Check out some Mothernight merchendise by Clicking Here!
Rock My Monkey: Hello, you are listening to the Rock My Monkey netcast on RockMyMonkey.com. Today we are speaking with Deimos of the band Mothernight. How are you doing today, Deimos
Deimos: I’m doing fine. I’m doing well. I’m extremely well, in fact, because recently we had the premiere of our debut album on Locomotive Records, and the album is now available in the United States, so that’s the reason why I’m really in a good mood.
Rock My Monkey: Since Mothernight is new to most of our readers, do you mind going over how the band started, and how you got to where you are now?
Deimos: Well, it all started in the year 2001. It was during some partying here in Warsaw in my hometown. I met there with a bassist, Gabriel, who is also the producer of the album. We decided to start a band that would combine rock metal and some other kinds of music like gothic, maybe industrial. So it was the beginning of the whole thing. We started writing some first tracks, and we were just looking for some people that would be suitable for this band. It took us quite a lot of time, because only in 2003 we found a proper drummer. Earlier we played with some session drummers, but in the year 2003 we found Barry, who is with us as a permanent drummer now in the band. After that, we were looking for a vocalist, and it took us a lot of rehearsals, a lot of announcements. It wasn’t easy. It wasn’t easy to find a proper vocalist for the band. But after a time we just found an announcement from a female vocalist. She’s from the southern part of Poland, so she’s not from our town. So we contacted her and sent her a demo, and then she recorded some vocals directly on her PC, and sent us those vocals recorded to our songs that we had previously recorded. Then we invited her for a rehearsal here in Warsaw. She came to us, and during the first rehearsal it became obvious that she was the proper person for this band. Also on a social level, so the speak, personal level, we just got along with her since the beginning. We are good friends now at the moment. Well, after a time we finished the songs. She recorded all those vocals. Then we made a master, we made the mastering, mixes, mastering, and we were looking for a label. Well, it wasn’t easy to find a proper contract, but finally we signed to Locomotive Records, and now just like two or three months ago we had a premiere here in Europe. And recently the album was also released in the United States, on Locomotive Records.
Rock My Monkey: Now, I here there’s actually an interesting story behind the name. Do you feel that the band has any connection to the book other than the name? And has it inspired any songs, as well?
Deimos: Well, there’s a book written by Kurt Vonnegut, and it’s name is Mother Night, okay? It was a kind of inspiration for us because it’s a book about Nazi propaganda. It all happens during the second World War. There’s some kind of duality in this person, because on one hand he’s a monster, he’s a fiend. He does really bad things. But on the other hand, he’s a quite normal man, quite a normal person, and you can really like him in a way. So there’s some kind of weird duality in this person. It came as an inspiration to us because Mother Night is all about the bad and the good side of human personality. Well, in our lyrics, we focus on the bad side, on the maybe on the evil side of human character, you know. It was just the beginning, and we really liked that name, Mother Night. And then after a time we developed some kind of, created some kind of myth. It is connected with a Egyptian myth. It’s about a goddess who is a protector of all lost souls, and fallen angels, fallen spirits, bad spirits, evil spirits, even. The goddess is a white and black character at the same time. It’s a kind of myth, and it’s quite a long story, so to know more about it you should visit our website, which is MotherNight.eu. There we explain the whole idea behind this name.
Rock My Monkey: What would you say, what was it about your lead singer that made you know that she had to be the one to front this band?
Deimos: In front of the band, you mean?
Rock My Monkey: Well, when she sent you the tape, right? When she actually started working with the band, was there anything specifically that stuck out that made you know that she had to be the one to sing for this band?
Deimos: Well, we organized some kind of casting, you know. There were many people coming to rehearsals and trying their chances. At first we thought it should be a male voice, so we were looking among male vocalists. But then after a time we really disappointed with all those rehearsals with them. So we, overall we rehearsed like 100 people during three years. In person, some of them we rehearsed in person, and personally some of them just sent us some samples of their vocals, some tracks with their vocals in them. But we were really disappointed with them, with them all. No one really-if someone really had some kind of talent, and some kind of voice, he usually lacked some personal, you know, some character, some kind of balls, really wanted to-we wanted some person with a character, with some kind of attitude, with a way of thinking that we shared in the band. So it wasn’t easy. And then we found Freya, and she came to our rehearsal room it was like, it was like, you know, this impression. This first impression was really, really good. We were like overwhelmed by her personality as well as by her skills as a vocalist. She sings really perfect. I’ve been in the business, in the music business for like fifteen years, but I had never found, I had never met a person like she is before. So she struck us in a way with her personality as well as her skills. And then after a time when we got to know each other better, we were absolutely sure that she was the proper person to be in the band.
Rock My Monkey: Going on to your new cd, from listening, after recording it, now you’ve had a chance to kind of look back on it a little bit, what song on this cd has the chance of being your Ace Of Spades, the song that fans demand for decades to come?
Deimos: I would say-it’s not easy because, well, I don’t have proper distance to this album. I really like all those songs. But we had some kind of feedback from people who are buying our records, our record. Well, most of them would take probably either My Pain, or Someone To Feed On. And also a track which is called Resurrect Me is also estimated really high, judged really high by the people. There’s also a cover song. It’s a song originally made by Shakespears Sister, like fifteen years ago, or maybe-yeah, so it’s quite an old song. I think that this cover song is really cool, this version, because Shakespears Sisters version is neither a metal version nor gothic. We found some kind of new sound in this, in that old track. We did it in our own way. And I really like it. I really like the sound as well as the character of the song. So I can recommend you Shakespears Sisters the song Hello. Or My Pain, or maybe Resurrect Me. One of those.
Rock My Monkey: Right now, actually in the metal world, it’s become a world wide, almost a trend to have the female front person doing kind of a gothic metal kind of a thing. So what do you feel makes Mother Night unique within that goth metal scene, and what do you offer fans that no other goth metal band does today?
Deimos: Well, I think that our music is a kind of fusion. I sometimes use the word ‘gothic’, but it’s not really gothic. If you really listen to the album, you can easily find some metal, heavy metal inspiration, and maybe also some nu metal and industrial music. And we also have some acoustic tracks with ethnic, using ethnic instruments. So it’s like a fusion of different kind of music styles. Gothic, there is some gothic in it, too, probably, in the whole atmosphere. But I wouldn’t really call Mother Night as a gothic band. I’d say that we are rock, heavy rock, or something like this. So generally speaking it’s a kind of fusion. I wouldn’t say that it’s really unique, because there are many, many bands that try to combine the different styles. But there is some kind of atmosphere in our music that I cannot come across, that I don’t come across in other bands. It’s something maybe in the production, some kind of atmosphere in the background of all the tracks. You cannot call it this or that easily. That is the main characteristic of this music. What’s really attractive, I think, is that, man, people who listen to different styles of metal, different metal kinds, different kinds of metal music, or rock music, or gothic, can really find something for them, can really find something that really catches their attraction, listening to Mother Night.
Rock My Monkey: Now, this album is self-produced, but was that more of a budget thing, or was that an artistic thing?
Deimos: We recorded all the album and produced it before we got the contract. So you may believe it or not, but it was low budget production at first. We really invested our own money in this, in the record. So we found some people who really helped us. For example, we have some friends in best Warsaw studios who helped us without any payment at the beginning. But it’s not a high budget production, or something like this. We really wanted to achieve a good sound, an attractive sound, but we didn’t do it through some big sum of money. It was just, it was just our vision, I think. Yeah. After a time we found this proper sound. And we also tried to make a mastering in different studios. For example in Germany, in Hamburg, we’re collaborating with TomMayer, who’s quite a famous person here in Europe, who does, who deals with mastering generally. But we didn’t like his work, really. He mastered one track, and it wasn’t the sound we were looking for. So we started collaborating with some other guy who did another mastering, and it also wasn’t that sound we had in our minds, in our heads. So finally we mastered the album ourselves, in a really good studio called Efektura here in Warsaw. And this mastering we liked most. Maybe it can sound funny for someone that we rejected masterings done by some famous and well recognized people in the music business. But we really didn’t like their work, and we felt that we could do it better. And we did it, finally.
Rock My Monkey: What are the tour plans for the band, and is there any chance that you’ll be doing a full coast to coast tour of the U.S. any time soon?
Deimos: Now we are talking about, we are talking with the label about a European tour. And it’s quite possible that early next year we’ll go for a European tour. So everything depends on this. Everything depends on the outcome of the European tour. If it goes okay, if it goes fantastic, then we’ll come to the United States for sure. Probably in the middle of next year. But it’s too early to guess what will happen. The European tour is our goal now.
Rock My Monkey: There’s a video for the song Another Chance. Who came up with the concept, and was that the band, or maybe the director?
Deimos: Our friend who was the director of this video clip, he was directing it, and also it was his idea. But we discussed a lot this idea, so there are some ideas that we came up with in the video clip. What can I say? The video is about four people who are just locked somewhere. It gives an idea of a hospital or something like this. When you look closely at the end of the video, of the video clip, you can see that ‘another chance’ is not given. There is no ‘another chance.’ The door, most of the time the door is closed. That’s the main idea we wanted to come across with this, with the video clip.
Rock My Monkey: I do have one final question. Every year we do choose one final question that we ask every single band, from classic rock legends to the most extreme death metal bands at the end of every interview. Partially to stump people, but also to separate the men from the boys, so to speak, see who’s metal enough to actually answer it. This year’s final question I’m asking people to look into their crystal ball and predict what political figure, world leader, musician, celebrity, anybody world wide famous, who do you think might die before the end of the year?
Deimos: Well, that’s a prophetic question. Well, it’s not easy to predict something like this. To only to guess, I would say that The Pope probably will die by the end of the year, because, yeah. That’s my answer.
Rock My Monkey: Well, I thank you very much for the interview, and anybody that’s listening to the audio version can go to RockMyMonkey.com for the full featured version with clickable links, readable text, and many more wonderful features. I’m asking everybody to click on the album cover above and below this interview to purchase the self-titled debut by Mother Night. And I do hope to see you guys up on tour up in the Northwest sometime soon. Thank you very much for your time.
