Interview - LYDIA´S GEMSTONE

Martín: Hi there! First of all introduce you and your musical project called LYDIA´S GEMSTONE to our readers.

Markus: Hey, I'm Markus. Singer, songwriter & guitar-player of the Austrian band Lydia's Gemstone.

M: Your first effort “No Endorphins Added” sounded pretty cool. How were the recording sessions? Are you satisfied with the results?

M: Well, it's already near 2 years ago since we finished the recording sessions for "NEA". But what I remember is that they were very funny and chaotic. It was a very relaxed atmosphere even because the studio boss is a good long-time friend of us and the studio is in the same house than our rehearsal room.

What I feel when I listen to it now is that we were on the search for the right direction Lydia's Gemstone has to go. There are a lot of things I would do different now, improve or do better. But that's a good sign and a normal reaction. If there would be nothing for me to do better or different now I wouldn’t have advanced as a musician.

M: “No Endorphins Added” has a cool artwork, tell us about it.

M: Yeah, I think so too. The artwork is from an Austrian artist called Simon Goritschnig. A very talented, originally and inventive artist. By the way he also designs the cover for the next album ;)

The funny thing is that I just met him in our time in the Austrian army. Nearly every free minute he spent with drawing. We started to talk a lot of art and music and found out that we have/had similar taste in those things.

I'm very glad that we started this collaboration because I think that he visualizes our music & lyrics in an awesome way.

M: Your new album will be available via Echozone this autumn, what can we expect about it?

M: We are still in negotiation with several labels at the moment but try to manage the release for autumn/winter this year. The recording sessions are already finished and the album gets mastered now.

We had a very good time in Germany (Hannover) and achieved a very intense and satisfying result. You can expect a very powerful, diversified and melancholic album.

M: What is the meaning of Melancholic Gemrock?

M: Originally we founded this appellation just to avoid that people have too much prejudice because of any genre-name. Now it's still the name we call our music and we don't care a lot anymore in which genre people see us. But it's a very favoured question ;)

M: How is the process to create this kind of music plenty of passion and melancholy?

M: It's not necessary to create any artificial atmosphere during the song writing process. There's a lot of melancholy and especially passion in my personality. And that simply gets reflected on what I create and write.

M: What themes inspire you to write a new song?

M: It's almost always something like nature, landscape, emotions, experiences... Maybe a mixture of that. Something that gives me a very intense prevailing mood. I use those moments to alter these ecstatic-like moments into melodies and words. It's always very hard for me to explain because honestly I still not know what the hell happens with me at this moments *haha*

M: What can we expect about LYDIA´S GEMSTONE´s live on stage?

M: A powerful and intense rock show! 2 chrome-coloured angel-statues positioned on the right and left corner on the stage and a lot of grave candles to intensify the atmosphere... and of course a lot of sweat *hehe*

M: How do you see Gothic-Melancholic Rock scene in Europe today?

M: I don't see myself really intense involved and append ant to the gothic-scene. It's just one of many influences that make Lydia's Gemstone to what it is. But nevertheless it's a very diversified scene that contains a lot of interesting bands and mixtures of music-styles. Also the visual aspect is inimitable.

I would like to use that question to tell my deepest accommodation
to the relatives and band mates of PETER STEELE. I was totally shocked when
I heard about his death. A very great musician and mentor of this scene and honestly also for myself. R.I.P Peter Steele.

M: Your Top Five albums?

M: Very difficult to say. I have so much favourite albums. A few of these are:

- TYPE O NEGATIVE- World Coming Down
- COLDPLAY - x & y
- MEGADETH - Countdown to Extinction
- TOOL - Lateralus
- RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS - Californication

M: Thank you very much for your time. Here you have space to write what you want as farewell.

M: Thank you very much for the interview. I hope we could interest a lot of new people with it. Visit us on myspace to get news, info etc. www.myspace.com/lydiasgemstone, yours Markus & Lydia's Gemstone.

http://www.myspace.com/lydiasgemstone