Imperia
Jan and Helena are
the two members of Imperia, a band that exists quite a while now with the
sole vision to create beautiful music in absolute artistic freedom. Releasing
now their second album they can surely say they have achieved their primal
goal and now they set some higher standards trying to reach out to fans
who are fond of dark atmospheres, of operatic female vocals and of intense
sentimental contrasts... If you find yourselves to be amongst those, then
I'm sure you will enjoy this interview a lot!
1. HELLO JAN! HOW ARE YOU? HOW ARE THINGS
GOING SO FAR WITH YOUR SECOND RELEASE “QUEEN OF LIGHT”? DO YOU BELIEVE
THAT AS AN ALBUM CAN BRING MORE FANS TO IMPERIA?
Hey Nikos! Yes well I sure hope we will reach
more listeners. The main problem with the first album was that it was never
officially released internationally outside of the Benelux countries.
Now that we are on Massacre Records we will have a worldwide release and
distribution. And of course we worked very hard for this album so I hope
that people appreciate our hard work. So far everything looks good and
the reviews have been very rewarding.
2. THREE YEARS HAVE PASSED SINCE YOU HAVE RELEASED
YOUR FIRST ALBUM “THE ANCIENT DANCE OF QETESH”? WHY DID IT TAKE YOU SO
LONG? DID THE CHANGE OF A LABEL PLAY A ROLE?
There were many different reasons for this.
First of all we toured quite a lot in the Benelux after the first album
and when we were ready to start recordings we had to wait the studio to
be free. And then of course during the recordings our label back then –
Black Lotus – called it quits. So we went shopping for a new label and
got some pretty good offers. We chose Massacre because of some positive
comments from other bands and of course because of their reputation. They
have helped some cool artists in our genre in the past and also have a
solid roster right now. And also, their offer was the best and gave us
complete freedom with all artistic matters which is essential for us.
3. BY THE WAY WHICH WERE THE REASONS THAT MADE
YOU CHANGE A LABEL? HOW SATISFIED ARE YOU SO FAR WITH MASSACRE RECORDS?
IS THERE ANYTHING MORE YOU’D LIKE THEM TO DO FOR YOU?
Well as I said we started with Black Lotus
and I don’ t have anything bad to say about them I liked to be on their
label and they did a good job with Angel. Also George, Andreas and Elias
are nice guys to work with. But unfortunately obviously for some financial
reasons they had to stop. So it was not our choice to leave them. Of course
they were correct and gave us permission to search for another label. So
far I’m very happy with Massacre. This co-operation has already opened
many doors for us. Also being on a German label might give us some advantage
since Germany is a very important country for a band like us.
4. NOW LET’S COME BACK TO THE ALBUM. IF YOU COMPARE
“QUEEN OF LIGHT” WITH “THE ANCIENT DANCE OF QETESH”, WHICH DO YOU THINK
ARE THE NEW ELEMENTS YOU HAVE ADDED?
I think this album sounds in a way more complete
and whole. The reason might be that this one was written only by two people
whereas the previous had several songwriters and it was written in a longer
span of time. Also I think it is nicer now that Helena uses her voice in
many more ways. The Opera – where she’s famous for – is now better proportioned
through the album. So we also have more songs with a power voice or with
a normal clean singing. This all makes the complete album maybe easier
to listen and more accessible for the listener…
5. LET’S TALK ABOUT THE LYRICS. WHO WRITES THEM
AND WHAT KIND OF THINGS DO YOU LIKE TO WRITE ABOUT?
Helena writes all the lyrics herself. She
writes always about her own life and by this the lyrics always have a deep
personal meaning. This time the main theme on the album is life and death.
The life part is presented by the birth of her daughter. Some more aggressive
things are about the less nice things that have happened to her in the
past two years.
6. I WANT TO STAND ON THE SONG “RAPED BY THE DEVIL”.
DEVIL HAS A CERTAIN ATTRACTION TO THE METAL BANDS. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF
THE DEVIL? HOW DO YOU “SEE” IT? IS HE THE EVIL GUY OF THE BIBLE OR A MISTREATED
CHARACTER?
Well this song is about a fantasy dream Helena
had once. I guess the devil doesn’t have that much of a biblical meaning
here hehee. A title we thought it really rocks and was never heard before.
It is a strong title and has strong lyrics, one of my favorite. Anyways
a devil can be also a person you know and I guess that goes in many cases
for the people who disturb or chase you. I’m sure we all know a couple
of those.
7. THE COVER OF THE CD SHOWS HELENA AS A SAINT.
WHOSE IDEA WAS IT AND HOW IS IT CONNECTED WITH THE MUSIC AND THE LYRICS
OF THE ALBUM?
I made the cover and it was my idea. I was
thinking of this giving birth and being a mother as a sort of sacred thing.
Also I wanted to create something which would give a harmonious feeling
for the album and that would represent the music as well.
8. HELENA IS AN ATTRACTIVE WOMAN, EVEN A BLIND
MAN CAN SEE THAT. DO YOU THINK THAT THIS IS AN ADVANTAGE FOR THE BAND OR
A DISADVANTAGE AND WHY?
I don’ t think such things matter too much
in our genre and I believe that the quality of her voice is what is important.
We’ve faced sometimes actually opposite reactions, because she is a very
open and honest person in her behaviors and the way she represents herself.
Sometimes people don’ t take her seriously and only judge the outside,
which is quite unfair. But I guess that happens to a lot of female vocalists.
But because she is a very strong person people, they are even sometimes
a bit scared of her, which shows a total misjudgment. In real life she
is a very sweet and honest person.
9. THE PREVIOUS QUESTION INSPIRED A PHILOSOPHICAL
QUESTION IN ME. DO YOU BELIEVE BEAUTY IS A EULOGY OR A CURSE?
A bit of both I guess. We live unfortunately
in a very materialistic world and there will always be people who will
only see the outside, but never the person inside. We are also completely
surrounded by a certain beauty expectations and especially for women that
has to be very hard. Also in the music scene the visual side is important,
but I like to believe that music still counts by the quality and craftsmanship,
not by the visuals. With pop music and music videos that might be a totally
different issue.
10. BACK TO THE MUSIC NOW. HELENA AND YOU ALSO
WERE MEMBERS OF THE BAND “ANGEL” AND YOU HAVE SIGNED WITH BLACK LOTUS,
A GREEK BAND THAT CALLED IT QUITS. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT IT? WAS IT A MISTAKE
TO SIGN WITH THEM?
Not at all, I think Black Lotus did a very
good job with the debut album. But I think that the album also might have
gotten
response from a more mainstream audience if it was released on a mainstream
label. The quality was there I believe. On the other hand, metal fans know
Helena already so maybe this was the right channel for the first album,
I don’ t know. But it was a very nice experiment anyway and I’m sure we
can create something even more beautiful the next time. Several labels
have shown their interest already…
11. WILL ANGEL CONTINUE TO EXIST AND WHEN DO YOU
PLAN TO RELEASE THE SECOND PART OF “A WOMAN’S DIARY”? ALSO IS IT POSSIBLE
TO RE-RELEASE THE FIRST PART?
I don’ t know about a re-release, maybe...
I could imagine an extended version with our single with it. But of course
there will be more chapters to the first album. How we will do it and who
will participate or what kind of music it will be is very much an open
question right now. It might even turn very poppy in the end. There have
been nice ideas and Helena has a lot of ideas of her own too.
12. IF YOUR MUSIC WAS A PAINTING WHAT WOULD IT
SHOW AND WHY?
It would have strong and rich colors and it
would definitely be very atmospheric, but realistic. Maybe a bit Caravaggio’s
style of painting. It would probably show some almost religious
kind of scenery, preferably with a female statue on it =)
13. WILL YOU DO ANY LIVE SHOWS? WILL YOU COME
OVER GREECE FOR A LIVE SHOW?
Yes we are now doing first some summer festivals
in Finland and in Germany and in the autumn we start playing the clubcircuit
in the Benelux. We have also some offers for US and Mexico and people are
working on those. Playing in Greece would be really awesome, so I hope
some gig organizations get interested by reading this! It’s a very cool
country and I always have enjoyed my time there and Helena sure as well!
14. JAN THANKS FOR YOUR TIME AND GOOD LUCK WITH
YOUR NEW ALBUM! THE LAST LINES BELONG TO YOU…
No problems mate, thanks for giving us the
chance to say some words here. And thank you very much for the support!
Sas efharisto poli!
Nick “William_Kidd”
Parastatidis
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