SOURCE – You recorded the Summary of Retribution in 2010 and The Deceived that was released in 2014. How do you feel about these two efforts now in retrospect – what were some of the good things regarding these recordings, or maybe lessons that you learned that have made the band stronger?
Jessica Otten (Bass) – You are right about those two albums! We did a home recording for ‘Ultimate Retribution’ (2010) and we went to the studio for ‘The Deceived’ (2014). Both releases (not only the recordings, but the release in general) has taught us so much! Not only did we learn how to turn creative ideas into actual music, but also learned a great deal on arranging tracks, how to promote them and the pro’s and con’s of recording in a studio and releasing via labels. We took all these lessons into account and combined them now for the new release ‘Phobos’. And still, we keep on learning. Every release has its own learning value. It’s up to the artist to recognize this and take the learned skills with them to the next album. In our opinion, this is the key to a band’s development. And besides, working with Julien and Mendel is amazing. These guys have such a high level of professionalism and talent in their blood. Very inspiring.
SOURCE – What do you feel the goal of Phobos was to you, as a band?
Jessica Otten (Bass) – The ultimate goal for us was to have this record released no matter what. The last few years were rough on us with touring, writing and recording. At some point we were not even sure if ‘Phobos’ would ever get to see a release date at all. Seeing the release date and positive feedback on the first single now is amazing. When you work on an album for that long, you tend to forget what you’re doing it for.
Another big part what we wanted to express with ‘Phobos’ is the new musical style. Musically we shifted a bit from the ‘old-school’ path. This happened naturally during our writing process. Dictated has matured that way and it was our goal to make sure that ‘Phobos’ honored this maturity.
SOURCE – How do you feel so far about the worldwide response to this record? Have there been any surprises in terms of appeal, and how do you handle any criticism if it’s given?
Jessica Otten (Bass) – We feel so excited! First reactions from press and fans have been overwhelming and gave us the exact strength and confirmation we needed to continue. It’s always a bit nerve-racking when you’re releasing new things, and what the audience will think of them. So far, it has been very good. We have surprisingly good reactions from not only the fans, but also other bands, promotors and venues who we’re very positive about the new record.
In the past, we had trouble with the criticism you are referring to. You’re proud of what you created, and people sometimes don’t realize -as a beginning/young band- you can get influenced by criticism. It takes time to learn how to grab feedback from criticism, and figure out if you’re getting real criticism/feedback or just ‘hate’ disguised as criticism.
End of the story is, WE wrote this album and everything we reached so far is because of extremely hard work and dedication. That’s all that matters. People will always criticize the work your do because in this era, everybody has and needs an opinion on everything. We learned (the hard way) to not let this influence you too much.
SOURCE – Your video for Hypso has received great views through YouTube – what can you tell us surrounding the video shoot?
Jessica Otten (Bass) – Oh it was a tough one for sure haha! When we came up with the plan to create video for this track, we all unanimously agreed that we did not want to shoot a video in a garage like we did last time and so we thought outside the box. We wanted to create a bit of an impact, as it would be the first track of the album we’d be releasing. It had to be something totally different from the current material out there.
As we created a concept album, it made only sense to create a video in the same style. ‘Hypso’ is actually the fear of heights, but we combined all fears of the album into the video to welcome everybody to ‘Phobos’. The recording of the video itself was hell. It took us a couple of full days to actually record and some of the scenes were very tricky. It’s not fun to be shooting on a Saturday at midnight, after working 14 hours straight already, and see your bandmate stuff his face with smelly food hehe. Also, the ‘blood’, the ‘sand’ and ‘black bile’ scenes were an absolute nightmare to record. I guess it took each member around 3 showers a day to be able to feel ‘clean’ again.
SOURCE – What do you think as a new band have been the greatest learning curves that you’ve had to work through that maybe other acts or musicians never put much stock or energy into?
Jessica Otten (Bass) – Unfortunately, some of the more established bands had different opportunities during their start with their bands, so when we get advice from them, it’s harder to apply now or it’s not available anymore. You get a lot of turn-downs on multiple levels which many bands will experience. As a result, it made us more resourceful and more creative. We have learned a LOT since the first note of this album, our past experiences during the other albums and found different paths and tactics. If you just keep the one (and most important) thing in mind; ‘The album is good, I want people to hear this’, you will think of different ways to get your music out there. A great learning experience with this release is the production phase. We never realized what it takes to produce vinyl for example.
In the end, the younger/newer bands will be the ones who found those different ways and tactics and are the ones who have the most updated knowledge about the (music) scene. Tables will turn in the end.
SOURCE – What types of hobbies / interests do you have to recharge your batteries away from the band- and how do you balance things as far as work/career and musical goals?
Jessica Otten (Bass) – Well this totally depends per band member. For me (Jessica Otten), everything is connected. I have no life/work balance, as I work for a music company. I am working 24/7 with music, releases and artists. It sounds great to be always working in the music industry, but it’s extremely exhausting. This causes me to force myself to find a hobby/interest that has nothing to do with music at all. I like gaming and doing yoga to take the mind of music.
For Sonja is changing her batteries by playing some classical music on her violin and singing. She works as a photographer and joins bands during their live shows or tours to capture their lives on the road. She’s close to getting her motor license, so that would charge her brain at least! Other than that, mainly working out at the gym, getting together with friends and traveling the world as much as she can.
SOURCE – How do you see the next year shaping up for Dictated in terms of promotion and band activities?
Jessica Otten (Bass) – Well the new album comes out on October 25th, 2019 so we tend to focus on 2020 already. Of course, playing live is a big part of our promotional plan, but we also stretch out the ‘Phobos’ promotional period with the release of playthrough video’s and behind the scene footage. We have a couple exiting things lined up for the upcoming weeks already!
SOURCE – What do you have planned for the rest of 2019?
Jessica Otten (Bass) – We will travel back to Ireland for our release show at the Siege of Limerick festival on October 27th and we have a few more shows coming up for this year. But all eyes are on 2020 when it comes to shows and touring. We can’t wait to see you all on the road soon! Of course, we don’t stop writing new material as well (it seems ages ago we wrote the ‘Phobos’ material haha) and first new ideas are already taking shape.
Thank you for taking the time to read the interview and big thanks to Source for asking us!
See you out there!
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