Recently, I discovered the wonderful music of Greek heavy metal titans InnerWish. I've really enjoyed discovering their music and loved their upcoming album, Ash Of Eternal Flame, so when the opportunity came to sit down with their drummer, Franki Samoilis, you better believe I jumped on it. In this interview, we talk about the new record, Franki's influences, and getting to work with Hansi Kürsch of the legendary Blind Guardian.
Mick: So, this has been your first album since 2016, the self-titled one. How does it feel to have a new InnerWish album finally coming out?
Franki: It's a relief. To finally have the new album out is a massive relief as we’ve been waiting for it for a while. It was supposed to be released in 2020. However, after COVID everything went downhill. In the end, we were very happy. It felt like a sign of good things to come. Maybe we wouldn't have been signed to Rising Phoenix Music if it had been released in 2020. So, with this timing and everything going on, we are extremely happy that we can finally release it.
Mick: I mean, you've managed to get Hansi Kürsch from Blind Guardian on the single "Sea of Lies". What was that like? What was that experience like working with him?
Franki: Do you have childhood dreams? Because that was a childhood dream coming true! I am a huge Blind Guardian fan. I always wanted something like this to happen since I was 14 years old, reading Lord of the Rings, you know, and listening to stuff like Blind Guardian.
To be honest, it was so easy. Very easy communication. He is a total professional. Imagine, I asked him to send me just the chorus if he could. He only sent me the whole song. He sang the whole song! We could’ve just released the song only with Hansi. That's a pro and a half. Yeah, and we'll put Blind Guardian's new song on it. Perfect. Perfect commercial.
Mick: So, it was almost Blind Guardian featuring InnerWish.
Franki: Yeah, exactly.
Mick: So, what was the thought process going into it? You said it was going to be 2020. So, what was the initial thought process going in, and do you feel anything has changed from the 2020 version to the finished record that's coming out now?
Franki: We didn't change that much, because just before COVID started, we had almost everything recorded. We had drums, bass guitar, and most of the guitars done. So, we were only lacking choirs and most parts of the vocals. So, we didn't change many things after that part. However, we did change some vocal parts. Not in terms of lyrics, but in terms of how George sang them. Also, some of the backing vocals and stuff like that. To be honest, it was a very, very boring period after 2020, listening to the same songs over and over and over again. I was disgusted. I didn't want to listen to the songs anymore.
Mick: So, what is your favourite song from this new record?
Franki: I think the title track “Ash of Eternal Flame” is my favourite song on the album. Also, “Sea of Lies” because, you know, it's Hansi.
Mick: I noticed that the last track is a cover of Blackfoot’s “Send Me An Angel”. What was the idea for that cover? Is there anything special about that one song that you wanted to do, or, is it just the one song the band could agree on?
Franki: Actually, yeah. It's the one song the band could agree on after a few fights. We always disagree because, as I told you before, we listen to totally different music. I wanted to have a pop song cover because they are my favourite covers in general, to be honest. I wanted to take something so ubiquitous and transform it into a metal song.
Blackfoot is a great band and this song was a huge hit in the metal clubs in the 90s and 00s. “Send Me An Angel” was playing everywhere. Every metal club, every metal bar or whatever would play it at least one time per night.
Mick: I've got a growing fascination with the Greek metal scene. I have a running theory that there are no bad Greek metal bands.
Franki: The best thing about Greece is that we have bands for every genre you want to hear. For me, that's our arsenal. That's the best part because we have black metal bands, death metal bands, power, symphonic, and stuff with female vocals. We don't have that much metalcore, but we are getting on it. We have a lot of post-hardcore bands and some great bands at that! You have to do some digging, there’s so much over here.
Mick: I'm digging. I'm doing digging every day because I'm very fascinated. What are your favourite venues over there? Are there any famous venues to play? If a metal fan were to go over there, what would be some of the better venues to go to?
Franki: Nowadays, the best venue we have is Floyd in Athens. It's the best when it comes to capacity and accommodation in Athens. It’s a metal club that takes 2,200 people, I think that's a good number. There’s also the Fuzz Club and we have Gagarin, we have lots of good places to play. Unfortunately, I think COVID took its toll but the scene is still very much alive over here.
Mick: This album was my introduction to InnerWish. I hadn't heard it here until I got my hands on this new album. If you were to give a new listener guide to InnerWish, what would be your five recommended songs to get into InnerWish?
Franki: For me, I would put the song “Ash Of Eternal Flame” from this album, the title track, for sure. I would put either “Sea Of Lies” from this album or “Reign Of The Thousand Years” from our self-titled album, they’re similar types of songs. “Needles In My Mind” from our previous album, for sure. I love “Burning Desires”, from No Turning Back. Then I would put a straightforward, typical, heavy song like “Modern Babylon” from the previous album. So with these five, I think you have a lot of coverage of our overall sound. We have heavier tracks, more symphonic, more simple tracks and more melodic songs. All the spectrums of our music are in those five songs.
Mick: Do you have any specific bands or records that influenced you to become a drummer?
Franki: “Images And Words” from Dream Theater. “Beneath The Remains” by Sepultura. So much of At The Gates, In Flames and many other bands of the 90s. In the beginning, I was very hardcore. Give me brutal vocals, give me darkness and stuff like that in my music.
Later on, more of the classic stuff. Stuff like Rainbow and Thin Lizzy, for sure. You know, there are some bands that you only gain an appreciation for at a later age. It's not easy when you're 16 or 17 to realize the beauty of Thin Lizzy or Rainbow or bands like that. Especially when you're more of a hardcore metal fan in general.
Mick: I can imagine you just busting that drum part to "Stargazer".
Franki: Yeah, I think it's a tutorial on how to become a rock drummer. That's how you do it. It's iconic, man, so iconic!
Mick: So obviously this is a big thing for InnerWish's comeback. Have you got any touring plans or aspirations for where you're going with this record in terms of a tour, in terms of how you want to broadcast it?
Franki: Well, I don't know about a full tour for now. We are arranging some club shows and stuff like that. We’re more in the position of “let's play one month across Europe” or something like that. It wouldn’t be easy for us, to be honest, to do that kind of tour because we all have our day jobs. Half of us have families. So, it must be very, very, very well organised if we were going to do it. I won't close the door, it's an open possibility.
Our club shows we’ll play for sure in Central Europe, as always. Germany, Netherlands, Belgium. I don't know if we ever play in the UK but I wouldn’t rule it out. However, we want to play as many shows as possible with this album because we've been through a lot and now we want to harvest the reward of all the hard work.
That's why we also chose Rising Phoenix Music. It's a big label, so it might give us the opportunity for our music to travel and reach more people.
Mick: So for the upcoming live shows, is it a challenge coming up with a set list that properly represents the old stuff and this new album and trying to make it work altogether?
Franki: I don't know, to be honest. Because we haven't decided on the setlist yet. It will be decided before every show, depending on the time we have. We will have 20 or 25 songs ready and we will just pick from that. We also have a lot of singles from this album and we can't avoid playing them. “Higher”, “Soul Assunder” and “Sea of Lies” for sure, will be on the setlist.
Mick: I'm fascinated by that. A lot of bands have one set list for the foreseeable and then they'll reassess later. However, it's interesting you said it's show by show.
Franki: It's show by show, but there will always be the basics. Then some more songs will be added depending on the show, on our mood, whatever.
Mick: If you could snap your fingers and tomorrow you could play one of the bigger festivals at one of the stages, who would you want to surround you in terms of that line-up? Who would be your dream line-up to be a part of?
Franki: Ah, okay! I'll speak only for me, not for the band. We are six very different people and we have different tastes in music. So for me: Blind Guardian, Sabotage (with the whole line-up), Parkway Drive, Amorphis, who I will love forever, one of my favourites, Faith No More, and (a good reunion of) Death.
Mick: I love the qualifier of a “good reunion” of Death.
Franki: No, no, no. That was no pun intended! I think those six will sum it up.
Mick: As a drummer and songwriter, is there any particular song or album that comes to mind, where you listened to that record and it mystified you? To clarify, that feeling of “How did they ever come up with that drum part or how did they even compose that song together”?
Franki: The first record I ever listened to was where I was confused when it came to the drum part. I was younger and didn't know much about drumming. It was Sound of Perseverance by Death. I was confused. I was like, what the fuck is he doing? How did he do that? How did he think of that? It was my first big, big shock when it came to drumming. Not in terms of the technique but very weird thoughts and breaks and stuff like that.
Also, the first time I heard Tool and the first time I heard Faith No More, because I think they are so, so, so underrated in terms of musicianship.
Mick: Yeah. I think everyone is focused on Mike Patton and how insane he is, rather than the rest of the band.
Franki: True, true.
Mick: So for my last question. What is the hardest thing, professionally or personally, you've had to overcome and how did you overcome it?
Franki Professionally, I would say, was maintaining consistency after COVID, to be honest during and after COVID, at least in my 23 years of existence in general. I think that was the hardest part to overcome. It wasn’t even one specific thing, it was just the uncertainty and the anxiety of it all.
Personally. Depression, I think. That's why music helps a lot. I use my lyrics in order to overcome the challenges in my life. That's why I love to write lyrics, because it’s not for someone else, it's for me. I speak for myself in my lyrics. Sometimes it’s about depression and sometimes it’s other things. It's my side of this dark matter of our times.
So those two, I think, are the biggest so far. I hope they are the last.
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