Интервю с NICK CORDLE (Arch Enemy)

Less than a month until meet again the Swedish extreme metallers Arch Enemy, this time in Sofia. Soon before the concert and before the official release of the band’s new long anticipated album, we find those enough reasons to talk to the guitarist Nick Cordle. read down what he said about the new line up, „War eternal“ and the war in which we fight every day:

Hey! First, thanks for your time! Please introduce yourself!

I’m Nick Cordle, guitar for Arch Enemy and I hang out in America, sharing out music and waiting for the tour to start!

What are you preparing for your future shows?

Well, the show in Sofia is actually going to be the first gig with the new singer Alissa White-Gluz and we’re all really excited about it. It’s been a long time since we had Arch Enemy gigs.
The last Arch Enemy shows were in South America in 2012.

Do you know if the new album will be available as merchandise on your show here – since it’s before the official release date?

I haven’t thought about that. I think probably not. I don’t know, we’ll see.

I cannot ask about the new line up. How does the band feels with Alissa?

It’s really good. It’s all part of energy right now. We had pretty much all the time we wanted to get the album together and to get the album really ready before we hat to record the things. It’s the first Arch Enemy album I’ve been on but I hear the guys saying that they never felt this good, they’ve never felt this prepared about the songs for very long time at least. So we actually got the recordings started and got to work it off very nicely, it was really nice experience! (:

And how do you accept the fans’ reactions so far?

Seems good. Seems like it’s been a lot of interest.

I heard that you recorded the vocals and the instruments in three different studios. Why?

Yeah, three different stuidos? That’s right. The drums were done in one place, the guitars and bass were done in another, the vocals were done in a third. We had to find the best place to work. We don’t really need a whole big studio with a ton of equipment..

And when you do most of the things by yourself – you’re an engineer, Michael is the producer, you write your own lyrics..

Yeah. So when we do guitars, bass and vocals we just basically need a room with some speakers in. We don’t need anything more that that. It’s nice to record that way because if I’m working on guitar solos and I really want to get something exactly right I can throw everybody out of the city and play the same thing 500 times until it’s that’s perfectly acceptable. And if you have a big studio and a producer and a bunch of engineers and everybody else in the room, that’s not very nice thing to do. So I really like working this way. I hope artists worked this way.

And do you feel satisfied with the final result?

Yes, I do. Just try to get a nice picture of where the band is musically at a given time. And I did that very well. Those are really good songs.

Which is your favourite track on „War eternal“ ?

Can I pick 5? 😀
We have one called „No more regrets“ that I believe it’s going to be a video for that. And we have one called „Down to nothing“ which is just a very intense extreme fast song. The very first song on the album is called „Never forgive, never forget’ – that one is probably the fastest Arch Enemy song ever, I think.
Which songs do you think have the best live potential?
I think there’s a lot of potential because it has some different kinds of songs on it. It’s a very diverse album.

We know that it is a long-time decision to change vocalists again. How did Angela chose Alissa?

Alissa’s been known for a very long time while working with The Agonist. The first conversation was about who she was looking at. She had the experience. I don’t know, she’s been around the world, she’s made album, she’s been recording and making albums longer than I have.
You wouldn’t want to throw somebody into the fire like this. We wanted to be someone who can handle it. Once we pulled her over, had some rehearsals and started working with her it was just a very easy set. It was a very careful, stressful decision at first but once we actually got to work, it sounds very good.

And when did it happen?

It happened in 2013.

And what did it take you so long to officially announce it? You wanted to be absolutely sure?

Everybody wanted to be before we show music.

Yeah, I think it was about a week before the video or so.

Yeah, yeah. We pretty much did the announcement as soon as we had the video ready. That was a very very nice week. A lot of stuff going.

Angela stated that she will remain as your manager. Does it mean that she will be with you on the tour?

No, she won’t be travelling with us. But she will handle the buisness basically the same way she’s been doing it for years now.

Back in 2012 you joined Arch Enemy. How did it all happen?

I got a very random phone call one day from Mike and Angela. I was still on tour with my previous band (Arsis) and they asked if I’d be interested. I didn’t really have to think very hard about that – of course I was!

.. And who wouldn’t be?!

Haha 😀 An opportunity to tour with a band I’ve been listening for very long time and is one of my favourites! We got together and it wasn’t really an audition, it was sort of  „Let’s hang out, play some music“, so I went with it. My first gig was in Tokyo, Japan.

Yeah, Arch Enemy has a lot with Japan!

Yeah, they are incredible! I’ve never been to Japan before that. It was a really great experience. I’m so excited to now going to have the same experience!

What about Bulgaria? Have you been here? Arch Enemy have been once here but it was in 2011 in Kavarna.

Yeah, I was thinking back about this. I think I played in Bulgaria one time, I think it was ona tour with Arsis in 2008 or 2009. I could be mistaken about this. That time period is very blur for me!

.. Everybody has their reasons! 😉 (Nick laughing)
Is there a song from Arch Enemy that you find a little bit more difficult?

Any of the new. There’s one of the new ones called „You will know my name“ that we’re gonna try to play live and right now I’m kinda struggling to figure out how it’s gonna work 😀 It is hard.

Would you say that life is an endless war? And what you should do and what qualities you should have to be called a ‘life-winner’?

I think that as a musician, as an artist we always try to find situations where our work would be judged on lyrics. It’s very hard to come by. So the war for us is keep our heads clear and keep our minds focused on our notes. And then get some kick ass heavy metal songs.
That’s the war for me.

And who are humanity’s biggest enemies then?

Itself, haha. 😀

Band’s 20th anniversary is in one or two years. Have you talked about planning something special?

No, we haven’t. I haven’t even thought about that.

Maybe a special tour or a re-recorded album?

We’ve done things like this before. We did with the 10th anniversary of “Wages of sin”, we played the entire album. Why not now focus on completely new music? But never say never! We can do it!

I know that “War eternal” isn’t even out yet, but are there any ready songs that you couldn’t put here but plan to do in future works?

Complete songs – no. But there are tons of ideas that for many reasons we didn’t use this time. Haha, we’re talking about a next album – we haven’t released this one yet, haha.

Is there any advice you’d like to give to the young guitarists who follow Arch Enemy?

Don’t listen to anyone else’s opinion about music! Use your own ears, make up your own minds. It’s just important to know where your own ears are taking you and not try to go where other people want you to go.

Do you follow modern metal scene? Do you have you favourites from 2013 and which recording do you look forward to in 2014? (Except Arch Enemy, haha 😀 )

Let’ see.. Favourites from 2013.. My former band Arsis released an album called “Unwelcome” . I was happy to hear the drummer Shawn Priest, with whom we toured many times, finally made an album – which was well-deserved. Stuff coming up.. I’m very excited to hear the new Misery Index – that’s a band from Baltimore, it’s a very extreme death metal. There’s such a lot of quality in the song writing that I really enjoy. And there’s a really young band going around that I’m looking forward to pretty much anything they do. I keep hearing very nice stuff about them.
I don’t know. I have a list somewhere. I have left it somewhere and have forgotten where. I’m always looking for new albums coming out, for new album streams and sometimes I hear things that surprise me. And that young band – they put a death metal cover of Repulsion song and I was quite interested to hear young kids from Baltimore doing that. So yes, I’m always paying attention.

What is that thing that makes Scandinavian music so special?

It’s been really good songwriting coming out of that scene over the last 20-25 years. But I think it’s really like any scene. And then there’s a lot of other people doing more things but not as quite as well as the lyrics. Probably there’s a lot of stuff that I’ve never heard because I live here in America. But if you listen to the very best albums from that scene from the 90s, you know, like ‘Slaughter of the soul’ (At the gates), ‘Left hand path’ by Entombed or something from the Norwegians Emperor, there’s just a real neat quality tip of songwriting. Nothing ever drags, nothing ever feels too long, it’s just incredibly exciting all the time. I think when an album has a completely awesome songwriting that’s what lasts for long time. It doesn’t matter how many Facebook friends they have, how many Twitter followers they have – people remember good songs.

Is there anything you’d like to say to your Bulgarian fans and to the readers of Metal Hangar 18?

We look forward to see you! We’re excited to show you the new line up in Sofia and we got quite a show prepared! I hope you’ll enjoy and I hope to see you there! (:

Oh, 25th will be a special night for sure! We have many student graduating here and will come to your show on the prom night. So if you see suit up long-haired men – don’t shock, this is not their usual concert dress up! 😀

Hahaha 😀 I will keep my eyes opened for the best costumes! 😀

Thank you very much! Can’t wait to see you this month!

Yep, 3 weeks! Thank you, was my pleasure! Have a nice evening!