Ryan  Malmstorm Dark Metal, Epicurean and future projects.

RM > Initially, John Gensmer and I had a desire to form a progressive metal side project, while I was in Lorde and he was in the Acadian.  I honestly don't know how the music ended up the way it did, but it sure worked well!  Some of the material was from a solo album I recorded between the time I left Lorde and started Epicurean.  It was all of a very dark nature, so with some very thrashy, almost death metal riffs that were presented by (then) guitarist Dave Whitmer, our style was instantly defined.  We had the style of a black metal band, yet our lyrics didn't fit with what most black metal bands were doing.  A lot of our focus was on the supernatural, fantasy vs. reality, as well as songs that were very personal in nature. 

RM > Minnesota has been my home since I moved from Georgia in 1986.  The Minneapolis Metal scene has impressed me since the days of Powermad and Dominion.  They always packed the Mirage with the stinkiest, drunkest, most hardcore metal fans you could imagine.  I wanted to be a part of that!  The beginning is rough, since you play shows for little money, sometimes none, but the job gets done some way or another.  It makes the hard work worth your while when you can play clubs like the Quest.  Some nights are good, others horrible.  One night you could go on and there are 20 people in the crowd, but by the time you finish up, there are 200.  It worked like that a number of times in Lorde and Epicurean at places that had two stages.  A good portion of the time, people were checking out those bands for the first time and word of mouth just spreads like wildfire.  Then, at the next show, you wonder where all these people are that were hooting and hollering at the last one!  Bands can kill their following real quick if they play out too often.  The gigging is an interesting sport though.  We've all been through hell and back, so there are no surprises.

PK >  Did you play the piano or other instrument that led up to your current keyboard preference?

RM > At age 5, I began piano lessons.  I followed through with that for a few years until I discovered that guitar was a much cooler instrument.  Or so I thought.  EVERYONE was playing guitar is high school, making it that much harder to get into a band.  As luck turns out, I ended up in a band where I played neither guitar nor keyboards, but did the vocals.  As previously explained above, I eventually did play keyboards in my first band.   I have been able to utilize my guitar skills, as minimal as they are, to the bands I have been in.

RM > Never had a desire to play bagpipes, although I would never rule it out.  At some point, I think it is every musicians goal to at least touch another musical instrument and be able to learn it.  The bagpipes take some great dedication, so I don't think that is gonna be on my plate any time soon.

PK > Are there particular 'Epicurean' songs that you enjoyed working on and playing live more than others?

RM > "Ceremonies of the Moon" from the Epicurean album "VII.RVI" was easily my favorite song.  It was the one that seemed to sum up the band in one song.  There are some real good melodic vocals all over that song, as well as the aggression that the other Epicurean songs hold.  "Ceremonies" had some very symphonic keyboards in multiple layers, as well as a serene acoustic interlude and monumental climax.  I had a blast recording it, because I had such a distinct vision of how it should sound in the end that made it much easier to record.  I think it was one of the few songs on "VII.RVI" that most of the parts were nailed in one take.  Live, it was beautiful.  Everyone had to be right on for that song to work out and when it did, it felt like the world could just stop and I'd be happy.  I preferred the live version the most when I was doing the lead vocals and Joey L. (ex-guitarist) was doing the harmonies.  Our voices flowed together real well.

RM >  There are a ton of synth heavy-weights out there such as Josh Silver of Type O Negative, Mortiis, Mustis of Dimmu Borgir, Ihsahn of Emperor (and later, Charmand Grimlock)...the list goes one.  Bands like Skinny Puppy and Depeche Mode, back in the day, had some great synth arrangements that paved the way for a lot of the up and coming bands.  Even Savatage had some very dark orchestral pieces on their albums.  Synth used to be shunned in metal, but it is far more acceptable now, as long as it is executed properly.

PK >  On stage, a guitar player may break a string and a singer may crack their voice, what can  happen with a keyboardist?

RM > I haven't really had anything tragic happen with my keys live.  Usually the sound guys are the culprits to any kind of keyboard shenanigans.  I do suppose that you could have one of your patches set to tuba instead of your spooky strings sound, so that might not be very metal.  Unless of course your name is Opus.

PK >  Who are some of the best dark metal bands out there and are there any from the tropics? It seems that most all come from the northern hemisphere.

RM > Have you tried to Google "tropical dark metal"?  I highly doubt there are any dark metal bands from the tropics, but then again, I never thought I'd see a black metal band come from Indonesia... Some of my favorite dark metal bands out there are Entwine, Type O Negative, My Dying Bride, HIM, To/Die/For, Dimmu Borgir and Arcturus.  There's also a really good local one i'm sure you've heard of, Cold Colours.  I'm also a huge fan of bands like Coldplay, Alice Cooper, Savatage, Marillion, Kings X and Trans Siberian Orchesta.

RM >  Thankfully the only radio I really took note of was Z-Rock.  They played some fantastic stuff!  I remember hearing "Edge of Thorns" from Savatage, but I didn't have any idea that they had a new vocalist.  I was thinking to myself "ok, this sounds like Savatage, but more like Queensryche, but I don't know who is singing."  A song called "Miss You" from D'Priest was a good one that I always heard.  Some good ballads like "I'll Never Let You Go" from Steelheart were always welcome to my ears.  They really did play some good stuff, though.  Not like the junk you hear on radio.  They'd throw in stuff you have never heard or stuff that you haven't heard in years!   Helloween, Slayer, Anthrax, GNR, Bang Tango....tons of good stuff!!!  A really good variety of metal, not just what is currently popular.  There was also this cool contest called Back Rockwards, where they'd play a song backwards and you'd have to guess the song.  I'm tellin' ya, I could have won Alice Cooper tickets, but some meatball beat me to it.

PK >  Do you have some favorite shows or music venues that stand out as great live stage experiences?

RM >  The best and worst show of my career is easily Lorde of all Desires performance at Milwaukee Metalfest 98.  We had gone after Shadows Fall (!!!) on the Rave Bar stage and the place was PACKED!  Here we were, a band from Minneapolis that no one knew.  We had no merchandise to sell, no website, nothing.  From the moment we walked into the place, our presence was felt.  That must have been because of the multitude of liquid latex and fake blood we used to "one up" the panda-painted black metallers.  Once we took the stage, though, the crowd was nuts!  We blazed through our first song and there was such an enormous amount of energy in the room that I had come back down to earth and realized that I couldn't hear a thing on that stage.  I was struggling to just hear the drums!  It was crazy!  Then, the heat started to affect the latex on our faces and a portion of the bassists' "face" fell off!!  I think we all left the stage with half of the theatrical makeup we went there with.  It was cool though.  Metal Maniacs wrote up a couple paragraphs about us and gave us the "Golden Goat Turd" award for the weekend.  Not quite sure if that is good or not....but Metalfest was always such a fun time coupled with a lot of stress during the course of the weekend just to play 30 minutes.

    The places in Minneapolis I liked to play are The Lab and The Quest.  The soundmen were always pretty good there and I always felt at home playing at those venues.  Sharkeys, Mainstage and Underground, was my absolute favorite though.  Again, the sound was fantastic and there was always such a diverse crowd there.  How often would you get people wander down to the Underground after just seeing E'Nuff Z'Nuff play the Mainstage and actually stick around for your show?!   Real good times there.  Sharkeys is sorely missed.

RM >  My future has a couple different paths to be traveled.  First, I plan on getting the Malmstorm project going.  I've got a few tunes in the works, some completed.  I'll mostly focus on experimental electronic compositions mixed with some classical/new age instrumentation.  While I am doing that, I'll be in the process of building a home studio.  Once that is complete, and hopefully the first Malmstorm album will be done, I will then turn focus to the Shadowchase project.  I'll play all the instruments on this one (keys, guitar, bass, drum programming, vocals), similar to a more traditional "band"-type project.  I've got a few songs going now that are kind of a mixture of goth, industrial, jazz, pop, progressive and black metal.  It'll be a very eclectic mix, but these are all styles that I have grown accustomed to over the years and it only makes sense to combine all of my influences and meld them into one original project.  You can have a taste of what I am currently up to at:  http://www.soundclick.com/pro/default.cfm?BandID=108631

RM >  Success is what you make it.  Some are never satisfied with the outcome of what they do, while others are content with where they are at.  It's nice if you can make a living out of it, but I'm not there yet, so we'll see where the road takes me.