Interview: Eufobia

Bulgarian death metallers from Eufobia have released their self-titled album last year, as well they have 2 videos out, but below is an interview I had with Niki (vocals and guitar) about the new album, he also mentioned about writing process of a new release, touring plans and others.

 

Hi Niki, nice having this chat with you, also was nice to see you again in April, hope soon to see you again, how have you been?
The pleasure is all mine, Carla. It’s always nice talking to you. Thanks for coming to our last concert in Bucharest, by the way, and above all for standing in front of the stage wearing a T-shirt of Eufobia. I’ve been doing really well recently, thanks for asking, except for some personal issues and the fact that I’m often rather busy with the stuff I ought to do. I must say that it sometimes consumes most of my time and energy, but on the other hand the band is going better than ever and everyone seems to be happy with the progress.

Your new album was released last year, a good album I must say, when I’ve seen you live the some of the new album songs sounded nice, but I let you tell me more about this album, what would be the story behind it?
I’m glad that you like it. It’s certainly a very special album. That’s why we called it simply Eufobia. It took us almost five years to complete and the reason for that was quite simple. Preparing our previous releases we had to make a lot of compromises, but thus of course the final result was not exactly what we wanted it to be. When we started recording this one however, we decided that the album would never be released until we were totally satisfied with the final result. It was a long and painful process, but it was totally worth it and now we’re very proud of the achievement. I know that we certainly wouldn’t have succeeded without the help of some very special people, which names I’d like to mention now. I’m talking about our friend Deso, who recorded the album, our friend Pepinio, who mixed it, the brilliant Bulgarian artist Val Volegna, who created the visual concept, the cover artwork and the videos of the songs “Hater” and “Liquid of Creation”, and of course Peter, the owner of the biggest Bulgarian label Wizard, who released the album. I’m also happy to know that you liked how the songs sounded live, because we’re a live band above all and the concert experiences are most important to us. We belong up on the stage and honestly, we’d rather the people came to see us play live, than listened to our music at home.

How was the feedback of the album?
The feedback was very positive. No reason to complain. We received a lot of attention from both the public and the media. We really like the music, that we make, so we’re surely glad to know that we’re not the only ones who do. We have always been interested in people’s honest opinion about our music. I personally always read carefully the reviews and listen to the comments and I have to admit that the fact that I usually pay attention to what the people say helps me be a better musician. There are many things that one could learn form the others, if one decided to keep one’s ears open. Public opinion is like a window, which gives the musician a better view form another perspective to his own precious art, but on the other hand I must confess that I would never make a song that I dislike just to please the audience.

’’Hater” has a video, what is that video about?
This video has a strong political and social message, just like most of our recent songs. In this video we play simultaneously the roles of prisoners and of oppressors. There’s also an evil dictator, played by me personally. The general idea was that the same person could be a victim or a villain, depending on the circumstances. Both the good and the evil live in every human soul. No man is just an angel or a demon. There was something else too. We didn’t choose the location randomly. One can see that we stand on a big city square. This place really exists. It’s located in the center of our national capital Sofia and ironically it’s called “The Independence Square”. A few years ago thousands of people were going there every evening to protest against the corrupt government of the former Communists. The people stayed there for a whole year and then finally another government came to power, but of course, until this very day still nothing has changed. You probably know the feeling, being Romanian, though. Last year the whole world was watching the protest of the Romanian people against the notorious act number 13, by which the government formed by the former Romanian Communists was attempting to save some well known corrupted comrades from the hands of justice. What a surprise, right? Unfortunately the red plague is not just a Bulgarian phenomenon, is it? No one demonstrates anymore unfortunately, at least not here, but we wish this video to be a reminder that the fight of the good and honest people against the greed and the corruption of the establishment is far from over. We may have lost a battle, but we can’t afford to lose this war.

Before the album to be released, you came out with another video for ”Liquid Of Creation”, there will be new videos, is this in your plans?
 It’s not a secret that nowadays most people are listening to music or looking for new bands mainly in platforms like youTube, so that’s why we’ve been putting so much effort not only in the music itself, but also in the visual concept, which includes the artwork and especially the videos, of course. All these components should function as one, sharing the same general concept. Achieving this conceptual unity has always been our goal. It’s not that easy, but I believe that we have finally found the right guy for the job. I’ve just mentioned him above. He goes by the name of Val Volegna and is without any doubt the most talented person that I’ve ever met. The fact that he was a fan of our music probably also helped. He directed the videos of both those songs mentioned above, “Hater” and “Liquid of Creation” and now he’s making a new one for us for the song “Graveyard”, in which the story of the prisoners and the dictator, told in the video of the song “Hater”, continues. Just wait to see how it ends! We’re going to release the video in September, so stay tuned!

In April you had a small tour along the polish metallers from Christ Agony, how was to share the stage with them?
It’s always pleasent to share the stage with such a cool band as Christ Agony. It was not the first time, by the way. A few years before that tour we had played together in Timisoara, so when we were offered to join them for a tour across Romania and Bulgaria we didn’t hesitate much. These guys are true professionals. They have many years of experience and one could learn a lot from them. It was a great tour. Too short unfortunately, but we surely enjoyed ourselves very much. The reaction of the audience was great and I was pleasantly surprised to see a lot of people wearing T-shirts of Eufobia on those concerts, including you, of course.

Did you start writing new songs for a future album?
 I know that it sounds like a cliche, but we feel more inspired than ever and we’re creating new songs non stop. We’ve already got enough material for a brand new album of Eufobia and we’d like to go back to the studio as soon as we can. This time however, we’d like to take a very different approach. We came up with this crazy idea to record the songs in the studio just like we play them live. This will be something new for us. Usually it’s a common practice when a band makes an album in the studio to record many layers of polyphonic guitars and vocals or to use some fancy studio effects and up until now we’ve made no exception from this general rule, but we decided that we wanted this future album to sound completely raw and sincere. By the way, we’ve been already playing some of the new songs live, so those who attended our last shows are quite familiar with them. Judging by the reaction of the audience they were very well accepted. You heard two of them on our concert in Bucharest actually, so you could judge by yourself. We cannot wait to start recording the new stuff, but of course for now the promotion of the current album is still our main priority.

What about touring, any shows confirmed for summer or autumn?
We have already booked some shows for this autumn, but it’s too early to announce most of them officially. We’re going to make some concerts in our Motherland. Unfortunately I have to admit that there are some important towns in Bulgaria, in which we haven’t played since quite a long time and then we’re going back to Romania for two more shows. On the18th of November we’re playing in Cluj-Napoca supporting Primordial and on the next day, the 19th of November we’re playing in Bucharest on the stage of the Metal Gates Festival. We’re looking forward to coming to Romania again and see our many friends there. Although we tour regularly across Europe, we play mostly in Romania and Bulgaria, because that’s where most of the people who know and like our band live. On the other hand, I make no difference between our local audience and the one from abroad. After all, we’re all metalheads, aren’t we?

Hope in November to see you again, I must!
Yes. That’s right, Carla. You must! I’m looking forward to seeing you there, headbanging in the first row right in front of the stage wearing that same T-shirt of Eufobia, which you wore the last time and don’t forget to bring some friends, will you?

Was my pleasure to have this interview with you Niki, thank you and see you soon! 
I’d like to thank you for giving me the chance once again to say a few words to your readers. I’d be quite pleased if they decided to check our official website www.eufobia.com, where they could listen to our music, find more information about the band or watch our videos. Looking forward to seeing all of them in front of the stage on one of our upcoming concerts. Cheers and best wishes!

https://www.facebook.com/Eufobia/