Interview withChristianna and Tomas of Bare Infinity
Bare Infinity were formed in Athens in 2003 by Tomas and Christianna. The Greek band plays a style of atmospheric Power Metal incorporating elements of Heavy, Death and electornic music making their sound quite unique , therefore following a different style of music to many other bands with female vocals that have dominated the metal scene these last few years. Heavy riffs, sorrowfull yet aggresive at times keyboards entwined with Christianna's rare clear vocal talent gives Bare Infinity's music a completely different feel.
While I was for a city trip in Athens, I took the opportunity to meet with the very sympathetic Christianna (vocals) and Tomas (guitars), together with Sverd (bass) and Vincent (keyboards, back vocals). We talked about the origin of the band, their passion for music, the difficutly of metal bands in general in Greece, their demo CD, the album in preparation, their plans and dreams and we concluded with a photo session in a park lying at the feet of the Acropolis. Hopefully someday we will have the opportunity to see this band in Belgium as they expressed a strong desire to participate at the Metal Female Voices Festival in Belgium.
Website:
http://www.bare-infinity.com
http://www.myspace.com/bareinfinity
Bare Infinity was formed in 2003, can you explain how the band was created ?
Website:
http://www.bare-infinity.com
http://www.myspace.com/bareinfinity
Bare Infinity was formed in 2003, can you explain how the band was created ?
Christianna: 'We had the pleasure of going at the same school without knowing it. We came across each other two years later in a coffee shop. Tomas gave some music to me that he had already written. I found that he had something really beautiful in his music, very simple but nice. So I really wanted us to do something together. We started playing in another band that did not work out that well. We created Bare Infinity a few months later, which was planned to be a two persons project but it then grew since we had to find other members to play live. '
So it started before 2003?
Tomas: 'Yes, it started in 2001-2002. Me, Christianna and Jiggly were all together in another band then but did not know each other very well and then we lost contact with Jiggly for some time until we started the idea of Bare Infinity.'
Tomas you have some Finnish origin. Does that influence the type of music you like and like to play?
Tomas: 'Euh… Oh yeah I do like anything that is related to Finland. I like the music style, I like the composing. Actually I think the music that I have written does not have much to do with Finnish music. The bands I was listening to the most were Arch Enemy, In Flames, Death. I liked more death style bands then . When one day I discovered bands like Nightwish, Entwine, Children of Bodom and so on, I added more keyboards to my songs, but it just evolved by itself after that. I don’t think it actually was meant to end up like this. If you listen to the demo, you will see that it sounds completely different to the final versions. I would like to do something a little bit more Finnish with some parts of the songs but I don’t think we’re following the Finnish style of music. '
Christianna to add: 'One thing that I like and I consider it as an advantage is that I think without doing it on purpose, it could be that our music sounds a bit different than other female vocal bands.'
Why do you think makes you different from the others?
Christianna: 'I think because we are a mixture of people with almost all different musical backgrounds and so we have to compose with these different backgrounds and come up with something on our own, something original. We didn’t have any pattern we wanted to follow, we didn’t want to sound like anyone. So let’s hope something beautiful comes out of it.'
Tomas to continue: 'Christianna and I, we basically have the same type of preferences in music. Vincent likes more Industrial music, Jiggly has a more aggressive taste in metal where as Sverd is also into Folk music as well as Power Metal and Industrial too so we have a wide variety of musical influences to incorporate into the songs'
Female fronted metal bands are relatively rare in Greece?
Christianna: 'Metal bands are rare in Greece, period! But when we started it out for as far as I can remember there were only one or two metal bands with female vocals. So even if we wanted to copy something, there was nothing to copy from. That was actually a good thing because we had to put ourselves into it and we came out with something beautiful I think. Other than that we had the influence from female bands that were coming out at that time, like Nightwish. It was a huge influence. But then again as you can see, the vocals are totally different still than any type of music I am listening to. So I don’t think we really had much to follow.'
Christianna: 'Metal bands are rare in Greece, period! But when we started it out for as far as I can remember there were only one or two metal bands with female vocals. So even if we wanted to copy something, there was nothing to copy from. That was actually a good thing because we had to put ourselves into it and we came out with something beautiful I think. Other than that we had the influence from female bands that were coming out at that time, like Nightwish. It was a huge influence. But then again as you can see, the vocals are totally different still than any type of music I am listening to. So I don’t think we really had much to follow.'
You did a recording in 2005? What are you plans?
Tomas: 'Basically we recorded a four track demo with some very bad production. So then we decided to take it a little bit more seriously and started to record something thoroughly. It didn’t work out. So we decided to scrap it completely and start from the beginning again. We got a deal with a record company here in Greece, so we took on for the recording of the whole album. I think it’s very good so far. We were planning on going to Finland in April, to Tico Tico Studio for the mix and mastering however our plans changed cause we got an offer that we decided to check out before going on. We are also recording our first video clip in the summer for the song Always Forever Part I with Bob Katsionis (Firewind) directing it. We also want to avoid Greek record labels for the time being and avoid too many gigs in Athens and try to tour some European countries as much as we can, mainly on our own xpenses for now. Basically we want to leave Greece and the Greek music scene to span further out because there is more potential outside Greece especially for the type of music we play...'
Tomas: 'Basically we recorded a four track demo with some very bad production. So then we decided to take it a little bit more seriously and started to record something thoroughly. It didn’t work out. So we decided to scrap it completely and start from the beginning again. We got a deal with a record company here in Greece, so we took on for the recording of the whole album. I think it’s very good so far. We were planning on going to Finland in April, to Tico Tico Studio for the mix and mastering however our plans changed cause we got an offer that we decided to check out before going on. We are also recording our first video clip in the summer for the song Always Forever Part I with Bob Katsionis (Firewind) directing it. We also want to avoid Greek record labels for the time being and avoid too many gigs in Athens and try to tour some European countries as much as we can, mainly on our own xpenses for now. Basically we want to leave Greece and the Greek music scene to span further out because there is more potential outside Greece especially for the type of music we play...'
You have three more concerts planned in Greece?
Christianna: 'There will be a number of concerts, however we would like to have our music to be heard abroad. There are also going to be gigs here for example we will be headlining the 2nd Stage on the 2nd day of this years Metal Healing Festival . We also have so more gigs that have not yet been made official yet. After that i think it will be the right time to start looking to play outside of Greece . Our dream is to play with other bands and travelling together in other countries.'
Christianna: 'There will be a number of concerts, however we would like to have our music to be heard abroad. There are also going to be gigs here for example we will be headlining the 2nd Stage on the 2nd day of this years Metal Healing Festival . We also have so more gigs that have not yet been made official yet. After that i think it will be the right time to start looking to play outside of Greece . Our dream is to play with other bands and travelling together in other countries.'
What are the bands on your top list you would like to play with?
Christianna: 'There is not such a thing as a top list, because, although I really enjoy bands with female vocals, I have been listening to bands with other styles, because, like we’ve said we come from different backgrounds. So, one thing we have enjoyed so far, although we play an atmospheric power sort of metal, is to have the chance to perform with other bands, which are a kind of heavier or play something different, and that shows us that we are respected by people from other sorts of music influence.'
Tomas to add: 'We have played as co-headliner in black metal festival. Here in Greece, people who listen to black metal don’t have such a wide range of music and they don’t listen to so many bands at metal festivals with female vocals. So we managed to play at black metal events and people actually enjoyed it a lot. And we have been asked to come back to play together. One of our top goals as for bands to play with could be something like After Forever, something like Nightwish. We saw them one and a half year ago here in Athens, and were thinking it would be a real honor to play with them some day… '
Christianna: 'There is not such a thing as a top list, because, although I really enjoy bands with female vocals, I have been listening to bands with other styles, because, like we’ve said we come from different backgrounds. So, one thing we have enjoyed so far, although we play an atmospheric power sort of metal, is to have the chance to perform with other bands, which are a kind of heavier or play something different, and that shows us that we are respected by people from other sorts of music influence.'
Tomas to add: 'We have played as co-headliner in black metal festival. Here in Greece, people who listen to black metal don’t have such a wide range of music and they don’t listen to so many bands at metal festivals with female vocals. So we managed to play at black metal events and people actually enjoyed it a lot. And we have been asked to come back to play together. One of our top goals as for bands to play with could be something like After Forever, something like Nightwish. We saw them one and a half year ago here in Athens, and were thinking it would be a real honor to play with them some day… '
Do you have plans to play abroad?
Tomas: 'We have a live coming up in Cyprus sometime in the summer. We are also waiting for a reply from some summer festivals. We also hope to come to Belgium some day. It’s a country that has a lot of bands in our style and most people in Belgium I think like bands with female vocals.'
Tomas: 'We have a live coming up in Cyprus sometime in the summer. We are also waiting for a reply from some summer festivals. We also hope to come to Belgium some day. It’s a country that has a lot of bands in our style and most people in Belgium I think like bands with female vocals.'
Didn’t you want to come at the next MFVF?
Tomas: 'Yes we did, we would have loved to play there but it did not work out. There were actually a lot of bands already in line waiting for two or three years. I think everything should come in its time. '
Tomas: 'Yes we did, we would have loved to play there but it did not work out. There were actually a lot of bands already in line waiting for two or three years. I think everything should come in its time. '
Christianna, who are you most admired singers?
Christianna: 'Oh, that’s a difficult one and I am not going to answer that question as a female singer. Just one of the main things I paid attention to when I started to play in bands, was that I didn’t want my voice to be similar to other female voices. This is a mistake that almost all young singers do and I did it in the beginning . Because when you have no experience and you don’t really know what your true voice is, all you have to follow is other singers that you like and then before you know it you find yourself imitating someone. So what I did was to avoid listening to female vocal bands and tried to discover what my own voice was. Still my favourite singers are male singers. Top favourite would be Eric Adams from Manowar, Eric Clayton , Messiah of Candlemass and of course Bruce Dickinson. Then there are also female voices that I love, like Tarja, from Nightwish, but I know that I would not even try to sing like her, and of course, Floor from After Forever. '
Do you write the lyrics of the songs?
Christianna: 'Yes, I have written the lyrics for almost the entire album, a part from a couple of songs. Because I had the pleasure of finding out that once Tomas had written the music for me, he kind of left me with all the freedom I needed to find whichever melody I thought was the best and he would never interfere in my choices.'
Christianna: 'Yes, I have written the lyrics for almost the entire album, a part from a couple of songs. Because I had the pleasure of finding out that once Tomas had written the music for me, he kind of left me with all the freedom I needed to find whichever melody I thought was the best and he would never interfere in my choices.'
What are you trying to express, what are the ideas behind your songs?
Christianna: 'I think we all find influences from all different feelings of the human soul. We don’t have a very specific concept. We have been concentrating on love, desperation and loneliness that one human soul could experience once it’s lacking the basics that one needs to live, like love. One of the things that I found out is that although it’s very difficult for two people to write, when for one to write the music and for the other one to write the lyrics, I found out that it was a very easy thing for us to do without really forcing ourselves. '
Tomas to continue: 'One of the weird things with the lyrics of the music is that the music is based on the mood at the moment when I was writing it, most of the time I was down so it has more sorrowful melodies, the funny thing is that when Christianna brought me the lyrics to the songs it was like she was getting what I was thinking... I mean I wrote one of the songs when something happened to me with a friend of mine I lost, and through the lyrics it’s like she actually knew what I was going through and the lyrics are exactly what I thought at the moment I was writing the music. So it’s a very fantastic chemistry between us. I know I can write the music and Christianna would understand straight away how I am feeling to fit the lyrics.'
Christianna: 'I think we all find influences from all different feelings of the human soul. We don’t have a very specific concept. We have been concentrating on love, desperation and loneliness that one human soul could experience once it’s lacking the basics that one needs to live, like love. One of the things that I found out is that although it’s very difficult for two people to write, when for one to write the music and for the other one to write the lyrics, I found out that it was a very easy thing for us to do without really forcing ourselves. '
Tomas to continue: 'One of the weird things with the lyrics of the music is that the music is based on the mood at the moment when I was writing it, most of the time I was down so it has more sorrowful melodies, the funny thing is that when Christianna brought me the lyrics to the songs it was like she was getting what I was thinking... I mean I wrote one of the songs when something happened to me with a friend of mine I lost, and through the lyrics it’s like she actually knew what I was going through and the lyrics are exactly what I thought at the moment I was writing the music. So it’s a very fantastic chemistry between us. I know I can write the music and Christianna would understand straight away how I am feeling to fit the lyrics.'
Can you comment the four titles of the demo CD?
Tomas: 'The song "Bear Infinity" was the very first song that was written for the band. All the songs on the demo were actually written when I had just moved and all I had in my house was a computer, my instruments and a bed, so I spend all my time on the PC writing and Christianna writting the lyrics next to me. So you can say that this is a very special song for both of us!
"I dream of you" - This song is actually written for somone very special to me. Both music and lyrics are by me and it is a very personal song that we never play live cause I want it to be played on a very special occasion. It is something between a love song for a person I love and a song written for people that are very close to me that are not with us anymore or/and that I loved but life unfortunately sent them far away from me.
"Always Forever" 1 and 2 - These two songs represent two different views of a relationship. When a love is so strong that love and hate get twisted together making life unbearable either together or apart. Always 1 represents the woman's point of view about how much she loves her partner and Always 2 the view of the man that loves her so much that dying creates a feeling of hate that since he can never be with her again he prefers to have her suffer like he does rather than have her live on and be happy with someone else.
"Escape" - This song really just came out of nowhere. I had written this song some time ago and had just left it. Then one day Christianna took the CD I had with this song and came to me with the most wonderful ideas for the vocals . The song talks about loosing someone loved and the feelings that you experience trying to let go and carry on with your life and all the things that come back to haunt you. As the title says Escape from something that unfortunately did not work out.'
Anything else you want to add?
Tomas: 'Well, again, we hope to come to Belgium very soon; it is one of our goals indeed. And above all, to anyone that is trying to follow the music and start a band is basically just to follow their dreams. Whatever the difficulties, it’s worth following your dreams. Otherwise, one day you get to a point where you think “why didn't I join a band?, or why didn't I start a band?” and then it’s too late. So always follow your dreams, whatever you do. That’s actually the only thing that keeps us alive.' Christianna: 'I would like to add something too. In an interview we gave there was a question asking “How seriously are you guys doing this? Where are you guys going?” and I didn’t know what to answer. I don’t really know where Bare Infinity is taking us but we are eager to follow Bear Infinity wherever they want us to go and we are going to enjoy every step of the road because I feel very lucky I met these guys and I can share my dreams with them because that is what I always wanted. I was not lucky enough to have any brother and sister in my family, but life kind of owed me that and gave it back to me by giving me four people to share my dreams with. They mean the world to me, no matter if things go jeopardy and even if there is no future for us, I know in my heart those are going to be the future of Bare Infinity because Bare Infinity are our living souls.'
Tomas: 'Well, again, we hope to come to Belgium very soon; it is one of our goals indeed. And above all, to anyone that is trying to follow the music and start a band is basically just to follow their dreams. Whatever the difficulties, it’s worth following your dreams. Otherwise, one day you get to a point where you think “why didn't I join a band?, or why didn't I start a band?” and then it’s too late. So always follow your dreams, whatever you do. That’s actually the only thing that keeps us alive.' Christianna: 'I would like to add something too. In an interview we gave there was a question asking “How seriously are you guys doing this? Where are you guys going?” and I didn’t know what to answer. I don’t really know where Bare Infinity is taking us but we are eager to follow Bear Infinity wherever they want us to go and we are going to enjoy every step of the road because I feel very lucky I met these guys and I can share my dreams with them because that is what I always wanted. I was not lucky enough to have any brother and sister in my family, but life kind of owed me that and gave it back to me by giving me four people to share my dreams with. They mean the world to me, no matter if things go jeopardy and even if there is no future for us, I know in my heart those are going to be the future of Bare Infinity because Bare Infinity are our living souls.'
Photography by Stéphane Odent www.stepix.be
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