Kai Bigler, guitarist and vocalist for the German modern Melodic Death Metal band Parasite Inc., answered my questions about Cyan Night Dreams, their fourth album.
Cyan Night Dreams review – soon
Hello and first of all, thank you very much for your time! Could you please introduce yourself and the band Parasite Inc without using the usual “Metal” labels?
Kai Bigler (guitar/vocals): Hey we are Parasite Inc. from Germany and we play fast-paced Metal with mostly harsh vocals and a strong love for catchiness. And if you’re looking for a good combination of Metal and synth then you might wanna give us a listen.
How do you link the band’s name with the music you play?
Kai: Basically it’s just a name that we gave the band when we started out. You can relate the band’s name to our music but beside that there is no deeper, mystical connection.
Your new album Cyan Night Dreams is about to come out, how do you feel about it?
Kai: It’s another milestone in our band’s history and it was a ton of work and another ton of hurdles to make this album happen. So, we’re excited to bring the album finally to the light of day.
How would you sum Cyan Night Dreams with only three words?
Kai: Cyan, Night, Dreams? But to be honest: aggressive, catchy, synths.
How does the composition process happen? Was it different from your previous releases?
Kai: The composition process was not much different than on the previous releases except that every part of production had a tighter schedule and songwriting started fairly late. Also we gave away the mixing for the first time – something we had always done by ourselves in the past.
All the album is a blending of Melodic Death Metal with very modern elements, aggressive screams and effective patterns. How do you melt all your influences together to create something hooking?
Kai: Well, you can have your same boring stirred martini over again or add some fresh ingredients, shake it like crazy and enjoy something new and refreshing.
To me, the song that embodies your style the most is Cyan Night Dreams, the title track of the album. Does it have any story?
Kai: Sure it has but since the lyrics are a personal thing for me I don’t feel comfortable to explain about them and rather leave it to the listener to have their own interpretation with it.
I also love the song Follow the Blind, which needs to be on your next setlists. How did you create this one?
Kai: Most of the parts for that one came from a demo track that Benjamin had written. When I fiddled around with the track I basically only slowed it down, rearranged and modified a few things to make the vocals fit in.
Do you see Cyan Night Dreams as a concept album, or more as a compendium of several independent songs? Why?
Kai: Cyan Night Dreams is not a concept album for sure but after the first two demos got written (I Am and Cyan Night Dreams) there was the idea to bring all following songs somewhere into that context of those two very different songs – soundwise and stylistically.
Since 2020, Covid-19 crisis fucked a lot of things up, how did you face the situation as a band? Did it have an impact on the album?
Kai: After the successful release of Dead and Alive in 2018 and a successful run of shows and bigger festivals in 2019 we were of course devastated to see things come to a full stop in 2020 and not being able to even rehearse.
The whole situation had no impact on the songwriting and recording itself but without being able to play any shows, the financial situation for the entire album production was not the best. At least we were able to compensate with a funding from the German government called “Initiative Musik” but nevertheless it only covered a part of the expenses for the production.
Do you have plans for the band’s future, after the album release?
Kai: Hopefully we can play as many shows as possible again, make touring possible and work on new music. Also next year we are going to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Time Tears Down.
Do you think you still improve yourselves as musicians?
Kai: Yes, of course there’s always a lot of room for improvement in every aspect.
How is the collaboration with Reaper Entertainment?
Kai: They have been great partners for the last 5 years and we feel really good being a part of the Reaper family. So, yes the collaboration is good.
What led you to the Metal universe back in time? What was the very first album you ever bought?
Kai: In the first place some friends of mine introduced me to Metal music. Later these friends founded a Death Metal band that also Benjamin would join at one point. From there we both started a little side project that would eventually become Parasite Inc.
What do you know about the French Metal scene? Which French bands do you know and like?
Kai: We are not that familiar with the French Metal scene and only had the chance to play in France for once but we love to listen to some bands like Benighted, Landmvrks or Gojira. Of course we also would like to play France again and also playing Hellfest is something we have on our band’s bucket list.
What if I ask you to compare Parasite Inc’s music with a dish? Which one and why?
Kai: Do Macarons count as a dish? Macarons come in different kinds of colors and tastes but at the end of the day Macarons are just Macarons … and Macarons are good. Unfortunately they are not well known to everyone.
Are there any musicians or bands you would like to collaborate with? Whether it is for one song, an album…
Kai: As for me it would be awesome to do a collaboration with sound designers like Klayton or Richard Devine. Bandwise The Birthday Massacre just pops into my head.
Last question: which bands would you love to tour with? I let you create a tour with Parasite Inc as opener and three other bands!
Kai: A worldwide tour crossing at least Europe, USA and Asia would be awesome and as long as it happens the bands wouldn’t matter.
That was the last question for me, so thank you very much for your time and your music, last words are yours!
Kai: Thank you for your questions and all the best for Acta Infernalis.