Interviews: Interview with ASPERA
Posted on Thursday, January 07 @ 08:46:19 EST
Topic: Interviews
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ASPERA:
Making Waves
by Tommy “Hashman” Hash
Symphonic metal, neo-classical metal, fusion metal, progressive extreme metal, avant-garde metal, etc..., etc... - it all falls under the root of progressive metal. Yet as it has been over two decades since the release of both Operation: Mindcrime and Awaken the Guardian, with the same anniversary headed the way of Images and Words, many bands have expanded upon the genre to push the envelope of what a they can do musically within the technical scheme of things - it's often give or take whether it works or not, seeing how many albums over the past several years put emphasis on the 'playing' and not the melody, where the actual 'song' itself becomes second nature to solos, improvisations, key changes, odd time signatures and that sort of thing - to put it bluntly, even with all of the sophisticated and aggressive music going on, it can be tedious to listen to.
However there are bands that still keep the hierarchy of the lost art of progressive metal, the melody, in full tow - Vox Tempus, Suncaged, Twinspirits, Sphere of Souls, Circus Maximus, Stride, Dominici, Shadow Gallery, the list goes on.... Now add Norway's Aspera to that list. A band of five guys only twenty years old each, they play like seasoned veterans, bringing all the right elements to the table - so not only do they purvey the heaviness and the skillful musicianship mantra, they also execute a mass of hook laden riffs and arena ready choruses that heighteners the catchiness factor for all things melodic. Newly signed to Inside Out Music, the band also has a new change - their name. They didn't just come out of nowhere, as they played under the Illusion moniker for a handful of EP releases that helped them hone their skills leading up to the release of Ripples - which proves that there is nothing wrong with adding a little AOR or melodic rock into any musical mindset. Four members of the band, drummer Joachim Strøm Ekelund, vocalist Atle Pettersen, guitarist Robin Ognedal, & keyboardist Nickolas "Nicko" Pettersen, speak about the all what beholds upon Aspera
"During the recording of Ripples," begins Joachim Ekelund, about the transition from Illusion to Aspera, "we felt that the music and the band in general had matured to the point that it was time for a change, and so we decided it was time to change our name as well. We feel that Aspera is a more describing name for the band and our music, while Illusion could be just about anything, like a children’s local drawing club or whatever. The music however is similar to the style we always have played, but of course we evolved over the time."
The drummer also empathizes how the band wanted to balance out the big melodic mantra with their playing ability with more attention paid to melodies than the technical parts, yet keeping the 'prog' element intact, "We've always been determined to have catchy and listenable music, not only for musicians, prog- fans, metal heads or whatever, but also for a wider audience," elaborates Ekelund, "Too many progressive metal bands have the tendency to get boring, as they have forgotten about the melody. The focus seems to have moved over to virtuous and technical music. Of course, it's cool to have that aspect too, but our ideology is that it should flow with the song, and not be constructed just for an instrumentalist to show off his skills. Musician-clinics are for that stuff, but not whole songs."
And the lyrics of the album - they do pertain to the same depth riddled manner of many progressive metal bands, yet they are inspired by more down-to-earth events, where the band takes the ideas and expand upon the creativity when putting pen-to-paper, the explanation about the lyrical content comes from the vocalist, as he now joins in, "The inspiration behind the lyrics is often something, we have seen or witnessed, not so much personal experiences," says Atle Pettersen, "We pick themes for the lyrics that we think can touch people in some kind of way. We like to write about things that people can relate to, like the world we’re living in either on a personal level or a global level"
Over the years, not only has the band's musical chops shown growth becoming more mature musicians, the process of producing & recording records have has been a learning experience, release after release, "It has been a very educational process! We became more professional and learned a lot about how the business works," states Pettersen, "The most amazing thing was to watch our creation grow as we were recording and making our sound! But of course we’ve also had our downs during the recording! We had a lot of technical problems and I believe we recorded the guitars three or four times and the bass twice. And it cost us a lot of time and at one point we were very low on inspiration. But we managed to rise from the fall as we say in the song remorse, and we have learned from our mistakes, and I think it will be much easier next time."
Ripples has a great sonic sound, devoid of any muddled elements, as the production of the record itself reigns clear - the final phases of the audio shaping were also taken into big consideration by putting engineer Jens Bogren (Symphony X, Opeth) behind the board to mix and master it, guitarist Robin Ognedal briefly joins us to talk about how this connection came about, "Actually, we originally decided to have Tommy Hansen (JORN, Helloween) mixing our CD, until we sat down listening to Ghost Reveries by Opeth. I truly loved the production of that CD and wanted to hear more of this guy’s mixes. When I sent Jens the email for a quote, we didn’t really think we were going to go for it, but just out of curiosity we wanted to know how much he would charge. It was a whole different price than the Hansen mix, but we decided that we did believe enough in our record to give it the best possible shot. So we got the money together and booked the session. And we haven’t regretted it one second!"
Having dealt a blow with music industry issues involving SPV's financial troubles most likely caused by the global economy in turmoil & illegal downloading, progressive rock giant Inside Out Music found a new distributing partner with Century Media Records, and Aspera is the labels latest signing, proving that the record company is moving on, the final member of the band to step in is keyboardist Nickolas "Nicko" Pettersen, who begins by talking about how this deal came about, "We own a lot of this success to our manager Manuela Froehlich. She has done a great job since we started to work with her in March, relentlessly pitching promos of the band to labels and growing our image. I would say it's a combination of hard work and keeping the faith! We had a couple of offers from smaller labels, but we had such great belief in the album that we wanted to check all the opportunities before signing anything. We actually got turned down by InsideOut Music at first, because they didn't sign bands at the time they got our promo. But one A&R guy really liked the album, so he approached us again end of September to give us this opportunity for January. We were actually really close to go with another deal, so it was just the right moment. Inside Out Music is a label that fits the bands goals and ambitions perfectly! And we are very satisfied and feel very lucky to have such a great label partner now by our side."
WIth the guys being in the position that they are in now, there is now doubt that we will be hearing more music from them in the future, but nothing is really in stone at this time for a follow up - yet the band's continuous work ethic will eventually yeild results, "Until now we haven't given (any follow up) much thought," hints Pettersen, "because our main focus was on finding a label and do a proper release. But as musicians we are constantly “writing something” anyway, so we have started indeed with some new material now, but it’s way too early to elaborate on this. Maybe we will have an up-date in a few months time."
No tours are planned at the moment, but with the realase of Ripples in late January, it won't be any suprise if the demand will be see this band touring beyond the festiaval circuit, as they hope to go out and hit the road in 2010, "We really want to go on a tour soon after the release! It’s very important for us at this moment to get out on the road so that people can hear our music," Pettersen, "So now our focus is to do a proper CD launch end of January / beginning of February in the Nordic region for a start and then we are constantly pitching for local and European support slots. The market is tough, and touring is expensive, but we are optimistic we will have the opportunity to go on a suitable tour in the first half of 2010. Our dates with Tarja Turunen in September in Spain and Switzerland gave us a really good taste of the "life of touring" and how well we were received in those markets. So after Europe, we then can think of conquering the world! And hopefully we will be able to play the US, too. Prog Power in Atlanta would probably just be the perfect platform to start with."
CLICK HERE to read a review of Ripples
Copyright & Publishing: 2010 Tommy Hash for Ytsejam.com
Please Visit:
Aspera Website
Aspera at MySpace
Aspera at Facebook
Inside Out Music
Inside Out Music at MySpace
Century Media Records
Rock 4 Success Artist Management
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