How did the band form? Also, is it a project or is it a band or both?

Anastasia: I've been writing music and songs since my teenage years. I've been doing it and putting it on the shelf. At some point I decided that I wanted to do something more with it. I was looking for someone who could do some arrangements for the songs, and that's how I met      Sergey Butovsky ten years ago. We started as a studio project. That was the format of the band until our first full-fledged, full-length album was out. It was mostly for me to check out if seeic would resonate with people and to see if I really wanted to invest my time in this. I really enjoyed how it turned out. After we did our first EP, we started to work on an album. In the process of working on the album, we decided that we wanted to have the full-fledged band. So, we started to look for a permanent lineup and other guys and girls joined us back then. So, we started as a studio project and now we are a band.

Is there a story behind the name?

Anastasia: Belle Morte is actually a character name from a book series called Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter by Lauren Hamilton. I really enjoyed it in my teenage years. When I came across the character called Belle Morte, I felt some very strange connection to it. I liked the name a lot. When we needed a band name, it kind of popped up in my mind organically.

When you started back in 2015 did you have a vision of what you wanted to do with the band?

Anastasia: We had an overall agreement that symphonic metal would be the foundation, but both me and Sergey had very different tastes in music. We liked different stuff. We had a lot of discussions and shared what inspires us in songwriting and in music in general. What we agreed on is that we would not be strictly bound to the genre. If we feel that particular song requires a different approach to use like black metal or anything else, we can go there. Also, we can use different instruments and experiment with sound. To be honest, sometimes we experimented, and we declined because we didn't like how it sounded. But the idea was that we would be open to different things and the music would lead us. Each song would define what we want to sound like.

What's your particular musical background? Do you come with a metal background or are you more classically trained?

Anastasia: Music has always been a part of my life since I was very young. At five, I enrolled in musical school playing the violin. So, it was kind of a classical background. In my teenage years, I got into metal. Actually, I remember that my first album was Slipknot's Iowa. My friend gave it to me, and she said "I don't like this stuff. Maybe you will." At that moment I thought that it was the most beautiful music in the world. Really. It impressed me a lot. So, I gravitated towards metal music for a long, long time. When I was thinking about doing the songs, like recording them, I didn't have any other options. I was imagining it as metal music.

There's a steady progression with your songwriting and compositions from Game On to Crime of Passion to Pearl Hunting. When you think back to when you started in 2015, how have you seen the band's music evolve?

Anastasia: Indeed, it evolved a lot because the EP (Game On) was mostly like a private project for me. I wanted to see how this music could be shaped and how people would perceive it. Obviously, when we got the full band, we were no longer just the two of us. With Sergey, we have six people and each of them can bring their own ideas and musical tastes and offer something. It has obviously influenced the way we compose. We need to take their views into account as well. It became more complex at this point.

With Pearl Hunting, of course, it was like full freedom because Crime of Passion was a conceptual album. We had this framework where we had to lay each song to contribute to the whole story. It was cool because it gives you direction, but at the same time it's a bit limiting.

Pearl Hunting was a very liberating experience because each song was a separate project and we could fool around and do anything we wanted, completely go in different directions and try out stuff. It pushed us to evolve and to do something we've never done before. I also think that all these years have affected the way I approach songwriting. I like to think that I have become more professional, because I gained more experience.

There are 12 different countries represented on Pearl Hunting. The number of musical instruments just goes on forever. How did you decide which countries to tap into? Were they based on other musicians you knew in the industry, or did you purposely look at the styles and sounds that came out of different countries and cultures?

Anastasia: It was a combination. Basically, when we began this journey, each of us had some favorite instruments in mind. I really wanted to use shamisen, a Japanese instrument. I also really wanted to use tagelharpa. And Sergey had a soft spot for Armenian duduk.

When we started to do this, we had a couple of songs. I think that our appetites grew, and we were looking around for what we could do next. Of course, we had some musicians that we knew, and we knew some people could play some particular instruments. For example, when we collaborated with Ruben Montero, who recorded oud and saz for "September," we had a video call. He showed us his studio, other instruments that he had, and we knew that he was in love with Hurdy Gurdy. We had this in mind, so if we had the right song, we could use him.

Sometimes we would just open up a map and say: “Okay, where are we going to go next?” That’s how we discovered Indonesian instruments because, to be honest, before this album I didn't know anything about their music. We were just checking out what's out there and what could inspire us. It was a combination of different stories, but we always wanted to pick an instrument and build a song around it to help the instrument shine, to show how it could sound in a symphonic framework and go from there.

What was the most challenging style of music to integrate?

Anastasia: Well, I think that if we exclude European instruments obviously because of our cultural background, all the rest had their own challenges. Indonesian was very complex because there are no good examples, no metal bands that use Indonesian instruments in the music, so you can't just look it up and understand how it works. With Mongolian strings, for instance, you have the Hu, a very famous band. A lot of great heavy metal bands come from Mongolia. Also, Japanese style of composing music is completely different. It requires you to approach songwriting differently.

We were really lucky to get in touch with Hisashi, a Japanese musician who was producing      Japanese instruments with other Japanese artists. He could guide us and explain things like what you can do with the instruments, the limitations, what sounds more organic and natural for them. So that was a bit challenging.

It was also challenging to find a musician for duduk. It was really hard, surprisingly, and it was probably the hardest one to find.

Out of all the songs, “Jorōgumo” was for me the most different. The harsh vocals, even thematically the song is very dark. Was it challenging at all, either writing the song or performing it?

Anastasia: Performing was very easy, actually. I think this one I recorded in one take. Surprisingly, but we had a lot of arguments regarding the arrangements because at some point we had one version, which, to be honest, I was not completely happy about, but I was really, really tired. I thought, “Okay, we’re probably not going to get anything better than that.” And everyone in the band said, "Yeah, it's cool. It sounds great." Our guitarist Ilya was at first silent, but when we asked him directly, he said, "You know, guys, I don't like it." He didn't want to offend us, of course, because it took a lot of time to get there.

We started talking more and we did another iteration. It was really hard because we already had some internal resistance to this because it was taking a lot of time. But we reworked the song, we changed the chorus. We had more industrial elements before that, and we removed some of them. We relied more heavily on this shamisen solo, and it changed the song completely. I was so happy that our guitarist found the courage to say that he didn't like it, because when five people are saying "Okay, it's good," it's really hard to say, "No, it's not." So, it was a challenge in that way.

Well, that speaks well of him, and I think it speaks well of the environment you created so that he felt comfortable with speaking his mind. Was it difficult working with 18 collaborators? Did you have to adjust your songwriting style to make allowances for everyone?

Anastasia: No, basically we didn't have to adjust the songwriting style because of the way we worked with them. We always had some demo for their instruments that we kind of imagined they would record. But we always told them, "Hey, you know the instrument. You know this musical culture better than we do. If you feel like anything is off, if you feel that there is a better way, if you want to improvise and do something different, go ahead. You have full freedom here." Each time we heard these live instruments after they recorded and sent us the demos, it was just an overwhelming feeling. It's so great when you can hear how it should be properly done with the instrument and the effect it can have on you.

I think so many symphonic bands now replicate the symphonic portion with synthesizers. You miss the full range of actual instruments.

Anastasia: Yes, sometimes you can't hear the difference until you hear the actual instrument, like live instruments, because it just gives another layer. We are human beings, and I think we still can feel when there is a human touch to an instrument and when it's synthesized.

Aside from musical diversity with Pearl Hunting, was there any other unifying theme or concept behind the album?

Anastasia: The main message is that music can transcend all borders, like politics, religion, culture. We worked with a lot of people with very different backgrounds, very different views on life and everything, but when we were talking music, we were speaking the same language and we felt really, really close. I know that now I have a lot of places to go where I will have friends. Music is something that brings people together. In spite of all our differences, we can unite to make something beautiful. That's the underlying message of the album to me.

I noticed that “Wintersleep” actually came out as a single in 2018. It fits really well in Pearl Hunting, but you skipped over it for Crime of Passion and held on to it until now. Was there a reason behind that?

Anastasia: Yes, there was a reason, actually. Crime of Passion is a coherent story, and “Wintersleep” didn't fit into it because of the narrative. We were seriously contemplating putting it as a bonus track, but we still felt it was out of place on the album. We decided to keep it for later. It has this folk component, so when we started working on Pearl Hunting, we thought that we needed to give the song a boost. We re-recorded a lot of instruments for this. Actually, the violin in the old version was a synthesized violin. In this version, our keyboardist recorded it. We had two great guest musicians who also recorded ethnic instruments. The song got a proper update to show that we've evolved after 2018, and thematically it fits the idea of album with ethnic instruments.

The video for "Exorcism" is amazing. The cinematography is really well done. It comes across like a short film, especially with the intro as well as the outro. Did you get to go to the location when they filmed it?

Anastasia: Yes, I was there. It was an absolutely amazing experience. The guys who filmed the video for us were amazing. We kind of clicked immediately and we became very good friends. It was basically a very hard thing to finish the shooting because the atmosphere on the scene was so friendly, so nice, and it was just fantastic because some people didn't know each other before this video, and we immediately were like a family. It was a really, really great experience.

Where was it filmed?

Anastasia: It was filmed in Italy, in Viterbo.

The director was Riccardo Ceppari. Do you have plans to do other videos with him if possible?

Anastasia: I need to say that we have done two lyric videos shot by Riccardo and his team—"September" and "Pearl Hunting"—but we will be doing two more music videos this spring. I'm going to Italy, and we'll have some more cinematography. We have some great plans!

You mentioned briefly your musical influences, but if we were to get hold of your phone and take a look at your playlist, would anything on your playlist surprise us? What type of music would be there?

Anastasia: I think a lot of things might be surprising! Basically, the stuff I listen to really depends on my mood. The thing that I'm doing at the moment, even the country I'm in. Like when I'm in Finland, I'm only listening to Nightwish, Marco Hietala, Tarja, this kind of stuff because the whole country pushes you to do this. When I'm sad the best band for me is Woods of Ypres. When I'm sadder, I can only stand Katatonia and nothing more. When I'm exercising, if it's like cardio, I listen to Static-X; if it's strength training, I try to listen to something like Peyton Parrish, all this Viking style music. And, if I don't know what I want to listen to, I always fall back to either Rotting Christ or Myrkur or something like that. But I need to say that I always look into new music when it's out. Not only metal. If something goes really big in pop music, I also check it out because I'm interested in how things are done.

How's the music scene in Belarus?

Anastasia: I would say that there are a lot of really talented musicians, but ironically many of them are really bad marketers. The bands do not get the recognition I think they deserve. Also, you need to consider the political situation after 2020 because a lot of people had to flee. The environment now is not safe. There is censorship. There is a risk. If you say something that is not in line with the official policy . . . it's really hard to work there as a musician right now. If you are not on the allowed list of bands who can do gigs, who can tour, you won't be allowed. It's hard right now.

What are your plans for the future? Do you think you'll try this type of approach again, or go back to a more traditional way of doing symphonic?

Anastasia: That's a good question because I think that we now all have this feeling that just writing music without extra challenge is not that fun anymore. We might do more collaborations because obviously we couldn't cover all the instruments that we wanted. Otherwise, the album would be not an hour long, but maybe four hours or something. We already have some ideas for the next songs. I'm working on them now. At the moment they are more in line with traditional symphonic metal with a darker side, maybe more gothic elements. Not so folky, but that's my perspective at the moment. When we get there, stuff can change, of course.

Will you be touring soon to support the album?

Anastasia: This is something we are trying to organize at the moment. Obviously, there are logistical challenges because three of us are in Belarus and it's really, really hard to get visas to move outside. But we are making progress, and we really hope it will happen this year. If the touring schedules line up, we might even get some of the guest musicians to perform with us. At least we have a couple of people who say that they would be into this if it's possible timewise. So yes, it’s the top priority for this year.

Did you have any special messages for your fans and our Metal Temple readers out there?

Anastasia: Thank you for having me. I really enjoy talking about Pearl Hunting because we poured our hearts and souls into this music. I encourage everyone to check it out if you haven't yet. Also, when we were working on this album, obviously we came across dozens of fantastic small bands from very different regions, and I have a curated Spotify playlist with the selections of the stuff that I enjoyed the most. These are things that really inspire me and the combinations of instruments I never heard before. I can also share this playlist or it's available on our official Spotify profile in the playlist section. I encourage everyone out there to support the small bands because so many of them are fantastic.