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Not
to many times these days do you come across a band that really makes you stand
and take notice. That band this time around is Circus Maximus and they have
unleashed a phenomenal CD entitled The 1st Chapter. Mixing current production
values with classic prog metal and rock sounds for an amazing effect. I had the
chance to interview Glen Mollen about his new band, hope you enjoy!
Jeffrey Easton interviewing Glen Mollen.
Jeff: Tell Metal Exiles how Circus Maximus got together.
Glen: Well Mats and Truls have played together as far back as I can remember
knowing them, rehearsing at the local youth club. After a while under numerous
different band names and lineups, they where back to being just the two of them
again. This is when Michael came into the band, and they started playing and
making music as a trio.
The band lineup became complete in 2000-2001 when Espen (keyboards) and myself
(bass) joined the band. The rest is history. :)
Jeff: What were the influences that you pooled together for the sound that you
were to have?
Glen: There are a lot of major bands that have influenced us both sound and
style wise… to name a few: Queensryche, Ayreon, Symphony X, the different 70
prog bands like Yes, Rush etc... but also regular metal bands like Metallica,
Pantera, Megadeth, and Testament and as well some classical stuff. The Circus
sound is a melting pot of all the genres, making it maybe to stand out a little
from the typical prog sound....
Jeff: What made you decide to pursue the direction that you took for The 1st
Chapter?
Glen: We just wanted to make an album that had a lot of strong melodies, and not
just base the album on technical playing. But as the album writing went along,
we saw that progressive technical parts would be blended in here and there
naturally, and we ended up with the sound and feel that was the end result. Of
course we had made up our minds to do something wacky and technical on this
album, and that kind of comes through in the instrumental.
Jeff: Why the name, Circus Maximus?
Glen: The name came about after the brothers in the band; Mats (guitar) and
Truls (drums) stumbled over the name when used as a password in a computer game
named " The Ripper, where you needed to use the name to enter a computer in
the game. A really cool pc game by the way … hehe... Anyways, the name sounded
cool, and after shearing it with the rest of the band, the band name was a fact.
Jeff: The cover art is very interesting, who did it and how did you pick the
artwork for it?
Glen: The cover art is done by Mattias Norèn, and the idea came about with him
just testing out different ideas containing circus stuff. The main parts of the
cover were already established after the first example he showed us, because he
has just an awesome vision on this stuff. We are really pleased with his work,
and hope that we have the chance to work with him in the future as well…
Jeff: You have a deal with Sensory in America. How did you get the deal and do
you find them to be a great company to be signed to?
Glen: After sending out a four track demo so different record labels, we got an
answer from Sensory, saying that we had some interesting music, and that he
could like to hear some more if we had. So we sent him another demo, with the
tracks Imperial Destruction and Glory of the Empire, and after this it wasn’t
too long before we where offered a deal witch we of course said yes to. To be
signed under a well established label like Sensory was a really good thing for
us, and we have just had good experiences with them.
Jeff: What inspired the songs contained in this amazing Disc? What kind of
imagination produced this amazing material?
Glen: The influences of the melodies and lyrics are numerous.... taking
everything from daily life situations, as highs and lows in our lives, sadness
and happiness, love and hate, reflecting society etc is the main lyrical
inspirations. As for the rest, we just jam out ideas in rehearsals, or make
music at home ... just laying down riffs and melodies on the computer. Musically
we are so into different stuff/music, that when you put all the ideas and
visions together, you get a sound that ended up being what you hear on the
album…. The Circus soundJ
Jeff: Who was responsible for the songwriting and how long did it take to make
this record a reality?
Glen: When it comes to the compositions instrument wise, we all take part in the
process, although the main stuff comes from Mats, sitting at home trying out
ideas, or through regular jamming at band rehearsals. Some ideas also have been
drawn in from old ideas when Mats, Truls and Michael where a trio, and been
built out from there. When a platform is created, the individual
instrument/voices gets thought out separately or by presenting ideas to each
other on things that would sound cool. As for the recording process, we
recorded continuously from around July 2004 in various studios in Norway, and
went to Denmark to get the album mixed in November I think it was…….
Jeff: Do you feel in today’s American musical climate you can break through or
are you just concerned with the more open minded Euro market?
Glen: Well, I think there are numerous possibilities on both sides of the
ocean…… We have gotten lots of both good reviews, and also lots of people
writing us and telling us how much they like the music…..And since a great
deal of these reviews/people also come from the Us, we hope and feel that maybe
the American metal/progmetal lover will give us a chance to spin in their
cd-players in the near futureJ
Jeff: Do you plan on supporting this debut with touring in America and other
parts of the country?
Glen: We don’t know yet…. Of course we want to go play around in the US, but
we will need to get lucky in finding a well established band that wants us
along, and as well get some more info on how good the album is actually selling
over there. But we of course have our fingers crossed for something like this to
happen in the hopefully near future. For now we have the ProgPower Festival in
Atlanta, GA coming up … on Friday actually !!!
Jeff: You have received quite a lot of pres for this CD, were you expecting this
reaction to the CD?
Glen: Of course we always had a hope of this, but with the good reaction the
album has gotten, its over all expectations we had, and we are overwhelmed with
how people are responding. This is a dream come true for all of us.
Jeff: Any plans for a follow up at the moment or are you concentrating on
working this one for a long time?
Glen: hehe ..there are always riffs in the making, and we are already looking
forward to creating new material for a new Circus album. Some stuff is already
in the making, but only in parts, not whole songs.
Jeff: What does the future hold for Circus Maximus?
Glen: Well, as a first we hope to just get a steady grip and make our name well
established in the progmetal genre, and of course try to sell a lot or CD`s hehe..
As for further down the road, we’ll settle for world
domination!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! J
Thanks for the interest in our music, we really appreciate it!
Best regards
Glen Mollen
Circus Maximus
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