Lost Society Interview

The other week at The Tunnels in Aberdeen I was able to catch up with Samy Elbanna, frontman of Finnish thrashers Lost Society before their set supporting the legendary Exodus! Have a read of our conversation below!

All About The Rock: Hey Samy, thanks for taking the time to chat to me tonight! So it is early days in the tour, this is only your third show, but how are you finding it so far?

Samy Elbanna: No problem man, my pleasure! I gotta say, we are in a fucking perfect situation right now because we have met the guys from Exodus a couple of times before at festivals in Finland, Germany, France and such. So we know they’re really awesome guys. But the other night we were all just chilling and having a couple of beers, and we noticed that these guys are just like us! They are our brothers in metal, and they started out in the same situation as us, they know what it’s like to be on tour as a support act. And it’s been great so far, yesterday was one of the best shows I’ve ever played and I’m so looking forward to playing tonight!

AATR: Nice one man, we’re definitely looking forward to seeing you! You guys are a very young man, you’re all in your early twenties right? What’s it like to be supporting one of the biggest names in thrash metal at such a young age?

Samy: Yeah we’re all between 20 and 23! The whole of the last three years with this band has been unbelievable for all of us, in many ways we are living our dream right now! And being on tour with Exodus is of course a huge honour, we’ve always said if we can be with guys like us all the time, play metal and have fun, then we’re in a perfect situation and that’s exactly where we are right now… It feels fucking good haha!

AATR: So Braindead dropped a couple of weeks ago… Holy fuck what an album!

Samy: Hahahaha! Thanks very much man!

AATR: Can you walk us through the creative process for it? It clearly has a much darker sound than your first two records.

Samy: After we released Terror Hungry in 2014 we spent the year just doing a shit load of gigs everywhere, so we didn’t really have time to write. It wasn’t until nearer the end of 2014, basically 2015, we went to the studio to do some writing. We never take a certain amount of time and say that we’re gonna write all of the songs in that time, the oldest song on the album we wrote in 2014 and the newest song was written two weeks before we started recording! You never know when creativity starts hitting you and you start getting inspired. Just like the other two albums it’s been all four of us writing together, we sit down and start jamming until someone gets an idea. We noticed very early in the writing process that it was going to be a bit different, but that wasn’t a conscious decision – we didn’t sit down and say “Right, we’ve done two up-tempo albums, it’s time to be fucking angsty!” It just so happened that the riffs came out a bit darker, a bit gloomier, and when I hit into the lyrics we got a few really cool subjects going, like the whole Brain Dead thing, and the “lost society” we live in with people not thinking for themselves, that’s one of the main themes. I mean what can I say, I’m really proud and I fucking love the album haha!

AATR: So what has the response been like since it was released?

Samy: This time, especially from all three albums, we were really surprised when it dropped and we started getting all the cool feedback! We released [I Am The] Antidote first, partly for a shock element because it’s not a song people would expect from us. And it was a really cool dividing thing, half the people listened to it and said “What the fuck is this?” and the other half were saying this is the best material we’ve ever released, but that’s great! I never get bummed out when I read negative comments, because that’s just part of what we do. But reading some of the comments after the release was great, because there’s people who normally wouldn’t like us at all but with the new material they are totally getting into it. And we hit the charts in Finland in the first week at number three! The last two albums we got to twenty-five, and then six, and this time we said “We have to get in the top three!” And we fucking managed it!

AATR: Congratulations on that! Now Finland is seen as a very death-metal orientated country, certainly it’s death metal exports number legions more than its thrash. What was it like for you guys, a young thrash band, starting out in a scene that favoured it’s music a little more sombre and extreme?

Samy: It was kind of like a two-sided thing, when Fast Loud Death came out there was a perfect little space for us in the scene. They hadn’t seen this kind of thrash metal since Stone in the ‘80s. So I think we hit a perfect place in the scene in 2013, and I noticed after the album dropped a lot of thrash bands started popping up out of small towns. And what’s really cool for us is a lot of these bands are calling us a big influence! Where previously they didn’t want to start playing thrash ‘cause they didn’t think they could do anything with it, and to me that is a real honour. If anyone wants to start playing music because of what myself and the other guys are releasing, then really we’ve accomplished more than we could ever have hoped for.

AATR: So coming from a scene that is thriving with death metal, do you enjoy it yourself, or are you more of a thrash til death guy? Or do you prefer to focus on other genres of music?

Samy: The funny thing is when you listen to our music, then you meet us, there is such a contradiction. I mean, we love thrash metal, of course we do it’s the roots of everything we do as a band, but what we listen to is totally different. We listen to everything from A-Z on the musical spectrum, and I think that’s very important. There was a time in my life when I was like fucking metal til death, if I listen to anything that isn’t metal I’m gonna kill myself! But then I started noticing that there is cool music in all genres, and if I like the sound of something I’ll fucking listen to it! You never know what’s gonna influence you – I can listen to fucking Shakira and get inspired to write a song you know!

AATR: I think I missed your Hips Don’t Lie cover on Braindead! Maybe some Shakira influence on the next album?

Samy: You never know dude hahaha!

AATR: With Braindead having just dropped, would I be right in guessing your focus for the rest of this year is touring? Or are you into writing mode again already?

Samy: You are totally right! We really lucked out with this tour in that when the album dropped, right away we could tour it and promote it both here in the UK and in Europe. When we get back to Finland in the middle of April we’re gonna start a tour there, just weekend shows cause that’s how shit goes in Finland! Then we’re gonna tour Japan and Russia, then we’re hitting into the festival season in Finland and the rest of Europe! We’re looking to get another really cool tour in Europe for later in the year, or maybe somewhere a little further afield – you know the Americas are always just around the corner! We’ll see what happens, but it’s gonna be about the touring. When we have free time we usually spend it at the rehearsal place and we’ve already started writing for the next album, so I think by the end of year we’ll be recording some demos, or releasing a single, who knows? We’re not stopping here!

AATR: So do you think there’s any chance of a headline UK run later in the year?

Samy: You never know actually! We’ve been throwing some ideas around about possibly doing a few headline shows next time, it’s totally possible!

AATR: You haven’t headlined at all in the UK yet, have you?

Samy: No, not yet! Last time we were here with Destruction, and earlier we played one show in London with Suicidal Angels.

AATR: So we touched on how wide and varied your musical tastes are, but in the extreme metal underground I’m sure you can see there is loads of talent. Are there any bands you are really liking the sound of, either in Finland or worldwide?

Samy: Fucking hell dude, that’s a hard one! We’ve always said for every square kilometre in Finland there is ten metal bands, and it’s not a fucking lie! There’s one fucking awesome death metal band from… Actually I don’t know where they’re from, probably Helsinki. But they’re called Morbid Vomit, they’re fucking awesome! And there’s a thrash metal band from Helsinki as well called Nuclear Omnicide, they’re a bit like Sepultura. But you can always Google it and you’ll find like ten million bands!

AATR: Awesome, I’ll check them out! Just before I let you go, have you got any messages for the Lost Society fans out there?

Samy: Just thank you for the huge support, it’s a simple fact that without fans we are nothing. And we are so pleased that everyone seems to be loving the new album, hopefully we can shred together in a town near you!

AATR: Thanks very much for your time tonight Samy! I’ll see you in the pit!

Samy: Fuck yes dude! Thanks very much!

Do yourself a favour and buy a copy of Lost Society’s new album, Braindead