In my opinion the Russian band named Blackthorn, with their new album "Witch Cult Ternion", is getting top of Russian metal, their music is worth of playing at home, as well as abroad, which these girls have proven more than once doing foreign fests. Vocalist / lyricist Aina tells us about how things are going in the band (applause, ladies and gentlemen!).

 

Mr.doctor. Hello Aina. You are a girl from the North, I was born in Chukotka, grew up and worked there, in 2003 I moved to Lipetsk, and it's quite cold here, do you feel cold in Moscow?

Aina. Hello. I feel terribly cold, because the weather’s cold and damp here. Though temperatures are lower in Yakutia but the climate is dry and the frost is not that hard.

MD. It's a little "lyrical" introduction (really, should I ask what time is it?). Tell me please, who is in charge of writing the lyrics in the band?

А. I do.

MD. Do you write songs in Russian and then translate them into English, or do you have somebody to translate for you, or do you write them directly in English?

А. I write songs directly in English.

MD. Where did you learn that? Did you study somewhere or just did self-education?

А. I studied English at preschool, at school and university, and self-education as well.

MD. It’s popular these days to write songs in native languages. Do you ever think about writing a song in your native language?

А. No, because it’s not our style, we should play pagan metal, folk metal, and this language will hardly work well with our music.

MD. Well, I don’t know. You remember back in the days a non-English singing metal band was bound to stay underground. And now they sing in all languages, all styles. I listened to an Armenian black metal band singing in their native language. I agree, in screaming it's hard to make out what language it is, but still…

А.Not that such a band stayed underground, it was just not so common to sing in languages other than English. Yes, they sing in whatever language they like now, in general.

MD. Tell me, it must be hard to combine work and music (I don't think that music can fully provide for you). I guess you must be too busy for anything else?

А. Yes, it is very hard. There's not much time left for honing my technical skills.

MD. Your technical skills, do you mean your vocals?

А. Yes, my vocals. To say nothing about just playing the piano sometimes (particularly in my case), I get rare opportunities.

MD. Do you study vocals on your own or do you take lessons? How do you get that voice, is it natural or the product of a long hard work?

А. I graduated from university with a degree in classical vocals. I study on my own everyday, I would like to take courses, but I’ve just got no time for it, alas.

MD. It can be said that's your speciality in the band. I have a question. The situation with vocals in your band now is reminding me of Nightwish back in the days when Marko Hietalla had joined the band on vocals, at first backing up on vocals for Tarja Turunen, but with Annet Olson coming, he started doing solos in some of their songs. His voice is good, but we’ve got used to the female vocal in that band. As is the case with Accept, when Peter Baltes performed four songs from their album Predator, pretty good, but we love them for Udo Dirkschneider's voice. So don’t you think there’s too much of growling on your album? Sure, it sounds very harmonious with your voice, but... With every new album there is less of your vocals and more of the growling. Did you do it on purpose or did it just come out that way in the process of song-writing?

А. We did it on purpose, and it's not less of my vocals. There is still more of clean vocals over the album. By the way, my vocal is also scream, so there is no less of “my” vocals, definitely.

MD. Now a question about the lyrics of the album, what inspired it? Does that cult really exist or is it just your fantasy?

А. The cult from the album’s title hardly ever existed in reality. But the idea came from the cult of the moon, existing since ancient times. People associated this cult with the mystic and dark side of female essence. And the Moon was revered in its three phases - waxing, full and waning, which in turn symbolized eternal birth, life and death. The three phases were also related to the popular theme of "young girl, mother, old woman", and that inspired me to write about the three sister witches.

MD. Pretty dark picture. And I guess music was put over the lyrics?

А. In Blackthorn it's always like that – first we make music, and then write the lyrics, though I always have some lyrical sketches and ideas in stock. That’s how it was this time.

MD. Do you need to sit back and think to make a song, or does it just come up by itself, all of a sudden?

А. Ideas for new songs come in different ways: sometimes in the process of long thinking, sometimes it just pops up in my mind all of a sudden.

MD. That would be enough of talking about the lyrics. I recently watched a movie about how Metallica recorded their album St. Anger. It seemed to me that there was no inspiration, nor creativeness involved. It was just a job, well paid, but not favorite. What do you think about that? I mean to say, if you lost your inspiration, would you give it up or just keep squeezing out more albums?

А. It's hard to imagine! Let’s just say if music doesn’t inspire me and I don’t enjoy myself I would stop doing it. One thing for sure, you should not squeeze anything out of yourself.

MD. How do you get along with the pirates sharing your albums?

А. Quite easy, but with a certain degree of disappointment. Illegal copying and selling is a back side of the progress in music industry, and there's nothing you can do about it.

MD. What genre of heavy music do you think is the most popular at the moment? I think it's power metal.

А. Metalcore and all its branches.

MD. Do you have any ideas for the next album? What about lyrics? What direction will you choose to go in musicality? I’m looking forward to your next album. Will you go deeper into symphonic black metal or you keep that symphonic level of your current sound?

А. Of course, I have some ideas for the next album. So far only in sketches, Witch Cult Ternion still holds the status of a new album and all our focus is set on it. Thematically the lyrics are going to be about the same - witchery. I can't say much about music style because, first, the main part of new material is not written by me, secondly, we never set goals like "let’s make a new album softer" or "let’s make a new album more death metal". We just make kind of music that we like.

MD. All kinds of split projects grow in popularity these days. For a single song or an album. What do you think about inviting some guest musicians, or participating in recording with other groups?

А. We never thought about inviting anybody for Blackthorn's album/song, though we get lots of offers. Maybe in time... I personally show up as a guest vocalist for several side projects. I used to record vocals for bands like ANFEL, Skylord, Dirge Inferno. There’s going to be more of such projects, but you’ll find out about them later.

MD. What kind of music do you prefer?

А. 80% of what I’m listening to refers to metal - mostly black metal, death metal, symphonic, doom metal. The rest belongs to classics, neoclassics, some pop and folk music.

MD. Varaska left the band, no matter where she left, or why. Was it difficult to find a proper replacement, especially a representative of the fair sex? Did you search purposely for a female drummer, or is it just a coincidence?

А. It was a difficult task, and a long search. And we searched purposely, because that’s our line-up, and it’s kind of our "visiting card".

MD. Do you make your own scenic images and costumes, or do you turn to professionals?

А. We make all our scenic images and costumes by ourselves, other people can only help us with realization.

MD. You are five girls in the band, are you friends? I mean, do you meet celebrations together, maybe hang out together, or you're just bandmates?

А. Most of the time we do interact as a band, but still we are friends.

MD. The band doesn't have its official site, why? It’s easy and cheap to make now.

А. We're planning to launch our site this year. I don't think that official sites matter that much, especially now when communities in social networks are so popular. We had a site in the very beginning of our history, but it was hacked at once. So most of its history BLACKTHORN is moving on without an official site on internet, and I can’t say that’s been any obstacle to reaching our goals.

MD. How do you select songs for your videos?

А. Usually, we select songs which we personally think to be hit songs. The ones that can be easily remembered.

MD. As I see you write the lyrics mainly. Do you ever want to try to make music, a complete song, from start to end?

А. I can’t set myself to writing a song from start to end, all for lack of perseverance. But lots of different musical passages – I can easily do that.

MD. One more unordinary question. I’m hanging about on a couple of heavy music sites. And I have noticed this trend - everywhere the forum is full of posts about cats, and lots of comments on them right away. I’ve never heard a word about dogs, for example. I don't like dogs, I have a cat, and a little kitten. It turns out that metal fans love cats? Do you have a cat, or maybe you like any other animals?

А. Interesting question about cats. I often think about it and I come to a conclusion that the character of a cat is identical to that of an average metalhead: he is by himself, independent, freedom-loving, rebellious and so on. Besides, a cat is a mystical animal, and mysticism impresses most of the metal fans. I don't have any pets because I'm often on the road, and I don’t have anybody to take care of it while I’m away.

MD. Could you please say a few words for our site?

А. Thank you for your interest in our group! I wish the Metal-Tracker portal prosperity and good luck!

That's where we finish up. Let's say thanks to this amazing musician and charming woman, and let's not distract her from her work with our foolish curiosity.