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Orphaned Land - Interview Hanzi/ V.U. and Kobi Fahri /O.L.

After the likeable musicians from Orphaned Land put a landmark ruling concerning Oriental influenced Death/Gothic Metal with their previous album „Maabol“ and were furthermore able to raise much attention due to their world-wide touring, they are at the moment working day and night on their latest album „ORwarriOR“, which, like its forerunner, will again follow a concept.
This was reason enough for Visions Underground to get to the bottom of the whole thing and to take a look behind the scenery.

In the course of the extremely enjoyable conversation with O.L. headmaster Kobi Fahri, some promising and surprising news were revealed which allow a little insight into the life of the band and raise the foretaste of the upcoming album exceedingly......

- In the last Years you had a couple of line-up changes. But with the actual line-up, it seems that this is the best what belongs to the musical path you are featuring... Am I right in that case and what are your plans for the next years, can you still imagine about the next releases?

Kobi: “Well, this is true. This is the best line-up that we have had during the 14 years that we exist now. I think the last two years were great for us and we are going to probably record our next album in 2007, which is now one of our biggest future plans for us. Steven Wilson from Porcupine Tree is going to be the producer of our next album, this is the latest we know so far and he is producing Opeth as well that we are listening to right now...
We are looking forward to work with him, he is also going to play in the album. He is going to mix the album and he will sing and play keyboards so we are really looking forward to the recordings and we hope to reach even the next level of our music. Our main plan for the future is to concentrate on the work for our albums, keep on playing everywhere to spread our message and our music”.

- Please tell us what experiences you have made on the tour last year with Paradise Lost....

Kobi: “ Oh, it was a great tour !! The greatest case we take out of this Tour were actually a couple of things which had a big influence to our lives and the career of Orphaned Land.
The first thing was that I have met my wife for the future on this tour. I met her in Poland and it was a first side love , we both felt the same way and now she is living with me in Israel and we are going to get married soon. So this was the best thing happened out of this tour in my personal level. In the professional level the tour was great because we always were playing in front of a big crowd. Paradise Lost is such a popular band, so they are always playing in front of a big audience. Every time we used to come to the next location, 800 – 1000 People, which didn’t hear about us at all, were waiting there and it was always a pleasure for us to open the evening for Paradise Lost in front of this amazing crowd. So when we started to play with our oriental middle - eastern sound we were surprised of the enthusiastic audience. Sometimes the people get bored from the support band, but it was a great surprise, they were really “shocked” from our music and they bought a lot of our T-shirts and CD´s and also other merchandise, because it was so different what we showed on stage and what the audience used to hear nowadays. So our first whole tour was a absolutely great experience to live together in the bus with our whole band and we were hanging around very often with the Paradise Lost guys, watching movies together and speaking together very often. So we became really good friends and they said as well that it was one of the greatest tours they ever did. It was so nice for us on that tour and we will always keep this remembrance in our minds”.

- The music of O.L. is very alternative, especially the new “Mabool” Album
Shows many musical sided songs. Is this the typical way how O.L. creates the structure of the songs or can you imagine that you will deviate from the actual way? Of course there is a big difference between “Mabool” and “Sahara”....

Kobi: “Well we always write our albums in a very strange way. When you listen to “Mabool” for example it has a lot of different concepts. So when we wrote it, we wrote the riffs first and put them together like a puzzle, so it fits well with our concept and finally we have a concept Album and the music tells the Story as well. It is a very hard way of writing music. When you listen to “ Mabool” you don´t have one song with sounds like another song of “Mabool”. You can listen to one song and then to the next one and you can show it to some guy and he will love to see that this is from the same band. This is what we try to achieve and I think this is exactly that we want to achieve with our next Album as well. We always do progressive and complicated things. This creates Orphaned Land to be very unique and different from the other bands of the scene”.

- Can you tell us something about the new Orphaned Land album...?

Kobi: “ Well it´s going to be a concept album about the warrior of light. A warrior of light is some kind of a Warrior in our soul that had the ability to cure us from all the troubles we have in this life. We have troubles like sadness, false love, war and terror.... This warrior of light inside of us is some kind of a messiah and he is supposed to take us to the promised Land. The album is going to be based on this hero which is a specific hero but he is also a hero inside of us. We wrote something like half of the album almost already and I hope that we will finish it very soon. We can not wait the release date and we want to tour the world once again”.

- Is it very difficult for you, to combine to rehearse and playing live shows ?

Kobi: “During the tour it is very difficult, because we focus on the tour and we always want to make a good show on the stage but after this tour we are going to come back home and we will play no live shows for several month, so we can concentrate on the new album. We want to rehearse, we want to write and we want to put everything on a place. It is very hard
to write an Orphaned Land Album. I think it is more difficult then the usual metal albums because we always have to think that we are conceptual. We have to think about the whole story and the concept and the change of the instruments that we use. Every time it is very complicated so we need this time and I think after this tour we will only concentrate on the new album”.


- On “Mabool” you have recorded some parts of the songs in India. Please tell us why, are you following a special aim....?

Kobi: “ I use to travel in India and I have this small recording tape with a small microphone and in India you have such wonderful sounds and music. Just go on the streets in India and give 1 Euro to a guy there and he will play for you, you know....It was an amazing story: I recorded myself singing in the Taj Mahal in India and I recorded musicians on the streets and took these tapes and combine them in “Mabool. For example the end of the Song “Ocean Land” where is this recording from India: this is me in the Taj Mahal in India. It was amazing, you know... the place is fantastic and the acoustic is so amazing. I was arrested by the Police because I did it. It is forbidden to record in the Taj Mahal so they arrested me. But then I explain them that it was just my dream to record myself there and that I want to give it as a present to my band, so finally they let me go after a couple of hours. But the main experience for me was that I followed my dream, you know...
I wanted to do this recording in the Taj Mahal and it is not possible if you follow your dream and you will go to jail because of it. Or you can say in the way of philosophy: If you will not follow your dreams, you are in jail already. So you better follow your dreams and be a free Man in jail, instead of not following them. So I had to do it. I´m happy that I did it and finally the story had a good end”.

- What is behind those rumours that the Orphaned Land albums are forbidden in your home country, Israel ?

Kobi: “ No, no our albums are not forbidden in Israel. Israel is a democratic nation and further very western related in many aspects so there is no problem to buy the Orphaned Land albums in Israel.
The albums are a little bit forbidden or better to say hard to get in Arabian countries. Metal albums in general are not available In Arabian countries because they are not democratic and they don´t have any metal stores or record shops or any magazines like Metal Hammer. It is a very dictaturic country so the fans can not find any CD´s from somewhere. It is like underground in a new description. It is underground like we, me and you, never knew or seen before, the way how they are doing the Metal scene over there. Especially because we are an Israelian band we have a lot of people that refuse to recognize or to hear us. But we have in the opposite so many fans from the Arabian countries who signs our Guestbook and those people don´t give a fuck about the political problems, they send us E-Mails and tell us they like the band. 3 Guys down there did a tattoo of Orphaned Land. They come From Dubai, Lebanon and Jordanian and that makes us very proud to see such a nice development. This is amazing because we are from Israel and they are Arabs and we are supposed to be enemies but this proves the power of music, how much power the music have and which result the music can create. It can break all borders and all the political crap, you know...
They just come and they love you and they want to be your friend. We have our own religion, we are metal people and we are like a community and this great I think”.

- On your records you´re using many different instruments. To middle-europeans are those instruments almost unknown. Please describe these instruments by name and how or when you use them....

Kobi: “ On our first two albums we have used a instrument called Kanoon. It is like a table with strings and the guy who played this instrument is nearly 70 Years old and he is blind. The sound of this instrument is amazing and it brings a special touch in the music of Orphaned Land. Further we use a Oud guitar which is a very ancient eygption guitar and we use it in different records and finally we use the Buszuki guitar on “Maabol”, a instrument from Greece. All in all we use around twenty kinds of percussion, we like to combine the ancient instruments with today´s instruments. This is the main sign in the sound of Orphaned Land”.

- Your keyboarder Eden Rabin left O.L. a few month ago. What was the reason for his departure and who is or will be the new keyboarder? Are you working with samples at live shows right now?

Kobi: “First I have to say that Eden is a good friend and we had a great time together. He decided to leave Orphaned Land and he didn´t want to publish his reasons for his departure. In Orphaned Land every member is so different to the other, that’s why you can hear so many different influences in our music and also Eden was different in the same Way. Finally he has made this decision, but we are still friends and in touch so everything is well. Regarding the future keyboardist, probably Steven Wilson will play the Keyboard on the next album and for the next shows that will we play after the next Album I actually don´t know who is going to do that. In the moment we use the Keyboards from the computer including all the instruments that we can´t perform live. That’s all I can say at the moment”.

- Do you think that Eden will return someday to Orphand Land ?

Kobi:” I think we move forward with the band and we stayed friends with him but I don´t think that we will work again together because we want to work now with Steven and then we just want to have a keyboard- player for the live shows. But you know how it is: You can never tell, you can never know. Since we are good friends so it might happen again, who knows...the possibility exists it is not a closed door, that´s for sure”.


Which circumstances decide the matter to sign the contract with Century Media?

Kobi: “Well they are a very good label and they support their bands and send them on tours. They really invest in the bands, they have a great promotion department. Further all there are very nice, we are very good friends of every single one there and I think they are the right and the best label for us at the moment”

- After you have signed the Deal with C.M. you were concentrated much more to Europe. Was that a big transposition for you as a Band?

Kobi: “This is much better for us to be with Century Media because we get to meet people from everywhere. Since last year we played in 23 countries which is great. With Holy Records we didn´t tour. Of course Holy Records is a great Underground Label, but then we wanted to move forward touring with Orphaned Land, like I have said we have played now all around the Globe including U.S.A and South America. It is great because you meet your Fans all around the world and you can promote yourself to a lot of people that have never heared about you before. This is a great and nice experience and when we will continue to tour and to record new albums then sooner or later we will get the same attention that we have in Israel right now. We all are happy to tour and to be on the road and stuff like that. I think Bands should play, record Albums and then go on the road. That’s what they should do. On the opposite we miss home very much. Yossi for example has two kids and he miss them like hell when we are on tour. But all our families really support what we do and they understand that this is our job and our dream, if we will not do it because of the family, we sit at home being frustrated and angry. I think you should let the one you love go to do what they need to do as long as they come back to you and when you trust each other there will be no problem finally. We all love our families and we are also happy to be back in Israel when we have been away for a couple of weeks”.

- At least some Words to the Readers of Visions Underground....

Kobi:” I wish you guys all the best from Orphaned Land and we hope to meet all of you in one of our next shows. Thanks for the support, Hanzi ! We want to thank everyone and we hope to meet you on the road soon !!
We are looking forward to release the new album and we hope that
everyone will like it”.


One will thus get to hear quite a bit of the talented guys from Orphaned Land within the next years and everybody who hasn’t had the possibility to witness the band performing live yet should make up for that loss as fast as can be.
Welcome to the Ark of Orphaned Land....

www.orphaned-land.com

Hanzi/V.U.

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