LUNA OBSCURA

Hanna Tsepesh: Hello Gogo! Thanks so much for accepting our invitation for this interview! First of all can you tell us about LUNA OBSCURA history? The band started in 2000, right?

Gogo: Yes, that's right! We're from Greece. My bandmates are Dimitris Papachristos (guitars/orchestrals/programming), Aris Potonos (vocals/lyrics), Stratos Kountouras (Bass). In the beginning it was just a couple of friends who had almost the same musical preference and wanted to experiment with it. We didn't have a plan to create a gothic metal band or having a female singer, it was just an idea. I came in the band some years later when we had already lot of songs ready, so we started to work on with and in the recordings we've noticed that some of the songs were very beautiful with two singers and we'd like to keep it in this way. Until now we have released one demo in 2004 named "Darcanda" which took and still take many great reviews. The EP "Evilyn" with 2 songs in 2007 and now we have our first full length album "Feltia" which is officially came out in December 2008.

Hanna Tsepesh: What are your inspirations to create the lyrics for LUNA OBSCURA?

Gogo: I guess as long as we are humans; we have many things to inspired. Our feelings, our thoughts, our dreams and nightmares are some of our inspirations and sometimes poetry too.

Hanna Tsepesh: What are your favorite bands at the moment?

Gogo: By far My Dying Bride, Swallow The Sun, Katatonia, Daylight Dies, Theater of Tragedy, Draconian, Moonspell, Graveworm and many others but also I love artists like Dead Can Dance, Death In June, Lustmord.

Hanna Tsepesh: From what age did you start to sing? Any musician inspired you to start singing? You have an amazing and beautiful voice my congratulations for your work!

Gogo: Thank you so much for your kind words! I've started to sing when I was 10 years old. The first metal album I bought was "The Black Album" of Metallica, I guess that everything starts then. I've made some vocal lessons when I was a kid but it was not so good experience. I didn't like the way that my teacher wanted to sing so I put the lessons aways for years but I never stop to sing.

Hanna Tsepesh: You are very welcome is the truth! I made a little search about you and your work in graphic designer too, right? I see some of your works and I am very surprised with your talent! Can you talk a little bit about your work and your inspirations?

Gogo: I always love arts but as a watcher. My father was made paintings as a hobby and he tried to teach me some things when I was a little. Well, he didn't make it, because I never took it so seriously as the music but things are changed when you grow up. I've study computer technician and graphics, then came other lessons about photography and illustration. For the last two years I've worked with many bands and artists and I'm really thankful about it. As for my inspirations, well everything could be an inspiration for me.... music, lyrics, one picture, a good dream or an nightmare, a movie...even a word without meaning.

Hanna Tsepesh: So cool! About your new album "Feltia", I really love this album I can't stop to listen it! In my opinion you have a great/fantastic work in here! For our readers that like death/doom and gothic music I think your band is a perfect answer for them!!! The entire album is very atmospheric and sometimes in these styles we get borried to listen, but "Feltia" is not the case! The melody is great and the voices are great together! But, for our readers that don't listen your album yet can you tell us about it? What the band wanted to accomplish with "Feltia"?

Gogo: I'm glad that you liked it! About the boring times when you listen atmospheric gothic metal scene.... I think I know what you mean. Sometimes I'm boring too because all looks exactly the same and it's hard to find something different from the usual things. People have used to see bands with female vocals and few male vocal lines or without male vocals at all in this genre. For LO, it's very important to have a good balance in the vocals because both we have something to say. Also important was to make everything right for this album, make a good production, find the right songs and not miss the atmosphere into our music. "Feltia" is an album with 11 songs and the title is a mixture of the words feel and fall. All the songs talk about the human suffering, anger, fear, the pain of blasted hearts, about misery. Our music has something from the old atmospheric death/gothic sound and something from this age, for those who like those things, I believe that they gonna love it.

Hanna Tsepesh: Can you tell us about the recording studio process? Also was mastering by Mika Jussila, you guys are happy with the final result? LUNA OBSCURA must be very proud of this album, right?

Gogo: More than proud because it was a dream for many years that finally came true. We spend many months in the studio, we travel in 3 different cities for the recordings, many people helped us with this album. Our producer Stamos Koliousis from 210 Studios (Berlin) also did great job. Stece Dickins from STV Studios (Greece) who was our producer in "Darcanda", helped us a lot with the vocal recordings and he also took part as a voice actor. It was nice and really tiredly period but definitely we are all satisfied with the final results. Mika Jussila has been working with many artists like Nightwish, Moonspell, Children Of Bodom, To Die For, Apocalyptica etc. and it was a pleasure for us to worked with him.

Hanna Tsepesh: The cover album is great too with lots of elements! Who was the person behind this cool work? Can you explain to us the cover artwork?

Gogo: The cover artwork was made by Zilas, he's really great artist. "Feltia" is not a concept album, every song is a different song so there is no any concept behind the cover. We just wanted something dark with those colors. From the beginning we had the time that we need so Zilas made for us many artworks before we choose the final. All were more than awesome but this one was the best for us.

Hanna Tsepesh: What is your favorite song in this album and why?

Gogo: Favorite song..... I like every song in this album because I have put myself into this but if I have to choose surely I will say "The Ancient One" and "The Burden Of Solitude" not only for the beautiful melodies but also for the great lyrics that Aris wrote.

Hanna Tsepesh: LUNA OBSCURA are from Greece! Is it easy to get support in there by labels, radios, magazines, etc.? It's been a difficult journey for the band?

Gogo: I'm not so sure if it's hard or an easy road trip, usually it depends of what the band needs or want to do. In Greece, we have very few numbers of labels, radios and magazines. The most people here, listen other kind of music so if you want to do something, you have to find a way to promote your work in other countries. Sometimes it's sad but the foreign press works better.

Hanna Tsepesh: For our readers that want to buy "Feltia" album, what can they do?

Gogo: They can find our stuff to our official myspace profile www.myspace.com/lunaobscuraband. Now are also available on iTunes, Amazon etc. As for the Greeks, we have a limited number of stores in Greece and also they can make an order via email at lunaobscura-@hotmail.com or
management-lunaobscura@hotmail.com

Hanna Tsepesh: How are the things about concerts? The bands is planning a European tour or something?

Gogo: Not yet but we're planning to do something about it. We need to make a good promotion for the album and get in contact with some labels first.

Hanna Tsepesh: Last question: Do you want to send any message for our readers and for your fans around the world?

Gogo: Hope to see you soon on stage and support the underground metal bands, you never know what could you possible find!

Hanna Tsepesh: Thanks so much for your answers and your time! THE GATES OF METAL wishes you and all the band lots of success with this album and we hope to see LUNA OBSCURA very soon in here...

Gogo: No problem Hanna, it was a pleasure for me. Thanks for everything.


By: Hanna Tsepesh

To listen to some LUNA OBSCURA songs and future information’s click:
www.myspace.com/lunaobscuraband