Review Fix chats with Genus Ordinis Dei’s drummer Richard Meis, who discusses the band’s creation process, goals, new album, “Great Olden Dynasty†and more.
Review Fix: How did the band get together?
Richard Meis: We all born and raised in the same town (Crema) and we always played in different musical projects before actually come up with this band.
In 2012 we started out Genus Ordinis Dei, we recorded our first album “The Middle,” followed by an intense run of shows between Italy and Europe.
Later, in 2015 we met Marco Coti Zelati from Lacuna Coil and we started to work together on our self-titled EP with him as a producer.
In 2016 we signed with Mighty Music for the release of both the album and we started to write our brand new album.
Meanwhile, we’ve been invited by Lacuna Coil to join their Delirium World Tour as an opening act for every show in EU/UK and it’s been amazing!
Back from the tour, we signed a deal with Eclipse Records, and our album Great Olden Dynasty was released on Nov 24.
Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?
Meis: We are not the kind of band who compose songs at the rehearsals due to the orchestral part which has to be written and programmed before.
Usually, a song is created and recorded in our studio, later on, we rehearse it and we do some changes in order to have it perfectly working live.
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Our main composers are me, who writes the songs and Tommy (Guitars) who makes the orchestrations and the arrangement.
Review Fix: What’s your standout song? How was it written?
Meis: I’d say “The Flemish Obituary.†The idea came to me (Richard) during a trip to Belgium when I was walking down the street and I heard this huge and gloomy melody coming from an organ in a cathedral.
I suddenly went home and I started writing the main melody of the song and later on the song itself.
It is very representative of the band because it shows off our aggressive and rhythmic side, but also our love for classical music.
Review Fix: What are your goals for 2018?
Meis: To continue the promotion of our latest release “Great Olden Dynasty†and maybe tour again around Europe. We also have a couple videos coming out and some “Extras†to show.
Review Fix: How do you want your music to affect people?
Meis: We just want to make them feel better…you know when you put a song on your car and you start driving somewhere..that is! Sometimes we are texted by people who used to listen to our music in a hard time of their lives (depression, or stuff like that). And when they say that our music helped them somehow we can’t be more proud of it!
Review Fix: What’s next?
Meis: We are still working on “Great Olden Dynasty†promoting it both live and on the radio, so our main focus is this album. But we are also collecting some ideas for the next album! In the meantime, please check us out on iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, Spotify and Deezer, and our website www.genusordinisdei.com.
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