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BABYLON FIRE

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At this years SOS fest Babylon Fire made a return to the scene and they proved to be more than ready to reclaim their position. We had a short talk with guitarplayer Rishi about line-up changes, personal stuff and new music.

BABYLON FIRE

Hey guys, what's up?

Hey Nico, it's Rishi here, how are you doing man? It's nice to have a catch up with you!

Let's go a little back in time, I guess you were a bit shocked (or maybe not at all) to see your singer Mark D. leave the band...

Well firstly, it wasn't a total shock that he left & truth be told had he not jumped, he would have most definitely been pushed before very long. The only thing that sucked about the situation was his timing, we had a 30 date tour of Europe booked with Absolva & he just bailed at the last minute meaning we had to pull out of the tour. 

After that news the band kinda went into hiatus, what was the reason for that?

There were a number of reasons for that but the main one was because I lost both my parents within 5 months of each other. That was a major blow for me & ultimately I had to pick myself back up again & take some time to heal. The other thing was that we wanted to take some time to rebuild the band & go back to where we started. We needed to focus on why we all started playing in the first place, which was for the love of music! We removed all other agendas & the pressures of the industry & basically just started jamming all our favourite songs that we grew up with & found the pure enjoyment of playing again. There's something very special about playing music with your best friends & with our former vocalist out of the picture there was no longer a toxic or corrosive element polluting the energy of the band. The rest of us are all brothers who have grown up playing music together & it very quickly became clear that we could make the magic happen again!

Now the band is back and like in the beginning, with 2 guitar players! You had Will Reece returning! Why did he leave earlier and how come he's back! Don't get me wrong, the band is even tighter with 2 guitars :-)

Will & I went to school together & he's literally the greatest guitar player I've ever known. The 2 of us compliment each other perfectly in our playing styles & in our personalities so it was always in my mind when we put the band together to have him involved. He left the band in 2010 for very personal reasons which meant that he was unable to commit to touring & as heartbreaking as it was to lose him, we respected his decision & we always remained on completely amicable terms. So much so that when we recorded the album ("Dark Horizons") we had him record a solo in the song "Stripped Away" because we wanted him to be part of it. He's always been woven into the fibre of the band - even when he wasn't there. That's part of the reason why we never replaced him. By the time we started to rebuild the band in late 2014/early 2015, I had already been jamming with Will again a lot & it was really important to me to try & get him back in. Thankfully he was of the same mindset & he's been back with us ever since. It's like he's never been away to be honest & a real joy for all of us to have him back!

You also had a singer Gaz Pearson, who kinda vanished when you needed him, heard from him or is he totally vanished?

Gaz is somebody that Will & I knew from being kids. He'd recently moved back to the UK after years of living in Spain & we were looking for a singer at the time so for a little while it seemed to work well. Unfortunately,  he just stopped turning up to rehearsals & stopped returning our calls so that was that. There's only so many opportunities you can give to someone & we chose to move on. It was definitely the right move in the end. 

At SOS you had the help of Soma Dark singer Daniel Buxton, who did a killer job! Dunno how much time he had, but boy did he deliver...

Dan came on board very last minute. I stumbled across a YouTube video one morning of him doing vocals on one of my favourite Killswitch Engage songs & I immediately sent it to Ryk suggesting we approach him. I'd never even met him before but when I got in contact he was very genuine, down to earth & (most importantly) willing to help us out. What you saw at SOS Fest was the result of just 6 weeks work & 4 band rehearsals. That's including 2 brand new songs, only one of which had any lyrics written beforehand. He's got a great work ethic & he did us beyond proud at that show!!

Now our question is like, is he joining the band? Or is he too busy with his own band or...

Yep!! He's now an official member of BABYLON FIRE & we couldn't be happier about it!!

You also played a new song at SOS which sounded really good! Any more songs ready?

We actually played 2 new songs & we have quite a few others too - at least 6 or 7 new ones in total. 

Any chance there is a new cd coming soon?

Yes!! This is our main priority from here on in. We're gonna start recording in the immediate future. 

Dunno are you still signed to Rocksector or will you go self financed or through another label? Any comments on this or is it too soon?

Let's make one thing crystal clear - we've always been self financed, regardless of being signed to Rocksector or not. Our deal with them was purely a licensing agreement. It's too early to say what we'll do, but we've always had a great relationship with everyone at Rocksector even from before we signed with them so that will not change regardless. We'll see nearer the time. 

Hoping for your return to Belgium soon, there a lots of fans and Jupilers waiting!

We'd sincerely love to come back there - especially with our revamped line up. Our fans in Belgium are some of the greatest in the world & we want them to experience us as we are now. Likewise we need a major Jupiler fix haha!!

Anything left to add?

Just a huge thank you to everyone all over the world that's continued to support the band, you all mean the world to us! Rest assured that the camaraderie within the band is better than ever & likewise the new material is gonna knock your socks off - we can't wait to unleash it! See you on the road soon!!

https://www.facebook.com/babylonfire

Nico

(picture by  Simon Dunkerley)

 

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