From DSFA Records To Nuclear Blast For That Needed Kick In The Ass

By Chris Forbes BALLBUSTER: what has the band been up to the last few yrs? how did you end up on nuclear blast? ORPHANAGE: We did lots of touring and after 1 year we became aware of the fact that we hardly had any new material. Another year later we were ready to mix the album when our record-company (DSFA-records) told us that their bank-account was way beyond empty. We took yet another year to look for an new record-label and to perfect the recorded material ; from the list of record companies interested we chose Nuclear Blast as our solid partner. They combine a personal approach with lots of hard work and energy and that was what appealed to us immediately. BB: was there any period where the band thought about breaking up? ORPHANAGE: There are always moments when you think of stopping, but in times like that I realize that one week later things can look a lot better. We have put lots and lots of energy in this band and in our music and I don't want to throw that away all too easily. BB: what do you think of the internet? tell the readers about your web site and what they can expect to find there when they go? what is the web addy? ORPHANAGE: I think the internet makes the world a smaller place and it makes it possible to find other people in an underground scene. As far as metal is concerned, I have a strong belief in the underground scene, because this world-wide-web-of-enthusiastic-freaks give extreme bands the foundation they need to make their music. I can't wait to see Internet-radio of decent quality though, because that's the way to go for small independent radio for extreme music. The same for video; still the realm for those with money and influence, but with world-wide-internet-access also within reach of anyone with a sick & creative mind. We have a simple web-site at www.orphanage.net ... to provide info & news about the band, for example. Other nice things are the chatbox, which we share with the band "Within Temptation" ... and the Orphanage-charts, where fans can vote on their favourite songs; we use this to put together our playlist. Things will be renewed in the near future, but we all rely on the willing help of (professional) volunteers. BB: are your older releases still in print? are you still on good terms with your old label? what do you think of your old stuff now? ORPHANAGE: I older releases are still in stock but not printed anymore ; we are going to talk with Nuclear Blast about re-releasing these ..... We're not really on good terms with our old label, because of the way our cooperation ended ; I am VERY GRATEFULL for the way Anthony (the DSFA boss) promoted us in the early days though; and another thing ... if it weren't for Anthony I would never have met my wife! BB: any hopes of maybe coming to the us to do some shows one day? what are some of the goals of the band now? ORPHANAGE: We'd love to ! But there are no concrete plans, unfortunately ... so we (and everybody who helps us out) keep our eyes open for new possibilites ! Our main goal is to think of a NEW direction without losing our original identity ...... BB: what do the new songs sound like? was it hard making this new record? where did you record it at and how much time were you there for? ORPHANAGE: The new album "Inside" is the result of an immense effort of the band to do everything ourselves ; we tried as hard as we could to get the max out of the songwriting, the recording sessions(both in the studio and at a lot of time at home) , the lyrics and the mixing. We had a lot of barriers to overcome though, both personally and in our way of working ; one of the reasons why it took us so long to finish this album. The other reason is that our record company DSFA dropped out on us, just before the mixing sessions. Not the most comfortable period in the Orphanage-history, as you can imagine ... To hear everybody's reaction on the album really gives me a great motivation-boost, because everybody is SO FUCKING ENTHUSIASTIC ! People feel the energy that we've tried to capture on the disc and they're impressed by the strength of the songs and the wide palette of small musical adventures. We're very proud to have made a CD like this, especially with all the trouble we can leave behind us. "Inside" has a far more personal approach, both musically and lyric-wise - hence the title. Our previous CD's were more narrative ; the songs were telling all kinds of stories, with subjects that were very intriguing, but outside of our own real-world. What we do nowadays is to express ourselves, to show our emotions, our aggressions, our worries and our happyness. We all feel more comfortable with this approach, because we feel we have something to say that is worthwhile listening to, because the lyrics are stronger this way and because it attaches better to our music. The new songs are much more in balance; the different musical elements have an evenly weight in all of the songs, with which we sharpened our distinctive Orphanage-sound. We finally succeeded in blending death metal, gothic wave, Italian film-score music, techno/progressive-metal and horror-fairy-tale-atmospheres. BB: do most of the bands get along where you are at? what are live shows like? do you get to play many? what would be a dream concert for you? ORPHANAGE: Yes they do ! We're not the rock-and-roll-kind of hotel-room-bashers - we like to get close personal contact with all the bands that we play with and in most cases that leads to nice parties and in some times new close friends. We try to make our live shows as powerfull as possible without over-acting ; we don't want to lose that personal touch that people over here like about us ... On the average, we do some 50 shows a year .... I already did my dream-concert ... on the Dynamo Open Air Festival !!! BB: do you get a lot of mail from all over? what country to you feel you are most popular in? ORPHANAGE: We get lots of mail ... not able to answer them all. We like do move this part of the communication towards the website, where we can address a lot of people at once ... Our popularity isn't really larger in a specific country (apart from the Netherlands of course) ... what we do see that students all over the world like our music a lot. BB: how long to you see the band going on for? do you feel you are an original band? ORPHANAGE: We think of ourselves as an original band and we're planning to make music as long as we possibly can. We live CD by CD though, so further than that I'm not able to look ... BB: any last words you want to say? ORPHANAGE: Please let me know what you think of Orphanage and the new album "Inside" by signing the guestbook on our web-site : http://www.orphanage.net We"re very curious ! Copyright 2000, BallBuster, The Official Int'l Underground Hard Music Report