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Q
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Tell me who you are and what you have done before you started the band? |
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A
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[Karl] : I play the guitars, bass and drums when we record, and bass on stage. Prior to Temujin I've played in a long list of bands - the longest being Nothing Sacred. We recorded an EP and two albums, and spent a lot of late nights playing in pubs across the Eastern states of Australia. [Kelly] : Temujin is my first full time band, I'm the vocalist and lyricist. I also dabble with keyboards, although that's been 'on hold' for most of this year after I broke my hand. |
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Can you tell me a bit about the origin and history of the band? How long have you been playing music together for? |
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[Kelly] : We have been writing and recording since sometime in 2004, but it's really only since early 2007 that we've considered Temujin to be a band rather than a project. We started out to write songs that we enjoyed, ended up writing so many that we had to take it to the next level. The album “1000 Tears” was the end result, and it just keeps growing from there. |
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Which is the most important track for the band in this album? |
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[Karl] : My favourite is “Heart and Soul” - it covers a lot of important ground both musically and lyrically. It's also one of the last tracks that we wrote before the album was done. |
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The production of the album is very good, what can you tell me about that? |
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[Karl] : What can I tell you about production? It's hard work! If there's one thing we would have liked the chance to spend more time and money on, it would be the production. We are happy enough with the final result, but it's such a time consuming task, and there's always room to improve. We hope to take things up a notch or two with our new recordings. |
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Did you take lessons for any instruments? |
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[Karl] : No, actually I've never had a lesson on any instrument. Always just picked up an instrument and played along with bands I liked until I could play well enough to be happy with it. I spent a lot of time playing bass to Iron Maiden and Rush albums! [Kelly] : I've always sung, but never had formal lessons. |
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I love listening to “All Of You”. Kelly’s voice is so mesmerizing and yet it has that rocky riff behind it. What's your favourite Temujin song? |
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[Karl] : “Let You Go” - worked hard to get the feel and balance for that track, and I'm more than happy with the final result. [Kelly] : “Find Me”, because it's a very personal song that I wrote to capture the place I was in at the time. |
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What album do you find yourselves listening to again and again and what would you say keeps drawing you back to it? |
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[Karl] : Anthrax, “Sound of White Noise”. Just about the perfect blend of power and melody – tracks like “Only” are fantastic live. [Kelly] : I love Disturbed, especially “Believe”. Vocals are wonderful, and Dave Draiman is so charismatic |
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You have striking artwork on your album “1000 Tears”. Who designed it? |
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[Karl] : The album artwork was done by a good friend of ours, Sham (www.sham.com.au). He was the drummer in Nothing Sacred, and is so talented at everything he attempts. We hope to work with him on some ideas for a video clip early in 2009. |
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Earlier this year you signed with Indie label Renaissance Records. How has this changed things for Temujin to date? |
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[Karl] : We haven't been able to make the most of the support from Renaissance as yet – Kelly's broken hand early in the year certainly slowed us down a little. But we hope to pick it up in 2009. [Kelly] : It's been a great opportunity to get our CD into the US retail market, although shops generally don't want to carry stock on the shelf. But at least people have been able to order the CD form their local store now. That's been good. |
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In the summer, the Femme Metal Webzine featured Temujin on a compilation CD of upcoming female fronted bands from around the world, "Ferocity and Femininity". How did this come about and did you pick the song or was it chosen by somebody from Femme Metal? |
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[Karl] : The Femme Metal Forum is a web site we often spend time at – we've met some great people there. When the opportunity came up to be a part of the compilation CD we jumped at it. A really great idea, and the two main people behind it all - Caz and Dave – were great to work with. The final product is something we're proud to be a part of. If anyone hasn't checked it out, they should do so! [Kelly] : We originally wanted to record a new song just for the CD. But time was short so we ended up selecting “Let You Go” from “1000 Tears”. I also submitted some artwork I had painted a few years ago when the call went out for cover artwork – it was great when it was one of the works selected for use on the inner pages of the CD booklet. |
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Goals for 2009? |
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[Kelly ] : First off is to get some new material recorded. I have a lot of lyrics in various stages of development, and we want to get some of this down as soon as we can. [Karl] : Then a video clip, and live gigs to follow. |
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Just for fun, do you enjoy Twinkies for the sugar rush like Genghis Khan in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure? |
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[Karl] : Who wouldn't enjoy a sugar rush! More Twinkies, more Twinkies... |
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I
would like to thank Temujin for this interview. Keep It Loud!
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