.: FuryRocks :: interview :: Kings_of_Modesty_Come_Hell_or_Highwater_were_gonna_make_it

Published: 19 March 2010

Kings of Modesty - Come Hell or Highwater, we’re gonna make it!

Finland’s own Kings of Modesty has roots that run deep - which stretch across such colorfully-named towns as Jarvenpaa and Kerava - and is a name that will most certainly soon be familiar with headbangers worldwide. Hammering melodic metal - in the vein of Queensryche, Dream Theater, and Kamelot - is the name of the game here. With the release of their full-length debut CD, "Hell or Highwater”, Robert Cavuoto of Furyrocks had a chance to sit down with vocalist Jason Flinck to talk about the new CD and plans to conquer the US!

Congrats on your latest release, Hell or High Water.

Jason: Thank you. Feels great to get our “firstborn” out there!

Can you tell us about the CD and creativity behind it?

Well, it’s our debut CD and we worked on it for nine months from late 2008 to spring 2009 in our rehearsal studio - which is in a dark basement. Four of the 11 are older songs while the other 7 are new. The new songs came out quite easily, with only a few arranging meetings but all in all everything went down nice and easy. Maybe the little break before the recordings on our other duties made it so easy to create and the whole atmosphere in the studio was warm, exited and hearts and minds full of fire!!!

What was the inspiration behind the CD?

When you do music as long as we´ve done without record deal and when you know its knockin’ on your door, you don’t need any extra inspiration. Spirit was: Come Hell or Highwater, we’re gonna make it, hah !!!

Tell us about the songwriting process for the band? Did each member contribute to the writing on Hell or High Water?

With those 4 older songs, the whole band was in writing’ process ‘since those songs came out of the rehearsal place where we jammed and arranged. With the 7 new tracks it was bit different. Samuel usually came in with riffs and I did few ones too. After we had discussed and arranged demo structures I made lyrics and melodies...and again after that we arranged last things together to finalize the songs. During the process other guys came in to tell their visions in arranging the songs so that part was team work also. Maybe this happened at the time because Samuel and I were unemployed back then and we were focused to make this debut happen.

Can you tell be a about the background and history of the band?

Kings of Modesty has a long history, which leads us back to the year 1994 when the band was formed by guitarist Samuel Hjelt and drummer Rane Simoinen. They asked their friend Henkka Tuura to play bass and Samuel’s older brother Mikael to play keyboards. Band took the name of Face of Modesty. Four years ago and after few lead singers other band members asked me to join their band and hence the current line-up was born. We also changed the name to Kings of Modesty at the very same time as I joined the band. It kind of marked “New Era” for the band and it really has been since that! No complains!

Great name, how did you come up with it?

I think it was our bassist Henkka who made it up one night in drunken haze in the local pub, heh. Instantly we thought that it was awesome! Great irony there and it was something from the past and something big and new for the future so it was all there!

Who are some of your influences? Who are some of the band influences?

There are so many, but if I remember artists and bands we all like together... Queensryche, Kiss, Iron Maiden, Rainbow, Symphony X, Kamelot, Dream Theater, VanHalen.. list goes on and on...and I love singers like Steve Perry, Jeff Scott Soto, Jorn Lande, Russel Allen, Sebastian Bach, Joey Lynn Turner...that’s just to mention few, heh...but you get the idea... and I got this own thing for 80´s stuff like Journey, Jon Bon Jovi and that kinda department, heh!

I understand that you will be coming to the US in 2010, will you be out on your own or part of a festival or working in support of another band?

As a matter of fact I don’t know the details yet, because our management is organizing promo tours for U.S and Japan and those should take place during 2010. We are meeting’ our other Manager “magician” Denise Love within week or two so then she will tell us something solid about dates and so on. But firstly I think it’s gonna be support for some bigger name as we did with Tarja last autumn on our first major European tour. It was a blast!

What can we expect at a live show?

Full speed, energy, 110% melodic metal show!

What has the highlight been for you in this band?

The first European tour was awesome experience on stage and off! So...we wanna get on the road again!

Is there a message you want share with rock fans out there?

Never stop believing’ yourself, just rock it out whatever it is!