Click here for the interview in italian at Raw & Wild
The band's idea was born in 2000, but the band was founded in 2006. Why have you waited five years to bring to life this idea? Can you tell me more about the band's history?
Elias: It was Armi’s idea originally, and a few years later she posted a want ad where she looked for a band that would make black metal with her as singer. Apparently though, nobody was idiotic enough to make such music, and so she wound up in her former band Exsecratus (Bare Eternity at that point). When she showed up for her first rehearsal, I had my first session as guitarist with that band as well, so that's how we met. So we stuck around for two years before musical and personal reasons drove us away to form our own band, and so In Silentio Noctis was born. It took some time too to adjust the songwriting muscles to reflect the concept and the whole idea, but eventually we found our style pretty nicely. It's been a long time since then, and probably we would have had things happen more quickly if everything that could possibly go wrong hadn't, but since it has we've done our best to stick it out and hopefully things will turn upwards now. Also our chronic lack of a drummer has been quite a bane for us, but we're constantly looking for options and I'm certain someone will turn up in the near future.
Behind this album, “Through fragments of christianity”, there was a lot of hard work! Can yo tell me more?
Elias: There sure was! You could say that the process began right after we recorded our demo in 2007, if you count in the songwriting and the countless revisions we've done for most of the tracks. The choirs for the album were already recorded in 2008, which in itself was quite a hassle with transcribing Armi's arrangements and searching for the right choir to perform them. The technical side of things was quite a lot easier than the artistic side. We wanted to get the production phase to be as compact as possible to keep the sound consistent, and so we booked the studios for recording, mixing and mastering right after we made our budgeting in early 2009. We had recorded our demo in D-Studio, so it was a natural choice to do the recording work there. For the mixing and mastering we wanted to go a step further, and chose to bug Sonic Pump master Nino Laurenne right after his paternal leave. The mixing was rather quick and intense (it was done in only 6 days), and the next monday we were already mastering with Minerva Pappi at Finnvox. I fear we almost worked her to death, but I think it was well worth it with the awesome job she did. We had the album artwork and design done by Matti Viisainen who had conjured up an awesome website for us, except for the cover artwork which I absolutely wanted to do myself. It took me ages, and my bandmates almost killed me for taking so long but fortunately I was able to do good enough for them.
What are your principal musical influences?
Armi: I listen to black metal most of the time, so the influence of other music in my vocal melodies is more of an emotional nature. Actually, I don't know how I would react to a black metal band with only female vocals if it was done by another band. In our case, I know the 'story' behind the idea and what's going on in our minds, but if it came from someone else I would be quite sceptical, since I am quite attracted to the growling stuff. Perhaps the most influence on my work could be credited to classical music, at least subliminally. I just try to do what feels right.
Elias: I listen to a lot of black and death metal and try to do what they don't. I think I am also quite a lot influenced by film score works as well as my Cello playing background, which I actively pursued for seven years before I turned to the guitar.
Do you have a great passion for the opera music?
Armi: Classical singers gave me the incentive to take up singing lessons, and occasionally I do enjoy listening to some great arias. Sometimes I have to sing so much Mozart at my vocal lessons, that I cannot bear listening to that kind of music since it is so far from what we do, in an emotional sense. On the classical side of things, I don't really have strong preferences but Monica Groop and Kathleen Battle are singers that stand out for me. I enjoyed a memorable performance of Verdi's "Il Trovatore" were I expected to get a lot from the female main characters, but they actually got blown away by their male counterparts! That was the only time when I have really enjoyed male opera singers, normally I do not care for them too much.
Elias: There are many great pieces of opera music that I really enjoy, but I tend to get bored when exposed to the whole length of an opera. There is so much tension and suspense involved, I like to pick out the best parts, so to say,
Where is born the idea of combining symphonic black metal with epic atmospheres and opera music?
Elias: In essence, it's just the result of everything we like in music. It has come from so many pieces, that we haven't at any time made a conscious decision that we want to do black metal with classical female vocals. It just kind of evolved into what it is meant to be, so to speak.
What was the moment in which the italian label My Kingdom Music have noticed you?
Elias: My Kingdom Music voiced its interest already when we submitted our demo in 2008, and so we thought that they could be interested in the album as well, when we finally came around to produce it. Well, they were, here we are and we sure don't regret it. We hope this co-operation will bear fruits for the both of us!
Armi: Thanks to everyone who has supported us by buying the album, and thank you for the interview!
Click here for the interview in italian at Raw & Wild
The band's idea was born in 2000, but the band was founded in 2006. Why have you waited five years to bring to life this idea? Can you tell me more about the band's history?
Elias: It was Armi’s idea originally, and a few years later she posted a want ad where she looked for a band that would make black metal with her as singer. Apparently though, nobody was idiotic enough to make such music, and so she wound up in her former band Exsecratus (Bare Eternity at that point). When she showed up for her first rehearsal, I had my first session as guitarist with that band as well, so that's how we met. So we stuck around for two years before musical and personal reasons drove us away to form our own band, and so In Silentio Noctis was born. It took some time too to adjust the songwriting muscles to reflect the concept and the whole idea, but eventually we found our style pretty nicely. It's been a long time since then, and probably we would have had things happen more quickly if everything that could possibly go wrong hadn't, but since it has we've done our best to stick it out and hopefully things will turn upwards now. Also our chronic lack of a drummer has been quite a bane for us, but we're constantly looking for options and I'm certain someone will turn up in the near future.
Behind this album, “Through fragments of christianity”, there was a lot of hard work! Can yo tell me more?
Elias: There sure was! You could say that the process began right after we recorded our demo in 2007, if you count in the songwriting and the countless revisions we've done for most of the tracks. The choirs for the album were already recorded in 2008, which in itself was quite a hassle with transcribing Armi's arrangements and searching for the right choir to perform them. The technical side of things was quite a lot easier than the artistic side. We wanted to get the production phase to be as compact as possible to keep the sound consistent, and so we booked the studios for recording, mixing and mastering right after we made our budgeting in early 2009. We had recorded our demo in D-Studio, so it was a natural choice to do the recording work there. For the mixing and mastering we wanted to go a step further, and chose to bug Sonic Pump master Nino Laurenne right after his paternal leave. The mixing was rather quick and intense (it was done in only 6 days), and the next monday we were already mastering with Minerva Pappi at Finnvox. I fear we almost worked her to death, but I think it was well worth it with the awesome job she did. We had the album artwork and design done by Matti Viisainen who had conjured up an awesome website for us, except for the cover artwork which I absolutely wanted to do myself. It took me ages, and my bandmates almost killed me for taking so l
ong but fortunately I was able to do good enough for them.
What are your principal musical influences?
Armi: I listen to black metal most of the time, so the influence of other music in my vocal melodies is more of an emotional nature. Actually, I don't know how I would react to a black metal band with only female vocals if it was done by another band. In our case, I know the 'story' behind the idea and what's going on in our minds, but if it came from someone else I would be quite sceptical, since I am quite attracted to the growling stuff. Perhaps the most influence on my work could be credited to classical music, at least subliminally. I just try to do what feels right.
Elias: I listen to a lot of black and death metal and try to do what they don't. I think I am also quite a lot influenced by film score works as well as my Cello playing background, which I actively pursued for seven years before I turned to the guitar.
Do you have a great passion for the opera music?
Armi: Classical singers gave me the incentive to take up singing lessons, and occasionally I do enjoy listening to some great arias. Sometimes I have to sing so much Mozart at my vocal lessons, that I cannot bear listening to that kind of music since it is so far from what we do, in an emotional sense. On the classical side of things, I don't really have strong preferences but Monica Groop and Kathleen Battle are singers that stand out for me. I enjoyed a memorable performance of Verdi's "Il Trovatore" were I expected to get a lot from the female main characters, but they actually got blown away by their male counterparts! That was the only time when I have really enjoyed male opera singers, normally I do not care for them too much.
Elias: There are many great pieces of opera music that I really enjoy, but I tend to get bored when exposed to the whole length of an opera. There is so much tension and suspense involved, I like to pick out the best parts, so to say,
Where is born the idea of combining symphonic black metal with epic atmospheres and opera music?
Elias: In essence, it's just the result of everything we like in music. It has come from so many pieces, that we haven't at any time made a conscious decision that we want to do black metal with classical female vocals. It just kind of evolved into what it is meant to be, so to speak.
What was the moment in which the italian label My Kingdom Music have noticed you?
Elias: My Kingdom Music voiced its interest already when we submitted our demo in 2008, and so we thought that they could be interested in the album as well, when we finally came around to produce it. Well, they were, here we are and we sure don't regret it. We hope this co-operation will bear fruits for the both of us!
Armi: Thanks to everyone who has supported us by buying the album, and thank you for the interview!