SOURCE WEBZINE

SOURCEWEBZINE - For those not yet familiar with Mercenary describe the band in one sentence.

Mike Park (D) - Heavy as hell…

SOURCEWEBZINE - Your last album was extremely well received by press and public. Did that put any pressure on you while writing for the next CD? I mean; fans, record company and press will be having their expectations …

Mike Park (D) - You could say that but fortunately we’ve always been good at not letting the pressure get to us. Every record we have made has just been like we wanted it to be and not made to please the media and so far that strategy works out pretty well. We’ll make songs that we feel are strong and hope that the public shares our opinion.

SOURCEWEBZINE - Who did you bring in to work on the new album “Architect of Lies”?

Mike Park (D) - As on the previous albums we decided to use Jacob Hansen once again. He know us so well and he’s always open to new ideas and very fast to pick them up. So almost everything was tracked in his studio. All except the vocals. For the first time we used a different studio to record the vocals (Casper Skafte @ Skafte Recordings ). The vocal tracks was later brought to Hansens studio and he then did his thing. Ziggy at Zigsound mastered the album. He also mastered “11 Dreams” and THTR. We did’nt bring in any guest musicians this time as we did’nt really have the time and this time around we had René to handle the harsh vocals so it did’nt seem very necessary.

SOURCEWEBZINE - Since you’re a band with such a strong presence on the Internet, and the album did well anyway, does it bother you when people “illegally” download your music?

Mike Park (D) - This is always a very touchy subject. My honest opinion is that the internet is helping us more than it hurts us. We do not sell a million records so we don’t lose a big pile of money. The internet is a great way to spread the music and get people to show up at concerts to check it out. Of course you’re always hoping that these downloaders will buy the album later on.

SOURCEWEBZINE - The music industry seems to be putting a lot of emphasis on a band’s MySpace status, with bands getting signed based on how many ‘friends’ they have, or how many plays they get per day. Do you see this as having a negative impact on the scene’s integrity, or as a way for band’s to easily get attention?

Mike Park (D) - I think that Myspace is a great way to get your music out to a lot of people but I still believe that the strongest survive. Luckily most people know crappy music when they hear so it does’nt really matter how many friends you have… especially not when you can buy all sort of friendadder tools. I’ve heard some of these Myspace bands, Arctic Monkeys for example, and whether it’s my taste of music or not it’s still quality. So I don’t think it’s hurting the scenes integrity because you’re suddenly competing against thousands and thousands of bands which means you have to do your very best and bring something new to be noticed.

SOURCEWEBZINE - The Danish metal scene has become increasingly bigger, and better, in recent years. It might be an advantage because more people might take notice off your band, but your music might likewise drown in eth midst of the releases. Your reflections on such matter, please!

Mike Park (D) - Yeah, of course we’ll be overshadowed by bands like In Flames and
Soilwork but in this business you’ll just have to take one step at a time and keep on doing your best. Then hopefully one day you’ll stand alongside these bands instead of underneath.

SOURCEWEBZINE - What are you listening to lately, or are there any bands you think people need to know about?

Mike Park (D) - These days I’m listening to a lot of Megadeth because we just toured with them. That made me re-visit “Rust in Peace” and “Peace Sells…” I’m having this retro trip at the moment… listening to old Slayer, Testament, Death and so on. Well, besides that I’m listening to Neurosis a lot. Really mean, angry doomish hardcore. They’re one of my favourite bands at the moment. I’ll urge people to check them out. Especially the album “Times of Grace”.

SOURCEWEBZINE - The Danish metal scene is filled with a ton of amazing bands, what do you think makes you guys stand out?

Mike Park (D) - That’s a hard one. There are so many great Danish bands right now and they all have their special touch. I think we stand out a bit because of our ability to incoorperate all different genres without making it sound forced or unnecessary. We don’t really have any boundaries. We slide from soft piano to crushing trash in an instant and I think that’s something that makes our music interesting. Either that or because we’re so damn sexy.

SOURCEWEBZINE - The album will probably ‘leak’ online fairly soon. Do you care if your fans, or potential fans, download your album before it’s released?

Mike Park (D) - Not really, that help us get our music out to all the people who didn’t consider buying the album anyway, This way there’s a chance they’ll show up at our concerts. As I said before you’re always hoping that they will buy the album eventually but I rather have people dowloading the album than not listening to it at all.

SOURCEWEBZINE - I don’t have the promo of the new alum “Architect of Lies” yet. Can you tell me some details about the music, new influences and differences from your previous album?

Mike Park (D) - One of the main differences is that the harsh vocals are back. René (harsh
vocals & bass) joined the band after “The Hours That Remain” was recorded so we were now able to use two vocals again. So you will notice that the new album is a lot more aggressive. We wrote a lot of the album while touring so we’ve tried to capture the live feel and put that on there as well. The result is an album that is less progressive and a lot more straight forward.

SOURCEWEBZINE - Please conclude your news story - e.g. by giving us a heartfelt goodbye.

Mike Park (D) - Thanks for reading this and hopefully we’ll see a lot of new faces
on our upcoming European tour with Death Angel. Keep it heavy !

Mercenary
Mercenary Myspace
Century Media Records