I interviewed FÄNGÖRN band
I interviewed Vitaly from FÄNGÖRN. The questions deal with their "Inferno" and "Where The Tales Live On" records ; and also about the band.
Hi there everybody! As far as you know, we name our genre “fantasy folk metal”, so the main lyrical themes are fantasy tales, ancient myths, and our main lyrical theme is nature itself. Main themes are changing from album to album. On the first album “Mysterious land” we’ve paid much attention to “viking” stuff. Such songs as “Forgotten hero”, “Under the banner of berserk” and “Shield and sword” carry you to the land of Scandinavian legends. Our second album “Where the tales live on” is just a collection of fantasy tales, some of them refer to “Lord of the Rings” and other fantasy tales. Talking about “Inferno”, we should say, that we’ve tried to expand borders of lyrical themes, adding some of our world and life views.
02. FÄNGÖRN plays folk metal music. What do you like the most in that musical genre ?
What’s so attractive about folk metal is its atmosphere of legends, ancient traditions, tales etc.. This music has a great potential to carry you to faraway lands, to times so long ago. Listening to folk metal in the heart of big city, you will soon find your mind travelling through the great ancient forest, or through the icy wastelands on the edge of the world. In my opinion this is most attractive feature of folk metal.
03. How do you compose your songs ?
Usually one of us compose the whole song, then we play it together, everybody proposes his ideas, we play it a lot, and then… the song is ready …)) Some of our songs undergo a minimum of changes on their lifetime, some of them change a lot, like you compose a brand new song using the relics of original version. I think it’s the best way of composing. Everyone of us has its own musical tastes, so composing a song is some kind of alchemy. For example, Vladimir Fedorov, our main vocalist and guitarist on the second album is the big fan of 80’s heavy metal, so there are a lot of NWOBHM references you may find on the second album, especially in vocal parts. On the other side, I prefer progressive metal, death metal riffing and ambient and new age stuff, I think you can detect it in the “Sirens’ Island” from second album.
04. Do you have some favorites folk metal bands ?
In the beginning of our musical path, we’ve listened to lots of “true” folk and viking metal, such as Finntroll, Ensiferum, Cruachan, Moonsorrow, Wintersun etc.. I think we can name these bands as our favorite folk metal bands. But nowadays, I prefer different kind of music, the bands that don’t play straight folk metal, but are still influenced with folk tunes, melodies, and “folkish” world outlook. My favorites are Enslaved, Amorphis, Die Apokalyptischen Reiter.
05. What about Folk music ?
Guys don’t listen much to folk music, but I can mention some bands impressed me personally to a certain degree : Garmarna, Clannad, Corvus Corax. My favorite is “The Songs of distant Earth” by Mike Oldfield.
The main reason of this delay is the fact, that our main vocalist and guitarist Vladimir Fedorov moved to Germany. It took a lot of time to settle the line-up down, we’ve changed many musicians, Alexander Dunaev (guitar, one of two founders of the band, along with Vladimir Fedorov) and Ivan Kashirin (drums) decided to leave the band, then we’ve found new drummer Alexey Sivovna, then Ivan came back for a short time, then he left again and Alexey came back… So it’s long soap opera)) With all these line-up changes we couldn’t concentrate on rehearsals and making new material.
So now we have complete line-up, consisting of only two original members, Vladimir Pronin (bass) and me, and new guys Sergey Muravyev (guitars, vocals), Alexander Malyshev (guitars), Alexey Sivovna (drums).
07. What does this title “Inferno” mean for the band ?
For us, Inferno is Hell, and we all live in Inferno now. Inferno is our world at the present time, with all these wars, lies, hypocrisy, economic crisis, indifference to misery of simple men, consumption hunger, terrorism, debauchery… I can keep on listing a very long time. Our life is constantly losing balance, at least as I see it. Total lack of reasonable people and reasonable actions. I can say, while our first two albums carry us back to the past, Inferno is facing present and future. At least, this is the meaning we’ve tried to put in this EP.
08. Can you explain us the four tracks of the EP ?
Sure.
The First Song : Song about the First Song). The metaphorical song about creator of life in this world. This creature has woken all living up with his music. I think it’s great image, that music is life, and life is music. You can just read the lyrics, there’s no deep hidden meaning, everyone shall understand this.
Behind Right Shoulder : “According to different legends, all of us walk our life-paths, accompanied by Guardian-angel behind right shoulder, and the Death, following us at the distance of arm's length behind left shoulder. This song is about the Man, whose Guardian-angel is the Death itself.” Inspired by "The Witcher" saga, by Andrzej Sapkowski.
Inferno : This song is about extermination, occupation and further oppression of indigenous people, great sorrow and dissolution of culture, no matter what country we are talking about. You can also consider this as a metaphor on annihilation of nature, irreparable harm, that people do to Earth. One day, mankind will pay for this all.
Where The Tales Live On : The fourth track is acoustic cover of the title song from our second album.
09. …And each tale from “Where The Tales Live On” ?
Yeah, of course.
Miles away from home : Story of the man obsessed with journeys and far away lands. Long road attracted him, so he left his hometown when he was young. After years of journeys he understood that there’s no place like home, but by the time he was lost and couldn’t find the way back.
Stormbringer : Song about sailors, who was caught by the storm in the middle of the sea. The last thing they saw was Stormbringer, sinister herald of Death.
Sirens’ Island : Nautical theme again. Story takes place in Greece, where brave sailors fell under the spells of mythical sirens. They pray to gods for salvation, and ask Orpheus to sing songs about their deeds.
Troll’s Hole Inn : Song about small Tavern under the Black Rock, famous for its marvelous mead, boiled by mysterious grey-bearded troll. This mead attracts persons of the opposite sex to the one, who drinks it, no matter if he/she is beautiful or ugly.
Swamp Feast : Drunkard was caught on his way back from Trolls Hole Inn by the gang of cannibal goblins. They start to debate what is the best way to cook him, till … no guys, unlike the Hobbit story, unfortunately no happy end, except for goblins…
Where The Tales Live On : Hymn for all tales told! Imagination is the land, where all the tales live on no matter what. Song includes references to Lord of the Rings.
By the road to Stonehenge. Celtic stylized song, about Celtic ancient druids. This is their cheerful singing, while they are following the rocky road to sacred place, where they would send rituals.
Sword of Discord : Legend of distant northern utopian land, where people know no fightings, wars or enmity. Everything changes when, first sword, made by evil hearted man, spills innocent blood.
The Last Way : Everyone, who read the Lord of the Rings, shall understand, what this song is about. Frodo is leaving Middle-Earth, his last way leads him to the sacred lands of elves, where no mortal has gone before, and no one will. He bids farewell to his friends, he knows that they will never meet again.
Trolls Strong Beer : This is acoustic version of the song from first album.
10. How big is the band in Russia, Europe, and America ?
It’s hard to answer. We can say definitely, that European fans are more active. For example, we haven’t had a bandcamp page for a long time. We’ve made it right after Inferno EP release, and lots of people from Europe ordered our merch and discs, including first two albums. But none from Russia. Also, we always receive comments and messages from people from Europe, USA, many other countries, those like Puerto Rico, Japan. So I can say, the band is bigger in Russia, but fans are more active in Europe.
11. What are the countries where the sales for the second full length went great ?
Top 6 :
Russia
Switzerland
Sweden
United Kingdom
Germany
France
12. Do you plan a tour soon ?
For today, we don’t have exact plans for foreign tours, only inside Russia. But we are always opened for cooperation with foreign tour managers, promoters, booking etc..
13. Thank you for the interview! The last words are yours.
We want to thank everybody, who reads this, who shows interest in our music. All we do, we do for our fans, and of course for music itself. We do not earn much playing our music, but I hope we can engage as many folks as we can, not only those, who visit gigs for drinking beers and moshing, but those who wants to listen to music, understand what we’re trying to say. That’s all, thank you very much for this opportunity!
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