HDK

System overloaded

If you read carefully latest news coming from a metal world you probably heard about AFTER FOREVER dissolution. A few days ago band's members officially announced their decision to terminate one of the leading European female fronted bands. Well, there's an old proverb that says „don't kill the goose that lays golden eggs”, so it was definitely a big surprise to everyone... Of course, it doesn't mean the end of their career. They have already started working on some individual projects. Band's guitarist and main composer Sander Gommans was the fastest, of course. His new album „System Overload” released under HDK's name will be available in your local music store in days...

-Hello Sander! How are you doing? Hope that everything is going OK and we can talk about your brand new baby entitled „System Overload” and some other things...
Hi there! I’m ok, thanks! Obviously, deciding to quit with a band you started nearly 15 years ago is not easy, but it also brings new energy. After Forever will always have a special place in my heart and it has helped me a lot in creating different kinds of music, like my new baby (laugh)

-Let's start our talk from... AFTER FOREVER of course. After nearly 15 years of stable existence you decided to dissolve the band and focus on some individual projects. Was it a good, well thought out decision? Were you satisfied or rather dissatisfied with your accomplishments?
I was really satisfied with the albums and with the way we always stayed true to ourselves, and I knew that you can only stay proud if you always give 100%. That feeling was lacking, so I know we made the right decision for now. No one knows what might happen in the future, but now I can honestly look back at the band After Forever with a smile and a feeling a fullfillment. We didnt quit the band in order to focus on the projects, that’s a result of quitting the band but not the reason for it. HDK for example is not meant to play live, and could easily have excisted next to After Forever.

-In one of your comments concerning band's split up you said „I'm pretty sure the band won't be forgotten, because I noticed many bands already cover AFTER FOREVER songs, which gives me a good feeling." What was the most special thing about AFTER FOREVER, in your personal opinion?
We always wrote different album, none of the albums is a repetition of the previous ones. It was always a surprise to the fans what it would sound like. That makes After Forever special, but it certainly also makes the fans special!

-Could you tell me some more about band's members future plans? If it's not a secret of course...
Joost: is doing everything you can imagine, arrangements, live stuff, songwriting, music for commercials etc
-Bas: creating his own rock and roll project
-Floor: pop/rock project with guitarist Jorn Viggo,
-Andre is playing in various band, with a hard rock attitude!
-Luuk: plays in a female fronted band

-Let's go back to HDK. As noted on the promo, the project started out in your head as a humorous project. That's interesting. Could you elaborate on this?
Well, in the beginning the music was so typically metal, that I thought it should also have over the top vocals and sarcastic humour. When I started to get real frustrated with some things the music became much darker and much more serious....

-How drunk were you when the idea for HATE DEATH KILL's name came to your mind?
Well, I was drunk, had lots of heroine, had xtc pills, had licked the poison of a rainforestfrog and listened to britpop for 3 weeks...you can imagine I was not doing well at the time (laugh)

-HDK gradually transformed into a serious band and this new release is the best proof for that. You wrote this album while you were „full of anger, disgust and hatred, just before your burn out”. Was it kind of a personal catharsis, to get rid all that shit of your system?
Well, I gues this album is as real as it can get, it really sounds like how I feel at the time...it didn’t really help me get rid of that frustration since I still ended up being really sick, but it was transformed into music almost automatically.

-Actually, what makes you feel angry, frustrated or hurt inside? What is the biggest pain in Sander Gomman's arse?
Haha, luckily nothing is coming in my arse, but what comes out of it can be painful too (laugh). On a more serious note, I’m a control freak, and if I do something with my heart, I gve everything for it. Unfortunately, you can’t control all elements in life, and sometimes you just have to accept things can go wrong although it’s not your fault. My biggest pain is not having any ensurance in life, nothing is certain, only the fact you will die and the fact I will never sell my He-Man collection (laugh).

-I feel like this is a question you’ve probably been asked before. I mean the direction of HDK's music which is pretty far away of what's AFTER FOREVER been known for... Actually, where did you see your career going if AFTER FOREVER never happened?
Without After Forever, I would never have been in the music scene. I owe everthing musicically to After Forever. I’d probably be a cartoon artist, or something like that. I have always been extremely interested in music, but when I decided to teach myself to play the guitar, After Forever started. I have never been in another band.

-So far you have been know mostly for gothic epic fantasy soft (come oooon...) metal songs. Does it come easy to you to write some direct, vicious and asskicking riffs? Have you ever composed or played so aggressive piece of shit before?
Well.....you have to agree with me that After Forever is way more brutal than most of the other female fronted bands (laugh). But yes, I agree, HDK is different and the music comes really automatically! It’s not really difficult for me to write this, it feels natural, I guess it has always been there but this was the time to really use t. I always had more extreme musical ideas, but it just didnt fit in After Forever, it would be selfish to force this kind of music into the band.

-I find it really hard to classify this album because it features so many different elements coming from various musical genres. It's quite diverse, unpredictable in some way. Sometimes I get the impression that music on „System Overload” is a bit chaotic, overloaded... Was it your goal? Or it just happened...
My goal was to include more styles on the album, but the fact that is can be chaotic just happened, like I said...this album is as honest as it can be, this is how I felt, there is no better description than listening to this album.

-As I said you before, I’m very surprised at how many different styles you have on your latest CD. If you could record such a diverse album as „System Overload”, what should we expect in the future? Is there anything in music, not only metal but in music in general you would like to explore in the future?
I’d like to explore more black metal elements for HDK, but I also have to say I’m pretty satisfied with the „style” we created, it’s something unique. In general, I like writing rock/pop or even some industrial stuff, next to metal of course!

-Go back to your new album. As a matter of fact the lyrics for this album were written by Amanda Somerville, but hopefully we can talk about them for a while. What is the general idea that „System Overload” stands for? How could you describe Amanda's work?
Since it’s a very personal project, I intended to write all the lyrics myself. When I read what I created thus far, I wasn't happy at all, it wasn't good enough. Amanda is a good friend of mine, so I asked her to write the lyrics based on the subjects I already had for all the songs. She did a great job , the lyrics are really mature and intense now, without making them too „obvious’, to me they are the perfect lyrics!!!

-I read somewhere a very interesting explanation of „Request”. As you claim it's about MySpace, all those virtual friendships and strange virtual communities. To tell you the truth, I don't like MySpace, just for yet another reason. In my opinion the whole community idea slowly kills people's creativity. On MySpace everything looks the same and sounds the same, because of that shitty compressed quality. It's a global promotion of fucking fastfood mentality. Can you agree or disagree with me?
Well, as musician I have to disagree, since I know how important for your promotion this can be. Sure, there is not much individuality, but the music will be an even more important factor, so in a way the music gets a higher value, even though the sound sucks. But I do know what you mean, and I think Myspace will look completely different in a few years!


-According to my previous question, do you plan to launch HDK's official website someday?
Working on it! (laugh)

-How many sessions went into making „System Overload” album? How much money did you invest? These questions are justified since the album is quite complex and features a few special guests. So, was it a big challenge, to finalize this album?
Since I recorded (together wth Amanda) and mixed (togeher with Joost) almost everthing inn my own studio, and the musicians were so kind to not ask too much, the costs were really not that high, though the result ended up to be far better than I hoped for! I financed everything myself, and I ‘m happy I did it the way I did. There were a lot of sessions, which was good, since it makes you reflect again and again on the album and makes you be able to continue in a fresh way in several processes.

-Could you tell me some more about the recording process?
Apart from the recordings in my own studio, the drums have been recorded in the Excess studio Rotterdam and the vocals of Andre Matos have been recorded in The Gate Studios Wolfsburg. The album has been mastered by Darius van Helfteren in Wisseloord. I used Protools to record, a Mac computer, Gibson and Hufschmid guitars. I learned a lot from the vocal recordings with Amanda and the mixing process together with Joost!