Ivan Chertov
Craving
Hello Lior, thanks Im fine! Thank you for taking your time and writing those questions.
Well it was a hard time, two members has to be removed from the previous line up and before their removal they caused a lot of troubles what actually was the reason for the delay of the debut album which was recorded in 2010 and released in 2012. Now we have near to stable line up, though we have a new Bass player since the beginning of 2012. Myself is much more experienced than back in 2008, I nearly produced AT DAWN myself except the bass recordings which were handled by our new bass player Leonid Rubinstein. And we are signed to the fantastic Apostasy Records.
Well it was a natural progression; the debut album was composed between 2006 and 2009. Back than I was like 20-23, the second album was written in a time between 2011 and 2012 by a more mature and experienced me. So maybe this caused the change/progression in the sound. This genre, well I love variety and I love the beauty of music and I try to compose barnstorming stuff. This is probably why we mix up the genres this way.
The self-titled album is composed in this style, though I think our style hasn't changed that much. You know we had only 10 days to produce the debut album, if only we had more time for the debut as we had for "AT DAWN" which was produced between September 2012 and May 2013 (6 Months) it would maybe become more near to detailed as AT DAWN.
You know you grow with the time, the experience, composing stuff, everything grows and unfolds and you get other views on music and can write more complicated.
It is actually not like you write something on order, it comes spontaneously and it depends on the mood you're in how the music is taking form.
The three language thing came spontaneously. Back in 2008 I wrote the lyrics for "В лес!" and then the music around it, than the refrain for "Wolfsherz" and again the music around the lyrics.
I can express myself with the Russian lyrics more than German or Englisch lyrics. Though we are using the lyrics of Nikolaj Stephanovich Gumilev on the songs "Leopard", "Mik and "Olga".
The idea behind this was to show people some Russian Poetry, due to the fact that for example in Germany the younger onces basically don't know it. And if Finnish Metalbands can sing 'bout Kalevala, why can't use our Poetry for music.
The Cover symbolizes the four revenges of Olga on the Murderers of her husband Igor.
The lyrics are dealing with different themes. "Mik" is an epic poem by Nikolaj Gumilev, it is spitted in four parts and the first part was used for the song. "Sons of the Rebellion" is about a very unusual theme used in Metal, it is about the attack on the death star by Luke Skywalker and his feelings during the battle. "Targaryen Wrath" is about Daenerys Targaryen from the epos "The Song of Ice and Fire" by Geordge RR Martin. "Schwarze Flügel" (Black Wings) is about love and it is Leonids interpretation of my lyrics for "Hellraiser", I sended him those for proof-read and he has wrote another lyrics in German than. "Breath after Breath" is dealing with the project 2045.com and it is sort of protest song and the first song in dual lyrics. "Garden of bones" is about a desert. "Dance with the wind" is about not wasting time in life and don't forget your connection to the life-energy in the world. "Hellraiser" is one very personal song which meaning Im not gonna to reveal at this moment. So you see that the lyrical theme is as diverse as the musical theme. Almost all lyrics were written by Leonid.
Thank you. It wasn't written with the purpose to unite all our styles, it just turned out that way. For me this song has the vibe similar to "Wolfsherz", if you analyses the structure it is pretty similar to the song named before. The lyrics are dealing with the storm, I have written those during a storm. Leonid has contributed a lot to the lyrics and has rewritten many lyrical parts in this one. The song is dedicated to one very important person in my life who died during the recordings of the album after a very long and terrible disease. In the lyrics the Gaia, the spirit of the Earth, is screaming into the night thru the thunder.
I love and care about all the songs on the album but Hellraiser is my personal catharsis on this album. The lyrics are dealing with many personal things and the music is perfectly reflecting the emotions I'm transferring to the listener.
Yeah It was a spontaneous idea to write about Song of Ice and Fire, but we really like the books and the series are also very nice. I contacted Chris Caffery via email but never thought to receive a response. I like "Pins and Needles" a lot and I asked Chris in my message to contribute to our album. Surprisingly I received an answer from him, I sent the preproduction of the song to him and he banned this amazing solo on our album.
Yes it was our first tour and it was amazing. We were two weeks on tour with two Russian bands called Helln and Sinful. I was searching for a tour for 1,5 years and finally we have organized one ourselves in the collaboration with Helln. We traveled with 17 people in a small bus and shitload of equipment, and played all in all 12 concerts in four countries: Poland, Germany, Belgium and Czech Republic. We are really looking forward to hit the road again! I hope it will happen next year.
We would like to spend 2014 touring. We have released two albums within two years and now it's time to play plenty of shows in order to promote the material. I already got 3 Songs written but it is too soon to talk about album number three. As I said before we would like to concentrate on concerts next year. We are already confirmed to play two festivals in Germany among others the Ragnarök Festival other confirmed bands are Finntroll, Manegarm, Borkagnar, Graveworm, Suidakra etc.
Thank for the Interview man!!! Keep the metal scene alive!
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