melodylane

MELODY LANE  had the pleasure of interviewing the  POKERFACE. With the Russian Band we talked about their debut, the bands that inspired them and their projects for the future

MELODY LANE: Can you tell us where the name POKERFACE comes from? Who's the founder of the band and where are you from?

Doctor (Drums): I'll start from the end... We are from from Moscow, Russia. But the first guys, who found the band, were from Syberia. The name of the band "Pokerface" is a sign of respect to Motorhead and an "Ace of Spades" spin-off. At the first days we used to play a lot of covers on Venom, Slayer, Motorhead, Kreator. It was the best time!

 

MELODY LANE: Which (bands) are/have been your main musical inspirations?

Doctor: I prefer to play like my idols - Sodom, Sepultura, Slayer. I convinced that old-school thrash metal is the most honest music of all genres - fast, raw, simple and very aggressive. So quite!

LadyOwl (Vox): For now it's Arch Enemy, but I constanlly love Lacrimosa, Nightwish and Kamelot. But I'm listening to a lot of differend bands and solo singers from pop to death metal. 

Ritter (Guitar): The Big Teutonic 4, Slayer, Sepultura. Also Cannibal Corpse, Death, Opeth, Iced Earth and many more. Devin Townsend is my idol, because he is a perfect showman.

mrGeneSimmons (Bass): I like Arch Enemy and Children of Bodom, it's my two favorite bands. But also Sodom, Kreator and Sepultura are in my personal top.

 

MELODY LANE: The line up of the band is the same from the beginning or have you had changes. The members in tour will be the same that played in the studio?

mrGeneSimmons: We had a lot of changes since the band was founded. Ppl come, ppl go - that's life, you know. Also usually one member plays live and another one does records in studio.

 

MELODY LANE: List 3 songs, from the POKERFACE discography, that can define the sound of the band … 3 songs that can help our readers to know POKERFACE at the best

Doctor: Oh God. You know, we are changing sound every time and my the baest advice to listen songs from different CDs. At first - "Under the Pentagram Sign" - the track-symbol of old Pokerface. You must check it out. The second one - "Into the Inferno" from "Divide And Rule", is a track that combines old staff like Slayer and new features - groove, break-downs, etc. And the third one - "Creepy Guests" as a track from the last release "Game On" . After that you can understand how our music is mutating, heh!

mrGeneSimmons: "Under the Pentagram Sign", "The Chessboard Killer" and "Play or Die".

LadyOwl: It's hard to pick only 3 songs..ugh..but yeah I kinda agree with Dmitry but I would probably also add something else from the last album, something with new melodic stuff and all 3 kinds of singing I use, just to explain the range of options that we're gonna use. 

 

MELODY LANE: Tell us something about the creative process of your music. Is there a main composer or we can talk about a team work? The songs come from ideas of a single member and then the band works on these ideas in the studio jamming togheter, or your songs are written in the studio and all the members compose togheter?

mrGeneSimmons: On this album we used the following process. Guitarists compose riffs or something like melody or chords sequense and give me to listen. Then I build construction of the song, add drums and bass, and we are trying to play it on rehearsal. Make some changes again and again before the music become cool for us. After that we make the lyrics and our Lady Owl make vocal line. That's it - the song is ready!

 

MELODY LANE: What are going to be the differences between your first full-length “Divide and Rule” and the last one “Game On”? After time, are you totally satisfied with your choices about sound and the writing of both your albums? 

Ritter: These two albums differ by thrash-stylistics: "Divide..." is an old-school thrash album and its sound is raw and calls for records of 80's, that matches the songs quite perfect. "Game On" could not be recorded with the same sound, because new songs are more complex and modern and all instruments in that case could fall into mess. So, "Game On" refers us to thrash-sound of 2010-2015. Totally different, but still fast and aggressive.

LadyOwl: Yeah, I agree. But I can say I'm quite satisfied about "Game On" but not totally, 'cause you know...now since the time, I see some points as for recording vocals, I would do few things a bit different. But I think it's okay, 'cause next time we can do our job even better. 

 

MELODY LANE: Will you tour in Europe in the next future?

mrGeneSimmons: Sure. And we will start working on it after returning from tour with Nervosa this autumn.

 

MELODY LANE: Could you tell us two bands, from the actual thrash scene, you’d like to tour with in the next future…? And why these bands?

LadyOwl: Arch Enemy ofc, if I can call it a thrash-band and maybe. 'Cause this is one of my fav bands and i think that we're gonna have the same auditory. But for a second band on tour..well I don't know, Slayer will be fantastic ;) 

Ritter: Sodom - because they do best thrash shows due to simple and honest music and the crowd become totally insane. And they are also good simple guys themselves. Kreator - because they are 100% professionals, we could learn something new and useful during such a tour.

mrGeneSimmons: For me - it's Sepultura and Arch Enemy, 'cause I like these bands 

 

MELODY LANE: What has been your biggest achievement to date and what do you want to achieve in the near future? 

mrGeneSimmons: We made a solid and concurrent thrash metal band, which already is known in Europe. We play very energetic music and ppl like it. In the future we have to become a worldwide well-known band and to make tours all over the world!

LadyOwl: We rise our band to a professional level, you know. We are educating ourself  every day we work and every show we play. I can say we are very strong band 'cause we could loose everything we built a million times, but we saved it. And we put our lifes on the table to achieve our dream, we want that the world could hear us 

 

MELODY LANE: In the end…A message from you to all MELODY LANE readers.

Doctor: Thank you, long-readers! I just gonna say - be open-minded, listen to your lovely music, metal, rock, techno, don't care, live your life and have fun! Stay true!  

LadyOwl: Thank you for your time! Listen to good music and don't forget to headbang  Hope to see you guys in front of me on our shows!