Sel Balamir - frontman and guitarist of the wonderful Amplifier, answers metaphorical questions.

V.V.: Hello Sel, what are you up to?

S. B.: Hello, Vassil, good to speak to you again. I’m just hanging out in my apartment just doing interviews with loads of people about our new album.

V.V.: Please, give us more details about this forthcoming album of yours!

S. B.: OK. “Insider” is quite different from our previous album. It’s much heavier it just rocks more than our first album. It was quite slow and psychedelic and this one is much faster. If you wanna jump around in a moshpit, then this is the one for you.

V.V.: This is not necessarily a bad thing – that your fist album was a bit slow. And if someone asks me what do I think about the first Amplifier album, I would say that this is a great thing that you can get hypnotised by this music.

S. B.: Yes, absolutely.

V.V.: Is the second one going to have the same effect?

S. B.: You gotta understand that the second album comes from touring with the first album and when you’re touring it for two and a half years and when you’re playing it for an hour and a half, it becomes obvious what things are missing. The songs are quite slow and hypnotising, which is great, but at some point you need to inject adrenaline so that everybody can go fucking nuts. And if you don’t have the adrenaline ready to shoot, then you can’t do it. So the second album is much more stripped down and much more no-nonsense. Get down, let’s rock – that’s the one thing we knew we had to do when we were recording the second album.

V.V.: So, please, tell me is the lineup still the same?

S. B.: Yes, the lineup is still the same.

V.V.: It’s you, Neil and Matt.

S. B.: That’s right.

V.V.: What keeps you together? - I mean we all know that in this fucking world everybody is so fucking cynical – it’s all about money, not about music, but about business, appearances, etc. Why the hell and how come?

S. B.: You know what, Vassil, we ask ourselves the same question every day.

V.V.: Really?

S. B.: But you know what – we’re still not corrupted, we’re still poor and that’s why we’re still together making music.

V.V.: So can we say that you’re still together and making music because of the hunger for music?

S. B.: Yes. Exactly. You have to be hungry to stay in the game. If you’re a big fat man you can’t run.

V.V.: Well, another metaphor, then. You said that if you’re fat, you can’t run. Where and towards what the three of you run?

S. B.: Jesus, I don’t know. That’s a hard question. That’s a searching question. I guess the simplest answer is that you shouldn’t decide where you’re running to but just follow your instincts. In the long run you’ll find out where you’re going to but I cant speak with any certainty.

V.V.: So, the next metaphor – when you’re running – do you run with your eyes open or with your eyes closed?

S. B.: This is the most metaphysical interview I’ve done in a while, so let me think a little. I don’t know. Let’s say we’re running with our eyes open.

V.V.: You know, it’s not such a complicated question.

S. B.: I’ve got the answer. We’re running blindly but with our eyes open.

V.V.: Because you’re running so fast, that because of the speed, you can’t see...
OK, so the idea behind this question was: you follow your instinct and you’re running in a direction you can barely define, but is there somebody that is taking good care of you in terms of management. Which company do you choose to release your albums? Do you have a good manager?

S. B.: We’re speaking in metaphors so the point I want to make is: no matter how certain anything is, when our first album came out – we had lot’s of press, we had a video on TV, we had a great label, we had a great manager that was our friend, we were like a family and then some bad luck happened. And it all counts for nothing.

V.V.: Because the label Music for Nations died.

S. B.: Yes. The week our record came out. No matter how much planning you had, you can’t plan for something like that. And that’s kind of my point. You’re running but you don’t know what’s gonna happen.

V.V.: Last question, then. Do you still keep in touch with other bands who were in the same label Music for Nations? - Bands like Anathema and some others.

S. B.: Anathema I see every day because they play in a club just at the bottom of my street. From time to time I catch up with people. Yesterday I talked to Mikael from Opeth. When you’re in a band and do tours, you kind of hook up with old friends. It’s like working in a really big office, like this country and you walk in somewhere and there is someone you know and you have a beer and catch up.

V.V.: I truly believe that my last question is going to be the most stupid one, but please answer it. Which of the songs in your new album is your favourite one?

S. B.: I don’t know. Which one of your children is your favourite child? ...Are you gonna play it?

V.V.: Yeah.

S. B.: So play “O, Fortuna”.