‘Gather the Faithful’ will be out August 28th 2009, what kind of expectations do
you have for it?
Cain’s Offering – Hopefully it will do
great, maybe pass the sales of "Thriller" during the first few months :) No, but
really, one can never really know what to expect. I think we've made a very good
and solid album and I hope people will find it.
If you had to choose one song you feel represents Cain’s Offering, which song
would you choose and why? Personally I would 'Morpheus in a Masquerade', a song
I feel captures the essence of the band perfect.
Cain’s Offering – I agree with you.
Morpheus, along with Oceans of Regret, is my favourite track off the album, and
I really think it crystallises everything Cain's Offering is about. It has the
trademark beautiful melodies, heavier parts, a lot of parts and transitions, the
full Monty :)
The album should have fine conditions Finland, but how well do you expect the
album will do in the rest of the world?
Cain’s Offering – This of course depends
on so many other things, like how is the promotion, how is the distribution etc.
But I think the music on the album has potential to appeal to a broad range of
music fans. We've gotten a LOT of really positive feedback already, so one can
be hopeful.
How did you come up with the title for the album?
Cain’s Offering – This is basically just
my brand of humour. I thought that while returning to the metal scene after
pretty much 2 years of absence having an album called "Gather The Faithful"
would be funny :)
Who has produced and mixed the album? How does the final result compare to the
idea you had going into the studio?
Cain’s Offering – I (Jani) pretty much
produced the album from start to finish. I was pretty much involved with every
aspect of the album and had a fairly strong idea about what we were doing. Jimmy
Westerlund, a good friend of mine who currently lives in Los Angeles mixed the
album. I met him while working on the Sturm Und Drang album, "Rock 'n' Roll
Children", which he mixed and produced while I wrote one song for the album. I
was having a bit of issues with the mixing schedules and talked with him about
it. He asked if I could send him one song to listen to, and the rest is history.
Tell us a bit about artwork…
Cain’s Offering – There's no grand scheme
behind the artwork, when we started working on it the first direction I gave the
artist was "absolutely no dragons or warriors":) On the cover we have this
phoenix-symbol, which sort of resembles how this band has risen from the ashes
:)
Cain’s Offering – any special story behind your name?
Cain’s Offering – Not a grand one, again
my own brand of humour. Everyone probably knows the story of Cain and Abel from
the bible. While I am not a religious person in any way myself, I thought the
story is interesting and that naming the band "Cain's Offering", the rejected
offering, would be sort of funny given the circumstances :)
Cain’s Offering – is this merely another super-group, another high profile
project, or…?
Cain’s Offering – Who knows? :) I try to
keep this as much a "real" band as possible, but of course one has to make some
compromises since most of the guys have other bands and responsibilities as
well.
You are signed to Frontiers Records, was that a deliberately choice of yours –
they are after all one of the driving forces in melodic metal in Europe…
Cain’s Offering – We were shopping for the
European deal for a long time, but in the end what convinced us about Frontiers
was their persistence. Our management told me that Frontiers called them pretty
much daily, asking if we had made a decision yet. Of course Frontiers is
starting to be a pretty known company as well, and since they don't have too
many similar acts as Cain's Offering on their roster we don't have to compete
over their attention as much as if we would've gone with a label that has many
bands with style similar to ours.
Any touring plans – any festivals booked?
Cain’s Offering – So far none, since as
you probably know, Timo is very busy with Stratovarius now that they just
released "Polaris". Hopefully next year we get to do some live shows, as I would
love to bring this material to life up on the stage as well.
Name the five musical pieces that you want to bring with you when we send you to
hell or heaven!
Cain’s Offering – Whoa, an original one!
:) Hard to pick so suddenly, as it changes daily, but let's see...
Slayer - Raining Blood (for kicking ass)
WASP - Wildchild (for partying)
Billy Idol - Flesh For Fantasy (for other kind of partying ;))
Something by Hans Zimmer (One of my favourite composers, impossible to pick one
piece)
Cain's Offering - Oceans of Regret (just to remember I once did something right
:)
Thank you very much for answering my questions. Do you have any last rants for
our readers?
Cain’s
Offering – Don't drink and drive, don't do too much drugs or you'll die, let
the sleeping dogs lie, and the new Cain's Offering album you must buy :)
