Tech metal legends Nile return with a new album “Vile Nilotic Rites” and it might be some of their best work to date. Going somewhat back to the roots of what Nile are about while evolving into something even more ferocious than ever before with the help of new members and a new work ethic, the latest material is going to delight Nile fans old and new. We talk to drummer George Kollias about the latest album as well as get into his own influences and the new life Nile has seemingly attained.
Andrew: Thanks for your time, really appreciated! I’ve been listening to the new album that your label had sent me and it’s fantastic stuff, absolutely love it! You guys must be pretty happy with how this came out.
George: Thank you very much! Yeah we’re very happy, already from the pre-production that was talking about the best Nile album, in my ears it is and I’m very happy because now I see peple kind of agree with me [laughs]. Spent a lot of time on this one, we spent a lot of time on the pre-production and the recordings as well. We tried to push it to the next level but also keep the song writing in the best way possible.
Andrew: Yeah and it’s weird because I know this album is sort of a new beginning of sorts but it reminds me a lot of some of the early works of Nile, not so much in the songs itself but the whole idea and aggressiveness and the tech aspects of it. Was there a certain idea you wanted to take into the recordings of these songs?
George: Well we like to explore new things and we like to push our limits as musicians, so I was expecting it to be a really tough one to record and play live and everything because that’s what we always get! But the thing is the main difference this time is I would say the vocals, we have 3 vocalists now. Like we would go back to the roots because for some reason we kind of lost it after probably “Ithyphallic” and now we have 3 singers going really strong so it makes a huge difference in the album and of course live as well. Now the songs are very complex but that was the thing, we always were trying to explore and deliver but maybe it’s time we overdo it a little bit [laughs]. We love practicing the instrument and become better but the difficult part is…I mean playing playing extreme stuff is one thing but making a great song by playing extreme stuff is really difficult so there were 2 missions we were gong for.
Andrew: OK and in the press release for the album announcement it said you guys were working probably more so than ever before, as a team. What was instigating a lot of that stuff?
George: I’ve played for Nile for more than 16 years and will guarantee you this album is the most team spirited album ever by far. Our lead guitar player Brian Kingsland, he joined the band and we did a few tours, we knew that’s the guy. He was the right guy and man when he came for the album he contributed 4 complete songs which takes a lot of effort and all these songs were great, we’re extremely happy. We changed minimal stuff, we included everything in the album so there was a lot of team work. Brad (Parris, bass) also wrote many riffs and contributed that in the songs, for the first time in my time in the band I also wrote a song as well – I mean on guitar. So yeah it was a lot of team work, a lot of room for everybody for ideas and stuff which was like that in the past as well but this time everybody contributed. The door was open is what I’m trying to say but this time, yeah we did it.
Andrew: Well it sounds fantastic and the result has been what could one of the best Nile albums to date. I’ve only heard the album twice through so far but ever listen there was always something different about it, there almost seemed like a new life had been breathed into the band and I guess having new members was the catapult into that I guess.
George: Yeah I mean everything helped, even Mark Lewis the producer, this time went with Mark Lewis for the first time and I could hear my drums, I could hear the bass. I could hear stuff that I wasn’t able to hear back in the day because what we do, it’s extreme so guitars are tuned to drop A and they’re very busy, drums are so fast. So it’s a curse for a producer but Mark did an amazing job and for me this is definitely the best sounding Nile album, the production is amazing. So I think everybody helped for this release and that’s why we are so proud and happy
Andrew: Now you mentioned playing these songs live, I can imagine a band like Nile because you are such a technical band, it must take such a long time to rehearse these songs and get it up to code for a live show.
George: Yeah you know how many rehearsals we did for this tour? [laughs] 2! 2 rehearsals, that was it.
Andrew: [laughs] Wow!
George: We have a new system to work because obviously I’m from Athens, Greece and the rest of the members are from South Carolina in the States so we can’t rehearse every week that’s for sure. So what we do is I spend a lot of time with the tracks by myself, so I have all the songs without drums and it’s like I have the band with me but it’s just in the computer. And they do the same, they have drum tracks, I give drum tracks for all the past songs we play, maybe all the tracks we ever recorded to be honest. So they have a drummer on the PC there so they go as a trio and they the play the drums through the computer, so we kind of rehearse, I’m just not there and I’m not here. But yes we do a lot of work individually so before we even meet to do a couple of rehearsals because that was a new tour with 3 new songs, we needed to rehearse but we were ready. We spent a lot of time and we made sure everything is there. I’m not flying to the States, I’m prepared. I never do and this system is the easiest in my opinion.
Andrew: Yeah whatever works and I guess technology has really allowed things like that to happen where 20 or 30 years ago that would of been very difficult to deal with.
George: Well it’s not advanced technology though, you have the drums for the song and the band plays on top of that. So it just comes through the PA so it’s not really tough to do but it’s in our hands. If we want to rehearse, we can rehearse, to learn the songs we can learn the songs. If we’re lazy then no rehearsals.
Andrew: So I’m sure you must be aware that there are a lot of drummers out there in the world that have credited you as being a huge influence on their drumming, that must be a gratifying thing to hear. How does that make you feel when drummers talk about you being an inspiration to them?
George: Makes me feel a little bit old [laughs]
Andrew: [laughs].
George: Yeah it’s crazy man because I’m still a fan, I feel like a drum fan. I meet many drummers, most of the greatest drummers in history and my biggest influences and who are my good friends now. So yeah it’s a great feeling and I listen to the new guys and the kids who mention me as an influence, yeah it’s the best feeling I think. But I don’t really feel like an influence, I still feel like a fan so you’ll see me go crazy when I meet people like Dave Weckl for example or like my favorite drummers so I feel more like a fan still. I’m 42, I should feel like an influence I guess [laughs].
READ REVIEW OF VILE NILOTIC RITES
Andrew: [laughs] So how did you get into drums and how did you get into this style of music? You mentioned your influences, who was the one that really pushed you into drumming?
George: Lars Ulrich [Metallica], that was the biggest influence for all my generation. So if you were my age and you started playing around 10 or something, Lars was the main thing back then. Later on Sepultura was a huge influence in my playing and also the song writing because I write music very often and they were a big part. Later on mostly technical drummers like the Death drummer Richard Christy but then I started to discover other styles of music and now I came to the conclusion that music is 2 kinds – good and bad. So anything, it doesn’t really matter if it’s pop music or reggae or you name it. If it’s good, I get influenced so people ask me, ‘Who’s your favorite drummer?’ I’m like, about a thousand right now, I can’t really name them all. But yeah the greats of course like Weckl and all those guys will always be in my heart.
Andrew: Yeah and those are great names obviously and extreme metal has become such a big genre these days, what;s your take on death metal and tech death metal nowadays compared to to where it started 30 or so years ago? Can we get any heavier than what it is now or has it become about the complexity of the music?
George: I don’t know. I hear some of the newer bands, for example we tour right now with Vitriol and these guys are killing it, they go on stage and are killing it. It’s the great new blood, I’m very happy actually, we did their first European tour, they did it with us. So there is a lot of great bands, a lot of complex playing and compositions but I don’t know where it’s going to go. For us, for Nile, the most important thing is number 1, to be able to evolve on the instrument. Go with crazy time signatures, stuff that you don’t really listen to death metal like 17’s, 16’s, 19, 16’s. All these crazy bands that I’ve never heard in death metal so far but also keep the song as a song, be catchy for people to remember it. I want to process so people can headbang with us with our music. So for me the main approach for this new album was what I just said, keep it as catchy but also raise the bar a little bit and make it a little bit more complex and also bring other elements from other styles of music. For example most of the drum feels are inspired by gospel, like go figure! I was listening to gospel music so much because all the drums are so bad-ass I’m like, ‘Ok I need to get some of this stuff in our music and make it a little more fresh, add something new’. Who knows, maybe people will like it and so far so good.
Andrew: That’s an interesting take, I didn’t even know there was drums in gospel music to be honest!
George: Some of the best drummers are in that like R&B like old style. Sometimes they play for the songs, sometimes they do overplay which me as a drummer, I really enjoy and I get ideas. Our music is overplaying, we overplay all the time and people love it because drums have to be crazy in death metal so there is a connection and I will try to make it work.
Andrew: Well it’s worked so far and it’s fantastic. I’ve been a fan of Nile since the very first album and I remember hearing that first album and just being blown away by how great it was and you guys have really kept it up. I know you guys have evolved and changed a little bit over the years but I definitely feel this new album is the pinnacle of what Nile is all about, it’s got all the best elements of what you guys do so congratulations once again on the new album.
George: Thanks so much man, I’m very happy to hear that.
Andrew: Thanks for your time and look forward to hopefully in the near future see you in Australia as well.
George: We are in the talks right now for an Australian tour. We can’t wait actually, everybody agreed and we’re really excited. It’s probably going to be around April but hopefully we will do this, we didn’t make it on the last album so we can’t wait to get there and see you all.
