Final Selection

You guys aren't that famous in Sweden yet, please tell us more about Final Selection and the guys behind the band.
- "Final Selection - that's Riccardo Schult and Mario Tews, existed since 1993. Back then, we pretty much started with nothing and it took us time to develop ourselves step by step. In fact, it all started in a local club we both used to go to. Someday, we got to know each other while talking about our most favourite topic: music. We both had a similar musical taste, and at some point we wanted more than just to consume music. So it all came together almost coincidentally: first song fragments, first concerts... until now, it has been a constant development."

If you had do describe Final Selection with three words, what words would it be?
- "Pop, melancholy and many variances."

Tell us more about your latest release Antihero which have received great reviews from all over the world.
- "That's right; 'Antihero' has received marvellous reviews and compliments from almost every side. On 'Antihero', we unconsciously dealt with two completely different categories of human beings. So while there is some sort of concept that connects our songs, we didn't actually plan 'Antihero' as a concept album. So what we did was trying to illuminate the idea of an "Anti-hero" from two perspectives. First, there are those people who completely differ from the heroes you can see in movies, the ones who have families, regular jobs, and usually don't end up in situations where they can prove their courage or save the world. That's your average everyday life person, leading a life in reality instead of fiction. Heroes are created artificially, these days mostly by the film industry or the media. But nonetheless, the achievements and experiences, the stories of 'real', everyday life people are worth telling as well. On the other hand, 'Antihero' can signify the negative of a hero, a person that represents the conversion of all positive aspects the word hero usually implies. Such an antihero would be a person that harbours dark fantasies, tends to hate other people, and tries to advance faster than others on the way to fame with lies and corruption. Long story short: this topic has implicitly influenced the production of our album, and in the end we noticed that most of the songs would fit under this headline. However, the album does also contain songs that are not carried by this background, songs that can stand for themselves. In this way, the antihero-theme is more like the thread that keeps the album together.
Now we are of course very anxious to see how everything will develop in the future. We have worked very hard to go public with Final Selection, and now it's great to see the first signs of success such as the wonderful press reviews."

You have released two versions of 'Antihero', what's the difference between the two?
- "The first version of 'Antihero' was marketed on our own and has the status of a promo/demo album. It contains the current material of that time and was used to present Final Selection to a number of record labels. The arrangement of the songs and the artwork was a bit simpler these days. Nonetheless, this album is something very special for us. We received many positive reactions, and in the end it also leads to the contract with Black Flames Records. The second version (the official release) contains completely revised versions of the songs and two bonus tracks that were not on the demo."

You have very well written lyrics, what's the background for them and what inspires the lyrics?
- "Well, first there is real (or sometimes surreal) life itself, but also from literature I must confess. I'm a Stephen King fan myself, as an example. When it comes to movies, we get inspired by films with a certain threatening mood as in Seven or TV-shows as Millennium, hence our cautious, but regular use of samples. Science fiction movies such as Alien are on our list, as well."

Are the lyrics or the music most important to you?
- "Lyrics are often very important for the realization of an idea. Mostly, the lyrics are there before we start to compose the music. You could compare this process to the art of painting where the text being the picture and the music being the colour."

What music do you guys listen to personally and are there any other bands that inspire you?
- "Very important sources of inspiration for us are creative people such as Vince Clarke (Erasure) and Bill Leeb (Delerium, Front Line Assembly). These fascinating musicians have been influencing us with their sound for a very long time, and they still do. Then there are Haujobb, The Cure, Swans or Nine Inch Nails. Bands or musicians that can create a certain mood with their music and that can capture your attention to the very last note."

You guys are signed to the polish label Black Flames Record, what is good/bad with being a German band on a Polish label instead of a German one?
- "It is probably never easy for a band to find the right label. We were looking for partners who think in similar ways, who are committed to the work they do and who still give us enough freedom to be ourselves. Black Flames is such a label. Of course, in the beginning we contacted mostly German record companies, but after a while our attempts seemed to be quite futile. Very rarely did we get any response at all, and oftentimes an answer would include "guidelines" they wanted us to comply to musically. At that time, more and more records were published by German labels, resulting in more and more average quality. Finally, the contract Black Flames offered to us came at the right time, and after we started working together, we realised they were the label we always wanted."

What's your tour plan for this summer?
- "Right now we are still developing our next album, Meridian. There is still some work left, and until it is completely finished, the album is first priority. Every once in a while there will be some club gigs, but a real tour will only take place once Meridian has been published. And than we hope to come to Sweden one day."

How's Final Selection as a live band? How do you do your performances?
- "We plan to improve the visual aspects of our live shows in a way that the visual effects can support our performance, which is especially important since on stage we are the classical electronic duo. But at the moment we have to be happy with what little possibilities we have as newcomers. Musically, we of course play the material of 'Antihero' and a few songs of the upcoming album 'Meridian' and the just released 'Heading for Graceland E.P'."

Any last words to our readers?
- "We just want to say thank you very much for your attention and we hope to see you all soon."

[font]This interview was made 2004 and initially published on Neurozine.com