Magic Kingdom – 05-04-2011

Interview with: Magic Kingdom
By: Brandy Cross

Magic Kingdom is a power metal band out of Belgium, who’s style can be related to Man-O-War, Hammerfall or Gamma Ray. They’re brand of heavy, chorus filled power metal is fits quite well into the genre with a little bit of their own inspiration and aggressive solo’s added to make the sound unique. Dushan Pettrossi, lead guitarist of Magic Kingdom and Iron Mask recently answered a few questions for me.

Magic Kingdom frequently changes line-up and for their latest album, ‘Symphony of War,’ have procured a new singer. Pettrossi feels that this is actually for the benefit of the band.
“Yeah, it’s good ,coz each time we get a better and better line up ,I just try to make it work ,”
While some of us might miss the old line-up, after listening to ‘Symphony of War,’ there is no doubt that this version of Magic Kingdom definitely ‘Works’.

The Inspiration Behind the Music.
Pettrossi is well known for writing his songs around a melody, he can be quoted as saying, “My compositions are always based on melodies you will remember. The listener should be able to keep the melody in mind, should be able to hum it and not be overpowered by the instrumentation.” However, many times if you listen to Magic Kingdom’s songs you will note either a fantastical or even historical inspiration behind the songs. When asked about this, Pettrossi noted that he is often inspired by fiction such as Dumas, epic stories or even movies.
“I’m a warrior lord, I’m a Lionheart, I will raise my sword till the day I die, for the kingdom’s throne, we will fight as one, I’m a Lionheart,”
Richard the Lionheart led his knights in a crusade or holy war to take Jerusalem the Holy City back from the Muslims.
“Show no fear in the flames of my holy war”
When asked if ‘I am a Lionheart’ was inspired by this crusade, Pettrossi replied:
“ I love that period of the middle age, knights, crusades and stuff, also the power of the Church was really big at that time and they did lot of bad things in the name of religion, I like to relate to that kind of stories, it fits well into the symphonic side of metal music.”
Some people find it quite difficult to write a song, it can take days or weeks for some people to get everything together, especially if they can’t seem to find any inspiration, for Dushan Pettrossi it’s a slightly different story.

“I feel blessed with that so far ,as I still get inspiration, I just take the guitar and something s gonna happen ,that’s for sure, I could write a song in 5 min or 1 day ,I mean I’ll get the chorus ,the verse ,intro really easily if the gods of music are with me at that moment hahhaha; sometimes it takes some more time ,but when a melody’s in my head for 2 or 3 days ,I generally take the guitar and it comes out fast, and I get a song.”

Writing a song can be a very personal thing, even to the point of actually writing the song about your life, Pettrossi talks about the feeling and honesty that have to go into an album to make it great.
“If you mean songs of my bands, I don’t know, as they all bring something different to me, I like them all, of course some of them more than others, it’s just the way I was at that special period of time in my life when I wrote those songs, and this reminds me events of my life most of the time. Recording ,writing all music and lyric of an album all alone takes really a lot from you ,you need to put your heart and soul to that, to get the best possible result, honest music and quality stuff is hard to get out of someone, it takes sometimes more time than expected. ”
Many musicians will listen to music that is entirely different from the music that they perform. Whether this is because they are burnt out on what they play, looking for inspiration elsewhere or simply prefer a different kind of music we don’t know, when asked about it, Pettrossi replied;
“The music I do is the music I prefer, but I like lot of different metal styles, trash, death, black, hard rock, some rock or pop if with a good singer.”

While Pettrossi is playing guitar for two successful metal bands, he does note that it can sometimes be difficult for small bands. He also notes that this is a likely reason for former band members quitting, etc.
“Some people stop doing music and that is something we can understand, nowadays, that business is really bad for smaller bands, internet downloading doesn’t help with sales…”
Pettrossi will be touring with his band ‘Iron Mask’, and Magic Kingdom’s new album, ‘Symphony of War’ is available for sale. The cover art for the album was done by none other than Leo Hao, which can probably be taken as a testament to the albums quality.

Links:
Magic Kingdom MySpace
Dushan Petrossi Official