Emotional Arsonist - Interview

Below is an email interview with Emotional Arsonist. All interviews are published unedited.

• How are the plans for your album and live gigs coming along?
  

The album is coming along, steadily, but not as fast as I would have liked. I need to lay down about three more tracks, and then I have vocals and backing vocals to do and final production touches. I have someone lined up to help me with the final mix down so I am hoping it is ready to send for mastering by the end of September or start of October at the latest.

I am still piecing the band together at the moment and I have a guitarist (Arek) and bass player (Wraith) working on learning the songs. We are still searching for the right drummer, but I am confident it will happen when the time is right and we are ready. I am eager to get the songs out into the live arena, but it will probably be closer to the end of the year before we play our first gig.

• How would you describe your music and where do you think you fit in with the rest of the music world?
  

I don’t think it fits in with anything else currently happening if I am honest. I mean, it isn’t out and out goth, but has strong elements of goth; it isn’t metal, but again, there are elements there; there are rock influences, celtic influences, classical influences, industrial influences: it crosses a lot of genres. I think it draws on all of these, in particular the darker elements.

The blurb being used at the moment is “Imagine David Bowie and Marilyn Manson collaborating in a graveyard, around midnight, in an old-school goth style”. I’m not sure if that captures the full spirit of it but it will do for now. In one word, it is”Dark”: if anyone likes their music dark, check out Emotional Arsonist.

• If you could have anything what would be on the top of your wish list?
  

Other than worldwide fame & riches you mean (smile)? I already have a beautiful wife and two great kids, so, that only leaves making music for a living (and earning worldwide fame & riches doing it).

• Where do you find the inspiration for your lyrics or aren't they that important to you?
  

The lyrics are as important to me as the music. They are part of the whole ensemble. The inspiration? It comes from a lot of places, although most of it from introspection on personal circumstances and where I am spiritually and emotionally. Writers inspire me a lot, as do films. The kind of stuff that challenges me to re-think who I am and what I do. Writers like Hesse, Huxley, Philip K Dick & Nietzsche, and films like Fight Club, Dead Poet’s Society, The Matrix, & many, many more.

These influences resonate with me on a number of levels, and change the way I think. When I write lyrics I think I am writing sometimes on a sub-conscious level, because I have written lyrics that only make full sense to me years later. Writing lyrics for me is cathartic, spiritual, and it is my own personal therapy where I am both therapist and patient. There is some social commentary, but most of the stuff I am writing over the last year or so is personal reflection.

• What track are you most proud of?
  

honestly and truthfully can’t pick one. I am proud of all of them for differing reasons. ‘Scar Twisted Metal’ for being very different(and for its weird timing); ‘Substance D’ for it’s simplicity; ‘The Greatest Trick…’ for it’s structure; ‘Bleed…’ for it’s intensity; and so on and so on. Each track captures a moment in time for me - a snapshot - and each challenged me in a different way.

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