Nile pour l'album "Ithyphallic"

So first, how are you man? You must be kind of relieved to be done with the new album. I guess writing and recording a Nile album is a long and hard process, isn't it?

Oh yes, we worked every day on it for like five and a half months. It took over our all lives and not only our lives but the lives of our families too. I have a son that lives with me, so I'm a single father. So not only am I working on the album but then daddy's gone, every night. So it's many people sacrifices that are going through a Nile album.


The new album is called “Ithyphallic”...

Yes it is!


I know phallic refers to a penis but what does the whole title mean?

It refers to the ancient custom of building large statues of war fertility gods. Mythically-proportion directions. To us though, it symbolizes strength and virility, a powerful creative force.


Okay, so it fits perfectly to the music of Nile…

I think so, yes. We feel cool at this.


Very manly…

It's VERY manly! It's VERY masculine and VERY powerful, VERY defiant. It's Ithyphallic.


You revealed the covert art on the Internet but since it's in a small format, we can't see much. So can you describe it more precisely? What does it represent?

There's a group of slaves dragging this giant statue of a god, through the desert. He's got the erect phallus and all that. It's kind of like a scene at, you know, ancient movie or something.


Let's talk about music now. How is Ithyphallic compared to the previous albums? I heard a few samples and they seemed close to Annihilation of the Wicked …so what do you think about this new album?

I think this album represents capitalizing on all of the things we learnt while we were making “Annihilation of the Record”. “Annihilation of the Record”…”Annihilation of the WICKED”! How to make records and how to take death metal in place, make it listenable, make it so you can hear stuff. But there were still a lot of things, you know, as much as we like “Annihilation of The Wicked”, things we thought we could do better. And there was a kind of a fuel, a fire that burnt, that kind of pushed us while we were making “Ithyphallic”. How to make the drums so you can hear all the drums, make the guitar riffs nice and clean on a record and how to get the vocals to do it they're really aught to…And death metal is a tough musical form to capture and do it well. There are moments on some of our past records where we were doing these incredible things with the guitar and drums and the sound wasn't quite clear enough so at the end it doesn't do what it's supposed to do. So what we tried to do with Ithyphallic was take the music and make it so the people can hear what we‘re doing. Cause if people don't hear it they might also not even play cause they're not to get in it. They're getting in something kinda like it but not the real fucking thing. It's like, you know, sex with a condom on.


How did the writing process go? Did you write all the stuff or did you share work with the other members, especially Dallas?

Dallas and I wrote all the stuff on it and George contributed his drum parts. When Dallas and I were writing the songs, we'd made a demo with the guitar and quick drums and we give that to George like early in the day and by the time it would be time for rehearsal at night, he would have come up with new drum parts to go with the songs and we go, we're trying out, we kind of hold the songs together a little bit so in some way it is a group effort but definitely Dallas and I wrote the genesis of the songs.


So George Kollias lives in America now?

No, he's still living in Greece but he flew over for rehearsals. He flies over for rehearsals or for a tour or when we want to write songs. I think first trip over he came for eight weeks to work and write any songs then took a little break at home then came back for another 6 weeks of pre-production then we did the album and then we get to go home.


Okay, but it's not quite practical, he should move to the US…

Hmm, I'm not gonna tell him that. He doesn't mind to fly, then it's ok. His life is in Greece. He has a house, girlfriend, he teaches drums there, he has students. He's happy there. I say why can't be happy, okay!


From what I've heard, you sing much less than before, it's Dallas who does most of the vocals on the new. There were three singers in the past so don't you think the new album could suffer from a lack of diversity as far as vocals are concerned?

I would say that we did what was right for the songs. The vocals, we got Dallas who does the main, I do a little bit and Chris Lollis, our new bass player, he does something on the new record too. In the past, we did a lot of three vocals, always rotating, spread up very evenly. But this record didn't seem to call for that. I think these songs needed a very direct approach. Sometimes, when the vocals are trading back and forth, it's a very cool effect but I don't say that every album has to do that. We've already done that, it was time to do something a little bit different. I really liked some of the things that Dallas was doing. He's an extremely talented vocalist, he can enounciate the words very clearly and he's very right on the beats even with complex vocal rythms. Man, I got its, BANG (hitting his hand with his fist), right on the money! And he can do that like with the guitars, with the craziness in our guitars, he can still do the crazy vocals and do it all.


Yeah, I saw him live, he's really impressive!

Yeah, yeah! So that's what the songs felt like that's how we worked on them, he was doing vocals. I didn't really feel the need to say hey stop what you're doing it's kick-ass but, you know, stop it cause I want to do something.


Like it's MY band or something haha…

Yeah, I don't think like that. I did enough vocals in this album to make me happy. That's enough for me. Maybe the next album we'll do different, who knows?


But I loved your big guttural vocals, you know, very manly…

Very manly hahahah….


You know, like on the first album, you know what I mean?

Oh yeah!


I just miss them…

Well, we still have those. We didn't erase them.


Okay, that's cool then! You already mentioned your new bass player and I'd like to ask a question about him. Who recorded the bass lines since Joe Payne is no longer a member of the band?

Dallas did.


Dallas recorded the bass lines?

Dallas did the bass, except for some fretless bass on “Eat Of The Dead”, I did that stuff cause…


You did?!

Yeah, on one song. I put bass on one song, Dallas did the rest.


Okay so who's the new bass guitarist?

His name is Chris Lollis. L-O-L-L-I-S.





I don't know him, where does he come from?


He comes from Greenville, where we live, a band called Lecherous Nocturne. He's very talented and he gets some very unique vocals.


Okay, I know the name. I think Dallas was in this band…

Yes, Dallas was playing drums in Lecherous Nocturne for a while, that's where they met. It's a Dallas' man.


Dallas left the band didn't he?

Yeah, he's not with them anymore.


Why did Joe Payne get fired although he seemed to do a great job live?

Well we didn't have a single problem with his music, he's VERY talented. But he's also very young and sometimes young immature males do stupid things. And he was doing some VERY stupid things, we had to fire him.


Do you have some examples of stupid things he did?

*laughs*


Yeah, I'm curious!

Well he had a drug problem and he was trying to sleep with my ex girlfriends. So you know…he was staying high so much that he wasn't really contributing to the record. I felt that he was a dead weight, and there's the saying, stupid people do stupid things. Who knows what other stupid things this guy was going to do?! So we fired him!


That's too bad cause he's very talented…

Maybe the boy would learn something. Maybe he would learn that in life you can't be a stupid asshole. You got to, you know, act responsible and not throw away your opportunites.


Do you know his other band, Lust of Decay?

Hmm hmm. I've heard of them, yes. There was another thing, you know, Lust of Decay would be another reason that he got fired. Because we felt that if you have a chance to play in Nile, why would you play in Lust of Decay? Why would you need to?! So Lust of Decay, you know, I don't take them seriously. I thought that an opportunity like Nile deserves some respect and if you want to be a part of Nile, you need to be willing to make a few sacrifices. Certainly Nile deserves to be first on the priority list. Nile should come first. Missing a Nile practice and go play with Lust of Decay is unacceptable. Especially, especially when the boy was getting paid for rehearsals


He was paid for rehearsals?!

We paid him for his rehearsals. So fuck him! If he's gonna be stupid, and not appreciate the opportunities in Nile, then, you know…


Especially at his age…

Especially at his young age!


He's nineteen, I think...

When he's started he was nineteen, now he's twenty. When I was 20 year old, I didn't have this kind of opportunities. No fucking way, I had to work fucking 20 years to get where we are ha ha ha!!


Okay, so you think he kind of spoiled his opportunity to play in Nile?

Yes! I think it took it for granted and we didn't appreciate it. But that's life. Maybe he will learn something, you know, when I was his age and I was playing in bands, I did a lot of stupid stuff!


You know he seemed very angry at you and all the members. Did you read what he posted on his MySpace page?

No, what does he say?


He said he felt like he wasn't really in the band, that you never gave him the chance to be a real, a permanent member of Nile. He was angry and complained a lot. It was explicitly directed at you but I'm sure he was thinking about you when he posted that!

Hmm, well, I think it's a natural thing. He was upset he got fired. Most people get upset when they're fired! I'm sorry but that's the way it is. I'll make no apologies. He got himself fired. I would have loved to be able to keep him but Nile is not another garage band. I believe Nile deserves to be first. I think he didn't need…he was playing in four bands while he was in Nile!


Four bands?!

FOUR!


Lust of Decay and?

Domination Through Impurity…


Oh yes, they're on Comatose Music, the label of Steve from Lust of Decay.

Yeah, but you know, Lust of Decay was the one that pissed me off.


You don't like Lust of Decay, do you haha?

No, I don't! He wanted to do this side-project and that was ok with me. I didn't mind because that's doing something good for him. But Lust of Decay, I thought it's a 2nd-3rd rate band that won't ever go anywhere. They're nice guys, I know them, but is it worth sacrificing opportunities with Nile to go play with Lust of Decay? It's kind of insulting. That's like, you got a girlfriend and she goes out with some ugly guy that doesn't have a job or a car or anything! You go…


Haha I like the comparison!

What are you doing?! What are doing?! He has no job, he's ugly, he's stupid. What the fuck are you doing?!


Haha! Ok, enough about Joe Payne! A lot of fans ask for Vesano to come back…

That'll never happen!


Never?

No!


You're not friends anymore?

Oh that's not we're not friends. Jon left the band because he wanted to have a career, his normal day job. Because well I guess there's more money than in death metal. We were ok with that, that was ok. Jon quit for a reasonable reason. We're not mad at him. But by the same token, he left the band and now we've moved on and we're happy with what we're doing now. So we wouldn't go back.


Nile has gone through a lot of line-up changes since the beginning. Don't you think you're too demanding with your musicians?

Well, I would say…if I stopped being demanding would we be as good of a band as we have been? It's a trade-off you know. If you want to say you don't have to play that guitar part right, it's ok or you don't have to play that drum part, you know, as good…you know, it's ok, you can be a little sloppy. You played a little slow, it's ok, we don't mind. If I did that, would we be as good of a band?!


No!

No! We would be, you know, just another band…


Like Lust of Decay…(*laughs*)

Like Lust of Decay (*laughs*)


Ok, I understand your point of view.

Everything in life has a price. If you wanna be…


That's right!

…if you wanna climb that mountain and be, you know, THAT band, there's some sacrifice that have to be made. You have to give up your spare time to work hard, you have to be willing to go on tour all over the world, not see your family. You have to be willing to be brutal in the band room and say no, you're not playing that right! And it does suck! It goes like this, let's doing like this. Because the truth is the truth. The truth isn't like…ALMOST the truth. You know, because then you have something that's ALMOST pretty good but is it REALLY the best? No it's not. It is what it is and you can't pretend with your band makes something it's good, when it's not. Where else the bands will..listen to the bands, fans that don't know you. They aren't your friends. A metal fan on the other side of the world that doesn't know you, listening to your record, does he care if you were nice to your band mates? If you say to them, you know, oh yes I love you, we're friends and that sounds great, they'll never hear that stuff. They hear what you actually did, what you actually put on that upcoming record, that's what they hear. They don't care if you're a nice guy or not. In fact, being nice counts for NOTHING! It counts for nothing! That sounds fucking sad and hard but it's the cold truth. And it took a while to learn that but that is the truth. If you want to be a mediocre band, you could be nice. You can drink beers and smoke pots and be friends all be happy! Chances are your gonna be fucking mediocre too.



Okay. What do you answer to people who say Nile has been going round in circles for a long time?

Hmm, going round in circles…


I don't agree but a lot of “fans” say that.

I've heard that criticism in many forms. Like Nile, they're doing the same thing they always do or when are they gonna do something different. I say we do whatever the fuck we want to do and we're happy…playing the kind of music we play and we're not going to change what we do for just some whiny people on the Internet.


Yeah but not change, you know, radically but a bit of evolution…

I think there's plenty of evolution in Nile.


I agree but…

Yeah but there again I think if you want to be a great band, there are plenty of people who criticize you and that's the natural way of things. And some of them really hurts, I've heard some things on the Internet that I didn't certainly agree with but, you know, people say whatever they're gonna say. I mean it's kind of a good thing. We're not all the same people, we don't see things the same way necessarily all the time. So in a way, criticism is a little bit good because it kills complacency. Are we going round in circles, well I don't think so, I think we stand to, you know…work a little bit harder. There's always the chance to work harder. You can always work to be a better band. I believe this.


Will there be notes from you regarding the recording of the album and deep explanations of the lyrics in the booklet? I know it's a pain in the ass for you but did you write a lot of stuff again?

I did not do any notes for this record. There won't be any for “Ithyphallic”.




Really?!

Really! I did that for the last 3 records and it was fun but I didn't want to do it for this record.


So no long paragraphs about the lyrics to explain them…

We wanted to stop going round in circles (*laughs*). Sometimes, you know, I really think you can't give people everything and sometimes the more you give them, the less they're happy. You know, the amount of work that went into the liner notes is staggering and still people will find something to complain about. So this time I say I'm tired of reading noise on the Internet about people don't like this and people don't like that. I'm not doing it at this time.


So you're getting lazy haha?

I'm not lazy…


Yeah, I'm kidding, I'm kidding!

Yeah I understand. I didn't want to do them so I didn't. Maybe next record. Or maybe we'll do them and put them on the Internet, I don't know.


Will there be a limited edition with bonus stuff or something?

I've heard that there is. Nuclear Blast sent me an email today [this interview was conducted on June 12] for a special edition, it's like a pyramid. It's gonna have some drum videos of George recording the album and some rehearsal recordings.


You just mentioned Nuclear Blast and I have a question about your new label. Why did you leave Relapse, weren't you satisfied with that label?

We felt as a band in order for us to keep moving forward and grow as a band, it was time to move on to, you know…time to go forward. We thought we were gone as far as we could with Relapse. If we stayed with them we were not necessarily gonna grow anymore.


But you know Nuclear Blast isn't really into brutal death metal bands?

That doesn't bother me.


Do you like current Nuclear Blast bands?

(*sigh*)…


You don't know any Nuclear bands, do you haha?

What I have to say is it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter whether I like the bands on Nuclear Blast or not. They're a great label, they know…


Yeah but they have to know about your music? No? I have nothing against Nuclear Blast but…

Relapse…If I look at Relapse Records, with the same periscope as we're talking now about Nuclear, they're not really a death metal label either! They're a grindcore label!


Hmm grindcore…

If you look at all the bands that are on Relapse now, there are not so many death metal bands. There's a lot of grindcore bands. And when you talk them…


I wouldn't say grindcore bands but rather experimental bands, you know, “weird” bands…

Okay, there you go. So is that really death metal either, I don't know. I don't even know if it matters.


That's not death metal but, you know, extreme metal. Relapse is more into extreme metal than Nuclear Blast.

Sure! I'd say Nuclear Blast, they got a lot of power metal, you know, girly metal with females singing.


Yeah, I don't like this kind of metal but they have also Belphegor, do you know Belphegor?

Yes! I do know them. I've been welcoming by them. A bunch of great guys, very metal. That's one metal band!


Yeah haha, with big tattoos and stuff!

SPIKES!


Naked girls on their cover arts!

I love metal. That's the kind of metal things I love!


You know Relapse is gonna pull out a best of Nile...

*laughs*


What do you think about that?

They did just what we thought. They did it and then they told us about. I think, on one hand it's kind of like an obvious play to grab the cash.


But do they have the right to do that?

They do whatever they want to do! They can repackage our albums ten times, do whatever they want to, they have that right.


So Relapse owns the copyrights of the songs?

They don't need the copyrights. They just have to pay us the royalties. Theoretically, they can release as many versions of the songs as they want to, repackage it, do everything they want to.


It's lame!

(*laughs*) Most record companies just don't do it because people would go that's lame I ain't buying that! (*laughs*)


I ain't either! I've all the albums. I don't like best of anyway!

I think the whole reason they're doing it, if you look at the release date, it's like two days before the start of Ozzfest. What they want is the mall kids…we have something in America call mall metal…M-A-L-L, like shopping mall…


Oh yeah, I know. Trendy metal!

Trendy metal! This people at Ozzfest, they don't know who we are. Cause we are underground metal…


It's the 1st time I think for a brutal band to play at Ozzfest…

Exactly! So those kids hear us and they don't know who we are and they see like a best of Nile, right to get all the god songs on one record. That's who they're gonna sell that to. They wanna sell that record to those kids cause normal fans aren't gonna buy that record, we already have all the songs already.


Okay so show those kids what real brutal music is!

That's the purpose! Make sure they know what real metal is.


Will you record another solo album in the future?

Oh yes! Right now I got four songs I've been working on. Probably when I take a break after the next Nile touring, I'll probably work on it some more and maybe shop around for a label, see who wants it.


Maybe Nuclear Blast?

Maybe Nuclear Blast, who knows?


Who knows, hehe?! Let's go back to the early days. I would like to know where the idea to mix brutal death metal with the whole Egypt thing came from.

That was pretty much…(*laughs*) like…


Did you want to make your band more interesting and innovative than all the other ones?

Well, it was kind of like there is a war. I'm a Gemini, which is like the sign of the twins. On one hand I really liked the bands like Trail the Boat and fiction bands and a lot of soundtrack music. I really loved this kind of stuff. And on the other hand I liked brutal death metal. It was kind of like I wanted to do all that (*laughs*). So that was kind of what happened with Nile, I wanted to bring these other things in it, kind of like, make a music that had all that about it.


Yeah, it's a great idea, especially with the lyrics that are different to the usual gore stuff in death metal. Do you know a band called Zyklon?

Yes, they're friends of mine.


Cool! Their lyrics are very intellectual too. It's Faust who writes them…

He used to write me letters from prison.


Really? Cool, didn't know that!

Yup!


I read in some magazine you've never been to Egypt yet.

Not yet!


Not yet!?

But I'm hoping. Nuclear Blast says maybe we can go there to make a video…


What about playing a show, you know, in front of the pyramids? That would be great!

You're like a fucking genius!


You know, a French singer did that. Jean-Michel Jarre. Do you know him?

Hmm no I don't…JEAN-MICHAEL JARRE!! Oh yeah, yeah, I have the album “Oxygen”.




Yes, that's him hehe! So that's kind of a dream for you?

Who would not want to do that?! I don't think it'll ever happen but why not? I think this in life all the time: WHY NOT?!


Yeah you have to be positive!

And Ithyphallic! (*laughs*)


Let's talk about tours now. Is a European tour planned to promote the new album? I heard you're gonna tour with Six Feet Under…

That is true!


That's true, ok! So with Six Feet Under and what other bands?

I don't know (*laughs*). But I know Six Feet Under is on it. That's enough for me.


Do you like Six Feet Under?

Well, they're friends of mine.


Chris Barnes?

Chris and some of the other guys…


Terry? He's a cool guy.

Terry and Steve the guitar player. We both play on the same guitar gear, it's made by KxK in San Diego. So probably Rob from KxK is gonna be very happy about that tour.


Okay, so in November?

In November.


Cool, I will be there!

Me too!


(*laughs*) I hope so! (*laughs*)


What do you listen to these days? Any band to recommend?

I've been listening to NOTHING!


Really?

Yeah, I'm taking a little bit of a break from listening. We worked very hard on this record, all day, every day. So I'm taking a break from music.


Ok so this is the end of the interview!

(*laughs*) Oh that's sad, this has been a good interview. Like fucking meat, like when you have a baguette and you put some MEAT in it and you BITE into it. That's what this interview was.


(*laughs*) I agree so if you have one more thing to say, it's now or never!

(*laughs*)


You know, like a message for your French fans or something…

Oh man, I love coming to France to play metal shows. French metal fans have always been very good to us.


Yeah, la Loco!

La Locomotive, yeah!


I saw you twice there. And last year you played at Hellfest…

Hellfest, I was there. Zyklon was there too!


Yeah! And they were great! Okay so this is the end, unfortunately…

Oh yes, it is sad…But I had a great time! It was a fascinating interview.


Thanks! Were my questions more interesting than the ones you told us about before we started this interview? You know, the 30 boring questions? (*laughs*)

Oh yeah, those were good questions. You might not want to use all the stuff about Joe Payne. Perhaps you'll give some common sense. Sometimes I get going…schrrrrrr…yeah, I don't wanna slaughter the boy, he's young and I think he made a lot of useful mistakes. So I don't have any anger. Too much anger except, you know, I don't think he has the right to be angry with us. I think he made some mistakes…


If someone has the right to be angry that's you, not him?

I feel like I'm the daddy. I am a good daddy and sometimes…I have a daddy in real life…


Hey you could be his father considering the age difference!

Considering the age, it's very possible! When I was his age, I was already playing metal and I was (clapping his hands) *BANG BANG*, I hit everything I could. So it's quite possible (*laughs*)! But I think maybe, hopefully, he would learn from his experience with Nile and realize that…


We always learn from our mistakes…

I hope so! Perhaps next time he joins a band, he gets a good opportunity, he will use his head a little more.


It's your philosophical message?

This is my philosophical message, yeah!