Hard Talk

Interview with Stereochrist guitarist Tamas

by John Haseltine

With the recent release of their first album under the title of Stereochrist, Hungary’s doom-metal act are prepared to take on the world with ‘Dead River Blues’. I recently had a chance to get an e-mail interview with guitarist, Tamas , and this is what the band is and has been up to.

JH:Start things off by introducing Stereochrist to the readers.

Stereochrist was initially formed as Supernatural on he remains of the band Mood. 3 of us (Balázs-bass, Tomi-drums and myself as guitarist) played in the last lineup of Mood while our vocalist, Pete joined the band in May 2002. Our idea was to do something pretty similar to Mood with a more riff-based approach so basically hard but melodic rock with harsh, aggressive vocals. We don’t want to change the world just play simple, groovy songs that we like. The idea is to get the riff running over you like a truck and spiced with a great melody. If it sounds OK, we are pretty happy with it.

JH: Tell us a bit of the history of Stereochrist &Mood. How are they related?

Mood was formed in 1993 as the premier doom metal band in Hungary. Of course not traditional doom as we had more groovy songs but the influence of Black Sabbath was undeniable. The band released 4 albums and a 6 track EP. I don’t think we were so much familiar to foreign audiences even though fans of the genre might possibly have heard of us. Mood disbanded at the end of 2001 due to musical and personal arguments and the other two members formed Wall of Sleep.

JH: Why the recent name change from Supernatural?

Supernatural seemed a good choice but as things advanced it came out that there are several bands with the same name and after we signed a deal with the Arctic Music Group the label guys let us know that a band named Supernatural just released their album. So we thought it’ time we changed the name to avoid further problems. Our vocalist raised the phrase Stereochrist and we were immediately blown away. I think it proved to be a good choice.

JH: Artic Music picked you up for a one album deal. How is that working out for you with it being an American label?

In Summer 2002 we recorded a demo and started to send out to different labels, like 20 of them. Phil Fasciana of Arctic Music replied and almost immediately offer us a deal which was kind of astonishing for us as Arctic basically deals with extreme/death metal. Well, that’s not particularly our genre and there’s even the fact that Florida is pretty far away but their terms were quite OK so we signed the deal. So far the co-operation is fine and we are proud of being the members of the Arctic family. They don’t care about the creative side of making a record we even made the artwork ourselves. They handle the business part and that’s absolutely all right. There’s another Arctic band called Burner who are musically close to us so it would be fun to play with them in the future.

JH: How is the doom/metal scene there in Hungary?

Hungary is a small country, there are only 10 million people living here but quite a lot of bands play this kind of slow, „smoky” music and there are quite a few fans around so we have nothing to complain about. We started a little series of festivals with Mood, which was called Flag of Doom and featured Spirit Caravan, Crowbar and Orodruin over the years. This fall we also plan to book a well known band even if we are not sure which one.

JH: Any talks of another deal with Artic yet? or any other labels?

The debut was released at the beginning of April so it’s pretty early to think about that. Anyway, Arctic has an option for the next album so I think we will make arrangements when time comes.

JH: Any touring plans?

Summer is also for the festivals over Hungary, Romania and Serbia. As for the fall we are planning a German-Benelux tour with Negative Reaction from the US and also a second round in Finland. We are also looking for a booking agency and management.

JH: How well is the new album doing in the Finland stores?

After Firebox Records licensed the Dead River Blues LP we had a mini-tour in Finland. The record was released in Finland in January and we don’t know any exact figures. We just hope Northern guys love „Southern” rock’n’roll.

JH: What's the tentative release date for America?

It’s April 6. We don’t have the list of shops but it’s in the largest online catalogues. Arctic recently signed a deal with Candlelight so we have nice prospects.

JH: So there were some problems during the recording process? Please explain.

The album was recorded in three different studios in Hungary. We sure had a smaller delay as we wanted a live sound which we couldn’t exactly produce int he first round. As all the studios were booked in advance it turned out to be a longer delay so it took the whole summer to finally record the album. Hope it’s gonna be easier next time.

JH: What is the meaning behind the title 'Dead River Blues'?

Our vocalist made up the title and he even made all the artwork. Dead River Blues is basically a typical Eastern mood with all the bitterness of the past decades and perhaps a little irony here and there. The term literally refers to the river Danube on which Budapest is situated on, which seen a lot through the ages. It’s kind of a nostalgic symbol that ties us to our past. On he other hand it’s a spiritual trip from a confused, angst-ridden state of mind to perfection.

JH: What sort of topics do you base your lyrical contents on?

It’s Peter’s stuff also. He tries to create an imagery of his personal feelings or anxieties. There is a slight touch of irony also. There are no direct references or themes, no didactic preaching or stuff like that. Just feelings, thoughts which could possibly mean something completely different for someone else in another part of the world.

JH: Describe Stereochrist's sound.

Currently we have a vocal-guitar-bass-drum line-up but I like twin-guitar stuff – we even recorded the LP with two different guitars tracks. We had a 2nd guitarist in the beginning but it didn’t quite worked personally so we had to slightly rearrange the songs. We are now eager to find another guy to make our sound thicker the harmonies more prevalent. It would be fun to rock the summer festivals with two guitars.

JH: What are some of your main influences.

Personally I like the great classics like Black Sabbath, AC/DC or Judas Priest but also listen to a lot of the new shit like the first Down LP, COC, Floodgate, Pantera, the Zakk Wylde stuff, Slayert or Brand New Sin. The other guys are more open-minded. Pete’s favorite is Chris Cornell and he also loves Northern rock’n’roll like the Hellacopters, The Hives of Refused. Balázs prefers some of the mainstream stuff like Creed or Audioslave while Tomi’s favorites range from underground doom to Scandinavian death metal.

JH: What do you see for the future of Stereochrist?

We’d like to play as much as we can in different countries. I hope our music will make its way to the audiences interested in doomy music. Next year, we’d like to record the second album for which we already have 4 songs finished.

JH: Anything you'd like to add?

Thanks for the interview and check out our website at www.stereochrist.com. Don’t forget to drop a message in our guestbook! Stay heavy.