Interviews: Lightchapter

On this new occasion, we have had the opportunity to interview the Melodic Death Metal/Nu-Metal band Lightchapter from Denmark. Check out this band and follow them on their FACEBOOK PAGE.

1. Where did you get the idea for the band name, you plan it or come out just like that?

LC: Well, we wanted the band name to have some sort of meaning but nothing too obvious, we think that people should be able to put whatever meaning into the name that they want. So we had a long session of just throwing various names back and forth and at some point we came up with the idea that we wanted the word chapter in there somehow. The chapter comes from the motorcycle club lingo. You know where they have an L.A. Chapter and a New York chapter and so on. We thought that it would be pretty cool to have that same sort of tribe thing going with the fans as well. Then we tried putting numerous different words in front of it and at the end we came up with Lightchapter. We feel that our music has an underlying hope and optimism beneath all the gloom and doom and yeah Lightchapter kind of sums that up.

2. Why did you want to play this genre?

LC: All of us have been working within the metal genre in previous bands in one form or another but this time around we all just agreed that we wanted to go really brutal and deep. We feel that we have sort of dug our own little niche in the death metal genre. All of us in the band are great fans of the old-school death metal stuff. But we felt that in order for us to contribute something to the genre we had to come up with a different take on and not only lean on the shoulders of the genre's giants. This is why we added the "eighties synth wave" vibe to the soundscape. To begin with, it was just an idea of having samples in the music, and then as we progressed with the songwriting this whole eighties vibe became a thing. Now we consider it to be a big part of our trademark sound.

3. Did you know each other before the band was formed?

LC: We all live in a relatively small city in Denmark called Aarhus. The metal scene is relatively big considering the size of the city but then again everybody within the scene kind of knows everybody. Toby(Drums) and Mikkel(Vox and guitar) used to play in another band together and at some point, Anders (guitar) joined but they decided to bury the old band and start something brand new. At this point, they tried a number of different bass players but none really worked out before Kalle (Bass), who used to play with Anders in another constellation, joined. So yeah we kind of knew each other or at least knew of each other.

4. Each band member's favorite band?

Mikkel, vox & guitars: Can't narrow it down but Smashing Pumpkins, Kyuss Sleep Token Deftones, and Megadeth in no particular order

Anders, guitars: Stuff like Fit for an Autopsy, Gojira, Decapitated, Bleed from Within, and Madball.

Kalle, bass: It varies all the time but I always end up coming back to Meshuggah.

Toby, drums: A Danish band called Kandis and the entire Top Gun soundtrack.

5. Who or what inspires you to write songs?

LC: Life is inspiring, whether good or bad happens in your life all you have to do is look around and you will find plenty of inspirational things. When it comes to composing the music we are not confined within the death metal genre as such which means that we can basically draw inspiration from anywhere. Sometimes it's a cool vibe from a thrash song and sometimes it's a devastating drop from the club scene. We are also inspired by the whole vibe from a lot of the classic eighties movies of course the horror classics are obvious but also the space movies from that era.

6. Where was your last gig?

LC: Our latest gig was in Copenhagen at a showcase festival called Uhørt, which in Danish means "unheard". It is a festival for upcoming music and all genres are mixed, pop and singer-songwriter mixed with death metal and rap. So yeah we had a good time tearing the faces off a lot of cool people who turned up to see something completely out of their comfort zone. They were really awesome and the show went well. It is always interesting to play these gigs at smaller festivals since you usually only get a line check and then you have to go do your thing. But this time it was great.

7. Where would you like to act?

LC: We have a couple of festivals in our home country Roskilde Festival and Copenhell which we have all attended as kids, Now we feel like getting up on those stages and doing our stuff in front of the new kids. Apart from that, we would like to do the whole European summer festival circuit. But at the end of the day, the only big goal for us is to experience a ton of stuff and perhaps be able to go to parts of the world that we haven't seen before, North America, South America, Asia, and perhaps Africa and Australia. We are in this game to have fun and to have great experiences with each other and our fans.

8. Whom would you like to feature with?

LC: Ooooh there are so many fantastic bands out there. We are generally just interested in working with the best in the business and learning from the best. Which by the way is why we started working with our producer Tue Madsen and our manager Torsten Cubel. We only hope to be able to keep adding these types of capacities to our collaborators. But yeah to answer the question we are open-minded and will consider working with most bands as long as they kick ass.

9. Whom not?

LC: Too many to mention but in general bands that are not cool and awesome. 

10. Have any of you ever suffered from stage fright? Any tips for beginners on how to beat that?

LC: It is only natural to have some sort of tension or excitement before going on stage. Most people getting up on the stages around the world will have experienced that to some extent at some point in their careers. The important thing is that you know that you are well-prepared and that you believe in what you are doing. Everybody fucks up a song from time to time, it doesn't matter you just go again. What matters is the contact with the audience and that you feed off each other's energy. Get out there and have fun. On a more practical note; breathing exercises really do help a lot and drinking a shit load of beer before the show really does not help, just wait until after the show to drink that shit load of beers.

11. What bands have inspired you the most?

LC: Of course, we are inspired by the genre heroes like Orbituary, CC, Morbid Angel, and stuff from our own backyard like At the Gates and early In Flames and the Haunted but what perhaps is more interesting for people to know is that we have a great affection for eighties synth stuff and pop such as Gary Numan, Depeche Mode and Duran Duran. This is where that whole part of our soundscape comes from.

12. What's the weirdest thing a fan has ever asked you for?

LC: We have had fans ask us for the usual. Picks, sticks, and sex but nothing too weird or kinky yet. Guess we still have that to come.

13. What do you think of your fans?

LC: We think that it is pretty awesome that so many people are digging our stuff. That really means the world to us. We are just a couple of good friends trying to create something meaningful for ourselves and that so many people out there are actually getting what we are trying to do with the music is pretty mind-blowing, to be honest. When we wrote this album we had not imagined that people all over the world would be into it. Of course, you always hope and we are well aware that it is a great album that we made, but it really takes a lot of luck combined with all the hard work to get it out there. So massive shout-out to the fans. You guys are the best.

14. What do you think of our site?

LC: The site is pretty awesome. We instantly found a lot of new and exciting stuff we haven't heard of before so that's pretty cool. Looking forward to getting even further into that. Good job guys.

15. Something to add?

LC: Not really, other than please check out our album. It is killer!! https://open.spotify.com/album/0x1wKk4BxG4ywWGvEVhfQQ?si=GOew7-71R3ayJCMeXAJ3DQ