Interview with: Beast from CHAOSSTAR

Beast: CHAOSSTAR was formed in 2004 by Jure JJ Jurca (vocal, guitars), Vasja Beast Cepic (guitars), Dare Devil Ramot (bass) and Primoz Jelsevar (drums). JJ and Dare have grown up together, they met me somewhere along the way and we ended up forming a band. After our drummer Pero left our Heavy Metal band BULWYF, we teamed up with Primoz. A name change was in order and CHAOSSTAR was chosen. It represents chaos in it's centre, before different forces make it too chaotic to understand. There is harmony in chaos, you just got to look into it, before it goes out of control.

Beast: The list of the artist and bands, that have influenced CHAOSSTAR is too long to mention everybody. We're all metalheads from childhood years, we all love IRON MAIDEN, JUDAS PRIEST, METALLICA, MEGADETH, HELLOWEEN, DREAM THEATER. But we also like older prog music like TOTO, RUSH. I'm a huge fan of Bob Dylan, psychedelic music, 70s music, Folk, Punk, classic and experimental; JJ is a big fan of guitar heroes like Steve Vai, Paul Gilbert, Primoz likes all kind of Brutal Metal, cause he also plays in a Death Metal outfit AMBASSADOR OF SIFILIS. Dare is a true progressive and Power Metal fan, he has some CD in his collection, that I haven't even seen before. So one could say we make progressive metal, though I think Heavy Metal is pretty much progressive and technical per se. We do like to complicate it just a bit more. There's a funny quote from Mario Andretti: If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough.

Beast: We talked about it a lot at first, how it would be cool to make a conceptual album. When me and JJ started reading each other's lyrics, we found out that there actually was a story in the songs, we just had to put it all together. It's a story of an eternal battle between good and evil, but nobody dies and there are no dragons and swords, it's not that trivial. It's more subtle and gives the listener something to think about. I guess it's about choice. This battle is present in the forms of guitar solos and some guest musicians; we have keyboards, Death Metal growls, a real harp, female back vocals. The story about the recording is way too long to talk about it here, but we recorded and re-recorded the whole project in the studio that CHAOSSTAR made and it was produced 'from scratch' by our drummer Primoz. It was a long process, but we we're mostly learning from our mistakes and now we have the know how to realize future projects faster. In the end it was mastered by Dave Collins, who has also done some work for bands like BLACK SABBATH, MOTLEY CRUE, Alice Cooper etc. Even pop acts like Madonna, NO DOUBT and LINKIN PARK.

Beast: We did a short tour in Slovenia to promote the album and are so far confirmed for two major summer festivals ('Paranoid Open Air', 'Sklab Fest'), but we just started with recording of our next project, which hopefully will also be released as a vinyl single. Also the writing process for the new album is under way. I wrote tons of tracks for the new album and JJ also has a lot of new material; even Dare and Primoz have brought their ideas for the songs. We're quite busy right now, cause we're also moving the recording studio to a larger place and we've also added a fifth member to the band. His name is Rok and he has also helped the band in the past with keyboard parts, but he also plays other instruments. We want to enhance our sound some more. A European tour was an option, we were invited to play as an opening act for a big name, but we simply couldn't afford it. Yet.

Sure, no problems! A big hello to all your readers, listen to the Lifetime album, we are CHAOSSTAR from Slovenia and you should keep on banging your heads! And you girlfriends and/or boyfriends! See you on the road!