Excerpt from a recent interview with Zach Stevens:
Quote:
Rock My Monkey: What was it about this album that made you want to-why did you want to do a concept album, and why did you choose The Da Vinci Code as the subject matter?
Zachary Stevens: It's been quite interesting to us since — well, I read the "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" back in '98. The original book came out in '82, so it's been around 25 years, so it's really not anything new. I think with the advent of the movie, of the latest release where they took it a step further, you know, it really captured the imagination. We felt like, with Da Vinci Code movie coming out, it really captured the crowd a little bit more, got people a little bit more into the different concepts of what they were talking about, as far as the bloodline theories between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. I think that with the movie coming out kind of spurred our imagination a little bit more. I think that's what got us saying, hey, let's go ahead and do this, because more people knew about what this is all about now. So we just let the music feed off of that. Taking it to, basically, moving it into a situation where the record represented a musical extension to the movie, almost like a musical sequel to the movie, in a musical format. And that's basically where we left it. And we created a fictional story that kind of fed off, where the movie "Da Vinci Code" actually ends and where our record picks up. Basically we just kind of invented the story about what could happen to the character that was the recipient of the news that they were of the bloodline, and what changes in their life would happen at that point. It really spawned some really good music, so we just continued down that path. And that's basically what "Burden of Truth" is, is it's a concept of what might happen with the character right where the movie left off.
Rock My Monkey: So this actually isn't necessarily a retelling of either of the two books. You're actually making a whole new story with the album?
Zachary Stevens: Exactly.
Rock My Monkey: Wow.
Zachary Stevens: We're putting it to music, so we're letting the music be the different various scenes. Almost like a musical movie. So each song on the record is like a different scene. It was really kind of fun and interesting putting it together that way, about where it could go. Because I think a lot of us, when we watched "Da Vinci Code" movie were like "Wow, that's cool, but what now?" We were kind of pushed by the impetus of that "Hey, what now?" maybe. We created, of course a fictional account, but it really gave a lot of impetus to the music, and with the focus on the music it created an interesting situation.
This gives me a greater respect for the concept of this album. Obviously the recent popularity of the subject played a big role, but most bands would act as if this were something they've always wanted to do, like it were some coincidence that they're now releasing a concept album such as this. It's good to hear Zach admit that they were in fact influenced from the recent popularity sparked by The Da Vinci Code and such.
Also, I'm not big on lyrics, so I mistook this as just another retelling of the Da Vinci Code story. I'll have to read the lyrics now that he says that the lyrics are about what happens after the other story ends. That's pretty cool, and now the title makes perfect sense!
