SOCIAL MEDIA

Gloryhammer

TM - Hi This is Amelia, Harrison, and Elizabeth from Twinmusix. We are here with Paul Templing from Gloryhammer, Paul how the fuck are you?

PT - I'm really happy to be here!

TM - We are really excited to have you come to Australia, what can fans expect from your setlist?

PT - We were talking about this last week and we realised last time that we played Australia we had only released one album, so you have missed three albums since, so we are going to make sure we play evenly amongst the albums you have missed since. So we are going to include some extra things that maybe we haven't been playing so much lately but we won't give you any spoilers, otherwise expect a Gloryhammer show. You have been starved of this stuff for almost 9 years maybe a decade, we have been doing this stuff in Europe the USA and everywhere else and we can finally bring our whole show to Australia.

TM - We are really excited for you guys to come down under, what I would say is the new album is amazing so we are very keen to hear songs of that! and even though in Australia we love Rum Ahoy, maybe because it's been 9 years, we can get Gloryhammer to play their whole discography?

PT - I think we might have to have a few extra emergency rehearsals to make that possible, but I don't know we will see. 

TM - How have the fans reacted to your new album?

PT - Really well! I guess some of these sounds are kind of new and there is a little bit of progression from the previous album, and obviously we have a new singer so when you change something as big as that it is reassuring to see when you finally release a proper full-length album that people are positive about it and accept it and see all the new things that our new singer can bring to the band. I say new singer but he has been with us for a couple of years now, but as far as records are concerned he is new.

TM - I have to say his voice is phenomenal, the new Angus Mcfife is amazing! I can't sing his praises high enough!

PT - It's great! He brings a lot of musicality that you don't normally get from singers, singers can be very instinctive in the way they approach music because it's all coming out of their mouth. He really thinks about the intervals he's singing when he is doing his harmonies, and the proper technique it's great to have him around.

TM - What was the writing and recording process for your new album?

PT - The writing and recording aspect of it was business as usual, which in our state is a state of chaos for a few months while we think “oh god we have to finish all these songs how are we going to do it in such a short time”, but I think when that happens something magical kind of happens. I guess we perform well under pressure we all bang our heads together and throw out some riffs, melodies, and lyrics all kinds of stuff, and it somehow comes together and then we all go to Bosnia of all places which is new to us. We normally go to a place in North Germany to record our stuff, so it was a new environment which was nice, so it was just mad creative insanity for a couple of months which is exactly what we need for the product we are trying to produce.

TM - What made you pick Bosnia?

PT - I think it was a recommendation of a random person off a forum. It came to our producer and he was asking some people online where there was a nice environment, like a place that would be nice to visit that also has the type of studio that we would need, and this place came up. It was really nice and I had such a great time while I was there, I would normally do my guitar parts in the morning and let everyone else take over for the afternoon, and I just went around the whole town. It was a really lovely town called Mostar, it's got an old medieval bridge, I've never been to that country before so I would like to go back to that country for a holiday now I have been there. It was a random internet recommendation so there we go.

TM - Return to the Kingdom of Fife is a continuation album from your first album Tales from the Kingdom of Fife. What made you want to continue the album 10 years later? Will there be a third album to make it a trilogy?

PT - The answer to that is yes and no, in typical Gloryhammer story style, because everything that had happened between album one and album four happened on different timelines, on different dimensions. We have an almost Star Wars-esque timeline now, where if you watch the Star Wars films in the order of release, it doesn't happen in the order of the actual time, so in our case now you listen to album one then you go to album four, which actually happens 1000 years in the future from the first album, then album three happens in a different dimension to any of the other albums, then it goes back to the timeline directly after album one, so in a way, they are already a set of four so it would be a quad trilogy. So there is definitely a prospect for a continuation of sorts for the Kingdom of Fife, but who knows what form that could take? Whether it could be space, medieval, or just another dimension entirely, who knows? I don't think we even know yet, we still need to brainstorm some of those ideas.

TM - If I had any input, I would definitely say Space 1992 it's an amazing album it is probably my favourite album. 

PT - I hear that a lot, I think we really hit a niche market there, combining medieval fantasies and Lord of the Rings-style stuff, Star Wars and sci-fi stuff so I can see where a lot of people are coming from with that.

TM - If you could have any band play one of your songs what band would it be, what song, and in your style or their style?

PT - I tend to have different musical tastes to what we actually do. I really enjoy listening to punk rock, I think it's an escape from the precision and the intensity of symphonic power metal, where everything must be perfect and must be sung in tune and done perfectly, and I'm really into bands like Bad Religion. I guess my answer to that question could be Bad Religion doing Angus McFife. With really cool vocal harmonies and a punk rock rhythm to it, that would be so cool I would love to see something done like that like a blending of genres.

TM - Now you have me wanting to hear that

PT - Maybe I will do my own cover, who knows?

TM - How did you come up with your video for Wasteland Warrior Hoots Patrol?

PT - For the first time ever we have been in more control of our video concepts, so this time we wanted to make sure these lyrics matched what was happening in the song. Up until the last few albums the videos reflected kind of what was happening in these songs and very much being the interpretation of the director who has maybe heard this song once or twice and thought this is cool, have it on a spaceship or flying submarines. Where as this time, we had a very clear idea that we wanted a motorcycle chase happening in a nuclear wasteland, because that's what this song is about, so the video almost writes itself then. When the story is in the song, all we have to do is make it happen. Which sounds simple, but then you remember the whole thing is set in this fantasy sci-fi valve with laser powered motorbikes, so it's still needed a lot of CGI and camera tricks and everything to make it happen. The end result turned out pretty cool I think.

TM - How long does it take to make something like that?

PT - Filming doesn't take that long because it is all done in a studio in Serbia with green screens and stuff, so we filmed both the live action videos in maybe two or three days, but then all the real work takes place with the studio that does the CGI and that's pretty painstaking I think. I don't know the ins and outs of the process, it normally takes them months and months, in this case, we actually recorded some of those things last year before we even recorded the album. We recorded those videos and I don't think we had the final videos till we were on the US tour in June, so it was almost a full year of behind the scenes stuff happening back and forth and making it work, and there is a lot that goes on that even I don't understand.

TM - That makes a lot of sense, so how is the tour going so far, and what is your favourite festival you have played?

PT - This year we didn't do many festivals, we did a quick run in August which was kind of a whirlwind. I kind of felt like I was just hitting my stride just getting back into playing these big European festivals, and then it was all over which is a shame. This year we played a festival called Dynamo Metal Festival, which is in the Netherlands, and for some reason, I just really enjoyed that show, it was in some sort of sports arena like an outdoor sports stadium, which you don't normally get for festivals, the stage was great and the energy felt right, and there are other cool bands playing. I got to meet some of Trivium, I got to watch Megadeth with Kiko, one of my favourite guitarists, who shortly after finished touring with the band he was going through stuff with his family. They have another amazing guitarist from Winter Son now, I think it was a really great day one of my favourite days of the year.

TM - Anything else you want to say to your fans?

PT - It has been such a long time since we have been there and we are all super excited to come back down under and see what we have been missing! We can't wait to play a lot of these songs for the first time in Australia, it's going to be amazing! We have almost got used to playing the same old songs in Europe, as great as it is, but we really can't wait to come and play the last three albums worth of stuff for the first time in Australia. It is going to be amazing!

TM - we are really excited for you guys to come back down under