Interview with John from Biomechanical conducted February 7, 2006.
Written by Alina Michelle and John Coyne.

PHOTOMISTRESS:  In ONE word, describe each band member, including yourself.

JOHN K:  Jamie Hunt: Fast, Chris Webb: Heavy, Jon Collins: Nutter, Matt C: Brutal, Me: Loud :-)

PM:  Have each of you been musicians for a long time and how long have you been playing together? Did you know each other prior to establishing the band?

JK:  I can't talk for the rest of the guys but I have been a musician since I can remember. The band has been together since 2001. I didn't know the guys before that. We met up while this band was getting together.

PM:  What made you decide to relocate to England and how long have you been there? Do you feel being a musician in England better suits your talents than in Greece? What other bands have you been involved in?

JK: Well, the problem in Greece was and still is that this country has its inland music industry that supports Greek folk music more than anything else. This means that any other style of music is secondary. Agreed, a lot of metal bands make it in Greece but if you are a Greek band its a different story. So both goals I wanted to achieve in my life (Metal music and Film music) were pretty much impossible to reach. This made me come to the UK and to chase my aspirations over here.  I got involved with a Hard Rock band when I first came to the UK but I left them and I left singing too (they put me off of the band thing big time)!. It was in the end of the 90's that I decided to start Biomechanical and start getting involved with bands again.

PM:  Is it harder as an English band to establish yourselves outside your country since you are separated by water from the rest of Europe? Has the scene in England been affected by this as well?

JK: It's all down to the record label. There is only one way for a band to make it and this one thing is promotion-promotion-promotion and more promotion. But promotion translates to cash. Cash is hard to come by so most metal labels suffer from this situation.
Thankfully Earache has done an awesome job so far so it's all good from our side of things.

PM:  Where do you tend to have the biggest following?

JK: The US is pretty cool at the moment. We have a Myspace page and there are a lot of guys from America supporting the band!

PM:  Did you choose to write songs based on the band name or did you choose the band name to fit the lyrics of the songs?

JK: The band name is related to the lyrics but it's something that will sooner or later stop. You can't keep writing albums about one particular theme. Thankfully our band name gives us the flexibility of writing lyrics related to the Biomechanical theme but also enables us to move away from it without any problems.

PM:  In a hundred years from now, when you're dead, would you rather be hatefully remembered or totally forgotten?

JK: Don't give a fuck, I will be dead anyway : -)

PM:  Since you've played in the US once before at the South by Southwest Festival in 2005, which is more or less geared towards people in the industry, are you excited to now have the chance to play longer and show your full potential as a band at Chicago Powerfest?

JK: Yeah absolutely, SXSW was great fun! Can't wait for the gig in April!! It's awesome to be able to play a longer set this time.

PM:  Being that you've at times been compared to a younger and more powerful Geoff Tate on the album, Eight Moons, I'm curious as to if you've had any formal vocal training?

JK: That's a cool comparison, no I didn't have a formal training but I have learned singing by fronting a lot of bands. It's the best way for me. I did study jazz piano, orchestration and composition in Athens but I didn’t get any vocal training. It was all done the hard way ; -)

PM:  Where did your affection for filmscores come from and where did the idea to weave them into thrashy, aggressive heavy metal music?

JK: I am a huge John Williams fan. Since the days I got hold of the albums with the music from The Empire Strikes Back I have been hooked to the film music sound. I later on found out that it related to the classical writing of the Russian school (Tchaikovsky, Stravinski, Shostakovich etc.) and also to Gustav Holst and Debussy. Since that time I wanted to get involved in this kind of writing and also I always wanted to fuse metal with film scoring but in a non-chordal writing type of way. I wanted to involve the orchestral writing with proper counterpoint, modern orchestral techniques etc, and in general move away from the keyboard orientated - chordal orchestral composition that many bands seem to employ.
With Biomechanical I got the chance to do this and it's a style that will stay with us and develop in the future.

PM:  There's quite a contrast between your first album, Eight Moons, and your latest album, The Empires of the Worlds. What inspired this change and do you see yourselves continuing in this direction?

JK: I felt it was a necessary evolution musically. Eight Moons has a certain colour that was retained on the second album but with a heavier edge. The feel of Eight Moons is pretty much what gave the band its initial push and it is something we intend to keep.
The Empires of the Worlds took the band even further and with our next album Cannibalised we will go a step further in terms of writing and aggression.

PM:  Was the writing on The Empires of the Worlds a concentrated group effort and who was the driving force behind the song "Truth Denied"?

JK: I'm the main songwriter of the band but we all operate as a band. After all it's not unusual to have one songwriter in a metal band. The guys shape the songs with their individual sounds.  Jamie Hunt with his melodic and lightning speed sweep picking, Chris Webb with his super heavy feel and the mega metal solos, Jon Collins with his fast but very heavy bass and Matt C with his thunderous drums make the Biomechanical sound what it is. So it is really a band effort for the final outcome. "Truth Denied" is an outlet of rage, it only took a day to write but it's one of those songs that is great fun to record and play! Lyrically it's stands at the point of the final part of the album.

PM:  The Empires of the Worlds finished the concept that began on Eight Moons. Is the formula for writing the new material going to stay conceptual?

JK:  Things will stay conceptual as there is one more album (Cannibalised) for the final part of this story, some of the writing has started but we are working around the promotional stuff for ‘The Empires’. We are very exited about the next album but also for the prospect of touring The Empires of the Worlds!

Official band website:  www.biomechanical.co.uk

Official Myspace Page:  www.myspace.com/biomechanical