Lost Society
Diary Of A Thrashman

15.02.2013

2012 was a great year for thrash metal, with new albums by such bands as Kreator, Overkill and Testament hitting the charts and galvanizing the fans all over the planet. The year 2013 promises to be no less successful for the genre that miraculously came back from the dead about a decade ago, with more new stuff coming from Megadeth, Sodom and hopefully Slayer. But the thrash scene is not limited to veterans, and even though the vest majority of newcomers fail to reach the standards set by the 80s greats, young hopefuls keep on coming, and some of them are all but worthy of paying attention to. In a move that can be described nothing less but spectacular, Finnish four-piece Lost Society, with none of the members aged more than 20 years, are releasing their debut (!) album “Fast Loud Death” via mighty Nuclear Blast Records, and we asked singer/guitarist Samy Elbanna to share some light about this great deal, the upcoming album and his band in general.

First of all, congratulations on signing with Nuclear Blast Records! But how did you get the deal? It’s not very often that bands get signed to Nuclear Blast before releasing a single album…

Thank you so much! The whole thing actually happened after we had played in the Finnish finals of the GBOB-competition. The song ‘Trash All Over You’ was filmed with pro-shot quality and uploaded on Youtube. The video of this song was sent over to the Nuclear Blast office and the guys there saw the potential and contacted us right away!

The Nuclear Blast press release calls you a “thrash/speed metal enthusiast”. When and how did you start listening to thrash metal? What was the band that made you want to pick up a guitar and start playing yourself?

At the age of 7 I heard my first Iron Maiden track, and for me that’s what changed my life! I started listening to tons of Maiden and after a few years I started getting into heavier stuff, and the first thrash bands I started listening to were the basics, Megadeth and Anthrax. At the age of 11 I started playing guitar seriously, and this happened with the help of these bands, and after starting to play, I started discovering more and more bands that these days I consider my favorites.

Lost Society are one of the very few Finnish bands playing pure thrash metal, even though foreign thrashers regularly gather big crowds in Finnish venues. In your opinion, why aren’t there more young Finns playing this type of music? Or are there are any Finnish thrash metal bands which are good, but unknown abroad?

It’s true that in Finland there aren’t that many thrash bands even though we have a huge music scene here anyway. But I have noticed that nowadays there are more and more young dudes starting to play thrash! In our capital city of Helsinki there’s a few awesome ones and here in Jyväskylä we have an awesome thrash band called Forced Kill! The genre anyway is one that you don’t see that often anyway so I think that’s why in Finland there isn’t so much of it, and also because a lot of the music coming from here is modern-metal and not so old-school based.

How are the roles and responsibilities divided in Lost Society? Are you the primary songwriter, or do the rest of the guys also contribute their ideas?

The basic idea is that the song usually starts from a riff from either me or Arttu (Lesonen, guitar), but the others have also done this a lot! But anyway, after the riff is done, we start jamming to it and pretty soon we start getting good ideas for follow-up riffs and pretty soon the song is done! Then I go ahead and do the lyrics to the songs. Everyone contributes a lot to the song-making process!
 
How did you get the legendary Ed Repka to paint the album cover for you? Did you make any suggestions to him about what should be on the cover, did you ask him to correct anything, or did he immediately come up with what you were looking for?

After we got the album recorded and started talking about the next stuff with the guys at NB, they asked us for an idea of the album art, so we gave them the basic idea of the tour bus leaving a shattered town with the four guys arms coming out of the bus. They took this and sent it to Ed and he started working on it, added his signature style onto it and this is what we got, its awesome!

Judging by the song titles alone, one can say that your lyrics are very angry. What makes you feel this way when you are writing songs? Finland is viewed by many foreigners as a very good place to live, especially if you’re a metalhead, but I guess you have a different opinion, right?

Haha, yes this is pretty true, but this isn’t because of the place I live in, it’s more of an overall analysis of the world.. Anyway we don’t like to take a too serious attitude while doing lyrics. Of course, songs like “KILL” and “Trash All Over You” are about a fucked up world, but there’s also songs that have a more random subject and just aim to give the listeners a good time.

What do you think about the way that Nuclear Blast is promoting Lost Society? The press releases I’ve seen focus a lot on the band members’ young age, but the band also has other things to offer to the listener, don’t you think so?

I think they’ve been doing an awesome job in the promotion side! They’re really getting us out there for the people to see! Its great that they’ve also hit already a song for people to check out so they have something before the album! Until the releasing of the album, there’s gonna be a lot of cool things coming out for you to see, so keep your eyes open!

The first single off the album is “Trash All Over You”. Why did you choose this particular song? How much does it represent the rest of the album?

The song has always been a favorite for me, as it really tells everything about the band musically and lyrically! It has the fast aggressive attitude and riffage that make us what we are, it has the shredding and the pounding drums! It’s the full package that will give out the feel for the album!

There are two bonus tracks on the album – can you say a few words about those songs? Why didn’t they make it to the regular edition of “Fast Loud Death”?

One of the songs is “Escape From Delirium”, which is a song that we really like because of the badass riff in it and the lyrics especially. We put it as a bonus track anyway cause it was cool that you get something extra with the other editions of the album. The KISS song (“I Stole Your Love”) is just pure awesome cause we love the band and we wanted to tribute them in some way and what would be better than this!

As it is usual for NB releases, your album will be available in all formats, including CD, LP and digital downloads. What is your favorite format? Are you a frequent CD/LP buyer, or do you prefer digital stuff?

My favorite definitely has become vinyl over the years. It has the awesome old-school feeling in it and it gives out such a good feeling with the big cover-art always etc. I do buy CDs too plus the digital stuff, but I think vinyl has the coolest stuff always!

If you read the newswire on Blabbermouth.net or other prominent metal websites, you will see almost every week a report about some famous musician quitting some band because he is unable to earn enough money and has to get a regular job. How do you see your future in the music business at this age of free music for the audience and zero royalties for musicians? What will happen to Lost Society in 5 or 10 years?

I think that getting music out for the audience for any price is always good so that the band itself gets publicity. And I think with the promotional ways and everything, we’re pretty well off to move forwards! I think after 5 or 10 years, we’ll still be writing new material down in our rehearsal place and doing gigs around and showing people what we’ve got!

Finnish bands are frequent guests in Russia. Have you ever got any gig offers from Russian promoters? What are the chances of seeing you live in Moscow or St. Petersburg?

Not yet, but we definitely want to come out there show you guys what we’re all about! I bet you got awesome crowds and it would be great to come out there to thrash with all of you!

Special thanks to Maxim Bylkin (Soyuz Music) for arranging this interview

Roman Patrashov
February 7, 2013
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