Morgana Lafey is, to my opinion, one of the great and under appreciated metal bands around, I have known and loved their albums for more then ten years now, I am hopeful that their newest release, Grand Materia, will finally earn them the respect they deserve, the band's drummer, Robin, was kind enough to give me some info on the band's current status:
1. Hi Robin, I understand the band is going to appear in Wacken open air this year, what are your expectations about that, and is this your fist time at Wacken?
A: Yes, this is the second time we play at WOA, first time was in -99 when we played the WET-Stage in front of a crowd of abut 400-500 people, that was awesome!
This year we get to play the TRUE METAL-Stage and that is a real honor for us, now we just hope for a good crowd, hehe.
2. The band released an album called Grand Materia, first, can you explain the album's title and lyrical issues?
A:Well, we chose to make a concept album again, this time we're telling the story of 13th century alchemist Nicholas Flamel who, as the legend says, found the "Grand Materia" and learned to transform metal into gold. But in the process he also found eternal life and that might not be the best thing to wish for...
3. How would you describe the album musically, in comparison with your former albums?
A:Well, it's been 5 years and then we have Peter writing most of the songs on this one, Tony used to write like 99% in the past but now Peter came up with a lot of fresh ideas so we went with that, it might have a bit more aggressive feel to it.
But as a whole it's definetly a Morgana Lefay album and we are very happy with it.
4. Can you tell us about your history in the band?
A: I joined in -98 together with Peter and former bass player Mikael.
Charles and Tony lost three band mates and we've been longtime friends of the band so I guess we were a natural choice. We were at the time also missing a second guitarist in our band Fantasmagoria so it felt like the right thing to do.
5. The band went through a change in its name in the last decade,
from Morgana Lafey, to Lefay, and back again, can you tell us the story behind that?
A: Ah, well...legal shit...basically Black Mark had one option left on the contract when C and T decided to sign with Noise, then there was a lot of misunderstandings and a bit of deceptions which lead to the name change. Now when we re-signed with Black Mark we made sure that we own the full rights to the name, no matter what.
6. This is the first album you've released in five years, why the long time?
A: When we got dropped from Noise Rec. back in 2000 we also lost the pressure of a label, we are kinda lazy that way I guess, that and I think we also needed a vacation, and we also needed to find the fun in playing again...
7. You've been recording in the same studio for a long time,
how did you develop this relationship with the studio, and why not change studio or sound?
A: First it was convenient, the studio is located just across the hall from our rehearsal, then Per (owner, engineer) upgraded the studio a lot so we felt that we had no need to go anywhere else.
8. You've recently been doing shows in the US, can you tell us about that?
A: Well, we did one show, the Chicago Powerfest, and that was really cool in many ways.
It was the first time ever for most of us in the US, it was the first gig ever in the US, people came from all parts of the US to see us and we were treated very good there.
Hopefully it opened the door for more shows in the future.
9. What is the writing process within the band?
A: Well, it often starts with Peter or Tony coming up with some riffs, then we arrange them together and Charles writes the lyrics with a little help from the rest of us.
10. I've been a fan of the band for about 10 years,
and it always seemed to me that the band fails to receive the recognition it deserves, do you feel a change, or progress with the new album and the live shows?
A:Well, I dunno why...we must be doing something very wrong, haha...
We always get good reviews, both on albums and live...I guess we're missing some important part...
11. Who is Ulf Peterson and what was and is his connection with the band?
A: He ran Studio Wavestation a few years ago and the band chose to use him as a "co-producer" and sometimes as a keyboardist on albums. But he lost interest in working in the studio and
is now doing a day job and playing with his own band Galeon.
12. What are the band's plans beyond the show at Wacken?
A: We are currently searching for a decent booking agency/management. We had to end the co-operation with Crush Concerts as they constantly refused to listen to our wishes, it cost us alot of money and cancellations which was not good.
So, we really need an honest, up-front, decent manager now.
If anyone feels up to the task they can mail us at: info@morganalefay.se and give us an offer.
13. That's it, thanks for taking the time answering the interview,
and I hope we'll finally be seeing and hearing more of you guys!
A: You are very welcome; hopefully we'll get some time to work on a DVD this fall so You'll be hearing (and seeing) some more of us.
Alon Miasnikov
