Congratulations on the new album “The Surface Seems So Far”, which is out September 20 via Fantasy Records. It really is a great, engaging listen. The lead single ‘Judas Mind’ is just a monster of a track. How far into the writing process did that track come about?

 

Dale : I want to say that was one of the earlier songs in this session. It’s kind of hard to say because we live quite far apart. There were lots of emails back and forth with music and ideas and songs and demos and things like that. I think that one from the start we definitely knew it was kind of a special song and was going to be a single at some point. Just you never really know when, but I think it’s kind of cool to come out of the gate with a little bit of a ripper to get people’s attention; especially after being away for a while.

“Para Bellum” had a second life so to speak through an expanded version of the album. Were there also a bunch of songs that were written for “The Surface Seems So Far?” that didn’t make the 11 final tracks?

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Dale : Yes absolutely. We always record a couple extras just in case. I think we had 16 in total on this album, well, on this recording session. Some of those songs might never see the light of day. Some of those songs might end up being B-sides or whatever on a European release, or maybe we’ll submit something for a video game or a movie or something like that. We always just record a couple extras. It is just good to have those to choose from because until the songs are in their final form, it’s hard to really make the final selection. Once they’re all recorded, then we come together and as individual band guys, we’ll each make our little list. Okay, well these are the 11 that I think are the best. And okay, what do you think? And then we talk to the label and management, kind of cross-reference with everyone and see what everyone thinks. That’s how we wind it down to the album tracks.

 
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