Hanna Tsepesh: Hello Infinite Tales! Thanks so much for accepting this interview and Welcome to THE GATES OF METAL! First of all: For those who do not know Infinite Tales could tell us a little how it all started? Kiwi: Thanks for your interest to our band, Hanna! I met the guys from Infinite Tales when the band had already existed. We became good friends at first, and then I got obsessed with the idea to join them But I had no experience of singing in a metal band, though it was a great opportunity for me. I couldn’t imagine it would be so difficult, especially first steps, but now I’m ready to work really hard.
Zolik: It all began when I was a guitarist/back-vocalist in a nu-metal band. It doesn’t matter now how it was called. Glorf visited one of our gigs and later asked me to do some “vocals” on the demo tape. It was interesting for me but I was very nervous about my vocal experience. We’re not listening to the results of that recording sessions now. It was cool, but not cool enough to be proud of it now. Later Glorf invited me again to perform a show with the new female singer. Thus the guys decided to give me a chance to be a part of the vocal line. To be continued…
Glorf: Well, as for me it all started probably when I was born. But I had realized this only in 2001 or maybe in 2002, then my friends presented me Nightwish DVD LIVE "From Wishes to Eternity". It was something amazing for me. I remember that I fell in love with heavy music on that day. Thanks to Tuomas Holopainen. Decisive steps towards bringing the band to life have been taken by me and Coma (D. Bondarenko - bass). A lot of work has been carried out during the period of 2006-2008: musician recruitment (in fact, a lot of candidates have been tried out), first studio recordings, demos. We have even won in the Local Qualifying Heat of the Global Battle of the Bands 2007 and we came really close to making it to the London final. Even though we didn’t make it to the ultimate final we haven’t been disappointed – quite on the contrary – the fact that we could accomplish so much being this young gave us new confidence and strength. The 4rth of March 2008 can be considered band’s official birthday. By that date the current lineup of the band has been formed and active promotion and concert activity commenced. The recording of our “Only the Beginning” album has started on the 1st of November 2008 and went on up until the 1st of April. So, basically, whole this work is one big April Fool’s Joke.
Hanna Tsepesh: Glorf, you are the founder band. I want to ask you if it was hard to find Kiwi and Zolik? I ask this because these guys have an amazing / powerful voice and also, is very difficult to find 2 cool voices that combine so well together and don’t bring that boring music’s without any feeling…because you know, sometimes males and females voices are both good but when they sing together destroy the music (laughs)…
Glorf: I can’t really say that it was hard for us to find Kiwi and Zolik, it just took a lot of time (and patience on our part) for it to happen of itself. I’m really happy we are together now and I really do hope that it is so to last. There’s a lot of work to be done before Zolik and Kiwi can realize their full inner potential; they’re capable of a much better, stronger vocal delivery – we just need a little bit of time. I’m sure our second LP will speak for itself.
Hanna Tsepesh: What inspired you the most to create the lyrics? The band writes the lyrics first or first the band creates the riffs and the melody to comply with the lyrics?
Glorf: In case of infinite Tales it is always the music that is born first. It holds true for us, I can’t really speak on the behalf of other bands. What I would like to say is that music has always borne greater importance to me, probably, since I’m more of a composer than a poet. Composing has always come naturally to me.
When inspired, I have a very clear “vision” of what the composition should be like, all to pieces. It’s much harder with lyrics. Nevertheless, I have written lyrics for 8 of 11 tracks on “Only the Beginning”, the rest has been done by Zolik. I don’t as of yet know how this will be handled on our second LP, but it is quite possible that I’ll be devoting a greater part my concentration to music itself, letting Kiwi and Zolik handle the lyrics.
Hanna Tsepesh: What are your favorite bands? You guys have any musician that you admire the most?
Kiwi: It`s really hard for me to name all the bands that I like and that inspire me. The Agonist, Protest the Hero, Deadlock, Amaran, In Flames, Arch Anemy, Avenged Sevenfold, Mors Principum Est are just a few of them. I love the voices of Sandra Nasic, Christina Aguilera. I adore classic music. But I don’t like folk metal; this music is not for me.
Zolik: I listen to a lot of metal bands. I don’t even know how to choose some of my favorites. In Flames, Children Of Bodom, Cradle of Filth, Avenged Sevenfold, Carcass, InMe, My Bitter End, Necrophagist, Protest the Hero, The Black Dahlia Murder, Unexpect and many-many brutal, melodic, progressive metal or not even metal bands.
Glorf: I listen to a great lot of different bands, just as other members of our band do. In Flames, are, of course, of primary authority as, surprisingly enough, are Nightwish. Nightwish is where it all began, but now, priorities and preferences have shifted to more modern, heavy and guitar-oriented music. Such as Sweden melodic death metal and death metal in general (IN FLAMES, Dark Tranquillity, SoilWork, Arch Enemy, At the Gates). There’s little sense in naming the bands as there are simply too many of them.
Hanna Tsepesh: One of you guys has another band or some future project? Or your time is only for this band?
Zolik: I don’t have time for another band. And it does not make me sad.
Kiwi: I put my whole soul and all my energy into Infinite Tales. That’s why I have no time or interest to take part in any side-project.
Glorf: I’m not involved in any other band at the moment and willingly so. I’m getting a lot of offers from other bands to join them as guitarist, but Infinite Tales has my full devotion. I’m at one with Kiwi, Zolik and other members of the band on this matter. We don’t have any side projects, and, hopefully, will never want to.
Hanna Tsepesh: Kiwi, I would like to know if you had or have any singing lessons or any other preparation? Is true that you also play cello? Is a very hard instrument? When you start to play?Kiwi: Yeah, I’m playing cello since I was 12 years old. My mom is the cellist. I went to the music school then I was five where I was taught piano, but I had a bad teacher, and as I understand now, these lessons barely gave me anything. So I can’t say that I’m a professional keyboardist. My true love are vocals and cello. These two instruments are really hard to master to perfection. You will never learn to play cello or sing by yourself, without a teacher. So of course I take vocal lessons. I also watch lots of video materials concerning vocal techniques. And I’m planning to perform some extreme vocal tracks on our second record.
Hanna Tsepesh: Zolik, I make the same question that I make for Kiwi but if you have any guttural technique lessons?
Zolik: No. I teach myself all the time. It’s sad, but we have no extreme vocal couch in our city. Due to self-teaching on practice I’m sure my singing is much better now then on the album. I promise that on the second album my extreme vocals will be more brutal and powerful. There will be screaming, growling, pig squeal, maybe even some kind of clean vocals.
Hanna Tsepesh: Glorf, when you start to play guitar? It was difficult to learn? What brand guitar you prefer?
Glorf: It is always hard to start at something, but I was burning with desire to learn to play a guitar. I entered the music school with the specialization in guitar and solfeggio. At fifteen, I have bought my first electric guitar and thus my metal life has begun. I am a fan of ESP brand; therefore I only ever play guitars of their make. They are REALY AWESOME and METAL!
Hanna Tsepesh: What you guys like to do in your free time?
Zolik: Riding a bicycle and…“Drinkin’ beer and smokin’ buds”.
Kiwi: I like to spend my free time with my friends, I like to admire the scenery, to listen and to play music and to sing and…oh, There`s really a lot of different things that I like to do.
Glorf: I am a grand cinephile. I love cinema and try to watch all the movies that spark my interest on the big screen. Spending time with friends is, of course, always a fun thing to do. I have infinite amount of love for the Infinity Tales Family. I love to go riding a bike out of town when it’s warm outside, I love playing guitar.
Hanna Tsepesh: Let’s talk about the “Only the beginning” album. I think I said my opinion on your review; I simply love this album and for me the entire band have a lot of potential to be more then seceded band and I can’t wait to listen to Infinite Tales evolution. But, for people who don’t listen yet can you tell to us about this album? You have a cool cover of In flames music “Behind spaces”, why you guys decided to put this cover on this album?
Zolik: First of all - the cover is not a track from our album. It’s only for the free download. The album… It’s an evolution of a band that played some gothic stuff to the serious MDM band. Some songs are old and have some different sounds then songs that were composed later. Late songs are harder and faster.
Hanna Tsepesh: Oh, thanks for correct my little mistake.
Kiwi: Everyone who likes heavy music, especially MDM (melodic death metal), could find something for themselves in our album, I beleive. We tried to make our music powerful, full of energy, yet melodic and interesting for everyone.
Glorf: “Only The Beginning” bears extremely symbolic meaning for us as it is our beginning. The first full-length recording that we released, that we have spent an insane amount of money, patience, soul, health and time on. It is now integral part of each and every one of us. Everybody has given this album their absolute best.
Such songs as Waltz in the Flame, WINGS, Point of no Return, Bloodyfield and Little More Anger are, in fact, old compositions we have adapted to our new style since we liked them a real lot, but they have grown outdated genre-wise as they had a distinct Gothic/Power Metal sound.
On the other hand, such songs as Amoxicillin…Extermination, Running Away, Dethtale, The Night at the Cemetery, The warehouse will be your tomb, Chief and No War for This Century are entirely new tracks, composed after our current lineup has been formed.
Intro, Bridge and Outro are a small conceptual division of the album. I admire neoclassic therefore I couldn’t resist the temptation of incorporating some of that non-metal concept into our album. I’m not yet sure whether we are to repeat this on our second album – this hasn’t been decided yet. But, what is for sure, it will be faster, heavier and more melodic.
“Behind spaces” is our tribute to In Flames. We have infinite amount of respect and admiration for them! This is the opening track of their first album, and the song is just grand. We couldn’t help ourselves – we just had to do a cover.
Hanna Tsepesh: Everything went well at recording studio? The band feels happy with the final result or in your opinion is something that you like to change? Kiwi: As for me the beginning of the recording process was quite difficult. I needed some time to work with my voice before recording. And my voice in the songs that were recorded later is stronger then in the first ones. And that comes natural for everyone! I`m sure that the vocal parts in the second album will be much stronger. And everyone will have a chance to hear this difference.
Zolik: It was a very hard work. At the beginning I didn’t have the right singing technique (at the time of recording, NOT NOW!) I had a headache each time I finished the recording session. Now it’s much easier for me.
Glorf: It has been especially hard for me as I had to be present at the studio with Morton (the sound producer) literally every day in the course of a 6-month period, not merely during the guitar recording session. I wanted to shoot myself – or someone - dead by the end of it. Morton must have wanted to do so too. It must have been insanely hard to put up with us for that long, I suppose. It’s a good thing we’re close friends with him. Recording guitars gave me an enormously valuable new experience. Studio recording reveals all your mistakes, the evenness of your playing, for instance. I’ve learnt a lot of things anew thanks to this recording.
Hanna Tsepesh: Who was the person behind your artwork? I liked a lot the cover album! Very cool! You guys think the cover art transmit what this album are? Zolik: It’s a man screaming: “ALL IS F%#@ED UP! ALL IS DONE”!
Glorf: Well, the man behind the (cover) album’s artwork is Vidar. We’re very satisfied with his work and we can definitely recommend him to everybody. The cover artwork does a great job of depicting the main theme of the album – the Apocalypse. (www.myspace.com/vidarextremeart).
Hanna Tsepesh: How has the response been to the album by the fans and media?
Zolik: I don’t feel myself a rock-star. And every time we get a good response I’m wondering.
Kiwi: The responses are really good. And I’m really happy with it. But I had no time to think about this. There’s a lot of work now and that`s the only thing we`re thinking about.
Glorf: The album has been received very warmly which, of course, makes us really happy. It is especially flattering to see that there’s people who really do appreciate our work and grown to love us, people who are looking forward to our concerts, people who support us in every way possible. This means a great deal to us. I want to say “THANK YOU” to all of them.
Hanna Tsepesh: If one of our readers wants to buy your album, what they can do?
Glorf: Well, I believe they have to go to a railway station or an airport, purchase the ticket to Kiev or any other Ukraine city, come here and get the album. It couldn’t have been easier! Joking, really. In fact our first record has only been released here in Ukraine. At the moment we are working on releasing it in the USA and Europe as well. It’s quite complicated as we are a young band and this is our first record. But we are working on this and everyone who wants to support us and buy the licensed copy of the album will have to arm themselves with patience as we have done and wait.
Hanna Tsepesh: what is your favorite music in this album and why?
Zolik: Maybe “Running Away” and “…Chief”. The first is epic and powerful and the second is heavy, funny and aggressive.
Kiwi: “Running Away” and “No war”. There are emotions that just cannot be reproduced in the recording. While the album was recorded, I lived with all these songs in my mind. Every song is almost alive and has it’s own individuality, it’s own spectre of human emotions. I had a part of my soul put into all our songs, but when we were recording “Running away”, I was almost crying. So.. I really love this song.
Glorf: I love the album in its integrity. I’m not fond of listening to separate tracks. I prefer listening to the whole album. This holds true for every band I like. I always find time to listen through the entire album that specifically fitting my current mood. It’s like watching a movie – one may have his favorite moments, but one doesn’t watch these episodes separately from the rest of the film. I try to do the same with records – I try to listen through them as if they were a single lengthy piece/track/composition. It is hard for me to single some track out as each of them awakes different emotions, thoughts and memories, which is great, I believe.
Hanna Tsepesh: The band is searching for a label? How are the things doing with that?
Glorf: As I’ve already mentioned, we are working on this, but we cannot disclose any details as of yet. It’s devilishly hard and complicated, far more complicated than we expected, but, as they say, “no pains, no gains”. We are on this.
Hanna Tsepesh: The band has plains to make a Europe tour or something? What are the future plains for Infinite Tales? Glorf: Yes, we’re planning to hold concerts in Europe and USA, in Australia, New Zealand, South America and Asia. We’d like to go to Japan. We’d like to have a world tour to put it short. We have a lot of plans and aspirations, but, alas, not all of them tend to work out. We have a number of invitations to other countries for this spring and I do believe that all will be fine. We want to perform, the more – the better. We will surely come to any city or country local promoters invite us to. We are doing everything that is in our power, but all does not depend on us entirely.
Now for our future plans. We are about to finish production of our first music video for “AMOXICILLIN…EXTERMINATION”. So, hopefully, a world premiere of the video is soon to come. We may shoot a video for “Running Away” or “No War For This Century” this winter, though I am not exactly sure about that yet. We have already begun working on our second LP and we expect to enter the studio in the spring 2010. We are planning to record 15 tracks (8 of which are already composed) resulting in about an hour of total playing time. The album will have a denser, lower sound, will be faster and more melodic and will generally adhere to the MDM genre more strictly. I’m loving what we’re doing now. Really loving it.
Hanna Tsepesh: What is your opinion about the metal in your country (Ukraine)? It is easy to get some support?
Zolik: It’s fucking impossible!
Kiwi: We feel some support from the people who like our music. Especially from our friends. But it’s really impossible to get a good support in Ukraine, because we have no metal stage as large as in Europe or USA. In our country people usually show interest in a band with a big name rather then a band with a good music.
Glorf: Zolik +1 (laughs) and yes! We feel the support from the people who like our music.
Hanna Tsepesh: Do you want to send any message for the people who going to read this interview?
Zolik: Keep making all you want and you will get a result.
Glorf: Your way is Infinite. Just believe in your strength and your dreams will come true. In honor and pride!
Kiwi: Thanks for your time! Keep rocking.
Hanna Tsepesh: Thanks so much for your answers and time guys. THE GATES OF METAL wishes the entire band a big success! Hope to see you guys very soon in my country (Portugal)…
Glorf: First of all I’d like to thank you, Hanna! We’re trying to bring our music to the people now, and every bit of support is important for us. We’d like to ask everyone who likes our music to tell their friends about us and share/pass on the link to our Myspace page. Every little bit helps!
Kiwi: Good luck to you and thanks for this promotional opportunity!
Zolik: Cheers!
Hanna Tsepesh: Thanks so much guys! All the best...
By: Hanna Tsepesh
To listen to some INFINITE TALES music’s and for future information’s go at:
www.myspace.com/infinitetalesmetal
