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The brave, the strong, the purposeful
Our studio guest this week is Blackthorn, it’s a female symphonic metal band from Moscow, Russia.
Well, let’s chat with these up-and-coming musicians and simply fair ladies; Aina, Olga, Verbena and Elvira! Influences, goals, the band’s sound and many more!
What can you tell us about you very first gig? What were your feelings like?
Aina: It was the first time I had to sing my own songs and I was so damn afraid of making mistakes! But it was a good gig anyway, thanks to the audience! People in Russia knows what a metal gig means, definitely!
Elvira: It was just smashing! You know, I couldn’t sleep 3 nights after that show.
Olga: The first gig with Blackthorn was not my first gig but it seemed to me like it actually was. I was so nervous. The audience was just amazing. You can get energy from the audience and you can give it back and then it continues like that…
Verbena: Yes, we really gained energy from the audience, the crowd was pure adrenaline! We're really excited by how it turned out and can't wait for the next gig.
Let's start from the very beginning. Can you tell us who and when formed the band?
Aina: Our band was formed in musical school by a few girls who were
interested in metal,
witchcraft and theatre. That was on October 2004.
Blackthorn is a symbol of your alliance. Why did you choose Blackthorn for the band name?
Aina: Before we choose the name Blackthorn, we’re trying to find a name that could recall our love for witchcraft. We’re sure that «Blackthorn» is a synonym of «magic», «power» and «courage». Blackthorn is seen as an evil tree and associated with witches.
Tell us about your instruments, why did you choose them?
Aina: Singing is my passion. I can sing what I can’t say
Verbena: Bass is my drug, I just can’t live without it. I feel so complete, my instrument resurrects me, I can tell
Olga: I like to experiment with sounds so I chose synthesizer. It’s my little symphonic orchestra; it’s a key to the realm of sounds
Elvira: I’ve been playing for about 6 years now. Before that I
studied piano, sol-fa and choir singing in Musical school. One day I took an
electric guitar … I can’t imagine my life without guitar.
How you can describe your music? On your website your style is named dramatic metal… So what is it exactly, what do you play?
Elvira: We play symphonic metal. A key word in our style is «dramatic» as we try to intertwine metal sound with the original elements of theatre such as scenery, costumes and acting for concerts.
What things influence the band the most, musically and/or lyrically?
Elvira: Theatre, opera, records of some death/ black/doom/ gothic metal bands we like, horror movies…
Aina: Nature, magic, fantasies, inner world
You live in Russia, but you write the lyrics in English…
Aina: Yep, that’s right. English is more melodic than Russian, also it’s an international language so almost every man on earth can understand our lyrics.
The band recently released The Prologue of Eschaton demo, tell us about its ideology.
Aina: «The Prologue of Eschaton» is the first act on the Blackthorn Alliance way that spreads the eschatological ideas: erases borders between this world and the other world, destroys the usual and the known and gives birth to the new. The demo consists of three parts, each a complete story in itself, with an overall plot that ties it all together… The plot is magic. The magic of winter forests, the magic of masks and the magic of ghostly will-o’-the-wisps…
How did the recording process go?
Aina: Well… We’re really glad of everything we did, but we always try to get something more. I think that this is the right way to think.
Verbena: That experience is priceless, It was a good learning curve for me. That process has forced me to look at my skills more objectively.
Elvira: Let me say that the recording process was… bittersweet. I’m glad that now I have so great knowledge
Olga: The recording was positive, but it is a pity that for some reasons we did not realize all that we’ve planned.
Your demo was engineered, mixed and mastered by Felix from Arafel. It’s pretty unexpected.
Verbena: We’re young and… inexperienced musicians and many bastards put a
spoke in our wheel while we were working on demo. Felix is from other country but he decided to help us… We’ll never forget it, he did a huge job.
Does your band have goals?
Aina: We want to play our music in front of as many people as we can
Verbena: More gigs, more new people, more new places. Per aspera ad astra
Any final words you wish to tell?
Aina: Let’s crown ourselves with blackthorn roses before they be withered. See you on the road!