Embrace
Depart
Embrace Depart is a new
Greek band coming from Edessa, a gorgeous city in the north-west part of
Greece with amazing waterfalls! Anyway, the guys managed to create a quite
personal sound right from their first demo and that's something really
great. Their music is hard to be described, but atmosphere is a key - ingredient.
We've asked them questions about a vast area of things and here we have
the whole band answering them...
1. FIRST OF ALL, CONGRATULATIONS FOR YOUR
VERY NICE WORK! THIS IS NOT THE KIND OF DEMO YOU EXPECT TO LISTEN FROM
NEWCOMERS! VERY PROFESSIONAL INDEED!
We thank you for your good comments. We are
glad that the result of the effort that we made is what you keep in your
hands. We are satisfied with the production and the sound that we finally
achieved in this work.
2. I THINK IT'S NECESSARY TO INTRODUCE YOURSELVES
TO THE READERS AND TO POINT OUT YOUR GREATEST ACHIEVEMENTS AS A BAND.
The group is constituted by 7 members, all
from the city of Edessa. These are: Stathis Gazepis in vocals, Akis Vamvakidis
in drums, Vagelis Mpakos and Pasxalis Toufexis in the guitars, Thodoris
Tsiklanis in bass, John Toufexis in keyboards and Martha Gatsou in the
female vocals. The band took shape 1 year ago. We believe that our greatest
achievement as Embrace Depart in all this time is, up to this moment, the
creation of this promo.
3. WHAT AMAZED ME IS THAT YOU'VE MANAGED TO CREATE
A PERSONAL AND QUITE ORIGINAL SOUND, WHICH I DESCRIBE AS ATMOSPHERIC DOOM
METAL WITH MANY CLASSIC METAL
REFERENCES. DO YOU AGREE WITH THAT DESCRIPTION
OR NOT?
We don't like to put "labels" in the music
that each group plays. This, we believe, is also the element that makes
the Metal public to be so confused and to argue. We just play what we want
to play and feel like to play. That's all. That is to say Embrace Depart
music.
4. IF A METALLER CAME ASKING YOU TO DESCRIBE HIM
YOUR DEMO, WHAT WOULD YOU TELL HIM? WHICH WORDS WOULD YOU CHOOSE?
We would tell him that is awful, boring and
disgusting. Don't listen to this band!!! Haha. We are just kidding. The
words that we choose are: interesting, fresh, well played and a good choice
for everyone to hear.
5. DO YOU HAVE ANY NEW SONGS READY? PLEASE TELL
US A FEW THINGS ABOUT THE RECORDING SESSIONS (WHERE DID THEY TAKE PLACE,
WHO WAS THE PRODUCER, ETC) AND THE SONGWRITING PROCESS.
Yes, we have plenty of songs ready. And now
we are working on some others. We made this promo at Iambic Studios in
the city Thessaloniki. The recording sessions were done with the classic
method of mixture, you know, every instrument separately and then all put
together. And finally our producer, Jim Douvras, made the final mastering.The
songwriting process... The songwriting process is simple. The first part
that we write for a new song is the music. When someone has a good idea,
he plays it and then we all come in to add or cut something or fill that
idea and then we see the result. If the final transformation is accepted,
we keep that idea and see how we can use it and to what part of the song,
otherwise we put it aside, to work with it some other time. If the
idea doesn't sound good from the beginning, we drop it to the trashcan.
And finally to complete the song, we, but basically Stathis, write the
lyrics and the line of the vocals that match to the music of the song.
6. TELL US A FEW THINGS FOR THE LYRICS. WHICH
ARE YOUR SOURCES OF INSPIRATION AND WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR YOU?
Vagelis and Akis wrote some lyrics but responsible
is Stathis. He has written most of them. Generally, most of our lyrics
talk about feelings, emotions and situations.
7. WELL BEING AN UNSIGNED BAND MEANS THAT YOU
HAVE TO DEAL WITH EVERY SINGLE DETAIL. SO, HOW DIFFICULT WAS THIS FOR YOU?
PLEASE TELL US A FEW THINGS ABOUT THE COVER ARTWORK OF THE DEMO 2004.
Yes, we think it is difficult. You have to
deal with anything and every detail, as you said. About the cover artwork.
We wanted something simple but also to attract the attention. After many
ideas that we all had, finally the basic idea came by Stathis. Two dark
eyes with an energy field in the center. We all found this idea attractive
and chose it for our cover.
8. DO YOU HAVE ANY OTHER RELEASES AS A BAND BEFORE
THIS DEMO? IF YES, PLEASE TELL US A FEW THINGS ABOUT THEM.
No, we haven't got any other releases as Embrace
Depart. This is our first promo.
9. HAVE YOU DONE ANY LIVE SHOWS OR NOT YET? I
SUPPOSE THINGS ARE PRETTY DIFFICULT FOR YOU IN THAT MATTER...
Yes, we have done one live appearance, so
far, last August. A Metal festival took place in a nearby city, Veroia.
We did well, the audience accepted us warmly. In this matter however the
things are not so difficult. If you have the energy and the passion to
search for events, festivals, shows and all these things where you can
perform live.
10. ORIGINATING FROM EDESSA (IT'S A GORGEOUS CITY!)
MAKES THINGS HARDER. I MEAN YOU ARE FAR AWAY FROM STUDIOS, FROM LIVE VENUES
AND FROM COUNTLESS OTHER THINGS. HOW DOES THIS AFFECT YOU AND MAKE YOU
WORK AS A BAND? WHAT'S YOUR GOAL AS EMBRACE DEPART?
No it's not so difficult because Thessaloniki
is just one hour from our city. We can be there any time. This situation,
that we live far from big city centres, doesn't affect us at all. Our first
goal is to make good music. We make music for ourselves first and then
for others. Our second and basic goal is to sign with a record company.
11. WHAT'S, ACCORDING TO YOU, THE BEST AND WHAT'S
THE WORST PART IN YOUR MUSIC? IN WHAT FIELD DO YOU THINK YOU NEED FURTHER
IMPROVEMENT?
We don't like to make judgements in something
that is ours. We let the others do this. We accept our music as it is.
Embrace Depart music. If we don't like something on the guitars, on vocals,
on the drums etc, we simply don't use it. Every time we try for the best
result!
12. WHAT DO YOU EXPECT TO HAPPEN OR TO ACHIEVE
WITH THIS DEMO? HAVE YOU SENT IT TO ANY LABELS OR JUST ZINES AND MAGAZINES
FOR THE MOMENT?
What we expect... As we said, our basic target
is to find a label! We have five more songs already recorded and with these
four songs of this promo we will make one complete disk with different
artwork (with normal booklet, photos, lyrics) and we plan to send it to
labels. We hope our first promo goes well and will make our band known
to the metal audience. We will see what will happen or what we'll achieve
with this promo. For the moment we have sent it only to zines and other
music magazines.
13. WHAT KIND OF FEEDBACK DID YOU RECEIVE THIS
FAR? ARE YOU SATISFIED BY THE PRESS RESPONSE?
We are very satisfied for the moment. Thank
God, things so far are not just very good. They are amazing! We received
very good comments from the press but the best part in all this are the
people! We already gave over 200 copies. Every day we take e-mails from
people from all over Greece to send them our work. In this part we would
like to thank all these people who EMBRACE our promo so warmly. Really
thank you guys.
14. IF YOU COULD INVITE A FAMOUS MUSICIAN TO PARTICIPATE
IN YOUR DEMO, WHO WOULD YOU CHOOSE AND WHY?
Really no one!!! That sounds a little bit
selfish but we are who we are and play what we play. Every member in this
band gives his personal colour to our music. That is the point.
15. COULD YOU PLEASE PINPOINT SOME OF YOUR MOST
BELOVED BANDS AND ALBUMS? NAME SOME MUSICIANS THAT HAVE SET THEIR STAMP
ON YOU, MUSICALLY SPEAKING...
That is the strange part with this band. Every
member in the group has different influences and sources, so we can't give
a standard answer about a band, a musician or an album that represents
the whole band. Strange but true.
16. THANK YOU! HAVE I FORGOTTEN TO ASK YOU ANYTHING
AND YOU'D LIKE TO MENTION?
You're welcome. No, I think everything was
ok! Goodbye.
Christine Parastatidou
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