Metal Temple's Dimitris Kontogeorgakos recently interviewed MANILLA ROAD'S Mark Shelton in regards to the band's new album, Voyager.

The following is an excerpt from the chat:

Q: How long were you working on Voyager? Did you face any difficulties during that time?

A: "Well, I started working on the concept and the music right after our 2004 tour in Europe. Bryan ended up leaving the band for awhile and so it was a little different doing the album without him. He still helped engineer the project but I still missed him singing on the album. And then just as we finished the recording Harvey ran into some family issues that caused him to not be around for the mixing of the album and for that matter most of the recording of Cory and my final tracks. Cory and Harvey took some well deserved time off to be with their families while I started working on the mix for the album.

We signed to Black Lotus records and were about to release the project when the label went out of business. So we did not have a contract all of a sudden and I decided that the mix was not good enough yet. So I went back into the studio and re-mixed the whole project and during that time it became obvious that Harvey was not going to be able to continue with the band at that point. So I went in search of another bass player and luckily my old friend Vince Golemon was available for the job. By now I had got us another label deal with My Graveyard Productions and the re-mix was finished. And also at this time Bryan had finally got to a point where he could come back to the group and work with us again so it was on for doing more touring now here we are."

Q: You have recently signed a new record deal with the Italian label My Graveyard Productions; for how many albums did you sign and are you satisfied with them because (I think) it is a new label?

A: "We just signed this album for now and yes they are sort of a new label but I am very happy with the way things are going with them. They have been very good to us and it is an honest label that does what they promise. That can be hard to come by these days."

Q: What are the touring plans regarding Europe and US?

A: "We will be playing the ’Keep It True’ festival on April 5th, 2008. We do a show in Colmar, France on April 7th. Then on to Greece for a couple of dates in the North of Greece and on April 12th we headline the ’Up The Hammers’ festival in Athens. On August 9th we headline the Kansas City Metal festival here in the states. That is all we have planned at this point."

Q: You have only one DVD in your catalogue from the Keep It True festival; are there any thoughts of making another one?

A: "Well, I expect there will be another one from the Keep It True Festival X that we are about to play at. And we are thinking of doing one ourselves also but we will have to see what the future brings.

Q: Excuse my ignorance, but how did you get the "Shark" moniker?

A: "Mike Palmer and the boys in STYGIAN SHORE gave me the nickname. They had a thing where they would take the first syllable of your first name and your last and switch them around. So Mark Shelton became Shark Melton. After they started calling me Shark it stuck with everyone that knew me."

Read the full interview at Metal-Temple.com.