Mark Jansen interview by EpicaStats

Mark was so kind to take a moment to reply to all of our questions, which are a compilation between mine, my friend’s and …

Mark Jansen interview by EpicaStats
0.37 [Music]
0.37 it hasn't changed that much actually
0.37 it has always been a group process since
0.37 the beginning even though the very first
0.37 album i i wrote myself the vast majority
0.37 of the music but during the the years
0.37 there was more and more interaction and
0.37 nowadays we basically write all the
0.37 albums as
0.37 a team so there's not really like one
0.37 song main song writer but there's
0.37 many songwriters and everybody
0.37 contributes to it
0.37 um it's true it's uh it's a music
0.37 business like they say and for me it's
0.37 always like the necessary evil the
0.37 business part
0.37 um i don't like so much to be involved
0.37 in
0.37 too many of the business side because i
0.37 like the creative process much more but
0.37 as i'm coming from a
0.37 business family my father was a
0.37 businessman i at least inherited some
0.37 business genes so whenever
0.37 i'm needed for
0.37 making some business decisions i'm
0.37 always present and
0.37 but like i said it's not my favorite
0.37 part of the process
0.37 it's a necessary evil and
0.37 as long as it doesn't take too much too
0.37 big of a part away from the creative
0.37 process i'm totally fine with it
0.37 yes i think that we as epica always
0.37 brought something new to the table and
0.37 with every album we try to also innovate
0.37 and
0.37 try some new ways and i think i'm we are
0.37 very good at that when back in the days
0.37 many symphonic metal bands tended to
0.37 become more soft in order to try to
0.37 score a radio hit epica on the contrary
0.37 always turned a little bit more heavy
0.37 and i think that worked very well for us
0.37 when i was a kid i started listening to
0.37 rock music already pretty a pretty young
0.37 age and
0.37 definitely guns and roses has been of
0.37 influence i was a big fan when i was i
0.37 was a kid
0.37 and from there on i started listening to
0.37 to heavier metal like mega death
0.37 sepultura
0.37 amorphous and from there on i started
0.37 also listening to symphonic metal
0.37 like the
0.37 gathering night wish the first album uh
0.37 really had a big impact and i really
0.37 liked it and i think uh for every band
0.37 member in epic guides is a bit different
0.37 some have a bit more of a death metal
0.37 background some
0.37 more proge some some more
0.37 rock 70s oriented but everything comes
0.37 together and everything blends and very
0.37 nice together
0.37 yes
0.37 luckily the the departures especially
0.37 from art and eve they left on good terms
0.37 you would see monster was a little bit
0.37 of a different story but luckily we also
0.37 later on we our parts cross again and we
0.37 played together on the 10 years
0.37 anniversary
0.37 when you ruined it was sometimes we had
0.37 some difficult moments on tour he's uh
0.37 he has very specific ideas on on how
0.37 things have to go and sometimes that
0.37 didn't match with the general ideas of
0.37 the other band members so at a certain
0.37 point it was better that we did split
0.37 ways but it was himself who who came up
0.37 with the idea to to leave so
0.37 it was not like that we uh
0.37 forced him to leave or whatever that
0.37 that's what we never did and
0.37 like i said with art and eve that things
0.37 went very smooth and
0.37 very well and we are still on very good
0.37 terms with them without i have almost
0.37 contact on a daily base still and eve
0.37 every now and then we see him at shows
0.37 so it's always good to see him again and
0.37 see that he's doing well with his new
0.37 career so yeah luckily everything went
0.37 well with the departures
0.37 the kingdom of heaven has been
0.37 first of all songwise a very important
0.37 part of our career like the kingdom of
0.37 heaven part one is one of the
0.37 the favorite songs of all times of the
0.37 fans and also very very
0.37 much for for myself
0.37 and kingdom of heaven yeah it's it's a
0.37 place uh
0.37 on earth where we actually already can
0.37 reach
0.37 our true happiness
0.37 and uh that's all possible if we don't
0.37 get too much involved in illusions
0.37 because there's so many illusions in
0.37 this world so many things we get
0.37 attached to that are
0.37 actually artificial but when we all get
0.37 rid of them of all of rid of the
0.37 attachments we find the essence of who
0.37 we truly are and our true peace of mind
0.37 and our true
0.37 yeah deep
0.37 inner silence and happiness
0.37 and that's actually the best feeling uh
0.37 and and really uh
0.37 happy that this this wisdom is available
0.37 and that we all can find this path to
0.37 inner peace
0.37 the paradise show was really an awesome
0.37 event it was all just such a pity that
0.37 the dvd didn't get released back then
0.37 because of the problems with the record
0.37 company they went bankrupt and they
0.37 couldn't release it and we were not the
0.37 owners of the material unfortunately so
0.37 for 20 years almost we we couldn't
0.37 release this this uh fantastic footage
0.37 but now finally it's going to happen and
0.37 my memories basically are about the the
0.37 show itself the guests we had like roy
0.37 khan and
0.37 the guy from golf fest
0.37 so that was really a
0.37 fantastic experience
0.37 to to be playing with with such
0.37 great musicians and
0.37 i will never forget also that it was on
0.37 the 4th of may that was the when we
0.37 remember the death of the second world
0.37 war and that's usually a day that was
0.37 the one of the worst options of the year
0.37 to play in a venue because then
0.37 people say nobody will show up so as
0.37 nobody believed in us in amsterdam we we
0.37 rented the venue ourselves and that was
0.37 the only date available because nobody
0.37 wanted to pick that date and we sold out
0.37 the venue so we proved with that
0.37 uh that they were wrong that we actually
0.37 as epica we were doing well in amsterdam
0.37 and uh that made us proud and that
0.37 showed that we were relevant
0.37 and still are
0.37 yeah we're i can only say that we're
0.37 working on it and hopefully it all turns
0.37 out well
0.37 um it's not a purpose
0.37 by itself
0.37 but i think with our music we can
0.37 specifically
0.37 and with our music we can change lives
0.37 that's at least what people tell us and
0.37 people are
0.37 often writing us messages that our music
0.37 is so important to them and did actually
0.37 change their life
0.37 so it's not like we
0.37 we think about that when we write the
0.37 music
0.37 but i sure
0.37 i'm sure that that that our music can
0.37 have a theoportic and lyrics can have a
0.37 therapeutic effect and
0.37 yeah that's that's great that's the the
0.37 highest thing you can achieve i think uh
0.37 by being able to help other people and
0.37 if that's by the music it's it's perfect
0.37 then we come back to kingdom of heaven
0.37 and uh kingdom of heaven part one that's
0.37 the song i'm most proud of and uh
0.37 even though we don't play that often as
0.37 it's so long it takes a big part of the
0.37 set list
0.37 but every time we play that song i feel
0.37 really proud and really happy that we
0.37 wrote this song and i feel still very
0.37 attached to the lyrics and
0.37 yeah hopefully we're going to play it
0.37 soon again at this moment we are playing
0.37 often kingdom 5 and part 3 which is also
0.37 really one of my favorite songs but if
0.37 there is an all-time favorite it's
0.37 kingdom of heaven part one
0.37 cheers have a great day