One of our reviewers, Andy, was impressed enough with Dark Moor's most recent album Ars Musica that he took an opportunity to compile a quick e-mail interview with the band.
Congratulations on your new album, it is excellent! Was there a specific inspiration for this one?
Thanks. Yes, I had a special inspiration this time, my first son was born just before I started writing the new songs, so I think this gave me one additional plus to my inspiration :)
Who is the boy with the violin on the cover? The scene reminds me of HP Lovecraft's "The Music of Erich Zann", although in his story the violinist is old...
Hahaha, why not? I love Lovecraft and we wrote some songs during our career about his tales, but no, this is our vision of Dark Moor... we see ourselves like this child, lost in his world of romance and art, while outside, through the window, you can see the real world, grey and cold, where it rains incessantly.
How do you think your sound is evolving? Ars Musica seems to take things in a larger and more symphonic direction than Ancestral Romance.
It is a natural music evolution. We do not like making the same CD again and again, so we introduced new details and tried new ways, always respecting the essence of the band. This album is more rock and less metal than our other previous works.
Are you listening to any other metal bands currently, and if so, any that you recommend that some of us may not have heard before?
Not really... I only listen to other metal bands with whom I worked as a producer, like Tears of Martyr, for example. But now I do not follow the metal music too much. Others mates like Mario or Robert listen to more bands.
If I'm counting right, I believe this is now your sixth album with Alfred. After the first transition period from the old lineup, did you guys face any challenges musically when making your later albums?
For us a new album always is a new challenge! This is the philosophy of the band. We take our last album and try to make the new one better, it is our way to work.
What's your favorite Dark Moor song of all the ones you've made?
Wow!! it is really hard to say... for me all the songs have a lot of work and love behind them ... for the last album, I have special predilection for A Music in My Soul and Tilt at Windmills for example, for the new album I love This is My Way and Together as Ever because I think that in these songs there is a lot of me.
I see you're going to Latin America this fall. On behalf of the US fans...any chance you might visit the US sometime?
I hope! We were talking with one festival one year ago... Florida Prog Power Metal, but finally it did not work... We hope that other promoters are interested in us, because we love the US!!
Many of your songs sound like they could be put on a soundtrack. Someone asked Alfred this in an interview years ago, and it's been a while so I'll ask again -- has anyone approached you about doing a soundtrack for them?
Yes! I work with Paul Naschy (Spanish master of Terror Cinema) in his last movie Empusa. I write all the music of the film and we put one song of Dark Moor in the final too.
With regard to the process of writing the songs, some bands have one guy who just comes up with everything and the rest interpret what he gives them, others have a very group-oriented effort where everyone does a little bit -- and of course there is a whole range in between. What's your way?
We try to work together and all the mates contribute their ideas, though usually I carry all the weight compositionally. I am the producer too.
Anything you would like to say to our readers?
Greetings from Spain!! We hope that you will like the new CD, and we hope we could play live in your great country!! All the best!!

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