THE METAL PIT:  Tell me about the formation of Enbound. How did you get Lee Hunter of Work of Art, a rock band, to become the lead vocalist of a power metal band?

MIKE CAMERON FORCE:  The formation of Enbound took a pretty long time :) However it couldn't be better than the current lineup. The guys of Enbound have different backgrounds and that is something we all like. Swede, Marvin and I are from the same town so we knew each other, and we found Mr. Hunter on the internet. Even though he sings pop/rock mainly I just heard that he would be a great contribution to the band so I sent him an e-mail wondering if he would like to sing in a metal band and got a quick reply “Finally some metal”! I think it's good for Lee to push his voice a little further with Enbound, haha.

Can you go into the writing process for “And She Says Gold”? Do all band members contribute song ideas or is there a songwriting team?

We all have ideas and we each add our personal touch to the music, I have been the main writer on "And She Says Gold" but all share cred on every song. Some songs were written on the drums, like "Combined the souls" but mostly I write on keyboard. Swede writes on acoustic guitar most often and Marvin on electric guitar. Every song has a different birth to it. But we don't live so close nowadays so we use the internet to send files to present new ideas.

There is a very cool cover of the Michael Jackson song “Beat It” that you recorded. Can you discuss the collective influences for yourself and also the other members of the band?

We probably could send you like five pages of our influences but for the whole band I think we like bands like Queen, Metallica, Dream Theater, Michael Jackson etc. .I am a huge Metallica fan and also like a bit harder bands like Testament and Sepultura but also a lot of melodic bands, Maiden, Symphony X, Rage, Edguy, Angra and Kamelot. Swede is a big fan of Dream Theater and other rock prog/metal prog bands. Marvin is a jazz guitar player and listen to a lot of Sune Persson, I.A. Eklund and Michael Bolton. Lee likes arrangement bands like Queen and DT and is in to bands like Act etc.

I was very impressed with the packaging of the album art and photos of the band. Who came up with the Black and Gold concept for the album art and photos? Do you plan to continue the black and gold theme in a live setting or would that be too similar to a band like Stryper?

Thank you! I had an idea of making a complete black and gold theme so I asked the guys and they liked the idea. We had a lot of ideas in the beginning and we made several test shoots to get what we wanted. We even made our own clothes :)  Yes we will have the theme when we enter the stage but we are not sure if we should do the full make up... haha! It would ruin our gear… I don't think it will be similar to Stryper, it will be more black than gold ;)

Inner Wound Recordings is amassing quite an impressive line up of artists. How did you come to sign a contract with them?

 
Marvin is a friend of Emil at Inner wound so we sent him and about twenty other labels our demo. It ended up with three labels interested, but we followed our
heart and chose Inner Wound for the good of our music and we are very happy with that choice.

If you could pick a dream tour to open for a band who would it be and why?

Haha this is hard! I would say Metallica but I can only speak for myself :) We  like so many bands so if we will have the opportunity to open for any big band it would be great.

 In looking at your Facebook page, I notice that your debut album has received a great number of positive reviews, including my own review for The Metal Pit. How do you feel about so many rock and metal websites praising your debut album?

It feels great! Not just for scoring good points but the simple fact that someone listens to our album, which took us four years to be complete, and likes it, makes us want to do more music and sharpen the knife and do better and better. That is cred for our souls!

How did you come to work with vocalist LaGaylia Frazier on the song “Frozen to Be”? Can you tell our readers a little about her background?

We had heard of her before but it was a particular trailer for a Swedish TV show that blew us away, wow! her voice. She’s from America, now living in Sweden, daughter of Hal Frazier. She came here working with the Swedish piano player Robert Wells and has done a lot of projects and shows around the world with many famous vocalists. We contacted her and mailed her some songs, and she liked "Frozen to be" the better. Also, this was before Mr. Hunter joined the band, and they had been singing at the same Eurovision contest in Romania so they actually knew each other. We all met up in Stockholm and recorded it. She is a great singer and great person!

My personal favorite song on the album is “Noiseless Bullet”. What is your favorite track and why?

Cool! Hmm, tricky, I really find it hard to just pick one song since they are so different in style. I really like ‘Me and desire’ with all the vocals in the chorus. It was one of the songs which ended up with like 40 channels of vocals, haha, in a good way of course!

Have there been any live shows with Enbound so far? Do you have any tour or festival plans in the coming year?

No live gigs yet with the current lineup. We are now working on the second      album and have no plans for touring, but if an offer shows up that we can't resist, of course we will play!

In closing, I would like to wish you luck with the album and all of Enbound’s future endeavors. Is there anything you would like to say to our readers who may not be familiar with Enbound?

Thank you so much! Be sure to check us out and *Like* us on facebook.com/enbound. Let your melody be black and gold!