I haven't seen much info your band, so I start the interview from some basic stuff. Please introduce yourself. Where are you come from. For how long you are involved in music/ music writing?
"PREDELLA AVANT is from the Netherlands and has been active since the autumn of 2000. I had been busy with electronic music for quite some years prior to PREDELLA AVANT, experimenting with ambience, sampling and audio engineering. After a while things started to take a certain shape and so PA was born."
What has influenced you on creating PA?
"What I wanted to do was create a music project that would be abstract and stimulate the listener's imagination. The elements in PREDELLA AVANT are quite eclectic, so the influences are to be found within quite a broad spectrum. This also counts for the composition, as I have a basic idea of what I want to create before starting yet other influences quickly seep in and create some very positive and surprising results."
I know that you are about to release a new album. What would you cite as the key factors that play a role in shaping the differences between your both albums (debut and upcoming)?
"The upcoming album, 'Carbon Figures', is most definitely more mature and technical than the debut. Next to this it's also darker in nature and features some more unusual elements. The debut had more of a triumphant feel to it, while 'Carbon Figures' contains more of a melancholic or serene atmosphere. The heavy orchestration is still very prominent, yet you will find more soundscape/dark-ambient oriented tracks on it. But in a common nutshell: It's a big step ahead."
How do you come upon your ideas for creating compositions?
"That varies tremendously. It could be something I've read, my emotional state at that specific time or that it's evolved out of an experimentation. Quite hard to lay a finger on the exact origin of the influences. As it goes for the instrumentation, they are often sounds I hear around me that strike me as having musical potential (such as scraping of steel, someone shouting or even subtle natural sounds). Often I try to find the origin of these sounds and sample them. Also when listening to music I often will find something within a fraction of second of the track that can be turned into a (continuous) instrument, a piece of percussion or subtle background sound. The possibilities become endless."
I continue my previous question. An album is finished. Everything comes out as planned in the end or finished album is quite unexpected for you still? Can you control the process of music-writing or it's totally spontaneous?
"If you're talking about control in the way of programming then yes, everything is programmed and sequenced. But the actual initiative for composition comes spontaneously, like a writer with a notebook. Also, I cannot plan beforehand exactly how long it will take me to compose a track or album. Sometimes it can grip me and it will take weeks before it is finally finished, and in other cases a matter of hours or days. All depends on how far it can be taken to give it's deserved depth and strength."
So, the result in the end is totally unexpected for you, right?
"Not totally unexpected. I can predict, to a certain extent, in which direction it will go. But there are always new things that come to mind when listening back to a composition which I add. The tracks grow almost naturally, like a tree if you wish."
Do you have a web site/ page with info about your band? I'd like to read something before I send you my questions.
You can find our website at: http://www.predella-avant.tk/. Although there's not a lot of information on our website, hopefully it will still give you a decent insight into PREDELLA AVANT.
I've heard that you are about to release the second album. Is that right?
Yes, this is true. The new album 'Carbon Figures' will be released by Ars Musica Diffundere/Black Rain in December. It will contain both new tracks and material from the (deleted) limited edition CD 'Noviomagus' remastered. It's definitely a big step ahead from the first album and I'm sure you'll enjoy it a lot.
What do you think about Dutch industrial/ neoclassical scene? I know only A Challenge of Honor. Are there any others?
"The Dutch darkfolk/martial/neoclassical scene as such is fairly small here in the Netherlands but growing bit by bit, day by day. As for bands in this genre we have A CHALLENGE OF HONOUR (as you already mentioned), VOLKSWEERBAARHEID and NEBELWERFER. Not very many, but these bands are highly innovative and well worth listening to."
What has influenced you to write military/neoclassical music?
"The choice basically came naturally, from the heart. I find that orchestration is a good medium for transporting strong emotions, whatever they may be. The sounds of brass, strings and choirs have always mesmerized me and I wanted to be able to do something with this and shape it into something personal."
Music-writing takes some time, some money, and some emotions. You could spend all that for some other pleasant things, but you compose music. Is that so important for you?
"What's important for me is that I have pleasure making this music and that others have pleasure listening to it. Music itself is very important to me. It's what I do, it's what keeps me going and my way of communication in a way. Everyone has their own thing in life."
To what kind of music you listen to? Please list your 3 most important/ favorite records.
"I listen to a very broad range of music. I'm prepared to listen to almost anything and see if it appeals. What I listen to the most are bands in the darkfolk/martial/neoclassical and power-electronics/noise/dark-ambient scene, but also to a lot of (minimal & old-school) ebm, idm, early & traditional music, classical etc. My favorite albums at the moment are: CURRENT 93 - 'Thunder Perfect Mind', SCHLOSS TEGAL - 'Black Static Transmission' and HAUS ARAFNA - 'Butterfly'."
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