DAY TURNS NIGHT

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANJA BLOM
WEBSITE: www.myspace.com/dayturnsnighttheband
COUNTRY: South Africa STYLE: Metal / Death Metal / Hardcore

YOU GUYS MANAGE THE BAND YOURSELVES, WHAT HAVE BEEN THE BIGGEST ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF DOING EVERYTHING THE INDEPENDENT WAY SO FAR?

When managing/doing everything yourself, you know shit gets done and you have the prerogative over how stuff turns out, but ... YOU WORK YOUR fuckin ASS OFF! We have in different situations, environments and different areas of technical expertise, tried to secure some personnel to alleviate the workload, but the balance between quality, cost and commitment is fickle and has left us unaided. We are however very proud to take our Dutch buddy Joop, as roadie, on tour with us this year!

IN THE FIRST HALF OF 2007 YOU RECORDED AND RELEASED YOUR FIRST EP, ANOTHER DAY IN HELL. IN WHAT WAYS WOULD YOU SAY THE BAND HAS “IMPROVED” MUSICALLY SINCE THEN?

We have definitely expanded on our musical 'palette'. More scales, chord progressions, drums, guitar and vocal techniques in our arsenal now. We have also written music above our capacity at the time, with the intention to better our playing in the process. And it has worked very well. We are still practicing relentlessly for the tour, but everything is starting to take shape.

YOUR FIRST FULL LENGTH ALBUM TITLED “FALLEN LEGACY” WILL BE OUT SOON, I GUESS WHAT MOST PEOPLE WOULD PROBABLY LIKE TO KNOW IS HOW SOON?

I'm not too sure when this interview will be published, but we have our first album launch on the 19th of June at Klein Libertas. We are looking to have it available to purchase online from that date as well. From there on we'll hit as many venues, clubs and shops as possible across the country to make this available to everyone that's interested in buying it. (Expect online updates on all this soon).

WOULD YOU SAY THE BAND WAS MORE CONFIDENT TO TRY “NEW THINGS” DURING THE WRITING PROCESS BUT CAREFUL NOT TO LOSE ALL THE ELEMENTS OF YOUR SOUND THAT LISTENERS OF YOUR MUSIC HAVE BECOME USE TO?

It seems these days you have pro- and anti- breakdown listeners/bands. Some genres rely on this in the majority of passages in their music, where others use it to 'break' from one feel/tempo to the next. How you use them, sometimes cleverly disguise their 'presence'. I think especially in the live scenario, we have been seen as one of the breakdown bands.

And sure, we have a couple of them (haha) but I think we've built on that quite a bit and have used them creatively during the album. Also, worth mentioning, the oldest song on the album, Two Coins, was still written by our very much missed, previous guitarist Izan. That song is already two years old. Whereas the newest song was written in February. So this album should showcase the progression in our music pretty accurately.

WHERE DID YOU GUYS RECORD THE ALBUM AND WHO PRODUCED; PLUS HOW MANY TRACKS DID YOU FINISH FOR THE ALBUM?

We set out, initially to record about 13 - 15 songs for the album, and then choosing 10 'best' or something of the sort. We started preproduction when we had about 9 songs. During this stage we started looking out for keywords or themes in the album, a collective idea rather. At the time we found the concept and title, 11 songs were written and we found we have lyrically included all the aspects around this ideology. We just needed to 'start' and 'end' the album properly.

So track 2 to 12 are full songs, where Track 1 kicks off the story and Track 13 is a instrumental ending. Are we supposed to say all that now? Haha. It was recorded at our rehearsal space that is also setup up as a studio and was produced by ourselves.

DID YOU EXPERIMENT WITH DIFFERENT INSTRUMENTS AND GUITAR TUNINGS AND HAVE YOU GUYS ADDED ANYTHING NEW TO YOUR “ARSENAL” RECENTLY?

We have blasphemed against the metal gods on this album. OH SHIT! Spare us ... (pleas in the background...) We have called on our friend from another playing field, Jaco König, to add some pads/synths, and effects on the album. One or two other surprises you will have to wait for as well. Also Sarge has started backing up Karel on some vocal passages. We are concerned his beard might get caught in the microphone live, so we might only introduce his vocal abilities publicly, gradually... We play in C#, quite uncommon if I'm not mistaken. And we've stuck with that for this record.

I MAY BE WRONG BUT I REMEMBER READING SOMETHING MENTIONING THAT THE ALBUM WAS MASTERED IN THE STATES, IF SO ARE YOU HAPPY WITH THE WAY THE SONGS HAVE TURNED OUT “SONICALLY”?

It has yes. Actually it was re-amped, drum-sampled, mixed and mastered there, by Zack Ohren, of Castle Ultimate Studios. Sometimes it seems like some bands keep hidden new recipes and formulas, which is definitely important in certain aspects, but we have been very transparent concerning most aspects of how we approached this album from start to finish. It's helped in the sense that we've gotten feedback from bands, that we respect and has been in this longer than us, and gave us very good advice. I think we may have in the process helped out other bands look beyond the tried, tested, but maybe not so effective ways as well. It just seems that if you applaud your friends and learn from them as each band pushes a new boundary we are all moving forward. For instance, we know Facing The Gallows are gonna release a music video soon that's gonna tear your faces off. And with the best natured-jealousy we're gonna stand in front of our tvs and headbang full blast to it when released. Hell yeah!

Back to the album, ... We are not making this State thing out to be the be all and end all to a good sounding album. Even though the sound is essentially created on Zak's side, every little thing we do here influences that HUGELY. The plectrum you use, the gauge, brand and age of strings, the velocity settings and the actually velocity the drums are recorded at. The vocal performance to a huge degree. So, as always, shit in... shit out... To answer your question, listening past irregularities accomplished musicians will notice, we are very happy with how it's turned out yes!

IMAGERY ALSO PLAYS A BIG ROLE IN RECORDING AND RELEASING AN ALBUM, DO YOU KNOW WHAT THE ALBUM COVER WILL LOOK LIKE WHAT THE ATMOSPHERE IS THAT YOU WOULD LIKE THE ART TO CREATE AROUND THE MUSIC?

We met up with our designer dude, Connie Myburgh, when we started tracking. We all swopped ideas and came up with a visual concept that fits the album. A lot of work went into this as well and we hope, reflects what we're trying to say.

Basically, the majority of lyrical topics on the album are universal scenarios through the history of mankind. So the artwork is a period piece. An era synonymous with issues addressed in the main theme of the album. The whole idea ties a lot with a song on the album called "The Order of the Orphans".

I SEE ON YOUR MYSPACE YOU ARE PLAYING GIGS ALL AROUND THE COUNTRY IN JULY. WHAT IS THE BEST PART OF PLAYING OUTSIDE OF CAPE TOWN EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE?

Home town crowds are weird man. Three weeks ago we played with Haste The Day and we were almost celebrified after the gig, kicked in the face by a rowdy crowd in front of us while playing kind of thing. The next week, we played another show at the same venue, played very good and this time round almost kicked the crowd in the face-type performance, but they were a lot quieter.

We actually kinda understand the logistics behind it, but yah, to answer your question; it's most rewarding to win over new fans. Especially in an area where you expected not to. But then returning to you home town crowd and having them still putting a stamp of approval on your performance is the cherry on top!

DO YOU GUYS GET SONG REQUESTS AT SHOWS ALLOT, IF SO HOW DO YOU BALANCE THAT WITH THE REHEARSED SET LIST?

Drifting off the topic for a moment ... I'm sure every organizer that has worked with metal bands in South Africa knows how much we can complain! The Monitors! The Backline! Bla bla bla. Actually our concerns are very valid. Sonic inconsistencies can be excused in a lot of genre's, not hindering the performance or even the sound for most other bands. But due to the pace at which metal is played, there is not really room for errors. Moreso with some genres of metal. I think our music, in environments where the sound is sometimes compromised (due to a lot of factors), the songs are not as 'recognized' as they should be.

The songs that have been recorded in some way or form are usually the ones people acknowledge more. Our set lists are usually quite in tune with this and as such requests don't come often. We hope with the release of the new album our fans get to know our songs better. With that said, the sound at gigs have improved A LOT in the recent year and we are very pleased with the people we are working with these days. (Hint hint, nudge nudge Sean).

FROM WHAT YOU HAVE SEEN, HOW MUCH SUPPORT DOES “HEAVY MUSIC” HAVE IN THE VARIOUS PARTS OF THE COUNTRY WHERE YOU HAVE PLAYED?

It's very hard to monitor as at least two areas in South Africa are quite divided. With different groups attending different venues, gigs with predominant genres, etc. Durban is a very welcoming crowd, PE and Bloemfontein go absolutely crazy, Cape Town is very dynamic and Joburg still seems to show the biggest support in numbers. We are very proud to be a South African Metal band!

WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF SOMEONE SHAVED OF THEUNIS 'SARGE' CILLIERS’S (GUITAR) BEARD WHILE HE WAS SLEEPING?

In the (somewhat altered) words of the Dead Will Tell "If dumb actions (words) could kill, you'd witness MUUR-DEEEER!!!"

ANY LAST COMMENTS/ADVISE OR PEOPLE YOU WOULD LIKE TO THANK?

To bands: WORK HARD, and if you think you do, work even harder! And think outside of the box and don't accept NO or IT CANT BE DONE as an answer.

And thanks: Richard, Tracy, Derek, Marcus, Connie, Jaco, all our friends and girlfriends that has put up with our shit for the last 5 months, everyone that contributes to a growing South African metal scene, and to you that have taken the time to read this and inspires us to do what we do. Metal greetings! \m/