Meden Agan Interview!

Meden Agan is a greek progressive/symphonic metal band formed by Iliana Tsakiraki (vocals), Diman Koutsogiannopoulos (guitars), Tolis Mikroulis (keyboards), Aris Nikoleris (bass), and Panos Paplomatas (drums).

It was been a pleasure to hear the first sensations after new album' release “Lacrima Dei”, from their guitarist Diman Koutsogiannopoulos.

LFdM:  Usually when we listen to symphonic metal, we think about north european countries.

Instead you come from Greece and your band was born in France! How much of your cultural heritage is in your own music project and how much comes from the rest of the world?

You mean apart from the band name itself? :) Thinking of it I would say that we don't have certain elements of Greek culture in our music or at least we didn't try to incorporate any. Our influences come from a variety of metal bands including of course those of our genre like Nightwish, Epica, Within temptation etc..

LFdM: Your latest album was mastered at Finnvox studios in Helsinki, Finland. One of the most important symphonic bands in the world comes also from Finland. Why did you choose Finnvox? Emotional or technical choices?

Both to be honest. Once we took the decision to do the mastering abroad we started checking out several well -known studios including of course Finnvox. 

In the end we decided to work with Mika Jussila because he is highly experienced with the sound  of symphonic/power metal and of course he has been the mastering engineer of almost all Nightwish albums so far...and we really like Nightwish, so this was the emotional part of the equation:)

LFdM: Speaking about symphonic, is easy to fall in many clichés. In your opinion, are you bringing  something new in the symphonic greek scene?

There are many bands worldwide claiming or actually playing symphonic metal. In our case we try to filter all of our influences and produce our own sound as much as possible. We are not trying to copy or deliberately sound like a specific band so in that sense we bring something “new” to the overall scene. We believe – and based on the reviews so far – that we managed to deliver a quality album with nice songs that will easily satisfy the fans of this genre.  Regarding the Greek symphonic scene, it is quite small at the moment with only a handful of bands.

LFdM: Changes in the  line-up are never easy for a band, especially when you have to change the singer. Do you think it's easy to regain a balance,  not only in the band but also toward the audience?

Indeed such line-up changes are never easy but it sort of became a trend in symphonic metal looking at bands like Nightwish, Xandria etc. The good thing in our case was that the core of the band remained the same so at least musically nothing really changed. We continued working on the new material while auditioning at the same time and after 5 months we welcomed our new singer – Maya -  in the band. Like any band where the lead female singer changes, there are voices supporting or not supporting this decision but the bottom line is that we managed to produce a result highly acclaimed so this means we are in a good track.  

LFdM: The artwork of the album is really appreciable with a strong visual impact. Can you tell us something about it? In which measure the band has the final word about the artwork?

We are really satisfied regarding the overall artwork of the album. The main idea was proposed by the band but it was the designer (Manster Design) who managed to convert it into images. It has to do with the never-ending battle between narrow-minded faith and skepticism and contains many symbolisms like the bird that represents the free will/thinking, the little girl impersonating the "weak" human being and so on...

LFdM: Speaking of the creative process: can you tell us something about the "birth" of a new song?

Very interesting question. Well, the way we worked on the majority of the songs is that I bring the main idea - or sometimes our keyboardist (Tolis) -  and we build based on that. We change certain parts, we add new ideas on top, we try to find vocal lines that go smoothly with the music etc. In some other cases we build parts of a song on top of an existing vocal line...it depends. As I said, most of us know each other for many years and this makes the whole process quite easy and productive.

LFdM: You played with a lot of famous artists, like  Epica, Within Temptation and Tarja; and you also worked with Seth Siro Anton (artwork e photo shoot - Septicflesh, Paradise Lost, Kamelot) and Mika Jussila (mastering - Nightwish, Children of Bodom, Stratovarius). What is left of these collaborations with you?  

Which famous musicians have you learned from?

I believe any collaboration with professionals makes you better and more experienced. You start thinking differently regarding several aspects of the music industry . If you are able to use this knowledge and apply it properly in your band like “how should I improve my performance on stage etc” then only good things may come.

LFdM: The new album is out! How do you feel?

It marks the end of a long journey that started early last year. We are very happy that we managed to produce a nice album and we are focused on letting as many people as possible know of our music. Thank you for this interview! (Diman Koutsogiannopoulos)

LFdM: It was a pleasure!

Official Link:

http://www.medenaganmusic.com/
http://shop.medenaganmusic.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/MEDENAGANofficial
https://www.facebook.com/meden.agan.official