KARELIA
"I cannot understand religion, and even less the fact that it leads to war..."
(September 2005)
Hello
Guys, first of all I like to thank you to take time for the Interview.
Since
the release of your first album Usual Tragedy just a year passed by and now the
second record Raise is available. It was a quite quick development. Did you
expect to finish the second album as quick?
Yes
we did. We were convinced that a second album must be released very soon in
order to confirm our arrival on the metal stage. Then we worked a lot during the
release of our first album “Usual Tragedy”
How
did you get on? Had you already some ideas in mind or came they by improvising?
We
don’t improvise anything. I must even concede that we are a pretty
“strict” on the composal methods. Everything must be done before it’s
played. Improvising leads to approximation
The
new album seems to be slower but more diversified…
That’s
true. And it’s a transition to our next album, which is, once again, quite
different. That’s a big hazard as the audience doesn’t like changes, then we
almost have to find a new public everytime we release !
For us it’s a need to change, we cannot understand the bands doing 10
albums the same way and the same sound...
This
diversification makes it quite difficult to describe your music. How would you
name your sound?
That’s
the aim ! And actually even
Karelia doesn’t know how to exactly name its music!
Maybe a kind of electro-symphonic-heavy-doom-metal???
How
have the reactions of the press, fans or friends been?
Thanks
to the second album, we gained lot of value from the press : actually no one
fire this album. We got only good or very goods reviews. On the other hand, the
audience is confused and doesn’t follow us in the trip. For instance in Japan
our first album met a great success.. whereas sales figures are awful for the
second album
It
looks as if you’re very interested in the topics you’re singing about. The
cover, the title track Raise as well as Cross & Crescent says us something
about war. It’s a common topic, why did you choose it?
We
only deal with the things we don’t understand.. not with the topics we got all
the answers to. I guess that’s
the only reason. I don’t understand the collective madness who blasted the
whole world 60 years ago, I cannot understand religion, and even less the fact
that it leads to war...
In
Raise a speech of Hitler is repeatedly to hear. Weren’t you afraid to use it?
Yes
we were but we really wanted to use it because it got a great artistic interest.
Our label gave us the advic to cut it before the release but we wanted to keep
it whatever the hazard it means
For
me one of the weak points is Disharmonic Dogmas with it’s oriental style. I
can’t assign it to anything on this disc. Is it meant like an intro to Cross
& Crescent?
Yes
obviously it’s only an atmospheric intro of Cross&Crescent
(with christian and muslim singing) but it has no melodic interest!
A
great song is Tearful Clown, which you wrote in memory of Charles Chaplin. How
did you get the idea to write the song in his point of view?
That’s
an other thing I cannot understand : Chaplin was misunderstood
by the people, he beared a constant pain not to be shown to the audience. He
created masterpieces to entertain the people, spreading around the world
messages of love and fraternity, hidden under the veil of humour... he was
ungratefully banished from his own country
Do
you like old movies like those of Chaplin or Laurel and Hardy?
Yes
a lot. But Chaplin has a very special status as he was the most “complete”
artist of the XXth century and maybe of all times. He was not only a fantastic
actor but cumulated hundreds of other skills
Some
might be surprised about the Pink Floyd cover High Hopes. Great fans?
Yes
we are. Considering that music exists in order to spread emotion (I think that
lot of people forgot that matter) Pink Floyd is probably the best band in the
world.
Why
did you select exactly this song?
As
it’s well known from the audience. I’d rather songs from “the wall”
album... but except the song “another brick in the wall” it’s unknown from
most of people
Which
is your favourite song on Raise, and why?
Raise
itself, because of the sense and the deep emotion we tried to make through.
That’s why we put it as first
track... it’s a hazard as that song is not the most “powerful” one
On
your first tour you supported bands like Kamelot, The Gathering or At Vance. I
think you played in front of a big audience…
Well,
not thausends people... that kind of band do not attract a lot actually. Even if
some of the “famous” bands we played with behave like superstars. Some
people forgot that metal is definitely an underground style.
It
must have been a great experience, any special happenings?
Only
technical problems! A band like Karelia is used to play live with all the
samples and that means lot of additional difficulties to manage... especially
when you just open for someone else! But people received us with open arms every
time. The audience was great.
It’s
been said that you always can learn some things from other bands on tour. Also
in your case?
Actually
not : our problems are particular and we never found any solution thanks to an
other band. Very few bands are used to play live the way we do it...
On the other hand we learnt many other things like how to manage the
stress for instance
I
hope you had a camera on board and banned some live impressions on DVD…
We
won’t! I mean : every thing we do must be implemented a very professional way.
We could not release an album, or a DVD made from scratch, with poor means... we
noticed that every “little metal band” tries to release its own Live DVD
with images shot from two 500€ numeric cameras, sounding with “tigidigidi
bass drums”... and that’s precisely one of the reasons why metal is
considered this way by “non-metalheads people”. Then we’ll do it once we
got the money to do it well!
You
joined Switzerland in Z-7. Will you be back with Raise?
The
Z7 Concert hall really blasts and we’re eager to play in it! Everything is
great in here, and incredibly organized.
Thanks
again for the interview and we’re tensely looking forward to a further album
of Karelia.
(Interview by Alex)
Questions/Thoughts? (or whatever):