a solid metal album with good songs and good production. I think ARCH ENEMY is one of the top 5 metalbands in the world and I'm proud to have been a part of this band. Everyone in the band is an amazing player and performer and Angela [Gossow] is fantastic growler and born to front a band.

"I drifted away from this kind of music, and I think it's better for everyone that I do my own thing."

Q: The day you send message to Mike [Amott] [that you were quitting] the band it [was] maybe a hard day for you. Do you speak with the band or just Mike? Which was the reaction of your brother Mike and the band?

Christopher: "It was a hard time, I felt like I was letting them down a bit and leaving them without a guitar player just before the Ozzfest. They were surprised but not entirely. Life goes on, we are still friends but we don't see each other that often. Everybody's busy with their own lifes."

Q: Which are your projects for the future?

Christopher: "I don't know. Playing in a band and being a rockstar is pretty far down on my list right now...I just want to develop as a musician and a person. Maybe I'll never do another album, I can't say right now. I'd love to do a solo album just the way I want it, mixing all kinds of styles and influences but I'm not hell-bent on succeding in the musicbusiness — I've seen how much work it takes and how most people in the business are sharks who wanna rip you off. I'm not very business-minded that way.

"If i do some kind of record it won't be metal anyway. I don't care if it sells....I know I will be starting from zero doing another style of music but it will be much more satisfying musically.

"If a make an album completely free artistically, just the way I want it and it only sells 500 copies, it don't matter, because I would be doing it for myself."

Read the entire interview at ArchEnemy.cybernet.be.