Hello! I’m Artem Krikhtenko, the guitarist, the vocalist and the founder of the band. Other members are Sergey Kuznetsov - the bass-player, and, together with him, we are two permanent members; Roman Borovikov - the drummer, and Ilya Zernitsky – the guitarist, who joined us recently, after the recording of the album. We are from Mariupol, the industrial city of Ukraine. 

Yes, it all started when we were just students. Sergey and I were interested in playing atmospheric heavy music. Then other participants began to come up. Nothing special. We ourselves were getting more mature, our music was constantly changing, as well as the band’s name, and now we are what we are. 

Odradek is a boggart, a living spool of thread, something that evokes a feeling of being broken, abandoned, but simultaneously completed. It does not fit into the concept of human perception, like a product of distorted consciousness. This image refers the reader to the categories of metaphysics. And the room is a fictional house for this creature, or some implications of it. 

Our music was influenced by literature (in particular, by such authors as Kafka, Hesse, Sartre, Camus, etc.), cinema (Lynch, Kim Ki-Duk) and a lot of interesting music, as art-rock of 70's, jazz, post-bop, a variety of heavy bands. The Tibetan tradition of Buddhism also influenced me... to cut the long story short, there were a lot of influences. 

It is always difficult to describe music, especially if it’s your own. Everyone perceives it from his own point of view, sees it through the prism of his own consciousness. If we talk about stamps that we get, sometimes we are called avant-garde doom or avant-garde metal. I like this kind of stamp on the one hand, but on the other hand, it’s not really that important. 

I love its artistic appeal, its ability of being very dramatic, its special atmosphere, and its ability to contain a variety of tempo. Even if you take a medium or slow tempo as a basis, you can easily make your music flow both groovy and aggressively fast, and as slow as possible. I see it as some sort of a wonderful basis for various experiments and inclusions. A tremendous variation of artistic means, both in sound and harmony, can be found in the very sub-genres of doom (sludge, drone, traditional, etc.). Although most doom teams certainly prefer to choose only one artistic means of this huge diversity for the basis of their music. 

The self-release was at the beginning of 2012, one or two months after finishing of recording and mastering. The album was received well by listeners who actually heard it. There were some pleasant references in mass media, but, naturally, not many people heard it that way. 

On recording the album, we sent it to different labels. Some of them weren’t interested one bit, others offered rather bad terms for cooperation. Then, during our search, we came across HDR. We are completely satisfied with our cooperation and the indifference of the label. 

We have completely rewritten the drums section, and the guitars, the bass and the vocals were remastered anew. The sound became much cleaner and brighter. Plus the drums section is now more interesting and better delivered. 

The concept of "Bardo" describes the feelings and emotions of a man on the brink. What exactly happens to the protagonist is not specified on purpose, to get inside of what is going on with him, right to the bottom of it. It's not very important whether this is a dream, death agony, or something else. The main idea is that we follow this path together with the protagonist of the album through all verges of his consciousness. Together with him, we are trying to understand the deep essence of the nature of things and get out of this state. But our character stays emotionally involved in the projections of his mind, and nevertheless stays there.

Is it personal or not? All human emotions and feelings are absolutely universal, as is the mechanism of consciousness. Some of the ideas really originate from personal experience, some of them are the results of retreat and meditation, and some of them are just the general conception of the Buddhist tradition. 

Lyrics are highly important, as far as I’m concerned. Music speaks for itself, it appeals to the senses of a man, creates images. But if the lyrics can also attract, the effect and depth of the impact increases. So, I tried not only to attract a listener emotionally, but intellectually also. I tried to offer listeners to regard the emotional component of their lives, think about the world, which is a projection of their owns. 

Naturally, it’s rather complicated. Some nuances and details are lost in a translation anyway, but the translation of the lyrics album was accomplished by two excellent interpreters, so I hope we’ve managed to maintain the idea, the concept and subtlety of lyrics and symbols. 

There’s no algorithm for this, it’s done differently each time. Sometimes the music itself brings the lyrics, provokes a stream of consciousness. In this case I have to only analyze written images later. Sometimes there is an idea for the lyrics or a concept, and then the according music is created.

As for the contribution of other band-members, I’m in charge of the concept, music-writing, lyrics and mastering. I think when there's a “tug of war” within the group, and when each member lobbies his own songs, it’s impossible to create such an album as Pink Floyd's 'The Wall', because tremendous work concerning the concept cannot be done by several people simultaneously. It is as if a book about one’s life (for example) would be written not only by him, but also by other five writers. In this case, music becomes less personal. That is why I am an adherent for those bands which have the explicit intellectual centre that defines the band.

By the way, our bass player and a close friend of mine Sergei Kuznetsov is a great composer, but he has a wonderful post-rock project “A Walk to Eveningside” for expressing himself. 

I would like to release metal and non-metal albums in turn. The next album is planned to be at the junction of something like jazz and possibly post-rock and trip-hop. It’s hard to say what will become of it, ‘cause it’s nearly impossible to predict what will come to my mind. Then there will be a heavy album again. More likely, the new material will be more aggressive than “Bardo”. But then, again, it’s too early to talk about it. 

Yes, we play live shows. In a short time we’ll be sharing the stage with Shape of Despair and Mourning Beloveth in Kyiv. As for the festivals, we would love to participate there if we receive an offer or get the opportunity. 

It’s different with everyone. I work in the economic sphere of internet developments, the bass-player works at the confectionery factory, the drummer works at the metallurgical plant, the guitarist is a specialist in engineering industries. 

Each of our steps I consider the highest point. 

The very birth of the band was the lowest point. We have come a long way so far, in my opinion. However, this is still just the beginning. And no, I have never felt like giving this up. 

No, there’s nothing more to add. 

Thank you and good luck!