"Americans are lemmings, have horrible taste in music and need to be told what to listen to." - Read the full interview with Dustin Mitchell from KATAGORY V now (read the german version @
www.rockpromotion.net):
JP: Hi Dustin, what is KATAGORY V doing these days? - How is work on the new album coming along? Can you please tell us something about it: What is it called? What's the main theme around and when will it be available?
DM: Hi Jens! Right now, KATAGORY V is just starting to record our new album, tentivly titled "The Rising Anger". At this time, we are starting to track the drums, and have brought in this really cool and talented guy named Mike...last name eludes me right now...to help us record the album and handle the engineering as well as some of the production duties. This is the first time we have had someone outside of the band work with us on an album, so it should be interesting. Although we've just started, it's working out well so far. We are hoping to have the album wrapped up by Christmas and start shopping it around.
The main theme of the album lyricly is mainly centered around our band, our fans and the music industry. There are some songs that are more personal in nature, but a majority of the album is about our fans, and some of the experiances our band has had in the buisness. The music on this album will be what one would expect from ous, only this time around, it will be less technical than our last album, "A New Breed Of Rebellion", and more song-oreinted, much like our first album "Present Day". Right now, we are not exactly sure when it will be released, but we are shooting for early 2005... Since we are in between lables, it's hard to tell, but we want to get this one out very soon, that's why we've been off the radar for the past year, we've been working very, very hard on this new album and want to make sure it's done right and has a proper release.
JP: By the way...what's the background behind the band's name KATAGORY V?
DM: (laughs) Well...believe it or not, we get asked that a lot! Honestly, there is absolutely no meaning behind it, it's just a name we come up with because no one in the band - at the time we formed - could agree on anything. It was orignally going to be Category 5, like the size of a large storm, but there are already a hundred bands with that name, so we changed the spelling, just to be silly
and everyone thought is was cool, so we went with it!
JP: You have recorded a Running Wild cover-song for a possible release on the TRIBUTE TO RUNNING WILD album coming soon. But unfortunately your song wasn't chosen... Are you going to add that song now on your own, maybe as a bonus-track to your upcoming release?
DM: Yes, we did in fact record a song for the tribute album, "Bad To The Bone". It's one of our favortie songs by Running Wild, and is off of one of their classic albums, Death or Glory! It was a lot of fun, and an honor to do our version of a song from one of the legends of metal.
We were a bit disappointed it didn't make the tribute album, as we understand that many metal fans enjoyed our version very much. However, it was the politics involed with the label that was planning to release it, and it could not be helped, it was just how things went. We are not sure if we will release this song on our new album right now, but if we do, it will probably be because we gained a licencing agreement in another teritorry like Japan and we will need one more song as a bonus track. Personally, I would love to have that song released on one of our albums, it's a excellent song done with class and character while still keeping to the original vibe.
JP: You have a new guitarist (again). Please introduce him, what's his background? Why have you especially chosen him to be the new member of KATAGORY V?
DM: His name is Mark Hanson, but we call him "Lo-Lo"
it's kind of an inside joke. (laughs) He actually was supposed to make the audtions for the slot that Tevor got (guitarist on " A New Breed") when we lost Ryan Taylor (guitarist on "Present Day") back in 2002. Unfortuantly Mark couldn't make it due to his personal schedual at the time, however, when Trevor was let go from the band after the release of "A New Breed
" in January of 2004, I called Mark up, and told him we were looking for another guitarist again. I knew he was a great guitarist and have known him for several yearst so we just had to bring him down so the rest of the band could hear him play. After the first night, he was in.
He's a very, very skilled guitarist, and is much more familiar with the genre of metal we play, so it was very easy for him to fit in, and are thrilled to have him in KATAGORY V. He has defaintly added a lot to the band, especailly in the song wrting department. Mark is more melodic in his playing style and likes hooks, so again, he has brought some new ideas and creativity to the band which will be very apperant on this new album.
JP: Your first album PRESENT DAY was a huge success, especially within the German Underground-Scene, while your second album A NEW BREED OF REBELLION could not reach this success despite many good reviews. What are the reasons for this behaviour in your opinion? Can you explain the main differences between PRESENT DAY and A NEW BREED OF REBELLION?
DM: I think the main problem was that even though "A New Breed
" had some favorable reviews, such as in Rock Hard or in Heavy Oder Was over in your territory, there were not many other reviews besides those. The label that released the album did very little promotion on it in both the European territories and in the U.S., so most of the reviews you might see about the album were ones that magazine scribes actually had to purchase themselves, or were given copies from the band or distributors because they never got promo copies sent to them from the record label. This has left a bad taste in our mouth, and we are surprised we have sold as many copies as we did! If more people knew this album had been released, I think we might have sold more copies and it would have done much better than our firstr album, in fact, I still get contacted to this very day from fans wanting to know if "A New Breed
" has been released yet and where they can buy it. It's very disapointing that is was handled very poorly, because it is really a great album. Not to mention, it was slated to be released in the late summer of 2003, before we played the pre-party for the Progpower festival, but was delayed for six months
. It was very frustrating because we had no control over anything that was happening. Now we are moving past all of this, and working to gain our fanbase back with this new album we are starting to record right now.
The main diffrence between "Present Day" and "A New Breed
" is some of the song writing. "Present Day" was a much more straight ahead metal album, in the classic U.S. power metal style, but "A New Breed
" had a bit more progressive songs, was mcuh darker, and was much more technical in some areas. Because it was pretty much a concept album, It is not an album that you can listen to just once or twice and fall in love with it quickly like 'Present Day" was, it takes patience to hear the method to our madness, and makes more sense when reading the lyrics. Again, It is a great album, with some very excellent songs, and and can be very rewarding if given a chance, but they are two very different sounding recordings.
JP: What do you think might be the biggest difference between the
Metal-Scene in the USA and in Europe?
DM: The European metal scene seems very close-knit, and the metal fans, bands and lables over there in Europe never gave up on metal, much like the Americans did. I think this is one of the main diffrences. Most american metal fans didn't know how to get there music or if metal was still alive because the market here is saturated and homogonized with corporate rock and other falvor-of-the-week rock/metal acts, and it is being force-fed to them on a daily basis The mentality of most Americans is this: if it's not no MTV or the Radio, it isn't worth listening to. So, they have to have someone tell them what is good, and what is bad. It's very depressing.
I know that the European metal fans say metal is not that popular in their particular country, but I beg to differ. There are so many metal festivals over there comapred to the U.S., and so many fans that still love true metal that it's hard to believe this kind of statement. Americans seem to think their shit doesn't stink, but it really does! (laughs) I know it sounds bad hearing it from me, who is an American, but it's true, Americans are lemmings, have horrible taste in music and need to be told what to listen to. There are only a few that are actually independent enough to think for themselves and like metal because the flame never died for them, and they are driven to listen to it because they still love it, not because someone tells them they have to. These are usually the metal fans that organize the metal festivals over here and the people that attend
all these metal fans and promoters are the real true metal fans in America. They are the ones that keep it alive regardless of the corproate giants grasp on what's popular here.
European metal fans should be proud they have such a strong support of metal, they are much more forutnate than those of us in the states.
JP: Do you consider to come over to Germany's WACKEN OPEN AIR next year to promote your new album?
DM: Absolutly!!!! Although, Wacken is such a large festival, and is world famous, so it is hard to believe KATAGORY V would ever play it, but if the promoters of W.O.A. allow us to play this festival next year, I can garuntee you that we will do in in a heart beat! The one thing this would do, is allow us to perform live for our many of our German fans, who have been wanting us to come over to Germany for a very long time. This would be a dream come true for us! It is still too early to say, since we haven't been offered a slot yet, So
we certainly hope it works out when the time comes. Either way, we would love nothing more than to play in Germany!
JP: People often tend to say that Metal in general is dead. What do you think about it?
DM: No, metal is not dead
it is still very much alive, it is just in the underground waiting to arise again! Sure, it is not on the radio or on MTV like it used to be long ago, but I believe that if you love true heavy metal, and still have that fire burining in your heart for it, then it will never ever die. As long as there are metal fans who support bands that play metal, go to their shows, and buy their albums and play it loud, then it will always live on.
JP: What's your dream and your wish for the future of KATAGORY V?
DM: We would like to see Katagory V do well like many of the metal bands we grew up listening to of course. For us, being able to play some of the large metal festivals with the bands we admire and listen to, tour with them, as well as create music that people love; that would be our ultimate dream and goal for our band. Katagory V plays metal because we are metal fans ourselves, and it is just our way to share our music with others who are just like us. As long as there are metal fans that support us, and we grow together, we will hopefully get closer to achieving this dream.
...Thanks again, Dustin
and I hope everybody enjoyed reading it.
Stay Wild!
