After their excellent seven tracks mini CD ‘Sephiroths’ released last year, Rain come back with the excellent ‘Natural Order’ in their pocket. Still signed by Transit Records, this young band from Geneva are rising, and we can bet for sure that under the influence of their two leaders Drop C (guitars etc) and Sin (vocals), they will be a big band. Let’s see what this good old Sin had to say…

So, Sin, what can you tell us about your new album?

Well… our second album ‘Natural Order’ has just been released in Switzerland, and will be available in France in a few days. I think that we have made a very good job, the tracks are really original and are different one from each other. Just like for ‘Sephiroths’, we went in Lausanne’s Ill Electronics studios to record it with Pascal Geronimi. He has created for us a huge and original sound! I think that we all are proud of the result, musically and visually. 

What’s the concept?

As you know, I privilege concept albums to songs without links. I like to keep a way of thinking in the lyrics. The concept of ‘Natural Order’ isn’t, as you could think, about nature, but about life in general. In fact it was supposed to be called ‘Life’, but Gloomy Grim stole us the idea. By the way, I’ve almost cried when I saw their horrible artwork that isn’t related at all with the title. So I was saying that the red line was life… life in all its forms. There is love, nature, politics, and of course the four elements that are the source of life itself. The track ‘Bios’ was also supposed to be the eponymous track of the album.

And how would you qualify the evolution of the band since ‘Sephiroths’?

Huge! Honestly, just to give you my idea, the mini CD is a very immature album. The songs are very direct, and even if the sound is very good, it’s hard for me to listen to it again now. For ‘Natural Order’, the studio work has been huge, and Drop C has improved in an extraordinary way. And when you know that he’s only fifteen right now…imagine what he’ll do in five years!

By the way, the line-up has changed. Can you present the new guys please?

We were only looking for a guitar and bass live players. But Blast and Scowl have also played their lines in the studio. And Blast writes a bit with Drop C too. He was guitarist in an old-school thrash metal band called Without Face, but I think they didn’t evolve much. He left them and joined us last September. Scowl joined us a bit after as a bass player.

And musically, that far more electronic than in the past, right?

No, I don’t think that much… there are a few songs that are very electronic, like ‘Carpe Diem’ and ‘Another Day’, but I don’t see anything else. There are of course some samples too, but really not a lot either.

But I still think there’s a sort of Kovenant/Samaël influence!

It’s true that ‘Carpe Diem’ sounds a bit like Kovenant, but that’s the only one. Concerning Samaël, as you know, it’s impossible to avoid that comparison as we are Swiss too and also have a drum machine. But personally, even if this musical influence is obvious on some of the ‘Sephiroths’ tracks, I think it’s not the case anymore with ‘Natural Order’.

Concerning the vocals, they have changed too… what’s your secret?

Every morning when I wake up, I have some Bios! Bios is an extract of plants harvested by professionals like in the ancient times. Bios is the quintessence of nature pushed to its paroxysm for our own pleasure. Eat Bios! Sing happy! No, seriously, I have tried two or three new things on my vocals. First of all, we have between two and five vocal lines, which creates real good effects. And secondly, I have drunk a lot of whisky before going to the studio, which ‘brakes’ your voice. And that sounds excellent! That’s one of the special techniques on master Geronimi!

And how do you see the future for Rain?

Well, like any musician that has dreams for his band! Success, alcohol and girls (laughs). No, seriously, we will try to tour as much as possible, and play in any possible place. And our new album is already getting prepared. If everything goes right, we should release it by September 2001. We already have about ten tracks, but we will try to write about twenty, and select after. A lot of bands do that. I can already tell you its name, it’s gonna be ‘Starlight Extinction’. The concept is in my head, and we will probably play one of two tracks live this autumn.

What about your live gigs by the way? How is it going?

Very well! We have so far played fifteen gigs. The audience reacts well, we already have our fans. In French-speaking Switzerland, people are a bit stubborn and spend most of their time criticising what’s not hard-emotional-stuff-core. But we have played twice in German-speaking Switzerland, and that was huge. We have played in the biggest Swiss metal venue, the Z7. I finally felt like we were really a full band. I love live shows, I could play all the time! We’d like to make some special stuff on stage, but we still haven’t found exactly what.

And what about a small tour?

I would be 100% ok! If I had to, I would leave tomorrow! The only problem is with Drop C, he’s only fifteen, and that’s not easy to manage that with his parents. But that will certainly happen soon or late. By the way, we have had an offer at the beginning of the year, to tour with Overkill and Annihilator. Sadly we’ve had to say no… damn, it’s gonna be for the next time.

Concerning Transit Records, are you happy of their job?

Yeah of course! They are the ones who have found us the distribution in France and in some other European countries. They have also found us tons of dates. David, the label manager, makes a real good job, but he’s too busy…he should go on holidays more often.

But would you be interested in getting signed by a big label like Nuclear Blast?

Yeah, the idea wouldn’t disturb me (laughs)… but if you look closer, Nuclear Blast have already so many bands that they can’t do everything the right way. They would need at least one person for each band. I’d prefer some stuff like Napalm Records or Osmose… A few bands signed, but a lot of caring from the label. This is the top!

Just to finish, the artwork is really cool! How did you get that?

In fact, I had really loved the job that Jean Pascal Fournier had made for the album ‘At The Heart Of Winter’ of Immortal. I have then contacted him, and explained what I was looking for. He has done a really fantastic work. I think that our cover and the one of  ‘At The Heart Of Winter’ are his two best drawings ever! He’s a great artist, and we’ll have him again for our next albums!

One last word?

Be open minded! People always think they have to close themselves in one style and spit on the others. But I think there are good things in all the music styles. I listen to the new Cypress Hill as much as to The Gathering, Renaud or Metallica. Almost everything is good, you just have to look further than your nose!