UNTIL RAIN

\r\nAfter I saw the guys live and listened to their record “Reign of dreams”, I decided that I must spread the news about them because they are a great band. I scheduled this interview and talked with Lefteris (keyboards) and Alex (drums) about their band and music in general. Enjoy.
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\r\nMetalzone.gr:  Give us a brief background of the band.
\r\nLefteris: The band started in 2004 but the line-up was complete and we started writing songs and playing live in late 2006.
\r\nAlex: Until then we just played covers, to discover what we wanted to sound like.
\r\nAny new band in the world does that anyway.
\r\nLefteris: In 2007 we decided that we were gone record our first album and in 2008 we entered the studio.
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\r\nMetalzone.gr:  How much time have you been working on these songs?
\r\nLefteris: Some songs were ready from 2006. Generally it took us 9 months to bring them to the form that they are on the album.
\r\nAlex: There is always a big pile of riffs and ideas that we come up with, we just need to determine which parts will be turned into songs.
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\r\nMetalzone.gr:  Tell me exactly what process you went through, to record and distribute this album.
\r\nLefteris: The first thing we did was look for the studio that we would record. In
\r\nThessaloniki there weren’t any studios that suited our needs and we found by chance Vaggelis Gialamas “Fragile Studios” in Athens. We recorded 10 days in December of 2008, 10 days in January 2009 and finally, we mixed and mastered the whole album in May. The artwork was made by Mattias Noren, who is well known for having worked with many famous bands (http://www.progart.com/index4.htm ). Everything was paid by us of course. 
\r\nIn June we played our first gig after recording the record and Kostas from Steel Gallery records happened to be there and he told us that he wanted to put our record out. After arranging the final details, the record was out by Steel Gallery records.
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\r\nMetalzone.gr:  You changed singer during the recordings and bass player after the recordings, how easy is for a prog band like yours to find new members that can play your songs?
\r\nAlex: We have been lucky on that, because especially with the bass player, we knew him all along and we fitted together not only musically, but as friends as well.
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\r\nMetalzone.gr:  What will you do differently in the process of making your second album?
\r\nLefteris: First of all, we have a lot of experience and we know a lot more about production and recording techniques from the recording of our first album.
\r\nAs for writing song, we have matured as musicians and composers.
\r\nAlex: We would like to focus more on the songs and what they have to offer, serve the song and not trying to impress with our music skills.
\r\nLefteris: It’s also very likely to try and record in another country, in order to record a better album and find a bigger record company.
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\r\nMetalzone.gr:  I think that you see the band on a professional level. At least that is the impression you give to people.
\r\nAlex: The band is not a hobby any more , it’s a way of live.
\r\nLefteris: I am studying music in University right now, so I am going to be a musician for the rest of my life. That’s my talent anyway.
\r\nAlex: I am not so sure that I’m gone be a professional musician but you never know what  might happen in the future.
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\r\nMetalzone.gr:  I’ve discussed this with many people and I want your opinion. In Greece we have musicians that are as good as those from other countries, we have bands that write great music, what’s missing from the Greek bands and they can’t have a career?
\r\nLefteris: The most important thing is that Greek bands don’t support each other.
\r\nTake for example the Polish Progmetal scene. The most well known band is Riverside but they support each other. You enter a band’s myspace page and you see on their top friends other bands and these other bands have other bands and you explore the Polish scene just by myspace. They rise supporting each other and they organize live shows together and suddenly we know 10 Polish bands.
\r\nAlex: Another problem is that in Greece you can’t make any money playing this music. The cost for a band to promote their work and play some live shows is too big and most of the time you don’t earn any money.
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\r\nMetalzone.gr:  You might wanna make clear what is going on with your side project, Until 80’s.
\r\nLefteris: Until 80’s is a band that is consisted of me, Alex and Theo on the guitar and we change singers and bass players from time to time. The band plays only covers and is made for fun and to earn some money from playing live. We just made a myspace profile to inform people about our live dates. It has nothing to do with Until Rain.\r\n

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\r\nInterview by : Mr. Krallis
\r\nInfo: http://www.myspace.com/untilrain \r\n

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