Jan-Chris: Okay. [Laughs]

Karma: How has the New Year been for you so far?

Jan-Chris: Oh good, good! It’s a bit quiet. We’ve done some local shows in Holland in December and the European tour is going to start on February 16^th and that’s going to be for forty-days. So we’re just starting to rehearse this week. We’re just taking it a bit slowly for the first couple of weeks of the year.

Karma: See why you would. Do you think you’ll tour the US this year?

Jan-Chris: There has been talk and spoke of the possibility of us opening for Morbid Angel in April but we had to turn that one down unfortunately because we do consider Gorefest as a hobby kind of. You know we all have our jobs and we never want to give up our jobs anymore really for it. We just couldn’t do first a European tour then going directly into a US tour. So hopefully we are aiming for September to come over.

Karma: Well that ties in with another question I have a little later.

Jan-Chris: Sorry I ruined your questions. [We both laugh]

Karma: Just need to do some shuffling, that’s all. Guess I should say welcome back considering this is your second go round with Gorefest and all.

Jan-Chris: Mmm-hmm!

Karma: For those who are unfamiliar with Gorefest, can you please give our viewers a brief history of the band?

Jan-Chris: Of course, we were part of the so-called first wave of Dutch death metal in the late 80’s, early 90’s. We released our first album [Mindloss] in ’91 and I guess we made our break with our second album, which was called False. We actually toured North America on that [release] supporting Death on the Individual Thought Patterns Tour. We split up in ’98 after releasing five albums? Is that right?

Karma: Yes. [Five studio releases and one live album, The Eindhoven Insanity Live]

Jan-Chris: I’m sorry. I’m not that good at it.

Karma: That’s okay! No apologies!!

Jan-Chris:  and decided to call it the day… Ja, really never to be brought back from the dead again really. Mainly by coincidence, we decided to reform the band and it has been working out much more than we expected from it.

Karma: Well that’s an awesome story! What lead up to the reunion? What made you want to reform the band?

Jan-Chris: It was actually a label in Holland called Transmission Records who wanted to buy our back catalogue. We always licensed everything so we are the tape owners from every album. It seemed like a good idea at that moment because you couldn’t find them in the shops anymore; we just wanted to leave our legacy behind in a nice box set, you know. That actually brought back Gorefest into my life and started to do the negations to go with Ed, our drummer. I mean at that point, me and Boudewijn, the lead guitarist, didn’t speak [to one another] for six or seven years.

Karma: Wow.

Jan-Chris: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I just started to think of him…what is he doing? Asking the boys, “What’s Boudewijn doing? What’s up with him these days?” He had the same thing going on about me. I mean it was inevitable; we had to meet up again and try to get rid of the bullshit, which we did! That went surprisingly easy and they we said, “Let’s see if we still enjoy this!” First, we planned just to do a couple of live shows and then I think three-four months later we were like, “We do like this and there’s a lot that we have to offer. Let’s do an album!” and there’s going to be another album in a year’s time or so. There’s still a lot of music in us and I think we’re actually like a real band again and not just a business as we probably were at the end of 90’s; four people that have an equal  share in the company, Gorefest. And now especially since we don’t have to make a living from it, it’s much more than four guys against the rest of the world mentality, which is great!

Karma: Well that is great!! It’s also nice that you were able to bury the hatchet too. Perhaps the large span of time helped as well, you tend to forget a lot of things, reasons as to why you stopped speaking to one another in the first place.

Jan-Chris: In the end, we probably forgot why we hated…well hate’s a big word but why we disliked each other so much. I mean it’s got to do with egos, it’s got to do with being stubborn, you know not wanting to give in. It was mostly an ego clash that we had and I mean we all were. We’re wiser now perhaps [laughs] we’re mellower, that’s something that we definitely are.

Karma: Since you have day jobs, would you do Gorefest fulltime again if it were lucrative enough?

Jan-Chris: Uuuwww, yeah it’s difficult, I mean I really love my job. Most of us have real nice jobs.

Karma: So what do you do?

Jan-Chris: I’m a production manager for a company which is a Clear Channel company; the biggest concert promoter in Holland. They used to be our management but one thing leads to the other. It’s still good to be behind the scenes; if I was willing to give up that job.

Karma: I mean realistically speaking I can see why you wouldn’t want to.

Jan-Chris: Of course, if we were to sell a million albums okay that’s an easy decision but we will not. If we sell 25,000 then we’re happy!

Karma: It also must be interesting for you being able to see both sides of the spectrum.

Jan-Chris: It is. It learned me a lot about the business. The cool thing is in the early days, I also used to be also like the tour manager, the driver…I was planning everything. Now, I said I want to do this, I really want to do it but I just want to grab my guitar and somebody tells me, “Sit down! I’ll take you to the gig”, I don’t want to do anything else because I’m doing the other stuff almost on a daily basis. But it’s cool, I’m happy, I’m happy!

Karma: There you go! Being around since '89 or so, the face of metal has changed drastically in sixteen years. What are your thoughts on all of the different subgenres that exist now?

Jan-Chris: Wow! There’s your popular metal, you know, Linkin Park… [Pauses]

Jan-Chris: Yeah, is it my cup of tea? Not really but I mean it’s great for fourteen year old kids. It’s easy, it’s accessible for them. Call it kiddie metal, not to diss them but it’s great that music is there for younger people who would Gorefest or bands like us who are way too extreme. They will if they have something to start with that they probably will find their way to Gorefest and to Black Sabbath and stuff like that. I mean as long as it’s metal, it’s good. And I know at least in Europe times for metal are a lot better than I think in the mid 90’s.

Karma: Really? Why so?

Jan-Chris: Well whether you like it or not but bands like Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park have opened the door to national radio in Holland. In the mid 90’s you would never hear extreme music. Now they consider Limp Bizkit…I mean it is metal; it is heavy down tuned guitars and you can hear it on the radio.

Karma: Point taken.

Jan-Chris: I think it’s a lot better than it used to.

Karma: What is the greatest challenge that you feel the band has been able to overcome in order to get you where you are at this point in your career?

Jan-Chris: The biggest point we had to overcome? Oh god! I don’t know! [Pauses] Things went really smoothly. I guess the biggest point in the very, very early days was to get gigs. [Voice softens as humility takes a hold] Yeah, I mean we had an easy ride, almost. Even when we did the demos and I’m pretty sure you remember Carcass?

Karma: Yes.

Jan-Chris: You know by pure luck or it always being at the right spot at the right moment, we could open up like five dates for them and you know get you big exposure and things just started to roll. Once we did the second album, we got the big gigs like Dynamo [Open Air fest], stuff like that and toured the US, at that point touring the US and Dynamo that was like your biggest dream of every European metalhead. We had a really, really great time.

Chuck [Schuldiner], may he rest in peace. One of the nicest guys around! He most definitely was. You know people…for some reason he had the name of being a very difficult person. And people warned us, “Oh, don’t go out because he’ll cancel every third gig”…and bullshit like that. He was the nicest, nicest person. At that time, he had Gene [Hoglan] on drums Steve DiGiorgio on bass; it was a great band then and a great bunch of people that I see, basically every summer and that I consider as friends.

Karma: That’s so awesome, how great is that?

Jan-Chris: It was a great period, a great time.

Karma: Well speaking of Death, I’d like to talk about the album now.

Jan-Chris: Okay.

Karma: I have to say I LOVE La Muerte. It's very "old-school" in the Death/death metal vein!

Jan-Chris: It is, ja!

Karma: So tell me why did you choose a Spanish title, why not Dutch, Swedish, or Latin even?

Jan-Chris: We didn’t think about it really. We had a couple of titles that didn’t do it. We were thinking and it was almost the last week of recording so Jaap, our A&R manager with Nuclear Blast Europe, was like, “Oh I need the title. Give me the title…” And we didn’t have one. I was watching a show on television and in Holland, everything is subtitled so in it’s original language.

Karma: How interesting is that.

Jan-Chris: [The show] was about the Spanish Civil War and a poet was murdered back in the very early days and all over a sudden La Muerte popped out. You know death.

Karma: Right.

Jan-Chris: It’s just a good word and we already had the cover art work and for me it was like, “Eh, it will fit” but it will have to click. I took it to the band and immediately they weren’t overenthusiastic; they said it was a little “too arty” but after a couple of days we were like, “Yeah, yeah, it feels good. Let’s stick with it!” So we had a title! We didn’t think about it. The only thing now is that Spanish people or in Spanish countries think it’s a very ordinary title. [Laughs] “Oh, so you call it death, huh?”,  it’s a very ordinary title. [Chuckles]

Karma: Love the lyrics too especially for "Exorcism", "Rogue State", and "Of Death And Chaos".

Jan-Chris: Mmm-hmm, thank you!

Karma: What were some of the motivating factors behind the creation of it?

Jan-Chris: It is obviously so much bullshit going on in the world these days and I have to apologize, but I mean I think a part of it comes from the US government.

Karma: Hmm, yeah!

Jan-Chris: Especially here in Europe, we tend to follow the US; you are the biggest power in the world. We’re at the point regardless of the consequences, go with the flow, and people have stopped being an individual. People do not question authority anymore.

Karma: This is very true…but there is the fear factor involved.

Jan-Chris: [Pauses] And you know, that pisses me off! It really pisses me off. I mean we are stepping on so many people’s toes and they will be pissed off and will strike back. There’s a lot of death, it seems to be starting in Europe, and it’s going to be worse, only worse.

Karma: Unfortunately, it seems to be part of this on-going trend.

Jan-Chris: Of course, nobody loves to die and especially not over religious bullshit!

Karma: Very well said.

Jan-Chris: I think we’re at the point where we’re not willing to understand other people’s beliefs anymore. And we’ve come to the point where we think, ah we don’t understand it so it must be bad. You know I think if we would listen to each other and try to understand each other, there wouldn’t be so much fear and all of this fear brings a lot of bullshit.

One thing I remember from ’93 when we toured the US, I mean in Holland we have a big multicultural society, black people, white people, yellow…you know we don’t care! At a certain point we were walking, I have no idea which city it was maybe LA or something, and we were going downtown. We found ourselves in let’s say a black ghetto.

Karma: Okay.

Jan-Chris: So we walked there for about an hour [said ever so nonchalantly] and we went back to the venue and somebody said, “Oh where did you go”? We told them, there and there… “You idiots! You morons! You shouldn’t go there!” but I mean we were not afraid! You know we were walking there, we didn’t have any fear.

You know I remember when Death played in Rotterdam; they wanted to go to a coffee shop so we took ‘em to a coffee shop, which was in sort of a black part of Rotterdam. And you could see that they were behaving differently and we were just walking the streets. Everybody’s just walking the streets and doesn’t give you shit really whatever color you are. And you know, it all comes from fear that we are afraid of each other and we do not understand each other; that was the biggest inspiration for me to write a lot of the lyrics for this album.

Karma: [Rendered speechless] Wow! I completely understand… I couldn’t…your [statement] encompasses so much… What’s most amazing to me is…well I’m black…

Jan-Chris: Okay!

Karma: What I find most difficult living in this country is that you are treated very differently [as a minority] bottom line.

Jan-Chris: Hmm-hmm!

Karma: Not that I bitch about it because it is what it is. I receive the strangest looks and have the damndest conversations. It ranges from, “Oh, you’re black and you’re into metal?” As if something like this would be so far removed from the realm of possibility this day and age. It’s like go fuck yourselves!!

Jan-Chris: Yeah right, like you’re not supposed to into that, you’re supposed to be into reggae…

Karma: …or rap, hip-hop…whatever as long as it’s not metal or some derivative there of or some other bullshit.

Jan-Chris: It is bullshit!

Karma: The current administration seems to celebrate and foster apathy, just close your mind and let us do what we want to do saying to hell with the rest! What’s even more alarming is that this whole thing with apathy is more far reaching than the States, it’s becoming a global issue. It’s a ripple affect.

Jan-Chris: Mmm-hmm! Of course! It’s gonna take a lot of years….

Karma: …to undo this.

Jan-Chris: Yes, to undo this! Definitely, it will probably take twenty or thirty years or so. I think we’ve been set back in time. It’s almost like going back to the 50’s. With the whole Communist thing. And now it’s like the one with the biggest land or the big bad Islam, which is not. Of course, it’s like a very small percentage but you can’t look at it as the whole religion! I think they’re using it to get rid of your rights. From what I understand, your intelligence can tap anybody’s phone…

Karma: …or email…

Jan-Chris: …or arrest people and just keep them in prison without any real reason without telling them what they are being arrested for.

Karma: It is a shame.

Jan-Chris: It is, it’s going back to the Medieval times.

Karma: Quite the sad state of affairs, well let’s go back to the album.

Jan-Chris: Sure.

Jan-Chris: Really great even though we only worked with him for like two days. We produced and recorded the album ourselves.

Karma: Mmm-hmm that I knew.

Jan-Chris: With the studio, with studio engineers, obviously. We flew him in to Rotterdam for two days, basically towards the end of the recording process so that he could have a listen to what we recorded and we could a word in which direction the mix would have. It was that easy, we sent the hard drives to Denmark. I was actually doing a big production in two weeks and every evening at about 11 when I stopped working, I would go to his server and download the latest version of the mixes. I mean it’s brilliant! We didn’t have to be there. Well you know I’m the bass player…

Karma: Well of course. [Chuckles]

Jan-Chris: …and the bass has to be loud and Eddie going, “Hey, come hear the drums!” It was a completely lastly altruist decision. We said we wanted to have a great album. It needs to be loud, it needs to be aggressive it’s basically the way we recorded it. We didn’t care too much about little mistakes and tried to keep everything at two to three takes maximum to try to give it, a sort of live feel. It’s a little out of tune every now and then, we were like, “Oh fuck it, that’s how we sound live as well!”  It was great; I think he really understood what we wanted to do obviously we are still in contact every now and again and he’s still very proud of the album.

Karma: That’s awesome!

Jan-Chris: Ja, he’s a great guy, great guy! He’s a typical Dane…I think he used to be a body builder or something in the early days. He’s a quiet fellow and a big bloke. Until you get a couple of beers in him that when he starts to loosen up and that’s when the stories come out. He’s like say the new Colin Richardson of his time; he’s going to be big I guess. I hope our album helped a little in getting his name around.

Karma: To me the album has almost an analog feel to it, which adds to the overall package.

Jan-Chris: Yeah, of course, it was all done on computer but yeah it’s a real album. It is what it is. There are four guitar tracks, two rhythm tracks by Frank [Harthoorn] and Boudewijn each. Live we just have to see, he plays this bit, he plays that bit… We can play everything live as well.

Karma: How cool is that?

Jan-Chris: Yeah, it keeps it real you know.

Karma: Definitely! Now as far as the cover art is concerned, it’s quite striking; it’s very befitting of the lyrics. How do you want the viewer to feel after viewing it?

Jan-Chris: Oh, that’s a difficult one. I reckon it is pretty eerie, it’s not a very cheerful cover.

Karma: No, not at all.

Jan-Chris: Neither are the lyrics. I have no idea really; pick it up…

Karma: …and form your own opinion.

Jan-Chris: Yeah! The reason we wanted this cover its kind of old school as well; it’s from 1994. We’ve had this cover for like ten years and we never used it at that time. I always stuck with it and actually stumbled across it when I moved about a year ago. It was like, “Wow! Yeah, I forgot completely forgot about this”! The reason we wanted to use it is because everybody’s using these computer animated covers and this is actually a real painting.

Karma: Oh!

Jan-Chris: It’s about 30 x 30 inches; it’s a painting that we got from MID back in 1994. He also did our cover artwork for our second album. Somebody on Blabbermouth says that I think one of the wives is doing a “How to do Photoshop” course or something because obviously they didn’t like the cover. It’s like, ‘fuck, it’s a painting’! That was basically the reason why we wanted to use it. We’ll probably use him for the next album as well. It’s just makes us stand out from the crowd, really.

Karma: That it does indeed. Okay so what’s your least favorite song off the album and why?

Jan-Chris: Least? Damn!! Oooohhh!! Okay…that would pro-bab-ly be… Oooohhh! I really liked you! [Laughter ensues]

Karma: I’m sorry!

Jan-Chris: Damn, Damn!! It’s a difficult one, okay I’d have to say because you said the least favorite, that would probably be “The Call” perhaps but that’s got a great…it’s got my bass intro, a great bass intro. Maybe number eleven [“till Fingers Bleed”] or maybe “La Muerte”? Make it “La Muerte” the instrumental, fuck it! [We laugh] Well I like them all. Someone asked, “Why thirteen songs? It’s over an hour.” Because we were planning to do ten on the album, we didn’t decide. We’re obviously not a band that’s releasing singles, you know we don’t do B-sides, extras, or whatever. So we just said, “Fuck it!” it’s sixty-five minutes of Gorefest and it’s not even for money.

Karma: Biggest lesson learned thus far after releasing six albums. Which lesson will you not repeat?

Jan-Chris: Enjoy it, enjoy it at the moment. That’s something that we definitely forgot to do in the early 90’s when we were having big successes. You’re constantly running, looking a year ahead, planning a year ahead. I definitely enjoy it much more [now] and maybe it’s because we’re older. I also enjoy playing live a lot more than I used to.

Karma: Why?

Jan-Chris: I reckon at that time it was about doing shows and now it’s come back to making music I think. We don’t care anymore, I mean of course we do care but there’s like with a much more total no nonsense kind of attitude that we have. Go out and play, try not to be larger than life, kinda. You know big drum risers and stuff like that. Just let the music do the talking; we’ve been receiving rave reviews on the live shows. We’ve been playing two-hours without support bands, just a good metal DJ before and after and do a twenty song set, about two hours and five minutes actually one evening. It’s great and I feel very, very comfortable talking to the crowd and just enjoying it really. It’s a great feeling. I enjoy it. Play every show as if it were your last one. I’ve definitely learned a lot from our old mistakes.

Karma: Seems like once you can peel back all of those layers of self-imposed bullshit your level of appreciation heightens. You start to appreciate what’s in front of you a lot more.

Jan-Chris: Ja, and it grows on you slowly. It’s a process that gradually it’s like everything has to be bigger and better than the previous tour and there's more people involved. You just forget the essence of the band really. You start out with four people for the love of music.

Karma: And you returned to it!

Jan-Chris: Ja and that why we would never, never want this to be our fulltime job again. The we would return to that mode whether you like it or not. Because you would have to release an album let’s say every year and you have to go on tour because you have to make money.

Karma: Understood. Off the subject of music, what are your views on America? What strikes you odd our society not politically speaking of societal habits or geographical differences…

Jan-Chris: Every thing is bigger, better, faster! Please do not get me wrong, I love your country!! I’m just not in love with your administration. I remember the very first time in ’93 the guys from a band that were on our label picked us up from Miami Airport and we were sitting in the open back of two pick up trucks…everything’s just bigger. Roads are wider, even the second hand car lots look great. [We both laugh] We enjoyed it so much. I do love your country. Of course, we only think…what do you call it… Texas is Cowboys and stuff like that! But there are a lot of really good people in the US that are interested in the rest of the world, you know.

Karma: Definitely!

Jan-Chris: I love your county, I absolutely do. I guess the differences are getting smaller as the world is becoming smaller. I can still understand why America is considered the biggest and the best country in the world. It has that vibe. I think Americans are just as proud of their country as Europeans are.

Karma: On a personal note…creation or evolution?

Jan-Chris: Creation.

Karma: Describe yourself in three words?

Jan-Chris: Caring, loving, cheerful.

Karma: Being a bassist, who in your opinion is the perfect epitome of a bassist?

Jan-Chris: Peter Hook from old Joy Division and New Order.

Karma: Oh wow.

Jan-Chris: He’s probably the coolest guy with a bass! Absolutely, absolutely!!

Karma: If you could commission an artist to do a Gorefest cover, who would do it and which song would they cover?

Karma: If you could interview a band, name one that you would ask these of?

Jan-Chris: That would be Jaz Coleman from Killing Joke and I’d ask him if he would hold my wrists so I could write the same great works as he can. I think Jaz Coleman can write really, really good lyrics with Killing Joke.

Karma: More role reversals, do you have any questions for me?

Jan-Chris: Uuuooh, have you ever been to Holland?

Karma: No.

Jan-Chris: How would you describe Holland in let’s say three to four words.

Karma: Hmmm…

Jan-Chris: And then I’ll tell you if you’re correct or not.

Karma: Okay, I would say Holland looks very clean, it looks very friendly, and it looks very open.

Jan-Chris: Yeah, you’re probably right on that. Although it is like if you go to different parts of the country, that would vary of course… Well, you’re probably right! [Surprise takes over his intonation] You didn’t even mention clogs, tulips, sex and drugs. But you know that’s a very, very, very small part of the country. The whole sex thing is like one square mile in the heart of Amsterdam and everybody seems to think that Holland is one big brothel and everybody’s smoking pot or shooting heroin. Mmm, good for you!!

Karma: Well thank you asides the fact to say any of the other would be stereotypical; I attempt to stray away from that! The country is way more than that!!

Jan-Chris: You’d be surprised how many people like that.

Karma: Well I do plan to go to Europe this year and I'm also taking Swedish up too.

Jan-Chris: Alright! Good for you!!

Karma: I love the fact that I get a lot of exposure to different cultures these days because you are just that open.

Jan-Chris: Yeah, especially in Holland we have to be because we are such a small country. I think Holland always got it's wealth from being traders so we had to be open. We had to adapt to other people's customs. I reckon we were the first country to be let into Japan in the 1600's. We couldn't make money there so we had to adapt ourselves to their culture. Geisha, which is actually a prostitute, is actually a Dutch word.

Karma: Really?

Jan-Chris: Well it used to be, it comes from a Dutch word.

Karma: Well do you have any final words?

Jan-Chris: Be an individual, think for yourself, and do not be afraid of other people's habits!

Karma: Well thank you ever so much Jan-Chris, it's been a pleasure.

Jan-Chris: Thank you! It was really nice talking to you.

Karma: Likewise.