Interview By Alison Booth
Three years have passed since the last album “Braindead” was released by Finnish thrashers LOST SOCIETY, but during that time the band have not stopped, unleashing their energetic onslaught of live performances to the masses!
LOST SOCIETY have just completed a very successful first ever headline ten date UK and Ireland tour and MSF Senior Manager Alison Booth caught up with charismatic front man Samy Elbanna before their performance in Sheffield. (Also for her Blackdiamond’s Metal Mayhem radio show, check the page for more news!) Samy had lots to say on what’s happening with the band and much more – check out some excerpts from the chat below and listen to the full interview on the audio player:
Discussing touring, Samy stated:
“It’s been pretty crazy because most bands usually go in cycles, they first tour then they go to the studio, then the tour and so forth. But for us it’s been a bit different – we’ve been kinda doing everything mixed up. So while we’ve been touring all the time, we’ve also been writing a lot of songs and hit the studio many times. So actually, last year’s autumn went pretty much in the studio and I can tell you that once we get back to Finland, there should be something new for everyone to listen to. And this year there will definitely be a lot of Lost Society coming out for everyone to hear and we’ll be touring a lot. And probably going to the studio again ’cause it’s been almost three years since the last release and I think it’s really amazing in the sense that we can still tour off of those three records and that really says something to us, like more than anything.
So it’s gonna be more of like a massive thank you to all of our fans when we release our next release. So stay tuned everybody, something’s happening!”
When asked about when the band will release a new album, Samy revealed:
“I can’t tell you any details but we’re gonna put out something for everyone to hear within the next month and then after that, we’ll see how the schedule happens. The first three (albums) were released via Nuclear Blast and the next one, that’s one of the things I can’t talk about. Our website will get all the information first, probably before me! (laughs)”
With Samy Elbanna
Sheffield 2019
Reflecting on the band’s journey so far:
“I mean first of all, goddamn! I hadn’t even thought about that, it is almost a decade, holy shit! I think the most important thing is that it really doesn’t feel like it’s that long and I think it’s really impressive, let’s say with what’s happening nowadays. I don’t think there’s a lot of bands that stay with the same members from the beginning till this day. I mean one of the biggest and the most important things is the chemistry within the band. We have this, me and these three guys who are best friends, we’ve known each other for ages and we practice on a daily basis. So, I mean it’s impossible to have problems with these guys. It’s like we’re brothers and I would say it’s been a really crazy journey.
And I think at this point already in 2019 we have achieved more than any of us thought could be possible by playing this kinda music. And I mean of course a part of it is like the thank you to our guys. Of course we have some unbelievably awesome people behind us – you know, all the labels, the managements, everything. Without them we couldn’t do this, I’m humbled by all of it and I’m really looking forward to what’s gonna happen in the future. But one thing’s for sure, we’re not stopping any time soon!”
Discussing the band name and today’s society:
“I was twelve when I came up with Lost Society. I’ll tell you one thing, it’s changed a lot from that day when I thought ‘Hey Lost Society, that sounds pretty cool!’ Well you know, we’re pretty lost in this society.
We’ve all had in the band this kind of policy that we don’t like to talk about politics or anything about this, or be really judgemental about anything, but holy fucking shit! I mean, when you look all around us now, it’s a mess. For us, we’re lucky we’re able to tour, we all have a house and stuff like that, but there’s a lot of shit happening all around us and I think the band name is more relevant than ever.
Also, I think once we put out new music I think a lot of people will notice that there’s a lot more lyrical themes that kinda are more
Sheffield 2019
relevant with this whole lost society thing. Because I think for the first two records, lyrical themes on the songs were like pretty thrashy, all kindsa stuff mixed together. But once I kinda realised at some point, and yeah I’m pretty slow (laughs), so I realised after that you can really make a difference with your art. Because you know for me, I’ve always been a guitarist, I haven’t considered myself a singer, at least in the beginning of the band. So once I realised that I also have the power to write whatever the fuck I want, I think that was the turning point for me, because I want to help fans in the way that these massive bands have made an impact on me. We’re trying to make the world at least a little better place with our music and hopefully that’s what’s happening.”
On future tour dates, Samy explained:
“When we get back home from this tour, we’re gonna be doing a few shows, just a few one-offs in Finland and through that we’re gonna start our festival season. We’ll have some shows, but we’re gonna save some time also because we’re gonna be doing some additional recording in the summer. As I said, we have a lot of material that we wanna record and release as soon as possible, so it’s gonna be cool.
And I think this whole thing that we tour and record at the same time, it’s kinda good for us because we love playing live and I think we do that enough and then you go to the studio, you just have a completely different mindset to recording, because you listen to everything. Not only you listen to, ‘is this a good song’, but you also listen to ‘how could we make it better so it works live’ even better. So it works for us and we love it!”
Metal Shock Finland (World Assault ) 