What was the beginning point of your music career? How did it all start?
[ALEX_Y]: “It’s been a long time… I was 9 years old when I first heard metal. At the age of 12 I went to study classical guitar in the music studio of the culture house in the town where I was born and decided that it would become my life’s work. Since then a lot of water has flowed and I had to go through fire, water and copper pipes….”
[GENA]: “When I was 16, I picked up a guitar and it went from there. ”
[NENAD]: “I started to play piano when I was 5 back in 1995, but I wasn’t too serious with playing music until I later on picked up the clarinet in the early 2000’s. When I turned 13 my father bought me an electric guitar and from that point on I completely forgot about the clarinet haha. I played in my first band at 16 but when I went to the US for basketball scholarship and to finish high school I never put down the guitar and always created something, composed music. The rest is history. ”
[ROMAN]: “I started to play drums in 2008 when I was 16. My friend, let’s call him Cuspid, invited me to be a bass player in his punk rock band. When I told him, that I could not play bass he responded that I didn’t need to=) I was a bass player for approximately 20 minutes of my life and when I saw the drum set I decided – I wanted to be a drummer, not a bass player. The drummer in this band was as experienced in his instrument as me so we just switched. Then Cuspid explained to me what to do. When I asked, what I needed to do with this pedal, he told me that I didn’t need to use it=) We played punk rock for approximately 20 minutes, and then the administrator of the music studio woke up with a strong hangover and started to explain to us that it is not music, it is masturbation. He took the guitar from Cuspid(the only one from us who could play his instrument) and started to explain to him how to play. Then he asked me to play 4:4. I had no clue how to do that and he asked for how long I play the drums. I told him fairly that approx 20 minutes. He was surprised and started to teach me. That’s was the starting point of my music career”
Were there any bumps on the road? What kind of challenges did you have to deal with?
[ALEX_Y]: “Well, at first I was the guitarist and vocalist in my first band. Then I decided to concentrate on vocals. Everyone told me that I didn’t have any vocal ability, but I ended up destroying that.”
[GENA]: “The whole road is a bunch of bumps. ”
[NENAD]: “At one point all my music gear was stolen, so I had to work my ass off to get it back.”
[ROMAN]: “I think the fact that we had to emigrate was the biggest bump on the road.”
What was the most fulfilling and satisfying moment so far?
[ALEX_Y]: “Well, probably the fact that we’ve finally completed and released our debut album. It was, for me personally, very bloody…. And without finishing it, we couldn’t move on.”
[GENA]: “ Play live in front of 500 people ”
[NENAD]: “Getting my dream guitar 2 years ago. Now I’m dreaming of a new one haha.”
How would you describe the music that you typically create?
[ALEX_Y]: “We call it arctic-dreams metal. A crazy mix of heavy metal, classical music and electronic gothic.”
[GENA]: “ No vocals, lots of guitar solos ”
[NENAD]: “Complex yet simple to understand, it gets under the skin easily. Lot’s of hooks, depending on the mood either really fast or pretty slow to moderate.”
[ROMAN]: “I tend to create fast and sometimes complex music”
What is your creative process like?
[ALEX_Y]: “It’s like making wine: an idea arises in my head, then it matures for a while. Then I sit down and translate it into notes and words”
[GENA]: “ My whole life is a creative process ”
[NENAD]: “I come up with an idea and either I play around with it on the guitar or keyboards, or I punch it in Guitar Pro. I work around it some more and help it grow until I get a final product. It can take a day, a week, or a couple of months to get a song from my head onto speakers.”
[ROMAN]: “I love to write drums in GuitarPro”
If you could change anything about the industry, what would it be?
[ALEX_Y]: “I would significantly limit the distribution of music on the internet))))) Although I realise that this is impossible) Because progress cannot be stopped. On the one hand it has given a huge amount of opportunities for aspiring musicians, on the other hand there is a huge amount of material, bad and good, on the platforms and it is very difficult for us, for example, to bring music to our listeners. Plus musicians no longer have the option of earning money from their recordings, it’s almost impossible to earn anything on the platforms.”
[GENA]: “ Good or bad, this is as it should be. ”
[NENAD]: “Increase payments”
[ROMAN]: “Increase interest payments to musicians on online platforms”
If you were asked to give a piece of advice to upcoming bands, what would that be?
[ALEX_Y]: “I would suggest weighing up the pros and cons and deciding if they definitely want to do music and a band?”
[GENA]: “ Learn not only how to play an instrument, but also how to promote yourself and your music ”
[NENAD]: “Don’t listen to anyone else, listen to yourself. Get well educated in the business side of the industry, get a lawyer and a publicist.”
[ROMAN]: “I’m still waiting for someone to give me this advice”
What has been the best performance of your career so far?
[ALEX_Y]: “It was my very first concert. We didn’t even know how to play, but we got the whole club together. The energy was crazy.))”
[GENA]: “ Festival “Window“ in St. Petersburg. I don’t know the exact figures, but I think there were about 500-700 people in front of the stage ”
[NENAD]: “When I played guitar for Asphalt Chant in early September 2022. Full club of 150 people, great energy.”
[ROMAN]: “I remember the concert in Nizhniy Tagil. There were 20 people or something like that but they gave us the energy of the stadium! I thought that they would destroy the building! I have never experienced such energy from the audience so I strongly recommend everybody to visit Nizhniy Tagil”
If you didn’t become a musician, what would you be doing now?
[ALEX_Y]: “I’d probably go into video production”
[GENA]: “ back end developer ”
[NENAD]: “A pilot.”
[ROMAN]: “I’m a progammer”
What is new with the band at the moment? What are you currently working on and would like to share with the world?
[ALEX_Y]: “Oh, we have finally decided on our plans for the coming year)) We are planning three singles and a new album for spring next year. So stay tuned.)))”
[GENA]: “ Lots of things are in the pipeline, stay tuned. ”
[NENAD]: “To early to tell and be specific to share, but we are working on a new album. Will be released some time in the first half of 2025.”
We have a number of resources on which we regularly update:
https://arcticdreamsofficial.com
https://www.instagram.com/arcticdreamsofficial
https://www.facebook.com/arcticdreamsband
https://arcticdreams.bandcamp.com
https://www.youtube.com/@arcticdreams231
https://soundcloud.com/arctic-dreams
https://vk.com/arcticdreams
https://www.tiktok.com/@arcticdreamsofficial
https://twitter.com/ArCTiC_D_Metal
