BW&BK; scribe Carl Begai recently caught up with AFTER FOREVER guitarist Sander Gommans to discuss his new project, HDK, featuring vocalist Amanda Somerville. During the interview Gommans addressed the issue of After Forever's current hiatus in the wake of his ongoing stress-related health issues.

“Actually, since the much needed break started I’m doing pretty well," says Gommans. "It was a real risk for the whole band to take such a break, especially for me, because I had no idea how I would feel if we decided to it and if it would solve some of the things that were going on. I’m 100% convinced that it’s done a lot of good already. I feel much more relaxed and much more focused on other things with a positive attitude. It’s unfortunate that After Forever had such a negative impact on me. It’s really hard to explain, but I guess the 13 years that I spent in the band just got to be too much. There was some really negative stuff, and I was afraid that I would have no more fun at all in After Forever and that we would fall apart because of it. That was my main concern; I wanted to prevent that. When I look at the rest of the band I see the enthusiasm they’re having with other projects, so I can never predict what’s going to happen in a year. At this moment in time I think we definitely made the right decision."

Gommans makes it clear, however, that After Forever will indeed return to active duty.

“When you want to tour and do stuff like that you always have to think months in advance. This is a year long break, and after that year we’ll see what our plans are. It will certainly take a year-and-a-half before you really see some activity from After Forever performance-wise. But, the goal is positive. We all have the spirit to continue."