INTERVIEW WITH EVIL MASQUERADE
ANSWERS BY: Henrik Flyman, Dennis Buhl, Kasper Gram


It's a great pleasure for me to talk to one of the most interesting band in this last period: Evil Masquerade. Ok, congratulations guys for your last release "Welcome To The Show"! That sounds really cool and that's full of the best characteristics to hit the target! Can you tell us please the reason why you have involved so many special guests?
DENNIS: Exactly because they are special and able to bring amazing stuff to our music.
FLYMAN: But I don´t think there are that many special guests. The only guests are the ones playing lead keyboards. The reason for that was because we couldn´t find anyone available to join the band as a full time member when Evil Masquerade were coming together. Therefore we just invited the ones best suited for the job as special guests, even though they were occupied in other bands at the time being.

I know Henrik Flyman is the great fan of classical music in your band. In fact, there are several mentions of famous classical writers in your cd and since from the opener song it's clear the tune of "The Ride Of The Walkyries" by Richard Wagner. What's your favourite classical writer?
KASPER: Vivaldi and J.S. Bach
FLYMAN: There are many, and I tend to change my mind. But right now it would be Henry Purcell, WA Mozart, Lv Beethoven.




Is "Welcome..." a concept album, maybe? Can you tell us please what are the lyrics about?
FLYMAN: It´s not a concept album in the traditional way. The concept is more the band itself. The lyrics are mostly bad dreams gone metal.

Your cd sleeve reminds me the one from Kiss', "Psycho Circus" or such a similar thing. What's the meaning of the sleeve?
FLYMAN: It´s kind of an introduction of both Evil Masquerade and Crimson. That´s the good looking dude inside the curtains. The meaning is no deeper than the album title "Welcome to the Show". It´s just us saying "hello".

Do you think Evil Masquerade is meant not to last or, on the contrary, do you think of holding on by quitting your own band?
FLYMAN: My band is Evil Masquerade, and I see no point in quitting that.
KASPER: Sure it will last, but I won´t quit my other band (manticora) because of that!

I think your monicker sounds like theatrical, don't you? Did you plan some gigs in theatres or do you prefer playin' gigs in the ordinary rock venues?
DENNIS: EM would like to play almost anywhere, be it theatres or rock venues. The main focus right now is to get out and play for as many people as possible.
FLYMAN: I totally agree. But a dream of mine is to do gigs in the form of theatrical performances, in one venue for several nights. That´s actually more than a dream. It will happen eventually. Promise!




I read many reviews of your cd that made clear your connections with Malmsteen e such those things..but I think that, although your classical influence is impossible to deny, your music goes to the Rainbow stuff, for the most. What do you think about it?
FLYMAN: That makes more sense to me. I´m a great fan of Rainbow and Ritchie. I have a lot more Rainbow albums than I have Malmsteen CD´s. But I don´t think I´m totally out of hand if I say that Mr Malmsteen is a huge Blackmore fan as well. But that´s the way it is. We all get inspired by the music that hits us extra hard. And by mixing inspirations with new creative ideas, one can end up with a new original song. It´s a huge difference between "being inspired by" and "plain rip offs". An inspiration is a feeling you get from something. Rip offs are sad, cheap and theft.

What do you mean for 'evil' and, most of all, who is Lucy?
FLYMAN: Interesting question. In the reality world, evil is something really terrible. I would be delighted to see it whiped off the face of the earth. BUT there are also the good kind of evil. That´s the evil appearing in fairytales. Imagine how many good stories we would lose without a healthy portion of pure evil. That´s what evil means to me. Because when it comes music I usually like to keep it in fictitious surroundings. And Lucy... she might be the Devil.

If I'm not wrong the only member in Evil Masquerade who's not from another band is Dennis Buhl, the drummer. So, I'd like to ask him something about his feelings when he found himself playin' with the band for the first time and what are his influences as a drummer.
DENNIS: I was honoured to be asked to play in this great band and I´m having a fantastic time playing this music. As for my influences as a drummer, that would be anyone who works hard at creating their own way of doing things instead of just copying others.

What do you think about all the mess that has raised in a great band such as the Stratovarius, which is probably going to end?
FLYMAN: I´ve no idea! The only things I know about them are that they come from Finland and that they have one of the greatest keyboard players in the world. Jens Johansson.
DENNIS: It´s always hard when personalities clash and it´s sad to see good things end because of this.




The songs in your cd have an intricate musical structure. How did you organized both the music-writing and the recordings?
FLYMAN: The music comes by itself. I just sit in my studio and wait for it. When a song decides to show, I try to capture it and record it right away. Together with the music comes the arrangements and the structures, so I don´t think too much about it. I made good pre productions of the songs in my studio, Digital Bitch (Copenhagen), when I wrote them. I presented the songs for the other guys and then they recorded their parts. All recording sessions were done in Digital Bitch except for the drums, which were recorded in Media Sound also in Copenhagen. When everything was recorded, we went back and did the mix in Media Sound. And for the final mastering the mastertape took a trip to Germany and Famous Kitchen.

Ok, we're at the end now. All the Tempi Duri staff and all the Italian fans salute you and thank you for your kind collaboration. Do you wanna say something else?
KASPER: Tempi Duri and Italy rules......"Surprise us in the park" hahaha.
FLYMAN: I´m looking forward to see you all!
DENNIS: Thanx for listening and stay hard, heavy and evil!

Interview: Stefano Bonelli
Photos: Thomas Trane