Guitarist Jeff Loomis discussed the new lineup of Nevermore, which debuted live on April 1 at IF Performance Hall Beşiktaş in Istanbul, Turkey, in an interview with Brazil’s Headbangers News, as per Blabbermouth. The band’s most recent members, Jack Cattoi on guitar, Semir Özerkan on bass, and new vocalist Berzan Önen, join Loomis and drummer Van Williams in the current version of Nevermore. Jeff stated this about the formation of the new Nevermore lineup.
It definitely took — it took some doing. It took a while to get everything finetuned to the way we liked it, to make sure that it was even going to be possible. And that happened with finding the right people to complete the job. And we had to audition quite a few people to make sure that we found the right people that could actually do it. So, we’re very, very fortunate that we have Mr. Berzan Önen on vocals, Mr. Semir Özerkan on bass, and Mr. Jack Cattoi on guitar. So these are the three new members. And, of course, it’s still me and Van — me on guitar and Van on drums. And, yes, we just had our first show just a few days ago in Istanbul. And it went really, really well. The crowd was phenomenal. They sang along to all the songs and really just made us feel welcome. And now we’re coming down to South America to do some more shows. So we’re really, really excited.
Jeff addressed the absence of singer Warrel Dane, who passed away in 2017, from Nevermore‘s current lineup.
The initial talks, back when Van and I first started talking about [putting Nevermore back together], was, can it be done? And I think so. If you can find the right people that can perform the songs in the correct way, it can be done. We weren’t looking for a Warrel Dane clone either. We were looking for somebody that could still sing the songs, but also had his own personal style. So that’s what we were looking for from the very beginning, and that’s what I believe we found. And we’re very happy.
When asked how the addition of three new musicians would impact Nevermore‘s overall sound moving forward, Loomis responded as follows.
The core of the Nevermore sound is not ever really going to go away. And I think that the core, you could say that that would be me and Van, where we’re writing in the style of Nevermore and it’s still holding its own weight there. But I think when it comes down to longevity in bands, you’ll always notice that everybody contributes. Like a band like Rush, for instance — everybody’s contributing something in that band. And we don’t wanna have Nevermore just be the Van-and-Jeff show. We wanna have the other guys contribute as well. We wanna have Berzan contribute lyrics. We want him to contribute lyric melodies. We want Jack and Semir to contribute riffs. So, will that change the core sound of Nevermore? I don’t really think so. I think it’s just gonna add to the dynamic and make it cooler, ’cause there’s gonna be other little elements of cool musical passages that are gonna be available now to use. And I think it’s just gonna be that much more interesting for the listener. It’ll still have the same core elements as it did back in the day, but it’ll be new and interesting with a new vibe, so to speak. And that’s kind of what we’re looking for for the new Nevermore.
Following the recent announcement that Nevermore has signed a deal with Reigning Phoenix Music, Loomis also discussed the potential for fans to hear some new Nevermore content in the near future. This is what he stated.
Now we’re just focusing on new music. So, we’re gonna spend much of May and June and July putting the new record together. And we’re hoping by the first quarter of ’27 we’ll have new music done and ready for people to hear, if not just a new single, at least. So that’s what we’re working on right now.
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