With:	Pyramaze
Conducted by:	wrathchild
Published:	17.09.2004
Band profile:	Pyramaze

Pyramaze played at the Raismesfest, a 2 day festival in France. I had the great pleasure to interview them after their show on Saturday (a very good show by the way).
This was made easier by the fact Michael Kammeyer was the only one there to recognize my metalstorm.ee t-shirt!
After Michael told me that our review of Melancholy Beast, their first album - reviewed by Jeff - was great, began the interview...


- Could you introduce the band, which is relatively new to the metal scene, in a few words?

Michael: We're a Danish-American act, Lance King is from Minneapolis, Jonah Weingarten from Vermont. No, Vermont?

Jonah: Yeah, Vermont.

Michael: Vermont right, and the rest of us are from Denmark. And yeah, we basically just got together and... played some metal.

wrathchild: Some good metal.

Michael: Thank you.

- You said it, you're from America, Denmark, so how is it to work with such a varied line-up, I mean, it's not easy to meet, etc. How do you do?

Michael: It's a... It's a bit hard of course. But before our gigs we just got together a few days ahead and practiced and, works out pretty good.

Lance: 2 days practice.

Michael: 2 days practice.

Lance: Then gigs!

Michael: Then gigs, right on! Well and for the studio, well, the instruments were recorded in Denmark and burnt down to CD roms and we sent it to Lance, he has in own studio in Minneapolis, and he just recorded the vocals on tape. And we did that with lots of phone conferences, and stuff, to keep up with the work. But with today's technology it can be done.

Lance: Pro-tools.

Michael: Pro-tools.

Lance: Hehe... rocks.




- So, many European bands have troubles touring in America, but in your case you have already done some shows there. So do you notice a real difference between those two scenes?

Lance: Audiences in the USA are quite a bit different accually, depending on the band. The crowds seem less of a group and more of a bunch of individuals, sort of like a swarm of bee's.
European audiences tend to be more anthemic in their responses, by "Chanting" unified chants to get the band charged up. US audiences are more apt to get a mosh pit going and climbing over one another to get to the edge of the stage and dive off into the audience.

Michael: Maybe we should introduce our new member, cause he's not on the album, but he's a permanent member now, Toke Skjønnemand from Denmark, very good guitar player as you may have noticed.

wrathchild: I noticed.

Toke: Thanks Mike!

Michael: So yeah, he's gonna join us, and he's got to play... He's gonna do a lot of soloing in the next album too.

- Since when do you know each other?

Michael: Well it started out in 2002, the Summer of 2002 I guess, Yeah? When I contacted Jonah cause I was preparing for this album, and well after Jonah I got contact with Morten, drums, and Niel, bass. That was actually the foundation for Pyramaze. We started rehearsing the material. Yeah, and, actually, Lance didn't come on board until the instruments were finished actually. We went shopping for label, err for Lance later.
So, and Toke joined us in... was it February?.

Toke: February yes.

Michael: February to help us preparing our US tour, US gigs, cause it wasn't really a tour it was just 2 shows.






- Here it's NTS who discovered you, but now NTS has closed its doors, so what effects will it have in your career?

Michael: Its only getting better, cause it has been reopened as Replica Records, so it's still the same, but a different name.

Lance: New contract.

Michael: New contract, new label, different distributor.

- As most of you are from Denmark and that I have absolutely don't know about the metal scene there, can you tell me how is metal in Denmark?

Morten: It's getting better. There was hardly any scene at all in Denmark for many years... *tape is inaudible...*

Michael: We have Manticora, Wutheing Heights, and then...






- Let's dream a little, with which band or bands would you like to play, and in wich country?

Michael: I would like to play in any country with a good band. My personal favorites are bands like Blind Guardian and Iced Earth, Nightwish and stuff. That's just me, we all have a bit of different tastes.

Jonah: I think it would be cool playing in Japan.

Pyramaze: Oh yeah!

Jonah: Japanese metalheads are crazy so...

Michael: Anywhere outside, it's so much better outside, open-air!

- Are you already thinking about your second album. What new elements do you want to experiment?

Michael: I don't think we'll call it experimentation, it's going to be...

Lance: Progression.

Michael: Yeah exactly. We're gonna step into the next level, and we're gonna start writing new material after this tour, and hopefully next year, Summertime, there's a new album.

wrathchild: An album ready for the next Raismesfest, here?

Michael: Yeah, that would be nice!

wrathchild: Well I'm out of questions.

Michael: Alright.






- May you leave a few words to your fans and those who want to discover you?

Michael: We just wanna thank our fans, those who have bought our album already, then thanks for buying it, and if not, then go buy it!

Lance: And our new fans to.

wrathchild: I'm pretty sure you will get plenty of new fans, just a matter of time.
Thanks for your time.