Andy Winter (Winds, Age Of Silence) interview (written by Carla Morton)

Andy Winter is best known as the pianist and writer for both Norwegian Avantgarde/Progressive metal bands Winds and Age Of Silence. I had the occasion to speak with him so he will tell us things about Winds and will also speak about a new Age Of Silence material.

Hej Andy, how have you been up to?

Andy: Well, in terms of my music, lately, my focus has been on Age of Silence. We have come quite far with the recordings of a new album by now although I am still waiting to record my parts.

To take them in order, first tell me about Winds, when the band was formed.

Andy: We have to go far back in time then. Back to the end of the 90s basically. The idea for the band actually was 17 years ago but the first CD was released in 2000.

First EP ‘’Of Entity And Mind’’ was out in 2001 and later next year was released the album “Reflections Of The I”. Tell me about these two, how the recording were going.

Andy: Yes, you’re right. We finished it in 2000 but it was not released until 2001. Both of these albums were recorded in a quite conventional way in that we entered the studio and did all the parts within a short amount of time, then we mixed it and mastered it probably within 3-4 weeks total. To this day, Reflections is probably the most stressful and exhausting recording session I have done because we had time constraints and it was pretty much non-stop work. This was also the last time we recorded in this fashion, as after this we went to a longer and more drawn out recording process happening intermittently over several months or more.

’The Imaginary Direction Of Time’’ was the third album and the last album released was in 2007 ‘’Prominence And Demise’’.

Andy: Right. And so as we matured as a band and learned from our past albums, we found new ways to record and basically improve the whole album making process. I personally feel that Imaginary came together in a nice way. It was mixed in Canada by me and Carl and a Canadian engineer. And the sound is quite unique. We also used a full string quartet on this album as opposed to Reflections where we had only a trio. We continued that with Prominence as well and recorded it in an old church. Said album shows a bit more of our technical side than before. So it’s all a natural progression of our development basically.

Is Winds on hold or you are preparing new stuffs?

Andy: We have been writing some material slowly over the past years. It’s not on hold as such, but we are waiting for a few things to align timing wise before we can proceed. So I guess you could say it’s on hold until after the summer at least. But even so we are slowly working on it. Aside from the other guys, the challenge is also that I can’t juggle too many things at once, so all my projects do compete for the same time, and I have like 4-5 bands/projects now so it’s a lot. Even though Winds and Age of Silence are my main priorities right now.

Now tell me about the other band, Age Of Silence.

Andy: Sure. We started that some years later. About 2002 if my memory serves me right. The first album came out in 2004. It was seen as a Winds side project because of overlapping members, but it was always intended as a separate and independent band. Today the band also features exactly half of Winds. Myself and Jan Axel von Blomberg (Hellhammer). In addition we have Lars A. Nedland (Lazare) on vocals and BP M Kirkevaag (BPMK) on guitars. We don’t have a permanent bass player but worked with an excellent bass player whose name is Mike Young for the new album.

One album, ‘’Acceleration’’ and one EP. Tell me about both of them.

Andy: Acceleration is our first full length album. We recorded it in the same studio as the first few Winds records. This recording was done with a mix of methods, both a condensed period with recording and a longer and drawn out period for some things. And the mixing was also done in Canada in the same studio as Imaginary. So that’s a bit about the time and place of the recordings etc. The EP was done in much the same way. The idea was just for the EP to be a small interlude between the two albums. Of course later on we ran into some various delays for various reasons, including the guitar players leaving and having to recruit a new guitarist. 11 years went by. But we have picked up again now, so there will be a new album. For sure.

Do both bands have a similar lyric theme?

Andy: Not in the slightest. I write the lyrics in Winds. Lazare writes them for Age Of Silence. My lyrics are much more like poetry but his are more like short stories. It’s a totally different style of writing. And different themes too. Plus I would say the lyrics in Age of Silence are quite unique. Some of the most different lyrics you will ever read. His concepts are wild.

Hellhammer, the know drummer for Mayhem, Arcturus and other bands seem to be into both bands, also members from Borknagar, ex-Khold, Solefald into these two bands.

Andy: Yes, other than me, Hellhammer is the only overlapping member currently in both bands. Lars E. Si (aka Eikind) used to play bass in Age of Silence but will focus on just Winds going forward. So each band has a slightly different creative core of people.

Is there something as an influence? As you use some neo-classical subgenre combining it with progressive music and avantgarde. The piano is all the time present!

Andy: It’s a question I’m often asked. But I think we just make the music that comes naturally to us within the parameters of each band. The idea for Winds was to create a band with classical influences using a small chamber orchestra to create a more intimate feel, and by integrating the piano. In other words, opposite of that large symphonic sound that many metal bands do. Of course the sound evolves for each album, but this was the basic idea. With Age it was to combine more “riffing” with the use of various keyboards and atmospheres. The major difference: minimal or no use of keyboards/synths in Winds. It’s piano and strings (classical instruments).

What do people say about these projects? Do they like it?

Andy: The people who like these bands tend to like them a lot from my impression. We have some very dedicated followers. Of course we don’t have a huge commercial appeal with these projects. I think it is too different and too much of a niche to have widespread appeal among the metal crowd. But we usually get some great feedback.

Do you have a message for the people who are listening to your projects?

Andy: Of course it would be that we appreciate people giving attention to our music. There is so much music out there now vs. just 10 years ago. I can’t even keep track. But hopefully all the people who remember our albums from the 2000s will check out our new stuff too when it comes out. And hopefully we will gain some new followers along the way too.

Thank you for your time Andy. Cheers!

Andy: Thank you for the effort in preparing for this interview. I appreciate it!

https://www.facebook.com/andy.winter.official
https://www.facebook.com/windsnorway

https://www.facebook.com/aos.site

(c) Carla Morton