Hails David! How are things going in Ontario these days?
Hey hey! Things aren’t too bad. It’s always pretty cold out here during the winter though. We deal with a lot of snow and ice. Especially in northern Ontario.
I guess we should start with a bio, so Greek fans will be able to learn some details about you. What do you think?
Sure! My journey really began when I was 7 years old and discovered Black Sabbath thanks to my dads record collection. They completely blew my mind and made me want to become a professional musician. My uncle was a professional drummer in the 80’s and 90’s and he along with some of my other musician relatives also inspired me to pursue a career in music. I started off on drums when I was 8 and eventually started teaching myself to sing and play guitar. I later incorporated bass and keyboards as well. I’ve always been obsessed with music and could never get enough. Music has always been my whole life. My best friend Jay and I went on to form 13 bands together haha. Each time developing our skills and growing as artists. After our last band ended I decided to go solo and became more of a recording artist. After nearly two decades of working on my skills and searching for my sound I eventually began working on material for what would become Immortalizer!
Born for Metal is a strong heavy metal album! And it’s a bit difficult to imagine that only one man is responsible for everything regarding this! We are used to groups in this kind of music. As a fan, how did you decide to do this alone? Have you ever attempted to be on a group? When you decided to form Immortalizer, you already knew that you wanted to do this by yourself?
Thank you so much! That really means a lot! It took over 25 years to develop my various skills with each instrument and by the time I started my solo career I had a pretty solid idea of what I wanted Immortalizer to be. A mix of unfortunate circumstances lead to me moving forward alone, but by the time I found my sound I was eager to start recording my songs. It was a tremendous amount of work doing it alone, but by then I had a pretty good foundation with each instrument, which helped a lot.
Over the years I started developing the ability to image the full production in my mind as I was write songs. I like to start by writing guitar riffs and vocal melodies but I start to hear what the drums, bass and keyboards could do as well. I like to call it multi-layer song writing. I’ve always wanted Immortalizer to become a full touring band, but I also thought it would be an interesting challenge to do such a big production on my own.
What about the production? Have you taken it over too? Where did you make the recordings?
I was the producer on the album as well. I recorded the entire album in my home studio (Immortalizer Studio). Ralf Scheepers however deserves incredibly high praise for transforming my home recordings into polished full productions. His talents mixing and mastering and as an engineer are absolutely amazing! (On top of being one of the greatest Metal singers out there in my opinion). He’s truly a Metal wizard!
Ralf Scheepers has made some vocals in one of the songs. You had with him some vocal lessons too, am I right? How this contact was made? What do you think of Primal Fear?
He did! Ralf sings some of the choruses with me on “We Were Born For Metal”! A few years ago I reached out to him for help further developing my vocal abilities. I’m a huge fan of his and absolutely love Primal Fear! (They are incredibly underrated in my opinion). They’ve been a huge influence on me since I was young. Ralf was a huge inspiration during the making of “Born for Metal” as well! I can’t describe how amazing it is to have one of my heroes featured on my debut album with Immortalizer. It’s a huge honour. Developing a friendship with Ralf over the years has also been indescribably rewarding. I owe him so much!
If you had the opportunity to have one more guest vocalist in your album who would it be and in which song?
That’s a very good question. One dream pick would have been Ozzy because he’s been so instrumental on my journey to Metal since childhood. For the song I’d say “The Fallen”. His vocals would have been so incredible on that song!
Any details on the lyrics? What do you like to sing for?
I tried to keep “Born for Metal” as versatile as possible lyric wise when I was putting the track list together. I like to cover themes like my reflections on the modern world and the state of things like in songs like “Out In The Streets” and “Gone To Hell”. As well as songs about Metal like “We Were Born For Metal” and “Cut Loose”. I try not to follow any formula though, so I’ll write lyrics about fantasy, mythology or fiction like on “The Immortalizer”. I like to let the inspiration flow from anywhere and try to make each song as good as I possibly can. I think good lyrics are incredibly important so I work very hard on them.
When I visited your web-site, I found out that you have established your own label, Brain Lab Records, to handle your own releases. Why that? Lack of confidence in music industry? Or just the will to control everything regarding your music?
It’s a bit of both. I’ve heard a lot of horror stories. Brain Lab Records was originally intended to be a somewhat semi-permanent situation, but being able to control the integrity of my work is quite comforting. In the end the music is what’s most important to me. I have heard of some amazing labels though, so I think it really depends. I’m certainly open to joining up with another label.
You’re having this interview for a Greek webzine, rockallica.com. What do you know of Greece? Any Greek metal bands you have ever listened?
I’ve been fascinated by Greek mythology since I was a kid. I even named the band mascot “Deimos” after the Greek God of dread! I’ve never had the pleasure of visiting but I’m hoping to change that very soon! I also have a lot of love for Greece because it has one of my biggest fan bases! Plus my promotion company (Angels PR)!
I greatly admire Gus G. He’s an amazing artist. There’s a lot of great Metal bands in Greece!
Thanks a lot David! Good luck with Immortalizer! We Were Born For Metal!!!
Thank you so very much, that really means a lot! Stay Metal!!
Cheers!!
Dave D.R.
https://www.facebook.com/ImmortalizerBand
https://www.instagram.com/immortalizerofficial/
IMMORTALIZER – We Were Born For Metal feat. Ralf Scheepers (Official Music Video)
IMMORTALIZER – Cut Loose (Official Video)
IMMORTALIZER – Gone To Hell (Official Video)
IMMORTALIZER – I’m Gone (Official Video)
IMMORTALIZER: Lemmy (Official Music Video)
