NILE's KARL SANDERS: 'The Internet Has Changed The Entire Music Business'

David Garlow of Syracuse Music Examiner recently conducted an interview with Karl Sanders of South Carolina-based extreme technical death metallers NILE. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Syracuse Music Examiner: I checked out an interview you did with Metalship webzine a year ago and you had some very insightful thoughts and opinions about the Internet and how it has affected bands, fans, and musicianship. Can you talk a bit about your thoughts on those topics?

Karl: Certainly. The Internet has changed the entire music business. For those of us that were around before the age of the Internet, it's a completely different world. None of the old rules apply anymore; it's change-and-adapt or die. A lot of people have to change their way of thinking or the way to make a dollar to make a living and keep going. There are no more CD sales. There are some, and it's getting harder to make a living on tour with the rising cost of touring. Everything goes up except the amount of money that we get paid.

Syracuse Music Examiner: Your album "At The Gate Of Sethu" is an insane work of art, man. Can you talk about the album and how is it different or the same as previous records?

Karl: It's a NILE record. It's brutal death metal and has exotic elements and deals with lyrics derived from ancient Egyptian histories, mythologies and so forth. That part's the same. The approach we had on that record is it's a very surgically clean record, a precise capture of the musicianship. I think that is really where the focus was; we wanted to capture as cleanly as possible what we were actually playing and present in that simple kind of light to people. Simple, honest — this is how we play. No fancy production.

Syracuse Music Examiner: You are headed into New York this week with shows in Albany and in Rochester. What can fans expect at the shows?

Karl: We're going to play some NILE songs and play our asses off! We are also bringing some songs that we have never played and songs we haven't played in a decade or so, so we are having a lot of fun with the setlist.

Syracuse Music Examiner: When will we get another album from you guys?

Karl: Actually we are writing songs for the next record. We took a break to do this tour. We have a new record in the works and we are excited for it, yeah! It's what we live for!

Read the entire interview with Syracuse Music Examiner.