Dead Rhetoric: If you had the opportunity to sit down and have a three-hour dinner with anyone past or present, who would you choose to sit down with and what do you think the conversation would be about?
Porcianko: Wow. I would probably say from a musical point of view I would love to sit down with Tori Amos or Yanni. From a personal perspective I’d like to see my dad again, just tell him about the album I’ve done and see how much he likes it. I was lucky that other people I’ve looked up to in the past I’ve met such as Secret Garden, the violinist Fionnuala Sherry and main composer Rolf Lovland I got to meet at a book signing here in Melbourne and I got to give Rolf a copy of Tangled in Dream and say how much I like their music and he emailed me back to say how much they really liked our album as well which is really cool.
Dead Rhetoric: Is it a difficult process for Australian bands to gain access to tours on a global level as far as visas, costs of flights, equipment, transportation, etc.? What have been some of your favorite tours/ shows through the years with Vanishing Point?
Porcianko: It’s definitely quite expensive to tour. If you have a really good repertoire behind you, like a record company that pushes you like we are having with AFM at the moment, then the possibilities of touring is easier in a sense. Where it becomes hard is we are so far away from the mainland, Europe and America, we have to pay the freight for the equipment, pay for the flights, then when you get on a tour, pay for the tour bus, fuel costs, it can be expensive. That being said, we’ve had some amazing tours and played with some great bands – Gamma Ray in 2001 with Sonata Arctica, we’ve retained a close relationship with Sonata Arctica as we toured Europe with them again in 2008 alongside with Pagan’s Mind. When Sonata Arctica came out to Australia in 2010 we supported their dates here, alongside Ensiferum, we’ve supported Black Label Society, Helloween, Iron Maiden, Joe Satriani, Nightwish – every one of those shows has been amazing. We’ve met a lot of great people and played to some fantastic crowds, and we hope to do this again shortly.
Dead Rhetoric: I love the fact that you endured a One Direction concert for your twins rocking the Vader “Ultimate Incantation” long sleeve… does either your son or daughter show any interest in dad’s music and metal endeavors?
Porcianko: [laughs] Truth be known, when my wife tried to play lullaby music for the twins to go to sleep… it didn’t work. With Simone and I, when the twins came into the world I was working the night shift so I would look after the kids when they were in their bassinettes, and she would look after them during the day time. They would hardly sleep to the lullaby music, so I put on At the Gates Slaughter of the Soul, just gently to see what they would think and they would sleep beautifully [laughs]. Thomas is actually interested in taking up the guitar or drums, whereas Mia just wants to be a performer in general. They might play instruments in the future but I’m not going to force anything down their throats. They need to do their things as kids and get dirty outside and play with the soil, play with bugs and explore.
I think Thomas wants to take up the guitar. When we play hard rock or metal around the house they break out into an impromptu head bang. My wife and I have always been into the hard rock, she loved even death metal in the early years. Right now she’s really into Gotthard, and she’ll have the iPhone where they are playing some of Gotthard’s music on one of the instant radio stations. We did enjoy the One Direction concert, but it was painful! [laughs] I’m the type of guy on Facebook who doesn’t want to be taken too seriously, I love taking the piss out of myself, and the world in general. Not every day should you be serious, I love having a laugh with everybody else, and if the laugh is at my expense, I don’t care. With me. that’s a good thing.
Dead Rhetoric: What are five albums that make the most impact in terms of melodic/ progressive metal, without choosing your own of course?
Porcianko: Wow, thank you. I would have to say for me in the early years, with melodic metal and progressive touches, Evergrey – In Search of Truth, I love that album as much as I’ve heard in the past those guys talk about how they rushed that album. Conception. I love Parallel Minds, In Your Multitude, Flow – as well as the early Kamelot albums and especially Karma. A band that I really enjoyed many years ago was a Dutch band called Elegy, they released their debut album Labyrinth of Dreams as well as their second album Supremacy, [those] were really cool. All of the Symphony X stuff, I could sit here all day talking about my favorite records.
Dead Rhetoric: Where do you see bands these days make the most missteps in terms of sustaining their careers?
Porcianko: It’s hard to say because I’m still learning as well. A lot of bands release in my opinion, too many albums as if they are trophies for a record label, or we are current because we are releasing an album every two to two-and-a-half years. To me, it seems like some of the bands aren’t taking as much time on their craft or their focus. They write 40 songs, but out of those 40, how many are really good? A lot of bands are just playing shows for the sake of playing shows because that’s where they make money. You definitely have to have a day job, while doing music is an awesome thing it’s not necessarily always the thing that brings in the money.
Dead Rhetoric: How did it feel to find out that Sonata Arctica was going to cover one of your songs “Two Minds, One Soul?”
Porcianko: I was blown away! Tony Kakko emailed me a few years ago and told me he was interested in covering that song. I emailed him back and said ‘go for it, I’d love to hear it!’ and he said that was really cool because we’ve already done it. [laughs] It definitely boosted our profile, we are forever indebted to the band and I regard Tony as a very close friend.
Dead Rhetoric: How are the next 12 months shaping up for Vanishing Point in terms of videos, shows, goals, celebrations?
Porcianko: I have to talk to the video director later on today because we are in the last edit for our video for the song “When Truth Lies.” This weekend we are supporting a band for their CD release party called Bane of Winterstorm, our album is released on Friday and we agreed to do this a couple of months ago. In March we may do a show of our own, we will see what the bookings are like in the clubs around here. In April we do two shows supporting Royal Hunt in Sydney and Melbourne, and then in late April we are off to New Zealand for our first headliner tour. In late May we are playing a huge metal festival in Adelaide, which we’ve been confirmed for. We will look at the possibility of playing in Southeast Asia in the second half of the year, and hopefully in that time we are hoping for opportunities in Europe and North America. We are dying to go and come over.