Published: Novemebr 20, 2017

Interview by: Comrade Aleks Evdokimov

Answering: Artyom Krikhtenko (vocals, guitar, keyboards)

Hello! We're taking a break after Doom Over Kiev. Soon we will start preparing new material. For Odradek Room and a project under 'code name' Odradek Ladder as well. We haven't abandoned an idea of making a non-metal record. We are going to work on our usual material and newer, softer stuff at the same time. 

Incredible festival. It was our second performance there. This time the line-up was particularly good. Saturnus, Eye of Solitude, Clouds, Swallow the Sun and all the other bands were amazing. There were people from other countries in the audience. In general, it was very good. Unfortunately our performance turned out to be worse than usual. We thought we have to cancel the show 20 minutes before going on stage, because I got ill, lost my voice and had fever. Also a few days earlier our drummer had blood pressure problems and he was taken to the hospital. While playing he had a minor stroke and he hardly made it through the gig on medication. So did I. 

Perhaps it will always take us a long time to release new records. We didn't want our new album to be similar to the previous one. We've spent a lot of time figuring out our new sound and some tricks for a new album. Correcting and finishing our material. We do not intend to make music fast, we intend to make great music. The album was recorded this year in February. 

We didn't want to make the second 'Bardo'. I was looking for elements that would allow our music to be generally unique, without stylistic clichés. 'Bardo' was based on classical elements of different styles. We maneuvered between them and it was clear, that there is post-rock, doom metal or whatever. In 'A Man of Silt' we tried to create synergy of tropes distinctive for different music styles in order to make it sound unique and complex, deliberate. It's often the case when you listen to doom metal bands, let's say, you cannot really feel any difference between them. They are faceless. However, when you listen to Devin Townsend you feel this originality despite huge variety of his albums. Whether it's rock'n'roll, doom or death metal you always feel this is Devin. You will not point at Terria as a regular doom metal band with a touch of prog. It's even hard to define them stylistically.

I hope we have not just a mix of progressive, avant-garde and traditional doom metal. I hope we managed to get unique dramatic music with personality. 

We will always try to balance aggressive and atmospheric bits in a certain way, but generally our music will be atmospheric. Aggressive parts better contrast and enrich atmospheric pieces. Heavy parts got heavier, because we aimed for more emotional saturation in general. I realize that big stylistic range may shrink our audience, though. 

I believe such vocals are more emotionally charged. Although I understand, that in many ways such decisions distant us from what people expect to hear when they put on a record, which includes 'doom metal' among the others. We do not try to make doom metal though. We try to make Odradek Room. 

It is a long and painstaking work. I bring in ideas for our track, arrangements. We play them. When we play the tunes on rehearsals, they themselves seem to ask for certain development. Some things happen spontaneously and they become a part of our sound. For instance, I realized that the sound of Fender Rhodes really suits the track 'Silt Flower' and it will bring some trip-hop vibe. I listened to the whole thing and it was clear, that this is exactly what should be the main keyboard sound. Take, for example, the brass. I wanted to have some kind of cinematic feeling, a feeling of a story, and so I decided to use many brass parts in order to make our music sound like a soundtrack. At first, there is an idea, and then it comes to life and makes us find the right decision. Yes, it takes us a long time to write music, because all the elements have to live alongside one another and find their ideal setting. Synergy must happen. We write most of our material in our 'studio', because tracks usually feel differently recorded rather than live. That is why I think it's impossible to write an Odradek Room album in a rented studio for a week. We tend to correct our arrangements or even harmony during recording sessions in order to tell the whole story better and reflect emotions and the inner world of our protagonist. 

In a way, the concept of our new album is similar to the one of 'Bardo'. However, 'Bardo' described only the projections of the consciousness in its borderline state, death or a dream. It was directed towards understanding the outer world and that the world is the reflection of consciousness. Structurally the first album was based on 'Tibetan Book of the Dead'.

'A Man of Silt' tells a story of personality, its study and search for its own self during its life. You may find something similar story-wise in fragments of 'Steppenwolf' and 'The Glass Bead Game' by Hermann Hesse. But the whole story is presented not as a series of events, but through what happens in the mind of the protagonist as a reaction.

The way of realizing your own self and either accepting its emptiness and illusion, following love, wisdom and calm, or trying to hold onto your ego and understand that 'self' is separated from the outer world, their objective existence and following pain and suffering, caused by ignorance and egocentrism. So the protagonist faces different aspects of his personality, it is divided into different components, different 'self', which pop in and out of existence. The man dives in his frightening and painful illusions, projections of consciousness, then sees bright light and pure nature of reality. 

The truth is that we recorded the album in two languages. All the vocals were recorded in both Russian and English, but only the English version was released officially. Later we will publish the Russian version separately.

I thought that if books and movies are translated, then why not record an album in two languages – 'international English' and 'native Russian'. 

We have not discussed it yet. Perhaps there will be no official release and we'll just put it online. 

This question is very hard to answer. I always wanted to play emotionally rich and intellectual music in the first place and not being tied to a particular style. With elements of doom metal and, let's say, 'doomy vibe'. All my favorite bands are hard to describe stylistically, because often they combine completely different styles of music. Probably we are a part of doom metal scene, but I realize, that orthodox doom metal fans won't find what they are looking for in our music. Nowadays progressive scene is often associated with djent or something like that and not with a variety of means of artistic expression. Maybe we would better fit into progressive context. It's complicated. 'Scene' is a pretty relative notion. I think classification is an activity better suited for listeners rather than musicians. 

To tell the truth I almost have not listened to doom metal for the last few years, at least the new stuff. Although metal in general takes a third of what I listen to at best. That is why it's very hard for me to analyze it objectively. However, on Doom Over Kiev fest I noticed that Ukrainian and Belarussian bands started to make surprisingly interesting and crafty music. It seems to me, that the genre started to enrich itself a lot by looking in different directions. 

Stay conscious and all the best :)