Interview with Coraxo

Coraxo is an industrial/electro metal band from Tampere, Finland. Their EP Starlit Flame is the first of a planned trilogy in which "Nordic death metal meets Doctor Who". We had an interesting chat with these guys, hope you enjoy!

Hi guys! Thank you so much for this interview!
So, starting with the origin of your name... I wondered, what exactly does your band name
symbolize?
Tomi: The name is a word in enochian, a fictional language created in the 1500's by an english
alchemist called John Dee. (Propably nowadays more familiar from the TV show Supernatural).
Translated it means “spirits of Wrath and Judgement” which we thought would be a good name
for the hostile alien species in our own scifi storyline.

You play an interesting type of sound, introducing prominent science fiction themes and mixing
death with scifi metal. Can you tell us more about your sound?
Tomi: The electronic side is heavily influenced by electronic bands like Tangerine Dream, Vangelis,
Portishead, which we try to seamlessly mix with old school death metal to create a whole new kind
of sound.

When I listen to your songs, they remind me of the first Samael. Can you tell us something about
your music influences?
Tomi: I think my biggest influences in metal music have been Peter Tägtgren (Hypocrisy, Pain), Dan
Swanö (Edge of Sanity, Witherscape) and Devin Townsend. I'm also a big fan of jazz and prog rock,
but I'm not sure how well that translates to our music, if at all.

You started to play in 2013 is that true? But since when the idea of the band was in your mind?
Ville: Yes, that’s true. When I first time heard of Coraxo it was considered to be Tomi’s one-man-band.
We had talked about the band earlier, but when I heard the demos of the songs and a musical
landscapes around them, I insisted to be involved.
Tomi: Yeah, it was basically just supposed to be a fun short project for me, but since we realized the
songs were good enough we decided to turn it into a real band.

"Starlit Flame" is a trilogy, like a television series. What's your favourite TV movie?
Tomi: I don't really watch TV at all so I couldn't tell. But the music and lyrics are heavily influenced by
the Alien movie franchise. I'm also a very big fan of the artwork of H.R. Giger.

What do you aim to create with your lyrics?
Tomi: A larger world that the listener can step into. There's only so much information about the
storyline you can cram into the lyrics, so we try to accompany those with some blog posts and info
about the story on our website.

Can you spill any technical details about the new album?
(Refering to the upcoming Starlit Flame II) Ville: It’s a little more technical but still catchy, I think. Some
nice riffing and drumming but not too much technical because it would excessively step away from
the Coraxo-sound.
Tomi: The second part was very much recorded the same way as the first, in our home studio, mixed by
me. We'll send it for mastering to Unisound in Sweden as well, Dan is a great guy to work with.

 Do you think the software technology is getting in the way of great songwriting or do you embrace
the technology?
 Tomi: I believe it is the complete opposite. Nowadays recording equipment has become so affordable
that pretty much anyone with enough time and patience can create very good sounding music at
home.
Ville: I agree, in the technical aspect on recording it’s a great advantage to many smaller bands
nowadays to be able to put out their own music, which would not been possible a few years ago.
Big studios cost much more money. Also I think it’s not killing songwriting. Even if you had any
amount of software or hardware around, you can’t program it to paint the human mind on paper or
on screen, at least not yet, there needs to be something that controls the machinery.

What is your favorite software to create music ?
Tomi: I'm a big fan of Reaper, a very affordable DAW software. I mix all of our music on it, and never
have run into any problems or bugs with it.

What do you think are the biggest challenges for bands and musicians in today’s music industry?
Ville: I think the whole music industry has been in turning point for a few years now. I think everyone is
a little bit confused about direction to where is reasonable to go. There’s also a good side with this
setting, that there are now many different versions to do things. There are many kind of operators
on broad area.
Tomi: The internet has opened up new possibilities for independent artists, but it has also increased the
amount of competition for attention. The net is a low attention span field to begin with, so I'd think
it's harder to get fans that actually stay with the band.

 Any plans for the future?
Tomi: We're still in the process of recording and mixing Starlit Flame II, it'll be done sometime in the fall.
After that some live playing and touring if possible. Visit coraxo-official.com for updates!
Ville: Gigs and recording, so stay open for the world yet to come!

(Michela)
Coraxo official website: http://coraxo-official.com/
Coraxo Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/coraxoband