SAMAEL Frontman Talks About New Album 'Solar Soul'

Mark Carras of RockMyMonkey.com recently conducted an interview with SAMAEL vocalist Vorph. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

Rock My Monkey: What do you feel Waldemar Sorychta brought to "Solar Soul" as a producer that would not have been there otherwise?

Vorph: Mainly I think it's very important for us to have somebody from the outside that just have a look into what we've done and make some comment that might help the song becoming better. We did work with Waldemar for every album, except the first one ("Worship Him") that we did by ourselves. But I think once we finish the songs we just have to think, this is done, it cannot really develop further than what it is. And that is where Waldemar came into the picture. He kind of have an influence on the structure of the song mainly. And just giving ideas. Often this is thing that we should see by ourselves, but we're too much into it, and we don't know how to distance to notify what could be done differently. Lots of little details, but that makes a difference for the song.

Rock My Monkey: You also have a couple of guest stars on this thing. You got Sami from KREATOR, and I hope I pronounce her name right, Vibeke.

Vorph: Vibeke.

Rock My Monkey: From TRISTANIA. What made you feel that their contributions were so important to that particular song?

Vorph: On the album before, "Reign Of Light" we actually worked with Sami already. Because Waldemar Sorychta asked him. We knew he could play the sitar, and when we knew we had a song with the sitar, which is "Quasar Waves" on this album, we immediately thought about him. We called him back and see if he was interested, and he was. So that was pretty much easy for this one. Vibeke [was] something different. That was Waldemar's idea as well. He was kind of hearing a female vocal on that chorus, which is the song "Suspended Time". We weren't sure about it, but he proposed that we try it out. He had two different propositions. A girl he was working with on a different project, and Vibeke. And as I did some vocal on the TRISTANIA album, it was kind of funny to have that kind of exchange of things. We tried it. She did the recording in Norway and sent the files to us, and when we had the whole thing we thought it was something so great we decided to take it.

Rock My Monkey: What are the chances of SAMAEL doing a full coast-to-coast tour of America sometime in the near future?

Vorph: For SAMAEL? I don't know. We are looking for it at the moment, but first we will probably tour in Europe, and that's going to be a lot of travel. November. So I don't think it's going to be before the end of this year. Probably early next year is what we're looking for at the moment.

Rock My Monkey: You had been on Century Media Records for actually quite a long time. What made Nuclear Blast the right label for the band at this time?

Vorph: I think so. I know in America it pretty much melds together, because they're working together, Nuclear Blast and Century Media, for this moment still. But in Europe they're very separate entities. I think Nuclear Blast is really becoming a huge label through the last five years. They've got the big structure, and that's exactly what we need at the moment, to have somebody that can back us up, and make a good promotion, make sure the album's going to be everywhere. It will happen. So we're pretty happy with the situation right now. Yeah.

Rock My Monkey: Within the metal scene you guys obviously have quite a unique sound. Who do you consider your peers, who do you consider your contemporaries in heavy music?

Vorph: If it were none, I would be happy, actually. (laughs)

Rock My Monkey: What's that?

Vorph: If there would be none I would be happy. I don't know. As you mention we're not trying to sound like anyone else. As much as we can differentiate ourselves from the others, that's great. But I suppose a band like RAMMSTEIN would probably be a band that people will think about when they listen to us. We're going to play with NINE INCH NAILS here in Switzerland, and I know that some people think that there could be a link between us and them. But I really see us differently. I don't know.

Check out the entire interview in text and MP3 format at RockMyMonkey.com.