// Ashes You Leave
// Ashes You Leave
It’s the first time i interview a band from Croatia, so i’m kind of excited about this one. How did you feel when you played the first time live with Ashes You Leave? Or maybe the first time you ever played in a band?
Haha, well, i must admit that Im a bit excited since this is one of my first interviews, and definitely the first with someone from Belgium. About being the first time on stage with Ashes You Leave…hmm, now it seems so long time ago… Well, I was pretty scared not to fuck up some part of the song, cause i heard pretty much about them before i started to play with them. So I concentrated on playing and hide myself behind Berislav, guitarist, which wasnt so hard since he`s almost 2 meters tall:) But guys and girls from band are so great, that very soon we became best friends, and the scary feeling left pretty quickly.
I always found it hard to believe that Morbid Records ever signed a band like Ashes You Leave. The unique style is somehow not appealing to the regular genres Morbid Records deals with. So why did they ever give you the chance of releasing albums? What’s the story behind ‘getting signed’ with Morbid Records?
Well yes, its strange. But there`s not much of a story behind it. We (khm, they, since I wasnt in band yet;)) got in the studio, recorded a demo and send it to Morbid Records, and they have contacted us back, and we`ve got a contract.
Are you happy with the work they do for you?
In general, were not so happy about their work, and as you mentioned above, they are more grind-death oriented, so thats the way where most of money goes, and we are stuck with leftovers. Thats why we are thinking about finding some other label, probably the one which will be more suited with our genre.
Do you know Forgotten Silence? When listening to the Fire-album, that was a band that came in mind (but i always forgot their band-name untill now). Are you in contact with this band? I don’t think you have the same music, only the atmosphere sounds alike. Is this typical for bands from your area?
Heh, nope, never heard of them. But i believe im gonna have to find some of their albums now?:)
How’s that area like? Are there a lot of Croation bands worth mentioning?
Croatia? For me its beautiful, but I guess everyone says for his country that is the best place for him. I dont know, I love that I can go to the sea if I want, I can go to the mountains if I want, and I can go to some meadow, and its all about one hour drive distance.
You also write for some sort of a webzine, what’s your job with them?
Wow, this was unexpected! Yes, im writing some reviews and do interviews and stuff, well, ordinary e-zine jobs, you know;) Thats the thing I started to work on with some friends over the internet long before I joined Ashes You Leave, and I am very proud that now I can say that today it is the first and the biggest Croatian metal e-zine. Although playing AYL takes pretty much of my spare time, I intend to continue working on that project. Feel free to visit it on www.cmar-net.org , cause although its on Croatian, soon we will make english version of e-zine part that deals with Croatian demo bands.
I got to please the less intelligent readers too, so here are a few really cliché-questions. What’s your favourite band and why is that?
Believe it or not, but this is one of questions I find pretty difficult to answer. Since im writing reviews, i constantly listen a lot of bands and genres, and I dont like being passionate blind follower of just one music genre or band. So I cannot say that i have favorite band, but I have favorite bands, and here i must mention Iron Maiden, Blind Guardian, Nightwish, Children Of Bodom, Cradle Of Filth, Rhapsody, Bal Sagoth, Death, Sonata Arctica, and so on and on.
Do you remember the first metal-album you ever bought?
Unfortunately no, but one of the first was Ride The Lightning from Metallica, and I still just love to listen it.
Ashes You Leave music is like a mixture between metal and gothic i think. Where are your roots in music?
We started as 100% doom metal band. As the band has changed many members, with coming of new ones, the style began slightly differ. When Berislav came to AYL, music really started to change towards technical and faster music. So the doom part began to fade. I guess that guys that are most «guilty» for today sound, gothic metal are Berislav and Gordan.
Is there a certain concept on the Fire album? Maybe something to do with witches? (the burning thing).
Haha, no the burning thing doesnt have any connections with witches. The album wasnt intended to be conceptual, but it turned out to be one in a way. All the lyrics says about life, love and romance, so the fire had the turn up somewhere, and I think it gives a nice package to the whole thing.
I think the music behind Ashes You Leave is rather complex. So from that point of view, i presume you are all pretty talented musicians? Is there one masterbrain in the band, or are all members equally involved in the process of making music?
Thanks for the compliment! Yes, the most of the album came from the brain of that big guy Berislav. He gives the most of ideas, especially guitar work, but in the proces of making songs, everyone in the band is present and we all put something of our own in it.
How do you play live? Does this happen a lot? Would you, on a perfect gig, try creating an entirly differenet atmosphere, by changing the location, decoration the place, lighting candles, …?
We got a very small oportunities first ’cause we don’t have money for some real shows and also the problem are clubs where we play-they often got small stages and ’cause there’s seven people in the band we always had mess:) Probably if we’ll have oportunity for some stage effects we’ll use it- we got lots of ideas but as i said before our possibilities are limited.
Listening to Ashes You Leave makes me wander who you are. Who the band is. I always images a few persons really depressed and extremely romantic. Is love and romance and important role in your life?
People always imagined us like some depressive and extreme people but, believe me, we are normal persons who live normal lifes. Of course that love is important for us-for who isn`t anyway:) but we’re not some obssesed people who live only for emotions and suffering… we live in 21. century like all people:)
People end their life, die … do you think death is the end? Do you ever think of dying? Would you even consider committing suicide?
Suicide is one of the things that happens on this world that i think, and hope:) never will understand. Some say that life is a gift, some says it is a piece of shit, but either way it is worth living. I like to watch a movie from its beggining till the very end, and not cut it right in the middle just because i didnt like some particular scene. Death awaits us all, why rush with it? About death… I just love Chucks riffs! RIP. Oh, not that Death, sorry:) I dont know, as I said earlier, death awaits us all, so were all gonna find out whats the catch with that death thing. Remember the movie metaphor? Some movies has hidden parts which comes after the list of roles, so i like to look at it on that way, that something exists after the life as we know it.
You have a wonderfull website, it has a really great design. Did you create it? How do you feel about mp3-music? Do the bands really survive on the album-sales when you have a 5-album contract with them?
Thanks, website was designed and created by Neven Mendrila, who just left the band, so now we will see how were gonna catch up high standards he set. I think mp3 music is great for promotion. But unfortunately, it has taken its wings, so now it threatens the music industry. But still i believe that its not such big threat as medias know to present them, cause when i download mp3 which sounds great to me, I go to the shop and buy the album. Its still a big difference in having a CD and booklet in your hands than having a bunch of 1 and 0 on your hard drive. If you look at it in that way, you can conclude that mp3s just brings higher standards for musicians, so that they give their best on whole album and to be inovative. But unfortunately, many people doesnt think this way. Here in Croatia, you can buy an mp3 CD, with 10 albums on it for 5 EUR. Thats horrible.
It’s always fun to hear about future plans. So if there are any, feel free to mention. And with this, i’d like to end this malignant interrogation. Thanx a lot for answering and all the luck in the world with the band and all your activities.
Currently we are working a lot on our new songs. It was planned to go to Eurorock festival in Belgium (heh, perhaps we would do a live interview than?:)) but unfortunately, all festival is cancelled. So were gonna make new songs, put them to CD, and see where it could lead us. After that, who knows…Thank you for interview, its been a lot of fun, keep rocking!
Interview conducted with Ashes You Leave for FishComCollective, somewhere in 2003. Read more about this band on their website: ashesyouleave.org