Witch N.: Originally, it's an old painting by the Czech art nouveau artist Alfons Mucha and was proposed to us by our designer. He edited and colored it to match our cover. We think it's morbid but not black-and-white, it's mystic and a bit fantastic.

Marko: Ilmasaari is a piece of land at the sea in Finland, where I spent every summer when I was a child and where I still go once a year for a few days. Our family has a small wooden holiday house there, surrounded by an old forest. For me it's a mystic place where time stands still, a place where nothing ever changes. It's also a place of unity with nature and silence – and a place of recollection.

Marko: I've never been too much interested in such themes, to be honest. But the atmosphere in our music emerged naturally for me.

Witch N.: I for my side had always a flair for occult or esoteric themes, mostly in music and literature. So it is quite natural that some of my lyrics are about these themes as well. I would say that Marko and me are both spiritual beings, but we don't do fire or blood rituals at home…

Witch N.: I get inspiration from music or other forms of art like literature, but a big part comes straight out of my fantasy and my dreams.

Marko: That's exactly how I would describe it too. Many friends ask me: How can you be in a band with your own wife? Well, I always say that it's perfect and inspiring to make music with the person you love. We are a great team.

Witch N.: I totally agree! Our connection is very strong and the combination of our characters leads to a very fertile performance. «Ilmasaari» is the proof for it.

Marko: I think it was definitely the guitars because none of us had ever played guitar on a record before. That was quite challenging. And of course it was quite difficult to arrange the songs because it was just the two of us from the beginning. We could never play or hear the songs as they were with all instruments before we went to the studio.

Marko: That's difficult to say. But what we see is that female fronted Retro Heavy Rock or Doom is very fashionable in Europe – bands like Blues Pills or Windhand. And it's quite astonishing to see how classic Stoner bands still get quite an audience.

Witch N.: I think that Doom is a genre that has developed quite a lot in the last years in Europe and has been combined with other genres like Black Metal, Sludge or Heavy Metal, which makes it interesting for more and more listeners – in contrast to other styles that have not been that innovative and have remained too conservative.

Witch N.: I left shEver for musical and personal reasons soon after having formed Ashtar. But I still go to their concerts from time to time and I'm always interested in their new musical stuff. They will soon release a new album as well!

Marko: I still play in Phased. We have a new record called «Aeon» coming out in November.

Marko: We love to mix almost romantic beauty and desperate heaviness – the eclectic and hopefully hypnotic combination of Black Metal, Doom and Sludge with elements of Shoegaze, Grunge and Spacerock.

Witch N.: I use to read a lot of music reviews to discover new bands in the intersection of Black Metal, Sludge and Doom. There are so many great bands out there: Azavatar, Usnea, Mosaic, The Ruins Of Beverast, Cult Of Endtime or the very underground French Black Metal band Profundae Libidines, just to name a few. In contrast, I listened a lot to the old Smashing Pumpkins albums recently.

Marko: I have been quite into Krautrock and Prog for a longer time and just bought records of bands like Gentle Giant, Camel or the finnish avantgardists Circle. My main newer discoveries in heavier music are Dark Buddha Rising, Inter Arma and Wolvserpent.

Marko: That changes from time to time. At the moment I like a Swiss beer called Quöllfrisch most. It's fresh but not too watery.

Witch N.: I would say the Portuguese Superbock, but I also like good German wheat beer or Belgian strong beers.

Witch N. and Marko: Not really. Thank you for the support and your interest in our band.