DRAGONLAND were one of the most anticipated bands on the bill at this year’s edition of POWER METAL QUEST FEST and with good reason. Their selection of self-made albums sounds more like epic film scores than your run-of-the-mill power metal.
Before their big set at The Asylum, Rock Out Stand Out’s Megan Taylor got to sit down with the band and shared with us what it was like to self-produce their music compared to working with a producer, the creative process they take when recording new music and who they were looking forward to seeing the most at the all-day festival.
First question, you guys have quite a lot of albums in your back catalogue and I’m just wondering, given what the shape of power metal is like today, how do you think your sound and style have evolved since all the way back in 1999?
Alias: Well I’d say if you look at our last album, The Power of the Night Star, that was really symphonic and almost like a movie score with lots of layered elements and that one was a little more sci-fi. So sometimes it’s sci-fi sometimes it’s fantasy depending on the creative direction but I think we stick true to our routes I don’t listen to power metal much anyway so I’m not really affected.
One thing that’s really cool about you guys is that you’ve self-produced a lot of your work so how would you say that’s impacted and shaped your career obviously, lots of bands go on record labels and then that can really dictate the band’s sound but how has not collaborated with a producer helped to establish your sound early on?
Alias: Yeah you’re right we’ve not really worked with a producer very much. It’s just natural for us, we’ve always been producing and making songs and what we compose is what we end up with. Nowadays we have, it’s not really a producer but it’s just someone mixing our music.
Is it just a creative thing because I know as a creative it can be so hard to have someone dictate your style?
Alias: Yeah that will never really happen to us. I think we would leave before we would let that happen.
Jonas: Yeah I don’t think we’ve ever had anyone, maybe some people back in the day but not now.
Jesse: Yeah we kind of just do our our own thing.
Cool, and one of the main things I want to know is that one of the reasons why I feel like I, and a lot of people, love power metal, is because it’s so rooted in fantasy and as you said you guys are influenced by sci-fi so in terms of any media such as books and tv impacted your style and how you choose to tell stories.
Jonas: Well when I wrote the lyrics in the beginning I was always influenced by fantasy books such as Tolkien, but now for the latest album we decided to do the more science fiction theme I just had to come up with something. I mean I don’t think I had any real influence, maybe Star Wars?
Obviously, we’ve spoken about your influences and your approach to storytelling but one thing I wanted to ask about today is standing here today, you guys have quite a long and impressive career, so what were some career highlights that you wanted to share?
Jesse: It’s probably a lot of different shows that we’ve done in the past like going to Japan. That’s a really awesome thing for a small band to do, you know, stuff like that. Also playing the Hammersmith Apollo in London. We had the opportunity and that was really great and now I’m like, I’ve done it all. I think for all of us three it’s different things.
Jonas: Yeah I would say the Hammersmith gig is a highlight for me. Getting to open for Yngwie Malmsteen is something that I thought would never happen.
Alias: Yeah we got a letter about three days before the show like can you guys do the show we were like yeah we can’t say no even though it was really stressful. But yeah that was really great opening for Malmsteen and playing in front of a sitting audience on a huge stage was really nice. Obviously as well, all albums it’s really satisfying when you complete them.
For this last album, it took many years and when it was finished finally after a really long mixing period we were really happy and we were like *sighs* because it really did take quite a lot of effort. Especially when I finally reach the stage when now can’t change it anymore, I’m just like yep no it’s done. That’s it.
Jesse: Yeah and I think the production process was really easy this time around as we weren’t under a lot of pressure so the process was easy, at least for me.
Jonas: Yeah it was for me as well, the easiest process of all our albums that we could take our time and do it in our own studio and everything it was really good.
Another thing I wanted to touch on was that a big part of our message is talking a lot about mental health and obviously with the pandemic it impacted a lot of artists as they weren’t able to tour, that’s obviously a big part of being a professional artist. In terms of mental health and being able to sustain such an impressive career, how would you look after your mental health both when you’re on tour and when you’re writing music?
Alias: For the writing process it can be a bit, especially when you start with a blank sheet it can be a little terrifying so that process can be scary sometimes. But it’s just like nowadays I know this feeling and eventually something will come out. As you said, over Covid we’re not a band that plays a lot of long tours and we’ve never been grinding on long tours so I can’t really comment on that part.
Is that on purpose or has it just worked out that way?
Alias: No it just worked out that way. Plus, everyone has families and things which makes it difficult to tour consistently.
Jonas: I’ve always answered that question and I always say that we’re one of the world’s laziest bands.
Jesse: And I think when we came home from that Japan tour that was a wake-up call for us as a band and we just didn’t have the energy after that.
Another question that I wanted to ask was one of your biggest songs on Spotify is Neverending Story which has seen a resurgence thanks to Stranger Things. Do you guys enjoy recording covers and would you consider recording any more covers in the future?
Alias: We normally try to do some cover, especially for the Japan release. So we normally try and do fun stuff like that.
Jesse: Yeah we always try and do the power metal version.
Jonas: The power metal (ish) version.
The last question that I ask is are you guys going to be sticking around today and is there anyone you’re particularly looking forward to seeing?
Alias: I think I’d like to see Dynazty actually. I’ve never actually seen them I mean obviously they’ve been around quite a long time and I’ve listened to them a lot so that would be really cool to see.
Jonas: Yeah same for me here, I love Dynazty.
Thank you for sitting down and talking to Rock Out Stand Out at Power Metal Quest Fest.
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