ARCTIC DREAMS – interview

Arctic Dreams is a Serbian-German sympho-industrial-black-death-metal band originally founded in 2009 year in St.Petersburg, Russia by Alexander Alex_Y Järvinen (vocal/guitars/music/lyric) and Igor Sydius Pokatilov (back-vocal/guitar) and based in Belgrade, Serbia.

The band was a studio project for a very long time, more than 10 years, but in 2020 they decided to return to full-fledged activities. The first part of the album was released as an EP. And now the band is proud to represent you the LP – https://arcticdreamsofficial.com/

The interview introduces you to the band’s musical world, inspiration and plans for the future

Introduce your band, and describe your latest release:

Alex_Y: “Hello, everyone! Our band is called Arctic Dreams. We play a rumbling mix of traditional metal (black/thrash/death/heavy) with classical music and electronic gothic. Our latest release is our first full-length. We’ve been working on it for a long time, about 8 years, so we managed to make the best of it.”

What’s the hardest part about being a band in this day and age?

Alex_Y: “The hardest part is winning over the listener. In today’s world, millions of tracks are uploaded to venues every day and you have to spend a lot of effort to promote your creativity. You can have great material and a very high quality record, but your potential listener simply won’t hear it if you don’t pay enough attention to promotion.”

When did you realise that your project had the potential to be much more than just a fun idea?

Alex_Y: “From the beginning. It’s more accurate to say that we created Arctic Dreams as a commercial project from the beginning, not a band to play in, in our spare time. That’s why it took us 8 years to work out the concept of sound and identity). But now we’ve got something that we can finally show people and develop in the future.”

Tell us about your latest release, why should we check it out?

Alex_Y: “At least on our album we tried to create something that has never been done before. We stuck to the principle: why create music like Dimmu Borgir when there is already Dimmu Borgir? We understand that the listener is already overfed and spoiled and it’s hard to surprise him.)”

How does a song typically come together for you?

Alex_Y: “I wrote all the music and lyrics. Usually I get an idea and it takes a while to mature, like wine. It could be months or it could be years. Then at one point I sit down and put it into notes. The same goes for lyrics.”

Glam_Dickens: “As for the musical part of a song, I think it starts with a riff or melody. Sometimes I imagene the whole complete song and it takes one day to arrange or some hours. But sometimes I cannot find what’s next and it takes more time to arrange, days or even years. As for the lyrics – almost the same. Usually it starts with a catchy phrase or an idea, so I just express it then.”

How would you describe your sound to an unfamiliar reader?

Alex_Y: “Heavy, raw, sophisticated, driving”

What do you want listeners to take away from listening to your band?

Alex_Y: “We want to immerse the listener in our meta-universe. We would be very happy to have our creativity with our fans, as they say, in trouble and in joy. And it would also be good if the listener would reflect on the themes that are raised in our lyrics.”

Where would you really like to tour that you haven’t done so yet, and why?

Alex_Y: “We want to go all over the world wherever possible and wherever there are fans of heavy music.”

Glam_Dickens: “Everywhere, really! It doesn’t matter where and how far, just give us listeners, electricity and beer.”

How would you say that the sound of your band has progressed over the years?

Alex_Y: “Well, to start with, it took eight years to create our modern sound.) I remember our first demo now, we were playing some kind of cyber-industrial metal, similar to DeathStars and Dope Stars Inc. I think that during those years, there was a huge transformation of our creativity. And, of course, we are not standing still, we are currently preparing a new album, which will also be a bit different in sound.”

How excited are you for 2023, and what can fans expect from you?

Alex_Y: “Yes, we have big plans for 2023. We changed our location in 2022, and so far we have already completed a new recording studio. We are planning to release a new album and also to start concert activities.”