The Metal Crypt - Circle of Silence Interview

Interviews

Interview with bassist Björn Boehm
Interview conducted by MetalMike

Date online: September 24, 2011

MetalMike: How about if we start with a brief history of the band? How did the present lineup come together?

Björn: Circle Of Silence begun as a two-man project of Tobias and me in late 2005 but we realized early that Circle Of Silence should be a real band. In March 2006 the current line-up of Circle Of Silence was completed by Nick, Pit and Chris. In September 2006 we released our first album Your Own Story and two years later in the beginning of 2008 we released our second album The Supremacy of Time. Our first two albums were self-produced albums, so we decided that our third album The Blackened Halo should be our first professionally recorded album and that we would try to have more success and a record label to promote the album worldwide. Thanks to Massacre that we got the chance to release our album.

MetalMike: I can see on your website that many of the guys in the band like to listen to similar music, but what were the individual influences that inspired each of you to pick up your instruments? Which bands introduced you to Heavy Metal?

Björn: The motivation for me to learn bass guitar was quite unspectacular. First I tried to learn e-guitar but then we decided to make a band and so I started to play bass guitar because we already had a guitarist. Haha. The first time I got in touch with Heavy Metal was around the Year 2000. My first real metal CD was Brave New World from Iron Maiden.

MetalMike: Describe Circle of Silence's writing process. Does everyone participate or are there just one or two main songwriters? Do you all get together to play and try out new material or are do you share files over the internet?

Björn: We have three main songwriters in the band. Sometimes we share files over the internet to get feedback from each other. The main part of the songwriting is done at home before we start to rehearse the song. If the song is ready we start to rehearse the song and the complete band get involved in the songwriting process. In this phase we check single parts or the complete arrangement and change parts if it improves the song.

MetalMike: Your latest album is called The Blackened Halo, a title similar to Kamelot's 2005 album The Black Halo. Where did the inspiration for that title come from? Musically, the bands are different but are there any similarities between your lyrics and Kamelot's, i.e. the downfall of man?

Björn: The title came up while I searched a chorus line for the title track of the album. The blackened halo is a symbol of hypocrisy and the decay of mankind. Unfortunately I don't know that much from Kamelot's music but what I've heard so far is really great.

MetalMike: It seems like most of band members are Lord of the Rings fans. Have those books worked their way into the lyrics? Are you excited for the new Hobbit movie?

Björn: Personally I'm really excited about the new Hobbit movies. I can't wait to see them. I try to follow the production in the internet as often as I can.

MetalMike: You also seem to like science fiction ("Redesign" "Synthetic Sleep"). What are some of your favorite science fiction influences (books, authors, movies)?

Björn: I think we get the most science fiction influence from movies. The song "Exception" for example is highly influenced by the movie "The Island". "Synthetic Sleep" and "Redesign" are not that influenced by any books or movies. The lyrics for those songs are just fictional stories that came up during the songwriting. I also like "The Dark Tower"-Saga from Stephen King which contains some of science fiction. The last song "Until the Worlds Collide" on the album is based on the "Dark Tower"-books.

MetalMike: Is playing in Circle of Silence a full-time gig for you? Does anyone have a "day" job?

Björn: No, Circle of Silence is not a full time job for us. Everyone has a regular job.

MetalMike: Many Metal musicians today play in multiple bands. Is Circle of Silence the only musical outlet or do you play in multiple bands?

Björn: It the beginning some of us had more than one band, but now we focus completely on Circle Of Silence.

MetalMike: Certainly Europe remains the stronghold of Heavy Metal these days. Where are your favorite places to play? Where do you hope to play in the future?

Björn: We like every stage where we are allowed to play. We hope that we can play on one of the big summer festivals here in Germany. To play there would be like a dream that comes true.

MetalMike: I assume you guys are fans, too. What has been your most "Metal" moment when not playing with Circle of Silence? Have you had the opportunity to meet any of your heroes?

Björn: My most "Metal" moment was the first visit at Wacken Open air in 2003. This festival was just perfect. Tobias and Chris visited the 70,000 Tons of Metal Festival where they met a lot of famous metal musicians from their favorite bands like Testament and Gamma Ray.

MetalMike: Finally, what should the Heavy Metal fan new to Circle of Silence know about the band and its music that we haven't covered?

Björn: If you like riff-orientated power metal like Brainstorm or Iced Earth you should check out The Blackened Halo. I promise you will not be disappointed. ;-)

MetalMike: Thanks for taking some time to answer these questions. Good luck with The Blackened Halo.

Other information about Circle of Silence on this site

Review: The Blackened Halo

Review: The Rise of Resistance

Review: Walk Through Hell