– Hello, thanks for taking the time. What are your currently up to?

You are welcome ! Right now i’m focused on releasing the 2nd album of my Symphonic epic band : BLACK KNIGHT SYMFONIA and i’m also looking forward to mix with engineer the forthcoming Folkodia metal album.

– You’re playing both in FOLKEARTH and FOLKODIA. Could you please introduce both bands?

Hi, Folkearth was created in 2003 and has released his 9th album called “Sons of the North” it is my 3rd album with them.

It is an international Viking Folk metal band . The line up is composed of 12 members.

Folkodia is another big international band created in 2007 by some members of Folkearth and has released four albums. Both bands are signed on Stygian Crypt production label and both have Folk arrangements recorded on Real Folk instruments. Both bands couldn’t exists without the hard and dedicated work of band mate and manager Metfolvik !

 

– Most of you are hailing from different countries and both bands have a lot of members in their line-up; so, how do you tend to work? Does this make things difficult or isn’t it thanks to the Internet and stuff?

The two main reasons why such a big international band with so many members is able to release albums is first of all the big love of music that all members involved in the bands have for metal and folk music and their wish to melt influences from all around the world and secondly the internet that helps us to share music files from around the world and to share our ideas during each step of the recording.

 

– That’s why I would also like to know how the songwriting process tends to be in both bands…

In each band we have two or three main composers that creates the rhythm structures all guitars and bass and then those composers share their vision with drummers and folk musicians so they can both melt their ideas and this way we can keep as much as possible a real musical entity feeling.

 

– And what are the commitments for each band member? As you, for example, are palying several instruments singing as well as being the main responsible for the songwritng and lyrics.

All members as I mentioned before are passionated and dedicated musicians that have to be ready to give their best when a recording schedule is set by the band manager so we can achieve recording process in time. I personally have a lot of responsibilities through all the recording process because as you mentioned I first have to decide the musical direction/moods/ of my songs having in mind that they will be complemented by folk arrangements, and then I have to record pretty much all the rhythm structures and record all vocals (harsh and clean chorus parts). Than I talk with other folk players to see what instrument could play a particular part in the song and I also work with drummers and finally in the end of recording process, I work on the mix with sound engineer.

– Talking about FOLKEARTH in particular, your latest «Sons of the North» was released past April; how was the feedback it got?

Feedback for “Sons of the North” are pretty good ! Listeners have first noticed that sound quality has increased a lot and that now we finally have a sound quality that is close to others big Viking Folk Metal bands. They also tend to say that this is our most powerful album so far and that it is probably as good as the album that fans seemed to like the most “By the sword of my father”.

Sure we still have as for every albums some “ jealous haters” that don’t even really care about our music and that seems not to even listen to our albums.. and that keeps saying that we are releasing too much albums without really caring of the music itself and caring of the improvements we put on every new albums…. But that’s the way it goes we are not too much bothered by them as long as we are conscious that our band has lots of fans around the world and that we are improving and have our own musical personality.

There is one thing that should be mentioned, the reason why we are able to release more albums than most of the bands, is that we don’t play any gigs and we have more than one composer.

 

– I think the album name reflects quite good what the band is all about but, how could you say it fits with the lyrical content in this record?

Indeed , Sons of the north album is a tribute to Viking mythology , and our music try to reflects the harshness and courage of the Viking warriors and gods.

– So, what are the main ideas behind the lyrics in «Sons of the North»?

Most of the songs like I said are about Vikings and Viking mythology. Most of the lyrics are written by Marios Koutsoukos and he does a really great job writing complex and interesting stories and lyrics , I also write some lyrics too.

 

– Now going to the music itself; how could you describe that album in sound terms?

This is by far our most powerful album with still lots of folk melodies and diferent folk instruments and most importantly this album has the best musicianship and line up we ever had. I really give a lot of credit to my band mates !

 

– FOLKODIA did also release a new album, «Forgotten Lore»; how was the response it got?

The response for this album was really good and we saw that most of the fans that liked the metal folk albums could also like the acoustic folk music too. This album has no metal structure or traditional metal instruments , but it is still really appealing to our listeners and to newcomers that aren’t into metal.

 

– «Forgotten Lore» was an acoustic album, something that tends to be risky regarding the reaction toward it. How did you came up with the idea of creating a fully acoustic record?

We don’t think that releasing an acoustic album is risky because there are plenty of open minded listeners in our fan base and our goal with this acoustic album is to highlight the folk instruments and to reach new listeners too.

The folk side of Folkearth and Folkodia are really as much important as the metal side so releasing once in a while an acoustic album isn’t surprising for us.

I’m pretty much sure that we will keep recording acoustic folk albums melting transpositions of some of our best folk metal songs with entirely new acoustic songs, but of course our main interest is still to record Folk metal albums.

 

– Both bands share certain similarities; are the songwriting process different between each other?

Yes songwritting is different and will be even more obvious when you’ll listen and compare our forthcoming Folkodia album to Folkearth “sons of the north” album.

Folkearth is based on Viking Folk metal structures with the addition of folk instruments so the guitars riffs are more “catchy and folk” a good mix of aggressive parts and melodic ones. Folkodia allows me to compose more epic riffs and complex lead guitars and to experiment also more adding some neoclassical structures here and there.

 

– As I said, both bands have a similar style; what does one band provide you the other can’t? I mean, how does FOLKEARTH compliment FOLKODIA and vice versa?

Like I said Folkearth is more aggressive and Viking metal like and Folkodia allows me to compose with more variety and epic melodic leads and riffs and also more clean vocals.

– And finally, what are your near-future plans in musical terms?

Right now I’m finishing the mixing and mastering of my second album with my Epic Symphonic band called : BLACK KNIGHT SYMFONIA and we will soon make the mastering of new Folkodia album that we recorded fall 2010 and finished early this year, and in late 2011 I’ll focus on composing some more songs for Folkearth and Folkodia.

 

– That’s all, thanks once more for your time. If you want to add any final words; is your time.

Greetings and thanks to all listeners and fans that support Folkearth and Folkodia !

Michaël (Saga)

Sergio Fernández

sergio@queensofsteel.com

 

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