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AT
VANCE
OLAF LENK is the guitarist of AT VANCE, whom
have released their new album ‘Chained’ on AFM RECORDS. I had an interview with
Olaf, let’s see what he has to say…
Hi Olaf, nice to speak with you, thanks for calling,
well, the new album ‘Chained’ is available, how are the reactions so far…
Good, everybody seems to be pleased with this new
album.
When did you started recording this new album,
because it doesn’t seem that long ago you released the previous album ‘The evil
in you’…
Well, that album was released in 2003, and we
started with the recordings of ‘Chained’ back in the middle of 2004. It took us
less than a year to finish it. I think it’s our best album so far.
The new album is bringing a less straight-ahead AT
VANCE, and a more rawer side of your band...
Yes, I think that this is due to our singer MATS LEVEN, who has a very raw
voice, so the music eventually also becomes rawer than before. We basically
wanted to move away from the cheesy sound we had in the past
Yes, especially some of your early work was
basically mixing pop melodies (80s style, ABBA choruses) and heavy guitar riffs…
Yes, that was AT VANCE all about. Do not get me wrong here, we will always be
writing songs with catchy choruses, but we seemed to be drifting in a more
cheesy style lately. Of course ABBA and all those 80s music were a major
influence on us all, but I mean we have so much more influences.
What
are your other influences then?
Well, besides the ABBA stuff, we are also influenced by classic hardrock
(RAINBOW) and Classical Music, which you can clearly hear in our music. But I
also listen to other musicstyles, such as Folk Music, which is actually very
fast, just like Metal and also Jazz, but that’s not really possible to put into
AT VANCE’s music. Mainly we want to play melodic hardrock/metal, but be sure to
find a lot of classical music influences in our music. And the new CD is also a
bit more modern, edgy, if you know what I mean, not as polished as we once were.
So it’s basically a mixture of classical music, classic hardrock/metal and
straight melodies (kinda like Folk meets ABBA), a mixture of lots of different
genres…
How did you find MATS LEVEN in the first place as
replacement for Oliver Hartman…
Well, in 2002 Oliver left the band, because he had changed personally, wanted to
move on to do other things (just released a solo CD by the way, which is more
AOR friendly). I immediately called MATS LEVEN in Sweden to see if he was
interested in singing with AT VANCE, but first he rejected and said no, but then
after calling him again he said yes and so we were recording not that long after
the CD ‘The evil in you’, which turned out so well, we moved on with Mats and
now there’s the 2nd album ‘Chained’ already out.
He clearly has a rawer voice than Oliver…
Yes that’s right, his voice is more in the DAVID COVERDALE range, so very raw
and edgy, he can basically go anywhere with his voice.
Back to the new album, what do you consider the best
songs…
That’s very hard to choose, because when you start recording a new album you’re
really getting into this project for a long time, so eventually you’re quite
tired of hearing the songs. Especially if you have spend 6 months in a studio,
recording over and over again, so eventually you start thinking about a certain
song that it could have been done better like this and that, it’s never perfect
believe me. However, it also makes it hard to choose a particular song, because
each track on the album has gone through the whole process of making it sound
like a great song. Most proud I am of the songs “Rise from the fall” and
“Chained”. However, it is actually impossible to choose just one song, because
they are all great…
So this is the best AT VANCE album so far?
Yes, I think so, I must say that this new album is definitively featuring the
kind of songs I wanted to do.
So now you’re going to tour…
Yes together with BRAINSTORM and MERCENARY we’re going to tour through Europe.
BRAINSTORM are good friends of ours, we already toured with them previously, we
have the same kind of humor, so it will be nice to hang out with them again. I
really look forward to tour, because sitting in the studio and recording songs
never really is satisfying for a musician, because after all you want to hear
what the audience thinks, is the new material good? Do they like our music?
Touring is therefore very important, because it gives you the chance to see and
hear what the audience feels about your music, which is a great thing. Then you
realize how important the feedback is, because that way you know why you’re in
the studio each time recording new material.
Hope to see you on tour, good luck and thanks for the interview. Thank you!