Symphorce interview
Monday, 01 May 2006
Finally, we have the interview with Cede Dupont, guitarist from metal rulers, Symphorce, who kindly gave us some words about the band.
Tuno: “Symphorce”, the name says it all, pure “power-metal” that penetrates you and turns you over into a “disciple” of the band.
Thanks for this interview Symphorce, in the name of all the PerfectProg.com Team!
First of all, can you tell us a little bit about how Symphorce was born?
Symphorce was founded in 98 when Andy decided to live his former band Ivanhoe. Me, I got into the band in the end of 99 when they already had their first album "Truth to Promises" out. I can't believe that's more than 5 years ago..........time's fast, and so is Symphorce, hehe. We have 5 albums out so far, ...and I still enjoy our music as much as in the first second where I got to learn the first songs :-)
What does the name Symphorce stands for, and how does it describe you as a band?
Symphorce is a combination of "Symphonic and Phorce" .....I guess we're not as symphonic today as we were trying to be in the beginning, ...we got more turned on the power and kick-ass-riffing thing lately........I think we have strong melodies, catchy and razor-sharp guitar riffs, ...I think that's the best description for our music. We're also more groove-oriented instead of being fast-players.
Where are you guys originally from?
All the other guys are from Germany, located in Stuttgart, ....I'm from Switzerland, Basel that is.
Symphorce has an incredible intense-powerful-aggressive sound, where does it come from? Who are your main influences?
I don't know, it just came out like this from nowhere. We have all different musical influences, ..........be it, nevermore, limp bizkit, korn, priest, whatever.....we have a little bit of everything in our music.
How can the music of Symphorce be defined?
see above ;-)
Let’s talk about your latest album “Godspeed”, what’s the concept for that album, we must say that the guitars delivers an incredible set of intense chords, that combined with the drums, bass and vocals, creates a very powerful metal machine, what are you trying to say with “Godpeed”?
We just wanted to kicks ass, that's it. We didn't really have a concept behind everything, it just turned out to sound like it, so I'd rather say, it's a natural development of the band, and not a concept that we were trying to get.
The cover art for Godspeed is amazing and very interesting, what can you
tell us about it?
Travis Smith did it, who also works for bands like Nevermore and Iced Earth.
There's no concept behind it either, he just came across with it, when he knew that the album would be called "Godspeed".
How do you come up with writing ideas for songs, do you get together as a
band to write music? Tell us a little bit about the writing process
Since we live far apart from each other, everybody records ideas at his own home. Me, Dennis and Markus write the music, ...and when we're done with our demos, Andy creates his vocal lines and lyrics, that' it :-) Simple hugh? hehe
What about the recording process, where do you record your albums?
House of Music Studios near Stuttgart, .......for Godspeed we had like 3 weeks, to record, mix and master the whole thing. Dennis Ward was producing.
Is Symphorce currently working on some new songs and what can all the fans expect to hear?
We're more or less taking a break, but we are still writing some stuff of course, .........there's always a guitar riff that I wanna write down to the table ;-)
Cede and Markus, we must say that you both are amazing guitar players, how did you guys got into music, and how long have you been playing guitar?
We both loved a guy called Slash, and that was the main reason to start playing. We wanted to be as cool as him, hehehehe .........probably to get also as many girls as possible, hahahaha
Who are your favorite guitarists?
Paul Gilbert, Slash, Dimebag, Zakk Wylde, ............................
What kind of gear do you use?
ESP/LTD Guitars, Engl Amps, Rocktron effekts
We hear in your albums very powerful chords and solos, can you tell us how are the guitars tuned to create that sound, do you use any guitar effects?
We use 7-string guitars for the rhythms and then we were playing around with some effects and gear, such as RP-Series from Digitech.
We heard that Sascha (Drum player) is no longer in the band, can you tell us a little bit
about it?
Because he thought he didn't wanna continue, ............it came out from nowhere, we returned from a very successful tour in Sep. last year, and out of heaven, he told us that he wanted to stop playing in Symphorce. That's it.
Does the band members have any side projects?
Andy has Brainstorm, Markus is playing in Mystic Prophecy, and Dennis has his own project called Shades of Grey. Me, I used to play in Freedom Call, left the band last year, ..........I think I'm starting some Blues-Metal project. You know we still have plenty of time left, cause Symphorce is a band where time-shedules are not so tight.
In our website PerfectProg.Com we have several polls, can you tell us where your votes go on each one?
???!!
We got the opportunity to see Symphorce play live at last year Progpower USA VI, an amazing performance, what are your thoughts about that concert?
It's been the hell of great experience to play it. It's been our dream to come to the States and do some gig there. Everything was very very professional, and people have been amazing. It's truly something that I'll never ever forget, that's clear!!!!
Was that your first time in America?
I've been over there for vacation before, as a band, it's been our first time, yes.
The metal scene in Latin America is very huge, a lot of headbangers, so, does Symphorce have any touring plans in the future to come and play in México and the rest of South America?
We'd love to play there, I've been in Brazil a couple of times, and that's still one dream to be fullfilled, to make it there someday.........South America rockssssssss!
What is your vision of the whole Metal scene these days?
I think it's getting better and better, ........people are tired of disco shit, .......they wanna go for the real stuff I hope ;-)
What is your advice to all those who want to start a band and create their
own songs?
Before creating a band everybody should quite know something about their own instrument, it doesn't make sense to create a band when they are just able to put 1 chord to the guitarneck, ........first, practice a lot, and then you should start by jamming, and as time goes by, try to write songs, maybe first start with covers.....and when you got like 10 songs together, you should go out and play live as much as possible, .........it's a killer experience ;-)
Well, thanks a lot for this opportunity to interview Symphorce, this means a lot to us (fans)! really really appreciate it, hope to see you soon on tour in México!!!
was my pleasure dude, ..........Hopefully see ya soon! Cheers
Cede
CommentsSymphorce rules!!
Written by Guest on 2006-05-15 10:53:05Symphorce rules
