Dead Rhetoric: What worries or concerns do you have regarding the world? Where do you think the greatest amount of focus needs to be placed to make things better?
Nika: Deforestation for consumerism purposes, especially meat and dairy industry. People just don’t seem to get the importance of preserving our nature, and it makes me sick to my stomach when the only argument they have is ‘well we’ve been like this since forever’, ‘but bacon though’, ‘the world won’t end because I just ate a burger’ etc. They rarely connect the dots between the aforementioned industries and how they affect and consequently rule the world. I could go on and on about this particular problem, but let’s keep it simple: people should get their heads out of their asses.
Dead Rhetoric: What obsessions or passions do you like to pursue when you have the free time away from music – and do any of the band members share in some of those interests?
Klemen: When I’m not doing Eruption I like to dabble in other musical projects, nothing serious for now, but I have a lot of fun. I get to do different vocal styles and that’s really helped me with learning what I vocally want to achieve in Eruption. Apart from that I organize gigs at a local club and try to spend as much time as I can with my wife and my dog.
Andrej: Right now, music’s pretty much a top priority. All of us speak several languages and most of the band shares an interest in culture, literature and history. Personally, I enjoy learning about classical antiquity, the middle ages and both World Wars as well as art history across all periods; I’m really looking forward to diving back into that world as soon as my schedule frees up a bit.
Nika: What is free time? (laughs) Jokes aside, I’m a devoted student of the Czech language and literature and Russian language and literature, so most of my free time revolves around exploring one or the other. Besides that, I really enjoy reading biographies and other history-related stuff and experimenting in the kitchen. Lately I’ve been in the mood for rediscovery as I’ve even started playing my neglected recorders again (and boy do I suck now). (laughs)
Gregor: Free time is hard to find for me. I have a lovely and understanding wife and three beautiful daughters. This, combined with a day job that requires a lot of traveling, limits my hobbies somewhat. Despite that, in my free time, I design and make amplifiers, fly RC helicopters and lately, I like to shoot my air guns.
Ivan: Besides Eruption I’ve been playing in a death metal band Dickless Tracy (we’re about the record our fifth album and celebrate 20 years of grinding) and also doing some session drum work if needed. Besides that, I’m pretty busy with my radio show and webzine and most of the time I enjoy my role as a teacher in primary school where kids always see me wearin’ metal shirts and I’m always showing them amazing bands from all over the world. The result is many more (people) exploring metal, hell I even see 14-year-old kids with Iron Maiden, Metallica or even Arch Enemy shirts,(laughs). The other parts of my life are books, my amazing girlfriend, comics, sci-fi films, cartoons etc.
Dead Rhetoric: What’s on the horizon for Eruption over the course of 2017 and early 2018? Has work already begun on the follow up album – and if so what can the people expect in terms of the songwriting?
Andrej: We are definitely riding a high so we already have riffs kicking around for one or two songs. It’s too early to tell exactly where we’re going with them but we are going to further explore the same avenues we did on Cloaks further, anything other than that wouldn’t make sense. Thanks to the overwhelming response and demand from fans and sites such as yours, though, we are looking at doing some exciting different versions of Cloaks first, so the immediate future for us right now is recording, mixing and mastering a bunch of outtakes and live shows to go with different editions of the album. After that, it’s all about the live shows – if you want to book us, feel free to get in touch via Facebook, otherwise be on the lookout for Eruption on the road and come check us out, you won’t regret it!