LANCE KING,
vocalist and owner of the Nightmare Records

Interview - January 2007,
USA - Russia

- For Russian Metal Headz you are known firstly as a vocalist of BALANCE OF POWER. But you're a singer at many other cool bands... Could you name a most significant projects?

Yes, of course...PYRAMAZE, AVIAN, SHINING STAR, DEFYANCE, EMPIRE & GEMINI are probably the most visible projects that I 've sung on.

- Year 2006 brought fource 2 new releases - “For the Depth of Time”(Avian) and “Legend of the Bone Carver” (Pyramaze). I always admired by variety of your vocals. Tell me, please, how you can live a lot of music lives in your own one? :) Is there any secret? ;)

I'm very focused and I need a lot of challenges and interesting things in my life, I thrive on the hustle of that, I work a lot, in fact some might call me a bit obsessive about it, I love to keep busy, If I'm not doing something I feel like I should be...anyway that is my secret.

- What albums you like the best of all the ones you've done?

“Perfect Balance” (BALANCE OF POWER) and “Legend of the Bone Carver” (PYRAMAZE).

Although there are several others that I very much enjoy listening too, I think these are over all the best releases I've sung and perhaps the SHINING STAR “Enter Eternity” album as well.

- Would be very interesting to hear about your work in SHINING STAR...

This is a long story, and I hope we will be able to do another album together, because the band is quite a talented lot....

I recorded this album shortly after I left BALANCE OF POWER... it was held back from release because our label in Brazil was having some financial problems, finally when the label closed it's doors, we released it world wide on Nightmare Records my label in the U.S.

- Let us talk about Nightmare Records… You are a founder and owner of the label which has given popularity to many progressive metal bands. By the way, why you have chosen this name - “Nightmare Records”? And how all began? In other words how the idea to found own label has come?

Nightmare was born of my business spirit and my desire to get my own music out to fans... I created the name from a GEMINI song off our first album, we needed a label ;) The artist that did our album covers did the logo for me and there you go, presto, instant label... We sold a lot of GEMINI CD's from the stage, and in some stores in our local area that we toured constantly. A few years later after another GEMINI album, I left the band and started a new group THE KINGS MACHINE... We wrote about 24 songs, put one album out, played around quite a bit, and as I was marketing our new album, I decided to talk to a bunch of my local musician friends with their releases, to help sell their stuff to my distribution contacts. In essence starting a small consignment distro service for my friends. Then a few other bands from around the USA started sending in Demo's, one of these bands was a band called VISIONARY, my first signing of another band to my label that had only put out my own music before this...

- Sounds like a very old story… :) By the way, in which year a countdown has began? ;)

Yes pretty old ;) I just turned 44 in November. I started playing music in bands in 1979 I started making money playing in clubs in 1981 played cover shows in bars/clubs for 8 years constantly... Then started writing music...in 1989 with GEMINI, we released our first album in 1990 and our second in 1992. KINGS MACHINE's album came out in 1995, I joined BALANCE OF POWER in 1997 and the rest you probably can find by doing a Google search of my name (lol).

- Albums of many well-known Scandinavian bands have been released on Nightmare Records. Probably, my question is not too correct… do you have a personal preferences?;) First of all I mean Scandinavian metal bands because our project is devoted to them.

I do have a personal preference, I like musicians that can really play their instruments, I want to be wow'ed, I want the music and the vocals to be stellar....

Just so happens that there seems to be more of that going on in Scandinavia there is in the States right now, or at least that's what I have found. I'm not just into signing Scandinavian bands, I like any great Power Metal or Progressive Metal. I actually just am releasing two new bands from the USA called POWND and SUSPYRE, I think both of these will do quite will in Europe as well, because these guys can play!

- The last year has pleased by your debut in AVIAN, SHINING STAR and DECIBEL. But it was alloyed by your leaving from PYRAMAZE … What do you do next? What about your plans and what the future seems to you?

Well DECIBEL is just a local cover band that I do for fun, it helps me keep my voice in shape for the original music, and allows me the ability to get out on a stage much more frequently, I love the stage, and I love performing for an audience of music hungry people.

Yes got 3 new albums out last year…

- “Legend of the Bone Carver”, “From the Depth of Time” and…speaking of 3rd?..

SHINING STAR – “Enter Eternity”

Unfortunately the band I loved most, didn't want to work together anymore..so I move on...I'm not going to dwell on the negatives what happend in PYRAMAZE, I'm going to say I enjoyed what we did musically and I had a great time up until the part where things fell apart.

What is in store for me is plenty, I have all kinds of projects planned and many new things coming up daily from respected musicians in this arena of music that want to make music/songs together, I'm blessed by this incredibly, especially by the diversity of the music that is coming to me, I love to make music, that is number one with me, I love every part of this, so the more the better, I love working with new people, you learn so much from each person you work with, and are able to be pushed in new directions to become better at what you do. No downside in my mind, except for the Rock star thing....hard to become a rock star when you bounce around a lot, but you know what? The music is more important that my ego. That is what I believe.