EARTHSIDE prvi put u Srbiji ! / EARTHSIDE first time in Serbia!

Read English version by clicking the flag…

• Zahvaljujući našoj drugarici Mirjani Tomić kojoj se neizmerno zahvaljujemo kontaktirali smo gitaristu i šefa benda EARTHSIDE, benda koji je izdao jedan neverovatan debi album ” A Dream In Static” i koji me je kad sam ga slušao prvi put, izuo iz patika. I još uvek me izuva…

 Jamie & Mirjana

…Jamie Van Dyck je pristao da porazgovara sa nama a kakvi su njegovi planovi i šta ima da nam kaže gitarista benda sa ogromnim talentom i potencijalom pročitajte u sledećim redovima :

•  Jamie, hvala ti što ćeš prvi put dati intervju za neki srpski medij i što će to biti baš DOTKOM. Na početku, malo uvlačenja. Po mom mišljenju, jedino su RIVERSIDE u poslednje vreme napravili tako moćan i kvalitetan debi album. Kako vam je to pošlo za rukom ?

Pa, rekao bih tako što izaberete neki pojam iz prirode, dodate mu “side” i napravite ime…izgleda kao isprobana formula. 😉
Šalu na stranu, hvala vam na ljubaznim rečima o našem albumu. Mislim da je velika prednost u tome što, iako je ovo Earthside bendu album prvenac, trojica od nas četiri člana sviramo zajedno već godinama. Frank i ja smo u zajedničkim bendovima od kad smo bili deca, a Ben nam se pridružio u tinejdžerskim godinama. Postali smo Earthside kada smo osetili da smo konačno pronašli zvuk i viziju o kojoj smo sanjali i kojoj smo težili duže vreme i hteli smo da počnemo iznova kad smo shvatili da ovo postaje stvarnost.

• EARTHSIDE svrstavaju u „ prog metal“ . Ja sam na albumu čuo pregršt žanrova moderne rock muzike. Moje pitanje je, ustvari, nervira li te to etiketiranje i svrstavanje u žanrove ?

Svrstavanje u žanrove je neminovno i jasno nam je da imamo vrlo malo kontrole nad onim kako fanovi žele da nas nazovu, osim toga kako se mi predstavljamo i na koje turneje idemo. To će verovatno i biti razlozi da nas u isto vreme sjedinjavaju u progresivni rok i progresivni metal. Mi sebe svrstavamo u sinematski rok, jer osećamo da to obuhvata sinematografiju i post rok uticaje u našoj muzici, koji nas odvajaju od zvuka ostalih progresivnih metal bendova. Ono što nama lično više smeta je poredjenje sa bendovima sa kojima ne vidimo nikakvu vezu i koji ne dele naš karakter. Ne bih pominjao imena, ali porede nas sa nekim progresivnim metal bendovima čiji je zvuk baziran na tehnikalijama ili sportu pre nego na emociji. Iako nam neki možda misle dobro i žele da nam upute ogroman kompliment, mi se osećamo kao da su pogrešno shvatili smisao naše muzike, barem ono šta ta muzika predstavlja za nas. Kao umetnici, mi moramo da prihvatimo da će neki tu umetnost protumačiti na način koji se razlikuje od onog kako su ga kreatori zamislili i to mora biti dovoljno za nas na kraju dana, ako ćemo nastaviti da se eksponiramo i promovišemo publici.

• Osnovna poruka „ A dream in static“ albuma je…

Hmmm, dobro pitanje! Ne znam da li postoji poruka koliko postoji tema. Album je nastao iz kolektivne želje i ogromne ambicije koju smo nas četvorica imali i snova i osećaja da postoji mnogo prepreka za ostvarenje istih. Neke su bile unutrašnje zbog nedostatka iskustva ili kontakata u industriji, a neke zasnovane na odredjenim slabim tačkama svakog od nas pojedinačno. Neke su bile iz spoljašnjeg sveta i van naše kontrole. Osećali smo da iako smo naporno radili i pretrpeli svu tu anksioznost, da bi sve moglo biti uzalud. U ovom smislu, album je samo-opisujući kroz čin pokušaja kreiranja nečega što je bezvremeno i lepo, što će našem životu dati smisao, a plašimo se da to nećemo moći ostvariti.  Na kraju, mi smo ponosni na ono što smo postigli, tako da se nadamo da je anksioznost rešena donekle i sada imamo nove teme o kojima možemo pisati i dodatne stvari kojima smo okupirani na predstojećem drugom albumu, a koji upravo komponujemo i koji će, nadamo se, uskoro biti snimljen.

• Planirate li da za stalno „zaposlite“ nekog pevača ili ćete na sledećem albumu opet zvati nekog u goste ?

Trenutni plan je da ponovo idemo na gostujuće vokale za naš drugi album. Posle toga, ko zna? Svidja nam se hemija koju imamo nas četvorica, bez dodavanja nove osobe u sve to, a i volimo slobodu da komponujemo instrumentalnu muziku, kao i da komponujemo za različite glasove sa raznim rasponima, bojama, emocionalnim kvalitetima itd.
Smatramo velikom časću to što smo imali šansu da saradjujemo sa raznim pevačima i muzičarima na prvom albumu i nadamo se da ćemo tu saradnju proširiti na instrumentaliste, ansamble i ko zna šta još u buducnosti!

• Da li je „EARTHSIDE“ zamišljen kao instrumentalni bend ?

Ne znam tačno kako da odgovorim na ovo pitanje. Mislim da je Earthside zamišljen kao kreativni kolektiv koji komponuje muzička dela koja su nekad instrumentalna, a nekad su im dodati vokalisti. Betoven je pisao muziku za orkestre, klavir, orkestar sa horom i druge razne instrumentalno vokalne kombinacije. Ne tvrdimo da smo mi Betoven, ali volimo slobodu da pravimo muziku zajedno, izvodimo nešto od toga i dovodimo druge izvodjače da poboljšaju našu zamisao.

• Ko je najviše uticao na tebe kao gitaristu ?

Smatram sebe više kompozitorom nego gitaristom, pa su moji najveći uticaji potekli od toga kako odredjeni ljudi komponuju za gitaru. Stoga bih odgovorio da su to Steven Wilson (naročito u “Porcupine Tree” periodu), Clint Lawery iz “Sevendust”, Drew Goddard/Mark Hosking iz “Karnivool” i možda neočekivano, Johnny Buckland iz “Coldplay”. Od uzornih gitarista koji su imali indirektan uticaj na mene vredni pomena su: James Hetfield/Kirk Hammett, David Gilmour iz “Pink Floyd”, Robert Smith iz “The Cure” i The Edge iz “U2”.

• Na kakvoj muzici si odrastao ? Šta slušaš sada u slobodno vreme ?

Odrastao sam uz simfonijsku klasičnu muziku, uglavnom. Betoven je za mene bio velik kad sam imao 4 godine. Sada je tu raznolikost, ponešto od progresivne muzike svakako, ali većim delom, progresivan zvuk dolazi od slušanja i upijanja muzike iz različitih perioda i stilova koji se sjedinjuju da bi stvorili taj zvuk. U skorije vreme, slušam mnogo “Björk” i slične izvodjače. “Leprous” je glavni progresivni rok izvodjač zadnjih godina za mene.

– A ostatak benda ? Kakav je njihov muzički ukus ?

Frenk voli dosta filmske muzike (Hans Zimmer mu je veliki uzor), new age i donekle hip-hop koji bi se mogao opisati i kao “gangsta rap”, mada mislim da to više sluša zbog klavijatura i zbog ritma nego zbog teksta/vokala. Mnogo tih stvari, naročito Three 6 Mafia, često imaju fantastične deonice za klavijature i orkestracije iako su tekstovi nekada totalno smešni. Ben sluša mnogo metala, ali isto tako ima fank korene jer je odrastao u porodici gde je “Tower of Power” zakon. Ryan je odrastao uz stariji progresivni rok u kući, ali bih rekao da su njegovi omiljeni bendovi zadnjih godina TesseracT i Leprous. Ryan takodje voli bend La Dispute, koji ima malo više teatralnog post-hardcore vajba, a nostalgičan je ponekad i za dobrom metalcore pesmom.

• Na albumu ima dosta orkestracija. To ste hteli od početka ili se ideja pojavila u procesu stvaranja albuma ? Koliko je, uopšte, trajao rad na albumu ?

Komponovanje za orkestar je oduvek bio moj san dok sam odrastao uz klasičnu simfonijsku muziku koju sam pomenuo u intervjuu već.  Moj prelaz u tvrdji rok i metal je bio “S&M” album od Metalike, sa orkestrom koji uživo izvodi neke od njihovih klasika. Orkestracija na albumu je uradjena veoma dobro i za moje uši čini pesme Metalike intenzivnijim i moćnijim (iako je ovo kao bogohuljenje za fanove thrash-a da čuju da više volim S&M verziju albuma “Master of Puppets” nego original). Počeo sam komponovati orkestraciju za “Mob Mentality” pre nego smo čak i postali Earthside ili imali viziju za ovaj album, pa bih rekao da je to deo nečega što smo bili od samog pocetka. Komponovanje za orkestar na “Mob Mentality” mi je uzelo 3-4 godine jer sam počeo bez ikakvog iskustva o pisanju za žičane ili duvačke instrumente ili ansambl bilo koje vrste.

• S kim bi voleo da deliš scenu ? Imaš li neke „ vlažne snove“ o nekom „jamovanju“ sa nekim ?

Nisam se nikad probudio sa čudnim osećajem posle jamovanja sa nekim u snu, još uvek, ako je to pitanje haha. Čoveče, voleo bih da Earthside prati Karnivool na turneji; to bi bilo fenomenalno. Takodje bih voleo da saradjujem na pesmi sa Clint Lawery-jem iz “Sevendust” sa gitarama u ruci, da vidimo šta bismo smislili u studiju. S obzirom da smo radili sa Lajon-om , imam više direktnog pristupa Clint-u sada nego ranije, pa trenutno on verovatno zna da bih voleo to da uradim ako bi on našao vremena, te su možda ovi snovi više realistični od većine!

• Da li se slažeš sa konstatacijom da je Steven Wilson – Roger Waters 21. veka ?

Čoveče, ne znam dovoljno o tome kakav je Roger Waters bio u 20. veku da bih rekao da je Steven Wilson njegov ekvivalent. Rekao bih da zasigurno postoji uticaj Pink Floyd-a, naročito u ranijem Porcupine Tree zvuku. Isto tako ne znam kako se SW oseća kad ga porede sa prethodnicima, pa ću igrati na sigurno i reći da je on svakako svoj čovek i da se niko ne može porediti sa njim. Ali verovatno takva izjava nije ni pogrešna.

• Kako je došlo do saradnje sa „ Moscow Studio Symphony Orchestra“ ?

Upravo sam bio većim delom završio komponovanje za orkestar na “Mob Mentality” i pripremali smo se da uradimo album pa smo počeli da guglamo i istražujemo studio orkestre. Izabrali smo njih zbog njihove filozofije, snimljenih primeraka na sajtu i sjajnih inicijalnih kontakata sa njihovim producentom Yuri Sazonoff-om koji je postao deo porodice Earthside saradnika.  

• Da li ti je iko do sada rekao da jako ličiš na Davida Draimana iz Disturbeda 🙂 ?

Ne, zapravo! Niko mi nije nikada rekao ni da zvučim kao on. Bio bih okej sa obe izjave, haha.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfR5oJUQqz4&w=560&h=315]

•  Hoćete li snimiti još neki spot sa aktuelnog albuma ?

Verovatno ne, jer pažnja mora da se usmeri na naš drugi album, ali bi bilo super uraditi video za “Contemplation of the Beautiful” kad bismo imali finansije. Mislim da bi ta pesma mogla imati zaista efikasno sinematsko iskustvo sa pravim propratnim filmom. Dodjavola, zaista bi to bilo super. Mozda u budućnosti za neko jubilarno izdanje ili nešto? Bilo bi isto tako kul uraditi video za jedan od naših instrumentala i pustiti muziku i sliku da ispričaju priču zajedno, bez reči, gde bi muzika funkcionisala više kao soundtrack.

• Sudeći po prezimenu, tvoji koreni su holandski ?

To je moja pretpostavka! Barem sa očeve strane. Oba roditelja imaju malo škotskog u njima takodje. I nismo sigurni da li je van Dyck iz Holandije ili Belgije. Ja navijam za Holandiju na svetskom prvenstvu, pa se nadam da sam izabrao pravu stranu.

• Koliko i šta znaš o Srbiji ?

Da vidimo!! Znam da je verovatno primarna (najveća) zemlja koja je izašla iz bivše Jugoslavije. Znam za gradove Beograd i Novi Sad, iako nisam bio ni u jednom još, nadam se uskoro! Znam da je južno od Madjarske. Znam da je veoma kul kapela rok sastav “Viva Vox” iz Srbije i da je u njemu vokalista Vladimir Lalić iz Organized Chaos-a, kao i da je Srbija zemlja gitariste David Maxim Mićić-a. Poznati su mi teniseri Novak Djoković, Ana Ivanović, i Jelena Janković. Znam da je Srbija jedna od zemalja gde izgleda da Earthside ima najviše podrške i zaista sam uživao komunicirajuci sa našim srpskim fanovima preko fejsbuka i ostalih društvenih mreža koje su mi dostupne.

• Šta radi Jamie Van Dyck kad ne svira ?

Uglavnom je to komponovanje, više nego sviranje. Malo sam previše ovisan o društvenim mrežama, pa moram to da smanjim. Takodje podučavam kompoziciju / pisanje pesama i drzim neke lokalne časove muzike za rok bendove. Provodim veliki deo vremena sa svojom porodicom i prijateljima i idem u šetnje u prirodu, blizu naše kuće. Jako volim ptice. U retkim slučajevima kada ugledam orla dok šetam, postanem jako uzbudjen (I ne zato što sam Amerikanac patriota!). Vežbam da ostanem u dobroj kondiciji da bih mogao izdržati napore na turnejama. 

• Obećavaš li da će drugi album biti bar jednako dobar kao prvi ?

Bože, nadam se! Biće drugačiji, to je sigurno, ali će zadržati naš karakter, mislim. I ako možemo da ga učinimo boljim, sjajno!

• Planovi za budućnost ?

U ne tako skoroj, ali isto ne tako ni dalekoj budućnosti, voleo bih da postanem otac. Ja sam već takav tata jer vozim “tata auto” i zbijam “tata šale” i nosim “tata odeću” kad god mogu da izbegnem da ne izgledam kao “rok zvezda”. Podučavanjem mojih učenika, imam osećaj kao da sam tata / stariji brat nekoj divnoj deci i voleo bih da se to jednog dana pretvori u stvarnost. Nadam se da će Earthside nastaviti da bude kanal za svakog od nas da komponujemo muziku koju volimo i da našim životima daje smisao i povezuje nas sa divnim ljudima širom sveta. Takodje bi bilo divno da sa zvukom Earthside-a jednog dana dobijemo šansu da radimo za film ili video igricu, a i da nastupamo uživo sa jednim ili više naših saradnika na specijalnim manifestacijama.

• Puno, puno hvala na izdvojenom vremenu. Puno sreće u daljem životu i u radu želi ti redakcija elektronskog časopisa DOTKOM-a!

Hvala vama! I veoma cenimo podršku koju imamo u Srbiji!!

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhtEusYxATQ&w=560&h=315]

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EARTHSIDE first time in Serbia!

Thanks to our friend Mirjana Tomic, we contacted the guitarist and the chief of EARTHSIDE, band who has an amazing debut album `A Dream in Static`. I was blown away when i first listened to it, still am. Jamie Van Dyck has accepted to talk with us about his future plans. Once again special thanks to our friend Mirjana Tomic, we are grateful for her time and effort. The following, is the conversation with this guitarist….

Jamie & Mirjana

• Jamie, thank you for giving DOTKOM the honor of being the first Serbian media to have your interview.

-To start things off, a little bit of sucking up! In my opinion, the only other band that has created such a powerful and high-quality debut album, was Riverside. How have you managed to do it?

Well I guess by choosing an object of nature and then adding “side” to the end of it and making it our name…seems to be the tried and true formula. *winks* In all seriousness, thank you for the kind words regarding our album. I think a big advantage is that even though this was our first album as Earthside, 3 of the 4 of us have been playing together for a long time. Frank and I have been in bands together since we were kids, and Ben joined us in our teenage years. We became Earthside as the beginning of feeling like we’d finally found the sound and the vision that we’d dreamed of and worked towards for a long time, and we wanted a fresh start now that we felt like we were doing this for real.

• Earthside is considered to be “prog metal”. I have heard an array of different genres on this album. My question really is: Do labeling and classifying into genres bother you?

Genre labels are inevitable, and we realize we have very little control over what fans want to call us apart from how we’re marketed and what tours we’re on. And those will likely be strategies that both often lump us as progressive rock and progressive metal. We call ourselves “cinematic rock” as we feel this captures the film score and post-rock influences in our music that maybe set us apart from sounding like other progressive metal bands. What bothers us more is comparisons to bands that we don’t feel sound much like us, bands who don’t really share our ethos. I won’t name names, but when we’re compared to some progressive metal band whose sound is more about the technicality or the sport rather than the emotion, we feel that this person may mean well and may mean to give us a huge compliment in their mind, but it feels to us like they’ve missed the point of our music a bit – at least as far as what it means to us. But as artists, we have to accept that art is received differently from how it is intended by its creators, and that has to be okay with us at the end of the day if we’re going to continue to put it out there and promote it to a public audience.

• The main message of “A Dream in Static” album is … 

Hmmm, good question!! I don’t know if there’s a message so much as a theme. The album came from the 4 of us collectively having these huge ambitions and dreams and feeling that there were all these obstacles to us realizing them. Some internal due to our own lack of experiences or contacts in the industry, or some based on certain weaknesses of each of us personally. Others from the external world that felt beyond our control. We felt ourselves putting in all this work and built up all this anxiety that it might all be for nothing. In this way, the album is very self-referential to the act of trying to create something timeless and beautiful that would give our lives meaning and fearing that we wouldn’t be able to do it. Ultimately we’re proud of what we accomplished, so hopefully that anxiety is resolved somewhat, and now we have new topics to write about and additional things that we’re lamenting on this upcoming second album that we’re currently in the midst of composing and getting ready to hopefully record soon.

• Do you plan for a full time vocalist in the future or to have guest vocalists on your next album again?

The current plan is to go the guest vocalist route again on our second album. Who knows beyond that. But we like the chemistry we have writing the 4 of us without adding a new personality into the mix, and also we enjoy the freedom to compose instrumental music as well as composing for different voices with a variety of registers, timbres, emotional qualities, etc. We view it as a great honor to have gotten to collaborate with different singers and musicians on the first album, and we hope to expand it beyond just vocalists to instrumentalists, ensembles, and who knows what else in future!

• Was Earthside meant to be an instrumental band?

I don’t quite know how to answer this question. I think Earthside is meant to be the creative collective that we’ve been that composes pieces of music that are sometimes instrumental and sometimes with added vocals. Beethoven wrote music for orchestras, piano, orchestra with a choir, and various other instrumental/vocal combinations. We’re not saying that we’re Beethoven, but we like the freedom to write music together, perform some of it, and bring in outside performers to maximize our vision.

• Who has been the greatest influence on you as a guitarist?

I consider myself more a songwriter/composer than a guitarist, so my biggest influences probably come from how certain people write on the guitar. To that, I’d answer guys like Steven Wilson (especially from his Porcupine Tree days), Clint Lowery of Sevendust, Drew Goddard/Mark Hosking of Karnivool, and perhaps surprisingly, Jonny Buckland of Coldplay. Of the more classic guitarists who were probably influences indirectly on me, I’d say guys like James Hetfield/Kirk Hammett of Metallica, David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, Robert Smith from The Cure, and The Edge from U2 probably deserve to be noted here as well.

• What kind of music have you grown up with? What do you listen to now?

I grew up with symphonic classical music mostly. Beethoven was the biggie for me as a 4 year old. Now it’s more of a variety. Some progressive music for sure, but for the most part our progressive sound comes from listening to and absorbing music of different eras and styles that combine to create a progressive sound. Recently I’ve been listening to a lot of Björk and similar artists. Leprous has been the go-to progressive rock artist of the last few years for me.

• What about the rest of the band? What is their musical taste?

Frank likes a lot of film soundtracks, new age, and some hip-hop that might be described as “gangsta rap.” Though I think he listens more for the keyboard work and beats than for the lyrics/vocals. A lot of that stuff, especially Three 6 Mafia, can have some really epic keyboard parts and orchestrations even if the lyrics are sometimes totally ridiculous. Ben listens to a lot of metal for sure, but he also has funk roots having grown up in a family where Tower of Power is king. Ryan grew up with older progressive rock in his household, but I’d say his go-to artists over the last couple years have been TesseracT and Leprous. Ryan also really loves a band called La Dispute who has a bit more of a theatrical post-hardcore vibe, and he can nostalgically get behind a good metalcore song as well.

• There are a lot of orchestrations on the album. Has this been planned from the beginning or have you gotten this idea in the creative process? How long was this process anyway?

Composing for orchestra was always a dream of mine growing up with that symphonic orchestral music that I’ve already referenced over the course of this interview. My gateway to hard rock and metal was actually Metallica’s S&M album with the live orchestra performing with Metallica on some of their classic songs. The orchestration on it is quite well done, and to my ears, makes the Metallica songs more intense and powerful (even if this is blasphemy to a thrash purist to hear me say that I like the S&M version of “Master Of Puppets” more than the original). I began composing the orchestra for “Mob Mentality” before we even became Earthside or had a vision for this album, so I’d say that it was part of the fabric of who were from the beginning. Composing the orchestra for “Mob Mentality” probably took me 3-4 years as I began without having ever written for any string, wind, or brass ensemble of any kind.

• Who would you like to share the stage with? Do you have any “wet dreams” about jamming with someone? ? 

Well I’ve never woken up from sleep with a funny feeling after having jammed with someone in my sleep yet if that’s what you’re asking haha. Man, I would love for Earthside to support Karnivool on tour, that would be awesome. Also I’d love to co-write a song with Sevendust’s Clint Lowery at some point with guitars in hand and just see what we come up with in the studio. Having worked with Lajon, I have a bit more direct of a contact with Clint than I had before, so at this point, he probably already knows that I would quite like to do this if he ever had the availability, so maybe these dreams are more realistic than most!

• Do you agree with the statement that Steven Wilson is Roger Waters of the 21st century?

Man, I don’t know enough about what Roger Waters was like in the 20^th century to say that Steven Wilson is the equivalent thereof. I would say that there’s clearly a Pink Floyd influence, especially in the early Porcupine Tree sound. I also don’t know how SW feels about being compared to his predecessors so I’ll play it safe and say that he’s very much his own man and that no one compares to him. But you’re probably not wrong to make that statement either.

• • How has this idea about collaboration with the Moscow Studio Symphony Orchestra come about?

I had mostly finished composing the orchestra for “Mob Mentality” and we were getting ready to do the album and so we started Googling and researching studio orchestras. We chose them due to their philosophy, their recorded samples on their website, and great initial contacts with their producer Yuri Sazonoff who’s become a part of the Earthside family of collaborators.

• Has anyone ever told you that you look like David Draiman from Disturbed? ?

No, actually!! No one has ever told me that I sound like him either. I’d be okay with either, haha.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfR5oJUQqz4&w=560&h=315]

• Do you plan to release more videos from your current album?

Probably not, as the focus has to shift to our second album, but it would be very cool to do a video for “Contemplation of the Beautiful” if we had the funding. I think that song could have a really impactful cinematic experience with the right film accompanying it. Damn, that’d be cool. Perhaps in the future for some anniversary edition or something? It’d also be cool to do a video for one of our instrumentals at some point and let the music and video tell the story together without words, with the music perhaps functioning a bit more like a soundtrack.

• Judging by your last name, your background is Dutch?

That’s my best guess! At least on my dad’s side. My parents both have some Scottish in them as well. And we’re not sure whether van Dyck is from Holland or from Belgium. I root for the Netherlands in the world cup though so hopefully I’ve chosen the correct allegiance.

• How much do you know about Serbia?

Let’s see!! I know that it was perhaps the primary country to be of the former Yugoslavia. I know the cities Belgrade and Novi Sad (though I haven’t been to either just yet, hopefully on tour soon!). I know that it’s south of Hungary. I know that there is a cool rock a cappella group there called Viva Vox that includes vocalist Vladimir Lalić of Organized Chaos as well as being home to guitarist David Maxim Mićić. I am familiar with the tennis players Novak Djoković, Ana Ivanović, and Jelena Janković. I know that Serbia is one of the countries where it appears Earthside has the most support, and I’ve really enjoyed communicating with our Serbian fans via Facebook and other mediums that are available to me.

• What does Jamie van Dyck do when not playing?

Well a lot of it is writing music rather than performing. I’m a bit too addicted to social media so I need to do less of that. I also teach composition/songwriting and teach some local rock band classes as well. I spend a good amount of time with my family and hang out with friends and go for walks outside in the nature near where we live. I’m especially into birds. On the rare occasion that I’ve seen an eagle while walking around, I have been known to freak out with excitement (and not because I’m a patriotic American). I work out to stay in good enough shape to handle the rigors of touring.

• Do you promise that the next album will be as good as the first one? ?

Gosh, I hope so!! It will be different for sure, but maintain our ethos, I think. And if we can make it even better, then great!

• Plans for the future?

In the not-too-near, but also not-too-distant future, I’d like to be a dad. I’m already such a dad as I drive my dad car and make dad jokes and wear my dad outfits whenever I think I can get away with not looking “rockstar.” Teaching my students gives me some of that experience of being a father/older brother figure to some wonderful kids, and I’d love to have that come true some day. I hope that Earthside can continue to be a vehicle for each of us to compose music that we love and give our lives fulfillment and connect us with wonderful people around the world. It would also be great if with Earthside’s sound, we have the opportunity at some point to score a film or video game, and also to perform live with one or many of our collaborators in special events!

•  Thank you very much for the time you have invested in this interview. Our DOTKOM online magazine team wishes you all the best in life and future endeavors.

Thank you guys. And we very much appreciate the support in Serbia!!

 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhtEusYxATQ&w=560&h=315]