KAMELOT's THOMAS YOUNGBLOOD: 'When It Comes To Our Mobile Phones, So Many Of Us Are Prisoners Of These Screens'

France's United Rock Nations recently conducted an interview with KAMELOT guitarist Thomas Youngblood. You can now listen to the chat via the Soundcloud widget below. A few excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On whether he's nervous or afraid of AI (Artificial Intelligence) having a stronger influence in society, which is one of the themes on the band's new "The Shadow Theory" album:

Thomas: "I mean, it can be a little bit overwhelming if we get to a point where everything is taken care of for us or done for us. You could imagine a world where nobody leaves their home. Everything is delivered to their house, food, there's actually no social interaction, which would actually lead to population decrease, which would be weird. Yeah, we have to be careful with the way that we do it and the manner we do it. And I've been fascinated with this sci-fi stuff since I was a kid with movies like 'Logan's Run' and even there was a series, 'Star Trek', whether it's movies like 'Gattaca', these movies that show what could happen in the future if we keep things the way we're still doing them."

On how powerful technology has become:

Thomas: "There's a quote of 'We're all prisoners of our own creation' and I think that's a good example. Also, when it comes to our mobile phones, so many of us are prisoners of these screens, this 'extended brain' in a way, instead of going to a real library or a real book, people just Google everything."

On what collaborating with outside artists brings to KAMELOT's music:

Thomas: "Just like a cake has sprinkles, the cake is still delicious without the sprinkles, but it adds a little extra spice to the whole formula. We've pretty much been doing that since 2000, 18 years ago, with 'The Fourth Legacy' with my wife, who was my girlfriend at the time and is now my wife, Mary. We had an Icelandic singer on that record as well. It's something we started doing back then and we felt like with each record, it adds a new element."

On why KAMELOT has used growling female vocalists like ONCE HUMAN's Lauren Hart and ARCH ENEMY's Alissa White-Gluz as guests on their albums:

Thomas: "Before that, we had Shagrath from DIMMU BORGIR, he's a guy. Alissa was touring with us doing the growled parts from records before then I thought, 'Maybe we should put her on the album.' She was on 'Haven'. The next record, who knows what we're going to do? It doesn't have to be a female growler. It could be no growls. We never feel like we have to do anything specifically. Even before Shagrath, we didn't do any growling."

On "The Shadow Theory" cover artwork:

Thomas: "Every KAMELOT record, we want to make sure it has all the elements we feel are important for a fan to experience, first, with the music, of course. We want to also make sure that anyone who buys physical product gets everything they should for spending the money. We put a ton of money and time into the cover art, the booklet, the photos, everything that's kind of connected so that it's not just about the music. It's also about conveying the whole story through the artwork."

On the use of orchestral and symphonic elements on "The Shadow Theory":

Thomas: "Yeah, we definitely want to continue to bring symphonic elements to our music, but we also have some electronic elements, synths, which we haven't really used in the past to kind of help this dystopic future vibe, so, we'll always be a band that uses symphonic elements and now Oliver [Palotai] is doing all of the keyboards and symphonic compositions. That's his thing. We're lucky to have him."

"The Shadow Theory" was released April 6 via Napalm Records. The follow-up to 2015's "Haven" was helmed longtime producer Sascha Paeth and mastered by Jacob Hansen.

KAMELOT recently parted ways with longtime drummer Casey Grillo and replaced him with Johan "Jo" Nunez.

KAMELOT will embark on a massive world tour, starting in North America during April/May 2018, followed by European shows in the summer. The band will return to Europe in September/October for its biggest headlining tour to date.

Photo credit: Tim Tronckoe