IVORY KNIGHT
1. First of all, tell us the history of “Ivory Knight”?
The band started out as a “fun project” by original drummer Paul Malek (who played on the original Annihilator demos) and myself. The idea was to put together a cover band to play some shows. Unfortunately, or fortunately (in retrospect), the bass player for the fun project literally disappeared (spontaneous combustion, maybe? J). We had to choose between looking for a bassist – never a fun thing in our home town of Ottawa, Canada, where good metal players are hard to find – or writing some tunes, and put together a demo, and I could fill in on bass. We decided to write some tunes, and the result was “Voices in your nightmare”.
We added a bassist for live shows, and played quite a bit, including shows in the top Ottawa-area venues such as Barrymores, Roxannes etc. Despite the excellent reaction to “Voices…”, other members of the band were not happy with the musical direction we were taking. There was actually a follow-up demo, called “Breaking the ice” that we recorded shortly after “Voices…”. I took more of a backseat role, creatively, and added the lyrics and melodies afterwards. The riffing is highly technical, but I never did feel that the songs or production are up to par on that demo. “Breaking the ice” was basically shelved pretty soon after it was completed.
One of the constant tug-of-wars in those days was the fact that I have always been interested in the “darker” types of metal, like Mercyful Fate, King Diamond, Black Sabbath etc. The other members of the band were heading in a more “positive”, hard-rock direction, wanting to play stuff like Van Halen, D.L. Roth etc. Lacking maturity as a songwriter and as an artist in those days, I went along with it. We released a demo “Restless heart”, which featured the original version of our song “Last dance”, which was, lyrically, drastically different from the version that you hear on “Up from the ashes”.
To fit with our “hard rock” visage, the band name was changed, and we actually played quite a bit in the clubs around Ottawa, as well as with recording and releasing another cassette demo. Eventually the guitarist left, and we hooked up with Rob Gravelle, who joins me in the current line up of Ivory Knight. We recorded a CD as “Sudden Thunder”, but shortly after, decided that we were not into the poppy and commercial aspects of that band. The band broke up in ’93.
For a while I worked with various cover bands. In late 1999 I was playing bass and writing with a non-Metal band, but I was finding that more and more of my writing was heading in the Metal direction. I was increasingly feeling that my own voice would be best for singing the new material. I was also becoming increasingly frustrated by the lack of effort and commitment in the old band, and decided that it was time to start work on something that I would really enjoy doing!
I decided that my new material would form the basis for a new Ivory Knight.
At that point I created a web site with some of the tunes from the “Voices…” demo, more or less for fun. The reaction was overwhelming! And that was what really convinced me to put an actual lineup together. Everything seemed to fall together by luck! The scariest thing was the prospect of finding a drummer. A person who was trying to recruit me for another band referred me to George Nesrallah, who luckily enough, was available at the time, and was into what I was doing. I knew Rob Gravelle from previous bands. Our bassist Steve Mercer actually found us – he contacted us on a suggestion from a major metal web site as well as from a mutual friend.
And here we are!
2. Tell us some details for the cd “Up from the Ashes”
Thanks very much! The CD was recorded in my home studio, nicknamed the “Bassment” – literally in my basement. Most of the recording was done on a digital 8-track machine. Because we only had 8 tracks, I had to bounce the drums onto two tracks. That’s why the kick drums are a lot weaker than I would have liked – at mixdown, I couldn’t bring up the kicks on their own, without making the entire drums excessively loud. In the middle of the recording I upgraded to a PC – based system. That gave me extra tracks needed for the backing vocals and keyboards that you hear on “Picture of innocence”. The new album we’re working on will be recorded entirely on the PC-based system. Mastering was done locally.
3 .Is there any feedback from the audience about the cd till now?
We’ve been getting some excellent reviews from metal critics all over the world! We have been very pleasantly surprised, because, although we very much believe in the album, we were not sure how the world would receive Up From The Ashes, because it is so different from the Voices demo. But so far, there have only been one or two people who were obviously expecting ‘Voices Part 2″!
4. Which is the procedure when you write the songs?
Every song is different. Sometimes I will bring a complete song into rehearsal, and the band will arrange the song. Other times the song will evolve from ideas that Rob, Steve, George, or I brought into rehearsal. There are no hard-and-fast rules. Everyone is welcome to contribute. In fact, the new album that we are working on is much more of a team effort than “Up from the ashes”, which was largely written by me before the lineup was even together.
5 .Have you already played any gig?
Yes, on a local (Ottawa, Canada) basis. At this point we’re still working on making connections in order to play outside the local area.
6.Your influences from the metal scene?
I call our musical style is melodic heavy metal, or classic heavy metal. Nowadays, we are incorporating some faster elements, as well as some elements that some would say delve into the threshold of ‘hard rock’. As a singer, my main influences include Ronnie James Dio, Ian Gillan, Rob Halford, David Coverdale. We don’t really have a common ‘influence’ for the band as a whole, as each of us is into quite different material. Our web site goes into more detail on that sort of thing.
7. Tell me you favorite album and your favorite band?
I don’t know – that changes every week.
8. Where do you come from?
The band is based in Ottawa, Canada.
9. Tell me your opinion about the metal scene in your country
Hah! The metal scene over here brings new meaning to the word “sucks”! Over
here, just the fact of playing Metal is cause for ridicule from some of the more Neanderthal citizens, including those that work at the so-called “entertainment weekly” paper! I once read a review (no, not ours!) in that paper in which the reviewer stated that she could not stand listen to the material because it was metal! That was the complete review! No, professionalism is not doing too well in Ottawa.
The industry in Canada is very conservative, always on the lookout for clone
acts that sound like whatever the U.S. “flavor-of-the-month” is.
10. Do you know anything about the metal scene in Greece?
Not much, I must confess. Really, I spend more time making music than I
probably should. However, Greece has been very good to us. We have many good
reviews and have enjoyed much support from people in Greece.
11. What are your plans in the future for “Ivory Knight”?
Just to keep making music that we love, and hopefully reaching increasing
numbers of fans with our music.
12. Is metal a way of your life?
I’m not really sure what you mean by that. Personally, my favourite style of
music to perform is metal, but I also enjoy listening and performing other
styles of music, too. It’s all art, and its all good, but METAL RULES!
13. I found you through internet, do you think that the net can replace the
old underground days?
The Internet has been great for us. We’re now enjoying the fact that we can
reach more people than would have ever been possible when the band first
started in the late 80s.
14.Thanks for your interview and close the interview as you like
My pleasure. I would like to thank you, Antwnis, for your support, and I’d
like to say hello to our fans everywhere. Stay tuned for our follow up
album! Also please keep visiting our web site at http://www.ivoryknight.com
