Interviews

Fountain of Tears Interview with Edge of Time Magazine
Lighting Inscence and Writing by Candlelight
December 1999, by Christian Rademaker

In my opinion, the global progressive metal scene is becoming over-saturated with Dream Theater-clones. This makes the quest for new and original music within this genre increasingly difficult. However, sometimes, just by pure chance, you stumble upon a certain band name that captivates and tantalizes you. Fountain of Tears was such a band name...

Fountain of Tears' self-titled was released in the autumn of 1999. Coinciding with this solemn and moody time of year, it shows some of the most sublime moments in symphonic progressive metal as of late. The music is hard to categorize but I hear touches of the French band Arrakeen musically and vocally, combined with the complexity and intricacy of old Dream Theater, the mood and atmosphere of old Fear of God and the emotional beauty of Soul Cages. Curiously, this CD offers five songs with vocals while the same songs are also available as instrumentals. The talented musicianship of the individual members is combined to create several exceptional songs such as the haunting and ominous "The Sleeper" (a narration of an Edgar Allan Poe poem put to music) and the brilliant "Carousel". Apart from the independent and original song writing, an appealing aspect that sets them apart from a lot of other symphonic prog metal bands, are the beautiful vocals of Anna DeRose.

One of the most interesting facets about Fountain of Tears is the fact that the line-up consists of ex-members of Believer (drummer Joe Daub), Sacrament (guitarist Mike DiDonato and bass-player Erik Ney), and Sardonyx (keyboardist Jeff King). These were all Christian bands whose music was more or less original at the time (early nineties). Believer evolved from a thrash metal band ("Extraction from Mortality" released in 1989) to an avantgarde thrash metal band with touches of classical music on "Dimensions" in 1993. Sacrament released two CDs "Testimony of Apocalypse" in 1990 and "Haunts of Violence" while Sardonyx released one CD "Majestic Serenity" in 1992. Both of them never really managed to escape the confinements of the Christian metal community though.

Just before the end of 1999, I did an in depth interview with keyboard player Jeff King. Subjects that were touched on include the background their former bands, the musical and lyrical inspiration, religious themes in music and life, and finally the future plans of Fountain of Tears. It turned out to be a very informative read in which it can be seen that Jeff is a well-spoken person who certainly knows to contemplate and philosophize about the important things in life.

THE CHRISTIAN METAL LEGACY

Fountain of Tears consists of members of the now-defunct bands Sacrament, Sardonyx and Believer. Can you go into detail how this line-up came about?

I first met Sacrament while I was a member of Sardonyx and we played some shows together. Some time after Sacrament had disbanded, Erik joined us on bass. One day Erik heard me play some of my own musical ideas during a break in one of our rehearsals. I didn't know it til much later but my music had made a lasting impression on him. Sardonyx had placed so many restrictions upon my playing that he hadn't known what I was capable of. Some time after I left the band, Erik called me up and asked if I'd be interested in auditioning for a new band that he was working with. All of the musicians had pro experience and contacts, so I decided to give it a try. I was bummed out at the audition because they liked me so much that I wasn't able to play all of the songs I had prepared for them! I joined the band that day, and it didn't take too long for Erik and I to realize that we could write really well together. We discovered that we were heading in one direction musically and the rest of the band was resistant to any kind of change, so we decided to leave and do our own thing. We had many lengthy conversations about what we wanted to accomplish with the band, and basically made a list of the musicians we needed in order to accomplish it. If I remember correctly, Mike DiDonato and Joe Daub were the only names that appeared on the list. The rest is history.

It's probably a painful subject but I personally would like to know what caused the split-up of your former bands, Sacrament, Sardonyx, and Believer?

The break-up of Sardonyx was the result of internal conflicts. I left the band because it was an unhealthy environment, and I didn't feel like there was any more room there for me to grow. Most of the band members left around the same time I did. Sacrament decided to stop making albums for a number of reasons. As they promoted their second album, "Haunts of Violence," they realized that the market for technical thrash metal was fading. They were living off of fast food and driving 8 hours between shows on only 4 hours of sleep. When it came time to discuss a third album, vocalist Rob Wolfe was no longer in the band and they were all ready for a break from this lifestyle. Believer stopped for similar reasons. After coming off of an intensive tour with Bolt Thrower and Sacrifice, they decided it was time to slow down the pace at which they were working and put more time into other areas of their lives. They collaborated with Scott Laird on their third album, "Dimensions," which was intended to be more of a work of art in and of itself rather than an album to take on the road.

Usually when moderately successful metal bands split up after having released one or more CDs, the incentive or inspiration to start over with a new line-up is difficult to find. When the chemistry is actually present, then there is the huge advantage of combining experience with newly found creativity. What can you achieve now with Fountain of Tears that you haven't been able to achieve with your previous bands?

Probably the most important thing that we can do with Fountain of Tears that we couldn't do before, is have experience in the industry to look back on and to learn from. This allows us to see things more objectively. We can avoid many of the pitfalls that beset new bands like unrealistic expectations, a false sense of urgency, and taking yourself too seriously. We can avoid basing our self-worth upon the successes or failures of the band. If you've been shafted by the industry or people you thought had your best interest in mind, it's difficult to summon the will to start over again. We all came away from our respective bands with certain things that we never wanted to experience again. This time around, hopefully, we will know better. Although success is not guaranteed, we have an optimistic outlook on the situation because our music is accessible to a wider audience than those of our former bands. So far we have received great feedback from people across all ages, race, and gender. The challenge for us now is to find the proper channels for distribution.

You've just released your CD independently, what were the reasons for this? Were there any contractual obligations towards your previous record label R.E.X. Music?

No, there were no remaining contractual obligations to either R.E.X. or Roadrunner. The reason for releasing our album independently was simply so that we could write the kind of music we wanted to write and do it at our own pace. We feel that it's important for each one of us to have a life outside of the band, and so far we have made this a reality. Lots of musicians postpone their education or career and neglect their family and friends in the pursuit of unrealistic dreams. I know people exactly like this who have accomplished very little of what they set out to do. I think it's great that we have been able to record our own album and still have time to work, travel, go to college and enjoy our family and friends.

Being a musician is usually seen as youthful enthusiasm that has been taken a bit too far. Musicians in their late twenties often fall back onto, what society deems, proper jobs. What kind of work do you do and have you thought about your future goals in life?

Right now I am self-employed full-time. Part of my work is related to music and the other part consists of web services. I have a small project studio where I can compose, arrange and record music for my clients, using outside facilities to mix and master. I also design and host web sites. I really enjoy what I'm doing now because I can set my own schedule and to a large extent choose the work that I do. Working for other people always felt like a waste of time to me, and life is too short to spend most of your time at a place you don't like. As far as the future goes, I can't say with certainty what I will be doing but I enjoy thinking about the possibilities. I may eventually complete my education in Philosophy and teach at a university setting.

THE VICTORIAN ERA AND THE ROMANTIC MOVEMENT

The moniker "Fountain of Tears" has a certain gothic, romantic aura surrounding it. However the word "Tears" has been used quite often in the past as part of a band name (the gothic metal band "Trail of Tears" springs to mind for example). Where did the moniker Fountain of Tears originate from and how does it fit the musical feel of the music?

In the beginning, we did what I guess many bands do while looking for a name. We searched through the dictionary, thesaurus, and various pieces of literature looking for something that would fit our musical vision and style. Ideally, the perfect name would give people some insight into who we are, even visually, without actually seeing us or hearing our music. Erik found the phrase "Fountain of Tears" in a Bible, and we felt that these words described us perfectly and helped us to tie together the philosophy behind our music. Our desire was, and still is, is to create music that connects with people on a deep emotional level. It is fascinating to us that the extremes of any emotion involve tears. Ironically, laughter and crying often look the same. At the time, in 1995, we were unaware of any other bands using a similar name. Recently I've noticed a couple that use words that deal with water in general. Names that involve words like "Lake" and "Sea" in addition to our "Fountain" and "Tears." I would guess that it has something to do with the identification of water with the subconscious in psychological symbolism. That's one of the reasons why we were drawn to our name.

The combination of your name, music and lyrics, to me personally, conjures up images of nineteenth century England: Victorian mansions, misty moors, haunting. Kind of a cross between the England of Sherlock Holmes and Edgar Allan Poe. Do you have any interest in this part of history?

Yes, we do. The Victorian era and the Romantic movement in art and literature have had a great deal of influence in our artistic vision. Chris Ruch captured this perfectly in his artwork for the album. Besides those you mentioned, influences from that era such as William Blake, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker and Dante Gabriel Rossetti come to mind.

THE INSPIRATION AND PURPOSE OF MUSIC BY CANDLELIGHT

Your musical style could be described as symphonic progressive metal. The musical direction is certainly very much different to the musical style of Believer and Sacrament (speed/thrash metal). This implies that one and one does not always equal two. How did your current musical style come to be as it is and what is the influence of each individual to the whole?

We lit inscence and wrote by candlelight in order to place ourselves within the kind of atmosphere we wanted our music to evoke. When our songs began to sound natural in that setting we knew we were on to something. We discovered a style that worked for all of us and gave expression to each one of our personalities. The album is very transparent in that regard. On the technical end, I chose to rely on a limited number of sounds for my keyboard parts rather than constantly switching back and forth between different patches. Erik, Mike and Joey all have unique styles of playing their respective instruments. This music allows them to experiment with a broader range of dynamics than they did in Believer and Sacrament. It's interesting that you used the word "symphonic" because that is how we see our own music. Most of the time our respective musical parts work independently but in harmony with each other. You can listen to one of our songs several times while concentrating on a different instrument during each pass and really see how this works.

Your debut CD has an unusual track listing, there are five songs with vocals and also five instrumental versions of the same songs. Are there differences between them, apart from the vocals of course, and what was the reason for this?

The instrumental version of "Real" is a few seconds longer. Just for fun we killed the clean fade at the end of the song. But aside from some differences in panning here and there, the instrumental versions are not too different, musically, from the vocal mixes. We included both versions on the CD because the songs were originally written as instrumental tunes and we were playing and rehearsing them like that for a long time before we found Anna. When we tossed around the idea of putting both versions on the album as a way of including both stages of the band's existence, people thought it was a great idea. If you listen to the instrumental versions, you can really begin to appreciate the challenge that Anna faced when she joined the band. The music was already written, yet she integrated her melody lines flawlessly. Now that the disc is out, we hope that having both versions present will increase the chance of our music being used for movie soundtracks.

This intrigues me because I am a huge film fanatic and a fan of film music as well. Film music is inherently different, in terms of structure and purpose, than music that is played on the radio. With which type of movie would you like your music to be involved in?

Although I wouldn't want to limit its potential for use in other genres, I think that our music would go well with gothic, sci-fi or fantasy movies. The motivation and inspiration for our music certainly has more in common with film music than it does with music made for commercial radio. Our method for writing songs includes not only the visual component of a candle-lit environment but also the impressions of colors, shapes, or stories that we see in our minds. Therefore we basically create the musical accompaniment to a scene as one might compose for a movie.

The vocals of Anna DeRose are exceptional. Furthermore, her voice enables Fountain of Tears to stand amongst a lot of bands in the same musical genre. What is her background and was it a conscious step to use a female vocalist?

Although Anna did not have any professional band or recording experience prior to working with us, she had the voice we were looking for. Erik, our bass player, actually grew up with her but hadn't seen her for a number of years until she sang at a Christmas service in 1997 that he attended. He called her the next day to see if she would be interested in auditioning for our band. We knew immediately that the chemistry and talent were there and that a lot of people would be talking about her once they heard the recording. It was definitely a conscious step to use a female vocalist. We feel that the range of expression in our music basically dictates the use of a female vocalist. A female vocalist can be simultaneously strong yet vulnerable and sensual in a way that a male vocalist in this genre simply can not.

THE SLEEPER AND THE FEMALE POET

One of the outstanding tracks on your CD is "The Sleeper." This features a narration of an Edgar Allan Poe poem put to music. What is it in his poem that inspired you to do this?

Edgar Allan Poe is someone we have a great deal of admiration and respect for, and his body of work helped to inspire the vision of Fountain of Tears. His ability to take the reader out of the world they are living in and place them in a different yet strangely familiar world is something we hope to accomplish with our music. Poe's descriptions of people and place show acute attention to detail and a wonderful command of the English language. I find that his emphasis on the dark, the gothic and the mysterious inspires creativity and an appreciation for the mysteries of life. This poem in particular had the right combination of length and subject matter for what we wanted to do with a Poe theme, musically. We actually wrote a short story based on "The Sleeper" that we were going to use as a basis for lyrics, but we decided to use the original poem instead.

Sheree Kunkle did the narration to "The Sleeper." Why didn't your regular singer Anna DeRose do this?

The concept for this song as a narrative was in place before Anna joined the band. We felt that the song required a narrator with a foreign accent, and our graphic designer suggested Sheree Kunkle. Sheree is a native of New Zealand and happened to have the voice we were looking for.

Could you go further into the lyrical concept of Fountain of Tears?

Consciously or subconsciously, every human being is faced with death, uncertainty and insecurity from the time they are born until the moment they take their last breath. Our lyrics deal with these problems and how different people respond to them on an emotional level. We chose to do this by telling stories. Some people will totally miss the point and dismiss our lyrics as being meaningless or silly. Those who want to find meaning in them will see through their apparent simplicity and find plenty of things to think about. We have no easy answers for the difficult questions, but we tried to suggest an attitude of respect and appreciation for the mysteries of life and encourage thoughtful reflection for the individual. One of the most important lines for me personally is found in the song "Real": "Situations of discomfort are situations of discovery." Regardless of how painful or uncomfortable a situation may be, moving beyond the proverbial comfort zone results in opportunities for personal growth and self-discovery.

My favorite song on the CD is definitely "Carousel." The emotional beauty in combination with the lyrics is stunning. A part of the lyrics is as follows: "And the room is spinning like we're on a carousel, The smoking candles make it hard to see, If I am to find my love tonight, I am holding out my heart for you to see." Could you give me some more background information on what your inspiration for this song and lyrics were?

All of the music for "Carousel" originated from Erik's bass line, which you hear at the beginning of the song. He had written that line sometime before Fountain of Tears even existed and brought it out during one of our writing sessions. The inspiration for my keyboard lines came when I heard the news about the 16 children who had been murdered at a day care in Scotland. That state of reflection summoned the melancholy keyboard lines that I wrote to accompany Erik's idea. We worked on it as a band for a while with the thought of the Scotland incident in mind, as well as the bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Photos of the children that had been injured or killed in that blast were all over the news. When Anna joined the band we explained to her the background of our songs but gave her the freedom to write about what inspired her. "Carousel" was the first song she chose to work on and we told her to just sing about whatever images the music placed in her mind. She came back the following week with the entire song worked out and we thought it was perfect. There is a lot of symbolism in this song and several possible interpretations that we are aware of. My interpretation is that it is about someone who has made peace with life and is now ready to die and meet a loved one on the other side. It basically tells the story of her death.

RELIGIOUS THEMES

The lyrics of your former bands Sacrament, Believer, and Sardonyx all shared a strong Christian theme. In my interpretation, the lyrics of Fountain of Tears are focused more on the individual than on a divine entity. Was it a conscious move to stay away from religious themes?

There was no conscious move away from the use of religious themes, specifically, but the purpose for our music is very different than that of our former bands. This is not to take away from the work that we did in our former bands. That work speaks for itself. It's just that Fountain of Tears is Fountain of Tears and not Sacrament, Believer, or Sardonyx. When we started Fountain of Tears, there were no lyrics at all because we were writing instrumental tunes. We wanted to explore the potential for music to communicate ideas that lay beyond the limitations of language. We felt that our music communicated enough by itself that any lyrics we might add later needed to be noticeably present but not overpowering. I do see religious themes in our lyrics but they are explored from the perspective of the individual rather than an all-seeing, all-knowing vantage point.

The predecessors to Fountain of Tears, Sacrament, and Believer, combined speed/thrash metal with Christian lyrics. I notice in your thanks list that you are the only one not explicitly thanking God. Do you have any specific religious beliefs and what are your views toward delivering the "gospel" through music?

I have a few specific religious beliefs, and many more which are non-specific. I think that when it comes to issues of faith people place too much value on words and too little value on observable behavior. Believe it or not, many will pass judgement on you based solely on whether or not you include "God" in your credits. I did not feel that it was necessary to do that for the people who know me personally, and I wasn't going to do it just to satisfy the people who don't. I feel that the most important beliefs and practices of true religion are those which cannot be put into words. That is why teachers of Zen Buddhism speak in kaons and Jesus spoke in parables. Today, in the Christian music industry, speaking in parables will cause you to be accused of teaching New Age philosophy. They want to be spoon fed with messages that are "safe" and easily understandable. To be quite honest, nothing is easily understandable. If the Bible has been used to justify racism and genocide than it is almost a guarantee that people will discover pagan or New Age interpretations of our lyrics. That is their prerogative, and we are completely OK with that. We purposely left them open to interpretation. I believe that music is an appropriate vehicle for delivering the "gospel," but I can't speculate on how much of that is actually being done today. Contemporary Christian music can be an agent of profound healing and empowerment in one's life. On the other hand, most of what I see of this phenomenon trivialises the sacred and contributes to a general attitude of irreverence and disrespect towards that which is holy.

FUTURE PLANS

What are the plans for a second CD? Is there a lot of material that you have written in the past that will be used?

We already have enough material for another full-length album and an EP for some songs that do not fit into our normal style. Some of this material is still in the process of being written or arranged, but the core ideas are there. I'm sure that by the time we are ready to go into the studio to record our second album, we'll have a lot more to choose from. We never seem to run out of ideas. Right now we are putting a lot of time and money into the promotion of our recent release, so exactly when we record our second album will depend on how well this one does.

Thanks very much for the interview Jeff. Do you have any closing statements you would like to make or touch on subjects we haven't considered?

I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to speak about Fountain of Tears in such depth, and I'd like to thank your readers for taking the time to learn more about us. Anyone who would like to hear what we sound like can check out the audio clips at http://www.FountainOfTears.com. Also, if anyone has any questions they'd like to ask us personally they can email us at info@FountainOfTears.com.

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