Interview : Diary of Dreams : Russian Darkside

Your new album, “If” is upcoming on the 13th of March. Tell us something about it, maybe you have something you would like to mark especially in this work?

Hallo, first of all. Yes, the new album is about to appear. For me and for the entire group it was a year of a background work. We had a lot of things to do, had a lot of work concerning the new songs and the album and we have tried to apply all of our ideas to this very work. And as you can see it this very album is not a conceptual one, unlike the previous ones. And every song on “If” is a kind of a separate story, telling to the listener its own truth.

Actually you have divined my question. But, later about it. Appealing to the album’s title, it is the shortest one you ever had. Jus “If”. What if?

This time we had slightly or maybe entirely different approach to work. For me it was also a different year. I have put the focus on writing and now it is the outcome of it that you see. By the way, you know, that there occur some moments in a person’s life when she or he asks himself or herself – what if I…? For me this year was an if-year, because I started to asks myself this kind of questions.

When compared to the previous works, what is the new album like? Judging by some presented samples, Diary of Dreams surely stayed true to themselves, but, as usual, there definitely is something new.

I have already said that this work is different from the previous ones. For me it is also biographic, I expressed a lot of my personal life in this album and also tried to put as much fantasy as only possible into it. Surely, this very work is different from what has been already released and you can hear it in our songs. And first of all this album is about love and everything that presupposes love and ev

erything that goes after it.

The closing track on “If”, just as on “Nekrolog 43”, is a melancholic keyboard composition, very strong speaking about emotion and mood transmission. Is it just a coincidence, or is it a kind of a final, a sum of what is presented?

We didn’t try to put a kind of an end to something. It is a very sad, dark composition, telling its own story, but it is not really a final.

When speaking about “If” you mentioned that it is not a conceptual album, unlike the previous one, that every song is separate story. But does anything unite them?

Actually when speaking about this work I may say that “If” is me. I mean it. Because for me every new album is a chapter of my life and this very work is not an exception. It is full of my personal melancholy, my sad mood and dark thoughts and it just has to be me. That is why the only factor that maybe somehow unites all these songs is me, just me, this is everything.

Would you tell us something about the album art? Once you said that the design is very important because it helps to understand the whole work properly.

This album’s design, unlike “Nekrolog 43”, is very simple and personal. And the most important thing is actually the hand on the cover – if you really SEE it you see a lot of things expressed in its motion, it tell so much without a word that it is even hard to believe there exist such things.

Investing to your creations the whole of yourself, what do you expect from our listener? Or the only thing for you is just to express yourself?

There are some groups who say aloud – we play our music in order to make money, but I believe such musicians won’t stay long. For me the most important thing the music gives yo

u is self-expression and actually you make music first of all for yourself.

Work after work, you write your lyrics mostly in English. What do you think, after so long practice, have you improved in expressing your emotions and moods?

In English you mean? Actually I don’t think I have ever had any problems the language. I lived in America and my English was always on an adequate level. But you know when you write music you don’t speak any language; it is a speaking way that you put your words on music. And thus every time I change the way of working in order to write my texts.

Diary of Dreams have issued 9 albums, the very first one in 1994. Glancing back, what do you feel?

Well… this is a long time-period, 15 years, isn’t it? I should say never in my life had I something for free. Do not take me wrong, I am not complaining, it is just a way things went. These years are a big portion of my life and I love them to death. I love everything I do now to death – my music, my… my everything.

How do you imagine DoD in the future, do you have any new plans already?

Actually I have no lack of inspiration, for me it is just a conveyer. Concerning the music I have a lot of plans, first of all our tour, then the next album and then again a tour… So you see no time to stop.

You are on the darkwave stage at least 20 years already, and DoD are fairly known as one of the most famous band in this field. From your point of view, what are the changes in your sphere, if there are any? v

My sphere – you mean darkwave music? Actually, I don’t follow these changes so closely. I don’t know. Are there any, can you tell me? I believe, the world can not survive without any changes, thus, there definitely s

hould be some, definitely. Still, you should better ask some musical critic concerning this question.

During the concerts you communicate with your audience, for whom do you perform? Who do you think are your listeners?

Yeah, I like it very much. And you know there are some people we actually know in the face – they appear for instance at a press-conference and then in the first row at the concerts and we recognize them and it is so nice to see such faces. And I hope that we give your listeners hope – excuse me for this tautology. I hope we do give it to them.

Actually, it is so in reality. When I first heard your song “Colorblind” for me it gave namely hope, for it was not a simple moment in my life and it cheered me up somehow.

Thank you very much. I like this song too.

You have been with concerts in many, many countries. What audience do you consider more pleasant, more understanding?

Actually we have been in 31 countries. I don’t know… I am not in the position to judge politically, you understand this. And for me touring is always fun. It is really. And what audience? Hmm… I can say only that touring in Russia was an enormous experience for us. We have been here 9 times and every time it is really something very big and unforgettable.

Let us turn to more personal questions, if you don’t mind.

Ok.

Say, how do you see yourself after 5, 10 years?

Hmm… you know I personally see myself repined. I have learnt a lot of things, but, as you probably know, they call me a master of vagueness. So, maybe I will never tell you what things I have really come to know, but it doesn’t mean they are not present in my head.

Watching live performances of different bands that play in different styles and visiting the concerts of the musicians from totally different spheres I have noticed that whatever their music is, a good, sincere band always have some powerful energy. Even if their music is “dark”, nobody come out of the hall depressed. What do you think about it?

Yeah! You are absolutely right! Never, never they come out of the hall unhappy! It is true. And how can it be accounted for? First of all, my music doesn’t make ME depressed. And when I play to my audience people feel it. They fell very strongly my own emotion and reply to them correspondingly. And the second thing is, to my mind, the following – melancholy is the most productive mood. Great songs are written in this mood. And people feel it during the concerts. The audience feels everything wonderfully keenly.

Do you have any life moto, or just any phrase that you find absolutely right?

You know, I am not a fan of quoting things and I can t say I do have any moto. But I don’t like the word REGRET… what else? I call myself constructive pessimist – my melancholy or call it pessimism helps me to create, to build and to improve. That is all.

At the beginning of your career, what did you expect, what were you dreaming of?

I was only dreaming of the state of things how they stand now.

You say that in your songs you express your negative emotions. When expressed, do they fade away?

Your emotions change. They change with you and your life. If you are focused on one things even after you have put it into words. You will be thinking about it anyway. If you try, really try to get rid of them, they do vanish into the air. Everything is very simple.

Appealing to the merged world situation. Partly meaning the unforgettable world crisis, are you interested in politics now, does it anyhow affect you?

We all live in the community, which depends on many various factors. I can’t and I shouldn’t say the world situation doesn’t affect me anyhow. But I am just an observer. I can say I am really interested in politics – I don’t have the TV and the radio. I am going through this life with open eyes, yes, the situation is not pretty, but I am not keen on it.

And you know, some say this crisis is a kind of a punishment to the people for their vices. Do you believe it?

I am not a theologist to state such things. But to my mind, if God does want to punish us, he does it with the help of hurricanes, fires, floods and so on. Soon we will be killed by all these things and not because of the financial crisis.

If music was color, what color the works of DoD would be?

It depends on my personal taste for colors. I like vague, soft, warm ones – soft yellow, warm brown and even soft black if you want.

Most of creative people work at night, and what time of day do you usually work? At any time the idea occurs you or there is some kind of regularity?

When we just started we worked during day time. Something between 9 in the morning and 6 in the evening. Then it became impossible to work at morning hours, for we are all not present. And different studies do prove my words. So, we slightly changed the schedule and began to work later. Now I believe late evening hour are most productive: something between 11 p.m. and 7 or 8 a.m. This is actually the time when real creativity starts.

Say about the way your friends and close relatives ta

ke your music.

You know, your close friends and relatives are something different form what you do in music sphere. They are those people, who will stay with you hopefully forever. They know you fully; they have been with you when everybody else turned around and walked away, so they are… they are the dearest people in your life and the way they take your music is something diverse from the way everybody else takes it. I’ve never asked them how they take it, but I hope they like it as much as I like it. It is not the subject when you meet with them in a café. You don’t talk about music, because it is your WORK, and people usually don’t talk about work when they have a chance to talk about something else. You don’t tell your friends how the day at work was; you talk about something more interesting for them and for you, rather then about work.

What do you think, could you ever leave music in favor of something else?

I would never leave music because I am tired of it, for instance. I am a musician for myself not for making money or something like that. My life is life next to music, and I have got my latest friends from the sphere of music. But if I have, really HAVE to leave music I would do it naturally. Still, my goal was never to reach celebrity or something like that, Music was just an expression of me, my soul and emotions. But if I have top leave music I would probably work with animals, I like it really.

And as usual, what would you like to tell your fans in Russia? We are all looking forward your concerts in this country.

We are really counting the days before the concerts. We are eager to see spring in Russia and for us it is a great privilege to be back so soon.

Interview by Maria Korolkova
Questions composed by LAN
24 мар 2009 the End