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Cristofer
Johan
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Sons of the Staves
of Time
Therion guitarist
Kristian Niemann is finishing up dinner backstage at The Pearl
Room in Mokena, IL. Turns out later it's his birthday, so I wonder
where the cake was? We move to a very pink vinyl covered dressing
room to discuss the tour and the band's latest album "Gothic
Kabbalah". Despite the band's reputation for attention to
detail, Kristian says the final tour confirmation came at the
last minute, sending the band scrambling to gather the essentials.
"We don't really have any production with us. We couldn't
bring it. That was a fuck up from the beginning with the promoter
of the South American tour. We were supposed to have our plane
tickets a couple weeks in advance so you can book all the overweight
stuff and we got the tickets literally the night before we were
supposed to leave. So we couldn't do any arrangements, we couldn't
bring a backdrop, nothing, so that really sucks!" Kristian
grumbles. "Last time we didn't have anything either, and
when you look at the pictures from Europe, with our full production,
everything's fucking awesome and you come here and think, eh,
they didn't bother to bring it."
Still, Kristian and
the band are happy for the opportunity to come to the US again,
period, "We just want to thank everybody for coming out
to the shows. We really appreciate the support. This is only
the second time we've played in the US, so we're not really only
promoting the new album, we're promoting the whole catalog so
we're doing stuff from Theli up until today, maybe two songs
per album, four songs from the new one." However, Kristian
says fans of the band's really early days might find the set
list lacking, "There's no death metal, we're not doing anything
from the first four albums. We did it on the last tour, we did
a song from all the records, but this time we had too much to
choose from." Kristian owes the band's stylistic transition
to Christofer Johnsson, "It's Christofer's vision. He started
the whole thing, the classical influences are coming from him.
We started writing more material with the rest of the band members.
But the classical thing comes from him. It's just natural. Whatever
you listen to, it all influences the final product. He just writes,
he doesn't really think about stuff."
Kristian insists Therion
tries to balance technology with talent, "Of course, we
use computers too, but you have to keep a balance and not kill
the feeling. You want to do as good as you can. You don't want
to leave stuff on records that you think a year or two years
after you're going to hate. You want to try to get as much of
your original idea as you can on tape. But then you don't want
to kill the emotion." The band's reputation for high standards
doesn't mean Therion wants to overdo anything, "Some people
think perfection means that everything is quantized and triggered.
I hate that type of music - it's useless! It really has to be
performances, people playing. But in that case, we are definitely
perfectionists, because we are really looking for good performances
in all, vocalists, the sound, the production, making sure everything
can be heard."
Their standards are
tough to meet, but Kristian says the band is lucky to have found
co-operative, professional vocalists for their touring choir,
including sometime King Diamond drummer Snowy Shaw, who may be
more used to the trials of touring, "Since they're willing
to go on tour with a rock band, live in a bus with a lot of smelly
people, they're open to different things. It works fine, we haven't
had any really major problems. Everybody gets along, no big egos."
While fans are certainly hungering for a new album, Kristian
says they will have to be patient, "Next year's going to
be a break. No Therion stuff next year, unless someone puts up
a ridiculous amount of money to do a festival, or if someone
says come to Japan for a couple weeks." Kristian says the
band has one more tour before taking the extended break, during
which he and perhaps some other members will be pursuing other
projects, "We have a month off, then we have to rehearse
a completely new set for Europe because we're going to do a 20th
Anniversary tour where we play the whole Theli album and loads
of other songs we've never played before. So have a lot of rehearsing
to do."
- Ruin
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Kristian
Petter
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