Rockezine.com interview with Sunseth Sphere on Sep 24, 2001

with Kyrah on Sep 24, 2001

"Storm Before Silence” A mixture of influences is how you can describe the debut release of Sunseth Sphere, a “new” experimental, psychedelic, doom metal band from Hungary. New because of the fact that the individual band-members played in the same band before. After their new vocalist, and missing key, joined the formation they changed the name Shock Wave into the more atmospheric sounding Sunseth Sphere. Hammerheart decided to sign this new and rather promising band after hearing their demo-recordings. After the remix and remastering the time was right to let the rest of the world hear were they stand for. On the other side of Holland or at home in Hungary new vocalist Kyrah has been busy with typing the answers to all my questions.
		Can you tell me something about the history of the band. I can imagine many people have never heard of you before? And how was the deal with Hammerheart established? Most of the members are old friends, as they knew each other from their former bands touring together. They even had CDs released in Hungary, so we are only new in the international scene. Gyorgy Banfalvi, Peter Marton and Laszlo Landy has played in a common former band, Shock Wave, they had a male singer who was a great throat, but not especially for the kind of music Shock Wave played, so they quit up. As Peter played in Shock Wave almost the same kinds of guitar effects, and his soul was in that music too, this would be a relationship between them and Sunseth Sphere. The experimental and innovative sounds were also a part of Shock Wave´s music, but it was more complex and quicker, a bit of progressive metal. The base of our songs are improvisations, some of us starts to play a melody, the others join him / her. And we are playing on and on, so our feelings are slowly penetrating into the melodies. Then the complete parts are forged together to be a song, the vocal parts and the lyrics are fitted to it. The most important thing is to show our deepest feelings through our music, so maybe we can awaken similar feelings in the listeners. This is the main goal of our album. Up to this our music is not a kind to listen to while you are doing your housework, or to dance on at parties, but you have to lay down relax, and free your mind.
		“Storm Before Silence” is your debut if I`m correct. Are you satisfied with the result and how are the reactions so far? Yes it is a debut, as it was recorded in Hungary a year ago just to find us a label to release it. As you might imagine, there are much better technical possibilities in a studio on the western part of Europe, than in Hungary. So we only wanted to make it even better. Our label, Hammerheart Records offered us to remix and remaster it in RS29 studio, where with the help of the engineer-magician Stephen van Haestregt it received the final form. He did a great job, felt what we wanted to express with our music, so we are happy to have such a sounding! Until this time we have a positive interest on the album, it is played in some radio programs now, we also have some reviews on the Internet and soon in mags too.
		How would you like to describe the sound of Sunseth Sphere and what are the band’s influences? What do bands as the Gathering, Pink Floyd or Kate Bush mean to you and the rest of the band for instance? We play from our hearts, we might have similarities in the atmosphere of many musicians. As for all of us are playing music for a long time, so we had many bands that might have influences on us. We all like different styles, different bands, but of course we have our common favourites too, amongst them the above mentioned artists. As the most important is to play from our hearts and souls, and maybe these deep feelings can be up to our Hungarian origin too, and all Eastern cultures has very deep feelings too.
		How does Sunseth Sphere compose their songs? Is there anyone particular responsible or is it a band thing? The base of our songs are improvisations, some of us starts to play a melody, the others join him / her. And we are playing on and on, so our feelings are slowly penetrating into the melodies. Then the complete parts are forged together to be a song, the vocal parts and the lyrics are fitted to it. The most important thing is to show our deepest feelings through our music, so maybe we can awaken similar feelings in the listeners. So there is no one personally responsible for the songs, but the entire band together.
		Can you tell me more about the ancient Egyptian concept behind the lyrics. Is there any kind of fascination for ancient Egypt in the band and is this something we can also expect in the future? History is an interesting scene to all of us, Egypt is a very deep, mysterious and unknown part of it, so no one can pass it by without being touched. The only really Egyptian theme of lyrics is only in Gods of Egypt. The other lyrics are multi-layered, they are full of feelings, impressions, made parallel with the melodies. As our lyrics will be based on feelings, this way you might have some similarities in the future too, but Egypt was not a real concept of ours. But who knows what future holds?
		Is Kyrah the new female vocalist also doing the keyboards when Sunseth Sphere is performing live? No, we are just looking for a keyboards player, as Kyrah is a singer, that is her main role, and just try to imagine a scene with a band on the stage and the vocalist hides behind a keyboards... So we can not play alive until we find the proper person for this role.
		What can we expect from Sunseth Sphere in the near future? We are writing our new songs, and as soon as it is possible we would like to play alive. As our album is not too long, for a concert we would d like to have a longer gig, so the older songs would be completed with the new ones.
		What do you want to establish with Sunseth Sphere, and is there anything in particular that you want to achieve? We would like to have cars, like Jaguar, or house at the French Riviera... HAHAHA it was a joke (Oh, was it? TJ). So be serious, we`d like to help people to rise their own hidden feelings, and would be happy if they could have the same joy when listening to our music, that we had when creating it. We`d like to show our feelings, we would like to entertain, what else is music for?
		How would you like to describe the Hungarian metal scene at the moment? Is it hard to get some gigs or to get noticed? There are many talented bands in Hungary, but it is a pity, they are not well known in the international scene now. The Hungarian metal and rock magazines are very interesting, they are following the events of the metal world, telling news about bands from abroad and from Hungary as well. But in the TV or radios there are not many metal programs on, but the small quantity there is - is for the satisfaction of the fans. We are proud to have two big festivals at summers, one is Pepsi Island, that lasts for a week, with not only concerts on many stages but other cultural events, as theater, folk dance halls, other kinds of art shows. The other, Summer Rocks is just made for metal fans, with big names performing on it. All the internationally well-known bands are playing in Hungary with a pleasure, as our audience is very grateful for a good concert.
		Anything you like to add to this interview? We would like to thank you for the opportunity to introduce ourselves, we hope that the readers will be listeners too, so we would like to wish them all good, and say a big metallic hail! Kyrah and Sunseth Sphere.
(Teun Jans)