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Spotlights on the Black Circus
Interview with guitarist Kristian Larsen and vocalist Lars Larsen of
Manticora by Vera in June 2007
Manticora is a Danish band with a great talent to write long concepts. Now
that the second part of ‘The Black Circus’ is released, we can finally
enjoy the complete story as a whole. Put on infectious power metal with a
slightly dark progressive touch, this journey takes you to the nineteenth
century, New England. This is the right moment to contact the band and ask
some details about Manticora and this ambitious enterprise. The answers
were all given by guitarist Kristian, except one by vocalist Lars.
As it is the first time we do an interview with you
on this medium, let's start with an introduction kind of thing. Who are
the founding members of the band, when came it into being and what were
the influences of bands that made you decide to make music yourself?
Manticora was formed back in ´96 by Lars and me (Kristian). Back then we
were extremely focused on beginning a professional power metal band. We
teamed up with Mads on drums and Rene on bass. The four of us created a
lot of tracks in our efforts to create our style. The songs are not worth
mentioning. Our main influences were Iced Earth, Blind Guardian, Iron
Maiden, Forbidden, Metallica, Slayer, a lot of different music. Anyway
after a few years we managed to create our first mini CD called ‘Dead End
Solution’ and with that a lot of attention both from our management and
throughout Europe in general. This was the beginning of Manticora.
You are a Danish band. Where in Denmark are you
based and what about the metal scene in your environment?
We're all based in Copenhagen with only ten km between each other. The
metal scene in Denmark is like it's always been. No support from anyone,
few fans and really bad CD sales in the stores. People in Denmark suffers
from the MTV diagnose knowing only whatever they dictate. This is typical
thing in Denmark.
You guys seem to have a liking for concepts...
last four albums all had a concept. Isn't that a heritage of the
progressive scene while being a power metal band?
We're all fascinated by concept albums. We enjoy writing and playing
music, live, and if you manage to tell a story along with this we consider
the final product as perfect. It's all about entertaining the listener as
much as possible. I think that concept albums are addictive for the
musician. If you have made one it's difficult to return to the normal
trend. I don't think that concept albums are linked to specific genres of
metal (and it shouldn't be that way). As long as you manage to wrap the
story around the music (or the other way around) the style doesn't matter.
The second part of the 'Black Circus' concept has
just been released. The occluding part. Can you tell a bit more about the
concept that covered two albums?
 I
won't describe the details of the concept but instead introduce you to the
overall idea.
The story takes place in New England in 1896. A person gets a job in a
travelling circus unknowing of its evil intensions. Nothing is what it
seems and everything just seems wrong. In "part1" we follow the story
through letters he writes to a friend regarding his experience in the
circus surroundings. As the concept goes on his letters become more and
more twisted, two faced and concerning. It seems as if he dislikes the
scenery, population and events that go on around him, but still he won't
pack his bags and leave. Instead his interest grows stronger.........he
almost consider this scenery as normal........realizing that this is so
much more than smoke and mirrors. "Part2" is the conclusion and with it
the circus reveals its true intensions. All hell breaks loose and
everything becomes pure insanity. But how will our main character respond
to this cruel setup? Only the lyrics will reveal this.
At the beginning of the year you switched from
Massacre to Locomotive Records (in between two concept albums) Kind of
strange in the middle of a huge concept. Can you tell us what happened on
the label front?
We had a dream of releasing ‘The Black Circus’ as a double album, but
unfortunately Massacre didn't agree with that dream. On top of that our
album sales were a bit disappointing for them and they decided to stop our
partnership. This is a very short version. This is why we've released two
albums with two different record labels. As we recorded both albums at
once we needed to release the follow up on another label.
So you recorded both albums in one session? What
was done in the additional visits of studio when finishing this second
part?
All vocal, bass and drum parts where done in the same session. Guitars and
keys where recorded in two sessions.
Now we are talking about the recording process.
Jailhouse Studio with Tommy Hansen must have been quite familiar in the
meantime. So tell me more about the recording process as a whole of the
two albums?
We always enjoy recording at Jailhouse studio with Tommy as producer. ‘The
Black Circus’ is no exception. The entire Part1 was recorded, mixed and
mastered in the same period of time. As always, the plan was to create the
atmosphere the right way, from the beginning. We always start out by
recording the drums, then bass, then guitars. All vocal parts are done
along with the recordings of the instruments. This way Lars won't ruin his
voice by doing everything at once. So normally we split up the day by
doing instruments first and then some vocals.
Who did the magnificent artwork of the two
albums?
 A
Russian artist called Leo Hao. He was ready to make our ideas real. It was
important for us to have a unique cover artwork that explained to the
listener the story in pictures.
Though Manticora is power metal, it sure isn't
the kind of happy metal people know, it has a dark, gloomy atmosphere. Any
comments on that?
I'm glad you mention that. We always focus on twisting our music in the
direction of the general concept mood. In my opinion it's important to
have an atmosphere carrying the song. Atmosphere creation is an important
tool when we create new songs. Without this we wouldn't continue as
musicians. For us the energy and atmosphere of a song weigh 50% of the
final song outcome. In my opinion, a song without feeling or mood is no
song at all.
Lars, your vocals are extremely special as well,
not the kind of usual high pitched power metal shrieks, but ... well...
let's say dramatic... Can you describe this a bit and tell us what your
influences or achievements are?
Lars: Well, first off, I am simply not able to do a proper high pitch,
hahaha. Secondly, I refuse to sound like a girl, by trying to train myself
to do the high pitches. It's all a matter of getting the message of the
song out, and in my opinion high pitch is not really that cool. It has
nothing to do with real singing, if you ask me. I have always been
influenced by James Hetfield, Warrel Dane, Bruce Dickinson, Russel Allen
and Erik A.K., but I also take influence in opera, like Pavarotti and the
others of this genre. Not that I sound anything like that, nor being able
to sing like Luciano and the gang, but it's important to feel energy in my
own singing, and it comes from the bowels, not the voice chords.
Can you tell a bit more about the videos you have
made in your career? Are there new ones planned from the new album?
As for now we've only managed to create live videos and studio diaries. We
definitely work on create a music video one day, but as you've probably
already have realised Manticora is financially poor band. The overall
costs for video creation are simply out of reach at the moment. We're
working hard on this at the moment, but we need to search for the right
deal first.
Touring is important to get people into your
music. What are the plans for touring to support this Black Circus part
II? (King Diamond! Great prospects, guys!!!)
Thanks! Our plans of touring are a big subject at the moment. In November
we start out our biggest tour ever, supporting King Diamond. Hopefully
we'll cover most parts of Europe on this tour. We are looking forward for
this tour a lot and we can't wait to get started. Before this tour we need
to arrange some live shows around Europe. The plan is to tour as much as
possible to promote this concept.
You did a tour with Angra and Edenbridge in 2005.
Any fine memories on that one?
 I
have only good memories from that tour. It was an excellent job for us and
we really did some great performances throughout Europe. With that we also
got a lot of new fans and this was actually a bit of a breakthrough for
us. Angra is a great band and all the guys are great. We had a lot of fun
with staff and bands on that tour. The best memory was our soccer game
(Denmark - Brazil). We were wiping them out winning 4-0. Also the last
show in the town Tours was a great. Totally crazy ending, with all bands
on one stage and a jam session with Angra/Manticora playing Iron Maiden
and Judas Priest songs.
What about the experience to play at the American
ProgPower fest?
A long trip! But it was definitely worth it. We had a great time in
Atlanta and the crowd seemed to like the show. We had a 1½ hour long
autograph session after the show so we shouldn't complain haha.
Finn Zierler is an important help for you since many
years. I once did an interview with him and he is an engrossing
personality! (at
www.lordsofmetal.nl
for Beyond Twilight). Can you tell us how you got in
contact with him and what were the results?
We've known Finn personally for a long time now. Finn is really not
important for us in Manticora when it comes to the music creation. We just
like what he's good at and that's playing keyboards. Finn is a great
element to draw into our music. He has a very complex way of thinking in
keyboard sections and that is why we like to use him when we need
keyboards done for our songs. As we don't have a keyboard member in the
band we need to use as much help as we can get. On ‘The Black Circus’
albums we created the keyboard parts ourselves but left some space open
for keyboard solos. Finn did 1 (one) solo and Andreas did the rest with
our new keyboarder Ronni Claesen laying down some tracks as well.
But there are more guests on this album! Now is
the time to tell a bit more about them!
We've known Andreas (Wuthering Heights, ex-Loch Vostok and ex-Platitute)
for a lot of years, and we had him with us when we were touring with Angra.
He's a great guy and an excellent keyboard player.
Jacob Hansen (Anubis Gate, Invocator, Beyond Twilight) is doing some guest
vocals to give the concept some more depth.
Last we teamed up with Teddy Möller (Loch Vostok, ex-Mayadome) for some
growling parts. He has a great voice for doing evil sections.
You recorded a song for a Tankard tribute CD.
What's the latest news on this one?
We had great time recording this tribute song. Since Tankard is so far
away in terms of genre, it made the recordings even better. Hopefully
we'll hear some news from them soon about release dates etc but right now
we don't have any news regarding this.
Martin Arendal returned to the band. Can you tell
something of his temporary leaving?
Martin never really left the band. He was just unable to be 100% part of
Manticora. A lot of work is to be considered when you have to create a new
album. Martin decided to join Manticora in the studio to do the guitar
soli after the creations of the songs were finished.
Today he's 100% a part of Manticora and will travel with us on the
forthcoming tour.
Is keyboardist Andreas Lindahl still in the band?
Andreas has never been in the band. We teamed up with Andreas for live
jobs only. He's a very talented keyboarder and a great guy. That's why we
chose to use him for touring. Nowadays, we are using a new keyboarder (as
said above), called Ronni Claesen.
People can have a Manticora calendar 2008. That's
the first meeting with a calendar of 2008 for me. You are pretty early
hehe. Where can we get these?
If we want to sell a calendar we need to be in front of ourselves.
Hopefully a lot of fans will purchase this calendar. Here is the link to
the calendar:
www.myvisions-metal.com
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http://www.myvisions-metal.com/Manticora.htm
As recordings of the huge Black Circus epic are
already a while ago, maybe you can tell us at which project you are
thinking now. Any plans for new concept?
Right now we are focusing on live jobs only and the big tour with King
Diamond. Along with the release of pt2 a lot of interviews come and we
need to take care of the world press :-)
But of course, people should enjoy now the
occlusion of ‘Black Circus’, so final words are for you guys to convince
them to buy both parts..........
I think
that we have created something unique on our two releases. Hopefully our
fans feel the same thing. The metal business is a tough one and we are
struggling everyday to keep Manticora alive. Do us a favour and support us
by buying our albums, tell the festivals about us etc. Hopefully people
will come to our concerts with King Diamond and realize the fact that we
are a hard working band focusing 100% on creating quality music.
Indeed,
buy these excellent albums and support these guys! In the meantime I
learned that the King Diamond tour has been postponed because of health
problems of King. That is sad news for Manticora; but let’s hope that they
can go on the road with King Diamond later through Europe. Thumbs up! |
