TERMINUS
Interview with Drummer David Gillespie
Hi David! Have the red shirts been completely sold out at UP THE HAMMERS – Festival in Athens or are there any left? Mine is still in good shape …
Yes, the red shirts have long since sold out as there was only a very limited number of them. There are new designs based on the album artwork that are available from the band directly or from Horror Records.
How were your experiences at the Festival in Greece?
It was very enjoyable, we saw a lot of cool bands – Wrathblade and Battle Ram were particularly good.
Which cool gigs did you play since these days in march?
Aside from a few local shows we have played Metal Magic festival in Denmark and No Compromise festival in Belgium. Both were great shows were we received an enthusiastic response from the crowd and we will remember the experiences for a long time.
How do you judge the last two years since the release of the demo?
It was a productive time – our performance as a band has improved beyond all recognition in that time and we managed to complete writing of an album we are very happy with.
In the metal-underground you are already established, what are your plans to get further known?
We intend to continue playing shows and making music at our own pace and following our own agenda. The way the band works at the minute affords us the ability to play whatever shows we are offered and want to play and also complete control over when and how we write music. We don’t want some label telling us we have to go on a tour or that we have to produce an album with 50 minutes of music at a minimum.
Does the feedback to the first album match with your expectations?
Feedback has been universally positive up to this point, but the opinions are exactly as we expected – ie. this album is not for everyone, but most people who like it will really like it.
A remarkable number of demo-songs have made it on the album. Didn’t you have enough time to write more new stuff?
Since we were in control of the process we had as much time as we wanted. We like the old songs and we thought they should be re-recorded in better versions for the album and, as far as we are concerned, the end results speak for themselves. Remember, we are talking about a Cassette demo and a Vinyl split that were limited to 100 and 300 copies each, although obviously the demo was re-released on CD but it was clearly identified as still being a demo. It’s not as if the whole world is full of people who know “The Encyclopedists” inside and out. As a band we are accountable to no-one but ourselves – we wanted to re-record the old songs so we did it. If anyone has a problem with that, tough shit; they didn’t put in the hours in the rehearsal room and in recording that we did.
Who is responsible for the songwriting and who writes the lyrics?
I have been chiefly responsible for the songwriting within the band so far and the lyrics have been written by myself & James.
Which metal-band would you consider as Northern Ireland’s most popular at the moment?
I wouldn’t know how to quantify “popular”, nor would we particularly care. As with any scene, most of the bands from here aren’t very good.
Your album has been released on CD, vinyl and tape. Which medium do you prefer personally?
Personally I prefer Vinyl but everyone in the band is different. Tapes are OK, but they don’t hold the same aesthetic value as Vinyl.
How do you see the current hype about vinyl? The big companies republish almost their entire catalog …
We hope the vinyl market crashes and that all the posers decide to sell off their collections for very little money. We look forward to a return to the heady days of the early 2000s when we were paying £3 to £5 for a copy of Razor’s “Evil Invaders”, not £15 to £20.
How many new material have you written already?
We’re working on that at the minute around our live activities.
Thanks, David! KIT 2016 will come soon …
