First of all – congratulations on the new release “Citadel”!

                    I must say, that it's positively amusing, how warm was accepted your first and now already second album! How do you think, what played it's role here? The music itself (which is without any doubts great and seems to be an essence of smth. fresh and truly unique in metal), luck to appear in a right place and at the right time, promotion, etc?

                    

                    Xenoyr: Thank you very much. The reception has been extremely overwhelming, when 'Portal of I' was released, that was a cathartic experience after all the years of labour trying to get it out, but 'Citadel' on the other hand was something else…we felt it was quite different to the first album so we weren't entirely sure how it would be received, but again the response has been positive to the degree that we're still struggling to understand. We know that the music is different but not necessarily completely accessible, but that "difference' perhaps has made it more intriguing, different enough that people are willing to spend the time to absorb what we've created.

                    

                    Sure, I guess luck has played a part, but I think there are a number of other factors; firstly we're signed to Season of Mist, who we owe a lot of credit to; their knowledge, integrity, and professionalism has been a step forward for us as they have a long reach within the metal scene. Also, I believe we as a band work very hard to not rely completely on the label, we're always actively trying to promote ourselves as if we were an unsigned band, we have the outlook that nothing should change in terms of the work we do ourselves…the label is just an added (monolithic) bonus.

                    

                    

                    Tell us more about the process of composing of material in your band. Listening to your musical works in parts, one may consider that there are two different bands ...still, you find the key how to build the bridge from one cliffhanger-moment of the melody to another. It must be pretty much tricky, to decide when and where metal meets jazz elements and so on? Do you debate often, when composing?

                    

                    Xenoyr: The writing process is overall generally quite easy, we'll start with a riff or two at rehearsal, and then run through it and see what we come up with….we like things to flow, and we'll have a consensus of what direction to take, a lot of the time its about 'feel'. We come from really different music backgrounds but we're all very open-minded people so somehow most of the time we can get by without arguing, ha, but when it comes down to it, we all know that we have a common goal and want to make it work. To make a band work, every single person needs to understand what 'compromise' really means…I guess we're lucky to have 6 people that can work together, and appreciate what each member brings to the band.

                    

                    What was especially difficult/delicate in working over the “Citadel”?

                    

                    Xenoyr: It was probably a little more difficult to create 'Citadel', mainly because we had less time to create it than 'Portal of I', but I think once we got over that fact, it made us more focused on what we wanted to achieve, which ultimately made us more efficient. We already had a lot of ideas floating around, and a lot of pent up inspiration so the core writing was very quick…what we stewed over was the finer details, always second-guessing ourselves but also pushing ourselves to make the best album we could.

                    

                    I would have imagined, that mixing such an essence of the musical genres as in your band, you should have the good musical education. What's about that? Do you guys have musical education and what's your opinion on the idea of having it in a sense of applying the gained skills in the metal musical genre?

                    

                    Xenoyr: I agree that having a good musical education can be important but I also think that having life experience and an open-mind can be more so important, because look at us…I think Tim (violinist) is the only one in the band with any formal training/music education, the rest of us are mainly self taught. It's probably a good thing to have a basic understanding of music theory etc but that teaches you only to an extent, where being able to think outside the box is where the real learning is, where you discover yourself and develop your own style of playing.

                    

                    Unfortunately we can not skip some trivial questions, so we have to start at some point, hehe. Why did you consider to name your new release “Citadel”? And going from this question right away to the next one:

                    

                    Xenoyr: The name 'Citadel' came about when I was trying to describe the human existence as a whole. We wanted something that portrayed the sense of strength but also something that gave the idea for people to question what was beyond the human exterior. Like a citadel/stronghold we all have flesh walls which hide and protect who we really are, this is an exploration of that.

                    

                    ...what are all those symbols on your cover artwork? For sure, I can see a citadel itself, but there are also tentacles, 6-handed lady with the skeleton's head and horns, another 2 skulls, 2 horses, a rose, wings? All together this art looks very captivating, but I guess it contains a deeper meaning than just a beauty of the chosen for the visual representation elements? Also, who is the author of the cover?

                    

                    Xenoyr: Thank you, glad you like the art…I actually created it under the design name, Svartwerk. Everything within the cover represents some part of the album, from lyrics to titles etc; overall it represents elements of humankind, things that make us who we are. I use a lot of symbolic references in most art I create, from religion to psychology, to life and death, different cultures, and old artists and authors who influence me and so on…ultimately to invoke various interpretations and reflection. I like people to think for themselves. Also, it's probably a little hard to see but I should add that if you blow the artwork up in size, the woman has 8 hands, this was very specific…I'll leave that up to people to interpret why.

                    

                    I have read that you made a fund raising campaign. And all of that only to be able to make a massive tour through Europe, UK, North America, Australia, India, Japan, China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, South East Asia & more … Campaign actually appeared to be successful, and I guess, soon I might get a chance to see you somewhere here in Germany, hehe. This is truly awesome! I think, this campaign is actually a great example, how fund raising may/should work. On the opposite, there are other examples, e.g. some band wants fans to somewhat sponsor their new luxury recording studio, because it seems (to them), that their label (which is actually pretty much big and has a serious attitude) does not give them a “good enough” studio for recording their new cd... hehe... seems that the ideal studio must contain at least a sauna (band provided a plan of the studio of the dream)... Many fans though support them, but most of the professional touring musicians rather have another opinion on that. What would be your opinion and opinions of your colleagues? Is band allowed to make a fund raising campaign for any purpose, or should it be smth. really useful alike a world tour (I seriously see the world tour more important than a luxury studio, hehe).

                    

                    Xenoyr: Thank you, we put a lot of work into the crowd funding campaign. A band can ultimately crowd fund for whatever they want, because at the end of the day if the fans don't see validity in the campaign then they won't contribute so the band needs to think wisely about what their goal is. I do however think that as a musician, it would be good to focus the funding on going towards reaching more fans whether by new music or touring. I don't think "luxuries" should be a part of where the money goes, that in a sense is disrespectful and is a contradiction to being a musician. It should all be about the music.

                    

                    Once we have mentioned touring... you probably have heard abut the troubles, foreign musicians face during their touring in Russia. Some unpleasant stories may tell Behemoth, CoF, Cannibal Corpse, Marilyn Manson... now Laibach got a precaution message about not making any russian shows (from the “local authorities”)... Some bands were accused to be satanic, and the religious extremists made everything possible to actually cancel the shows: they were complaining to the local government, quoting certain pieces of texts of the bands, they were trying to organize sabotages getting support from the local priests etc, they were even trying to influence police, as well as to get the support from the local authorities (some “guys” just were not letting visitors to enter the club and access the shows)... Do you think, that metal music has to be censored? Even if we speak about the bands, who use satanic image... and would you risk to go on tour to Russia in these not really calm times?

                    

                    Xenoyr: We've certainly heard about the problems playing in Russia. I don't think metal should be censored, as I believe we all should have the right to play or listen to what we want…music is expression, and clearly bands are playing there because they have fans who can relate or appreciate what the band does. Not letting bands play there is oppression of the fans, the countries own people. Whether its Satanic or not, it doesn't matter, instead of focusing on art, these oppressing people need to look at the bigger picture, world problems like war, famine etc…close-minded stupidity makes me angry, its really sad that these people have far too much time on their hands to try and stop bands playing there. Their world's must be very, very small.

                    

                    Speaking about the upcoming future... Do you plan to film an official video for any of the songs from the actual release?

                    

                    Xenoyr: We're currently working on an official live video clip for "Curator" (Movement 3 of 'Painters of the Tempest'), but personally I'm developing ideas for a proper video clip at the moment (perhaps 2), but it's going to be quite involved and very different…the main problem as with any band, is financing it. The crowd funding is essentially for the overseas touring so we need to honour that and work out video financing separate to that. Give it time, we shall see.

                    

                    Ne Obliviscaris - Lest We Forget. What must not forget a truthful fan of the metal music?;)

                    

                    Xenoyr: It represents a collective understanding of remembering something important, whether from learning from your past to create a better future for yourself or celebrating the life of a lost loved one. We wanted each person to be able to interpret it in their own way, to connect as an individual. In terms of metal fans, I believe we're mainly community made up of free thinking individuals, who all find comfort and connectedness in heavy music…perhaps for them it's not forgetting that they have brothers and sisters out there who feel the same way, in this judgemental world.

                    

                    Australia is quite far and we do not get much of the musical updates from there unfortunately. Tell, how are the things with the local metal/heavy music stage?

                    

                    Xenoyr: That's one of the drawbacks of being from Australia, we don't don't get a great deal of exposure internationally, we're quite cut off from the major heavy markets. The scene is very strong though, but we don't have the population to make it viable to tour here all the time, so getting overseas is considered quite a privilege. It's only in the last few of years Australia is starting to make more of an impression internationally with metal and rock bands like Be'lakor, Psycroptic, Karnivool, Voyager, King Parrot etc.

                    

                    Ok, thank you for your time! We wish you lots of luck with your new release and personally, I hope to see Ne Obliviscaris somewhere in Germany in the nearest future. In the end of our interview please say few words to your russian-speaking fans :)

                    

                    Xenoyr: Thank you very much for the opportunity and great questions…If you're going to Summer Breeze, we'll be there so come and say hello. To our Russian fans, we really appreciate the support you've given us so far…please visit our Facebook page so we know you exist, we'll hopefully see you on tour in 2015.

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