Robex Lundgren virkblogg.

Have any of you played in other bands? Oh, yes. First guitarist have his own one-man project, some kind of black\post-metal (Monpilat) and plays on keys in post-rock band (A12) Second guitarist plays in post-hardcore\southern rock band (Rewrite)

How is it that you started playing music? Some of us is musician since they were children. But we started to play rock music in the same conditions: when you are young boy, you want to express yourself, you know. Some people find themselves in sport or literature or some other things. So, we found ourselves in music.

What are your names? / Who plays what? / How old are you?

We are:

Den Kotovski  - vox

Vadim Nizamov – Guitar\vox

Igor Sapkowski – Guitar

John Walker – Bass (He conceals his real name and we don’t know why)

Sergey Arhipov - Drums

Have you had other previous members? Yes we are! For 8 years of DoH’s existing, there was many ex-members. People came in and left the band very often. There is no need to itemize this :)

Did you make music even when you were young? Of course. As I said above, many of us started to play music when we were just a boys. For example, Vadim, guitarist, plays the piano since 7 years old, Sergey (drummer) plays drums since 9.

Where are you from? We are From Ufa city, Russia.

What year did the band form? Drops Of Heart was formed in summer 2008

What's your style of genre? So…We think it’s something like modern melodic metal. Maybe it’s metalcore, maybe melodic death metal. We don’t like to give a name to style of our music. But we are sure that it’s 100% metal)

What inspires you? Nature, good literature, beautiful russian girls and bottle of whiskey!

How often and where do you reherse? We try to rehearse as often as we can. Sometimes it’s 3-4 times a week, but it’s at best. We rehearse in our own rehearsal room. It’s a fully equipped garage. True rock)

How have you developed since you started with the music? Firstly, we learned probably the main thing – how to make music. When we were newcomers in music world, we didn’t understand anything of this. Music was just cool and loud thing for us. And loudness was directly proportional to coolness. We didn’t promote our music, didn’t record it in good conditions. Just played it in local little concert halls and thought that it’s our triumph.

Do you have other interests of work outside the band? All of us have own ways of life. Some of us are professional musicians plays in local orchestras. Almost all members of Drops of Heart are students. Playing the metal is good way to “let off the steam” and share emotions with our listeners.

Are you looking for a booking agency, and what are your thoughts around that? Yes we are. We made our tours by ourselves in past. But the next level will be the cooperation with booking agency, we sure. In our country there are some problems with making your concerts by yourself because of huge distance between the cities and other.

Are you looking for a label, and what are your thoughts around that? Label plays the big role in success of band in our days. In particular, if we speak about Russia, you will never be a popular artist without label. Even with help of label it’s very hard to reach the success and popularity.

What made you decide to make this music? It’s a desire to create something beautiful, expressive and significant. It’s our legacy, Many people see the meaning of life in their children, money or career. So, we just want to live forever in our art, if you understand.

What are your songs about? Every song has its own history. We inspire by many things, from personal experience to imperfection of world, and try to make our songs understandable to all.  In one hand, it’s a friendship, dreams, fortitude. In other hand – treachery, war, death of loved ones and other things.

Who does the composing and writes the lyrics? Composers are our guitarist, Vadim and Igor. Vocalist, Den, write the lyrics in cooperation with Vadim.

Do you start with the music or the lyrics? Every time we start with the music.

Have you done any covers live? Yes we are. Few years ago we played cover on the band called Whitechapel – The Darkest Day Of Man. Last cover we did was “Through The Shadows” by Insomnium.

What language do you sing in? We sing in our native language. But in future we plan to record albums in 2 versions – Russian and English.

What are the least and most people to attend one of your gigs? The least – 20 or less. Most – something about 300 people.

What ages are most of your concert attendants? It’s a young people, 18-25 years

Do you always play the same songs live, or do you vary? We have just one full-length album and one EP. So, set-list is almost the same. But we don’t play songs from EP last year. We think, it’s time to revive it.

What was your first gig like? It was the gig, when all the people knew you, and we knew all the people

What was your latest gig? It was the the last gig in some kind of a little tour with our friends,  bands from Ufa. We can’t say that it was the best concert in our life, but it was funny

Have you had to cancel a gig? Of course. Usually the cause was the strong illness of band’s members

Where have you played live this year? In Russian cities, Ufa, Chelyabinsk, Tumen, Neftekamsk.

Where do you plan to gig the comming year? We can’t  exactly say it. There are recording of new songs in plans.

When did you start to sell merchandise, and what do you have for sale? It was the CD of EP in 2009. And we will start to sell t-shirts soon!

What do you think about people downloading music instead of buying records nowadays? There are bad and good consequences of it. On the one hand, reducing of music’s sales has a negative effects for the musician. Price of recording and mastering is high enough. If you are the independent musician and play the music without any label’s help, you forced to pay your own money for this. People download your music for free and after all costs you remain with empty pockets. One the other hand, free sharing makes your music more easy of access, can bring it to more number of listeners.

How do you think the music industry have changed because of this? Gigs have become the main way to earn money for musicians, and it’s the main change we tink.

What do you think of my work? People like you help musicians find a new audience, and we really appreciate this.

Do you have any role models or idols? We have no idols. We’re watching the work of successful artists and try to develop our own role models which can make us, our music and gigs better and more popular.

Is it easier to find inspiration from older bands, or bands that are more active today? There was much more pioneers and “musical revolutioners” among older bands. Nowadays it’s more difficult to make your own sound, style and role model. But if you want to be popular, to be in trend, you must watch for modern musical tendencies. Sad but true. But the best way – is to try to be innovator in modern music world. We believe that somewhere in world there is a new “Metallica” or “Queen”.

What have been your biggest obstacles? Probably, it was a lack of money

What advice would you give other bands or artists? Search for your own sound, don’t let the fashion to write music for you and stay true to your goals.

Do you have any new material? We write a new material since the LP was released. We are going to record new EP in this summer. It’s hot!!

What are your web sites?

https://vk.com/drops_of_heart
https://www.facebook.com/dropsofheartmetal

How can people reach you?

You can support us by buyng our album on bandcamp:
https://dropsofheart.bandcamp.com

Connect with us: [email protected]

What are your plans for the future? Find a label, release new albums, make a big tour and share with you our love!

Do you have something to add? Everyone, be honest to yourself, find your own meaning of life, enjoy life and support world metal scene!