1. After listening to the samples of your new songs, I simply couldn't notice the absence of guitars ;) Does that mean you don't like the guitar sound anymore, or can we still expect another guitar-oriented, metal-sounding album from you?
Hi Oleg! Well, if you say you did NOT notice the absence of guitars, that's a good sign, because it means you didn't miss them, haha. The sound of a distorted guitar isn't that thrilling for me anymore. There are so many other sounds to discover on this planet, and I especially like sounds that can be achieved without effects, electricity, etc. There are so many flutes, for example, and every flute sounds different even if they're built from the same type of wood. AND they can express completely different emotions. A Turkish ney flute, for instance, provokes different images in your head than a Japanese shakuhachi flute or a South American pan flute. Same with percussion and stringed instruments. It would be interesting to write an album with guitars again, but it would definitely include a lot of ethnic influences and wouldn't be a pure, normal metal album. However, no concrete plans yet.
2. Yana Veva composed all vocal lines and lyrics for "Nour". Did she introduce any musical ideas for the new album, or was all the music written by you?
She also influenced the music of several songs, especially "Anubis", the second song on the album and a favourite track of many people! But her voice itself was a big inspiration for me, so you could say that her voice wasn't just a voice but also delivered a lot of ideas, just through her style and melodies. I sometimes wrote the songs AFTER I got her vocals, and not always the other way around. In fact, that's the songwriting process I prefer most: first hearing vocals, which then inspire me to write a complete song. By the way, Yana's band Theodor Bastard plays "Anubis" live. Unfortunately, I haven't seen a video of it yet, hehe.
3. What "live", real exotic instruments did you use on "Nour"?
Well, the answer is that all instruments are real and none of them are real. They were originally played and recorded by musicians, but not by myself or musicians I know. There are excellent studio libraries available for songwriters, films, TV spots, etc., and when you buy them, you can use the recorded performances in your own projects. It's a great way even for hobby musicians to add interesting elements, for example ethnic ones. Unfortunately, that's just a small part of the work. The biggest challenge is arranging the songs, cutting those melodies so they fit well, adding keyboards, electronic elements, etc. All in all, it was the longest songwriting process I've ever had! For this album, the first step was to use original vocals, which was done by Yana. The next step for the next album might be to also use original instrument performances from friends around the world. But it's difficult because the performance and recording quality must be PERFECT, otherwise it doesn't sound convincing when combined with synthetic elements like keyboards, rhythm loops, etc. But I really admire musicians who have a big passion for all those instruments and play them themselves, for example my russian friends Senmuth and Lefthander. Also Rene of the German band Equilibrium has a nice variety of flutes and likes to play them. But when it comes to me, I have absolutely no time for learning all those instruments and then writing an album. Everything else - making the songs catchy, writing great melodies, etc. - takes too much time and energy and is enough of a challenge for me.
4. Let me ask you about the cover artwork. First, who did it? And what does that "pseudo-dragon" mean? And those two characters in the lower left corner - is that "nour" in Arabic? Who helped you with the Arabic script? 
The cover was done by my good friend Alex, who also designed the artwork for the first SHIVA IN EXILE album and was the webmaster of the Darkseed website for many years. I wanted this kind of tribal symbol/dragon because it's a simple symbol. I don't like complex cover artwork, hehe. Apart from that, it makes a great theme for tattoos. It's great when fans decide to use graphics from my albums for their tattoos - better than using a band name for that, because other graphics are more neutral and you don't curse as much if you one day stop liking the band but still have it as a tattoo on your body, haha. By the way, the dragon originally faced left, but then a label recommended I change it to face right, because spiritually speaking, looking right is more future-oriented, haha. Just in case anyone's wondering, because they may have seen the dragon looking left in some articles. Yes, on the left you can see "Nour" in Arabic letters. Hanin, my friend from Lebanon who wrote the Arabic poem for the song "Bullet", helped me with that.
5. Are you getting responses to SHIVA IN EXILE music from Arab countries? What do people say about your ethnic/oriental music experiments?
There isn't much response directly from Arab countries, but usually from Arabic people who've emigrated to America or other Western countries. Or from people who are interested in the culture or aesthetics, for example tribal dancers or belly dancers. However, this might change once the album is released in those territories (if it actually will be, who knows, haha).
6. What do you think about the idea of live performances with SHIVA IN EXILE?
The music would be perfect for summer events, but also for concert hall shows with a lot of dancing and fire. Of course I'm considering it, but I think doing it as a normal band wouldn't be possible because there are simply too many instruments featured on the album. You can't find that many musicians and put them on a stage. But something like a dance/fire show without a band or with just a few musicians would indeed rock! It's something I definitely keep in mind, and I'm sure that st. petersburg and moscow would be on the agenda!
7. Yana Veva lives in st. petersburg. Maybe that fact would give you a reason to visit russia?
Indeed, it would be a reason to go there one day. I also have other great friends there (heyho Priest!). People from st. petersburg made the video clip for my project SpiRitual - they did an amazing job! Of course I'd want to visit them as well! Check out the video on YouTube; the song is called "Pulse".
8. Let me remind you about the glorious past of Darkseed. Did you know that the Polish label Metal Mind reissued "Spellcraft" and "Give Me Light" as digipacks? Have you seen those editions? What do you think about them?
No, as usual I haven't seen those editions, but I'd really like to. The whole thing wasn't organized by us but by Nuclear Blast, who still have the rights to the Darkseed albums. If the Polish label released these editions for idealistic reasons, that's a good thing. But I don't know this label and I don't know what the editions look like, haha. For example, Mystic Empire/Mazzar released Betray My Secrets as a digipack in russia because they really love the album (a former ethno metal project I did in the late 90s). That's something I definitely support!
9. All the best from russia! Do you have anything to say to your russian fans?
Thank you very much for the interview, Oleg. I hope the russian audience will like "Nour" and will listen to it on a warm summer evening, leaving all everyday troubles behind and simply enjoying the music in nature or at any other ideal place!