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Arven is new exciting band, 5 women and one guy. Sounds like a bad movie, but it's not. It is about a band formed by musicians with both classical and heavy metal background. The result comes in form of their debut album Music Of Light, a marvelous and mystic cd that has reached fans from all over the world. With such an album we needed to get their own comments on the latest news.
I can see that you are very ambitious with the music, no ordinary record you have as your debut, please tell us about the beginning of Arven?
And why did you choose the name Arven? I mean since there are also other bands with this name. It could be confusing...
Arven was founded by Anastasia in 2006. I was the first member who joined the band and together we were looking for other musicians to play with us. After many months of searching and a lot of changes in the line-up we finally were complete by the beginning of 2007 and then we finally started playing gigs. It is always difficult to find the 'one' name for a band. It was no different for us. We finally all agreed on Arven, because of our interest for the fantasy saga Lord Of The Rings. Me and the other girls (of course) also like the story of the she-elf Arven who give up her immortality for her love! So for us Arven stands for strength, sensitiveness and an ancient world far away...perfect for an almost all-girls melodic metal-band!
You are right, there are other bands with this name....we didn't know it by the time we chose our band name. So actually WE have to get the most famous one! :)
When did you start writing songs for Music Of Light?
Most of the songs on the album were created right in the very beginning of our band history and some of them were actually almost done, when Anastasia and I were the only band members.
Do you write songs as a band? Or is it mostly Anastasia who make all the songs?
For our first album Anastasia did the most work. She always had the first idea and we arranged them together and did some changes in the process. Carina wrote many of the lyrics. And I think both of them did a really great job! But this working method is changing since the last year. At the moment we are working at our next album, where the songs will not only be written by Anastasia.
I noticed that you have described the Celtic atmosphere on your record. Have you preferences for this kind of music?
I think one characteristic of the band is our versatility. The Celtic atmosphere is one part of our music which is very important for our style and which I personally love very much... But if you would ask our drummer Till, I think you would get a different answer. We get a lot of influences and everyone is trying to fill in something which he or she likes. So I don't think that our female and soft side is more important than the heavy and strong one...all together it's Arven.
By the way: what bands / artists made you start playing? And which bands / artists are you listening to these days?
This is, like the question above, really difficult to answer, because all of our band members have different musical backgrounds. We have some real 'metalheads' in the band like Till, Lisa and Anastasia. Carina, Lena and I started out from the classical music. Bands who inspired all of us are for example Blind Guardian or Nightwish.
How long did the recordings take? Where did you record Music Of Light? And who produced the album?
Actually it took a lot of time to record Music Of Light, because it was our first album we learned a lot of things by making mistakes. The guitars, the bass and the keys were recorded by Kai Bender. Tobias Paldauf recorded the main vocals and the drums. We recorded the choirs with Stefan 'Stef' Schmidt from Van Canto. Finally the album was mastered by Sascha Paeth at the Gate-Studio in Wolfburg.
Which songs do you think represent Music Of Light best? And why?
I think Music Of Light represent the album best, because this song includes almost all of Arven's characteristic ingredients. There are some soft and heavy parts, along with a medieval touch and classically influenced parts...all in one song. This is actually one of the reasons why we chose Music Of Light to be the song giving the title of the album.
Will you do a video? Which songs would you like to visualize?
We have plans for a video, but first we need somebody who wants to make it and is able to do a good professional job on it!! :)
I think there are many songs which we can visualize. Midwinter Nights for example would be great, but this would be really difficult and perhaps too expensive.
I guess you already got some feedback. Are you satisfied so far?
We are very satisfied with how the album becomes more known every day since the CD-release. We didn't expect this. There are lots of really good reviews from all over the world showing us, that we are 'on the right track' and that we are able to touch peoples heart with our music, we are glad about. There are some bad too, of course, our music is definitely different and we didn't expect that everybody loves our album. That's okay as long as they keep talking about us. :)
What about playing live? Anything new on the way?
We had some great gigs since the album was released, and there will be more next year. At the moment playing live is our great priority, so we are looking for possibilities to play! If there is anybody out there who book live show and is interested.... Let us know!! Playing on a big festival in summer the next years would be really great.
Talking about the internet.... Social network is both a blessing and a curse. What's your opinion about it?
For our band social network like Facebook are a real blessing at the moment. We use these platforms to reach new potential fans and to promote the album and the band. Using Facebook we can also easily stay in contact with our fans and get feedback from them, we are always glad to hear what people think of our music. In 'real life' you will never reach so many people with our music if you are not already famous. :) I think it is really helpful to extend our fan base.
Guess many people have wondered why your band consist of 5 women and one man, why is it not a complete female band. Have you any comments on that?
When we started out to search for musicians for Arven we had the idea of an all-girl band and therefore we searched for a female drummer too. Unfortunately we were not able to find a girl who could play metal drums good enough. So we started searching for guys too.... And there he was: Till.
Working with him turned out so great and easy that now we wouldn't want to let him go any more. Considering the second question...Till is doing fine and there are no problems because he is the only guy in the band. :)
It was a pleasure to hear how Arven started their career with the band, how the success is coming and founds the interest for the future on the road and in the studio.
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