You can read this post in:
Português
Coming from Bulgary the Eufobia plays an awesome Death Metal and is a band that you have to know if you enjoy the style. We talked with Niki, the guitar and vocalist, an interview that we enjoyed do because Niki showed himself a really nice person and it is always good to talk with people that have something to say. See below our interview.
First of all, thanks to accept to answer our questions.
You’re welcome. I’d like to thank you for giving my band the chance our voice to be heard by the Brazilian metalheads. Be sure that we appreciate it.
GroundCast: Could you tell us a bit of the band’s history?
Of course I can. Let’s start with the lineup. My name is Niki. I sing and play the guitar. I’m also the founder of the band. Before founding Eufobia I was a member of another band, but I was rather unhappy, because the other band members wanted us to play cover versions of some popular songs in order to make money. That’s why I decided to start my own band and invited Stefan, the bass player, and Blago, the drummer, to join me. The other guitar player Ivan became a member of Eufobia a few years later, but since then no band member has ever been replaced and we are very proud of this fact. In the spring of the year 2008 we went on our first real tour across the Balkan peninsula with the Polish band Carnal and just a few weeks after we came back from this one, we hit the road again, this time with the thrash metal legends Onslaught and the Greek band Suicidal Angels. That experience changed our lives, because we saw how the real bands looked and acted like and seeing it we decided to start doing everything professionally. In the years that followed we shared the stage with many other great bands such as Arch Enemy, Dark Tranquility, Rotting Christ, Vader, Immolation, Onslaught, Malevolent Creation, Pyogenesis, Gorgoroth, Primordial, Sinister, Broken Hope, Christ Agony, E-force, Agathocles, Negura Bunget, Suicidal Angels and many more. We’re one of the very few Bulgarian bands, that tour regularly across Europe. We have released three albums so far, “Insemination” in 2010, “Cup of Mud” in 2011 and the last one, which was called simply “Eufobia”, was released in the end of the last year. These albums are distributed worldwide, thanks to the excellent relations, that our label “Wizard LTD” has with some of the biggest labels or distributors of metal music in the world.
GroundCast: What are your influences?
I believe that our strength and creativity are due to the fact that everyone of us listens to diverse kinds of rock and metal music. Thus we’ve got diverse musical influences, which makes our own music sound more interesting and unusual. We have chosen to play underground metal music, which actually gives us a huge advantage. I’m talking about the freedom to play whatever one’s soul truly desire. Most people think that Eufobia is a Death Metal band, but the music, that we’re currently playing, is actually much closer to Thrash Metal or even to Rock’n’Roll. We don’t want to copy any particular band and we’re not afraid to experiment. I personally listen to rock, grunge, punk, black metal, death metal, hard core, grind core and basically to everything that has a distorted electric guitar in it. I could easily name hundreds of bands, that had influenced me, like Napalm Death, Morbid Angel, Motorhead, Gojira, Dark Tranquility, Rotting Christ, Vader, Immolation or Behemoth for instance, but the one that had influenced me the most was Death. No doubt about it. One can feel it, listening to the music I create.
GroundCast: In 2016 you released the self-titled album of the band. Before you released “Cup of Mind” in 2011, what changed in the band during these five years and why did it take 5 years to release a new album?
A lot has changed in the last years, except for us. We remained the same crazy bastards and we’ve still got the same insane ideas and beliefs. The only difference is that now we’ve got more experience and know how to do things better. Our music has been changing, because we’ve been trying to explore some new ideas. I must say, that this quest is still far from over and that it probably never will. Right now we’re preparing the songs for our fourth album and they are totally different from those of the last one. It took us almost five years to complete our self-titled album, because we didn’t want to make any compromises. That was the main reason for choosing the title “Eufobia” for it, by the way. Its creation was a long and painful process, but it was worth it, because eventually we were totally satisfied with the final result. We wouldn’t have succeeded, however, without the help of some very special friends, like Deso Velchev, who recorded the album, Petar Bratanov, better known as Pepinio, who mixed it, the brilliant artist Val Volegna, who created the whole visual concept, the artwork and the videos of the songs “Hater”,”Liquid of Creation” and “Graveyard”, and of course Peter from our label Wizard, who released the album.
GroundCast: Coming from Bulgaria, how is the metal scene there?
Our local metal scene probably isn’t as great as the one from Brasil, but still there are many metal concerts in Bulgaria of both famous and underground metal bands. Those shows are usually pretty well attended, especially the ones that take place in the city of Sofia, which is our national capital and the city we live in. There are fewer metal fans in the rest of the country for the simple reason that people would rather live and work here in the beating heart of our country. Just like me, by the way. I spent my childhood in a small mountain town, but my family moved to Sofia long ago. There are many fine local bands and a true army of faithful metal fans. People know one another. When I go to a concert I usually see a lot of familiar faces. The fans and the bands are a part of the same family. On the other hand, there’s not a single famous Bulgarian band, but therefore probably people here are more interested in the underground in general.
GroundCast: How is the composition process of the band?
Most of the music, that we have created so far, was written either by me or by the other guitar player, but everyone else gave some ideas too. I also wrote most of the lyrics, but some of them were written by our drummer. The musical ideas usually come to my head out of the blue. Sometimes the melodies come up when I play for fun at home, sometimes they come up when I walk along the street and then I rush back home to grab my guitar and play them. Once I manage to link some of these riffs together in a song, I present it to my band mates and then everyone adds something of himself. Finally we add the lyrics and then we’re ready to present the song to the public. I have to admit that we often argue or even scream to one another, but this is actually an essential part of the creative process. There must be a lot of passion involved, if one wants to create a good song. One can forge the iron only if it’s hot, right?
GroundCast: What the name EUFOBIA means to the band and how it is integrated with the music you make?
When we had to give the band a name, we simply made a list of names and then we chose the most
suitable one, which happened to be Eufobia. The word itself is of ancient Greek origin and it literally means “fear of good”. I wouldn’t say that we were afraid of the good things in life. It would have been insane, but the thing is that in the world that we live in today the goodness often seems fake and surreal. It’s just like the piece of cheese in the mousetrap. That’s what we’re afraid of. That’s what we’ve been trying to explain through our music.
GroundCast: Since the album “EUFOBIA” is still fresh, how is the touring (in case you are still playing live – I mean in 2017) and the acceptance of the material?
Most of the feedback from both the public and the media has been quite positive so far. I like the music, that we make, so I’m surely glad that I’m not the only one who does. The first concert of the year 2017 was the one we gave in Sofia to promote the new album. Then in April we joined the great Polish band Christ Agony and the Italians from Eternal Samhain, as a part of the “Legacy Balkans Tour”. After that we made a few shows in our homeland and played on the stage of three very important Romanian festivals. I’m talking about Rock’n’Iasi, Klausenburg Metal Gathering and Metal Gates Festival. The Brazilians have probably never heard of them, but the people from our region would instantly understand what I’m talking about. Although we tour regularly across Europe, we play mostly in Romania and Bulgaria and this year we made no exception. It’s easier for us to book shows in these two countries, because that’s where most of the people who know and like our band live. The reaction of the audience was great and I was pleasantly surprised to see a lot of people wearing T-shirts of Eufobia from different periods on those concerts. I also meet a lot of old friends there.
GroundCast: Do you know any band from Brazil and have you had some invitation to play there?
We’d accept gladly an invitation to come to Brazil , but no one has ever invited us so far. The problem is that Brazil is far away from Bulgaria and it wouldn’t be easy for us to go there, especially having in mind the enormous cost of the airfare. That’s why we have never played outside of Europe, although we have already played in many European countries. I’m confident, however, that sooner or later we’ll be able to do that. I know that there are many extraordinary bands in Brazil. Of course, we’re huge fans of Sepultura, but now I’d like to mention another Brazilian band, which we know very well. After the release of our debut album “Insemination” we went on a tour across Europe with your compatriots from the band Krow to promote it. We spent a month and a half on the road and we had a great time together.
GroundCast: We are in the internet era where you can find most of the releases online. Even countries like Germany that are strict with this isn’t safe of downloaders. We also have services like Spotify, what is your opinion about it?
I personally would rather buy some CDs, because this way I would support the bands that had released them, knowing quite well how much involvement the creation of an album actually requires and besides nothing can replace the feeling of having the real thing home, of opening it for the first time, of touching an smelling the freshly printed booklet. It feels almost like a defloration. Most of the old school fans would understand me, but many of the kids born in the new millennium probably never will. On the other hand I honestly wouldn’t give an unnecessarily large fuck about it, if people downloaded our songs. The fact that they listened to them would be much more important to me and besides one can never stop the progress. We live in the internet era, as you’ve just mentioned above yourself.
GroundCast: What are the plans for 2018?
First of all, we’d like to record a new album. This time we don’t want to wait another five years. We’ve got enough material and we’d like to go back to the studio as soon as we can. We’ve been already playing some of the new songs live, by the way, so the people, who attended our recent shows are quite familiar with them. Judging by the reaction of the audience, they were very well accepted. We have also booked some shows for 2018, but it’s too early to announce them officially.
GroundCast: Now the space is yours to say something to our readers
Our message to the people has always been to support the underground. We’d be quite happy if they decided to check out our band online, to listen to our music and to watch our videos. Cheers and best wishes!