A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of meeting Lynd and Blackwald from Twilight Force for a chat before their show in Glasgow with Sabaton. The two lovely and funny characters shed a bit of light on the magic behind their mystical music and also their most recent album Heroes Of Mighty Magic…
Are you excited to play with Sabaton tonight?
Lynd: Yes, it’s amazing. I mean this is a great opportunity for us and it just so happens that they brought us along on this adventure.
Blackwald: Yeah, truly it’s an honour and it feels like they’re all friends of ours and we get along nicely. We’ve been having a blast and I think it’s show five?
L: Yeah I think so.
B: Yeah, and everything’s been going smoothly and we’re having a great time.
L: Yeah, we’re from the same town as Sabaton, for those who don’t know that *laugh*
How did you end up getting chosen by Sabaton for this tour?
B: Well… With threats and- *laugh* no, I think we just ed them and asked them “do you want us to ?” and I think Sabaton themselves, they picked and chose whoever they wanted to come and along and we were the lucky chosen ones.
L: Kind of *laugh*
B: Yeah, kind of, I think it was quite an easy process, no bidding or anything, or cage fights *laugh*
Heroes of Mighty Magic came out a few months ago now. How did the production for that new album go?
L: Well, it went pretty smoothly. We tried to do something new with this album and I mean there’s a lot more orchestrations this time around than the previous album, so that’s the main big difference really. Then the songs are bit more complex as well, but the essence is still there, it’s still power metal to the core.
B: We really took our time on the production this time and set the deadlines ourselves. We took as long as we wanted to to get the album sounding exactly how we wanted it. The bulk of the framework was done by myself and Lynd and the other then came in to add their own magic touch. It was a really smooth process and quite liberating as we were working at our own pace and we had the time to go back and make any tweaks that we needed to. I mean, if we didn’t set the deadline we would probably still be working on the album *laugh*.
L: We probably worked on this for three years I think.
B: Yeah, we started to work on this one even before the first album so it took us a long time but we really honed our sound on this release. So the next one should be easier to do and hopefully not take three years!
How long did it take you to make the first album?
*both laugh*
L: I think we wrote it in two weeks and then it just laid there in our studio for eight years or something.
B: As Lynd said, the songs were laid there because it was a spur of the moment thing. We had a lot of fun creating them but they were never really completed or mixed and mastered. We used to play them at parties and they were always so much fun to listen to. After a while, we eventually thought that we should finish them and then within 6 months to a year we had created it.
L: Yeah we took a week off from everything and just did the album.
B: So that was the big first and fun step that we took now things just, you know, went bonkers with everything and now it’s a real challenge with a lot of fun to evolve what we started… Once upon a time.
Do you already have a general idea for the next album?
L: I think it’s going to be pop/trance- *laugh*
B: *laugh* the dragontrance.
L: It feels like we have found our style and sound on this latest album so it’s probably going to be along the lines of that one.
B: Yeah, we’ve got some ideas for some songs but they’re going to need some refining. It’s pretty much going to be in the same vein as the previous album with a bit more variation in there. Some songs might be a little more “punch in the face” and some songs might be even more like telling a tale and stuff. We’ll wait and see.
How do you feel fans have been reacting to the new material when you’re playing it live?
B: I think it’s been good actually.
L: We played for an hour on the last tour so we had the chance to create ups and downs, a complete journey live for the first time, and I think the general reception was very nice.
B: With only playing half an hour on this tour, we have to pull out the big guns from the first note so it’s a very different way of playing. Then again, playing longer sets can be more challenging as well. I do think it’s more enjoyable though because, as Lynd said, we can create our ups and downs and just relax and be more into the performance as a journey. Anyway, the reactions have been good but the album has not been out too long so there’s obviously some people that still haven’t heard it.
L: And those who have heard it, you can point them out in the audience and they seem to really enjoy it.
Do you find you have a large fanbase on this tour?
L: I think we are playing to a lot of new fans. When we were touring with Sonata Arctica it was a little bit closer to our genre, so that’s actually pretty good because there are a lot of people discovering us.
B: There are a lot of people coming up to us like “wow, I never heard of you guys before!” and we didn’t experience that on the Sonata tour. It’s a lot of fun and really good for us.
What would be your favourite tracks from the new album?
B: To play or to listen to?
Both.
L: To play I think “To the Stars” is fun but then again it’s also fun to listen to well..
B: For me to listen to it would be “There and Back Again” and actually to play to it would be “There and Back Again”. Unfortunately however, we haven’t done that one yet on this tour because it’s ten minutes long.
L: I’m the same in fact “There and Back Again” is fun to listen to.
Are there any plans for a UK headline tour in the near future?
L: Well we have some things in the works.
B: Planning is a bit too big of a word, but we’re thinking.
L: The main thing now is to rest up and start writing the new album and planning in the future to tour as much as possible of course.
B: And if it’s a headline or co-headline or something in that range we’re not sure yet but we’re probably just focusing on the next album. It’s been a constant one year battle since the last album so we really want to have a few days off at least. But it will happen, that day will come, there are things in the pipeline.
