Say No to drugs and Yes to perversions!

This time The Metallist Portal took the interview from well known in the capital city of Ukraine gothic/doom metal band GRIMFAITH, which deserved the attention not only with their dark image, but also interesting, conceptual music. Now the band has only demo record "Sex in Heaven", wait for the debut full-length album! So my questions were answered by the guitarist Igor Cherepanov and vocalist - Ivan Cherednichenko...

Recently you had a mini-tour in Ukraine, and this, as I understand, was the first step outside Kiev. What cities have you been to, where the reception was the best and which cities did you like the most?
Igor: We've been to Illichevsk, Ivano-Frankovsk and Vinnitsa. Everything was ok everywhere in its own way, and the main thing that should be noticed - the organization was of the top-level (organizers in Kiev should take that as am example!).The things that remained in the memory are: The sea - in Illichevsk! Cozy musical gathering including such bands as WITCH HUNTER, AMBIVALENCE, DOGMA and MYSTERIUM MAGNUM - in Ivano-Frankovsk, the excellent sound and the excellent auditorium, the girls of Ivano-Frankovsk! The frenzy fans - in Vinnitsa! Just full rage! The excellent headliners from Moscow - HIERONYMUS BOSCH and the girls in Vinnitsa! And of course the after-party with the elder generation of the Ukrainian metallers!
Ivan: The trips always bring some new experience, new emotions and then you have some afterglows. And concerts can only increase that. Plus, accompanied by some musicians you may laugh until one cries. Furthermore, you gain more experience, the band unites more, you get some more new, pleasant and useful acquaintances. The only negative aspect is connected with the road. Sometimes you even don't have force to laugh. That's a real disaster! But in general everything is ok. I think we'll spend a lot of time traveling.

Usually after such tours musicians get some new acquaintances among other musicians. Have you got such from other cities?
Igor: Of course we made some new acquaintances and met those people with whom we communicated via the Internet before. Now we have good friends in all that cities and I think that we'll have there concerts time and again. We'll also invite some bands to Kiev to perform on our concerts.

Ivan: Yes, one cannot do without that. We've got a lot of acquaintances from different cities and what is strange - from Kiev also. Many people e-mail us with the intention to communicate. That's so positive.

Oh, I've nearly forgotten- before your concert in Illichevsk you had the one abroad - in Kishenew! Tell, please, in brief, why had you decided to play there or had you received an invitation before? What can you say comparing the conditions for the performance in cities of Ukraine and Moldova?
Igor: The organizers of the concert in Kishenew were the band, our quite old acquaintances OFFERTORIUM. Thus they decided to invite us. We went there with pleasure and our expectations came true - we'd got an excellent concert were both Moldavian goths and metallers were present. The one negative thing is that the trip there was quite tiring...The conditions in Kishenew are much worse than those in Kiev. They have the only one club which organizes metal-concerts. However, it is going to close down. There are no metal musical labels at all. All in all there are good bands such as CHORDEVA and OFFERTORIUM.

Ivan: We were extremely pressed for time in Kishenew and that's why we didn't have time to make profit life on tour. The very next day we had a show in Illichevsk. Anyway, in general everything was ok and provoked good emotions. We need to pass our thanks to the organizers and musicians who devote their time to us in both cities. I have several Moldavian words reeling in the head. And the best of them I would like to say to the Moldavian guys, who we made friends with.

You decided to stop for a while with your shows in Kiev. Why?

Igor: The reason is that you have a lot of shows outside Kiev. Furthermore, we are getting ready to the recording of our debut album. Plus, we are experimenting with our instrument's mode and are making a couple of covers for a new program. Let the audience miss GRIMFAITH for a while. Our next show will take place on the 27th of August at the birthday-festival of the WITCH HUNTER's leader - Oleg.

Ivan: our local audience gets the most. The band grows due to this audience, gains their experience and works over a new program. That is why they always want to get more from the band they like. And we need time to make this "more". And that's it.

Are there any changes that will influence your music after this short vacation, will you stay in your "classical" sounding or the fans will hear something new? Or, probably it is hard to say before you take the instruments again? :)

Igor: For sure, there will be some alterations. There will be new songs and the good old ones.
However we don't give up playing: we rehears as often as usual.

You have performed several times with different Kiev bands. How would you evaluate your show with MALINCONIA, TEMPORARY SUFFERINGS and AUDI SILE?
Igor: It was as usually pleasant to play with our friends MALINCONIA, and it was interesting to hear TEMPORARY SUFFERINGS and AUDI SILE. The club wasn't very good considering its "content" as well as the route there. But this doesn't mean much as soon as the fans are satisfied. The auditorium was a bit different that day: there were a lot of gothic people who danced more than it is usual at the purely metal fests.

Do you often face situations when you should give out for all 100% despite the unpleasant situation (this is considering troubles with the apparatus...)

Igor: This happens quite often. The technical provision of the majority of underground is insufficient and even a good sound-producer can often do nothing to improve the situation. The more experienced the band is - the greater capacity it has to adapt to the conditions. But it is much better when the organization takes care for the technical support of their action. When the musician is getting pleasure of his own performance he emits twice more energy to the audience!

Besides all this there was a new song presentation on your latter concert. Can you tell us a few words about it?

Igor: This song is a bit different from the rest; it can be even defined as belonging to the gothic/rock style. It's title is "The Drunk Messiah". I wrote the lyrics under the impression of the book "The Gospel by Jesus" by Jose Saramago. It is a very scandalous book and the author got a Nobel Award for it. I recommend it to all of you. You can read the lyrics at our web-site www.grimfaith.kiev.ua

Do you work over any new compositions for the time being?

Igor: For sure. This is our favorite thing to do! We have two new songs now - one is closer to the gothic-doom (it was written by our keyboardist and solo-guitarist and we are thinking over the lyrics now), the second is a bit closer to the pop-style - its title is "Guttiere"(I was influenced by the book "Amphibian Man"). By the way I think that the sings should be comprehensible to all the audience and they should attract attention from the first run-through so the word "pop" doesn't contain any offensive sense.

Are you going to record your first album, in the nearest time?

Igor: We have recorded a six-song demo-CD "Sex in Heaven" in winter and sent it to various labels, organizers and webzines in CIS as well as to the foreign ones. There are several propositions as for our debut album and we are thinking over that now. It is likely that we start the record in summer and we will release it at the beginning of year 2006. We have songs for a half album's and we need to judge according to their style characteristics which of them will be included into the album.

Some of your songs became really popular in the circle of fans. How can you evaluate your album
(or would like to see it) in the sense of being popular?

Igor: Very glad that they became hits :) Well, what one can demand from a debut album? Of course one can expect much, but in order to make everything as desirable, it is necessary that one chance from the thousand fell out. The major thing for us is that disk was distributed to the greater number of the fans and our potential listeners; that it did not let down the first and made them happy, plus grabbed the attention of the second ones.

Ivan: Plans are as usually very great. We can not expect the first album to have 100% European sound; however we will do our best to make out everything from our material. The main obstacle as usually lies in money. Labels do not want to invest money into bands, which do not have the recording of the high quality. So money would be of great support to us now. Material is good so that's natural that we would like to make it so und good on the record. I would like to make some forecast, but I won't.

Have you got any propositions from the foreign labels?

Igor: Our acquaintances - the band SEMARGL made their recording in Poland (at the studio, where VADER, BEHEMOTH and many others were recorded) so they advised this studio to us. Well, we won't economize on our debut album and discuss all the possible places - either here or abroad.

What do you think about making cover-versions? Would you like someone to play a cover for your song?

Igor: A couple of years ago we played a cover for "Alma Mater" by MOONSPELL and we now we are preparing another one, which we'll present on August, 27 in Kiev at the Festival in DK "Dnepr". And if in 20 years somebody will play a cover version of our song - that will be superb!
Ivan: Covers could be regarded as a kind of reward for musician's work. Playing cover, a musician gives contribution to its primary performer. In fact covers are played for the best compositions only.

Do you have any idea about experiments in your music?

Igor: We are changing constantly and always want something new - it is normal for any group. I consider that if a band has finally determined its style, the band is already dead. Our style vibes between doom, gothic metal and gothic/rock...

Although the band is still young, it is known by the wide circle of listeners mainly due to the live shows, but however, how many fans do you have?

Igor: We got enough of fans - however it wo8uld be good that people in Russia knew about us. But a lot of or a bit less - these notions are very relative. I hope that the circle of our fans will widen before our album will be released, and many of them will be getting sheer pleasure from our music.

How do other Kiev bands treat you? Who of them you can call your friends, and who are your enemies?

Igor: Well, we have a lot of friends! Namely they are MALINCONIA, WITCH HUNTER, ХAРОН, TE DEUM and INFERNO. We, ask their opinion about our music :) Some time ago we've got several evil-wishers, but we don't pay much attention to that.:

Ivan: I hope that no one bears ill will to us. And we communicate a lot with other bands. Therefore it is possible to name our friends, well, at least, 50% of Kiev bands. Others - are simply good friends. I hope that it is so.
Igor: All the best! Listen to good music! Say No to drugs and Yes to perversions!

Nebel

www.themetallist.com

28/07/2005