Interview:Arktika

Once again some collaboration work with Luka and we are extremely proud to present to you an interview with "Arktika", an amazing quintet from Germany. This band is on the blog for the first time now, so if you haven't heard of them before, definitely read this and you will absolutely be intrigued. Hope you enjoy!

1. Hello my friend, how are you? First I want to thank you for this interview. Can you introduce yourself and the rest of the band?

My name is Tim, i'm from Cologne, Germany, and i am one of Arktika's guitar players. "Arktika" is a post-rock/sludge band from Cologne. We started playing in July 2008 and have released two records till now. We played shows with bands like "Envy", "Caspian", "pg.lost" and others. The other guys in the band are Marc (vocals), Jürgen (guitars), Felix (bass) and Jürgen (drums).

2. As much as I know, "Arktika" is a name for Soviet nucler-powered icebreaker.Why did you choose that name and what is the story behind the formation of the band?

We were searching for a good name for a long time but we never found something everyone absolutely agreed with. When we recorded "heartwrencher" at Tonmeisterei, Oldenburg we were watching some TV and there was this documentation about the north pole. And then the name of the nuclear powered icebreaker fell: Arktika. We all liked the idea of a silent but very strong ship that moves through a wide arctic landscape. It somehow describes parts of ou

r music...the change between silence and loudness. Even the slowness and power of an icebreaker moving through the ice fits our sound very well.

3. For now you have two releases,one EP called "Heartwrencher" and full lenght "At Zero" that was released last year. Tell me something about it...?

Both LPs were recorded at "Tonmeisterei" in Oldenburg. It's really great to record there because Role is a man with skills, ideas and gorgeous equipment. "Heartwrecnher" was recorded only sixth months after we had started writing songs. It was 20 minutes of material and it was a great experience to record those songs after we had played them over and over again for a while and to see what the would sound like. When we recorded "at zero" things were a bit different. We knew what we wanted and had evolved since our first recording. It was a little bit more experimental in some aspects but we are really happy with it.

4. There is a lot of variation in your sound and a lot of different impacts can be heard...can you tell me something about influences of your work?

When we started the band we talked about bands we like and the direction this whole thing should go to. "Envy" was a band that everyone liked and could identify with. So this was our rough direction we wanted to go to. We all come from different areas of music…indie, punk, metal, screamo, rock and i think this can be heard in our songs.

5. How would you describe the sound that you make? I have an impression that your music has quite a lot of sadness and is generally heavy on the listener from an emotional perspective, a trait not so common with the so called post-metal genre with which you have been tagged.

That's a really good question and i can't really answer it 100% myself. When i look at what people tag us at last.fm for example it's a mixture of "sludge, post-rock, post-metal, experimental and ambient". I wouldn't know how to put that into one word. But when people ask me i mostly say "experimental post-rock" although most people that are not related to indie- or hardcore-music in a wider way don't really know what that should be.

6. I have read your lyrics and they really managed to hit a specific note with me. Please explain to the readers what you write about and what is your main inspiration.

I am not involved in the writing of the lyrics. Our singer Marc is the lyrics-master. As far as i know his inspiration comes from his everyday life, his job, his girlfriend and last but not least the music he loves and which means a lot for him in his life. If you look at the lyrics-sheet of "at zero" you can find some hints at the bottom of some of the songs.

7. Could you give me your thoughts about your local scene? Are there any active bands, zines, the general diy story?

There's quite a lot here in Cologne. We have a nice record shop called "Underdog-Records", some places you can see alternative music at like "Underground", "MTC" or "Aetherblissement". I'm not so much into fanzines but Marc once did one with some friends himself. It's called "dear you" and you can find it at http://www.myspace.com/dear_you_zine.

8. You released your material through "Narshardaa" label from Germany. How did that happen?

When we had finished the recordings for "heartwrencher" we didn't know when or where to release the songs. So we sent them to some smaller labels we liked and Andre from Narshardaa was one of the first to answer. He really liked the songs and wanted to release them only some weeks later. That was really great for us. He liked the artwork as well so everything went really smooth. It's nice to have bands like Toundra, Planks or Dramamine as labelmates.

9. I saw on your site that the "At Zero" release is already sold out and a repress is on the way. When can we expect it?

It should be available sometime in March. We also do a repress of "heartwrencher" and you can expect some nice new vinyl-colours as well.

10. I was quite intrigued by the artwork on your releases. Who is the mastermind behind it?

Although i wouldn't call myself a "mastermind"…that's me. I'm a graphic designer and Marc's lyrics inspired me to the artworks as you can see them now. I created the artworks for both LPs while listening to the songs. I think it's really important that you can feel the music when you see the artwork somehow. By the way: Marc and Felix are designers as well so there's no problem on the side of creative potential in our band.

11. 2010 is behind us. What are your favorite releases of the past year?

I really liked "Like Iron I Rust" by "Kollwitz", "Recitation" by "Envy", "Paisajes" by "Tristeza", "Axe to Fall" by "Converge", "It's Getting Colder" by "We Made God", "blazing fires and helicopters on the front page of the newspaper" by "Suffocate For Fuck Sake" and "Valley of Smoke" by "Intronaut".

12. Besides "Arktika", do members have any side project?

Not really. We all played in several bands like "Reno Kid", "Francis Brady", "Muad'Dib", "Encore" and others in the past. But right now all our musical energy goes into Arktika. We all have jobs so our time is a little limited anyway.

13. Outside of music related work, do you have some hobbies, studies, jobs?

I'm interested in graphic-design, cycling, cooking and hanging around in front of my computer. ;)

14. Plans for the future? Some tour, maybe visiting Serbia once...?

We want to record something again this year although it won't be a whole album i think. One or two songs for a split-LP maybe. We tried to set up a tour this year but the band we wanted to share the road with had to cancel it so we don't have tour plans anymore right now. But of course we want to play other shows this year. There are several areas in Germany we haven't been to and we'd like to fix that. Playing outside of Germany would be great as well. But sadly we have no plans up to now. But we definitely would like to.

15. Time for you to ask a question!

Simple: just tell me about yourself and how you got to know our music.

Luka: What can I say for myself other than that I am a common person in love with music and it represents a major part in my life. After several bands and my zine which I did a while back, now I meddle around with a distro. I also plan on starting a mini label, maybe a zine again, something more like a newsletter.

As for "Arktika", I accidentally found out about you. I was reading on some blog about a new release and saw possitive comments, tried to find "Heartwrencher" and that was love at first listen. Both songs hit me directly. Later I found the new album when it came out and I was amazed. I am very glad that such a band exists and I wish you all the best in your future work, maybe even meet in person some day...

Stefan: Well not much to say I guess, I'm studying management (whatever the hell that means in modern society). My main passions are music and writing, hence the amount of text on this blog. NWNP is probably my biggest project and the one that I am most proud of. I also play bass in a band inspired by occult and folk themes, though that is extremely young. I like artwork and drawing, though I extremely suck at it, guess I have to practice more. Similarly to Luka, I want to expand my blog into a label/zine, maybe even a booking agency some day.

Hmmm, well I actually got into your tunes through Luka. I must admit that at first I couldn't really get into your tunes, though that is most likely due to some weird mood I was in. But the second time I took a listen, "Heartwrencher" just exploded into my face! Love ever since. As written above, it is great so hear such a talented band, sincerely wish that the band has a long lifespan.

16. Thanks again for your time and this interview. Do you have a message for the blog, "fans", friends, bands?

Besides the greetings, wavings and all that stuff i'd just like to say "hail the all-or-nothing-kids". ;)