JJM: Why don’t we start off by having you tell our readers how the band was formed, who is in the band, and what they do?
Aardia: Aardia consists of two main characters, Patric Söderlund and Daniel Johnsson. Through a friend we met each other in 1998. It didn’t take long before we realized that we had the same interest in creating music. Patric was working on a dark-ambient project at the time called “Symphony of The Night”. We started to work together and found out that we complemented each other musically. Then we decided to create something new and so Aardia was founded.
Patric works as the project coordinator, music and idea creator. Daniel develops these ideas and creates the musical atmosphere. Daniel also works as a music and idea creator but mostly he deals with the technical parts. When all songs are completed we go to Gustaf Grefberg who has become something of a third member. He has access to a very good studio where we mix the songs together to get the final sound.
We are always open to welcome guest members that can and want to bring their music talents into production. For example we have Maria Carström who is a very talented singer. Ylva Grefberg who is a good designer. Nicklas Lundqvist who is a fantasy artist.
J: What’s the meaning behind the word Aardia and how is the word pronounced?
Aardia: The word Aardia is a mix of words from the Old Norse and doesn’t really mean anything. But of course it’s not meaningless. You could say that every Aardia release is a chapter in a greater story. Aardia is the magical beholder that binds these chapters together. We are currently making up the story to get inspiration for the music but we don’t know if the story is ever going to be published. Aardia is normally pronounced as it is spelled but to be more specific, [Are-Dee-Ah].
Aardia: We are very influenced by fantasy and horror films and books, also by computer games and the demo scene music from the 80s, and of course classical and orchestral music. We both have an interest in ancient and medieval stuff.
J: So far Aardia has released a demo and most recently a MCD. When can we hope to see the first full-length album from Aardia?
Aardia: In the near future we’ll start looking for an established record label that hopefully wants to sign us. If we don’t get any results we’ll continue to release Aardia under the ‘Witchcraft & Folklore’ record label.
J: Aardia is signed to the ‘Witchcraft & Folklore’ record label. Prior to hearing the band I had never heard of this label before. Where is the label based and what type of music does this label usually sign? Aardia: ‘Witchcraft & Folklore’ is Aardia’s own record label. That’s probably why you haven’t heard of it. This label is run by one of the members in Aardia, Patric. ‘WF’ has also released a couple of compilations with various artists.
Aardia: Yes, there are two versions of this tune. The first recording took place in the year of 2000. At that time Patric needed an intro to his compilation project called ‘Witchcraft & Folklore, Chapter 1’ which was a black metal CD. And later after that release we thought that ‘Fairy Tales From Beyond’ was a good title for our next Aardia release. To make the old recording fit on the new release we had to improve the sound quality and we also felt that the song wasn’t really complete.
J: How is the music of Aardia created? Is it all done on the keyboards/synthesizers or is there more to it than that? How much time is spent per week creating new music?
Aardia: Basically all music is created on a computer using sound samples mixed in a music tracker application. We only use synthesizers when creating melodies. We meet several hours a week but we do not create music all the time. We also try to get some inspiration out of films and music.
Aardia: Not that we know of. We know that he’s made some drawings for some magazines and role playing games.
J: Could the music of Aardia ever be performed to a live audience? Or will this band remain a studio only project?
Aardia: Aardia will probably never play live unless we can afford a nice screenplay with hired guest musicians and create something visual.
J: I must admit I’ve been greatly impressed by your music thus far. What are some other bands that play in your style that you could recommend to the readers and me?
Aardia: Ok, the bands that we’re about to recommend are not really in our style but sometimes a little bit similar to us. Who we recommend is Autumn Tears, Devil Doll, Fabio Frizzi, Goblin and Ennio Morricone.
J: Every time I listen to ‘Fairy Tales from Beyond’ I can’t help, but think some of the music sounds a lot like music found in video games, more specifically the music found in adventurous/fantasy/epic-like games. Has this been an influence?
Aardia: Maybe a little but mostly the influence for this song comes from an Italian zombie film called ‘The Beyond’.
J: You have some brief female vocals on the MCD. Who performed these and does she play in any other bands?
Aardia: The only female vocalist that could be recognized as a person we know is Maria Carström. She only brings lovely tunes into the third song called ‘The Wandering’. All the other voices come from unknown choirs taken from sound sample CDs. Maria is a country/folk music singer but unfortunately she doesn’t play in any other band. She does some recordings of her songs that she composes but she hasn’t been signed yet by any record label.
J: Speaking of other bands, do the members of Aardia play in any other bands/side projects?
Aardia: No.
Aardia: Of course we want people to buy our records but we believe that only big record labels and commercial artists suffer from downloads. Small bands like us who don’t have a lot of money to spend on promotion need to reach out to the listeners with the help of mp3. And hopefully it leads to sales.
Actually we had four songs on the MP3.com page but since they downgraded their service we had to pay money for having four songs. But three songs are ok without charge. We will probably change to another mp3 provider soon.
J: What other type of music do you enjoy?
Aardia: We are very versatile, listening to almost everything as long as it has a good melody.
J: Finally what’s the band currently up to and what are your plans for the near future?
Aardia: At the moment we are promoting the Aardia MCD release and we hope that some record label will sign us. We’re also creating music for coming releases of course.
J: I thank you for taking the time to answer these questions and also for sharing your great music with me. The final words are yours...
Aardia: Thanks for a very nice and well-written interview and keep up the good support for the underground scene.
Thanks,
Aardia
http://listen.to/aardia
aardia@clerk.com
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