The Finnish label Lion Music has – since its foundation in 2001 – become a fairly successful enterprise that keeps itself busy with releasing metal-variants such as progressive, neo-classic and power metal. One of its recent showpieces is Section A, a super-group founded by Danish guitar wiz Torben Enevoldsen that just delivered its debut, The Seventh Sign and became fairly admired in the European metal scene. Dreun asked Enevoldsen to explain a few things.

How have the reactions to The Seventh Sign been this far?

The response has been amazing! The album has received some rave reviews and people have been nothing but enthusiastic to say the least...!

I read somewhere that it took you guys more than half a year to record the album. Is that because your insistence on impeccable sound (and it does sound pretty perfect) or is there some other reason for that?

The main reason for taking so long to record the album, has been the fact that our different schedules prevented us from being in the same studio at the same time. Andreas and I did the basic recordings at "Lion's Cage" in Finland and Andy did the vocal parts at a studio in Stockholm. I did some additional recordings here in Copenhagen, and Derek and Günter recorded their parts in their own studios. It was simply cheaper and much more convenient to do it this way.

You released two all-instrumental albums before starting this project. Because they're fairly hard to find: do they sound similar to The Seventh Sign (which I'd describe as melodic proggish metal) or could it be categorized as something completely different?

Well, the two albums are actually quite different from each other. The first one - Guitarisma - is basic hard rock and quite straight ahead in style. Very Satriani like really. Heavy Persuasion - my second album - is a lot more heavy and somewhat progressive in places. Both albums are available through a lot of online vendors: www.guitar9.com - www.loudmetal.com etc.

None of the songs on The Seventh Sign sound particularly easy to perform. How does the songwriting take place then? Does Torben come up with fully developed songs the others have to add their contributions to, or is their another way this is done?

I write and record the songs here at home and then make demos that I send to the other guys. Then they work with the songs on their own time. Andy sends back his demos for me to check out and then we agree on what to keep. With Andreas, we try out different stuff in the studio. He comes into the studio very well rehearsed, so it's actually very easy to do it this way.

Are there plans to continue with this line-up, or was it just a once-only, considering the members' involvement in other projects. And is Andy Engberg still a member of Lions Share as well?

The current line-up is permanent. Section A started out as a project, but as we got to know each other, we quickly decided to turn this project into an actual band! Andy is no longer a member of Lion's Share.

Something that I thought was quite striking and a far cry from the 'traditional' subject matter in your genre, was the socio-critical tone of some of the songs ("Riot", "Killing Fields"): have Andy's lyrics always been like that or was it a common decision to include some 'different' lyrics?

Andy wrote the lyrics together with his friend Conny Welén. I had nothing to do with the lyrics, but I am definitely happy with the end result. I don't think that it was a decision as such to write those types of lyrics. It just came out that way...

For the moment, Scandinavia is a successful breeding ground for garage and stonerrock bands. Is there also such an extensive prog-metal scene, because of the genre's independence it's hard to estimate to which degree this is the case.

There is definitely a big scene in Scandinavia for prog-metal, no doubt about that. In Denmark, where I come from, we don't have much of a metal scene at all, but if you look to Sweden for instance, the scene is really big and strong. I think that the best metal in general to come out of Scandinavia, comes from Sweden.

Are you guys also taking this material on a stage, or was it only meant to be a studio project?

Well, I am very busy writing new material for the second Section A album at the moment. I sincerely hope for a speedy release - probably in the spring of next year - but immediately after that, I really hope that we will be able to do some touring. I would love to go out on the road with this band!

Who, would you say, are the musicians that influenced you the most, apart from their familiarity?

At the very beginning I would have to say guys like Edward Van Halen, Tony Iommi and Richie Blackmore. But later on, I got a lot more into the likes of Yngwie Malmsteen, Vinnie Moore, Paul Gilbert and Tony MacAlpine. At present, I'm more into guys like John Petrucci, Michael Romeo, Allan Holdsworth, Frank Gambale etc. However, I still listen to everyone I've mentioned and I still consider all of these amazing guitar players to be of massive influence on my playing and writing!

Are there still bands that succeed in amazing you or asking yourself why you hadn't come up with their ideas. Which are the most interesting bands for the moment?

I definitely still get amazed by music and musicians, but today it takes a lot more to get blown away I think. The last time I got truly blown away, was when I heard the first Liquid Tension Experiment album. Although I don't really consider the last 2 Dream Theater albums to be outstanding, I still think that these guys are truly greats! I really like Symphony X a lot as well.

How did you come to join Finnish label Lion Music?

When I was shopping around for a label to release my second album Heavy Persuasion, I sent Lion Music an e-mail. After he (Lasse Mattsson) had heard the master, I was offered a deal and that was the beginning of our co-operation.

Prog-metal bands always insist on mentioning their specific equipment in the liner notes, and a name that frequently returns is Ibanez: what is it that makes them so special, and did you use a regular model or a modified one?

I used the Ibanez RG-7 exclusively for the electric parts. This is a 7-string guitar with DiMarzio pick-ups. I just used the regular model... What makes the Ibanez guitars special to me, is that they're extremely easy to play and I really like the look of the RG series. I also like the Lo Pro edge tremolos on these guitars a lot. I have tried a lot of guitars, but I am yet to find a make that comes close...

© 2003 Dreun