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Akira: Live every day like it's your last!
1) Hey guys! Tells us what have you been up to lately? What’s new?
A lot! we played a few more shows during the summer and practised a lot before we decided it was time for us to start all over. This autumn we started to work with our new producer Markus Gumball (Guano Apes, Lovex, All Ends...) - which means that three of our old songs and actually the whole band will get a complete make over! so show wise we're kinda on hiatus for the rest of the year. The recordings are finished but there's a new photoshoot planned, a video and loads of other exciting stuff I won't mention now because it's top secret - you'll have to be patient to see what it's all about. We won the Maxi King Royalsoundz Contest which actually lead us straight to our new Producer. I can't begin to describe how surprised I was and I'm so thankful for all the fans and friends that voted for us! we won a professional videoshooting worth 15.000 € and a Digital Single Release and that's really more we would have expected. Thousands of bands attempted the Contest, only 30 came into the final and to this point we had never won anything - you can imagine how happy we were. We also finally found a really talented young man called Tenko 'The incredible Sushi' Hatori who agreed to be our bassist - which means Akira is now complete and we never have to play without a bassist again hahaha. As you can see...2009 was much more successfull for us. We had a great time playing all those shows and gaining fans along the way. Hopefully 2010 will be just as great but we're quite positive it will. The 'new' old songs sound amazing and we're very proud how they came out. I'm sure people will dig it.
2) Your EP is out. Which songs does it include? How do you feel about the release of the EP?
The EP includes the songs "Erinnerung", "Gedacht", "Gefangen" and "Wenn du gehst" - we recorded earlier this year in a different studio. It's our first release and I really didn't expect people to actually contact us that they wanted to purchase the CD hahaha - we're living in the age of music downloads after all and it's easy to download stuff from myspace. Anyway - it was something we had to do because loads of people showed interest and asked us if we would be releasing something in the near future, a long time before we started to work with Markus Gumball - we didn't want to disappoint them so we thought - why not put 4 of our songs on a CD and release it as the 'Verloren' EP? to be honest - 7 Songs were meant to be on this EP but we had a lot of trouble with our last Producer who also did the mixing of all of our songs for the last two times. That's why it just includes 4 of our songs and for the fairness of the situation I don't want to explain what exactly happend and blackmail the guy. I've put "Deine Tage sind gezählt" "Spiegelbild" and "Die Suche nach dir" free for download on myspace a few days later so people had the chance to get all the songs. Everyone was okay with that and no one got hurt. We didn't have money left for the Cover design so I did it myself. It's not a big deal - just a small release and I guess 5 € for a CD with acceptable quality is pretty good for a new band. I'm much more excited about our 'new' old songs now because they're going to be KILLER. The overall quality is more commercial, more polished - definitly more us and we're very happy with how it all came out. Working with Markus Gumball was a very relaxing, comfortable and creative process. He's a genius and he knows what buttons to push to make a band sound the way they should sound. I might be a little more excited about our new stuff now but that doesn't mean I forgot about our other material and where we've come from. 'Verloren' is still somehow our baby. Yeah I think that's how I feel about the whole release.
3) When can we expect your full length album?
Hopefully somewhere in 2010. I really can't promise anything right now! We have so much new material we still need to finish that it might take us a while to figure out which are the best choices to be put on our album. I think we definitly need a few weeks of Pre Production to sort out the crap because that's how it works sometimes. Not every song is good enough to be featured on an entire album.
4) Your forum has been launched. Do you often post there? What’s your favorite way of keeping in touch with your fans (Meet&Greets, vie Internet, etc)?
Indeed! The message board was created by Sonja and Eve, the same girls that are managing one of our Support Sites! they are really doing a great job with it! although we really have a strict and busy shedule - which is probably pretty ordinary if you play in a band - we try to log on there as much as possible and keep in touch with the fans. Evil Ette (aka Tjörven) is the only one who never went there because he constantly forgets his password. He also has no internet and if he has the chance, he doesn't use it hahahaha. I guess Evil Ette is just not really fond of the whole internet thing if you know what I mean. It's not because he's not interested, he just seems to have a love/hate relationship with social networks of all kind hahahaha and he probably prefers to talk to people face to face. For me, Christian, Tenko and Johanna the internet is a great opportunity to stay in touch with people - no matter if it's with our fans our family or friends. I'm addicted to twitter and I try to update people about what's going on in my life or inside the band as much as I can. Johanna mostly manages our myspace but I think she shares my opinion on that. Although I must admit that Meet&Greets are always the better option. I mean - you can see how people react and it's much more personal as to chat through the internet and we really enjoy that but sometimes the Internet is the best way to stay in touch with people from everywhere, everytime. Not all of our fans are from the same town as we are. Or you know...you can do both - be at a M&G and update your twitter that you're doing a M&G! I'm sorry I think you can tell I really have a problem...my bandmates sadly don't share m love for twitter. It's driving them nuts.
5) How do you picture a perfect video to a song of yours? What song would you pick up to shoot a video to?
I must say...I have no idea! a videoshoot is planned for early January but we haven't decided which song we want to use so the actual concept is not clear yet. We didn't even talk much about it yet except exchanging a few rough ideas but I'm sure it will kick some serious ass once we've settled on something. It's going to be a surprise! I'll let people decide if it's perfect or if it simply sucks. If I would be the one directing it, it would just be pointless. It would have naked woman, it would have dirty, dingy club nights, it would have drugs and alcohol, it would have close ups although I'm a drummer and I'm not supposed to even have close ups, it would have psychedelic effects as seen in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, it would have penguins, snow figures and it would have...Guns? I'm hopeless - we're all glad I'm not the one filming it.
6) Some musicians are into staging musicals after their albums (like Green Day, The Who). Would you like to do the same thing some time?
Maybe! I don't know if our music is epic enough for that. But our lifes might be.
7) There’s much fuss and craziness about Twilight saga – both books and movies. What do you think about it?
I knew that people would be asking me about it one day since it's impossible to flee from it nowadays, isn't it? anyway...I haven't read the books but many of my friends who did read the books complained about the movies not transfering the feelings the book transfered for them. I was forced to watch the movies recently and I enjoyed New Moon a little more than Twillight. All in all it's too cheesy for my taste because I'm not into romantic movies in general. I either need action or a creative storyline to keep me interested and Twillight's lacking both things in my opinion. Some people should give it a try I guess. It's not mindblowing but worth a watch. I'll be staying loyal to Harry Potter. The actor for Edward Cullen was a good choice though.
8) What are the five best albums of all times in your opinion?
Wow that's a hard question because I have LOADS and I'm such a looser if it comes to actually pick five out of what? 1000? well, I'll try to be really picky! AFI's The Art of Drowning, Bullet for my Valentine's Scream Aim Fire, Avenged Sevenfold's Self-Titled, Metallica's Black Album/Self-Titled and Jawbreakers Dear You.
9) How would you bring sunshine into a rainy and dull day?
With a lightbulb? or putting some radioactive material into a radioactive-safe bottle?
10) What’s your life motto
Live every day like it's your last!
Interview by Olga Polomoshnova
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Akira Official MySpace http://www.myspace.com/akiraofficial |
