Although I’d ideally love to be able to conduct hard-hitting, in-depth interviews, who has the time these days? In lieu of this, I’ve thrown together the below question template, hopefully to gather some interesting and informative results, without taking up too much of anyone’s time.
Introduce yourself – who are you and what do you do?
I’m Paul Visser – the guitarist and main vocalist of Black Orchid Empire.
Tell us about your latest release and why people should listen to your music
Our brand new fourth album is called Tempus Veritas – it’s a selection of fictional stories set in specific moments of what we all call history. For me it represents our most focused and refined work yet, and solidifies our sound as straddling the edge between the heavy and the beautiful.
What’s the most important thing to you about your music? What meaning does it give you and what purpose does it serve in your life?
For me personally music has never been a choice. It’s something I’m hopelessly, passionately addicted to and I’m certain that I’ll be doing something musical till the day I die. I’m sure it feels the same way for Billy and Dave. Our own records give us the opportunity to obsess over every detail, and to craft the songs the exact way we envision, simply to entertain ourselves. The hope that other people will resonate with it is secondary, but it’s still extremely gratifying when they do.
Tell us a lesser-known interesting or funny anecdote about your band or music
We once made a nearly six hour drive to the Eurotunnel in under five hours on no sleep after an extremely messy night in Wiesbaden. It’s probably best not to tell the German police. Although the Autobahn helped…
Finally, what are you listening to at the moment that you especially enjoy and wish more people knew about?
The new Periphery is great! So is the newest Sleep Token stuff. They’re both bands we would absolutely love to tour with. Plenty of people know them already though!
Wonderbox Metal 