Interview с Lake of Tears : DARKSIDE.ru

Your new album turned out to be unexpectedly stiff and a bit hard. What are such changes connected with?

In a technical way the songs on this record have been more built from a guitar. I think that on “Black Brick Road” they were more built up from the keyboards. When I was sitting at my computer which was playing like a keyboard and all the programming stuff. And in this one I tried to bring more guitars, so it turned out to be more rocky, more guitar based.

Especially seriously sounds the first track. Did you want to surprise fans of the old Lake Of Tears?

I don’t think that we thought that we should get some new fans or surprise the old fans. I just wrote this song, composed it, played it on the guitar and here it is. But our bass player says that this song sounds like the old Lake Of Tears, but anyway I think why not use it.

Your new album comes out via Dockyard 1 Records. Are you satisfied by the collaboration with this label, do they work better than Black Mark?

Yeah, The people we are working with now do pretty much for us. I mean this is our first record on this label. So we’ll see what they’ll do with all this stuff. But the emotions when we spoke to them was so much better than before when we worked with Black Mark – these people listen to us, they wanna do something for us, and we didn’t like the way it was done in Black Mark.

Last year you made a tour in Russia and Ukraine. What impressions do you have from this tour?

Oh, it was fantastic I think. When you record and release a CD in Western Europe, you get sales figures from there and when you make a tour through these countries you know more or less what to expect. But with Eastern part all is different, we knew only that in these countries we have some fans and that’s it. But we couldn’t expect such a thing! People were so nice, they were treating us like big rock-stars. It was really fantastic.

And can you recollect any fanny moments from that tour; was there anything of the kind?

Yeah, funny moments! (laughs) There were lots of them, I guess in every tour there are some funny things. One of them happened in Ukraine, we got ill and had to go to the doctors. We were poisoned by some food… It was a real fun, but it was a strange moment, on the other hand it was not that funny, because our bass player had to go upon stage despite he was sick. It’s funny, but it’s a special memory. And it was amazing, I mean all that tour, cause he had to go backstage and puke now and then… But nevertheless it was a wonderful tour, as we’d never been to these the Ukraine before, I mean we were in Russia – in Moscow and St.-Petersburg, but not in the Ukraine, and just all these emotions together… it was a fantastic experience.

And how would you characterize your new album for those who have never listened to Lake Of Tears? From which song would you recommend to start listening the album?

Oh, that’s a difficult question I think. Actually I don’t like to put music into genres, it’s not my thing, I’m just a musician, but I would say that – how we play our music – we have a guitar, we have a bass and we have a dram set, and then we have some vocals on it and it’s the basis for the music. And our roots are coming from metal or rock genres, cause that’s the kind of music which we grew up with, that’s the kind of music that made us start to play music, off course you can add some softs and mental values into it. We are sad persons and we have sad prospectives of the world and all that’s happening in the world, and we mix guitar and bass with this kind of emotions and I guess that’s somehow where we stand. That’s how I would describe it.

Do you have plans to shot a video for some of the tracks on your new album?

Well, I don’t know whether there are some concrete plans, but off course we have some ideas, and if we have the opportunity to do it – why not!

And what about a live DVD? Now it’s very popular to release live DVDs…

Yeah, I know we talked about it for some time also, and I guess one day we’ll make a DVD. But first we should decide what kind of DVD we want and what we want to see on this DVD and stuff like that. And you say that it’s very popular nowadays to release DVDs and lots of bands make them – it’s true and that’s why I think we should make this also. So we’ll certainly do it one day, but we don’t have concrete plans right now.

You new album is called “Moons And Mushrooms” and the last song on the album is called “The Planet of the Penguins”. Could you betray the secret are mushroom moons and planet of the penguins the same place? What’s the story behind the

se titles?

It’s up to the listener. If you listen and decide that this is the same place, then it is the same place – why not! (laughs) But for me it’s not like this – I mean the title is meant for you to have a picture in your head, which is connected somehow with our music. When you hear the words “moons and mushrooms” they can be associated with everything, I guess you get some kind of emotions when you hear this title. And that’s what we wanted to achieve with the title. And about the story behind the title of the song “The Planet of the Penguins”… (laughs) Actually this title - “The Planet of the Penguins” – I saw in one restaurant in the menu, in the Ukraine. There was a dish called “Planet of the Penguins”. That’s from where the idea for such a title came from. And I found that this title suited perfectly for that song, cause it’s such an abstract title, and you can think about so many things when you hear this title.

And what is the song about then?

Well, I think it’s one of the most concrete songs on the record. I guess that I had such emotion in the back of my head when I was writing this song. When you are younger, and you look at the people, at the people that you meet, you see them, they are walking around, they are breeding, talking… But when you when you look into their eyes, you somehow see that there’s no fire in them, you just see the sadness when you look at them. I guess this’s a little bit about this.

And why did you decide to call the album “Moons and Mushrooms”? Whose idea was that?

Actually it was my idea, I got this title some time ago. I think moons and mashrooms are tho things that were with the band for many years. Moon is like a symbolic thing of the night, and it’s suitable for the band I think, and mushroom for some time have been a kind of symbol of the band, I don’t know why, but there were always pictures of mushrooms in our cover artworks. So I thought it would be better to put them together, I really don’t know how I came up with this title, but one day it just came to me – “Moons and Mushrooms”!- and it feels good, and it’s a very good mental picture in your head that suits our music.

And who is the author of the cover artwork for this album?

It’s a guy from Venezuela. We are really happy with this cover, cause we think that it’s really great.

Did you work with him previously or was it you first collaboration?

It was actually our first time. So for the cover for this album we didn’t have any concrete ideas from the beginning, so it took us quite a while. We discussed it much, we got a lot of mails from people around the world that wanted to do Lake Of Tears cover. So we thought:”Why not? We can give these people a chance.” We can give them a kind of guideline, a very abstract guide line – for instance the title of the album, and we wrote about the colors that black color would really reflect the essence of the music and its mood. So we sent this wishes to some artists and this one was really good!

Despite the name of the band, you play music filled with energy. So don’t you think it’s a contradiction?

Oh, I think it’s also in the ear of the listeners. People think differently all around the world. Some people think it’s really a sad music, some other people think it’s more optimistic maybe. I think it depends on what you compare it with. But as for me, I think there’s a touch of sadness in it. But still I mean – we are sad people, I think, most of the band, but we are not bad people, we don’t want anything bad to anyone, we still want other people to feel good. You know maybe it’s a mixture of some sad prospective of the world and some features of music that can bring some kind of hope to people. So we’re not bad persons!

Do you have time to music beside the music you are playing? Or are you fully satisfies with the music you are playing yourself?

Oh, I listen to music every day! The radio is all the time on, I listen to all kinds of music, even Britney Spears and all that stuff that’s on the radio. But I think it’s really not like lying down in your couch or bed and listening to the music 5 hours in a raw, I think there’s no time for this. But music is everywhere so I listen to a lot of music every day, so it’s not like you sit down and close your eyes and listen to the music, the things are not in this way so much any more.

Your music is always filled with various images – ravens, mushrooms, nowpenguins… Where do you draw all these ideas from?

Oh, I don’t know, you have to ask my brain about it! Some time in your life you try to learn all the words, to discover some new words that you can use in your languag

e. Ravens, mushrooms, hello, goodbye, and then you try to put all those words together in this formation to build some kind of emotion, when you read those lyrics… I guess some words at least for me are painting emotions clearer than other words. I think a word “raven” is quite a symbolic word, and moon and mushroom are also symbolic. Well, I don’t know why I’m using these words, it’s a good question! I think it comes naturally and maybe they paint some scenario for me, that’s why probably I use them.

And in general what inspires you to write music? Do you have some places of inspiration?

I think inspiration is everywhere. You just put on the TV, watch the news and see that there sad news everywhere. Then you meet people every day and they have problems, they are not happy and they give you so much input that opens your ears after you listen to it.

In the photo for you new album there are four of you. Did you at last accept Magnus Salgren as a full member of the band?

Yeah, we finally did! We’ve worked with him since the 1997, when we used him as a solo guitarist for the record. Then after the “Black Brick Road” record he was also with us, we played live, and he really fits good into this group, so that we are.

Why then didn’t you include him into the band earlier?

I don’t know really, when we asked him to play with us he was only a guest musician. Then somehow we used him more, then a bit more and more, so he got involved into our music pretty much. And finally we’ve made a kind of friendship and I think now it was the rught time to include him to the band staff. For our band it’s very important, I mean this friendship. And if we don’t have this, we have nothing. I would never like to play in the band where there are just four musicians, I wanna play in the band where there are four friends.

Has anything changed in the process of creating music for the album if comared to the way you worked at your previous album? Did Magnus or other band-members take part in composing the songs?

I’ve told that these guys have been already for 13 years now in the band. And all this time I wanted them to be more and more involved into the process of creating songs, and they do contribute, but anyway the most of it falls on me. They are too lazy to write songs, and they are happy that they have me and don’t have to write songs! (laughs) So off course everybody gives input into the song, and that’s also very important for me, because when I write the song I also think about the people who would play the song, and it’s very important for me that they should enjoy the song the are playing, they must find something in it that they want to play. But nevertheless most of the writing has been on my shoulders. Always.

The new cover artwork is in grey colors, and in one song there is a phrase “purple sky turns grey”. And the music keeps being no less psychedelic. Why did you move off the purple skies and crimson cosmos and turn to grey colors?

One day I just had some feeling of hopelessness and thought that it was the right time to turn to grey color. And that’s why I put this phrase into lyrics.

Speaking about the cover artwork – do you think that it reflects the material of the new album?
And did you discuss with the artist who worked at the cover the way it should look like, the things that should be present in the picture? Or was it up to him to decide what should appear on the cover artwork?

For us now it’s one unit, it’s different from the beginning when you begin to create things, you don’t have like the whole picture ready, cause there are songs and songs order, you have a booklet and a cover to it, and in the end it all has to be a complete picture, but not in the beginning. I think now for us all these pieces of the CD have fallen together. I personally think that this cover reflects music in a great way. And I know how hard it is to work at the cover for any album, because every cover-artwork is very symbolic, I know it myself, because when I go to the CD store and see different cover-artworks off course they mean something. If you find cover attractive, if it’s something that appeals to you you may pick up the CD and listen to it. So we always have difficult time when we decide what we want to see on the cover. We had a title “Moons and Mushrooms”, but we didn’t have the cover-artwork. Previously we worked with almost the same artist for all our previous albums and this time we decided to try something different. There are lots of people out there that are eager to make the cover artworks for us, and we decided to try it. As I’ve already said there were lots of covers sent to us, and some of them were just fantastic. We gave a kind

of guidance, but it was very vague. And I know from my own experience that’s it is very important to have a free hand, because when I’m given a free hand I can create something that really comes from my inner self . And if somebody tells me what to do it is not really that real. So we had the title and songs, and he made the cover artwork that fitted pretty well. We just wanted this artwork to cause some emotions and feelings, maybe because of the things pictured, maybe because of the colors used, or what not. And he managed to do it! And one more thing that is very important – don’t care about the things that we say about the cover, if something gets you going, if you get a certain king of emotions from it, just forget what we say, cause it’s not important! Do what you want to do. And when we saw this cover – it was really something that was sitting in us, and we said, “Oh, that’s pretty good!” It gave that big emotion we were looking for.

There is a very tragic song on your upcoming album, that is called “Like a Leaf”. What is it about? And what inspired you to write this song?

Actually for me it’s not a tragic song. For me it’s one of the happiest song of the record. Maybe I’m more a sad than a happy person, but there are some moments when I feel happy, too, and I feel this energy to write songs. And mostly I write songs when I’m in a sad mood. But with this song it was different, the melody came into my head one summer morning, when I woke up when I was spending some time in the wood, and there was a lake nearby. So for me it’s quite happy song. And I felt really good at the moment when I was writing this song.

Can you say that you are a dreamer?

Oh, it depends on what or whom you compare me with. But many people could call me a dreamer. I always hope for better days to come, not only for myself, but for all the people on this planet.

You’ve once mentioned that you’ve recently discovered philosophic literature for yourself.
What particular books are there on your book shelf?

I don’t read only philosophy day by day, I can combine. It’s not like I go to school and want to be a top philosopher. I got acquainted with the philosophy some years ago, I read a book in philosophy by some English philosopher. He writes about his thoughts, about how we make conclusions, how and where the thoughts come from how we see the world and how we should treat religion and stuff like that. For me it was some kind of opening my eyes, when I was small my mother used to tell me, “Daniel, you think too much”. I think that everybody should think like this, but surely not everybody thinks like this. And when I read this book I said, “Oh, I thought nobody thinks like this, but there are some people who think like this!” And all of a sudden I learned that this thing is called philosophy. So that’s how I got interested in reading philosophy. For me it’s not that I want to be a philosopher in this way, but I think it’s nice to put works into this kind of thoughts that I have. For me when I read a philosophical books it’s not only some philosophical work, I think in almost every book you read there is some logical reasoning leading to some kind of conclusion. “Why do I think like this? I think like this, because this thing happens, this thing happens and I put them together, I think about it for a little while and I come to this conclusion.”

What season of the year do you like most of all? And does the weather influence your mood?

Yeah, I think weather does influence people’s mood. I think that people living in the north are more sad than people who live in the more southern parts of the world. Because I think it has something to do with cold, smog and stuff like that. So I guess somehow it should affect my mood, because this is where I live, where I’ve lived all my life, I grew up with the cold winters, here we have not such long summers as in southern parts of Europe. So I think there’s something it the weather that has influence.

You used to have a mushroom hat on your concerts. So haven’t you thought about including it into your merchandizing? I think it would sell pretty fast…

Actually we had this idea to include mushroom hat into our merchandizing. But I think to produce this hat is also very expensive. But we’ll se, maybe one day we’ll make this kind of merchandizing. But the most funny thing about it is that when we played in Russia and the Ukraine last time there were a lot of people coming there with mushroom hats! And it was a real fun to watch them!

Yeah, I saw some of them, and I suppose they were handmade!

Yeah, they were handmade, and on our forum people have been discussing how to make these mushroom hats. But the reason why I didn’t have this mushroom hat at the last concert in Russia was that I threw it out to the audience at the concert in Bucharest. I didn’t have anymore mushroom hat, I had only this one. By the way those concerts in St.-Petersburg and Moscow were great, especially the girls in these mushroom hats!

Interview by Ksenia "Wolfin" Khorina
Questions also composed by Blindman, E_X_I_L_E
8 май 2007 the End


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Lake of Tears

Sad, but not bad

Nerferoth Juventino