KATAKLYSM Frontman Talks About Upcoming Album

Crowgrrl's Perch e-zine recently conducted an interview with KATAKLYSM frontman Maurizio Iacono. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

Perch: It's been awhile since "In The Arms of Devastation" came out. Are you working on material for a follow-up yet?

Maurizio: We've been working on material for a follow-up. We've been really well inspired to do "In The Arms of Devastation". But when we finished it, there was still a lot more to say, a lot to write. We had more ideas. We did a quick European tour for it right after the album came out, but then we took a break and didn't hit the U.S. right away because we still wanted to write more. So we put ideas on ice for the next one. We've been writing a little bit here and there between tours. We're going to try to finish it this summer. There's a lot of stuff going on, so we don't know if it's going to be delayed a little bit or not. Yeah, it's been awhile. We re-released it for this tour, and it feels like a fresh record still. That's one thing that's really cool because it's like a year old now. But it feels like the momentum for it is kind-of building now. So it's really cool to see that.

Perch: The new material you have coming out — can you give us a bit of a preview? Tell us a little bit about it?

Maurizio: It's going to be a hard-hitting record. You know, I hate when all the bands say, "It's going to be our best album and it's going to be this or that". It's a little early for us to say how the end result will be. But we do have producers that we already want to work with and are confirmed. We're not allowed to say right now because we want to keep working on this album more still because it still has a lot of life into it. But it will be a more melodic album, and it's going to be very much more intricate. The workmanship on it is going to be a little bit higher than the last record, but it's going to have a KATAKLYSM feel. On the last record we were very comfortable with where we were at with "In The Arms Of Devastation". The new record is going to have a little more of everything, but we're going to keep it KATAKLYSM style because that's the way it is. We write songs. We're not about being the most extreme band or this or that. It's really about having good songs that people can relate to and have a good feeling about. I think there's going to be a concept of self-imprisonment on the album — that's going to be the focus of it. So you've got the first information for our next record.

Perch: Thank you!!! So how does the songwriting process work for you guys? Do the lyrics come first or the music?

Maurizio: I need the music to write the lyrics because it gives me the motive, the feeling for being able to write something for a certain part. I do come up with choruses in my head, certain structures that I know I want to use, then I'll talk to the guys about getting something like this. Then they'll go with that and build around it. We have a very weird way of writing. A lot of singers will write their lyrics and try to fit them to the music, then the music will compliment the lyrics. We actually do the music first and then I'll put my lyrics in, or I'll have a chorus or idea and we'll build around that. There's always a real foundation there somewhere. That's how we mostly write. I live in Chicago, so it's a bit difficult for us to get together and just write. The other guys live in the Canadian city of Montreal, so they're getting together all the time and writing, then I'll fly in and put my ideas in. Then we go from there, and it's really cool.

Read the entire interview at Crowgrrl's Perch e-zine.