About the Spirit of Burgas, the new album, prog rock fans, beaches and condoms and many more

The UK rock phenomenon will be joining the impressive Spirit of Burgas bill this Summer.

AMPLIFIER are to co-headline the JD Rock Arena on the festival's final day, August 14.В  Also playing on the night is Anneke van Giersbergen.

AMPLIFIER were formed 12 years ago and the original line up has stayed unchaged throughout the entire period - Londoner Sel Balamir (vocals, guitar), Dubliner Neil Mahony (bass) and Matt Brobin, their Cardiff-born drummer..

The band was formed in Manchester and has released three albums to date and a host of EP's. Their third album ‘The Octopus’ came out this year, followed by brand new EP ‘Fractal’. 

AMPLIFIER have been widely lauded in the UK press and are considered among the best British rock bands in the last ten years. Their fanbase in Bulgaria has steadily been growing too.

Tangra Mega Rock talks to vocalist-guitarist SEL BALAMIR.

an interview conducted by Nasso Ruskov

HELLO SEL, HOW YOU DOING?
I'm very well. I'm just happy to be talking to Bulgaria.

SO WHERE ARE YOU NOW MATE - IN MANCHESTER?
I'm in London.

OH, LONDON? I HEAR THAT'S NOT A VERY SAFE PLACE TO BE AT THE MOMENT....
Well, I don't think it's quite as bad as you've seen from the TV.В  London's a big place, so it's ok. Mostly it's fine.

YOU'RE FROM MANCHESTER. WE HEARD THERE WAS A BIT OF RIOTING OVER THERE TOO. HOW BAD WAS THAT?
Oh, you know, the kids have gone crazy. They want some jeans and Ipods and things like that.

WHAT'S YOUR OPINION ABOUT THIS WHOLE THING, WHICH IS A BIT OF AN IDIOCY REALLY?
My opinion? I don't....That's very complicated. I think...I think kids are brought up to be consumers and they're hungry. That's what's happening.

AND THEY'RE SEEING A NICE OPPORTUNITY TO CONSUME, EH?
Yeah, exactly, haha.

AMPLIFIER IS FROM MANCHESTER. WHICH MANCHESTER TEAM DO YOU SUPPORT?
You know what, we're all into music. So for us music takes the place of football. Neil supports Tottenham.

OH NOOOO! I'M ARSENAL!
Well, I'm kind of an Arsenal man really. Matt is from cardiff, so he supports Cardiff City. None of us are really into Manchester football.

FOUR YEARS AGO YOU SAID IN AN INTERVIEW (FOR TANGRA MEGA ROCK) THAT RECORD LABELS WILL DISAPPEAR WITHIN THE NEXT TEN YEARS. DO YOU THINK WE'RE GRADUALLY GETTING THERE AND DO YOU RECKON YOU SAYING IT, WAS DUE TO THE FACT THAT YOU GUYS WERE CONSECUTIVELY SIGNED TO TWO LABELS WHO THEN WENT ONВ  - NOT BECAUSE OF YOU - BUT WHO THEN WENT ON TO HAVE SERIOUS FINANCIAL PROBLEMS? I'M TALKING ABOUT MUSIC FOR NATIONS AND SPV.
Yeah, I think my prediction is coming true, it's happening all around me. I mean, we're just doing it all ourselves now. And I know a lot of bands just do it themselves now. So I think it's all going to change real soon.

IS THE TOUR WITH DREAM THEATER STILL GOING?
Well we did a couple of shows as a kind of preliminary to hopefully doing a whole tour with them later in the year. That was just fantastic, it was really really great. The Dream Theater fans really welcomed us. I wasn't sure at all how that would go, so...Erm, yeah, 100% success.

HOW ABOUT THE BAND, HAVE THEY BEEN COOL TO YOU?
Well we only played a couple of shows with them, so we didn't really get a chance to kind of meet them. So I couldn't really say what they were like. They're a great band to watch. I really enjoy that kind of technical instrumental music. Alas, we didn't get a chance to meet them, so I can't really give you any insight.

YOU'VE ALSO TOURED WITH OPETH AND PORCUPINE TREE. ARE YOU COMFOTABLE WITH PEOPLE DESCRIBING YOUR MUSIC AS PROG ROCK, PROG METAL EVEN?
You know Nasso, you've got no control over how people describe your music. We don't really consider ourselves to be like that. We're just a rock band, we play rock music in its kind of purist, most distilled form. But I think this kind of audience have come to us - we didn't go to them, they've come to us. And I think you should never turn somebody away. I'm happy that this audience appreciates what we do. They're not the people that when we started out we would have thought would become our fans. I think they're a part, a contingent, a portion of the people that like Amplifier. But we're really happy, cause these people really listen to music, they really listen. And they enjoy it. So I'm really happy that the fans of those bands like our music. Cause I like those bands, I love Opeth, Opeth are great,man!

SO AUGUST 14, YOU'RE PLAYING THE SAME NIGHT AND THE SAME STAGE AS ANNEKE VAN HIERSBERGEN, WHO USED TO BEIN THE GATHERING OF COURSE. ARE YOU FAMILIAR WITH HER MUSIC?
I'm not at all. It was only when I was looking around that I noticed she played with Anathema, who are good friends with Amplifier, so I'm looking forward to meeting her and her husband Rob, who's the drummer in her band. Yeah, should be good. I can imagine exactly what her music's like.

THE OCTOPUS, WHICH IS YOUR THIRD ALBUM...I HAVEN'T ACTUALLY READ A BAD REVIEW ABOUT IT. IT GOT ALMOST UNIVERSAL ACCLAIM. ARE YOU HAPPY, PERSONALLY, WITH HOW IT TURNED OUT?
Oh yeah, I mean, we're just 100% really really proud of that record. We did everything on it. It took us about four years.

YOU PRODUCED IT YOURSELVES AS WELL.
Oh yeah, we did absolutely everything. From the conception of the record, to recording, production, the mixing, the creation of the packaging and the artwork. The whole thing was like a....People talk about having a vision of doing something. That's exactly what it was and the execution of it was just everything that we wanted it to be. For the first time ever we made something that we were just universally, just really really pleased with. There have been a couple of reviews by people who didn't like it.

I HAVEN'T READ THEM, LET'S PRETEND THEY'RE NOT THERE.
They don't matter to be honest. If all of them had been like that, if everyone had said they didn't like it, we still wouldn't care, cause we think it's great.

YOU SUPPORTED THE DEFTONES AT MANCHESTER APOLLO BACK IN 2002. WAS THAT YOUR FIRST REALLY BIG GIG? CAUSE MANCHESTER APOLLO IS LIKE THE BRIXTON ACADEMY OF MANCHESTER, SORT OF A LEGENDARY VENUE.
Yeah, it was. Ironically enough, up until the Dream Theater shows, this was probably our biggest one. So it's kind of nice to be playing with the Deftones again. It'll be really interesting to go and see them.

HAVE YOU PERSONALLY EVER BEEN TO BULGARIA BEFORE AND WHAT DO YOU KNOW OF US?
I've never been and I'm really looking forward to going. I'm half-Turkish, so I kind of expect it to be a bit like Turkey, but I don't know, maybe that's completely wrong.

THERE ARE QUITE A LOT OF TURKISH PEOPLE HERE.
Yeah, I know it's close to the border, so I'm kind of expecting it to be a bit like Turkey.

BITS OF IT ARE, SOME AREN'T. IT'S DIFFERENT, A BIT OF A MIX, BECAUSE BULGARIANS ARE CHRISTIANS AND THEN YOU HAVE THE TURKS WHO ARE MUSLIM.
Ok. I'm really excited, we're all excited to come and play on the beach. To be honest this is the only holiday we're gonna get, haha.

BRING YOUR SWIMMING TRUNKS.
We're bringing all our songs.

BRING YOUR SONGS, YOUR TRUNKS AND SOME CONDOMS.
Ok, I'll tell my wife, hahah.

CHEERS FOR THIS INTERVIEW, SEE YOU IN BURGAS!
Lovely talking to you, you take care.

rights Tangra Mega Rock