RELAPSED

Interview par SEB le 19.09.2006

Vu Fois

Into A Former State

First of all, it's an honor for the French website hardrock80.com to do an interview with Relapsed, so on behalf of all the people who are visiting the site, I say thank you!

1. Relapsed was born and released its first album. Does that mean that Guild Of Ages split, or does the band remains active?
Guild of Ages split up in 2002 and haven’t done anything since.

2. How Relapsed was formed? Some of you guys know each other for several years, right?
At the last Guild Of Ages show we did a Caught In The Act reunion with Danny, Rob, Anthony and myself. It was great to have all of the original members on stage playing again. We did a few shows as Caught In The Act, then Anthony moved away. Danny, Rob and I wanted to keep going so we asked Brian Mesa to join us. That was the start of Relapsed. The four of us have know each other for a long time. Rob, Danny, Anthony, and myself all went to High School together, and of course Rob being my brother, I have known him all my life. We meet Brian Mesa and Steve Stuntz when they were playing with a band called Wishdoctor.

3. When hearing the album, we can feel that the music of Relapsed walks back on the path of Cita, to a more melodic traditional hard rock. It's a bit different from Guild Of Ages which tended to incorporate some prog elements in its songs. What do you think of that?
I agree with you, I think there is a big difference between Relapsed and GOA. GOA was more keyboard oriented. With Danny, Rob and myself being original and founding members of Caught In The Act, we have that same chemistry that created Caught In The Act. and with Brian Mesa in the band he has brought a more modern and guitar oriented feel to our style of writing

4. When hearing some numbers ('Undone' or 'Somewhere we Belong'), we think of Harem Scarem as influences. Do you like this band particularly?
I have heard of Harem Scarem, though I am not very familiar with their music.

5. Some 'trademark' elements from Cita and Guild of Ages are found back in Relapsed, like the choruses for example. Is it deliberate not to drift away from the music of these two bands?
In a way yes. The chemistry between the four of us together as one, is different from Caught In The Act or Guild Of Ages. We wrote what we felt, but we still wanted to have a link back to our past.

6. Relapsed is signed on MTM, as Guild Of Ages was. Cita was one of the first band signed on the label. You are faithful to this label, can you tell us about it?
Mario and everyone at MTM has been very good to us over the years. When Mario heard that we had put Relapsed together he asked us if we wanted to do another album we said yes. We hope to get the chance to do many more.

7. For a long period of time, Bobby Barth, ex-singer in Axe, did contribute to Guild Of Ages and Cita. 'Into a Former State' is not produced by him. Is it a will to change your sound, or just different schedules problems?
With this album the whole process of writing and recording was done differently than we had done in the past with Bobby. It was great to have worked with Bobby, but this time we wanted to try a different approach.

8. You're from the US. Cita and Guild Of Ages are praised by European melodic hard rock fans. How is it in the US, do you have a strong fan base over there too?
Things are a lot different here in the US. We don’t have as strong a fan base here as we do in Europe, but hopefully that will grow with this album.

9. Will you tour with Relapsed? If so, do you plan on playing in France?
It would be great to do some shows in France. We are trying hard to get over to Europe to tour, Unfortunately we have been told by MTM that there is no budget right now for a tour, so we are trying to do what we can to do it on our own. We have had really good response from people wanting us to tour so we hope to make it happen.

10. What do you think of the current melodic hard rock scene, and of all these precious labels like MTM, Frontiers, Z records or Escape Music?
I have heard a lot of people say that melodic hard rock is a thing of the past. To me I think it is still going strong, there are a lot of really good melodic rock bands out there doing what they love, including us. We have done shows with bands like Warrant, Skid Row, Kip Winger, Faster PussyCat, Y&T. They are all out still doing shows and going strong. Which is great to see. As far as the different labels, I have only worked with MTM. But all of them seem to be putting out good music.

11. Let's talk about your musical tastes. What artists or bands are you currently listening to?
Relapsed of course, no just kidding. Depending on the mood I’m in at the moment, I listen to everything from Elton John to Nickelback. A band that I just got into lately is a band called Hinder, I am also really into King’s X.

12. Do you have one last word for the readers of this interview:
I first and formost want to thank Hardrock80.com for taking the time to do this interview, and to all the readers and fans thank you so much for your support and allowing us to do what we love to do. None of this would be possible with out all of you !!
Thank you
Joe, Rob, Danny and Brian.

Liens Utiles :

Chronique du dernier album sur HR80

Site internet Officiel

Site d' Underclass Music

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