Kamelot – Oliver Palotai

Kamelot’s latest masterpiece Poetry for the Poisoned has pushed the limitations of the band’s musical and lyrical boundaries. The new album borders on a much heavier influence while lending harmonies from some of the genre’s most defining female vocalist, including Simone Simons and Amanda Somerville.

Metal Obsession speaks with Kamelot keyboardist, Oliver Palotai about the band’s latest release and the uneven future of frontman, Roy Khan.

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Metal Obsession: Kamelot released ‘Poetry For The Poisoned’ in September earlier this year. Has the band found it hard to keep up creating such imaginative and epic albums, as this is Kamelot’s 9th studio album?

Oliver Palotai: The whole song writing period for this album took about 3 years and it probably wasn’t as easy as some of the previous albums Kamelot has done. Sometimes its hard to say why it was, but it just took a little bit more time, a little more effort and a bit of pain as well. There is always a bit of this and that going on when writing an album, so we never really know why. I guess it happens on a sub conscious level too.

The album has a darker touch to it. The whole band was quite surprised when we got the whole package in the end, especially me. During the song writing process you work on so many details and you’re not really aware of what’s really going on in the big picture. The album did get a lot heavier, that’s true. That’s something we really intended on, was to have a much heavier sound compared to past albums and to experiment with different keyboard and orchestral arrangements on the new album.

MO: Were you involved much with the writing process of the new album or was it mainly done by Roy and Thomas?

OP: This time was the first time I got involved in the writing. I wrote Thespian Drama and Dissection. They asked me before to write some stuff, but I was a bit hesitant. Even though I consider myself more of a song writing than an instrumentalist. Kamelot’s sound appealed to me straight away, it’s very delicate and different. They have a very special way of writing songs, so I was hesitant to put myself into the whole thing and also not change the spirit of their music as well. So it happened to be just those two tracks.

Since the album was a success maybe there will be more in the future.

MO: Some of these songs include vocals from your girlfriend Simone Simons, among other vocalists. Was she always the band’s number one choice for those specific songs?

OP: Simone and Roy’s vocals blend so perfectly into each other that it was really hard to find someone else who could do it the way they performed it. It’s just a special quality between Simone’s voice which fits with Roy’s voice so well that it created a certain type of spirit or mood they have together. It was quite easy to ask her to perform on the album since we both live together. We can work a little bit on the songs, so the cooperation with each other and the band was quite easy.

MO: Did you ever find it distracting working with your partner on such a major project, did you both share a lot of ideas with each other?

OP: In our private life we don’t talk to much about music, you know. We try to keep it separate from whatever else we’re doing in our lives, but then again we were involved in a lot of projects in the past.  We are starting to work together on more future projects which is mainly going to be us two. We sometimes try to keep the music industry outside of our personal lives because its influencing so many things. It’s not like a normal job where you say “Here I’m a musician and there I’m a private person”. It’s like one big thing.

MO: You must find it hard being with such a famous singer in Europe. I’m sure Simone feels the same way towards you, but you must both find it very difficult being in the spotlight all the time?

OP: Yeah it is. For Simone it’s a lot harder, she finds it very hard sometimes. For me though I’m just an instrumentalist. A keyboarder, guitarist and producer, so I guess I’m not as much in the spotlight as her. If she happens to change her hair style just a little bit, she’ll get like 20,000 messages and of course not all of them are nice. So for her it is much harder since she is a famous singer and a woman as well. I have the easier path I guess. [laughs]

MO: Aside from Simone Simons and various other musicians on the new album, it also includes new bassist, Sean Tibbetts. How’s the band finding him and his style so far?

OP: He’s been doing great so far on tour. I don’t know if you knew, but Sean was actually the very first bassist for Kamelot. That was actually before the release of the first album and way before Roy joined the band. Sean actually quit before the first album was recorded.

He’s doing really well though. His a great guy and a fantastic performer. Sometimes when I’m standing behind my keyboard, I can’t help but  just watch him do all this freaky stuff. At our London show we had for the very first show on our last European tour I believe, he actually jumped off some speakers I think and when he came back up all the ligaments in his knees just broke, they just snapped.

He fell down like a puppet. At the beginning I thought he was doing a really weird joke on us all, but then he couldn’t get up. He then did the rest of the tour sitting, but he was in quite a bit of pain and his doctor said that he might lose his leg but he still did it. I think that showed his dedication towards the band more than anything else.

MO: Have you found the American market or even international markets like Australia grow with fans after the release of the new album and previous album Ghost Opera, or do you still find Europe as Kamelot’s main hub for fans and popularity?

OP: The American market grew a lot in the past couple of years, but its been tough as well because during a certain period it was all about nu-metal and hardcore or whatever. It was a slow and steady growth with the release of the last 2 albums which hit the market on a much bigger scale than before.

With Europe though we have all these huge metal festivals which American doesn’t really have, at least not for that style of music. Europe is still our main market but it will still be awhile before the outer territories have somewhat of the same level, but that’s only on a financial basis. I’m not talking about fans though, that’s always been the same for us anywhere.  If we happen to play Australia, America or South America it’s as important to us as playing anywhere else .

MO: On the subject of tours I know Roy Khan was diagnosed with an unknown illness which made him sit out the American leg of the’ Poetry for the Poisoned’  tour and was replaced by Circus Maximus singer, Micheal Eriksen. Was this illness stress related or something physical that got to him?

OP: We think he just had a total burnout from the very long and tough recording period for Poetry for the Poisoned. At the same time we were doing a lot of festivals and tours in between and he also had his second kid which kept him awake all night. He told me that he wasn’t sleeping for weeks basically and only taking naps during the day. I think finally in the end it was just to much and he had a kind of break down and isolated himself from the outside world to essentially refuel his batteries and is still going on actually. It’s something we have taken very serious because it is effecting the band, as you know.

MO: If Roy is still feeling the pinch of stress and a physical drain is there a chance the band may find a new frontman to replace him if he can’t get well soon?

OP: That was the point of the American tour, but it was too short. It was only like 2 weeks before we stared the tour and this issue came up and many singers were already on tour or were planning to tour the same time and we eventually called Micheal up because we knew he could probably do it and Roy could come in after he rested.

During the rehearsals though we found out that it wasn’t the case and some of that magic was gone. We had to cancel most of our American tour and only did Atlanta ProgPower and cancel the rest of the tour. It wasn’t because of Micheal though. He would have been a great replacement for Roy just as much as Roy being a replacement for Micheal in Circus Maximus. It’s just so difficult replacing a lead singer.

I guess will just have to see what happens in the future. I hope that Roy does recover fast and he can do the upcoming tours, but right now its still the same situation.

MO: If he does recover soon will Kamelot hope to come to Australia in the near future?

OP: The problem is if we were to book an Australian tour we would probably be bankrupt in no time. [laughs] We want to go to so many places, me especially as I want to go back to Australia. I have only been once before on tour. It’s always a big financial problem to do this, you know. I really hope we tour Australia but its up to the agencies and the promoters and if they consider it doable. I really hope it happens soon.

MO: Any last words, Oliver?

OP: I just want to say that I experienced Australia once in the winter. It was really cold I remember, but it had a really special and unusual vibe to me coming from Germany. It was really sad to leave the country after only like 3 days I think, so I just can’t wait to return your continent. I’m sure it’s going to happen, but I’m just waiting for that time to come. [laughs]

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Q’s: Anwar Rizk
A’s: Oliver Palotai
Band: Kamelot
Date: 28/11/2010
Origin: Germany
www.kamelot.com
www.palotai.de