MetalExiles.com has posted an interview with with drummer Dross of Southern Californian black metallers SOTHIS, where he discusses the band's debut album De Oppresso Liber. An excerpt follows:

MetalExiles.com: For those who are not familiar with Sothis, how did you get together?

Dross: "Sothis was formed piece by piece, from the ground up by Scathe (guitars) and I. We sought member after member one at a time until we finally got a complete line up together. It was an unbelievable amount of work to get the band together. It took about four and half years to get a full line-up together. When we first started, the scene was very different than it is now. The biggest bands played at small clubs that were many times far from being sold out. We put out a million ads constantly. In the end, the ads themselves helped to establish our name in the local scene."

MetalExiles.com: You have been together for almost ten years. What has been the glue to keep you together that long?

Dross: "It is the fact that we really tried to seek out the right members. We look for people that are far more than just a bassist or vocalist or whatever. You need to make sure you also have someone that has the same goals and vision as you for the band. You need to make sure that the person you choose to join you is someone that you know you can be close friends with. I also believe that it is important that you DO NOT establish an employer/employee-type relationship and that everyone feels very equal in status as a member. You need to be able to make sure that every one knows that the band is THEIR baby too. The last thing I'll say is that I also believe that it is important to always be moving forward, always have an advancing or forward momentum."

MetalExiles.com: You did the Sothis EP a few years ago, what went into putting that together considering it was your first outing?

Dross: "The Sothis EP is our demo to be completely honest with you. We wanted to do an exceptionally good job on it because it was created to shop the band to labels so we could get a realistic budget for a proper full length. It is often spoke of as an EP these days because of its quality and success and that is fine with us. The demo was produced by me and was a real eye opener with regard to how much work creating an album truly is. I'm an audio engineer so that really helped me to be able to take hold of this thing and get it all done. To answer your question with the most basic and stripped down answer possible, I'd simply say that you need to establish a budget for the album or demo you want to create. Once that budget is established you try to get the most for your money. You call in favors, work in the studio odd hours if you have too, get a ton of quotes and then get everything schedules and as organized as humanly possible. Once that is all done you record the record and try to stay within budget. Let me mention quickly that also the demo is sold out we have plans of re-releasing it in the future completely re-mastered and with all new packaging. The demo will come with bonus tracks from each of our albums recording sessions as well as live video footage of us performing songs from the demo and a high-resolution version of our 'Sinister Nation' video. In other words we will be re-releasing this demo with TONS of extra stuff which will make it really cool and worth getting if you're a big fan of the band."

Head here to read the interview in its entirety.