Interview with Zoltan Fabian (guitars, acoustic guitars, sequencer programming)
Q>>
Hello there! So... "Eden?" has been released 6 months ago. Tell me
about the press results... Were they all good?
R>> The majority of the reviews on "Eden?" were very positive.
Some people were amazed because they could hardly notice any accent in the singing.
A lot of work went into that. Reactions to the earlier promotional CD (which
led to the record contract with Sensory) were also very good. Germany's Rock
Hard magazine took a track from the promo CD and included it on one of their
"Unsigned Bands" CD's. Based on that track, readers of the magazine
voted us best unsigned band of 2001! We won free studio time at the Woodhouse
Studios in Hagen, Germany, where we recorded two covers with Siggi Bemm producing!
That was a really big deal for us.
Q>> You guys
decided to switch from Hungarian to English singing in order to make your lyrics
understandable to a larger audience, which is quite a wise decision, but...
Is there no nostalgia at all? How hard (or easy) was the change?
R>> We had a significant change in our line-up and we virtually had to
start everything over from scratch. That's when we decided to re-record our
two previous Hungarian albums but this time in English. Yes, our aim was to
reach a larger audience. But we haven't changed/turned into an English band.
We still write our new songs in Hungarian, mostly because you have to be able
to think in English to write good English lyrics and that's not one of our strong
points yet. Luckily, we've got an Australia-born friend, Peter Linka, who does
a great job translating our lyrics into English. Another reason is that our
Hungarian fans are used to hearing us play in Hungarian. We once tried playing
a few tracks in English at a gig here in Hungary but the audience yelled out
saying that they wanted to hear them in Hungarian. So we play in Hungarian for
our Hungarian fans and in English abroad. I prefer to think of Nemesis as a
bilingual band. That's not very common, is it?
Q>> I'm not
sure, but "Eden?" looks as if all the songs are connected in a certain
way. Is this correct?
R>> By the time we go into a studio to record an album, we know precisely
what we're going to play and what we want to hear. This was made even easier
with this album, because we'd already recorded the tracks once before. We only
implemented minor changes that came mainly from the playing styles and personalities
of the new musicians in the band. And one of our goals always was - and still
is - for Nemesis to develop and progress further from album to album, in all
respects.
Q>> How did
you work on "Eden?"? Was there some kind of a working core or did
you guys work all together on all the tracks?
R>> Generally, I'm the principal songwriter, but I always take the opinions
and ideas of the others into account. That goes for both the music and the lyrics.
We always make a demo version of each track, then we jointly work on it, moulding
and forming it, right up until the final recording. This is the best working
method we've come up with so far, so we'll be sticking to it in the future too.
Q>> On the
musical level, do you guys feel all right in Hungary? Wouldn't you like to just
move like many of your compatriots did?
R>> Good question. I don't really know of many of our compatriots who
moved abroad because of music. But maybe I'm just under-informed :-). The music
we play virtually moves on an underground level here in Hungary. Progressive
Rock or Metal aren't among the more lucrative music styles abroad either, to
the best of my knowledge. There are no media in Hungary that deal with this
kind of music and the audience is proportional to the underground nature of
things. I think we'll end up staying here, but we'll still be making albums
in English so that we can build up a larger fan base outside Hungary. If anyone
invites us, we'll gladly play gigs abroad too - anywhere.
Q>> Just
out of curiosity: are the guys in the Hungarian Prog scene as pretentious and
arrogant as a lot of them are in Western Europe or in the USA?
R>> I don't think that attitude is style-dependent. There's nothing to
be arrogant about here in Hungary and that never gets you very far anyway. You
always have to look ahead. Conceited people are over-satisfied with themselves;
hence they always stop in one place. That's the greatest mistake a musician
can make. We have a good relationship with local bands. We just laugh at anyone
who's totally up themselves and try to bring them back to down to earth again…
Q>> I had
a look at your site and I read about "Terra Incognita", which is your
3rd Hungarian album, that you plan to re-release it in English later... Aren't
you guys afraid that people will not understand what you're doing anymore? I
also read about that label of yours... Tell us more...
R>> That's because of the bilingual nature of things, as I mentioned before.
"Terra Incognita" is a concept album and I would never have been able
to write it well in English by myself. But we're currently working on an English
version of that too. We've only got to record the English vocals now. I don't
really think this will confuse people, because there are lots of inquiries from
abroad for our Hungarian versions too. I've already sent several Hungarian copies
of "Terra Incognita" to non-Hungarian speaking fans abroad…
Q>> I've
heard some nice acoustic parts on the CD, including percussions etc. Are you
doing all this by yourselves with synths and samplers or did you work with real
acoustic instruments?
R>> Yes, these sections were recorded with synthesizers, unfortunately,
and not with real musicians. This is primarily a matter of money (more precisely:
a lack of it), but we hope to be able to employ live musicians in the future.
Q>> I read
that Nemesis split in the early nineties and reformed about a decade later.
Was the reforming idea latent during the '90s or did you concentrate on different
things back then?
R>> Sorry, but your question's wrong. The original Nemesis formation split
on Dec. 16, 2000, and we re-formed with a new line-up on Feb. 24, 2001! The
new line-up only had seven (7!) rehearsals together before we re-recorded the
music for the English albums. So there really was no idle period.
Q>> I guess
there won't be any split anymore until you all have long white beards. Right?
R>> I hope so. I've already got a beard, but it's not grey enough yet…
Thank God! The split was the result of a very long sequence of events. It shouldn't
have dragged on for that long, but I overdid it with the tolerance, unfortunately.
If a situation like that comes around in the future, I'll be much more strong-minded.
Everyone's replaceable. That's a proven fact, because we have a new singer,
drummer and bassist in the new formation and they're all better than the previous
guys were.
Q>> OK, this
is where you say goodbye and grab the chance to fill all this nice blank space
with whatever you want to add... Your future plans, whatever you want...
R>> Amongst our many plans for the future, we plan to record an instrumental
album too. Apart from that, if all goes well, we hope to be going to Atlanta
in November to play at the ProgPower festival. And we're looking for opportunities
to play at European gigs too. Our thanks to you all for your interest in the
band, and we promise that if we every play out your way one day, you won't be
disappointed in us! If you'd like to find out more about Nemesis, visit our
website at http://www.musicofnemesis.com
Thanks for the interview and our best to everyone!
RNO