– Turk Gitar: Firstly, thanks for not refusing our interview request. How are you and howís going your preparation for your tour?
– Arien: Great! We’re very happy to get ready to release our new album and to hit the road again.
-Mark: We have rehearsed a lot so now the time of enjoying the hard labour has come finally haha 🙂
– Turk Gitar: Your new album -The Quantum Enigma- will be published on the 2nd of May. The teaser and songs (Canvas of Life Acoustic and The Essence of Silence ) which have been published so far, are very successful. They made us think, “new album will be good”. What do you think of your new album and what are your expectaitons from it?
-Arien: We think our album is the best one we’ve ever made!! For this album we jammed together a lot! We also worked with a different producer this time, to get a different sound and vibe. I think we really succeeded in this. Together with Joost van den Broek, we worked out a production planning for the whole process. We started writing the songs individually, gathering the basic ideas for the basic song frames. We all took each of our songs, and sat down with Joost in his studio to work on the songs, making enhancements, changes, upgrades. From there on, we went playing them intensively in the rehearsal room, making tapes to listen back and give feedback on them.
From there on, we went into the studio, where we put the songs under the microscope, so to say. Everything fell into place very nicely, and all the instruments connected and worked together much better, more like a unity. It was great to get this vibe going! I expect this album will bring us a lot of good things!
– Turk Gitar: After publishing the album, The first concert which you will give, will be Istanbul Concert and It makes Istanbul Concert more soulful. What is it waiting for us?
– Arien: A damn good metal-show, with a nice mix of new and old material. We’ll do our best to make it an unforgettable night for everyone!
– Mark: Because of all the rehearsals you can expect a solid machine arriving in Istanbul, the Turkish fans always give us a warm welcome and are very passionate therefor we cannot wait to play in Istanbul!
– Turk Gitar: How do you think of shaping your concert setlist? Will the setlist be predominantly from the new album?
– Arien: We’ll play quite some songs of The Quantum Enigma, but we can’t forget our classics. We’ll try and make a good mix of new and old songs. It gets more difficult every time to make a good set list though, haha.
– Turk Gitar: The Turkish fans have had good interest for Epica for years. Especially We can see it social media. What do you think about it? What thing does make you more attractive for your Turkish Fans?
– Arien: The social media are a great way of conversing with our fans, and it brings the band and the fans closer to each other. Whenever we have an announcement to make and need to bring everybody up to date, Facebook and Twitter are perfect for that! Though it has a flip side; nowadays the phone or computer takes a bit of a too prominent place in our existence. But that’s the thing; everything has ups and downs. It’s up to everybody to decide how to deal with them.
– Mark: I hope the social media stay available for free usage. I have noticed recently (not only in Turkey) the freedom of internet is in danger, the liberty of internet is very important for the liberty as we, human beings.
– Turk Gitar: This question is for Simone Simons. I want to mention something taht is the most populer event recently. As you know, after Arch Enemy’s vocal Angela had been a mother, she left the group in order to spend more time with her family. So, after Simone had been a mom, how did it influence Simoneís reliationship with the group? Did you have any problems during you made the new album?
– Simone: For me that won’t be the case, I will stay with Epica. It’s my work, the work that I love so I would never give it up. As a group we became even more tight. Everybody reacted very positive about me being pregnant and having a child. This trust and love from all the other guys were very important to me. During the last stage of the pre production for the new album The Quantum Enigma I could not move too much anymore so producer Joost van den Broek, Sascha Paeth and Mark came to my house to work on the vocal lines with me. We didn’t see it as a difficulty we used all possibilities we had to create the best possible album and I believe that the extra time we got to work on this album had a very positive outcome on the quality of the songs and the album itself.
– Turk Gitar: Mark Jansen shared something on Facebook about Gezi Protest in June last year. Many Rock and Metal Stars included him supported Turkish People about it. It has been a long time but do you think of mentioning Gezi Protest at your concert?
– Mark: I don’t refer directly to political situations on stage but between the lines I often try to put a little message of support for all of the people, worldwide who are striving for freedom. Things I can’t deal with are, suppression, violence, restricting freedom of speech and religion and beliefs. Freedom of Speech is very important to me but I always respect other people when I express my opinion, I don’t like when freedom of speech is getting abused in order to insult other people, races or religions. When I express my opinion with respect, I expect also respect in return. Not everyone agrees with one another but there’s no need to attack someone because of his different opinion.
– Turk Gitar: Thank you so much for answering our questions. See you in Istanbul on the 4th of May.
– Arien: You’re most welcome, and see you in Istanbul. Prepare to rock, and bring your earplugs, because it’s going to be LOUD!!!
Translate: Alkan Caliskan
