interview with Visions of the Night
What is the name of your band? Visions of the Night
What does the name "Visions Of The Night" stand for? The name is basically things you see, partially see...or think you see during the nocturnal hours. The band has always dealt with elements of hauntings, the occult and the military, so the name can work equally well with any of the topics.
What made you call the band "Visions Of The Night"? I just narrowed it down to really liking the words 'Visions' and 'Night' a lot for some reason, originally I planned to called it 'Night Visions, but decided on Visions of the Night.
How was the band formed? The first live show was done with the help of some friends, one of which decided to stay on for a few years. Things grew from there with many line-up changes. Now it's just me with different session musicians.
What made you form the band? A desire to make music without any compromises.
Can you briefly introduce your band and who you are? Visions of the Night play military-inspired death/black metal. I'm the founder, Wolvesblood.
Where are all band members from?/Who does what in the band? I'm from just outside of Toronto, Canada. I write the music, lyrics and play guitar and vocals. Technically, I'm the only one in the band. Todd Hansen (The Berzerker) is from Brisbane, Australia and did session drums on the new album and latest tour. I borrowed Rah and Danika from InDeath (Australia) for the latest tour on 2nd guitar and bass.
What was the ambitions of the band when you started? When I first started I just really wanted to see if I could make an album and play live shows with a drum machine. After that was accomplished I wanted to do the same thing with a human drummer and play further outside the city. Then it was play Montreal and USA. After that it was to play Japan. Finally it was to play 3 countries on the other side of the planet and finally release 'Guerrillas within their Midst'. I'm pretty happy at how things have turned out.
Could you explain your music to someone that haven't heard you? I try to keep the songs sounding different, for instance the title track is about the wars in the middle east so I made it sound like it. There's sitars, military snares and even some middle eastern singing in it while still being death metal. There's a more thrashy song called 'War is our religion' , a black metal one called 'Lost in the Red Snow' about the eastern front in WWII and some more experimental stuff with some spoken parts and even a song where some machine guns act like drums and sync up with the music.
Where was your first gig? Toronto at a place then called The Big Bop (later renamed Kathedral). It was a fest for a metal radio show called Lethal Mayhem, we got asked because the show producer liked our single. I said yes even though we only have a few songs then, we played 3 or 4 plus and intro because that's all we had.
Where was the latest gig? Osaka, Japan at a venue called Varon.
Who writes your songs?/ who writes the music who writes lyrics? I (Wolvesblood) write everything these days, in the past I'd write 90% of the music and I've always written all the lyrics.
Who has the best since of humor in the band? Todd (session member), I'd say he has a better sense of humour than me.
What's good/bad with the band?/What genre do you feel you are? The good part of the band is being able to do whatever you want, and if someone can't make a tour, you just get somebody else who can and it's not a big deal. No one gets offended. The bad is that if I start slacking, nobody's there to pick up the pace for me. If I had to pick one specific genre, I'd say death metal.
Why did you pick that particular style?/What are your songs about? I've always liked how it's underground and mainstream people don't get it. I don't get them, so it works out I guess. On the new album the songs are mostly about war and military actions, previous albums have dealt more with possession, revolts, psychological issues and other topics.
Do you write your own material or mainly covers? We've only ever done 2 covers, 'Hacked up for Barbeque' by Mortician and 'Tim(Monty in our version) is gay' by Anal Cunt. We never even recorded the Mortician one though.
Have you made any albums?/If yes what are they? En Visioning the New Age, Externalizing Caligination, Nocturnal Militia and Guerrillas within their Midst.
Do you have any clips on YouTube?
Yes, this is a video that shows several clips from the new album
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwHl0Jmw5nQ
And this one is from a 2007 song we did.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hs2NMtbjpIo
We also have clips of fan art, interviews and shooting guns on our youtube page.
How old are you? What got you started in music? Old! Turning 39! Seeing the band Annihilator on tv really propelled me into metal.
At what age did you start playing? I didn't start guitar until I was 16.
How old were you guys when you first stood on stage? I did my first live show at my school when I was 17, I hadn't even been playing guitar for a year and was trying to play stuff almost as difficult as now. It was a total disaster.
What year was the band started? 1999.
How old were you the first time you saw a live band play? 15. It was Motley Crue! The next one was a few months later, it was Slayer and Testament.
How old were you at your first gig?/Best/worst gig you've played? For the first Visions of the Night gig I was 25 years old. The best show was either opening up for Cradle of Filth in Toronto because we won over the crowd really good or the most recent Tokyo show because of how many of our friends and fans came out to support us. The worst was a show in Toronto we did many years ago where one of the guitar amps wouldn't work so I gave the amp I was using to the other guitarist so he could at least do something while I just did vocals. The drummer at the time couldn't hear us and started playing the wrong song, because he couldn't hear us, he didn't even realize. The rest of us ended up improvising an entire song and it was of course terrible.
What places will you be playing in in the immediate future? Immediate future? None. Aiming for one big tour a year and we just got back from this years one.
Where have you played from then till now? Canada, United States, Japan, Australia and Taiwan.
What songs are in your live set's? This tour we used Violence Solves Everything, War is Our Religion, We Will Conquer, Assaulting Fortress Europe, Lost in the Red Snow, Thousand Yard Stare, Guerrillas within their Midst and Murder of the Self.
Is it always the same set's live? No, but because I was working with new people we kept each set almost the same for this tour.
Have you had any bigger tours from start till now? This tour didn't have the most amount of shows, but it probably had the most amount of people watching us. It was also the furthest away geographically.
How big crowds do you usually play for? We've played for 10 people and we've played for 600 (600 was opening up for Cradle of Filth a few years back though). In most cases it's roughly 100 people.
What are the plans for the rest of the year? We're going to be on the December edition of Terrorizer magazine cd. I'm working on doing promotion until the end of the year, but no shows until 2014.
Where do you usually play? We've probably played Toronto more than anywhere, but now we only play it as part of a tour.
How do you get psyched up for a gig? I wouldn't call it psyched, but more visualizing. I like to get up on the stage before the doors open and visualize the crowd, get a good idea of how much room I have for movement and try to figure out a strategy for getting the banner placed up.
What are your goals with your music? My goals are to just keep making it how I feel without any compromise and to remain unique.
When did you decide to go all in for the music? I suppose going all in would mean quitting my regular job and attempting to survive solely on the band. I haven't done that and wouldn't advise it for this style of music.
Is it easier to get your inspiration from older bands or from bands more modern? I don't really get inspired by other bands these days. But I did in the early days so I guess older bands.
What are your sources of inspiration? Watching war documentaries, horror movies.
What's the first step when making a new song? Making sure to record the riffs you come up with!
How do you feel about the downloading of music instead of buying albums? I prefer to buy a physical copy, I like having a giant wall of cds. Of course I also prefer people buy mine instead of downloading it, to help encourage this I always try to make the inlays very interesting. I always hate buying a cd only to find a boring inlay inside.
What would be your dreams for the band? I guess the next thing would be to play Europe.
Besides your own music, what genres and bands do you listen to? I don't listen to anything that isn't at least somewhat metal related. Some of it might just be a band that used to be metal, but has changed their style, but everything I listen to is related to metal in some way. I instantly detest anything that is played on North American radio or is too mainstream. That being said, I do like some bands who aren't necessarily heavy and could be viewed as somewhat popular. Lacuna Coil, Type O Negative, Biohazard, Apocalyptica, Scar Symmetry , etc.
What do you hold most dear? Integrity and self-respect.
What would be your greatest fears for the future? Loss of freedoms and even further government invention in our lives.
When you are on stage, what do you fear most then? Not being able to hear everyone or forgetting a part!
What songs and what years were they released?
Albums would be way easier, so I'll do that... EnVisioning the New Age : 2001
Externalizing Caligination(ep) : 2005 Nocturnal Militia: 2007
Guerrillas within their Midst: 2013
Have you been part of any other projects? There's plans for me to do some guest spots on 2 upcoming projects, since it's not 100% yet though I don't want to mention them at this point.
Have you been in any other bands? I did vocals in Horde or Worms for an album, plus was in several smaller bands before that.
What do you work with outside of the band and the music? I work in a car factory. It's ok, I guess.
What would you do if there was no music? I'd probably be a total video game addict. I'd also enjoy elevators and pretty much every store more though due to the fact that annoying music would no longer be played in them.
How important are your fans? Very! There would be no live shows without them that's for sure! I honestly enjoy meeting and talking with them.
What's the funniest/most memorable thing a fan has done for you?Not much funny things, well I guess the sushi keychains we got from some in Japan were kind of funny. The most memorable was a picture one of them drew for us. He's an actual artist and it was pretty impressive. His name is Sawsin and we actually included the pic in the new cd.
How often do you rehearse? When I'm getting ready for a tour, I'll do the set once a day on my own starting 2-3 months before it begins. If there's no upcoming shows I prefer to spend the time coming up with new riffs.
Where do you rehearse? On the latest tour I flew to Australia a week before the first show there and we rehearsed at a jam hall in Brisbane. Before that though we all practiced the material on our own, I just used my basement here in Canada for that.
Name 2 of your own songs you like at the moment? I find myself going back to 'We Will Conquer' and 'Utilizing hate as a motivational force' the most on the new cd lately.
What do you feel is the best live band you've seen? I really have no idea. I'll say Slayer I guess, not too many bands make me want to go back and see them again these days.
What drives a band that isn't all that famous and renowned to try to make a living on their music and to keep playing? Despite the work, it's a lot of fun. Whether it's meeting new people, reuniting with old fans or just seeing new places.
Do you have any webpages?
www.facebook.com/VisionsOfTheNight
www.youtube.com/NocturnalMilitia
www.reverbnation.com/VisionsOfTheNight
Any pearls of wisdom for all other bands out there? Make unique music that you love. Although I hate the tag, a true artist creates without other people's opinions and expectations in mind. If you're successful, all the better, if not, you still created what was within you. A victory is gained in either situation.
Would you like to add anything else? I think people have heard me ramble enough.
Describe your show, visually and musically We wear military uniforms and camo face paint. Visually and musically it probably comes across pretty war-like.
How do you view the music industry of today? It's so much easier to make a band and find out about concerts to attend, but more difficult to make money. It should never be about money though.
What advice would you like to give other bands? You're either in it for money or artistic integrity (in one form or another). If you're not making enough money for it to be a job for you, you should at least do something unique. Find your own style, there's a million bands out there, don't be in a band just to be in a band.
What are the biggest obstacles for a band? Traveling/schedules, money and international borders.
What is best/worst with playing the clubs? The worst is sometimes you don't get paid, even when you have a contract. I don't know what the best is.
Tell us about upcoming gigs and why we should be at them? There won't be any until mid-late next year. Generally, V.o.t.N. will do just one big tour a year now.
How would you describe your sound in one sentence Military-inspired death/black metal.
What was one of the most quarrelsome times for you in the band? Dealing with some fraud promoter on our first tour of Japan in 2008, we were out of money and all we only had merch cash to get by on. It was really rare for places in Japan to accept credit cards back then, so it wasn't easy.
Whats your Pre-show ritual? Warm up on guitar, put on the army camo paint, take a piss.
What Won't you spend money on? Drugs. Never done them, never will. I'm stuck in my ways now.
What do you feel a band/musician should spend their money on? A digitech jamman or something similar. It's so easy to record riffs you come up with on the fly, you never have to worry about writing them down after that.