Interview With Shawn Drover of Eidolon
Interviewed by JP
There are a few bands that truly epitomize the terms
"metal", "underground", and "spirit".
Canada's Eidolon is one such band. Now with 5 full length CD's
under their belts Canada's hidden gem of power metal are FINALLY getting
the recognition they deserve. Eidolon started to get some international
recognition as guitarist and co-founder Glen Drover was hand picked by
King Diamond to be his guitarist for the album House
of God. After that experience Glen returned to Toronto
shortly after to continue on with Eidolon. Shawn Drover took time from
his busy schedule preparing for the global release of their new CD, Coma
Nation to answer a few questions for Metal-Rules.com.
Thank
you very much for agreeing to talk to us. Because many of our readers
may (tragically) not be familiar with you these questions may seem a
little simple so I hope you don't mind!
Tell about the early days of Eidolon! Where are you from how
and when was the band founded?
Glen (Drover - guitarist and my brother ) and myself formed Eidolon
back in 1993 in Toronto, Canada. At the time, we were one of those
guitar-hero shedding-type instrumental projects. Back then, we were
really into that kind of thing - we still are to a point, really - I
think one of the reasons we took that path was because glen had just
started building his recording studio (Eclipse recording, where we still
do all of our recordings) and since it was only the 2 of us, the
non-vocalist shredding stuff was the logical choice for us to go in
terms of musical direction. Anyways, in 1995, we decided to get
some musicians and form a real band - which we did and soon after began
recording our 1st record, ZERO HOUR. We released our first 2 records
(SEVEN SPIRITS followed an 1997) got signed to Metal Blade records in
1999, released 2 records - NIGHTMARE WORLD in 2000, HALLOWED APPARITION
in 2001. We are just about to release our new record, COMA NATION, in
June - 2002.
What does the term Eidolon mean?
Eidolon, simply means a ghost or a shadow figure. I saw it in a book
and liked the name, so we went with it.
What can a listener expect to hear on an Eidolon CD? What
are some of your influences (and others in the band).
For somebody who has not heard Eidolon, they can expect to hear 100%
HEAVY METAL!!!! As far as influences on our sound, I can honestly say
that I don't think we sound like anybody!! We have influences from
everything really, but try not to inject too much of it into our music.
Its kind of hard for pick a certain influence, as we listen to
everything from Mozart to Marduk, and a lot in between.
I understand there are pro's and con's of signing with a bigger,
out-of-country label. Tell us about your experiences (good and
bad) getting signed to Metal Blade Records.
So far, our relationship with Metal Blade Europe has been quite good.
They really believe in us, which is cool, really. One thing that
sucks is that we don't get as much chance to go to Europe, as we live in
Canada, so the touring is more sporadic. Hopefully, as we are getting
more popular, we can play more festivals and such, which is great
exposure for any band.
Interviewers Note: In the interviewers opinion only, Metal
Blade US did very little to support the band but that's a story for
another time.
You have two quite rare, indie CD's. Will you ever re-issue
those?
We have talked to Metal Blade about re-releasing ZERO HOUR, sometime
in the near future, which I think they will do when the time is right.
However, we are tooling with the idea of re-recording SEVEN SPIRITS, as
we think our new vocalist (Pat Mulock) plus with the studio upgrades
since we recorded that record (1997) can make that record much better
than the original recording!!! If we do decide to do this, we will do it
at our leisure, to make sure it is right, so it may take a few years for
it to see the light of day.
I find it tragic that one of Canada's greatest metal bands has
hardly ever toured it's own country due to the vast space, lack of good
promoters and general attitudes towards metal. Have you toured in Europe
or Japan before? If yes, who did you tour with? Will you try to
tour across Canada soon?
Thanks for the kind words!! We played in Germany last year, at
a festival called BANG YOUR HEAD. We played with Judas Priest, Megadeth,
Kreator plus a ton of other great bands!! But other than the occasional
Toronto show, we haven't toured much yet!!! For us to do a
complete tour of Canada would be a major undertaking for it to work
properly!!! Anything is possible, but it would have to be worth
our while to do such a thing, as it would suck to travel 3,000 miles to
play to 60 people, you know?? I think after the new record is
released, and if there is a good reception from it, we could talk a bit
more seriously about it.
You have a new singer. Tell us about him and how he came to
be in the band.
Yes we do!! His name is Pat Mulock, who resides in Toronto as
well. We put the word out to the media that we were seeking a new
vocalist and he was one of the people who applied. Out of all people
considered, Pat was what we were looking for in terms of performance and
attitude. As soon as we hired Pat, we put him in the studio to work on
our new record.
Tell us a bit about the new CD!
Well, the new record is called COMA NATION, and we are real proud of
it, I must say!!!! Of the 5 records we have recorded, this was easily
the easiest record to make, and by far the strongest!!! I really
don't know why - things just fell into place. This is the most
diverse record we have done, as we believe there are no rules in making
music!! We have everything from total speed metal to slow crushing
stuff, a 19 minute epic tune, and a lot in between!!! I really
cannot wait for the metal community to hear this record - if you like
real heavy metal, we hope you will dig the new record, man!!!
Tell us a bit about your own studio in Toronto.
Actually, Glen is the owner of the studio, which is called Eclipse
Recording. He started it in 1993, and its gone from a small 4 track
thing to a full-fledged 24 track digital recording facility. In the last
year, Glen has also taken on recording other bands when he has some time
off from Eidolon. Glen learned the recording process by himself, which
to me, is amazing!! When you hear the new record, I think the results
speak for themselves on how good Glen has become as an engineer and
producer.
What are your plans for the near future? Tours? Will you
record some shows for a Triple Live in Japan CD?
Right now, we are concentrating on the new record release and all the
media hype-ing that is soon to go along with it!!! The Europeans are
nuts about metal, so the interview's are fast and furious. Also, we just
got picked up in both Japan AND the U.K. so we are real happy about that
as well!! As far as touring, we have to wait until the record is
released and go from there. We are planning on doing some eastern
Canadian shows, but that is still to be ironed out as well. I
think the 3 c.d. Japan live recording with 37 bonus tracks are a few
years off yet!!! When there is a demand for it, you know we'll be
ready, man!!!!!!!
Do have any last comments for our readers?
Yes, I would like to say thank you to those who support EIDOLON!!! We
are doing our best to help wave the Canadian heavy metal flag, so
support CANADIAN HEAVY METAL, PEOPLE!!!! we hope to see you soon on
tour!!!!!
Thanks again to Shawn and the band!
For more info on Eidolon, drop by www.eidolon-nightmareworld.com