KAMELOT Guitarist: Our New Singer 'Will Be Debuted At The Summer Festivals'

The Kamelot Germany web site recently conducted an interview with guitarist Thomas Youngblood of American power metallers KAMELOT. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Kamelot Germany: Writing the new album is already underway, with a planned release date for September 2012. How is it going so far?

Thomas Youngblood: Going great. We have around 6-7 songs ready for pre-production. Oliver [Palotai, keyboards] and I will do another songwriting session soon. We are still looking at locations. Maybe Thailand or Norway. Cold or hot, which one to choose? Following that, we will be in Germany for a few months with [producer] Sascha [Paeth] working on the album, along with Miro, Olaf and the usual crew there that has been with us since "Karma". Special guests are being discussed now. It will be a blast. I'm looking forward to it!

Kamelot Germany: Who will be mainly responsible for the songwriting this time around?

Thomas Youngblood: Myself along with Oliver, Sascha and the band. Whoever is singing will also be a part of the songwriting, depending on their level of experience with melodies and lyrics. I am also working with some friends on a few songs. There's going to be a lot of material for this one.

Kamelot Germany: The band evolves with each album and no album is like the other. Can you tell us a bit which direction you aim for at the moment? A more bombastic approach like with an orchestra for example, or a more natural sound?

Thomas Youngblood: In terms of sound, I would like the songs to have a bit more melody than we had on [2010's] "Poetry For The Poisoned". Of course, we want and will have new elements in the songs, and until we actually start putting the tracks down, the sound will be somewhat mysterious. I would say don't expect a lot of crazy differences from the past, but expect some nice and unique surprises on this one.

Kamelot Germany: The deadline for submissions to become the new singer of KAMELOT is by the end of January. How is the audition process going and when do you plan to announce the new singer?

Thomas Youngblood: Auditions are going great; I think we have around 800 emails and submissions. We will not announce the new singer until later when the album is nearly finished being recorded. Unless, of course, it gets leaked, which these days is not too difficult. The new "official" singer will be debuted at the summer festivals.

Read the entire interview from Kamelot Germany.