{"id":22577,"date":"2014-08-22T07:00:28","date_gmt":"2014-08-21T21:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/?p=22577"},"modified":"2014-08-20T22:46:02","modified_gmt":"2014-08-20T12:46:02","slug":"sam-totman-of-dragonforce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/2014\/08\/sam-totman-of-dragonforce\/","title":{"rendered":"Sam Totman of Dragonforce"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n<\/a>\u201c\u2026it\u2019s kind of an overload of everything as we\u2019ve always tried to make our music over the top and really fast and got all of this guitar stuff going on and these big layers in the chorus of choirs and all the crap like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

From Bio: It\u2019s astonishing to realise that DragonForce now have a history going back 15 years, and that they\u2019re about to release their sixth album. But such is the pace at which music and life move these days that what was seemingly a highly promising young British metal band just yesterday are now an established full force (ahem) on the scene. In fact, their reputation is such that anything new from this lot is regarded as a landmark moment in the ongoing story of metal. But the new DragonForce album is a revelation, one that will surely entice them to another level of achievement.<\/p>\n

Talking to us from his bed after a big night out, we caught up with Sam to fill us in on the band\u2019s ripping new album \u2018Maximum Overload\u2019 as well as cover songs and the best way to describe Dragonforce. Read on\u2026<\/p>\n

To start us off, can you talk us through the title of the album \u2018Maximum Overload\u2019 and what it represents to this release?<\/strong>
\nWell it\u2019s basically two meanings, the first thing is basically describing the music, it\u2019s kind of an overload of everything as we\u2019ve always tried to make our music over the top and really fast and got all of this guitar stuff going on and these big layers in the chorus of choirs and all the crap like that. So it\u2019s kind of like all our album titles, we had \u2018Inhuman Rampage\u2019 and \u2018Sonic Firestorm\u2019 they all just described the music. People will probably thing it\u2019s stupid, I think it sounds cool to describe the music. Then at the same time it\u2019s kind of like describing the world we live in now, and if you\u2019ve seen the cover art, everyone\u2019s got so much of an overload of information coming at you with your computers and your phones and all this crap coming at you. I used to wake up in the morning and see a picture of what your friend had for lunch and that\u2019s kind of pretty stupid really, then at the same time there\u2019s so much out there, I think personally in the past when there wasn\u2019t so much going on, you\u2019d get an album from a band and you\u2019d be listening to it like properly without other distractions. Now it\u2019s like \u2018I\u2019ll listen to that because I can get that for free and then there\u2019s a million movies I can get for free\u2019 it\u2019s like you\u2019ve got too much choice to appreciate stuff, so it\u2019s kind of like we\u2019re just saying the world is a bit overloaded with stuff. It\u2019s not going to change the world or anything but you\u2019ve got to call it something, so that was that. *laughs*<\/p>\n

In terms of the tracks, what was your driving inspiration for what has become the final collection?<\/strong>
\nLike every album we do we don\u2019t try and make it a big plan and have it especially thought out, we just write a bunch of songs that we think sound good and then work out what the best order is to put them in to make it enjoyable to listen to I guess. So that was kind of it really, we just wrote songs we thought were cool, so if anyone else thinks they\u2019re cool, I guess we\u2019ll find out\u2026<\/p>\n

Well I\u2019ve heard it and I thought it was cool\u2026<\/strong>
\nOh well we\u2019ve got one fan then *laughs*<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>It would be remiss of me to not ask about your cover of \u2018Ring of Fire\u2019, why was that song the perfect choice to cover?<\/strong>
\nWell the reason was that we wanted to do a song that people would enjoy whether they liked or knew the original or not\u2026 I always thought there\u2019s been so many metal bands that will do a cover of \u2018Master of Puppets\u2019 or \u2018The Trooper\u2019 or something and they play it exactly the same, and I was like well what\u2019s the point of that? You might listen to it once to check it out but you\u2019re not going to listen to it loads as it\u2019s just like the original with a different vocalist. So we just thought that if we\u2019re going to do a cover let\u2019s make it a song that people will actually want to listen to more than once, so we thought that if they don\u2019t like our music generally then they\u2019re not going to like that either, but if you like our music, we\u2019ve made it so into our own style that it could just be another one of our songs, but it\u2019s not which makes it a really interesting thing I think.<\/p>\n

Plus it\u2019s a great way to finish off the album\u2026<\/strong>
\nYeah, well I like it, but it was pretty fun to do, I actually heard the song on TV, that\u2019s how we got to choose it and I was listening to it and I was thinking that chorus, even though it\u2019s an old country and western song the chord progression and the vocal line and even the lyrics \u2018ring of fire\u2019 is kind of like, well we say fire in nearly every song we do anyway, so it kind of sounds like one of our titles already so I thought that could definitely be turned into a fast epic power metal song and it kind of worked out I think.<\/p>\n

Will that one make it into the live set?<\/strong>
\nProbably yeah, I\u2019ll see how many people like it. If people say it\u2019s a pile of shit then we probably won\u2019t play it. I like it, but it\u2019s short as well, if they don\u2019t like it they can put up with it for three minutes *laughs*<\/p>\n

This album sees you bring in a producer in Jens Bogren for the first time, why was now the right time to do this?<\/strong>
\nI was actually the main one not in favour of doing that, as we produced all the old records ourselves and I think we had quite good results without sounding like a bighead or anything, and I really liked the results of all those. They said we should get a producer this time to mix things up a bit and make a change and I was like \u2018what if it sucks, what if we don\u2019t like it, maybe they\u2019ll make it sound really shit\u2019 and so Herman said \u2018nah it\u2019ll be fine, he knows what he\u2019s doing, he\u2019s got some really good albums\u2019 but it all did turn out really well in the end, and I love the end result so it was still always a little bit of a gamble because you don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen, but the main thing I was worried about was losing the big sound of the choruses and that kind of thing and the overall sound. I think thought maybe he improved it, actually I wouldn\u2019t say improved I think when some band change producers I would not enjoy the sound of the record that much. Like when Morbid Angel did the \u2018Covenant\u2019 album I didn\u2019t like that too much, I thought that was less polished in a way, I really like that Florida metal kind of sound and the songs were good but I really didn\u2019t like the production so I was worried about that, but in the end it turned out fine and I really like it and I don\u2019t think we lost anything we had before, I think we gained a few new things which is cool.<\/p>\n

So other than the producer, did you set out to do anything differently for this album compared to previous releases?<\/strong>
\nWell the writing was a bit different actually, because in the past I would write most of the stuff on my own and I don\u2019t want to sound like a bigheaded twat or anything but that\u2019s just how we kind of did it, so I\u2019d do that and come in with six or seven of the songs and the other guys might do one or two and I was like no one\u2019s gonna change, this is how it goes blah blah\u2026 but this time, me and the bass player wrote everything together which is totally a new way of doing things and we never did that before. He had come up with a lot of ideas I wouldn\u2019t come up with necessarily so there\u2019s a lot of parts especially in the instrumental sections that he\u2019d come up with that I would\u2019ve never written that. So you\u2019ve got my kind of stuff which is traditional Dragonforce then his stuff just brought a new style to it, and that\u2019s probably what\u2019s made this album sound different I guess.<\/p>\n

This is the bands second album with Marc on vocals, was he more settled in this time around when making the record?<\/strong>
\nOh yeah definitely, the first time around was really hard work because he\u2019d never really done it before and he\u2019s got a great voice obviously, but he\u2019d never really had any experience recording in a studio like at a professional level, he\u2019d just done a few demos with his mates and that, and we were like come on this has got to be really spot on, and it was hard to explain to someone \u2018sorry mate you\u2019re gonna have to sing this another ten times to get it right\u2019 but this time he\u2019s a proper part of the band now, we\u2019ve toured around the world for a couple of years and has all this experience and from making the last record he kind of knows what we want now and it\u2019s really cool. It\u2019s really fun to see how far he\u2019s come in that short time and the album recording vocals this time was way easier and I think he improved even, his voice got better and it all worked out pretty well.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve been there from day one along with Herman, in your fifteen years in the band what do you see as being the biggest challenge you\u2019ve had to overcome?<\/strong>
\nWell probably changing the singer, that\u2019s a pretty big thing to do, but luckily that kind of worked out, I think we were all thinking \u2018oh man what if people think he\u2019s shit and bring back the old guy\u2019 kind of thing, so that was probably the biggest challenge, getting a guy that had never done it before up to standard kind of thing, that was a hard thing, but people wouldn\u2019t notice it because by the time people heard the album it was all done and finished and sounded good, but there was definitely a lot of work that went into that. We were still kind of worried that people wouldn\u2019t like it, but overall we had way more positive comments than negative so I think luckily it worked out ok. So that was the hardest thing to do I guess.<\/p>\n

What do you still enjoy about being part of Dragonforce?<\/strong>
\nI guess for me I really like playing the music, even if we weren\u2019t making a living out of it I\u2019d probably still be doing it anyway because I really like that style of music. I mean I understand why someone like Metallica changes their style because they probably got bored of playing the previous style, but I just really like playing fast, melodic power metal, and I really like just the fact that we can tour around the world and people tell you that you\u2019re cool which is really nice to hear *laughs* that sounds really fucking stupid, but I mean there\u2019s probably a better way of putting it, but you go around the world, play gigs, play music that you like, drink booze and it\u2019s just a good fun lifestyle.<\/p>\n

I always love reading the way people describe Dragonforce, my favourites are ‘Bon Jovi on speed’ and ‘Journey meets Slayer’, do you have a favourite you\u2019ve heard?<\/strong>
\nWell I\u2019ve actually heard those two comments and I really like them because that\u2019s totally what I think, so whoever thought that up I would like to buy them a beer, but yeah that\u2019s pretty much it, as we try and do the big choruses like Bon Jovi and Journey and stuff then at the same time we\u2019ve got this speed thing that came from as I was really into thrash metal and death metal and I always thought that drum beat that most of our songs are based on was always my favourite in any song, I was like \u2018this is cool man\u2019 and so I think I\u2019m pretty happy to be described like that actually.<\/p>\n

I have to ask, when can we expect to see you back in Australia?<\/strong>
\nAll the touring is kind of getting planned out at the moment, we\u2019re doing this UK tour which is in September and then we go around Europe before Christmas and then all the other stuff is in the planning, but we definitely will be in Australia for sure, not totally sure and I can\u2019t say when because it might be something changes and I don\u2019t want to say anything and then it\u2019s wrong, but basically if anyone\u2019s interested all that stuff should be announced in the next month or so and you can find it on the internet pretty easily, like on facebook and any of that crap and it\u2019ll tell you where we\u2019re touring. So I guess it\u2019ll be sometime next year as we\u2019re busy now until Christmas, but we\u2019re definitely coming back to Australia as we always have a good time, so yeah, we\u2019ll be there.<\/p>\n

Lastly, let\u2019s predict the remainder of the year, finish this sentence for me, by the end of 2014, Dragonforce will\u2026<\/strong>
\nBe considerably more hungover than they already are *laughs* something like that and it\u2019s just because I\u2019m feeling a bit poorly at the moment *laughs* but there you go.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Essential information<\/strong><\/h2>\n

From: <\/strong>London, UK<\/p>\n

Band members:<\/strong>\u00a0 Herman Li – Guitar, backing vocals, Sam Totman – Guitar, backing vocals, Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Leclercq – Bass, backing vocals, Vadim Pruzhanov – Keyboards, backing vocals, Marc Hudson – Lead vocals, Gee Anzalone – Drums, backing vocals<\/p>\n

Latest Release:<\/strong> Maximum Overload (3Wise records \u2013 Out NOW) – Check out our review HERE<\/a><\/p>\n

Website:<\/strong> \u00a0http:\/\/www.dragonforce.com<\/a><\/p>\n

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