Interview with Askara, Progressive Gothic Metal Band from Switzerland

Interview with Askara, Progressive Gothic Metal Band from Switzerland

Askara is Progressive Gothic Metal Band from Basel, Switzerland. They’re Elia - Bass, Vocals, Raphael - Drums, Benj - Guitars, and Myriam - Piano, Vocals. Elia gave us some information about Askara. Askara @ Facebook.

Tell us about Askara?

Askara is a progressive Gothic Metal band from Basel, Switzerland. Askara was founded in 2012 and played live for the first time in 2014. Recently we released our first album called Horizon Of Hope.

The band unites different elements of Gothic Metal with progressive, heavier Metal. Indicative for this distinctive style are the clear vocals of lead singer Myriam together with the contrary placed growls from Elia. This contrast in sound heaviness is also mirrored by the instruments: on one hand, guitars, bass and drums build up a basic layer of powerful sounds while the piano is contributing softer, melodic nuances. Thus Askara reflects the play between light and shadow, hope and darkness. 

What are lyrical themes of Askara?

 Topics in our lyrics are basically personal experiences that shaped our nature, for e.g. the song “Identity”. To name some topics, we’d say we write about hope (in futile situations), emotions, criticism of society and moral standards.

  

What are your influences?

We listen to a lot of bands, but what we think someone might recognise as an influence when listening to Askara might be In Mourning, Evanescence, Dream Theater or Morphia. That means we mix progressive elements such as DT or IM have and mix that with our very own way of gothic and doom style.

Which are your favourite Swiss metal bands?

Lotrify, Morgarten and Eluveitie

  

How did you choose the cover artwork for "Horizon of Hope"?

Consuelo Parra Perez already made an amazing cover art for Tourniquet. That’s where we first saw her amazing work. Her style just matches what we imagined for our sound. We checked out her art collection and loved it immediately. When we came upon that raven on the tree, we just had to have it: that picture perfectly showed symbolically what we wanted to name “Horizon Of Hope”. We’re really happy that things worked out with Consuelo and we were able to use this amazing art for our cd!

How were the songs written?

It really depends on the song. Sometimes a song is written nearly as a whole by one person, sometimes it’s just one small part that is composed by one band member. We all write music and we bring parts of songs into our rehearsals. Then we each add our instruments to whatever already exists. We discuss together how we see that the song could then evolve and write the remains together. We’re always really tough to ourselves and often kick out parts. When the instrumental part of a song is finished, Myriam or Elia writes a text to it, depending on whom is having any inspiration to the music.

  

How did the recording process go?

Since we had no experience with studio work we must admit that we had our tolls. We learned a lot and struggled a little bit in the beginning, but the result is just what we wanted. We had our concept and needed no producer. We came to the studio with a pretty clear expectation but added some instant ideas during the recording. Especially with the vocals we were able to do more than what we planned. All in all we’re very proud about our work and the quality of this record.

What are your future plans?

We try to play as many shows as possible, even abroad. We’re working thoroughly to improve our technical skills and become better. Hopefully we’ll also be able to do a second record somewhere in the future.

Are there any countries you’re interested in touring or performing in? Why?

We’re open for suggestions. Asia would be amazing (maybe we could meet you guys from BDP;-)) but Europe is more realistic. Also nice would be Australia.

  

What bands would you like to play alongside?

There are a lot to play with out there but if we had to decide it would be Whithin Temptation, Saviour Machine, In Vain, Lacuna Coil, Demon Hunter and Grave Declaration.

Any last words?

We believe to have a purpose and responsibility with our music and it’s an enormous opportunity for us to get in contact with people all over the world through our music (we’re thrilled by every single message from fans). Our goal is to give hope to people and give them something they can stick to in the monotony of everyday life. Life offers more than most humans believe and we want to show this to our listeners.

That’s why we value everybody who enjoys our music and for that reason this interview is a great honour and we want to thank BDP for it!