Interview с The Vision Bleak : DARKSIDE.ru

Please, imagine that there's a person sitting opposite you, who hears about The Vision Bleak for the first time in his/her life. How would you introduce yourself and your band?

Personally I would not like to describe The Vision Bleak with a myriad of words and facts but would rather ask him one simple question: Can you say Kutulu?

How, where and when did you get to know Konstanz? What was the beginning of cooperation?

I met Konstanz the first time in 1999 when he was with his former band Nox Mortis in my studio recording their second album. I immediately noticed he was one of the most powerful and inspired drummers I had ever worked with and we became friends during the recording session. We both had the wish to work with each other on some project in the future. Soon afterwards we started The Vision Bleak.

What can you tell us about your first album “The Deathship Has A New Captain” (2004)? Had it justified all of your original expectations? Had your sensations about that coincided with the reaction of the critics and audience?

We are still very satisfied with “The Deathship” and the very positive reactions from fans and press towards that album filled us, of course, with great satisfaction.

After the success of “The Deathship…” work there were many people who impatiently waited for your following album. And now it’s released. I believe that you have already had some time to receive any responses. Are you satisfied with them? What do people say?

“Carpathia…” has been received very well by both the press and fans worldwide, which pleases us of course. Most people did appreciate the darker atmosphere of the album and the fact that “Carpathia…” is more of a metal album than “The Deathship…” was. Also the more mature songwriting and the quality of the orchestral arrangements has been acknowledged often.

How was the process of making “Carpathia…” going? Did everything turn out just as you intended it to be?

Yeah, we are still satisfied with the songs, performances and production of the album, though there is always room for improvement. Our next will be a step forward in that regard again, me thinks.

Was there anything inexplicable and mystical during the album preparation that had been reflected later on its final version?

No, nothing I could think of right now.

The influence of English mystics writers (such as H.P. Lovecraft, E.A. Poe) can be easily felt in the lyrics

and the whole concept of “The Deathship…”. What were the influences on the idea for “Carpathia…” to be born? What is the essence of this idea?

Well, on “The Deathship…” the inspiration for the lyrics was very film-based. The old “Nosferatu” movie, “Wolfman”, “Plague of the Zombies” or “The Fog” inspired us a lot on that work, whilst I think on the new album the influence of Lovecraft, Poe or Byron is more obvious. My writing style in English was always inspired by these writers anyway. The main idea for “Carpathia…” came when I was in the Alps and read Byron's metaphysical drama “Manfred”. I immediately fell in love with the idea of the writing a darker, more Lovecraft-inspired and simplistic version of a similar drama for our next album.

You often say it makes you annoyed to do the same things day by day, and so you constantly search and add new ideas to your music to find your own style. Has the music of The Vision Bleak changed during these years? Or has its style and atmosphere remained the same?

Of course it has changed. As in normal life, inspiration always comes from new places, books, music or whatever, and that constant flow of inspiration changes and manifests in what you’re doing, of course. If you compare our very first demo recordings with what we do now, there are, except for the dark atmosphere which is what we are about, not so many similarities.

What’s a harmony as you see it? Do you think your new work is harmonious?

Harmony is when two or more different things fit together and melt into one. And yeah, from that point of a view our music is very harmonious. There’s a lot of different elements in our music and lyrical concept that we melt into one.

How do compositions on the new album communicate with each other? Are they detached, fully completed works of art? Or every single track presents one of the cobweb's threads of the album’s general concept?

Each track on the album tells a part of the big story that “Carpathia…” is. Even though you can listen to the songs by themselves, you only get the big picture if you listen through the album.

As far as I understood, “Carpathia” is a concept album. So what is the history of its concept? And what story does it tell?

I did write and develop the concept. Basically the concept tells a story of destiny. Each and every one of us is destined to be the one he/she is, and no one can escape his/her own drama. In our case, a businessman in his best age is heir to the old family’s residence in the strange and fa

r Carpathia. On his journey evil seems to lurk in every corner but our main character does not believe in such fairytales and gives a damn about all warnings and talk about his blood being cursed until destiny proves him wrong.

The cover-art for “Carpathia:” is simply killing! I should've acknowledged one surprising fact: when I only glanced at that picture, I felt myself being scared and perfectly lost! Does this cover perform any secret message?

It just fits so well to what I see before my mind’s eye when I pronounce the word “Carpathia”. It's very atmospheric and perfectly underlines the atmosphere of the album.

You place a high emphasis to art design. In my opinion, the photographer created really phenomenal images! Even my mind was involuntarily penetrated with thought of you being vampires. What's your attitude to how vampire theme's presented in modern music and cinema as a whole?

If you read the lyrics for the album again you'll see they don’t have anything to do with vampires per se, but, the vampire is just an archetype for a certain kind of state of mind, I think, and that's what the album is about as well. I always asked myself why I felt so attracted to everything dark, wicked and sinister and never found a definite answer but the one that it is my destiny – it IS me. When it comes to modern cinema and vampires I liked “Shadow of the Vampire” quite a lot and dig the melancholy atmosphere of “Interview with a Vampire”.

To be serious, it's very interesting to me to learn more about this part of work. Who did these photographs? How were the shoots going? Whose ideas were mainly used?

We worked together with an English photographer named “Lady Morgana”. The shootings went well. Later the photos were edited by Lukas Jaszak – our man when it comes to the graphics – he's really amazing. Everybody who worked with us on the photos brought is own ideas in, even the coachman on the photos brought in ideas.

Who came with an idea to use a coach for shootings? Is it real or just a mockup? How and where did you succeed in getting it?

It was our idea. Of course, it is real! We went to a place near Munich where this guy has a rental service for coaches (mostly for TV productions) and did the shootings. It was fun doing it and the outcome still blows my mind!

And the coachman? Who is this man? Did he took any part in photo-making process or acted only as a photographer’s model?

It’s the guy who owns all those coaches and he actually was

the coachman driving us through the forests until we found perfect locations etc.

Why did you used exactly this and not some other landscape for the cover art of the album? Is it a part of the photographer's creative work specifically for “Carpathia…”? Or it’s an independent picture, which fits your concept?

I told our graphic designer Lukasz Jaszak the general concept of the album and asked whether he had an atmospheric landscape shot that we could use. A couple of hours later he showed us his first ideas concerning the cover and he nailed our ideas completely.

It has to be devilishly hard to explain to another person what kind of final result you want to obtain, and much harder for him/her to fully sense and realize it. Had you experienced problems of that kind while working on “Carpathia…”?

No, not really. When it comes to composing, me and Konstanz are a very good team and are sort mentally linked together.

How often do you play concerts? Do you invite any other musicians to help you with your live shows? If you do, who are these people and what functions do they fulfill?

Right now we are playing a tour with our labelmates Helrunar, which is working very well. In the last two years we played around 80 concerts, I think. Yes, on stage we are supported by three talented musicians on bass, second guitar and drums. I play guitar and Konstanz does the singing.

What atmosphere do your concerts have? Do you try to conform visually to characters and images, which you create in your lyrics?

Our concerts are very atmospheric I think. We have special outfits, make up and a special stage design to uphold and summon the atmosphere of horror. Our concerts are also very wild and very metal, I'd say. We hope to play one day in Russia so people there can make their own minds about it.

What's your present-day’s attitude to your past-days in Empyrium? Do you want to return somehow to these days or music of that kind?

I still cherish what I did with Empyrium but no, I don’t want to return to that time, because I personally strongly loathe people that always live in the past and do not have the ability to grow and evolve as persons and musicians. It’s 2006 now and not 1996. I am ten years older and ten years more mature and that reflects in the music I compose today.

Are you working anywhere apart from the band? What’s your occupation?

I earn my money by producing other bands in my recording facility Klangschmiede Studio E (www.studioe.de).

And finally: What are your creative plans for the future?

Finishing the composing work for our third album and recording it by the end of the year.

Special thanks to Alexei “KIDd” Kuzovlev (Irond Records) for arranging this interview

Maria Tsarkova
April 13, 2006
17 апр 2006 the End

The Vision Bleak

Followers Of Count Dracula