On your new album “Pearl Hunting” you use guest players from across the globe with their own ethnic instruments. The opening (title) track features Max Kerner on Celtic bouzouki, Caterina Castiglioni on Germanic lyre, Yanina Yakshevich on Belarusian duda and Ukrainian sopilka and Ada Rusinkiewicz on backing vocals. How did you fit them all in this folksy song that lasts no longer than 1:45 minutes?
“Because we can! 🙂 We envisioned this track as an introduction to the entire album, an invitation for an adventure with us. It was meant to encapsulate the concept of a musical journey around the world in a compact, focused way. That’s why we wanted as many authentic instruments as possible to bring this idea to life. Initially we planned to only record the Celtic bouzouki because it’s one of those instruments that’s practically impossible to imitate convincingly. But then we realized how much we wanted the Belarusian duda to be part of this track too. Sergey (Butovsky: vocals/bass) reached out to Yanina Yakshevich, a bagpiper from the band Nevrida, which he had played with in the past, and she was happy to join us. Eventually we decided that since the lyre both opens and closes the track, it would be amazing to record it as well. That’s how Caterina Castiglioni got involved. And we already had two tracks done with Ada (Rusinkiewicz: vocals) so she was happy to join us one more time. We believe that thanks to these unique, authentic instruments (and the talented musicians who played them) this short song, originally intended to be a simple intro, became a true essence of the album’s concept.”
The Covid pandemic in 2020 made it possible for you to work on a distance with musicians from Belarus, Finland, Ukraine, Poland, Mongolia, Indonesia, Portugal, Germany, France, Peru, Japan and Italy. It also gave you inspiration for the album title. You wanted to explore different music traditions like diving for pearls in the deep sea?
“Yes, exactly! The pandemic brought its challenges, but it also opened up new possibilities for collaboration. When working on a new song, we typically had a video call to discuss it, where we’d open up a map for inspiration and explore regions that had interesting sounds we could incorporate. This process allowed us to dive deeper into the musical heritage of different countries, and each track on the album feels like a treasure we uncovered along the way – a ‘pearl’ we discovered.”
“Exorcism” is clearly inspired by music from the Orient. Who do we hear on this song, what instruments do they play and what motivated you to write the lyrics for “Exorcism”?
““Exorcism” was created with the help of an amazing Mongolian musician named Ulziisaikhan Khoroldamba. He recorded the morin khuur, a traditional Mongolian bowed stringed instrument, and throat singing parts. For me personally, exploring the
Mongolian metal scene was very educational. Of course I knew The HU, but it turned out there are so many fantastic bands out there that deserve recognition that I’d highly recommend all folk music lovers to dig more into it. The song itself was born out of reflecting about cleansing one’s inner demons: real ones or metaphorical ones. It’s about a person battling an addiction, fully aware of its destructive nature but desperate to overcome it. They’re willing to go through a ‘ritual’ or exorcism to rip it out of themselves, no matter what it takes.”
The info sheet reads: “Lyrically, “Pearl Hunting” spans a wide array of themes, from love, lust, and personal struggles to tales of vampires and creatures from Japanese folklore, offering listeners an immersive and varied storytelling”. Can you draw some lines from these themes to the album track list? What theme is connected to which song?
“Sure. “Black Waters” would be the one mostly focused on love/lust. You can say that “Exorcism” is about personal struggles. “Willow” is a vampire story, but I guess it’s also about love to a certain extent. 🙂 And “Jorōgumo” is inspired by the myth of the Japanese spider demon.”
“Blame Me” is the first real symphonic metal song on “Pearl Hunting” with the band full in action. Shall we give them their well earned credit and let you tell us who your band members are?
“Indeed, on this album the boundaries between the genres become very blurry as some songs have a stronger folk element in it. “Blame Me” was originally envisioned as a fusion of jazz, Armenian folk, and prog-metal. We knew that the piano and keyboards would take the center stage and here our keyboardist Maria Shumanskaya truly shines. As the song progresses, the piano gives way to a surge of fiery riffs and runs from our guitarists Ilya Rogovoy and Ilya Petrashkevich, together with the drums by Rostislav Golubnichiy and bass by Sergey Butovsky. And of course the duduk recorded by Lernik Khachatrian.”
It’s almost impossible to mention every folkloric instrument that can be heard on “Pearl Hunting”, so let’s pick out a few most people will know. Where can we hear the Uilleann pipes, the pan pipes, the lute and the hurdy-gurdy and who plays them?
“Uilleann pipes recorded by Ella Zlotos can be heard in “Wintersleep”. Pan pipes by our Peruvian friend, Carlos Carty, are featured in “Losing Faith“. Both the lute and hurdy-gurdy are used in “Willow”. They were recorded by Emma Spinelli and Rúben Monteiro.”
What were you thinking about when you wrote the lyrics for “Black Waters” and where did you find Maulana Malik Ibrahim, the folk musician from West Java, Indonesia who sings with you in his dialect Sundanese?
“When writing “Black Waters,” I was thinking that while passion is often likened to flames, I’ve always found this analogy peculiar. To me, passion resonates more as black, deep, enigmatic water: a gradual immersion into its tender embrace, concealing an unfathomable abyss beneath. It’s a journey where you’re enveloped in its warmth, yet unaware of what lies beneath. Surrendering entirely can be as perilous as the fiercest blaze, though. We found Malik on YouTube and contacted him with the intent to record suling and gamelan, traditional Indonesian instruments. It turned out that he also sings, and he suggested adding a part in Sundanese, which would add some extra layers to the song, and we absolutely loved this idea. He showed us the lyrics he came up with and they just fit perfectly.”
Via “Willow” we arrive at the Middle Eastern song “September”. On this one we also hear Rúben Monteiro from Portugal on saz and oud and Ada Rusinkiewicz from Poland on backing vocals. Did everybody immediately say yes when you asked them to join you for “Pearl Hunting” or were there also some cancellations?
“All people who ended up on the album did say yes immediately, but sometimes it was really hard to find them. We did have some no’s from other musicians for various reasons. During COVID some of them didn’t have access to a studio, and after it many of the touring musicians were not available. Interestingly, the instrument we hunted for the longest was the duduk. I was actually surprised that this amazing instrument is not so widely used in metal music. However, once the musicians confirmed they would join us, no one let us down. And while it was not easy to work without a possibility to gather in the same studio, I’m very grateful for this opportunity to get to know these incredible people. I felt that even though we may speak different languages and hold diverse religious or political views, music will always be the tool that connects people and that’s what makes it magical.”
We let the Japanese folklore song “Jorōgumo” and “Krew” with the multilingual Polish/Russian lyrics for what they are and end with the acoustic version of “Exorcism”. Is it only you and the piano or is there more than meets the ear?
““Krew” is indeed multilingual, however the lyrics are in Belarusian, Ukrainian, and Polish. These languages share many similarities that aren’t present in Russian, basically all the authors could understand each other’s part without a need to translate them. And the piano version of “Exorcism” was done together with our keyboardist, Maria Shumanskaya. By the time the album reached the mixing stage, we had some extra time and wanted to make use of it. So, Maria recorded the piano parts, and I did the vocals for it. Moreover I can say this is somewhat a tradition for us, as our first album, “Crime Of Passion”, also had an acoustic bonus track.” ■
Henk van Nieuwenhoven