Good afternoon, and congratulations on your excellent work. Which was the course of Sedate Illusion from the moment you were created until the release of “Glass Delusion”?
Good afternoon from us too! We are very happy for this acknowledgement from such a big magazine with which we have been raised, and has been a fundamental value for metal music, the music we all love! First of all we should mention that Sedate Illusion were born in 2004, as a Vaggelis Kakarougka’s project in Athens, when his main band was Equal Vector, and was continued like this up until 2014. The pleasant thing is that for the creation of our penultimate album “What remains” took part three amazing musicians, Tasos Kibizis at the guitars, Vaggelis Glavinas at the bass, and Andreas Alamanos at the drums. Then we decided that Sedate should become a full band, so that we can have live concerts. So we started recording for about two years in order to create “Glass Delusion” and we are proud for this result.
How is the situation in Corfu for a metal band? Is there any movement (people, places to go, studios, etc), able to support a fast growing band?
The truth is that in the province, and more specific on a touristic island, where people are not looking for quality entertainment, but for more ephemeral ways to have fun is a bit hard. Of course there are people who are supporting the metal industry, and who are trying hard to promote something different, but we believe that compared to the rest Greek provinces is in lower levels. So, for a metal band that has the potential, and that is interested in working on a professional level, on this island, mainly because of its culture and distance from the big centers, it is hard to find funds or people who can help.
Luckily, there is a studio “Lyhnia”, or also known as “Tube Studio” where we spend our time pleasantly by producing music. As far as the places for live concerts, apart from the outside that we have to build it from zero, there is the 7 Tehnon Topos, that supports as humanly possible metal bands (e.g. Rotting Christ, Planet of Zeus, Nightstalker).
How hard is it for you to go to other places for live concerts, where the audience will appreciate it? How do you see live concerts?
We have no problem at all! We are ready for any live as long as we find a way to go to Igoumenitsa, and then we can go anywhere! The main question here is if the organizer can cover at least our transportation expenses (gas and boat)
Your new album, “Glass Delusion” has been released. An album that up to now has only positive reviews. What do the songs mean for you? And what a fan who doesn’t know you and is reading now the interview will find there?
“Glass delusion” is a new lease for Sedate Illusion, between a group of friends that spends time apart from music activities. We believe that the songs of this album give us the creative boost we need to compose greater songs in the future, in a few words it is a chance to experiment and progress.
On the “Glass Delusion” every song will travel and narrate a story, even the instrumental song that we have on this album. The whole album wants to combine metal music and the experimentation through the keys. The heavy riffs, the powerful guitars with the lyrical and atmospheric solos, and the bass as a guide give the main metal element, and the polyphonies with the electro keys are combined in such a way that is not tiring while providing the heart of the lyricism.
What about the bonus tracks of the album? Are they newest compositions of older songs?
The songs “All Will” and “Traumatic Skies” are our most favorite and we have included them in all our concerts up to now. The “All Will” is from the album “Illusory Sustenance” (2012) and the “Traumatic Skies” from “0545” (2010), when Sedate were a still a project. So we though that it would be nice to rerecord them and why not include them on the album “Glass Delusion”. To be honest, at this period we are looking at other older songs from these albums, so that we extend our playlist.
The girl from “Escaping From…” is amazing! Which is the concept of this video?
We are also excited with the girl, the outcome was amazing. Alexandra Papageorgiou gave us her dance movements and was combined in a very nice way with the song. In more detail, “Escaping from…” is proceeded of “Glass Delusion” on the album, and its concept is about the person who is prisoned in a world made of glass is trying to escape and be free. In this video, Alexandra’s dance reveals exactly this situation. Fortunately, our film director, Dimitris Mihail, managed to accomplish perfectly this endeavor, and up to now we have only received positive comments on the clip!
In a word wide scale, progressive seems to be blossoming. Which names and which albums you think stood out the last 12 months?
Yes, the blossoming of prog is indeed great! Even today we discover new bands and new songs that could be have been composed years ago! Recently, we have distinguished the following: “Steven Wilson – Hand.Cannot.Erase.”, “Riverside – Love, Fear and the Time Machine”, “BeardFish – The One Inside”, “Gojira – Magma”, “Haken – Affinity”, “Leprous – The Congregation”, “Katatonia – The Fall of Hearts”, “Dream Theater – The Astonishing” και “Symphony X – Underworld”.
You take part in the compilation CD that accompanies the Metal Hammer, which also has this interview. There take place bands from almost every spectrum of the hard sounds, such as your progressive means. How do you see the progressive metal the last period? Do you believe that there are active bands that keep the prog alive on greek grounds?
We are very proud to be on this magazine, we are very honoured and we thank you about that! The metal business is also blossoming in Greece and we have no doubts for the successful choice you have made! We can’t wait to see the magazine, and while browsing through it to listen to the CD. We hope that we will go back to the old traditional time of music, when we had CDs or tapes, or vinyl, so that we can appreciate again the whole effort of a band (cover, in-lay artwork, lyrics, photos, credits etc). For the progressive sound in our country we believe that Need, Poem, Verbal Delirium, Winter Crecent, Prycrence, Unti Rain and many more have important things to show to Greece and abroad. Our point is the progress and when talking about progress we mean the amelioration of the main image of humanity, not just through music. That’s way we are trying to build relationships between us based on trust and respect, and we all aim for a common goal, to become better human beings.