Interview with the Greek gothic rock band W.E.B.

This month we would like to present you an extraordinary band from Greece, W.E.B., who combine hard guitar riffs with electronic beats to create a dark, modern and twisted new version of goth rock music. There is bombast and theatral majesty in their sound, which also translates into the visual presentation of the band.

We obviously are proud that the band chose our goth clothing for their stage apparel, and are happy to announce that 50 lucky customers (selected randomly) will be receiving a copy of the brand new EP “My Storm Upon You” as a gift with their order from our online shop. We also sat down with frontman Sakis to discuss the band and the newest release, check out the interview and hear what he’s got to say!

Hi Sakis, nice to have you here for a little chat. As of today, several lucky customers will find a little surprise in their parcels, your bands newest record. Maybe you could introduce the band in a few sentences, who are the men behind the music, and how did you find together?

Hello there! Nice of you to have us here in this special interview. We are very happy for the people that will get to know the band through something that has to do with our style and image. Let me introduce who we are though. We are W.E.B., a dark metal band hailing from Athens – Hellas (GR). For all of you that want to know what dark metal is… Imagine melodic black death metal with gothic elements, or something like that. The band was born back in 2002 and the line up now is: Sakis Darkface – guitars / vocals, Alan Fall – lead guitars, Alex G – bass, Nick Yngve – drums. We have released 2 full length albums and one EP so far and quite early in 2014 we will release the third full length album of ours.

Your band is named W.E.B. – is this a reference to the online world, has it to do with arachnids, or is it an acronym?

W.E.B. stands for Where Everything Begun and the meaning behind it is the exploration of the very darkened and deep corners of one’s self because this is the place that you can find the key of everything that has to do with one’s actions, decisions and general morals. This is where we can see Where Everything Begun.

Your newest release now, tell us more about the music.

Our latest release came out exactly one year ago for the 10 years of W.E.B. and carries the title “My Storm Upon You”. As a special release it has the role to bring about the history of the band so far through different perspectives. It has a new song (My Storm Upon You) and a medley cover for one of our favorite bands, Septic Flesh, and then you have four of our older songs but in different versions than the original ones (live rehearsal, acoustic, orchestral, industrial). I strongly believe it is a very interesting release even though I admit it is rather daring as well to get such different approaches in one release. People so far love it too though so we are happy.

How does it compare to your previous albums, “Don’t wake futility” and “Jesus Heist”?

Difficult question for me, probably I could reply on this better talking about a full length release. What we have here is a kind of a small anthology but if we just talk about the new material in it I would say it clearly states that the band is not resting and still evolving. We should get back on this matter with the upcoming full length album.

What influences shaped your creative efforts on this album? What inspires you?

Inspiration can come out of everywhere. Art is something so divine that you can find it anywhere around you and transform it into music, painting, sculpture, movie. “My Storm Upon You” in my eyes is an explosion of different influences and I promise you this is more than obvious from the very first time you will listen to it.

You have a classical musical education, including Music History, Film Music History and Composition Techniques – how does that influence your own music?

I believe it mostly affects me in terms of how demanding I am for myself and my band as well for others. It also has to do with the fact that you should know your art before you involve your own creativity in it. It helps you to respect it better and know what you do. I think everyone should first study what they do before they do it. Otherwise there will be big time major fails at some point.

You also have a long touring experience, and in your own words take every chance to jam with friends – how does the impact your music? Is the creative process a band effort, or are you the sole Mastermind?

You cannot leave yourself out of getting something different form each person you come across with. So when you get along with other musicians I think you are a fool or some kind of genius know-it-all man if you decide not to see what they do. You always find something new because everyone’s playing and composing is based on their different personality. Even if you decide that it is worthless it is something for me. Even Mozart never even thought of himself as a know-it-all. Sadly many musicians today think they are but I choose not to be one. After all many people keep reminding me that I know nothing like John Snow (laughs)!

Well, so far he is the luckiest of the Starks, so that might actually not be a bad thing! (laughs) Ok, you have your own recording studio – did you record the album there?

What are the advantages? It is mostly a home studio even though I have visited so called professional studios with less equipment hahahaha. So, yes some parts are recorded in my “Dark Fairy Studio”. Mostly the synths and the loops are recorded there. Also it is the place that all the preproduction and orchestral arrangements take place. We prefer to record in professional recording studios such as Devasoundz Studios and Basement Sound Studios. Seriously though having your own recording equipment helps a lot. You can have plenty of time for arrangement and preproduction so that your preparation for the actual recording turns out to be 100% perfect.

Your first job as guitarist was in a black metal band, and while the influence is still clear and present, there are also many orchestral and electronic elements. How would you describe your music?

Little is known about my first bands so I will just state it out quickly that I have been a member of several rock and heavy metal bands, and even some blues and acoustic projects, before I joined my previous melodic black metal band “Eternity”. So I think I am carrying an amalgamation of influences by almost everything I have done musically and I have got to the point that I have no idea what I’m doing exactly but I do what I feel like in the end. It is as simple as that.

Your band has a strong visual element, both in promo photos and video clips – how important are visuals and appearance to your band?

Visuals are as important as the music to us. We stand for giving to the people a performance and an atmosphere. We want our music to be like a theatrical play. So when you see a video of the band or watch us in concert you will get something more than just music. This involves of course the clothes and the image of the band.

Many musicians resent the self-presentation part that comes with being in a band and doing promo – how about you?

Oh no, not us. We love it. We enjoy it very much actually. It is getting us into the part that represents the other side of our personalities.

Your latest promo material features a lot of gothic clothing from The Black Angel shop – how do you select which items to get, what are your criteria?

It just has to do with the aesthetics that we have for the band but they also have to be comfortable to wear on stage. So we have to be quite careful in what we choose. We are happy that Black Angel clothing can provide us both with badass looks and comfortable stage performance.

Your music is clearly rooted in metal, your outfits are gothic – what is it you like in goth aesthetics?

It is what W.E.B. are all about. You can’t really say if we are a heavy metal band or black metal or gothic. The answer is we have all of it in here. Gothic is the expression of the dark side of things for us and same goes for black metal. There you have it.

Traditionally the gothic and metal scene are a bit antagonistic, but more and more bands are drawing creative inspiration from both scenes – what is your personal experience and opinion about this?

Personally I never got myself into antagonistic perspectives. I applaud the bands that do something good and the exact opposite goes for the bands that are doing something bad.

What are the next steps for W.E.B.? When can we expect to see you live and on tour?

We are preparing to release our new full length album in the first months of 2014 and we will soon come out with a release date for it so watch out. After that we will book possibly a couple of tours. What we officially have right now are two concerts in Greece with Dark Tranquility on April 2014 in Athens and Thessaloniki. We cannot wait to hit the road again and share our music with the audience. Nothing better than that for W.E.B.

A few words for our customers?

I wish you all enjoy our latest release “My Storm Upon You” that you will receive as a gift with your orders by Black Angel and let me tell you that the first thing I noticed about the Black Angel clothes is the quality of the work in all aspects. You will be pleased with their clothes and we wish you will enjoy our music. STAY DARK

Official site: http://webdarkmetal.com/

FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/webdarkness

REVERBNATION http://www.reverbnation.com/whereeverythingbegun

YOUTUBE http://www.youtube.com/WEBbandOfficial

TWITTER http://twitter.com/#!/webdarkmetal

MYSPACE http://www.myspace.com/webdarkness