MetalAssault.com caught up with EPICA guitarist / founder Mark Jansen in Hollywood, CA at the House Of Blues on February 18th to discuss the band's current headlining tour and future projects. An excerpt is available below:

Q: Have you had a chance to listen to the opening bands on this tour BLACKGUARD and THREAT SIGNAL?

Mark: "Yeah every evening whenever I have time I check them out. Especially Blackguard surprised me a lot. Threat Signal I knew already. When we had a choice to pick a band for the tour, we chose Threat Signal because they are melodic as well and also very heavy. I like that, but I didn't know Blackguard. I checked them out and when I listened to some of the music I was already feeling that its nice music. When I saw them live on the first night of the tour, I was overwhelmed. That band deserved to make it. They give all their energy on stage, have some great melodies and it just fits. I hope that band is big in the future."

Q: What are your upcoming commitments in the studio and on tour?

Mark: "We will continue writing new songs. We already started and I already have a whole lot of ideas. So we have to work them out and start developing new songs, because the new album has to be at least as good as Design Your Universe, otherwise people are going to be really disappointed. So probably we're going to go in the studio in 2011 to record. Till then we'll keep promoting this album. [Design Your Universe] There are still a lot of regions to go. We will go to South America, a new European tour with the summer festivals and some markets where we haven't been yet like China and Korea. We are headlining everywhere, finally! Sometimes you get a really bad treatment by headliners. That's also why we do it different. We give our support acts all the love we can, and all the possibilities. That's the way it should be and headliners should not treat the support bands like shit. People who buy tickets want to see three nice bands and not two bands who face all the difficulties from the headliner, to not be able to use any lights, not able to use the full sound capacity, not able to hang all their t-shirts. All these restrictions make me sick. So when we take support bands on tour with us, we give them the best possible treatment. I hope that one day when we tour with other bands, they do the same to us. It has to change somewhere (laughs)."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

Epica's tour schedule is now as follows:

February

19 - U.B’s Bar - Mesa, AZ
20 - The Rock - Tucson, AZ
22 - Bluebird Theater - Denver, CO
23 - Marquee - Tulsa, OK
24 - Scout Bar - Houston, TX
25 - Scout Bar - San Antonio, TX
27 - Volume 11 - Raleigh, NC
28 - The Masquerade - Atlanta, GA