OF INFINITY
Philip A. Wickstrand with:
Alessandra, Nazareth, Kurtis and Carlos via Email
October, 2004
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The last place in the world you would expect a band that plays classically influenced female fronted metal as beautiful as Of Infinity is Texas. Sweden or Norway, perhaps, but certainly not Texas. Yet such is the case and I for one am glad. We need more bands like this in America.Phil: With members starting out so far away from eachother in Arkansas, New Jersey and Utah, how did the band come together and relocate to San Antonio? Alessandra: Telekinesis. Really, it was difficult and time consuming. I'm from NJ/NY and Naz was from Little Rock at the time. We met online and then flew back and forth from state to state about once a month collaborating. When I was turning 17 I moved with my family to Salt Lake City, Utah and Naz moved there as well, which is where we met Kurtis. Utah doesn't exactly have a wonderful or large music scene so in 2003, when we got an opportunity to move to San Antonio, TX, we took it. I came down first and secured a band house to live and practice in and Naz and Kurtis soon followed. Here is SA, we met Carlos Teller, who is now our new Drummer.Phil: Obviously, with Alessandra's background in Opera, symphony and piano, the band is well grounded in classical music. Do you ever intend on using a full orchestra if your budget allows it? Alessandra: If you're talking about something like Metallica's S&M, I'm not sure about that… we're metal, but we really aren't afraid to add different things to the music. Its true that I know a lot about, and have been involved in classical music ever since I was very small, but metal is my passion and I think that heavy guitars can go well with acoustic instruments not typically used in the genre if its done right. Nazareth: I'm all for using an orchestra, but I would rather keep the music a little more intimate than that… Maybe a string quartet, a small French horn section, mixed with a classical guitar duo would be more my vision. Enough instrumentation to get a more robust sound, but still small enough to hear all of the individual players. Carlos: If the budget allows, I would love to use a full orchestra. Kind of do something like the Trans Siberian Orchestra. Except without the Christmas music. Also, I would make it sound a whole lot better than Metallica's stuff.Phil: How did you come to work on lyrics with a John Steinbeck Award winner like Paul Greulich? Alessandra: Ahhh… Greulich is a long time good friend. We met back in high school maybe in 1998 or so and just never lost touch. He went on to do great things in college with his writing… he's so talented with his words. He's a crazy intellectual drunken writer that has creativity oozing from every pore of his body and the band is very lucky that he's interested in working with us.Phil: When you play live, do you play with the full musical arrangements or do you play a more stripped down style with just the basics? Alessandra: Some of my layered vocals can't be reproduced very easily on stage, so that's something that has to be reorganized for a stage performance. And playing keys at the same time as doing vocals doesn't give you much of a front person to watch, so many times we redistribute keyboard parts to other members of the band or have guitars take care of it. Haha… we were going to use one of those strap on keyboards at one point, but… hmm.. I don't know what happened to that idea really, it just kind of died. Nazareth: Some of our songs have up to four or five layers of guitars alone, so I'll just pick out the two most important pieces and we'll use those between two guitarists. Kurtis: Crappy strap-ons… I have several lady friends back home in Utah that would have a field day with that one…Phil: Are there any plans for a full-length album anytime in the near future? Alessandra: Oh yeah… really the only complaint we get from people is that they want more music, so were most assuredly going to be putting out a full length, and hopefully soon. We have about 75% of the songs for a new album already written and ready to record. I think we'll probably be able to put another CD out in about a year or so.Phil: Is there anything else that you would like to add? Nazareth: Yes… We've just recently (October/2004) acquired a new drummer, Carlos Teller. Things seem to be working out with him quite nicely, and we're looking forward to performing live and recording with him. Alessandra: Once my little sister went into the refrigerator and poured ketchup all over her hands. Then she started fake crying and called my mother to see. After my mother had a small heart attack over the bloody scene and realize it was tomato, she proceeded to smack my sister across the face with such force, it turned my sister completely white save for the red hand mark on her cheek. In shock, my sister ran up to her room sobbing. My message to you: Children, don't play with your food. |