– Greetings from Metalheads Forever Magazine, Good to have yet another Interview with you my friends, how you doing?
Thanks for having us again Keith! We are trying to adapt to the global situation and be productive as much as possible.
– You recently re-issued “Hand Of God” which was originally released in 2013, Is there any reason for the re-issue?
Yeah, we have had some issues with the label which released the album and we asked them to remove it from all platforms I think 4 years ago, but now with our new label, Rakun Muzik, we are trying to bring all our back catalogue under their umbrella.
– You have also released a new lyric visualizer for “Deceiver” which features Swedish guitarist Niclas Engelin of In Flames, how does it feel to work with him?
We met with Niclas when we went to play a show in Sweden in 2010 which all our “Sweden adventure” begins with and due to him being impressed a lot by our dedication and passion he offered to collaborate on a song for helping us for recognition. We met on a few occasions after we finished the song like when we went to Sweden for recording “Hand of God?” and when they were here in Turkey with In Flames. He is one of the nicest people on the planet I’ve ever met! We talked a few times to shoot a video for “Deceiver” with him but couldn’t till now, who knows maybe we would do it at a concert or festival:)
– Earlier you released a beautiful single “Heroes Of 2020” a song dedicated to all frontline workers during the Covid, can you tell me about the release and the story behind this?
Thanks, Keith. During the heavy days of lockdown what we have seen, heard, and read touched our hearts; made us sad, angry, grateful, appreciated and we wanted to thank all the heroes around the world. It’s all started with the words; we always make the music and then write the lyrics over it. But this time, words poured out onto paper and when we realized that we couldn’t make a “regular PBP song” out of this, we decided to push our boundaries as we always do and verses turned out almost rap-like. Also, the situation the world is facing forced us to change on “song-making” process; for the very first time in the band’s history, we worked remotely. While we are making a new song, we gather in the studio and play, try, discuss ideas by playing live always. This time, we met and exchanged recorded examples, ideas online and we built the song over the net.
– What are the current plans for Pitch Black Process?
There are two more unreleased songs from the “SIR” EP. We released “Zahid Bizi Tan Eyleme” from “SIR” as a single in March 2019. After releasing “Zahid Bizi Tan Eyleme” due to the expected conditions not being met by the label which released the single, we didn’t deliver the rest of the EP until November 2020. In November 2020, we released the song, “Buselik Makamına”. It is one of the most renowned and classical songs by MFÖ, one of the best-loved, iconic, and oldest bands from Turkey. We would like to deliver the rest of the songs asap and then we have some plans which we started to work on already.
– Being one of the top band from Turkey, how has the journey of music has been for you guys?
Thanks, Keith. It’s like life itself; many ups and downs:) Thinking, making, playing music has always been a pleasure but the “business side” of it could be tiring, overwhelming, wearing mentally especially if you are a self-managed band. What keeps us continuing to do this, despite all odds we have been facing, is just “love”.
– Back in 2013 you played on the main stage of the 82nd Izmir International Fair and you are the first-ever metal band to play there, looking back how do you feel about that?
Those concerts, which still take place annually, are open for public attendance and open-air events, hence the crowd always consists of people who have different music tastes and from all kinds of social classes. So, besides it’s been an honour to get entitled like that, it was such a different and fun experience to play death metal to the public at such an important event:)
– Who will be your biggest influences from Turkey and globally?
A lot to mention… but I can say that the bands which are mostly in the Swedish melodic death metal genre and some old “Anatolian Rock” or Turkish pop-rock stars’…
– Would you like to share some great memories of the band with Metalheads Forever Magazine?
Seeing the crowd in a foreign land while singing your songs in your native language is priceless every time!
– Do you have a message for the fans?
“What we do in life echoes in eternity”; we would like to thank all who cares what we do, gives their support and hearts; thank you all who walk with us in this journey! And thank you for your precious support and friendship, Keith!
