Interview — Synarchy

Skratch Magazine

Synarchy has the distinction of being one of the few death/thrash metal core bands on the Faroe Islands (Føroyar). As a result, Leon Borum Hansson (lead vocals, John Ivar Venned (guitar/backing vocals), Pól Jespersen (guitar/backing vocals), Ísak Petersen (bass/backing vocals), Bjartur Fríði Clementsen (keyboards) and Kim Joensen (drums) make their own metal scene. Synarchy plays as many local shows as they can boo and also does their part to create their own outlets, like their channel on You Tube. Check out what they had to say to Skratch Magazine.

Skratch: Describe your sound:

Synarchy: A mixture of thrash, death and melodic metal. Some riffs are very In Flames, Dark Tranquillity etc. while some are more Black Dahlia Murder. Lots of strings and choir keyboard stuff too.

Skratch: How did you become interested in music?

Ísak: I started because I wanted to be a rock bassist.
John Ivar: I’ve always been interested in music. But metal caught me with a Metallica live video of Master Of Puppets.

Skratch: What is your song writing process like?
Ísak: It’s usually either John Ivar or I who writes a part or a whole song, and then in the practice space everybody comes with extra ideas to give the song it’s final touch.

Skratch: What artists or musicians inspire you?

Synarchy: There’s a lot of bands that inspire us, but mostly bands like Dark Tranquility, Mercenary, Killswitch Engage and sometime bands such as Nevermore, Lamb of God and Arch Enemy might give us inspiration.

Skratch: Where do you take musical inspiration from? Your environment? People? Explain.

Synarchy: We’re actually the only band that play this kind of music in Faroe Islands and the environment doesn’t give us inspiration at all. There isn’t any Faroese metal scene and we’re too stubborn to play folk or sellout music.

Skratch: What is your musical background?

Ísak: We all come from very different musical backgrounds. For instance John Ivar, Kim and I are very into brutal death metal while the rest are more into melodic metal. We all love it as long as it’s good metal. I also study all kinds of music such as jazz, funk etc. at MGK (Preparation for the conservatory)
Pól has studied classical music and plays the Viola in the national symphony orchestra. None of the other members have any musical education. They’ve just played their asses off, learning a million songs, and then started creating their own.

Skratch: Tell us about how you got started as a band.
Ísak: It started with John E. Láadal (guitar) and I wanted to make a metal band with Martin Rói Vilhelmsen on drums. Soon after the band evolved into a six-man band with Leon Borum Hanson on vocals, Bjartur Fríði Clementsen and Andre Lenvig on guitar. After some time John Ivar Venned replaced André, Pól Jespersen replaced John E. and Kim Joensen replaced Martin Rói.

Skratch: What is the most rewarding part of playing in a band?
Synarchy: So far? Well, playing in this band just around in Faroe Islands hasn’t been that rewarding because of, I don’t know, lack of a music scene? Lack of interest in this music in F.O.? We actually have some fans who are really into what we do, but the country is just too small for a band/s like this. We get a lot more recognition from people all around the world. Especially from the U.S.

Skratch: What challenges have you faced as musicians?

Synarchy: A lot! We can mention a very recent incident that happened on our last show. The organizers, for some reason, put us to play an hour after a fashion show, which means that the place was fucked up. We had to build the stage ourselves, equip the stage, sound check, all that 20 min. before show time. This was actually at a festival.
There has also been corruption from organizers. Most of them screw bands over for extra cash.
Very hard to get a decent gig in FO due to there not being any good place to play. The only place to play are clubs which don’t allow a band like us since we’re not techno or pop.
For every show we play we face new challenges and thus we just try to learn from our mistakes.

Skratch: What would you say is your best song to date? Why?

Synarchy: A song called ”Confinement” because it has some really brutal pieces. It has very nice melodic thrashy pieces, a 7/8 time signature riff which is always interesting, both to play and to listen to. It has a catchy chorus, and the heaviest Synarchy riff to this date. Very cool. It will be on our album once it’s released, and if anyone is interested you can listen to a sneak peak at our youtube channel.

Skratch: Do you remember the first album you ever brought? What was it?

Ísak: I think it was the Slipknot, self-titled. Not sure though..
John Ivar: It was “Americana” by Offspring. (*Blushes in shame*)

Skratch: Where do you see your band in five years?

Synarchy: Hopefully we’ll have made some great albums, toured our asses off and ready to tour some more.
Skratch: Would you say your goals as a band are long term, or short term? What do you ultimately hope to achieve? Explain.

Synarchy: We would ultimately want to be a respected metal band playing on the best metal stages around the world, getting more fans, and keep evolving as musicians. And of course a record deal would be nice.

Skratch: How has your band evolved since when you first formed?

Ísak: There has been a lot of change. If there is a genre called crap core we’d probably fit into that category when we wrote our first couple of songs hahaha. But over the years, every member has evolved very much musically, and we’ve become much better composers. We’ve also improved our stage performance a lot.

Skratch: How often do you practice? What is your rehearsal time like?

Synarchy: It’s very different from time to time. Sometime we practice every day, and sometimes maybe just once a week. Depends on what activities are upfront.

Skratch: What would you say is your band's motto? Explain.

Synarchy: Variation the second time around. To keep things interesting, we always change a little bit of a riff if it comes twice in a song. And at the same time we like to do different stage moves for each show, and keep coming up with interesting new ways of starting a show for instance. It’s never the same experience listening to us, but we try to keep it a good one.

Skratch: What shows/album releases/plans do you currently have set up? Tell us about them.

Synarchy: We are currently recording our debut album. John Ivar works as the recording technician in a studio he and a friend of his have built. The drums are recorded professionally at the same studio that Týr uses in the Faroes – Kriss Stuff Studios. Then it all is sent to Jacob Hansen for mixing and mastering at Hansen studios in Denmark. But were still trying to get enough support money from the country itself, and various companies around the country. We’re going into the studio in September, and hope to have the album out in December, if everything goes as planned.

Skratch: Where have your preformed? Tell us about the experience.

Synarchy: Almost everywhere you can perform in the Faroes. Few of these experiences are worth mentioning, but the greatest one so far has been the “Futt í Býin” festival in summer 2008. It was extremely well organized and a lot of supportive metalheads came to the show. There is a good video clip of one song from that performance, on our youtube channel: www.youtube.com/iamafish.

Skratch: What sets your stage show a part from all the other bands making the rounds at venues?

Synarchy: We’re a bit more technical than the other metal bands in the Faroes. We fuse a lot of strange things into our music that we don’t hear in other bands. Were very energetic on stage, and like to get everyone in the audience with us on feeling the music. The choruses give everyone goose-bumps, which is the point.

Skratch: Anything else you think we should know about the band?

Synarchy: We’re looking forward to getting off these damn islands and playing some shows abroad, were there are more metalheads like ourselves. Live and breathe for The Metal.

For more on Synarchy you can go to www.myspace.com/synarchy. Or tune in to their You Tube Channel at www.youtube.com/iamafish.

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