Year Of The Goat interview: "Without change people would live in caves and doom rock wouldn't even exist"

14/12/2012 @ 14:02
Goat. A beautiful, delicious and sometimes misunderstood animal. Year Of The Goat from Sweden, reinstated its name and reputation by releasing "Angels' Necropolis" and two of them, Thomas Eriksson and Per Broddesson shared with us some of their thoughts. This will be yours after all...

Hallo there dear sirs. Finally you came and deliver. Are you totally satisfied with your first full length album?
Thomas: Yes, I’m very pleased with the finished record, but it lives its own life now, it has left the womb.

Did you feel in anyway that "Lucem Ferre" was a heavy burden to carry because of its excellency?
Thomas: No, quite the opposite, an inspiration.

Year Of The GoatI think that "Vermillion Clouds" has already taken its place to the top of doom rock anthems. Isn’t it though a shame not to be heard by a bigger audience? It could easily fit to "Angels' Necropolis" track list, so why did you choose not to include it?
Pope: The destiny of that song wasn’t to be on the album. It will walk a different path and find a different way to reach the audience. The album had to be what it is. The one who listens enough, will hear why "Vermillion Clouds" doesn’t fit with the rest of the songs, in building the story of the Oak.

In an interview of yours, Jonas said that one of the things that sets you apart from the other doom rock bands is your progressive sound. May I also add that you love Blue Oÿster Cult as well?
Thomas: You may do that, and yes I do.
Pope: I’m not very much into putting labels on music, therefore I may be wrong in saying that I’m not quite sure Year Of The Goat would  fits the bill of being a doom rock band. I’m no expert though.

Year Of The GoatIt is more than obvious that you are embracing 'The Evil One'. Is it only for the needs of your lyrics theme, or is it also your belief?
Pope: I would rather say we’re embracing 'The Good One', commonly known as 'The Evil One'. Browsing through the bible, one quickly realizes who is really the evil one. The thought of calling Him 'The Good One' is preposterous.
For us the lyrics are both symbolic for concrete events in the human realm and part of a far bigger picture.

You are singing 'Virginity Is A Sin'. I find it very attractive but at the same time I see some contradiction. Could you explain its meaning?
Pope: What is sin, who decides? Throughout human history men have tried to control women in different ways. Claiming virginity a virtue and promiscuity a sin, might have been one way of doing that, when in reality it maybe lands in men being scared of not measuring up to previous lovers. To deny a person pleasures, for whatever freaky religious reasons, in this short time we walk the earth, is most definitely a sin in my book. Therefore virginity, or the denying of pleasures if you will, is a sin. I get curious on what contradictions you see and why, ’cause I don’t see any right now.

Thomas Eriksson (Year Of The Goat)How much space do you think that’s left for newcomers in the doom rock scene? Do you believe that the time has come for a change, even a small one?
Pope: Good music is always good music, the change will always come, anything that doesn’t change or evolve gets redundant. Why live in the past, the future you awaited yesterday is now the present.
Thomas: Without change people would live in caves and doom rock wouldn’t even exist. In the light of Lucifer we celebrate change and enlightenment and look forward to music, as well as mankind, to evolve.

In my opinion, your first big performance was with "Charles Taze Russell" and the second one with "Thin Lines Of Broken Hopes". Your transformation in that gospel of Satan song, is scary enough to believe in him. What’s your favourite performance of them all?
Thomas: Maybe it sounds boring, but every song is different and they all deserve the same amount of respect from me as a singer and guitar player. The fact that every performance is a spiritual journey, makes them all equally important to me.

Per Broddesson (Year Of The Goat)Let's say that House of Aquarius were releasing their first album in 2012 instead of 2003. Would they be still active and perhaps more well known than they are now?
Pope: If the debut was recorded and released 2012, the band would probably be active. It would probably sound different as well, water under the bridge you know. Now there was a re-release of the album from 2003 on limited vinyl on Electric Magic. It didn’t make the band any more active, and we’ll release it digitally at some point, I guess that will not make the band any more active either. Year Of The Goat is taking up the time for me and Thomas and there aren’t enough hours in the day. I have no idea if the band would be more well known or not.  

I would really appreciate if you could name your top 3 singers of all times and your reasons of it as well.
Thomas: Janis Joplin, the voice explains itself. Ronnie James Dio, he could make anything rock. Scott Walker, the most communicative singer ever heard.

Year Of The Goat is your latest band and it seems that you came in order to stay. How fortunate is that you are working with Per once again?
Thomas: Year Of The Goat was in my mind for quite some time before we started the band in 2006. Per and I had realized that we liked a lot of the same stuff and talked about playing something together. We all feel fortunate to be playing in the same band.
Pope: Indeed we do.

Year Of The Goat"Fear No Evil" with House Of Aquarius, "Charles Taze Russell" with Griftegård and "Thin Lines Of Broken Hopes". Which one of them is the true Thomas Eriksson?
Pope: "Fear No Evil" I wrote most of the lyrics and sang, while Thomas came up with the main riffs and structures and played the guitars.  "Charles Taze Russel" was written by Ola Blomqvist and Thomas sang. The main riffs, lyrics and melodies to "Thin Lines Of Broken Hopes" where all written by Thomas, he also sings it and plays some guitars, I guess it has the most true Thomas in it, mathematically, spiritually and philosophically, if it’s something that would be measurable.
Thomas: True

And last but not least: "El Topo" vs "Holy Mountain". What say you?
Thomas: I really love both of those movies, a must see for everyone, but "Holy Mountain" is the one that speaks a little bit more to me.

I really thank you for your time and I hope to see you on stage here in Greece soon enough. All the best for you and your band...
Thomas: Thank you, we hope we will be invited to play in Greece really soon.
Pope: Thank you
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