Alchemist

Friday June 20th (Hellfest 2008 1st day)

"A unique metal hybrid unlike anything that you've ever heard, ALCHEMIST is a strange beast to quantify" (band's official Myspace page). Sadly almost unknown in France, this Australian band did released 6 must-hear LP during the last two decades. This talk with Adam Angius (founder, guitarist & singer and keyboard) did take place just after their great but so short (fucking amplifiers) performance this afternoon. I'll have my revenge in Holland…

Fab : Could you introduce yourself and the band for those who didn't know you yet ?
Adam: My name is Adam Agius, I'm the guitarist/vocalist for Alchemist, from Canberra, Australia. We formed in 1987, and we didn't really get serious 'til around 1990 where we decide we would try to release some of the older material on demo tapes and henceforward them. We went through all the process… back then it was tape-trading, a very slow process, cool thing it's totally not like way anymore. I don't know if it's better, you know. We have just spent mostly touring in Australia for our career, until 2004. This is our third tour in Europe, and the HELLFEST show is probably one of the biggest crowds we've ever played. We've done some similar sizes in Australia, but definitely that's the biggest crowd we've ever played to in Europe. So (we're) very excited.

Fab: So you're happy to be here? Even if, according to your music, it shouldn't had been easy to choose for the set-list for this kind of festival.
Adam: Yeah, one hour is what you need at least to paint the whole picture. And today, we didn't even get to play 40 minutes, it was 30 minutes because amplifiers blew. But it was just great, as we were just setting up, the tent filled up, and into the first song, basically, there was a roar from the crowd, chanting and all that sort of stuff which put a big smile on every band members' face. It was a really great feeling, and you know, I think, to start our tour with the HELLFEST like that, even though we had some technical things like amps blowing up, it was perfect. There was a big shocking 'bang' in the crowd.

Fab: Could you tell us more about this technical problem?
Adam: I can say that it was probably just a fuse, I have to get on the internet and I got to find some fuses for something tomorrow because we'll drive all the way to Hannover and play at Dynamo Club. But I do have friends in Holland who'll be here to help me. But you know, it's only a technical thing, not like a band member broke his fingers, so I'm not gonna spend the rest of the day worried. I've learned not to let things that are out of my control worry me and try to just go "oh look that amps blew and I'm gonna have to fix it"!

Fab: Your opinion about the various bands on the bill?
Adam: Oh, look over the poster here. I am a thrash metal fan, it's what I grew up with, so SLAYER, I've already seen them many times, but I like a lot varied sorts of music. So, PORCUPINE TREE's a big band for me, as MESHUGGAH, OPETH we have with toured twice in Australia. MINISTRY's big band for me…CARCASS were a big band for me so I have a great interest in seeing them. CULT OF LUNA, fantastic, man! ANATHEMA! Especially the new stuff, very "Pink Floydian", atmospheric. There's so many bands i think it's fantastic.

Fab: Are you going to stay the three days?
Adam: No because we got to play in Hannover, Holland tomorrow. Sorry I'm gonna unfortunately miss most of the bands I wanna see. But that's life you know, I can't complain, I get to play myself.

Fab: It's a great attitude because some bands are always complaining about their conditions…I mean, I'm also a musician, and every musician dream about playing live in front of big audiences…

Adam: I can't understand why people would not be happy about being on the road (and playing). Well look, we did 30 hours flight with 10 hours in a stinky airport in Beijing, and we're still all very very happy to be here. I think it's because we love music, like you said, you're a musician, and you wanna play to as many people as possible. The hard work is the arguments in the band trying to write songs and working out the managing because we're self-managed. And dealing with the record company, and signing contracts, and all that sort of stuff, that's the hard stuff. But this (touring and playing live) is the icing on the cake. This is what it's all about. It's all ok that I have to come for months all over the planet, to wherever i can.

Fab: But It can't be hard to manage with the private life.
Adam: Fortunate enough, my wife is a musician as well, so I have understanding. And also, you know, Alchemist we don't make a living out of the music, it's something we do, it's a big part of our lives but we have to work five days a week. It used to bother that we cannot sell enough records to live, but it doesn't now, I'm just actually happy that somebody buys it. The result is (when) we get us to play concerts like this, (we're) unhappy to actually go to work…

Fab: So, what are your plans for the near future?
Adam: The near future it's just get through this tour with a smile, ok, and hopefully no one gets ill. And that we get home safely. And then when we get home we are thinking, between the next new original album for us, we might do an album of, a LP of covers, to show our fans what we're interested in. I think we will be throwing early PINK FLOYD track, KING CRIMSON track, the DOCTOR WHO thing, some science-fi sort of a, you know, LP of covers. And what we like to do is take some of those early rock and progressive band and turned them into metal songs, you know? So, that's the goal and I'm starting to be very excited because it is less pressure than having to write my own material. Sure, it takes some work to take the groove, but it's exciting. I think, at our age, it's a good thing for us to do, before we lock ourselves in the garage, and write the new album.

Fab: Yeah, and what is your song writing approach?
Adam: Our drummer lives 2 thousand kilometers away now, in Brisbane. So, we have the PRO-TOOLS at home, and what we will do is the guitarist will get down, and we will write riffs and put them into the cd and send it to him, and he goes "oh????????" (adam's starting to do some "air drum") and with the drums and guitars, etc… "I like what he's doing there" and then we slowly get the feel of the song. And every couple of months, we get together with all those ideas, and then we try really making songs. But it's a group effort, everyone in the band, at some stage of our career, has brought something crucial to the song writing. I'm probably the one who's most prolific because I'm mad, I just have to do it, you know? "Oh, I have a song in my head, I just have to recorded it". But everyone is so important in ALCHEMIST, and being the same members for 17 years, so to lose someone will probably be the end. Because the closeness is part of the band, and the friendship.

Fab: Yes, it's specially important when you're on tour.
Adam: Oh yeah, absolutely. When to know when to back off, when you can have a joke, when someone needs your support, at the moment our bass player need our support, because his baby is due, with his wife at home at the moment. So his head is thinking of his wife and his baby. We said to him "we just wanna go (home), we support you". But he wanna support us, so yeah, it's important for us, to be able to lean on each other you know? Sometimes we can argue so bad that it's upset me you know, but the next day, it's always, you can always see what the other person was trying to say, and he will see what you were trying to say. And it's always like, "yeah man, let's work this out". Because at the end of the day, we all want to same thing, we wanna be playing shows, big shows, and selling records. The fact that we're still doing it, after being in obscurity or so much of our career, is amazing to me, and the biggest gift of life. I'm so grateful for. Like you said, you're a musician, to do this stuff you should be jumping over the moon, and we are. We are so happy to do it you know. I would have loved to play those three more songs today, you know, but that's life. The people loved it, and there is no denying it, people don't scream "yeah!" if they don't like it. I've got "bouh" when I walked away. So, we're just happy guys. I think that thing about metal, the tough you need, you know that, it's just not us, we're funny Australians man (laughter). We take the music VERY seriously, and we take our fans VERY seriously, but we don't take ourselves very seriously. We're not perfect either but it's just our path, that's where we're trying to keep on.

Fab: According to you, how is the Australian metal scene? Compared to the European one.
Adam: Very small but very passionate. And we have very small population, so you can't expect it to be huge. But we have survived here for a long time and we have a very hardcore following. The best thing is, nowadays, the people of my age are all home with their kids.

Now that we play, these kids, they got to bring their father, and that's beautiful. Our music come through the next generation of music fans, and we will survive. So I can't complain about Australia. The only complaint is the distances between shows, and the shit roads (laughter).

Fab: And what do you think about bands like AIRBOURNE? Aren't you afraid that outsiders may think that Australia bands are only "ACDC"like?

Adam: I love them, ACDC man!! That's not bothering me either, because they're a great band. AIRBOURNE ?, I went to my local pub, it's about three sizes up of this room, and there was 200 people in here like this for AIRBOURNE about 6 weeks ago. And that's the first time I see them and I had a great time, they're just so easy to like. It's catchy, it's rockin'. So now I love'em. They're brilliant, very popular in Australia.

Fab: Your state of mind when looking back to your career?
Adam: When I look back, I'm satisfied. I wish that we were a bigger band obviously. But to have survived until now and still be the same guys, record companies draw money at us to record records, in this day and age, with the internet and everything, I can't complain. I may not be satisfied but I'm grateful, very grateful. And to be amongst these fantastic bands (here at HELLFEST) I'm so happy to be a part of it. So looking back, there's definitely always room for improvement, but I am just very glad.

Fab: What do you think about the great return of "Old School" bands like HELLOWEEN, TESTAMENT, SUICIDAL TENDENCIES?
Adam: I think it's fantastic. It shows that I can do it, live. I'm 37 years old anyhow, and to see my heroes still on stage, because TESTAMENT, SUICIDAL TENDENCIES, I was a teenager, so they're everything to me, and very influential. So to see them still on the stage, and performing live, it's so strong, passionate and inspirational to me. And I think that's a great thing.