As most people know, bands these days in the early part of their careers need other sources of income to pay the bills… what other trades or occupations do the members of Tomorrow’s Eve have to fall back on?
Yes it’s sad but true… non-mainstream, non-commercial bands (and this concerns most Metal bands world-wide) cannot live just by playing their music, especially when we speak about Progressive music. Of course, we all have a daily job that allows us to pay the bills. I do some composing for different projects, like children’s theater, etc., and work part-time as an IT-specialist for a small internet service provider. Oliver works in retail and Rainer’s work deals with machines, but I really don’t know what he actually does… could be something dangerous, ha ha. So, I can add up what everybody does in detail, but the quintessence will be, that we are like all other people to. It would be great if we could lessen these kinds of jobs and increase the amount of time that we can put into our music, but I fear this may just be wishful thinking.
If it wasn’t for Tomorrow’s Eve (TE), what would each of the band members be doing today?
Huh… this is a hard one. I don’t know. It was a bunch of fortunate circumstances that we found each other to put together the line-up that finally let us build TE. So I don’t dare speculate what would have happened if we never met each other.
When not in the studio or touring, what do you enjoy doing?
Rainer: When we are not in the studio or touring, we work on a new album.
Tom: I try to spend my free time with my daughter, as often as possible.
Martin: Like I said before, we are normal people. We love to spend our time doing things like most other people do. Chris and I are addicted to PC games and movies. What drives my girlfriend crazy is that I can spend hours on the screen.
The band has had many changes in personnel during its history. Have the member changes taken its toll on the band or have all of the changes been positive steps?
Rainer: Positive steps, I hope. Every loss of a bandmember took it’s toll on the band, of course. Especially the times when the bandmember chose to leave us. It’s hard to lose half of the band after the release of an album like MOC 1, when you should be on tour to promote it. But, all in all we are very happy with the current line-up and hope that we won’t have to endure personnel changes again in the future.
What was the main difference between releasing your first album, The Unexpected World, and your latest release, Mirror Of Creation 2 – Genesis II? What was the hardest thing you had to overcome?
Rainer: The hardest thing was, as mentioned before, the change in the line-up after MOC 1. Due to the long time that it took us to become the band we are now, we had a very hard start. We were talking to so many labels until we finally found a new home at Lion Music.
How has your relationship with Lion Music been since going onboard with them?
One word: Great. The guys at Lion Music are big fans of Progressive music. I mean, you can feel that they still have a vision and love their releases. This is something that other labels, especially the bigger ones, lost a long time ago. This business is rough and I am glad that Lion managed to prevail.
What instruments and amplification do Chris and Rainer use when in the studio and when playing live?
Rainer: I play a Siggi Braun custom guitar and use a Mesa Boogie Rectifier amplifier in the studio as well as live.
Chris: I play my Tobias basic 6 bass and a Fender Bassman in the studio. Live, I play a Sandberg custom bass and use a SWR bassamp.
Who is your favorite band or performer/artist to see live?
Martin: Oh… there are a lot. I fear this is really hard to answer with just one name, but to mention something, I would really love to see Evanescence or Disturbed live.
If you were trapped alone on some island for the rest of your life, what five (that is the limit) albums/CD’s would you bring with you?
Martin: I never leave my home without my mp3 player. It has a 20 gigabyte hard drive so I have almost every album on it that I own. Lucky me!
Chris: I would mostly take CD’s of beautiful girls with me. Hey, it’s for the rest of my life.
Martin: To be honest, I don’t think anybody can seriously answer this question. But, I’ll try since there is a limit to name my favorites:
1. Tomorrow’s Eve – Mirror of Creation II (Should I happen to meet some “Friday” there, I can make him listen)
2. Vai – Sex And Religion
3. Hans Zimmer – Kingdom of Heaven (Score)
4. Disturbed – Ten Thousand Fists
5. Lalu – Oniric Metal (because Viv would kill me, if I didn’t mention his album in this list)
Now that you have followed Mirror Of Creation with the concept album Mirror Of Creation 2 – Genesis II, what can fans expect from Tomorrow’s Eve as far as the next release is concerned? Will it be a follow-up or continuation of MOC 2, or will it be something completely new outside the realm of that story?
We already wrote a few songs and there is a lot of rough material that contains a lot of ideas. It’s very energetic stuff, raw and hard sometimes. But, we won’t continue the concept of MOC for now. The next album won’t be a concept album, at least not in the typical way, but I don’t want to talk about that too much for now. I’m sure that it will be something outside MOC.
Do you have a time frame for when Tomorrow’s Eve will be in the studio working on your next release?
We booked Phil Hillens’ Studio from July on, but who knows what can happen in half a year. If everything goes according to plan, we will be finished in August / September. So the release could be around the same time as MOC 2 last year.
Studio work, getting the album set for release, promoting the album, and, of course, touring takes its toll … where do you like to go to get away from everything?
Chris: I like to drive around in my car. I don’t know why, but it relaxes me like almost nothing else.
Martin: I workout. When I quit smoking last November, I started training by doing hard workouts to get back into my old shape again. Since then, I am in the gym up to 6 days a week.
Tom: I play drums. I know how it may sound, but it really gives me a sort of freedom like nothing else. It’s like meditation and working out at the same time.
Martin, your latest acquisition of Chris Doerr (bass) and Tom Diener (drums) were excellent decisions. Listening to Tom’s double-bass drum assaults and precision cymbal attacks along with Chris’s excellent non-stop bass runs complementing each other is extremely invaluable. How did Tomorrow’s Eve go about in acquiring these two fine and talented musicians? What were the circumstances that led up to them finally joining Tomorrow’s Eve?
Martin: Then we did something right. When we wrote the songs for MOC-2 we wanted to write complex songs with a lot of details, without making them too artsy. After all, we are still a Metal band and I think it’s a sad fact that most of the listeners become afraid when they hear the word Prog. Prog doesn’t mean to produce long songs with meaningless boring solos and rhythms no man on earth can count. It’s all in the detail. All of this makes this album grow with repeated listenings.
Tom and Chris are absolutely tight together, that’s true. The circumstances that led up to them finally joining TE? There is a legend being told that Tom was drumming in the room next to the former rehearsal room of TE and was playing so loud that they asked him to play on their side of the wall when they needed a new drummer. I think this is true. And Chris joined a few weeks after Tom asked him to join. The really funny thing is that we all knew each other going back a long time — that makes it a lot easier to work together. Some people may call it kismet or karma.
What made Tomorrow’s Eve select Jennie Kloos for guest vocals on “The Market Of Umbra” and “Not From This World?” Who’s decision was it? Why not use Jennie more often?
Martin: This is a good question. I’ve known Jenny for a few years and I really like her voice. She is not this weak, thin girlie-voice cliché, that came up to Metal in the last decade. Before I joined the band, the guys had already written “Human Device” and it was planned to be part of a dramatic duet with another singer for this song. But, as I wrote the concept and the main vocal lines, I knew that this song wasn’t made for a duet, but “Not From This World” was crying and begging for it. The other guys didn’t know Jennie’s voice and had to trust me. I remember their jaws dropping when they came in the studio after Jennie and I recorded “NFTW” and heard the song with the vocals. There will be a new release of TE soon. There will be a nice treat for all of our fans with this song on it.
What tour plans are in the works?
Martin: We will be on tour in April with Circle II Circle and Savage Circus. I think this is an amazing package and I can’t wait to start this tour. You can read the dates on our website.
The current formula of the band seemed to work very well for the new album. As a last question, do you think the band is in a good place now and will remain intact once and for all?
Martin: Yes, absolutely. There may be some side projects for some of our members, as always, but we built a solid foundation and will try to continue using this formula.
Thanks Andy Craven from Lion Music, Martin LeMar (lead vocalist), and the rest of Tomorrow’s Eve for their valuable time and opportunity in letting this interview come about.
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