Iron Mask changed vocalist again. Why did Mark Boals leave the band and how did you find new voice?
We do 2 albums each times with the same singer, that’s our average in
the length of our carrer, but this is not necessary by our own choice,
some guys were very difficult to work with, Mark was a real nice and
talented guy, but he chose to get a daily job in Las Vegas, he get
married and a new baby, so I can understand he preffers to stay in USA
for a while; I wasn’t ready to wait and wanted to make a new Iron Mask
album so we decided to change vocalist coz we need a regular and real
band member who always can come to Europe and play gigs with us. We
decided after many auditions and checkings, to work with Diego Valdez
coz he’s for me one of the best metal singer nowadays.
Your previous vocalist is „the brand” at melodic metal scene. Did you consider to look for some known names as well?
We don’t need someone famous, we need someone GREAT, that’s very
different! Mark was a good singer but for me Diego brings much more
variations in his way to sing, and he ‘s really not less good than Mark
🙂
Didn’t you ever have temptation to „borrow vocalist” from your other band?
No way, in MK and IM must be different guys or people will get confused too much haha
You created video for opening track from the new album. Why did you pick it as first single?
We wanted a very fast song this time and together with AFM we picked
that song , it’s the fastest on the album and we all love it very much!
How do you consider computer grafics in creating clips? Is it much more simple nowadays for bands to make a video?
We usualy don’t use too much computer and prefer to shoot real setups
and real stuff, but this time I wanted a real fast train from hell and
us playing on the top of it’s roof so that’s pretty impossible to make
for real hahaha; we love this new video, but in a few months when Diego
has moved to Europe we will do again another real video clip!
Didn’t you consider to make also lyric-video? It’s so common way of promotion nowadays…
We did in the past and it’s usually our label who take care of it , we’ll make more in the future 😉
I really do love your new cover artwork. Iron Mask usually did strong covers.
Is graphic important piece of the album for you, do you like when every song has different artwork?
Yeah that’s important to get a good visual impact in stores, it helps
sales and it helps to get more fans, I always decide about what will be
on the front cover one year before the release, so we get lot of time
to work with the artist and make something perfect, for example for the
next Iron Mask album in 2018 I already send my idea and what to draw to
Stan, the title is already decided as well, so work has already started
🙂
I’ve noticed, there’s a lot of „devils” in your lyrics 😉
Diabolica, Dr. Faust, March 666, The Rebellion of Lucifer, Cursed in the Devil’s Mill.
Didn’t you afraid some will call your music satanistic? (laughter)
That’s the reason this album is called DIABOLICA, no im ot satanist, but
I wanted to point the evil in humans and in stories related to the
devil this time, lot of songs talks bout actual problems as well, as the
terrorsim and the evil that a simple brain washed human can do, that’s
the worse someone can do and it’s really pisses me off to see the
evoluion of our societes, of our humanity, it’s like dark ages are
slowly coming back…
Any touring plans for new year?
We do our best as always, finding gigs in the whole europe; we get some
festivals and club gigs confrimed, just check our facebook pages and
website for upcoming updates 🙂
How did you enjoy your last concerts in Poland?
Real nice audience, and great fans, I loved Poland!
I enjoyed when Diego sung Iron Mask’s old tunes. I think it’s worth recording… So, are there any plans for recording live album?
We’ll see in the future, hehe why not, all depends AFM bout this sort of things. 🙂
If the label would ask you to pick tracks for IRON MASK „best of” compilation, which new tracks would you choose?
Oh that’s very difficult question , I THINK we’ll pick the one we play
live, we play songs from each albums, but we have too many, 6 albums is
hard to choose from 🙂
When you start writing new material, do you assume from the
beginning, this gonna be Iron Mask (or Magic Kingdom) song? Or mabye you
take decision when the track is ready?
Yes, that’s correct, I always write for the specific band in mind, I
never just write then decide, I do a MK album then I just write for MK,
when I start a new IM album then it would be only Iron Mask songs
Did you play any Magic Kingdom’s songs at Iron Mask’s concert? (or in invert situation). Mabye fans would love to hear some?
Sometimes I play black „Magic Castle” in a Iron Mask concert , its an
instrumental song and this way the singer can rest a bit hahah
BTW, do you writing any new material at the moment?
What are your near future plans?
I’m always in a writing mode, I already get new stuff for both bands,
but I’m very busy with the new house renovating and new studio building,
so my plans are a bit posptoned but everything will come in order in
few months and we’ll get a brand new IM album but also brand new MK
album right after that!
Thanks for your time, and I wish you all the best (and Merry Christmas as well).
Thank you so much and sorry bout the delay! Soooooo busy 🙂
Interviewer: Piotr Spyra
