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Indigo Child
STALKERs Fresh Act - February / March 2007
Couch potatoes and human clones
For the inhabitants of European dark underground most soundtracks are monopolistically supplied by German and English bands, occasionally interrupted by some Northern artists. So it is quite a surprise to hear such decent industrial act, announcing itself with this much confidence from Slovenia, where so far only Laibach made itself heard!
Having just finished their European tour with To/Die/For and Sinamore, Indigo Child returned back home to have a short pause, only to prepare to continue further in 2007. The moment could not have been better to acquaint you with this very interesting newcomer and their visions, giving you a rare chance to learn more about the rare indigo species.
To people who are not well familiar with your band and career, how should Indigo Child be introduced? What is the sound like and what is the band’s mission?
Well, we started our journey back in the year 2003 when we decided to enter the studio for the first time recording our first material. We’ve made a demo Death & re-Birth which included 4 songs. But our ideas and wishes to continue with our stuff didn’t disappear, so we decided to go forward with our songs and that’s how we came so far to record our debut album re-Death which we self-released first in 2005 as the regular CD album. After we sold out our first edition we decided to re-release the album in 2006 but as a digipak edition including our video clip Involve Synthetic, photos, bio, etc.
What concerns the music I must say that it is a mixture of different music styles, for example industrial, electro, classical music, gothic metal, orchestral and similar.
The band’s biography states that you are introducing a new way of understanding human presence. What is Indigo Child’s view and what are the reasons behind it?
It’s all about the understanding and believing in what we stand for. We believe that human mind is very complex thing with millions of possibilities to function. It all depends from a person itself and that’s what makes us humans so special. And this is the album re-Death all about. It also shows how faith in religion makes people weak and depended. In a way it can be also described as a paradox of life and death.
The initial motif behind creating the band? Briefly, who were the founding members?
I was invited in a band after I broke with my previous band, so I am not sure exactly whose idea was it at first, but even I don’t know who he was I am really glad he made this decision.
Having adopted this kind of very beautiful name, with such deep meaning, you must have some believes in paranormal and supernatural, so do you? Or what do YOU believe in? What or who is “indigo child” in your eyes?
We in a band don’t consider us as Indigo Children. Maybe we are, maybe we aren’t, who knows. But the ideology of Indigo Children that stands before is very interesting. There are many explanations that these kids should be, but for me the true Indigo child is a person who believes in his own abilities without any interference of religion or peoples around him what so ever. The man is not a depending machine which can’t function on its own, we can function 100% by ourselves and we don’t need any fuel to make us go.
The album is finally on sale, congratulations! So far I’ve read the response from the fans/media was more than great, you must be very overwhelmed and pleased?
Yes of course. We are very pleased that we‘ve managed to do our first debut album and at the same time received so positive response from the media all around the world. We are proud on everyone who helped us and supported us on our journey to make our first debut album and thanks again to all of those who participated on the album.
Are you pleased with those reactions and are you honestly satisfied with the album’s final version?
In generl the album re-Death is basicly the album that we wanted to be, but still,.. no artist is 100% satisfied with his product ever. If it would be so, we would stop making music and so would other musicians. That’s why we’ll continue our journey with making music and hopefully we’ll get even more positive response with the next album. It’s good to know that you’ve made a good album and people like it, but it’s even better feeling if you know you can do it even much better.
Is “Re-Death” a concept album? What are the lyrics about, more fictional or personal?
The album re-Death is a concept, made from the personal point of view. It’s a short structure of life itself how it begins, how it ends and what life is all about. There has not been any fictional interferences while writing the lyrics. It’s the idea, the vision itself and mostly written from personal experiences. You can also say it’s a paradox between life and death.
I haven’t heard the complete album yet, thus how would you describe it? Which songs would you recommend me to listen first? Which one song would you say describes the essence of the band the best and in what way?
Hm, I would recommend that first of all you should be in a calm stage, not in everyday rush and being nervous. The best time would be the evening time, chilling on a sofa and just listen. Maybe the song N.E.R.V. would be the one with which I would personally describe the band itself. Otherwise the CD should be listened from the very beginning and until the end. It’s even more understandable if you also read the lyrics while you listen to it. Maybe it can get to you even deeper if you know what I mean.
What are the songs you are the most proud of?
I would say N.E.R.V. , Divine Communication and Death.
The country where you come from is not too well known in dark/gothic scene, except for Laibach perhaps. And for your reasonably short career you have already quite impressive achievements, like the “Involve Synthetic” video for example. How does it feel? Are you really famous in Slovenia, people recognize you on the streets?
I don’t pay any attention if people recognize me or any of us on the streets. We are still a young band without wings, we are only doing what we feel and thing it’s right. Yes, maybe we are getting popular every day more, but still we don’t take it as our main goal. Our main goal is to stay who we are and to do what we love to do. We are like a family; every each one of us is a main engine to keep the motor rolling. And this motor has just start rolling.
What about other bands in the Slovenian scene?
I believe there are a lot of good perspective bands in Slovenia, but mostly they have problems with finances and themselves. There is simply non-originality enough in them. Maybe that is also a reason for not breaking through the garage.
And in general, what is the dark scene like in your region? Are there some clubs where local goths and others socialize? I think Europe does not know much about the subculture in Slovenia.
I must admit that dark scene is not very common in Slovenia. There are few bands beside Laibach which I can mention for example Naio Ssaion, Siddharta and metal core band Curse of Instinct. But I believe there is much more bands to follow their footsteps, they just don’t have such opportunities to play in public yet.
Well, in Slovenia we have few clubs for such scene. Two biggest places for concerts are Stuk and Gustaf in the city Maribor and Cvetličarna in Ljubljana. Otherwise there are few more for a bit smaller audience for example MC Klub in Maribor and KUD France Prešern and Orto Bar in Ljubljana. These are the most popular venues in Slovenia where you can have such concerts. I am sure there are more of them but I don’t remember at the moment.
Is it very difficult for a young band in this genre to make itself known and respected? How was this process for you?
I can say that we didn’t bother with that at all. We just took every opportunity that we’ve got to play and to show our performance. And with time people started to get more familiar with us. If not by music at first, then at least they can say they heard about the band already, so the name stayed in their heads. But the most important thing is that you must have some recordings and even a video clip for TV stations. It helps a lot, because then you become also more recognized in the scene and also respected for it.
At what point in your career did you realize that it’s actually going somewhere more serious than just a hobby?
I think it was the album when we started to send promo material around. The critics were mostly positive everywhere. So, I think this was the first thing which made us think differently about the band we have today. If I am honest I must say that this European tour showed us that we can easily be a part of even much bigger bands in the scene even though the band was created only 3 years ago.
Who is writing lyrics and music? Who has what responsibilities in the band?
Lyrics for our debut album re-Death were written by the male vocalist Mario Andrijasevic, but music is made by everyone in the band. We all have our responsibilities in the band, we all function as one and we are all aware of that. No one is just sitting around and waiting for music to appear from somewhere.
How does Eva manage among such strong manly collective?
Eva is a part of Indigo Child and without her the band wouldn’t sound the same. That is for sure. We don’t make any differences between her and other male members. She is a strong individual who knows what she is doing and what she wants. And we all respect her for that. She is a good person with a great knowledge to sing and that is what is important to us all.
What makes Indigo Child unique, what is it, other than your nationality, which gives you a strong individuality in the dark scene among all other bands?
It’s hard to say what makes us unique, because we are only doing what we want to do. Nothing else matters I guess. We are only following our instincts and wishes what we want to accomplish in the near future and for now they didn’t leave us hanging.
Who designs and does your stage image, Eva’s makeup and clothes?
For this tour we had our female designer named Mojca, but some of the clothes Eva does for herself alone. She is good with designing her own clothes, so we leave that to her.
How many albums/records does the band actually have and are all of them available?
Re-Death is our debut album, but soon the next one will follow. Hopefully next year, we’ll inform everyone on our official website htpp://www.indigochildmusic.com when it will come to that point.
What is the idea behind album’s artwork? How did you come to it and did the whole band participate in design?
The plastic doll on the cover should somehow represent how fragile humans are. Even though they might look strong and tough from outside they still can be broken.
What else musical would you like to accomplish?
We would like to accomplish is much as possible in music business because we feel and we know music is our way of life not only something that we do for fun. Creating music is something we love to do and nothing will stop us from it.
The video to “Involve Synthetic” reminds me of Rammstein a bit and also of the later parts of “The Matrix” trilogy. What was your vision of this video and the idea behind it? Why are all the band members not in it?
Video Involve Synthetic was made upon the idea of our video producer Andrej Radi who wanted to show his idea how human cloning is unavoidable in the near future from now. With that video we wanted to make a story that’s why we didn’t appear so much in the video even though it would not be a bad idea if we did appear. There are some scenes where we appear but only for a short period of time.
Any other videos planned? What song and what would be the scenario?
There are some plans and new ideas for the video but I wouldn’t say nothing else because we still didn’t decide which song to choose for sure. At the moment we are concentrating more on new audio materials than shooting a video, but I am sure the new video will appear sooner or later next year.
Now you’re done with the tour, how do you feel? What were the highlights and then the most difficult parts of it? Any disappointments or surprises?
Now after our first European tour we feel even more confident in ourselves and it feels good that people accepted our music so positive, even though we wish there would be even more concerts on the tour. I know people always want to hear more and more but unfortunately it went how it went. In general I can say that we are proud on every each of us that we managed to get through everything and we all hardly wait for the next one to come. The tour made us even closer to each other than we already have been and beside that we’ve had great friends with us. The bands To/Die/For, Das Scheit and Sinamore are really great to tour with and we are glad we had the opportunity to share our moments with them. There were no particular disappointments or surprises on the tour even though things were not perfect all the time.
Which shows were the most memorable and why?
There were quite many of them, but the most memorable for us I believe was when we performed in our home town Maribor (Slovenia) when we shared the stage together with Jape and Joonas (To/Die/For) and played their song Farewell from their first album All Eternity. The feeling and the audience’s response was great, and so was everything else.
Were there shows with little audience support? Then how do you manage to stay motivated during the concert?
For us every show is the same. We want to give 100% on every show there is. It doesn’t matter if there is 1000 or 50 people on the concert. We know people paid the ticket to see the show that’s why we want to give them something in return. We rather see less people on the show who really enjoy together with us then 1000 who don’t react on nothing or only drinking beer around the bar.
What is the plan now after so much happening around the band lately, the new release, tour, so much attention! Taking a break or going straight back to work?
As first we must adjust to our every day life, chill out a little and go to our jobs which some of us still have but of course we never rest from music. We’ll continue with our work in a band, making new songs and creating new ideas for the next tour and trying our luck to sign a contract with a reliable record label which we still don’t have. So, we hope for the best. We’ll see how things will develop in this new upcoming year.
What is your own dream and motivation?
Our dream and motivation? Our biggest motivation is always a good audience’s response. That is the biggest motivation the band can get on stage. If we see that people enjoy the same way like we do and that they are satisfied with our performance and music we give them.
Would you ever see yourself competing at Eurovision?
No, not really. It’s not my personal thing but if someday the band decides that they would like to compete there I’ll go with that, why not I guess. As long as it’s fun.
Who are the people behind the band? Do you study or work, since underground music such as yours, by definition shouldn’t bring in any income, so what else do you do?
We are mostly employed but also study besides going to work. Underground music really shouldn’t bring much income by definition but so far it doesn’t look so bad for us. Of course we aim for a bigger income in the future, so we’ll see what will happen and what we can expect. Right now we don’t bother with that, we have better things to do than only think about the band’s income.
Do you want to do collaborations and with whom?
We are always open to discuss about collaboration with someone. It’s always fun to do also something different with someone who has the same idea about something. And if we find the same “language” there can always be something done, why not.
Any additional side projects?
At the moment we stick only to our band Indigo Child, but of course we are open with everything. We all have our own lives and if someone decides to do some side project it’s always possible for everyone. Like for example Eva sings in the opera choir additionally and if she feels like she would like to continue doing it, it’s fine by all of us.
Author: Marina Sidyakina, photos: Tina AK., translation: Klaudia Weber
Date: 2007-02-18
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