By Mark Bremner
Dakesis is a cool name and very original, tell me the story behind it?
The name was actually in place before any of us joined the band! It’s an ancient greek word that roughly translates into Illusion, and the fact that it is so obscure means we pretty much have the complete use of it for ourselves! It’s definitely helpful when it comes to the internet and social media, and of course is always a talking point with people wanting to know what it means!
Prog Rock/Metal is definitely having a comeback. Who are your main influencers?
Our influences are vast and varied! They range from Behemoth & Emperor to Genesis and everything in between. Of course the European power metal greats are high up on our list, but also a lot of progressive metal like Symphony X and Evergrey. Having such a variety amongst our influences works really well when we write together though.
If you could work with one artist (alive or dead) who would that be, and why?
As much as we would all love to work with our individual influences and idols, as a band we love working with any musician who is like minded, friendly and enthusiastic about the metal scene. We’ve already worked with so many great people and bands up until now, both signed and unsigned and we always look forward to meeting new people. Although we definitely wouldn’t turn down some time spent with our “collective” influences such as Iron Maiden and Edguy!
I’m loving the vibe and feel of your songs and forgive the pun but I was drawn to Valhalla, its great work. What are your personal favourites and why?
Valhalla is always a favourite with us and with the audience, there’s something about that song that just brings people together. It’s the sing-a-long and the song’s themes of battles, unity and victory – it’s actually the simplest of our songs and lacks any real progressive elements but it really comes alive when you play it to a room full of people singing back at you.
Our other favourites have changed drastically since we had a line-up shuffle earlier in the year, Into the Light in particular has had a new lease of life and shows off the heavier side of our influences.
Really though we love all of our songs, I think it’s much harder to go out there and play music that doesn’t move you so we make sure every song has the capability to be a favourite!
I’m always impressed by a band that works hard and takes the initiative. So congrats on setting up your own label and self-releasing. What are your plans for the label?
At the moment it’s being used exclusively for our own material, we all have our own little side projects in the works so no doubt we will release them through CapsAArx too. There’s always the possibility that we would consider looking at other artists at some point in the future, but for now we’re working on our second album so our priority needs to be on that. The added advantage of having our own label at the moment is that it gives is full control over all our music and releases. Something we would continue to push for if we ever did consider expanding CapsAArx.
What are your plans for taking that to the next level?
As far as the elusive next level we have our album in the works and big plans for touring next year. We’re really big goal makers, we have what we call “The Masterplan” that has a list of long term and short term goals. When we first started it, the top three things on the list were: “Release an album” “Play Bloodstock” and “Support Thunderstone” – we’ve ticked all of those off now, so the plan has to get bigger. Our new top three are “Release ANOTHER album” “Play Wacken” and “Tour in Europe” and two of those are completely in our hands (P.S Wacken please book us!).
You have a great following/ presence on Social media. How important do you think that is to music nowadays?
Very important! These days 90% of our promotion is done on social media, and it’s the absolute best way of keeping a solid connection between bands and their fans.
Our live show is a fine balance between a polished technical performance and massive amounts of fun and silliness! Our tongues are always planted firmly in cheek, I mean you can’t play a song called “On Wings of Steel” with a straight face can you?
We have a few live dates in the pipeline, the last one for this year will be the Valkyrian Festival in Bridlington on 1st December which we are really excited about!
Next year we have a few dates already in the early months and massive plans for touring further into the year so watch this space!
You are a Midlands band that has done some excellent road work, what challenges do you see in gigging away from your home town?
Unfortunately it’s all about the money! Going out on tour, or even to one off shows can be a financial risk that hits us in the pocket if we’re not paid by promoters, or have a night with a poor turn-out. There have been plenty of gigs where it has cost us money to go do a show, especially back when we had a van. We used to have a 1989 Dodge Ram day van that looked amazing but did about ten miles to the gallon!
It doesn’t stop us though, sometimes you have an amazing night with a huge crowd and you’re doing it out of your own personal pocket, other nights you sell a huge amount of merch and get a good advance, so you just have to balance it out.
We’ve been up and down the UK a few times now, and it’s always brilliant fun. We’re going to do a lot of UK dates next year.
So what’s next for Dakesis?
Well we’re currently looking for a new member! We’re after a male keyboard player/vocalist to bring back the dynamic between male and female vocals and allow us to have a fuller live sound rather than rely on a backing track. This could take a week or it could take a year but we certainly won’t be slowing down any time soon though!
We have about half of the new album written, so a lot of time will be spent on that, but we just can’t keep away from the stage so we will be found up and down the country where we can!
Give me your ‘elevator’ pitch – you have 10 seconds to sell us your band – GO!
One of our press quotes sums it up pretty well – “If Homer, Beethoven and Iron Maiden had a love child together, Dakesis would be the clearly epic sounding result!”
So go buy our album now! It’s currently on sale for only £5 from http://www.dakesis.com/!
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