Hanna Tsepesh: Hello Wietze, how are you? Welcome to THE GATES OF METAL and thank you so much for accepting this interview! First of all can you tell to us little about EDGE OF SERENITY history and also little introduction about yourself and the other guys too(what do they play and names).
Wietze: Hi Hanna, thanks, i am doing fine, also thank you for doing an interview with us!
Hanna Tsepesh: You are very welcome, don’t need to thank!
Wietze: Lets introduce myself and the band, I am Wietze the guitar player / singer of the band, 23 years old and playing the main-role in Edge Of Anger, Henk is my companion and drummer, he did a great job on the album by playing drums, bass guitar and he created the most synths on the album. A bit more about edge of serenity, the music is best to be described as melodic metal with allot of add-ons to it, but the main ingredient is melody with a raw edge and some groovy temposl. We exist over 2 years now and done some great things in our short career, had the change to share stage / festival with major acts and signed a worldwide record deal, having some major endorsement deals, and release our album “The Chaos Theory” October 2008.
Hanna Tsepesh: You are very welcome, don’t need to thank!
Wietze: Lets introduce myself and the band, I am Wietze the guitar player / singer of the band, 23 years old and playing the main-role in Edge Of Anger, Henk is my companion and drummer, he did a great job on the album by playing drums, bass guitar and he created the most synths on the album. A bit more about edge of serenity, the music is best to be described as melodic metal with allot of add-ons to it, but the main ingredient is melody with a raw edge and some groovy temposl. We exist over 2 years now and done some great things in our short career, had the change to share stage / festival with major acts and signed a worldwide record deal, having some major endorsement deals, and release our album “The Chaos Theory” October 2008.
Hanna Tsepesh: Which are your current favorite Bands/Artists?
Wietze: Steve Wilson with his band Blackfield, great 2 albums and really easy listening for me, perfect!!And I really like the new record from Opeth also a great addition to my music collection, and not to forget our own album, I listen to the songs for over a half year and I still am not bored with it, I am proud on it.
Hanna Tsepesh: What is your inspiration to create the lyrics for EDGE OF SERENITY?
Wietze: In main, it’s the world thru my own eyes, the difficulties I faced In life and pretty much the frustration I feel when I watch the news and the word bleed, it just horrifying to know that the creature with the biggest brain capacity is also the most brutal one, the human itself.
Hanna Tsepesh: Yeah you are totally right, it’s really a sad thing! When did you start playing guitar and singing? Any musician inspired you to start?
Wietze: I can remember the first tapes I used to play on my portents cassette deck, but there is one band in particular which inspired me even on young age, Queen! No doubt this music wanted me to buy a leather jacket and get a guitar, I was maybe 7 or so, but I knew that guitar playing I wanted, to bad I got my first guitar when I was 14 but I quickly developed my guitar playing by learning it myself. Singing was something I started when I was 20 or so, but it takes so much practice already in clean singing but I really overwhelmed myself on The Chaos Theory, the grunting / screaming is basically a thing everyone can do, just need to find a good technique to not blow your voice every time you do it, I manage to do all 3 singing styles pretty well.
Hanna Tsepesh: You have a great work with the vocals, so i agree 100% with you! About the "The Chaos Theory" album, i must confess: for me that this album it’s one of the best album of this year! You have GREAT and powerful riffs, the voices are extremely brutal and works perfect together! We have in here a fantastic album, congratulations for you and all the band for this work! Can you talk a little bit about the album for our readers to know a little about your style and also what the band want to accomplish with this album?Wietze: First of all, thanks for your flattering compliment!! Its always very nice to hear that people like the album, we are also very satisfied about The Chaos Theory and i think we made a great big step forward, i would describe this album as a great mix between melodic and raw edge metal combined with as well clean vocals, screams and grunts, there is something for every kind of metal fan we hope with this album to put edge of serenity more on the map of the music world and of course that many people enjoy it as much as we do.
Hanna Tsepesh: Don’t need to thank me, it’s the true! EDGE OF SERENITY also have some participation here like: Judith Stüber, Tony J.J and Dennis Hormes, rigth? Can you talk about that…
Wietze: Singer Tony J.J is already some years a good friend of mine, he did great things with his bands as Transport League and toured with Mnemic in U.S and now putting his energy into his band M.A.N, i love his voice and so i asked him to feature on our album, which he liked allot and said yes without any doubt. Judith came as a surprise for us, we had one song which had to have female vocals on it, and our producer introduced Judith to us, we knew her a bit from Satyrian, and so after she gave us a demo copy of the “Born To Fall Apart” we were impressed by her voice and so Dennis was a strange story, one night we were finishing the lead guitars on all the songs, and Dennis came walking in the studio, he is a good friend from our producer and a genius on guitar, I was just relaxing in the apartment near the studio when suddenly Henk calls me and tells me to check some things out, when already Dennis played a magnificent solo on “Save My Day” without even practicing or knowing the song he was just improvising, the solo blew our mind away and so we kept it, this guy is really a genius on guitar.
Hanna Tsepesh: It was difficult to record this album? Can you talk little about the recording process…
Wietze: The total recording of the album went pretty smooth, no big problems, we learned really much during the recording, some things where easy and some things where a bit harder, but it nice to have a bit of challenge.
Hanna Tsepesh: Also you guys have 3 Endorsements (Peavey,ENGL and In TuneGP). How this invitation appeared? The band must be very proud about your hard working and to see so much good things happening, right?
Wietze: Yes indeed, it’s an honor to work together with these major brands, something i didn’t aspect so soon to happen, but it’s very great we have some nice deals to expend our ideas and sound!
Hanna Tsepesh: Talking about concerts, the band shared the stage with great and big bands like: Behemoth, Kataklysm, Norther, Aborted and Amoral to name a few! What feeling you can descrive to share the exact same stage with them? Did you meet in person someone from this bands? They are cool people?
Wietze: It’s nice to share stage with major acts, and we had some nice time with members from Amoral, Drone, Norther and Necrophobic, it was fun, but I think you have to share a tour together to get to know each other better, and so we didn’t really stay in contact with them, but it’s cool we cherish these moments in our musical career.
Hanna Tsepesh: A Little curiosity, what do you feel with metal when you listen or when you play it?Wietze: Well I just simply like some styles of metal and it changes from time to time, most of the music just makes me feel fine, just like music has to, when I play with the band, I feel a proud and simply enjoy it as much as I can.
Hanna Tsepesh: Last question, do you want to send a message for all portuguese metal fans out there about EDGE OF SERENITY?
Wietze: Yes for people / fans who read this, don’t hesitate buying this album if you like metal, there is something for everyone on this album and of course keep on supporting us, cause everybody has his moments on the edge of serenity!!
Hanna Tsepesh: Thanks so much for all your answers! THE GATES OF METAL wish you all the best with this new album and good luck with your future concerts! We hope to see you guys in here very soon…
Wietze: This goes out for Promoters / Bookers from Portugal, you can contact us on our website and maybe we see you guys out there!!
By: Hanna Tsepesh
