Interview: The Omega Experiment (HTF Exclusive)

The Omega Experiment, are a duo from Michigan who this week released their self titled debut album. With distinctive influences within their sound from the likes of Devin T and some Dream Theater, their proglicious music is unique and set to hit the UK in live format in late 2013.

We have a chat with the band all about their new album, their personal battle with drug addiction and what we can expect them to come over to the UK. As HTF like to be different we obviously lightened the mood and chat about fruit, veg and garden gnomes! What more could you need to know about these pair?

Find out more on the band via their Facebook page and read our exclusive interview here below: www.facebook.com/theomegaexperiment

HTF: Hey guys, thanks for chatting at us here at HTF! How are you today?

Dan: I’m emotionally exhausted, but grateful. Getting used to relocating, juggling band responsibilities, school, recovery. I remember a day when I had none of these things, so perspective is everything.

Ryan: Other than being crammed up the ass with technical lab reports, programming projects, and differential equations, I’m doing great!

HTF: Firstly, when can we expect you over in the UK?

Dan: We are coming over to Europe for ProgPower and Euroblast in October, so we are going to see if a UK date could be in the cards. We have a lot of good press there, so it’s definitely a place we want to get to.

HTF: What can we expect from a typical live show from you guys?

Dan: We put everything we possibly can into it. This music is extremely difficult to reproduce live properly, but we have all the bases covered. There are a lot of samples. We don’t leave any gaps. It’s music from start to finish.

HTF: You released your album this month and it has had some mad hype over here, we expect you’re overly excited about this. Is your music something you expected the UK scene to be into?

Dan: Definitely. The UK seems much more receptive to this kind of music than most places. I can’t believe how big Devin Townsend is there! It’s awesome. And yes, we are incredibly excited about it.

Ryan: Totally excited about everything that has happened so far!. Since day one I figured if there would be any response at all to our music, it would happen in the UK. Most of the bands I’m into are either from the UK or somewhere in the surrounding area. I’m overly obsessed with bands like Frost*, Pain of Salvation (early albums), Soilwork, Textures ect… So maybe I think that because all of the bands I listen to are from around there.

HTF: Some of the lyrics in your songs seem quite personal. Is there a story behind this?

Dan: They are very personal, but for the most part I try to leave it vague for an open interpretation. The basic premise is my life from birth to the death of my active addiction, and then dealing with the consequences of that life and mourning it’s loss. When that is all you know for years on end, despite it’s self-destructive nature, it is still something to get over. So it’s auto-biographical in a sense, but the main core of it represents what both Ryan and I went through. He is my best friend and cousin by marriage, and we spent the better part of our addictions together. Terminus deals with the death of my mother and also mourning the loss of my drug, so that one is maybe a bit more direct, but there is still room for interpretation.

HTF: If you were a fruit, what fruit would you be? Or would you be a vegetable?

Dan: I dig both. If I can be poetic about it, I would have to be a fruit or vegetable you can peel, because a lot of the time I feel like I’m mushy on the inside and you have to peel off a layer or two to get to it. The world has hardened me haha.

Ryan: I hate vegetables, so I would never be a vegetable. I would definitely have to be a banana.

HTF: This one is to Dan – if Hollywood made a movie about your life, whom would you like to see play the lead role as you?

Dan: Ryan Gosling.

HTF: What are your plans for the rest of 2013?

Dan: Just to keep up the momentum for the debut re-release on Listenable, plan out our Euro trip, get ready to be live again by summer, and keep writing for the next release. Feels good to be musically busy.

HTF: For those of our readers who are yet to hear about you guys what can you tell them about you?

Dan: If you like your prog adventurous, epic, uplifting, and emotionally demanding…pick up our debut!!

HTF: And finally – what do you think of garden gnomes?

Dan: They all look like the Snow White’s seven dwarves or Papa Smurf.

Ryan: Garden gnomes kind of creep me out. Everybody has those damn things in their yards over here, and it always seems like they are staring at me whenever I see one. A guy I used to work with had a gigantic one in his cubical. My cube was right across from his, so it stared at me ALL day EVERY day…

Interviewer: Steph Knight