Kamelot – Thomas Youngblood
Greg: I see that you have a number of guest musicians on the new disc. When you choose a guest musician, is it just as simple as picking someone you admire or are friendly with, or is it something that stems from the songwriting process, where you think to yourself, this person’s voice might really add something here?
Thomas: It’s a mixture of both. Like with Gus (G.), we had been friends for a few years. Actually, years ago, I had talked to him about possibly joining KAMELOT, as another guitar player. I guess he made a good decision saying no. (mutual laughter)
Yeah… so we were talking about that. And we did some tours. FIREWIND opened up for us, and DREAM EVIL did a support slot in Japan. So I’ve known him. I respect him as a guitar player, but more than anything I think he’s a super cool guy. We had talked about him doing some stuff on the record, and after the Ozzy thing happened I called him again to say, “Hey, are we still going to do this?” because I didn’t know if it was going to happen. And he said, “Yeah, definitely.”
The last time we did that it was with Lucca Turilli from RHAPSODY. It’s fun. It shows that the guys in the band don’t have too big of an ego, to where we can’t have a guitar player, keyboard player or singer be a guest on our record. I think it’s more interesting for the fans to hear one or two songs with a guest on it.
Greg: You sort of hit on a question I was going to ask. It sounds like you once considered bringing a second guitar player into the band. Is it something you’d consider again? Or is it more of a case where it would have to be someone you really wanted to play with, who you’d almost be making an exception for?
Thomas: Well at this point, we have a keyboard player, Oliver Palotai, [who] is an amazing guitar player. So if anything, we would have him do a little mixture of both.
Yeah… I guess a few years back, we’re talking six or seven years ago, it was something that was discussed, just to fatten the sound. And I thought, back then, someone like Gus would be good for it.
Greg: So with the singers you bring in, I would imagine you show them the lyrics and melody and say, “This is what we want you to do.” With a guy like Gus, how much freedom does he have?
Thomas: We basically sent him the solo section, the rhythm without a solo, and just said, “Just do whatever you want.” And that’s what he did and it came out great.
The same with Jens Johansson. We had him play on The Black Halo. It’s the same thing. Two days later he sends us this ridiculously awesome, keyboard shred.
So that’s the cool thing about picking people that you know, who are super professional, who are masters of their craft. You know you’re going to get something that you’re going to like.
Greg: On the new album, you again teamed up with producers Sascha (Paeth) and Miro (Michael Rodenberg). Could you ever see the band working with someone else? Or at this point, are they almost integral to what you do?
Thomas: I think what I could see is us kind of producing ourselves, maybe. Maybe bringing someone in as a consultant, on certain things, whether it’s orchestral things or maybe having someone else mix it. I could see that scenario happening.
It’s hard to say. Every record, the dynamics of that teamwork changes in one way or another. You have to kind of evaluate it after the record is out a few months, before you even start thinking about the next time.
Greg: I saw on your web site that the disc will be out in Europe on September 3rd. Is there a U.S. release date yet?
Thomas: Yeah. The release in Europe has now shifted to the 10th, the U.S. release I think is on the 8th of September. We’ll be putting out a press release regarding the new record company, the distribution that’s going to occur, the formats that we’re going to put out. It’s pretty exciting stuff for us.
Greg: You fulfilled your contract with SPV right before they became insolvent. And I saw on your web site that you’re now with earMusic.
Thomas: They’re a subsidy of Edel in Germany, which is a big record company over there. earMusic is sort of their Hard Rock / Metal branch that they’ve started. So they have the power of this major label, but with the sensibility to be able to market the kind of music we’re doing. So it’s cool.
Greg: At this stage of your career, is selecting a new label a long, drawn out process with intense negotiations, or did you have an idea of who you wanted to sign with?
Thomas: It’s basically been a year of discussing things with different labels. Every major player in this genre had made offers; we’ve gone back and forth. It just comes down to different types of ways you want to structure it, the time you want to stay with the label. There’s all kinds of legal and technical things you have to look at, if you’re an artist that has a lot of records behind you and you have a fan base you can depend on. But yeah, it’s still a drawn out process. Even once you decide who you want to go with, there’s a whole round of months of contract negotiations. It’s not fun, I can tell you that. (mutual laughter)
Greg: So you’ll be headlining ProgPower in September, it’s the third time you’ll be headlining. Any thoughts or memories that spring to mind about previous ProgPower experiences?
