You recently completed a small tour of Ukraine — presumably your first time venturing beyond your home city of Kyiv. Which cities did you visit, where were you received best, and where did you enjoy yourself the most?
Skull: We played Illichivsk, Ivano-Frankivsk and Vinnytsia. Every city was great in its own way, and most importantly the organisation everywhere was top-notch (Kyiv promoters could learn a thing or two!). The highlights: In Illichivsk — the sea!!! In Ivano-Frankivsk — the music scene: WitchHunter, Anbivalence, Dogma, Mysterium Magnum. Excellent sound, excellent crowd, Frankivsk girls! In Vinnytsia — the most wild crowd imaginable. Total madness. Excellent Moscow headliners Hieronimus Bosch! Vinnytsia girls! A feast after the show with Ukrainian metal veterans!
Vanya: Tours always bring new impressions, emotions and memories — and shows multiply all of that. If you travel with people like our musicians, you'll end up with sore cheeks from laughing. New experience, group bonding, useful new contacts — and often just pleasant ones. The only downside is the travel itself. Sometimes you're too worn out even to joke around. That's the real evil. But overall — everything's golden. I think there's a lot of road ahead of us together.
You usually come away from tours like this with new contacts among other bands. Did you meet any non-capital acts?
Skull: We met some and reconnected with others we'd only known online before. We made good friends in every city, and I think we'll be back for more shows. We'll also be inviting some of the bands we met to Kyiv for the gigs we periodically organise.
Vanya: Absolutely. There's no other way. Lots of contacts with people from all sorts of cities — and surprisingly, from Kyiv too. A lot of people write to us by email right after shows wanting to stay in touch. That's a huge positive.
I nearly forgot — before Illichivsk you actually played abroad, in Chișinău! Briefly: why did you decide to go there, was there an invitation? How do conditions for bands in Ukrainian cities compare to the Moldovan capital?
Skull: The show in Chișinău was organised by the band Offertorium, whom we'd known for quite a while. They invited us, and we went gladly — and our expectations were more than met. It was a great show that drew both Moldovan goths and metal fans. The only thing was that the journey was pretty exhausting. As for conditions for heavy music in Chișinău — they're considerably worse than in Kyiv. Right now there's only one decent club where metal events and goth nights are held, and even that one is under threat of closure. There are no labels working with heavy music at all. Despite all that, great bands like Chordeva and Offertorium have emerged there.
Vanya: Our Chișinău schedule, unfortunately, was extremely tight and didn't allow the band to fully savour the pleasures of tour life — the day after the Moldova show we were already in Illichivsk. But overall, everything we managed to take in settled well in the mind and brings back pleasant feelings. Biggest thanks to the organisers and musicians who spent all their time with us during the "neighbourly visit," and of course to the Chișinău crowd. A couple of Moldovan words stuck in my head — and the best of them I'd like to pass on to the Moldovan guys we had the pleasure of meeting.
You've decided to put your Kyiv shows on hold for a while — take a break until autumn. What's behind that?
Skull: Primarily the tours to other cities and the preparation of the debut album. We're also experimenting with instrument tunings and working on a few covers for the new set. Let the audience miss GRIMFAITH a little. Our next show will be on 27 August at the birthday of WitchHunter vocalist Olizhka.
Vanya: The home crowd naturally gets the most of us. It's on your home crowd — in our case Kyiv — that a band grows, gains experience and runs in its setlist. So it makes sense that they always want something new. And creating something new takes time.
Are any changes coming to the music itself — will you be playing your fans the "classic" GRIMFAITH sound after the "summer break," or is it too early to say?
Skull: Changes will come, of course. There'll be new songs and the best of the old ones. And we haven't put down our instruments — no summer downtime here, we rehearse properly.
You've shared stages with many Kyiv acts. How do you rate your show alongside Malinconia, Temporary Suffering and Audi Sile?
Skull: It was, as always, great to play alongside our friends Malinconia, and interesting to hear Temporary Suffering and Audi Sile. The venue wasn't the best and getting there was a pain, but that's a minor thing — what matters is that the audience leaves happy. This time the crowd was a little different — more goths, so people danced more instead of "going off" the way they usually do at metal-oriented events.
How often do you find yourself performing despite the conditions — gear problems, equipment issues — and still giving 100%?
Skull: Very often. Equipment at most Ukrainian underground shows leaves a lot to be desired, and even a competent sound engineer can't always get everything dialled in properly. The more experienced the band, the better it can adapt to any conditions — but it would be nice if promoters also cared about sound quality at their own events. When the musician themselves is loving every moment of the performance, it gives the audience twice the energy!
At your last show you debuted a new song. Tell us a bit about it.
Skull: This song is a little different in style from our other material — you could easily call it gothic rock. It's called "The Drunk Messiah." I wrote the lyrics after reading José Saramago's "The Gospel According to Jesus Christ" — a hugely controversial book for which the author won the Nobel Prize. I strongly recommend it to everyone. The lyrics are up on our website at www.grimfaith.kiev.ua
Are you working on new material right now?
Skull: Of course — creating is every musician's favourite thing! We have two songs in the pipeline. One is closer to gothic doom — written by our keyboardist and lead guitarist, lyrics still being worked out. The second is something I wrote in a more "pop" direction — it'll be called "Guеttiere" (there I was influenced by "The Amphibian Man"). I believe songs should be accessible to any listener and hook you on the first listen, so the word "pop" is no insult to me whatsoever.
Are you planning to record your debut album soon?
Skull: In winter we recorded a six-song promo disc called "Sex in Heaven" and sent it out to many labels, promoters and webzines — both in the CIS and abroad. A few offers for releasing a debut album came in and we're thinking them over now. Most likely we'll start recording the debut in summer, August, with release early in 2006. We've got enough material for an album and a half, so we need to think carefully about which direction the debut will lean and which songs will make the cut.
Some of your compositions have already become hits in your circle of fans. What kind of reception are you hoping the album will get in terms of popularity?
Skull: Very glad to hear they're hits :). What can you want from a debut album? You can want plenty — but for it all to come together, you need to win one chance in a thousand. The most important thing for us is that the disc reaches as many of our listeners and potential listeners as possible — that it doesn't disappoint those who already know us, and pleases — or maybe sends into a "deppresnyak" — those who don't.
Vanya: The plans are nothing if not ambitious. We don't promise and don't expect 100% European sound from the first album, but we'll squeeze everything we can out of our material. The snag, as always, is money. Labels won't fund recordings for bands without a high-quality recorded demo. And you need money to make that high-quality recording in the first place.
The material is good — and it's natural to want it to reach the people it deserves. I'd like to make predictions, but I won't.
Have you ever received any offers to record abroad?
Skull: Our friends the band Semargl recorded in Poland — at the studio where Vader, Behemoth and many others have worked — and strongly recommended we do the same. We won't spare effort or money on the debut, so we'll be considering both CIS and foreign recording options.
How do you feel about cover versions? And would you like someone to one day cover one of your own songs?
Skull: A couple of years ago we played a cover of Moonspell's "Alma Mater" and we're preparing another surprise to premiere on 27 August at the Kyiv Metal Festival at DC Dnieper. Maybe in twenty years someone will cover one of ours — that would be absolutely fantastic!
Vanya: Covers are part of the reward for a musician's work. Playing a cover is paying tribute to the original performer. After all, covers get done only for the best songs.
Do you feel an urge to experiment — to explore less-charted musical territory?
Skull: We're constantly changing and wanting something new — which is normal for any band. I believe that if a band has definitively settled on its style, the band is already dead. Our style oscillates between doom, gothic metal and gothic rock.
The band is still young — known to a wider audience mainly through live shows — but how many fans do you have?
Skull: In Kyiv and certain other Ukrainian cities there are already quite a few listeners — we'd love people in other countries to discover us too. Though "many" or "few" is relative. I hope that once the album is out, even more people will start coming to our shows — and more importantly will genuinely enjoy our music.
How do other Kyiv bands feel about what you do? Who would you call friends — or do you have enemies?
Skull: We have a huge number of friends! We cross paths most often with Malinconia, Witch Hunter, Kharon, Te Deum and Inferno. How they feel about our music — better ask them (they definitely won't say anything bad :). Lately a couple of ill-wishers have appeared, but we won't dwell on them.
Vanya: I hope nobody holds a grudge against us. We communicate with a great many people — you could call at least 50% of Kyiv bands friends. The rest are just very good acquaintances. I hope that's how it is.
GRIMFAITH: Good luck to everyone! Listen to good music! No to drugs, yes to perversion :! Cheers!