I very recently was interviewed by Walter Scheurer at the metal webzine POWERMETAL.de.
If you can read German, check it out here:
POWERMETAL.de - Interviews: Shadow Demon - Jeff Helm
If you can read English, then check out the untranslated version below:
_______________________________________________________________
Walter: Due to the fact that SHADOW DEMON are totally unknown here in central europe, give us an overview about the band´s history at first.
Jeff: Shadow Demon came into being in late 2001 after an already long search for musicians. I had been looking to start a thrash band for awhile but had recently been listening to more power metal, and decided I wanted a vocalist that could actually sing rather than just yell. Early on, it was just myself on guitar, Blaine Hammond on vocals, and another drummer that ended up not working out. In early 2002 guitarist Tim Diedrich and bassist James Rinker jumped on board. Things were taking shape nicely but we just could not find a drummer that fit the band. Tim ended up moving away from the area and leaving the band in late 2002.
By late 2003 we decided to record a demo with a guest drummer and a couple guest lead guitarists (one of them being Tim Diedrich). Our self-titled EP was released in December of 2003. It got great reception from many European webzines and a couple print magazines in Germany and Greece. In early 2004 we played a few shows with some guest musicians but then they had to focus on their own bands again.
Shadow Demon was pretty much dormant until we decided to go ahead and record an album in 2005. We were going to hire a guest drummer again and have Tim Diedrich do the solo parts. Late that summer we found Jay Davidson for the drum position. We spent the next several months refining the songs. We then got invited to open a show for Sonata Arctica in February of 2006 and this was something we really wanted to do, so we put out an ad for a lead guitarist for live purposes only. After auditioning several candidates we found Ryan Gallagher who had a style that we thought was perfect for the band, so we made him a permanent member. The album was put on hold while we practiced our asses off and Jay and Ryan had to learn some of the songs for the show.
We finally started recording Grimoire of Ruin in March. It was a slow process as James was recording us in his home studio and this was his first time ever doing this and we were actually all really learning as we went. We finished up the final mixing in August and the album was released on October 27th of 2006.
So, Shadow Demon got its start a long time ago, but in a way it is just now getting up on its feet.
Walter: Which bands are to mention if we talk about musical influences?
Jeff: A lot.
We all listen to metal but some of us have different appreciations for different sub-genres and bands. Overall, I’d say some general influences are Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Blind Guardian, Iced Earth, Testament, Persuader, Dio, early Helloween,…oh man, I could go on forever. Some individuals in the band are more into classic metal, some into black metal, some into guitar virtuosos. I personally listen to a lot of heavy, thrash, power, NWOBM, folk, and some death and black metal. My recent CD rotation, for example, includes Destroyer 666, Wolf, Arkona, Dissection, Dark Angel, Freternia, and Amon Amarth.. One thing about this band is that we are all metal enthusiasts and are constantly finding more bands we like and buying lots of CDs.
Walter: As for me I was thinking of Dark or Gothic Metal as inspiration at first, when I heard SHADOW DEMON as name for a band for the first time.
Has there been any special intention for your choice?
Jeff: I don’t think there was much intention in sounding “gothic” as most people use the term now days, but definitely more just dark sounding. I like dark moods and I like powerful music and this is the name I came up with early on. I also like dark artwork (see the Grimoire of Ruin cover) and I guess it could be considered gothic looking, but we are not purposely trying to identify ourselves with the gothic scene or gothic culture.
Walter: In the meantime we all are allowed to listen to your debut album.
How would you describe the band´s developement so far?
Jeff: I think when we put out the EP in 2003 the music was very straight forward. I think the songs on Grimoire of Ruin are much more complex and mature sounding. The songs do not all follow a basic or predictable structure. A few songs even have a linear path with different sections and do not go back to revisit earlier sections…more like a journey from point A to point B. I also think the influences from different genres are much more apparent in Grimoire of Ruin.
Many others have noted that the songs on Grimoire are darker sounding than before. This was something I did not really notice myself until we were near the end of writing the album. I think the unconventional vocal melodies that we use may attribute to this feeling somewhat.
Walter: Are still something like an “old-fashioned” band rehearsing from time to time, or do you change ideas only via your computers?
Jeff: We all get together regularly to rehearse. Most of the writing, however, is done by recording ideas on the computer. We don’t really come up with anything spontaneously by jamming or doing improvisations in the rehearsal room…that usually just ends up sounding generic.
Walter: How do I have to imagine everything about the songwriting-process?
Jeff: Most of the songs are started by one person’s ideas. One person may write the entire thing or present their ideas to someone else who takes them and expands them further. James and I write a lot of the music and we have a lot of strong similarities in our song writing, but also some differences. We record a lot of ideas on the computer, and some of them sit there until someone gets inspired to expand them further. On Grimoire, James was very inspired by some of the music I wrote to write lyrics for the songs.
Walter: Is it possible to describe the lyrics for the songs for those what want to “dive” into your music and only want to listen?
Jeff: In general, I think that some of the songs on Grimoire of Ruin touch on ideas like cycles and changing perspectives. There is the cycle of life and death, of freedom and being oppressed, of being the hunter and becoming the hunted. Some of the songs are about realizing your current situation or state of mind and changing it (or not changing it). Of course, there are plenty of dark and supernatural fantasy themes as well.
Walter: What about your experiences as to “Live-Shows” so far? Which concerts do you see as your “highlights” so far?
Jeff: We have not honestly played a lot of live shows. Ironically, that is what we really want to do! We played a handful in 2004 and a few recently, but with the new members and the album we haven’t been able to focus on it much. Right now we are rehearsing as a full band and trying to get ourselves to the level that we want to be for presenting ourselves.
One highlight was our first show ever at the Seattle Power Prog fest in 2004 when we played back to back with Heir Apparent and Lyranthe. Also, opening for Sonata Arctica last February and Kamelot and Epica last October was fun. We didn’t meet the band members, and I’m sure they didn’t even know we opened for them, but it sure was fun playing in front of their fans.
Walter: How did you get in touch with Darkhaven Records?
Jeff: Actually, a few of us are partners in the record label along with one other guy. The label was mainly put in place as a means of releasing the album. We are still basically an independent band with no major record label.
Walter: Is there any conceptional story behind or at least something like a relation between the songs of “Grimoire Of Ruin” existing?
Jeff: Grimoire of Ruin is not a concept album, but there are some underlying themes throughout. Basically, the name of the album was something we thought fit the songs in general. The “Grimoire” represents the demonic or supernatural references and the “Ruin” represents the general end or destruction of something that a lot of songs touch on. Some songs touch on part of that and some touch on both. There are definitely other common themes that run through many of the songs as well.
Walter: What is to mention if we talk about inspirations for your lyrics?
Jeff: I only wrote lyrics for two songs on this album. “The Dark Citadel” is a story I made up completely and “Sea of Oblivion” is one I adapted from a movie. I am inspired by fantasy and supernatural themes as well as comics. I think that James writes a lot from his personal philosophy and views on society and politics, as well as history, literature and poems. He writes a lot about emotions, but I think they are not generally his emotions but rather what he imagines other people going through in certain extreme situations. Much like “The Dark Citadel”, James also wrote “Brave Murder Day” as his own story that he created.
Walter: Who was responsible for your artwork, which , in my opinion, makes the title really visible?
Jeff: Mattias Norén did all of the artwork and created our new logo. We were looking for someone about a year before we actually started recording the album, and we had the general concept and certain aspects we knew we wanted on the cover. We really liked his other works, and we thought he was someone that could pull off what we were looking for. When he sent us the first rough proof I was blown away. We were all like “This is it!” He really did capture the imagery that we wanted for the album. I can’t see any reason why we wouldn’t use him again in the future. I highly recommend checking out his work at ProgArt Media - CD artwork by Mattias Norén
Walter: Which countries do you expect to be “your market”, if we talk about sales and fanbases?
Jeff: I think for the most part Europe probably would have the most interest in us. We get quite a bit of website traffic from Germany, The Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. I think we have had the most CD sales so far to Germany.
Right now, we do not have much distribution outside of the US and this is something we are working on. We may end up having to just set up distribution in Europe through a few small independent online shops.
Currently you can import the album from darkhavenrecords.com, amazon.com, or cdbaby.com
Walter: What about the Metal-Scene in Seattle and around at the moment? (We do not know too much about bands from the underground there, so maybe you could help us out with some important bands and so on....)
Jeff: Well if you are looking for other traditional heavy or power metal sounding bands, there really are not many. There is Heir Apparent and Nevermore of course. There are a few good bands that I like here but they are mostly black or extreme thrash metal. If you like those styles then I would recommend checking out In Memorium, Scorched Earth, and Inquinok. I will also mention Ara’kus, who is kind of hard to describe but they are sort of gothic heavy metal with some black metal elements.
Beyond that I have a very negative view of the metal scene here. There are lots and lots of bands that just plain suck. Nu-metal totally exploded in Seattle several years ago and now all the nu-metal bands are playing metalcore or are later-era Pantera rip-offs. There are still bands that sound like Slipknot, Korn, System of a Down, and whatever new trendy American band you can think of at the moment. People can call me “elitist” or whatever they want, but I hate that shit. One reason it took so long for us to get a full line-up is that there are very few musicians around here that listen to anything remotely resembling our style of music.
Walter: For sure it´s a bit to early for any future plans, but what do we have to expect next?
Jeff: Well, I think after the holidays we are going to try to do more live shows around the Pacific Northwest. We don’t really have the budget to tour much….we are really in the hole from the album right now since we financed everything ourselves. If we got invited to play somewhere we would be up for it as long as we could be covered for expenses and time off work. We will probably apply to some fests over in Europe for the ones that actually accept applications, and just see what happens. Other than that we will probably just start writing more songs and hopefully sales for Grimoire of Ruin will do well so that we can put out another album.
Walter: Are there any plans for live-activities to promote the album?
Jeff: I think most of our live activities will be more for ourselves to just get to play live. That is what we really love doing. I don’t think we can tour enough right now to have it be an effective means of promoting the album. For album promotion we have planned to buy some ad space on some high-traffic metal related websites and maybe some print magazines which should start around next January. We don’t have much of a budget for more than that right now. If you like our album, then spread the word! This is possibly the best thing that could help us right now.
If you can read German, check it out here:
POWERMETAL.de - Interviews: Shadow Demon - Jeff Helm
If you can read English, then check out the untranslated version below:
_______________________________________________________________
Walter: Due to the fact that SHADOW DEMON are totally unknown here in central europe, give us an overview about the band´s history at first.
Jeff: Shadow Demon came into being in late 2001 after an already long search for musicians. I had been looking to start a thrash band for awhile but had recently been listening to more power metal, and decided I wanted a vocalist that could actually sing rather than just yell. Early on, it was just myself on guitar, Blaine Hammond on vocals, and another drummer that ended up not working out. In early 2002 guitarist Tim Diedrich and bassist James Rinker jumped on board. Things were taking shape nicely but we just could not find a drummer that fit the band. Tim ended up moving away from the area and leaving the band in late 2002.
By late 2003 we decided to record a demo with a guest drummer and a couple guest lead guitarists (one of them being Tim Diedrich). Our self-titled EP was released in December of 2003. It got great reception from many European webzines and a couple print magazines in Germany and Greece. In early 2004 we played a few shows with some guest musicians but then they had to focus on their own bands again.
Shadow Demon was pretty much dormant until we decided to go ahead and record an album in 2005. We were going to hire a guest drummer again and have Tim Diedrich do the solo parts. Late that summer we found Jay Davidson for the drum position. We spent the next several months refining the songs. We then got invited to open a show for Sonata Arctica in February of 2006 and this was something we really wanted to do, so we put out an ad for a lead guitarist for live purposes only. After auditioning several candidates we found Ryan Gallagher who had a style that we thought was perfect for the band, so we made him a permanent member. The album was put on hold while we practiced our asses off and Jay and Ryan had to learn some of the songs for the show.
We finally started recording Grimoire of Ruin in March. It was a slow process as James was recording us in his home studio and this was his first time ever doing this and we were actually all really learning as we went. We finished up the final mixing in August and the album was released on October 27th of 2006.
So, Shadow Demon got its start a long time ago, but in a way it is just now getting up on its feet.
Walter: Which bands are to mention if we talk about musical influences?
Jeff: A lot.
We all listen to metal but some of us have different appreciations for different sub-genres and bands. Overall, I’d say some general influences are Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Blind Guardian, Iced Earth, Testament, Persuader, Dio, early Helloween,…oh man, I could go on forever. Some individuals in the band are more into classic metal, some into black metal, some into guitar virtuosos. I personally listen to a lot of heavy, thrash, power, NWOBM, folk, and some death and black metal. My recent CD rotation, for example, includes Destroyer 666, Wolf, Arkona, Dissection, Dark Angel, Freternia, and Amon Amarth.. One thing about this band is that we are all metal enthusiasts and are constantly finding more bands we like and buying lots of CDs.
Walter: As for me I was thinking of Dark or Gothic Metal as inspiration at first, when I heard SHADOW DEMON as name for a band for the first time.
Has there been any special intention for your choice?
Jeff: I don’t think there was much intention in sounding “gothic” as most people use the term now days, but definitely more just dark sounding. I like dark moods and I like powerful music and this is the name I came up with early on. I also like dark artwork (see the Grimoire of Ruin cover) and I guess it could be considered gothic looking, but we are not purposely trying to identify ourselves with the gothic scene or gothic culture.
Walter: In the meantime we all are allowed to listen to your debut album.
How would you describe the band´s developement so far?
Jeff: I think when we put out the EP in 2003 the music was very straight forward. I think the songs on Grimoire of Ruin are much more complex and mature sounding. The songs do not all follow a basic or predictable structure. A few songs even have a linear path with different sections and do not go back to revisit earlier sections…more like a journey from point A to point B. I also think the influences from different genres are much more apparent in Grimoire of Ruin.
Many others have noted that the songs on Grimoire are darker sounding than before. This was something I did not really notice myself until we were near the end of writing the album. I think the unconventional vocal melodies that we use may attribute to this feeling somewhat.
Walter: Are still something like an “old-fashioned” band rehearsing from time to time, or do you change ideas only via your computers?
Jeff: We all get together regularly to rehearse. Most of the writing, however, is done by recording ideas on the computer. We don’t really come up with anything spontaneously by jamming or doing improvisations in the rehearsal room…that usually just ends up sounding generic.
Walter: How do I have to imagine everything about the songwriting-process?
Jeff: Most of the songs are started by one person’s ideas. One person may write the entire thing or present their ideas to someone else who takes them and expands them further. James and I write a lot of the music and we have a lot of strong similarities in our song writing, but also some differences. We record a lot of ideas on the computer, and some of them sit there until someone gets inspired to expand them further. On Grimoire, James was very inspired by some of the music I wrote to write lyrics for the songs.
Walter: Is it possible to describe the lyrics for the songs for those what want to “dive” into your music and only want to listen?
Jeff: In general, I think that some of the songs on Grimoire of Ruin touch on ideas like cycles and changing perspectives. There is the cycle of life and death, of freedom and being oppressed, of being the hunter and becoming the hunted. Some of the songs are about realizing your current situation or state of mind and changing it (or not changing it). Of course, there are plenty of dark and supernatural fantasy themes as well.
Walter: What about your experiences as to “Live-Shows” so far? Which concerts do you see as your “highlights” so far?
Jeff: We have not honestly played a lot of live shows. Ironically, that is what we really want to do! We played a handful in 2004 and a few recently, but with the new members and the album we haven’t been able to focus on it much. Right now we are rehearsing as a full band and trying to get ourselves to the level that we want to be for presenting ourselves.
One highlight was our first show ever at the Seattle Power Prog fest in 2004 when we played back to back with Heir Apparent and Lyranthe. Also, opening for Sonata Arctica last February and Kamelot and Epica last October was fun. We didn’t meet the band members, and I’m sure they didn’t even know we opened for them, but it sure was fun playing in front of their fans.
Walter: How did you get in touch with Darkhaven Records?
Jeff: Actually, a few of us are partners in the record label along with one other guy. The label was mainly put in place as a means of releasing the album. We are still basically an independent band with no major record label.
Walter: Is there any conceptional story behind or at least something like a relation between the songs of “Grimoire Of Ruin” existing?
Jeff: Grimoire of Ruin is not a concept album, but there are some underlying themes throughout. Basically, the name of the album was something we thought fit the songs in general. The “Grimoire” represents the demonic or supernatural references and the “Ruin” represents the general end or destruction of something that a lot of songs touch on. Some songs touch on part of that and some touch on both. There are definitely other common themes that run through many of the songs as well.
Walter: What is to mention if we talk about inspirations for your lyrics?
Jeff: I only wrote lyrics for two songs on this album. “The Dark Citadel” is a story I made up completely and “Sea of Oblivion” is one I adapted from a movie. I am inspired by fantasy and supernatural themes as well as comics. I think that James writes a lot from his personal philosophy and views on society and politics, as well as history, literature and poems. He writes a lot about emotions, but I think they are not generally his emotions but rather what he imagines other people going through in certain extreme situations. Much like “The Dark Citadel”, James also wrote “Brave Murder Day” as his own story that he created.
Walter: Who was responsible for your artwork, which , in my opinion, makes the title really visible?
Jeff: Mattias Norén did all of the artwork and created our new logo. We were looking for someone about a year before we actually started recording the album, and we had the general concept and certain aspects we knew we wanted on the cover. We really liked his other works, and we thought he was someone that could pull off what we were looking for. When he sent us the first rough proof I was blown away. We were all like “This is it!” He really did capture the imagery that we wanted for the album. I can’t see any reason why we wouldn’t use him again in the future. I highly recommend checking out his work at ProgArt Media - CD artwork by Mattias Norén
Walter: Which countries do you expect to be “your market”, if we talk about sales and fanbases?
Jeff: I think for the most part Europe probably would have the most interest in us. We get quite a bit of website traffic from Germany, The Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. I think we have had the most CD sales so far to Germany.
Right now, we do not have much distribution outside of the US and this is something we are working on. We may end up having to just set up distribution in Europe through a few small independent online shops.
Currently you can import the album from darkhavenrecords.com, amazon.com, or cdbaby.com
Walter: What about the Metal-Scene in Seattle and around at the moment? (We do not know too much about bands from the underground there, so maybe you could help us out with some important bands and so on....)
Jeff: Well if you are looking for other traditional heavy or power metal sounding bands, there really are not many. There is Heir Apparent and Nevermore of course. There are a few good bands that I like here but they are mostly black or extreme thrash metal. If you like those styles then I would recommend checking out In Memorium, Scorched Earth, and Inquinok. I will also mention Ara’kus, who is kind of hard to describe but they are sort of gothic heavy metal with some black metal elements.
Beyond that I have a very negative view of the metal scene here. There are lots and lots of bands that just plain suck. Nu-metal totally exploded in Seattle several years ago and now all the nu-metal bands are playing metalcore or are later-era Pantera rip-offs. There are still bands that sound like Slipknot, Korn, System of a Down, and whatever new trendy American band you can think of at the moment. People can call me “elitist” or whatever they want, but I hate that shit. One reason it took so long for us to get a full line-up is that there are very few musicians around here that listen to anything remotely resembling our style of music.
Walter: For sure it´s a bit to early for any future plans, but what do we have to expect next?
Jeff: Well, I think after the holidays we are going to try to do more live shows around the Pacific Northwest. We don’t really have the budget to tour much….we are really in the hole from the album right now since we financed everything ourselves. If we got invited to play somewhere we would be up for it as long as we could be covered for expenses and time off work. We will probably apply to some fests over in Europe for the ones that actually accept applications, and just see what happens. Other than that we will probably just start writing more songs and hopefully sales for Grimoire of Ruin will do well so that we can put out another album.
Walter: Are there any plans for live-activities to promote the album?
Jeff: I think most of our live activities will be more for ourselves to just get to play live. That is what we really love doing. I don’t think we can tour enough right now to have it be an effective means of promoting the album. For album promotion we have planned to buy some ad space on some high-traffic metal related websites and maybe some print magazines which should start around next January. We don’t have much of a budget for more than that right now. If you like our album, then spread the word! This is possibly the best thing that could help us right now.
