ASHES YOU LEAVE

ASHES YOU LEAVE interview with Leadguitar Neven,
questioned by Yang Yu, Painkiller Mag
(1st. chinese Metal Mag, www.painkiller.de.tf)

http://ashesyouleave.org

To my surprice, you have two new girls in the band. How are they doing their job?
Marina, our new singer is doing great. Ira, on the other hand is not doing so great. We had to let her go because she couldn't keep up with us on our trips.

A lot of bands have pretty girls envolved these days, questionless this is a very good selling point. Now you have even three females and none of them is bad looking. Anything to say on this statement?
I only have to say that we will never sell our music by putting our women upfront and undressing them completely (and putting some lethal weaponry in their hands ha ha). Bands that sell their music in that way are in my opinion, pathetic and don't have much to say with their music.

I didnt hear newer stuffs from you since the Dunja left the band. So I dont know what the new singeress do sound like, is she much different than Dunja?
Yeah she has a different voice. More appealing to my taste than Dunja had, much more warmer, and can vary from being fragile to braking the walls kind of voice.

Why did Dunja left, does it have something to do with her studying music in Rom?
We had to kick Dunja out because her studies were always more important than music. In general we are flexible when it comes to studies, but things got out of hand when we missed a couple of very important gigs, like the one with Six Feet Under somewhere in Slovenia.

Is her replacement on the same level? Dunja is a godess of voice, and so beauty of out of appearence, too!
Answered this already, Marina outshines Dunja by a longshot.

Needless to say that the female vocal is one of most importend part in your music. Who do write the songtext? Who decides how to sing and who is responsible for those wounderfull melody lines?
From "The Inheritance..." album to the present I wrote most of the lyrics, Bero and Vanja came in here and there and helped out. The first two albums were written by a lot of people, you can see it in the credits part of "Desperate Existence". The music is done by me and Bero mostly. For the new material Vanja co-wrote one, so did Damir, our new keyboards player. The vocal melodies are team work.

What do the other girls do, fiddls and keybaords? I am not uptodate with your actual line up.
Marina sings and Marta plays the violins.

You are already on tour with this line up and received the best resonance everywhere. So you already worked out a strick trimed team? How long have you been in this line up?
This line up is active for about, a year or so I think. It's very hard finding people that will have time or the will to keep up with the band. The pace is frantic and people are coming and going.
We changed approximately ten members already to come up with this line up. I think it's a steady one.

Do you think everything does work better than before?
We're improving, our composing and arranging skills are getting better and better with every song we make. People can definitely expect improvement from our previous work on our next album. We won't let them down.

You must now be six persons on stage. It wont be easy to play or even to praticise with such a hord, isnt it? What is the most typical problemes to need to face each time you are on stage? Stage too small?
Seven actually. We're seldom rehearsing as a whole. Mostly it's three or four people, playing it's only before a show or a tour that we gather up and rehearse as a band. It's very hard getting everyone at the same time to come and rehearse, the jobs or studies get in the way like hell. But we manage.

You have three albums out now and it war quiet clear to make out, that the most visible difference was the stedy developement or progress of the melody lines, especially the voc line of Dunja. I like the third album most because it gives so much each time i am listening to it. It is really fastinating music performences beyond the limitation of death or metal. Do you agree with what I am saying?
Well I can't be objective about this, I love my band and I think our music is pretty much multi layered. Everytime you listen to it you will find something new, whether it be lyrics or the melodies, the rhythm s, whatever.

During the time you lost more of the death metal elements and turned more melodic and melancholic. Will you one day lost the death crowls and the heavy guitar riffs totally as victim for the leading melody?
On the contrary. The fourth record will be more powerful and yet more emotional than anything we have ever done before. It will have the warmth of "Desperate Existence" mixed with the power of "Miles Of Worn Out Days". All of this will be added to something new, a kind of power we never expressed before. I think people that saw us live on this tour will know what I am talking about. In general I think bands are losing on their heavyness and their emotion, there's far more artificial music than before, everything seems fabricated only for the show or the money of it. I hate that. You won't find it in AYL. We'll give our best to bring forth the purest of them all: emotion.

Its a general occurrence that so called gothic/doom metal bands are changing more light and soft with the time, so they one day totally loose their wildness and heavyness. (i.E. PARADISE LOST, MY DYING BRIGHT, SENTENCE...). How do you see this?
Some bands get away with this more than the others. My Dying Bride for example made a killer record this way, "Like Gods Of The Sun". The songs were shorter and more ear-friendly and made a far more heavier impact than the previous releases (except for the "Angel..." album. That one is also great). But I heard Paradise Lost said upon the release of Host or something similar that all of their previous work was a mistake. It stunned me and I was disappointed at how sell out someone can be. Shame, really.

The first time I hear about you, you were introduced as an Gothic/Death-Band with fiddl and female voc. But there were already a lot of bands who would fit into this image and you sound definitively different. How would you discripe you music?
I hate to clasify our music as anything. We mix in what we feel like. You could probably say that we play gothic music but with a different touch. I always loved the idea of a funeral band so let's just leave it at that.

Croata was once a part of Jogoslavia, what I dont understand is, is it realy that important to be independent? Have you seen the war your self? There will be war again in Mazedonia, I've heart in the news.
Sure it is. It's very important to get rid of leeches that are only taking advantage of you and giving you nothing in return. War in Mazedonia? I hate wars and I hate pe ople trying to cure their inner complexes by sending out thousands of men to die for a no good reason at all.

You just finished a EU-tour, how was it. I hear the reaction was great?! How many visitors, with which bands were you playing etc...
We love touring. The reactions were great, yes and the people really gave us a warm welcome. The bands we played with were also ok, I liked Paimon best.
We had a main support act, End. These guys are just great, you have to like them. The remaining bands were: Crudeness, Sun of Sadness, Last Twilight.

What is Dunja doing know, only her study or does she still being envolved in some bands? Did you break up in peace?
Can't say, probably studying. The break was done partially in peace, we told her she had to leave the band, she took it rather well. We were sorry to see her go but it was for the best.

Did you find a replacement for Ira? What was she playing?
Yes, Damir, the former guitarist of AYL returned to play keyboards and he's doing a great job.

No matter if (pretty) women were sale points or not, do you think female (pretty or not) musician are indispensible for AYL? Are they doing music different than males? Especially because of Emotions are so importend to your music..
When it comes to female and male members I would have to say that while female members (especially vocs) bring a great element to the band, the male members do most of the writing. I can't remember a single song (except Shepherd's Song - Dunja did that one) that a female member started writing and did most of it. That's the way things go, can't say why I guess women express their feelings somewhat different than men. If you look at bands in general, rarely will you find women writing music. It's mostly men and that's a fact.

You have a lot of musicans envolved into the songwriting and some are not more band member. Do you have copyright problems? Who do have the rights of these songs?
Can't say, I hate to get involved into legal stuff. You'll have to ask Bobo that one.

Every band has to progress in there playing technique. But some bands are fanatics this way. Will ASHES YOU LEAVE end up sounding like 3rd AND THE MORTAL (Finnland)?
Haven't listened that much to 3rd and T.M. But if you mean that we will end up sounding like six instruments playing their own tune, this will probably seldom or never happen. I love harmony, band coming in and playing as one. I believe I share feelings of everyone.

What does ASHES YOU LEAVE mean? The crematory result of YOU? How did you come to this name? It sounds very gothic...
The name means that there is more than flesh and blood, I believe in the afterlife so does the rest of the band. I guess we will just have to wait and see, won't we?

You are writing the most of the lyrics. Do you have general themes?
I write about everything and anything really. Whatever comes to mind, inspires me. My songs are a reflection of the everyday life, or my daydreaming.
In general, you could say that most of it is connected to my relationship with someone, my problems hurts, whatever. I think most people could find a part of themselves here and there because the songs are not that complex yet they speak of everything I go through and these are everyday situations, being hurt (sad but true eh?), loving, lusting, wanting and yearning....

When will the 4th Album come out? When will you enter which studio? Titel, Cover, Songs... anything already defined for this?
Can't say really when the 4th will come out, nor the studio, nothing.
I can only say we have written six songs so far, namely: Hurt, In Vain Are Born, Manservant, Ready To Cry, A Crimson Shade, Don't Forget The Planets but I guess the titles don't mean a thing until you can connect some musicianship to them. The cover will probably depict our famous Death picture from our website and our tour poster. Maybe we change it but who knows, it's still very early to say.

What music do you hear your self in privat? Do you hear some certain music or CDs especially for the development of your musical activities.
I listen to everything. You can see on the AYL site that I enjoy hearing a pop album as much as I enjoy hearing Borknagar for example. I am very open minded when it comes to music, it's just got to have a certain something to move me in this or that way.
To name a few bands: Gathering, Alice In Chains, Amorphis, Pearl Jam, Carcass, Mazzy Star (for the melancholy of it), Dead Can Dance etc...

What trademark or kind of equipments do you use. Please write few lines about the guitar and effectors etc. you are using and what you think of them.
I probably shouldn't advertise without being paid for it so I must disappoint you and say: no comment.

Do you think equipment is importent for the quality of the music?
For the recording quality, yes. For the emotional side of music, well you just have to give one hundred percent of yourself to make it sound like you really mean it. A band could have tons and tons of equipment and still not have that something around them.

You have a lot of fans here, my sales of AYL-CDs are going well, too. Where do you have the most of fans? Wanna say something to the chinese kids as the last words?
Our fans come from all over the world. Probably we're most famous in Germany and eastern Europe. Last time we played there we made havoc right on the spot.
I just want to greet all our fans from China, it's a long shot but I am counting on coming to China someday. I know we and the people would have a great time.

Your web is very well done, did you create it your self? Where did you lernt that? With what tool did you done it? For me the connection is little bit slow...
It was a hobby of mine back from high school, I discovered I had a thing for images and design (I am also an amateur photographer). So I started learning web design by myself (this is all not that hard to do if you have the will) and eventually decided I would do the band pages instead of paying big money to someone who would not present us in exactly the way we were. This way it's a more personal experience, you know that when you come to the pages you'll get a hundred percent AYL pages, done and maintained by the band. Not a lot of bands have that you know.
The connection can be sometimes slow because I implemented a lot of images into it, but I think it's worth it eventually.

How did you come to redwine with coke? The favorit drink of Marina too. You got know her this way?
That's a national headbangers (and of the rest) drink in Croatia. Everyone loves it.
There are some variations to it: you can drink white wine with Fanta and white wine with orange juice. All very tasty drinks, I love them. We met Marina when Gordan went singer-hunting in Rijeka. He bumped into her in Putokazi, Rijeka's elite singing ansamble, asked her if she wanted to sing in AYL, she said yes and the rest you already know.

You are all so increasible young. Marina must have just turn 19! The rest mostly 21. Unbelieveable that you already have tree quiet successfull alben out!
It sometimes amazes me also. There's a lot of geezers out there playing music, I wonder where AYL will be in, let's say, 20 years.

Your music is very sad and melancholic. Are you a pessimist? The best word I can choose to discript your music is "dark".
I'd rather choose dark and emotional. I love music like that, when it has a certain sombre atmosphere around it and still manages to get people thinking about things and feeling the sadness only music can convey.
I'm not a pessimist, I believe if you do good to people you will be rewarded with good things. You'll probably oppose the question "So why the sad lyrics and music?" I write music and lyrics only when I am moved and this often comes from the feeling of being hurt, sad or something similar. I think this goes for the rest of the songwriting members of AYL, We all agree that dark music is the best for representing who we are, whether it's slow kind of ballady dark music like the new song "Hurt" or maybe thrashing, in-your-face riffage from "Manservant". I love our new stuff, we've developed so much as a band.

Your English is very good, must a band speek english if you want international succsess?
Someone from the band, if not all, probably should. Communication is most important when it comes to music, especially when you have to write lyrics that will, combined with music, touch people. I know a lot of people don't give that much importance to lyrics, but I am not like that. I love coming to a concert (though I can't remember the last one I went to) and shouting my head off with lyrics that I found a part of myself in. Bands often make that mistake of lyrics being incoherent and this is a great minus because it's like listening to an instrumental: you can only listen, maybe bang your head and everything, but something will be missing, the feeling of them getting to the deepest of your heart. At least no band like that can move me. That's why I could never listen to a band like, let's say, Nightwish. The music is well produced and well played, but she could very well be singing about the right leg spectacles from Mars attacking planet Earth and she'd still get away with it because you wouldn't understand a damn word. We made that mistake on some songs, luckily we realized this was wrong and the lyrics should be heard, definitely. I know there's a certain feeling when, in "Manservant" Marina sings (very coherently, I must say) "I want you chained to a bed". Then I am sure we have succeeded in making a "moment" in music, one of those great moments that will ring in your head for some time on. You gotta love music.
 
 

Take care,

Neven.

"Passage back to life" fantastic Doom/Gothic, somewhere between MY DYING BRIDE and CATHEDRAL!
"Desperate existence" zweiten Streich der Croaten. Noch mehr Emotion und unglaubliche Stimme der elfenhafte Sängerin!
"The inheritance  of sin and shame" 3. Meisterwerk! Atemberaubenden Gesang und den perfekten Sound!