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| Interview by Burt Wolf. with Rob Kanto, guitarist, composer, singer for AZURE. Interview done October 22nd, 2006 |
| CAN YOU GIVE SOME OF THE BANDS HISTORY FROM IT'S CREATION UNTIL NOW? ANY PREVIOUS BANDS MEMBERS WERE IN BEFORE? HOW YOU FORMED? AZURE was started by me around April 1995. I had just put my other band, TEARS OF GRIEF to rest as I had grew tired of playing Death/Doom & wanted to play faster. Back then we were three members & we recorded 4 demos before signing a deal for a MCD in 1997. Just after that recording I decided to go on by myself & when I got signed with SOLISTITIUM for a full legnth album I called up Mattias Holmgren (ex-NAGLFAR, EMBRACING, TIRED TREE, etc.) & asked him to help me out with drums & keys for the recording. Later on I made Mattias a full time member as he got involved more & more with the band. However, around 2000 I put the band on hold as we hadn't any contract & I was too busy with other stuff. For example I played both the bass & guitar for RELENTLESS (American style Death Metal). In April 2004 Mattias called me up & told me to start writing a new album though as he wanted to try out his new studio equipment. Four months later we recorded the entire album. We never do rehearsals either as Mattias lives about 900 kilometers from me. Usually I just play the song for him a couple of times & then we record the basics for it. WHY WAS THE NAME AZURE CHOSEN AS THE BANDS NAME? We did the oldest trick in the book...took a dictionary, put my finger in it & landed on AZURE. I kind of felt it was suitable name for the band. There is at least two other AZUREs out there as well, one is from Finland & plays Party Metal, they state they have been around since 1995 like us, but I don't know. As far as I know they haven't released anything of interest. Also I think there's a band in Australia with this name. WHO OR WHAT HAS HELPED INFLUENCE YOU IN YOUR MUSIC & IN LIFE? I would say that music has helped me a lot in life. I've had some dark times & always climbed back up with music, either by listening or by playing. When it comes to composing I get inspired by almost everything, from other bands, paintings or just nature. |
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| HOW WOULD YOU BEST DESCRIBE THE STYLE & SOUND OF AZURE? When people ask I say that we play extreme Metal with a fantasy theme, which is pretty correct. In the beginning there was a bit more Black Metal influences whilst now I pretty much mix in everything. THE NEWEST RELEASE I HAVE OF YOURS IS "KING OF STARS - BEARER OF DARK" WHICH WAS PUT OUT BY DEATH GASM RECORDS. HOW DID YOU GET HOOKED UP WITH THEM & HOW HAS IT BEEN WORKING WITH THEM? DEATHGASM only releasesed the album in the U.S. while the rest of the world is handled by PULVERISED. We only have contracts for this album with both labels & I hope to get signed to a bigger one for the next album, but we'll see what happens. DEATHGASM has been really cool to work with though & Evan seems like one of the few good guys in the buisness. THIS ALBUM CAME OUT LAST YEAR. HOW HAS THE ALBUM BEEN RECIEVED IN THE UNDERGROUND? WHAT HAS THE RESPONSE BEEN LIKE? The album was recorded already back in 2004 & was to be released in early 2005 by KARMAGEDDON MEDIA (ex-HAMMERHEART), but when we had waited for six months I terminated the contract & got in touch with PULVERISED & DEATHGASM. This delayed the album quite a bit, but when it finally got out in the end of 2005 the reactions was overall positive, except for Norway. |
| CAN YOU EXPLAIN THE COVER ART A BIT & WHO DID IT? The cover is made by Par Johansson (singer of SATARIEL) that has done work for DARK FUNERAL, STRAPPING YOUNG LAD, TORCHBEARER, etc. We go way back & when I sent hime the lyrics for the ending track "King Of Stars..." he came up with that idea. I've heard a couple of times it looks like a Power Metal cover, but then again, my lyrics are fantasy inspired so... WHAT IS SOME OF THE LYRICAL CONTENT WITHIN YOUR SONGS? From the beginning, in the old demo days, there were pretty much antichristian thoughts, but it felt a bit cliche, so on the third demo I started to write fantasy inspired lyrics. I only read fantasy books back then & I made up my own story & world behind the lyrics & wrote everything from there. Back then it was very unusual for Metal bands to write fantasy lyrics, but just short after the whole Power Metal boom took form & they all had a fantasy concept. I do however write my lyrics quite dark & you can't be sure which side, good or evil, that will win. And also, we are not a Power Metal band! WHICH AZURE SONG WOULD BE YOUR FAVORITE & WHY? From the new album it's "Shadows In Midark" as it's so varied & is really fun to play, but the same goes for "Selene - The Spirit" & "Lake Of Death - Magnion". From "MOONLIGHT LEGEND" I really like "The Eroican" as it was the first song I wrote that really felt professional. DOES AZURE STILL ONLY HAVE 2 PERMENANT BAND MEMBERS WITH GUEST MUSICIANS? Yes, even though that our session bass player, Peter Uven, probabbly will play for us several times more. It's easier to keep the band as a combo as me & Mattias do most of the work anyways. IS THERE ANY NEWER MATERIAL IN THE WORKS AT THE MOMENT? WILL THIS NEW MATERIAL BE RELEASED BY DEATHGASM AS WELL? I'm currently working on a few new songs & I had hoped to record another album this autumn, but Mattias dosn't have the time & I really should need to write more before we do. As it looks now we will record a new album sometime in 2007, as well as do some re-recordings from "MOONLIGHT LEGEND". |
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| DOES AZURE PLAY OUT A LOT? WHERE ARE SOME OF THE PLACES YOU'VE PLAYED? WHO ARE SOME OF THE BANDS YOU'VE PLAYED WITH? AZURE has only played live three times back in 1996 & then with the old line up. It's too much work & money to do live shows for us now as we don't have a full line up & as we live too far away from each other. ARE THERE ANY INTERESTING BAND STORIES YOU COULD SHARE WITH US? Not really, as we never rehearse & only see each other about once a year there isn't much to tell. But when we do meet, we spend most of the time drinking beers & booze, making complete asses of ourselves. WHAT DO THE MEMBERS OF THE BAND DO WHEN NOT DOING ANY WORK FOR THE BAND? Mattias is pretty much occupied all the time with his own bands EMBRACING & TIRED TREE as well as writing music for other artists, creating ring tunes & graphics for mobile phones. He's about to start up another company of his own as well, so he's a very busy guy. I am currently unemployed & spend most of my time on my sofa drinking beers. |
| ARE YOU INTO ANY OTHER STYLES OF MUSIC BESIDES WHAT YOU PLAY? WHO ARE SOME OF THE BANDS YOU HAVE CURRENTLY BEEN LISTENING TO? I listen to a lot of music, mainly Metal, but also some Folk music as well. I'm pretty varied when it comes to Metal & is in to everything like MAYHEM, ANATHEMA, DEATH, KING DIAMOND, IMMORTAL, ULVER, NILE, IRON MAIDEN, SAMAEL, ABIGOR, JUDAS PRIEST, LACUNA COIL, METALLICA, MEGADETH, GRAVE, EMPEROR, MERCYFUL FATE, WINDS, EINHERJER, DISSECTION, DEICIDE, DIMMU BORGIR, ISOLE, CANDLEMASS, SATYRICON, DARKTHRONE, IN FLAMES, TYR & so on & so on. ARCTURUS & ENSLAVED is however my all time favorite bands. Recently I have listened a lot to the new albums from TYR, MY DYING BRIDE, VADER & I. WHAT WAS THE FIRST ALBUM YOU BOUGHT? WHAT WAS THE FIRST CONCERT YOU WENT TO? As the true Metal person I am, the first album I bought myself was actually "THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST" by IRON MAIDEN on vinyl, this copy was however stolen later at some party. Latest concert was ENSLAVED which blew my mind completely. WHAT ARE SOME OF THE MISCONCEPTIONS OF LIFE IN SWEDEN? Well, where to start? The American film industry has really got a lot of things wrong... First off, Inga isn't that common a name here, neither is Olaf (that's Norwegian). We don't have polar bears here & the summer time is actually pretty warm, we had a fantastic summer this year with temperatures over 98 degrees fahrenheit. Not all woman are good looking & not all of them are blond. We do however have very high taxes, can only by alcohol in special stores, we drink a lot & is pretty shy when we are sober. SWEDEN IS KNOW FOR HAVING SOME GREAT BANDS? WHO DO YOU FEEL ARE SOME OF THE BETTER BANDS FROM SWEDEN? Sweden has a great deal of bands in all genres that have made it big around the world. ABBA being the most fanous I guess. But then we have ROXETTE, ACE OF BASE & THE CARDIGANS that made huge international careeres. When it comes to Metal, our biggest export of all times (actually the fourth biggest in all genres) is EUROPE, that made it number one in 26 countries with "The Final Countdown". Nowadays we have tons of bands & it seems like every Metal dude around has his own band & I guess that's because there isn't much else to do around here. If you ask me, I think there are too many bands around & way too many get the chance to release an album. I don't have that much insight in all the new bands anymore, but I used to have my own magazine & got them all to review, which wasn't fun as 80% tried to be AT THE GATES & failed miserably |
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| I gues IN FLAMES is our biggest export right now & I think they deserve their success as they have worked really hard for it. CANDLEMASS is one of my favorite bands & I'm looking forward to hear their new album, but Doom newcomers ISOLE is really great too. DISSECTION was of course one of the best as well & I had the luck to meet Jon a couple of times. Otherwise I think the Norwegian scene is much stronger when it comes to variety. WHAT CAN WE LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING NEXT FROM AZURE? I'm not sure yet waht will come first, the new album or the re-recorded "MOONLIGHT LEGEND" album. Also it would be fun to do a tour, but then we need to do a full tour with at least 30 dates to make it worth all the job & finding suitable tour members. |
| WHAT WERE YOU DOING BEFORE ANSWERING THIS INTERVIEW? WHAT WILL YOU DO NOW THAT IT'S DONE? Not much, drinking some beers & playing guitar as usual. I don't really have any hobbies, but to play guitar, drink beer, watch movies & to sit endlessly in front on my computer or playing some PS2 games. Also I really like to cook, but I'm too lazy to do that every day so I eat a lot of junk food. When this intie is done, I guess I will answer some stupid Ebay questions that i have got for my auctions & then I will look for some vacation trips to escape the winter months. THANX A LOT FOR ANSWERING THESE QUESTIONS. FEEL FREE TO CLOSE OUT WITH ANYTHING YOU'D LIKE TO ADD. Firstly I really want to thank you for this interview. You came up with some "fun to answer" questions for me, which is always appreciated. And for those who like to hear some of our stuff, surf in to our myspace page for some full songs from our albums. Our official website has not been updated for ages, but you can order our shirt & albums from there. Cheers!!! |
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| P.O. BOX 4044 S-59104 MOTALA SWEDEN AZURE@midark.net www.midark.net www.myspace.com/AZUREswe |
| ALL PHOTOS & GRAPHICS COURTESY OF AZURE. INTERVIEWS MAIN PAGE |