SOURCE – The first question of whether you’re doing well is probably redundant given the current circumstances. But what I’m sure many fans are wondering is: How are you coping and are you relatively safe at the moment? You come from Kyiv – Ukraine, does all of the members live there?
Helle Bohdanova (Vocals) – It’s probably the hardest question to reply to. It’s been over two years of the full-scale war, and this burden is hanging over us all the time. Many of our friends are on the frontline, some have died defending Ukraine, some have lost their loved ones, some have relatives on the occupied territories. We have air raids every day, and there’s virtually no safe place in Ukraine. Yes, we got used to many things but the hardest part is that it’s getting worse and worse, we feel that the support of other countries is going down, and Ukraine is going away from the media coverage. We start feeling abandoned, and it’s really scary. And no words can really explain what we feel.
SOURCE – Congratulations on your fantastic album, Dreams of Lands Unseen. Can you tell us a little about it please? What will be your strongest memory of the recording of the album?
Helle Bohdanova (Vocals) – Thank you! We’re now approaching the album’s anniversary, and I can feel that this album has already passed the time test. We played it on over 50 shows, and we don’t get tired of the songs, which is a great indicator.
This album is about Sofia Yablonska, the Ukrainian travel writer, photographer, and documentarian, a brave and smart woman that inspired us a lot. All songs on the album are our perspective of her lifestyle and adventures. With this album we tried to take our listeners on a journey through all the lands unseen by us but visited by her, in the times when women mostly stayed at home raising children. Naturally, you’ll hear many folk elements in the songs reflecting these countries and her Ukrainian roots as well. I’d say, the album also sounds a little bit darker than the usual IGNEA.
Half of the album was recorded before the full-scale war, and half of it — after February 24th, 2022. So, probably, the strongest memories are that we drove hours through half of the city passing multiple checkpoints to track instruments in-between air raids, and then back home to make it until the curfew. See, there’s a work-life balance, and we’ve got war-life balance, no way to run from it.
SOURCE – A lot of people focus on the heaviness of Ignea. What’s the most musical aspect of the band in general and specifically on Dreams of Lands Unseen?
Helle Bohdanova (Vocals) – I think that heaviness is a very relative thing, and we play with it a lot. Meaning, if you compare us to a pure black or death metal bands, we’ll be too mainstream or melodic. However, we’re definitely not a usual symphonic metal band, as many people try to call us after hearing, let’s say, ‘Alga’. Through our music, we try telling stories, and if a story requires heaviness, we use it. But, no matter how heavy we go, melody is always a part of IGNEA, hence, we call our genre melodic metal. On Dreams of Lands Unseen, you can hear multiple traditional instruments, backing vocals, and rich arrangements, all of which contributes to the musical aspect of the album.
SOURCE – In 2014, the band prepared a single titled Petrichor, featuring an ex-Orphaned Land guitarist Yossi Sassi who recorded his unique instrument bouzoukitara and a guitar solo. Could you tell us about it?
Helle Bohdanova (Vocals) – It feels like ages ago, to be honest. Orphaned Land has been quite an inspiration for us at the beginning of our career, and Yossi Sassi plays an, indeed, a unique instrument. When this song was written, we approached him directly, and he was really kind to collaborate with us, so he recorded the bouzoukitara part and the guitar solo. Sadly, we haven’t met in person yet.
SOURCE – In my opinion Dreams of Lands Unseen is the album with the greatest influence of Arabic music. Do you agree and if so how do you guys explain that?
Helle Bohdanova (Vocals) – Middle-eastern tunes have always been part of IGNEA music, and you can hear that on every release we made. It’s mostly because our keyboardist and composer Yevhenii really enjoys these melodies and finds them more uniquely sounding. On Dreams of Lands Unseen, it made even more sense, as Sofia Yablonska traveled to Sahara, Morocco, and China.
SOURCE – Do you think the unstable situation in Ukraine is somehow having an influence on your music?
Helle Bohdanova (Vocals) – We haven’t released any music written after the beginning of the full-scale war. The main influence is that it’s very hard to find a resource inside ourselves to write anything new, when your life is on the edge of existence. And, facing the war directly, we don’t romanticise it at all.
SOURCE – Your video for Dunes has received great views through YouTube – what can you tell us surrounding the video shoot?
Helle Bohdanova (Vocals) – We filmed Dunes, as well as two other official music videos for this album, during the longest blackouts / power outages in Ukraine, as Russia heavily shelled our energy infrastructure. It was very hard to even contact the filming crew sometimes, because there was no cell connection. We filmed Dunes at the studio in Kyiv, also using generators for half of the filming, as there was no electricity. And half of the video was filmed in the Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains. This song is about Sofia’s travel to the Sahara desert, and, in our imagination, she was dreaming not about an oasis, but about the cool and rainy Carpathians, so we wanted to show them in this video. Despite all the complications, we find all three videos — Dunes, Nomad’s Luck, and Incurable Disease — our best videos so far. And we still don’t know how we managed filming them under such circumstances.
SOURCE – Let us zoom in to some of the songs. For instance 4. Далекі Обрії struck me, because it has such a grand momentum. Can you tell a little bit more about that song?
Helle Bohdanova (Vocals) – Translated from Ukrainian, «Далекі Обрії» means ‘distant horizons’. Yablonska often uses this phrase in her writing and this is how the Ukrainian version of one of her travelogues is also called.
This song is about her travels to Australia and islands like Tahiti and Bora-Bora. On this island, the natives accepted her as a local and even called her Téoura, which means red bird. She talks about the beauty of the islands and their distance from the rest of the world. Here, people never expect a letter because the post isn’t working. Here, nobody knows when they’re born or die, so no one questions your age. She captures the photos of the world that disappears, she’s fascinated by its beauty but still, she feels like in a golden cage because her eyes cannot sustain such a beauty every day.
SOURCE – Are there any questions that you’ve been waiting to answer that have not been asked?
Helle Bohdanova (Vocals) – One of the things I really life about Dreams of Lands Unseen is that it’s backed by so many stories that no interview can cover in full, and I still find something new to tell, even one year after its release.
So, at this point, I guess, I’m waiting for lands unseen to present the new album there, and for your readers to check out this album, from the start to finish. Thank you!
Contacts:
Videos:
Photo Credit: Darina Momot