THEATRE OF TRAGEDY - "Basically This (New) Record Is A Big ‘Up Yours’”
September 24, 2009, 15 years ago
BW&BK; recently caught up with THEATRE OF TRAGEDY drummer / co-founder Hein Frode Hansen to discuss the band's new album, Forever Is The World.
The new album’s biggest surprise is no longer a secret thanks to the internet; male vocalist and founder Raymond Rohonyi growls his way through a couple songs. Up to this point Rohonyi had been adamant against putting growls to Theater of Tragedy’s music – a stand that began with the Aegis album – preferring to use his clean voice or spoken word. His bandmates, like the fans, hinted for years that a return to original form might be nice. That he actually did it left everyone in the band speechless according to Hansen.
“That was just surreal. I can’t even explain the shock on our faces when we heard it. Raymond wasn’t too involved in the songwriting process for this record because he’s been really busy with a lot of stuff in his own life. So, a week before we were due to go into the studio we had a photo session and we talked about the fact that it was the last week we had to really add stuff to the record. If anything had to be done, it had to be done within that week. Raymond had some work to do because there were three or four songs that needed vocals, and we told him that if he couldn’t we needed to find somebody else. He told us he’s take a couple days off from work and take care of it. So, he was using the band’s portable studio, and he sent us the files with the three songs he’d done and there were the growls again. It was like, ‘What the fuck happened here?’ (laughs).”“Raymond is not an easy man to persuade if he’s got him mind set on something,” Hansen says. “We’d talked to him over the years about putting growls here or there and he always told us, ‘Never, ever again!’ He did the growls for this album and we were completely in shock. I asked him why on earth he decided to do it and he said – with irony in his voice, believe me – that a former member of the band had insinuated that Theatre Of Tragedy was going a bit soft in our old age. So basically this record is a big ‘Up yours.’”
Go to this location for the complete story. Click here for audio samples and information on Forever Is The World.
