Day Six

Articles

Lords of Metal
December 2003
By: Vera "Gothica"

Recently I was gladly surprised by ‘Eternal Dignity’, the debut CD of the Dutch band Day Six. This album is filled with progressive moods but meanwhile offers some delightful vocals and catchy melodies. It is obvious: this has been made with love, but even more important are the great talents of the band. And this started with a punk band? I wanted to know more about this! And so I contacted vocalist/guitarist Robbie van Stiphout for an interview. I was lucky. Robbie took his time to explain many things, so I can proudly present the history of Day Six and all details to you. For those who love progressive music with balls ‘Eternal Dignity’ is a highly recommended piece of music. Because of the multi-lateral interests of these young musicians it has become a fine story. We can look forward with trust to all their projects in the future.

Day Six came out of the former punk band Peanuts. Can we speak about the same line up?

Dolf van Heugten (keyboards) and I (Robbie, guitar, vocals) started with the band King Of Darkness in 1993 (we were about 10/11 years old). The line up this time was: two guitar players, drummer, bass player and keyboard player. We wrote our own songs despite our young age. In 1997 we founded the band Peanuts. The old drummer was replaced by Daan Liebregts. Also a new bass player was found, but he was replaced in October 1999 by Nick Verstappen. Around this time the decision had been made we should go on with one guitar player. This resulted in a more open view in music. The contribution of the other members was enlarged.
Nowadays we still have this line up:

Daan Liebregts: drums
Nick Verstappen: bass
Dolf van Heugten: keyboards
Robbie van Stiphout: guitar/vocals

In October 2002 we have changed our name into Day Six.

How many CD’s Peanuts released and when?

  • Suicide 1997 (demo)

  • What’s in a nutshell 1998

  • Cry for Existence 1999

  • Be Careful what you wish for... 2000

  • The law of the web 2001

    • (The Law Of The Web has been released later under the name ‘The Word Beyond Earth’ for promotion’s sake for Day Six).


    Hereby some CD’s of Projects:

  • Het geheim van de gouden slang (The Secret Of The Golden Snake) – 2000 (music for a theatre piece, on the CD the story is guided by music)
  • Crossroads – 2001 (A project with choir and orchestra. On the CD you can find songs of ours, reworked for orchestra, but also well-known compositions as The Final Countdown, The Phantom Of The Opera, Nothing Else Matters, and so on…)

    Furthermore we have some unofficial live albums released.

    When and why this decision to make some other kind of music? Was this a gradual evolution or did it happen quite abruptly. For punk is famous for its short songs while Day Six prefers to play it out in long tracks…

    Looking back at it we never made real punk music. When we started with Peanuts in 1997 we wanted to bring punk rock, but we had a keyboard player this time around already. This brought a symphonic element into our music even then. At this time we didn’t choose for one style. This has been reflected on our CD ‘What’s In A Nutshell’, 13 completely different songs as you can see. At certain moments Dolf and I just get into the Gathering. Because we were the main writers then, it couldn’t be else than having an influence on our compositions. This resulted in a quite natural evolution. Nowadays the songs are written by all of us, this brings more diversity in the compositions’.

    You have won a lot of prizes. Please tell us about all these ‘rock competitions’?

    You know we love to play live. As much as possible. But a venue often won’t take the risk to book an unknown band. Not enough audience to show up. This makes us present at those competitions. So we could play and get familiar with people over there. It is good to present yourself in a new environment and through this we can arrange a next gig. When you want to play on a bigger festival you must have a big name. But most of these festivals have a competition which results in being the opening act on the festival when you win the competition. This is what we often did too. And indeed, we won a lot of competitions. Through this we won some time in a studio. Once upon a time in Amsterdam, we won a competition with 114 bands. We won time to record in the Yland studio, Amsterdam. In 2003 we won two competitions: EMP (Eindhoven music-price) and the Metalbash X-tra from Aardschok. Through ‘EMP’ we won time in studio Pop-Ei, Eindhoven and with the Metalbash we won some time in the Harrow studios in Losser (NL). It happened before we recorded a CD in more than one studio. In the past we recorded the whole of the songs in every studio. But this result didn’t satisfy us because you are dealing with different sounds and recording technicians. With ‘Eternal Dignity’ we chose consciously to record the base (drums) in one studio and all the rest in another one. That’s when you create a homogeneous sound’.




    It is a cute anecdote that the changing of the band’s name was Metal Mike’s advice (Aardschok). How come?

    This changing of our name was not something coming out of the blue. We struggled for years with the name ‘Peanuts’. This name didn’t fit with our music. When we started as a punk rock band, Peanuts was quite alright. (And we still like this name for a punk band). It was easy to pronounce and easy to remember, even for those who don’t speak English. But we noticed we were not taken seriously. It happened many times that this name took some lines in every review or gig review, while there were more important things to tell about us. It all comes down on music and not on our name. So we often discussed that name. On the other hand is was not easy to change, because Peanuts was known by many people already and with a new name we would have to start all over again. Back to zero. This went on for a while until we spoke to Metal Mike at the Metalbash competition. He told us the same old story. He liked the music and told us we are a good band but at a certain point the name would cause us only trouble. The day after, during a meeting with all the band, we decided to change our name into DAY SIX. We had been thinking about this for a while but we needed that extra push.The name ‘Day Six’ comes from a song of us (DAY VI). Even now we wanted a name easy to pronounce and easy to remember. Furthermore we thought it was quite interesting to work with a figure. The figure 6 is easy to use in different ways. We used it in our bandlogo. We decided to spell it fully out, also because of the website and email facilities’.

    Why did you choose for the Egypt theme?

    ‘The mystical atmosphere about Egypt is very interesting. And the pictures are very useful for the artwork. We are fascinated by people that lived so long ago and yet archaeologists, examiners, makers of programs and films are still inspired by this because it holds so many mysteries, even today. That’s why we called our album ‘Eternal Dignity’.

    And the artwork shines brightly…who is responsible for it?

    Thanks for the compliment, I passed it through to the maker. It is Tiny van Stiphout, my father and our manager. We are very proud of it. And we see that the artwork makes people listen to the album. I guess that’s the best thing a cover can do.

    The recordings of ‘Eternal Dignity’ took place in different studios and different stages. Please tell us all about it?

    At the beginning of December 2002 we started with the pre-production. This took place in our own studio.
    The biggest part of the album was recorded before and this was splendid because we had no real discussions anymore during the real recording process. The recordings are discussed more than once by all the band so everybody had a clear view on the result. Even the sound effects were discussed before. The only two songs that were not finished: ‘Legend Of The Hollow’ and ‘The Crypt’. Concerning ‘The Crypt’ it were only details, but we only had a base for ‘Legend…’ entering the studio. As the project would take some half year and because we had to record in three studios, it was important to have the production in our own hands.

    In January we booked the Pop-Ei Studio for three days where we recorded the drums on a 13 track band and the rest of the band plus click track on a guide track. Also the 32 girls of the choir were recorded in here. The choir had sung on the guide track which we changed into 4 tracks. With these recordings we went to the Harrow studio in Losser and we put everything on Otari Radar. We used three days more for the bass, keyboards and rhythm guitar. After that we worked for two days on the clean guitars and solos, later we took two days for the vocals. All this we did with usual breaks. And we always took a mix of everything at home. So we could listen and change some things. A song like ‘Legend…’ is made in parts. When the guitar and keyboard parts were recorded, there were no vocals yet. The mix in between we always used for rehearsals. I think that’s why the album sounds quite in balance. In our home studio we recorded the samples. We even sung a male choir ourselves. We were busy for two days, only to get a 30 seconds male choir perfectly fixed. And this is exclusive preparation and pre-production.

    Concerning the final mix of ‘Eternal Dignity’ we took a day just to work at the sound. This day we finalized the mix of one song. We took the result to our home. We listened to it, discussed it and changed it when needed. And so we did for every song. The whole recording process was the biggest project we ever did. And I’m still wondering how we managed to keep everything under control without losing our point of view on the whole. But we enjoyed it a lot and it is overwhelming that the album has been received that well’.

    At the third of October we had the CD presentation in Asten-Heusden. Please tell us about this event?

    It all went very well, even though our special guests ‘Arabesque’ couldn’t play. Due to a failing multi cable the soundcheck happened much later than planned. By the time everything was fixed Arabesque had to leave again. They had a gig in Eindhoven that same day. We both regret it, but we’ll make things happen in the future! Luckily, we are experienced enough to let not bring us down by this. In the weeks before that event, we had some serious rehearsals. We would do some close harmony vocals that evening for the first time in our lives. Also we would use some samples and play tracks live we never did before on stage. It was a good thing we had some extended rehearsals before. We started quite tightly, and so the tune for the concert was set. The reactions were great, we are very pleased. At last we could present our new CD!

    You are always into a lot of different projects. For instance, Crossroads I.

    Two years ago we had the first edition of Crossroads I. We worked together with an orchestra and choir. Songs of ours are changed a bit for the orchestra but we also played some classic tracks like The Final Countdown, Nothing Else Matters and so on… We had one live performance of this. 100 people on stage! And even a release of it on CD! Because of this project we did some concerts with the girls choir (32 girls). Once we took a tour bus to Zeewolde to play at a festival. It really kicked ass! (and this choir sings on our album on two songs).

    Some more questions about Crossroads I. What’s the song list? Has this been a self-release and is it still available?

    The CD of Crossroads I is simply called ‘Crossroads’.
    This CD contains ten songs:

  • The Final Countdown

  • Big Big world

  • The Law Of The Web (Day Six)

  • Abba Gold Medley

  • Ben

  • Music

  • YMCA

  • The Phantom Of The Opera

  • Nothing Else Matters

  • The Nothing (Day Six)



    • The CD is a self-release. This was a tremendous experience. All together in the studio, about 70 people. Choir and other vocals are recorded later. The CD is still available. He can be ordered through us.




    And now you are busy with Crossroads II.


    Also here we have different youth groups of Someren (NL) and environs working together on a spectacular show. The youth groups are:

    Choir – Swingles
    Percussion group – Trem
    Dance group – Dance Experience
    Theatre group – De Speledonckers
    Fanfare – St. Willibrordus
    And Day Six completed with different solo artists.

    It is all about a computer game. The levels are reproduced by diverse musical and visual aspects. (for instance an Ice World with Ice Queen of Within Temptation). Songs of us have been worked on, but we also play some classic tracks again, as Radar Love, Born To Be Wild, Feel, and many more. The accent lies on the visual aspect this time. Much more dance, theatre, images on screen, and a spectacular light show. It is a huge project we’re working on for about a year now. www.somerencrossroads.nl

    For a week you had the camera of ‘Omroep Brabant’. How did that work out?

    I had sent a mail to ‘Omroep Brabant’ and we got the chance to have this camera of Omroep Brabant during a weekend, just to reflect the life of our band. We decided to not only film a rehearsal or a gig, cause we’re always so busy with different things. That’s why we chose to have a hell of a weekend:

    - Rehearsals of Crossroads
    - Pre-production ‘Eternal Dignity’
    - A concert
    - And photo shoot

    All this has been broadcasted in a compact way, three minutes. We decided to make a winding book to make things clear what we wanted to film. At this case, only material we enjoyed would be broadcasted. It would have been a failure if some crap would find its way to the program. You can watch this broadcast at our website: www.day-six.com at ‘’download’’. To the point and a killer thing to do!

    What are the live plans or package deals at the moment?

    We are doing some clubshow whenever possible, and we are working on a package deal with Sun Caged, Morgana-X and 7th Circle (B). The first festival is on the 13th of March in Helmond (Plato). We are in contact with ‘Karma’ with Irene Jansen (Star One). At the moment it is only the beginning but we hope for something good. A band on its own often is refused in well-known venues, a package deal makes it more interesting for the audience, the venue and the bands.

    The reviews of ‘Eternal Dignity’ are unanimous positive. What expectations does this create for the band? Are there some positive results coming out of this?

    It gives us a very nice feeling to see they all like it. We knew ourselves that we made a strong album, but you cannot judge it in an objective way after working on it for more than six months. We also were aware of a certain risk to open the CD with an epos of more than ten minutes with different moods. It is a track you need to hear more than once (but that’s the kind of music we want to play). It created some nervous feelings to follow the reactions. But it was received very well, certainly in the progressive, symphonic scene. We hope to do many great things over there. If we are able to make one step further with every CD we make, we are happy. This time we succeeded! A result of the reviews are the CD sales on line through internet. The album has been ordered all across our country, but also in Germany and Belgium. We have the possibility to do some interviews and promote our album, which is fine to book more shows. So we are very proud on these positive reactions and happy with the results.

    Day Six is a band you enjoy best in a cosy atmosphere of a dark venue. But would you mind to play on big festivals?

    Of course we would love to play festivals. Both have their own charm. The time to do a soundcheck in a venue is longer most of the time and so the sound is better. An advantage on festivals, with many different bands is that you can reach many people with a different view. They get to know your band and music. It is important to change the setlist. The shows in a venue are longer and they need a break, a moment of repose, on a festival ground it needs to blow you away from the beginning till the end.

    What do you think of my impression that ‘Dark Tower’ has the feeling and the intensity of the early grunge period, namely Mother Love Bone?

    I have to admit I didn’t know the music of Mother Love Bone. And so I downloaded a couple of songs. It is hard to make some comparisons with our music because I cannot listen to it without prejudice. The funky riffs sounded familiar to me and the will to keep the songs open (the art to drop, of leaving out some notes). After comparing with the other band members, also the intonation of the singer came up. On this new CD we are linked with very diverse bands, like Vandenplas, Jorn Lande, Halford, Dio (vocals), Eloy, Kamelot, Savatage, Power Of Omens, Dream Theater and Spock’s Beard. In general the real classic bands often appear, such as Rush, Pink Floyd, Genesis, Deep Purple and Black Sabbath. We consider this as a big compliment. Because these are the bands who influenced our favourites.

    Talking about this recent favourite bands: can you name a few?

    At the moment we listen to the following bands:

    At home I often listen to music of Pink Floyd and Rush. I think these influences come automatically sneaking to our music.

    To conclude, let’s talk about the concrete plans for the near future…

    Now we are busy working on our project Crossroads II (six days a week). In half a year we will reap what we saw. Because we play together daily now things get tighter and the band becomes a good oiled unit. This will have a positive influence on the new songs we write. And we learn a lot from it as individuals. After the project all attention will go to the band. We want to play live as much as possible to promote the album. We are working on it now and it looks quite well. As I said before, also some package deals. I’m looking forward to it! Usually, we manage to play about 25 à 30 times a year, this will happen next year too, I hope. Somewhere next year we will record a demo in our own studio, we are going to mix it in a professional studio. Because we evolve so much, it is necessary to have new material on a regular base. If we could get a chance to make this our job and make a living of it, we would do it immediately. But we are realistic and we know it is an illusion in our genre. But as long as we can enjoy our ‘got out of hand’ hobby and keep having new kicking experiences we carry on!



    http://www.day-six.com


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