A double-barrelled attack today courtesy of bassist Tom Sklenar and guitarist Libor Křivák of eastern European combo Symphonity!
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
Tom: We are internationally based, the core of the band Libor, Josef and I are from Czech Republic, then Mayo is from Slovakia and Konstantin from Ukraine.
How did you meet?
T: To make the long story short, the band’s line up changed a multiple time during last 5 years. After the release of the last studio album King of Persia in 2016, some of the band members were not able to play live shows, which was a big problem. That’s the main reason, why Libor decided to change the line-up. That’s the time I joined the band. I remember that Libor sent me an email about joining Symphonity. I listened to both albums and was amazed about how the music sounds great, so it does not take a lot of time to say “yes” to this offer. During the following year or two, we were looking for other appropriate members. We were in contact with more musicians, but we chose those who are in current line-up, because they are the best possible choices for us at this moment.
How long have you been playing as a band?
T: The band was officially born back in 2008, but the guys played together even before this date, just under another band name Nemesis. So far, we released two studio albums and two singles. Currently we are finishing the next studio album.
Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?
Libor: We have to go back in time to the year 2007, I think it was when we joined the Limb Music family, and they advised us to change the band-name Nemesis because there was a lot of bands all around the world using this name. We were sitting in a pub with the former members and voting for a new band name. We couldn’t find common ground for a longer time, mainly because of the feeling that all good names had been already used in the past. Finally, a few beers later, we chose Symphonity which is a combination of two words, surprisingly Symphony and Eternity. I know, it’s a little bit cheesy but who cares!
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What are your influences?
T: We are all influenced by 70s and 80s classic rock and heavy metal era, at least a little bit. In addition, our main influences are classic power metal bands such as Helloween, Stratovarius, Blind Guardian and many many more. We are also influenced by classical music, of course.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
T: I think each album is very unique and different. The first album Voice From The Silence which was released in 2008, that’s straight crude power metal. The second album King Of Persia (2016) is more melodic, symphonic and epic. It has a different sound and different mood.
The new album will be also different. I think it’s the natural evolution of our song writing process. It will be the most epic album we ever released. It will be a mixture of really heavy songs (probably the heaviest we did so far) and beautiful ballads. I hope all the silly restrictions will enable us to release it and play it live soon.
What’s also unique is that we have two main male singers – Konstantin and Mayo. Their vocal has a different timbre and they are really strong together. Listen to our latest single “Dreaming Of Home” to hear what I am talking about.
Do you have any particular lyrical themes?
T: I can’t say it about the first albums, but the new album will be conceptual, so all the lyrics will be united into one topic, the life of Marco Polo. Each song will be connected with important milestones of his life.
What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?
T: Our show is not so theatrical as we can see among many bands these days. I do not say it’s good or bad, I just say that we do not use theatrical elements so much. I think our shows are very energetic and catchy, we emphasize the contact with the audience. Both of our singers can communicate perfectly with the crowd, so we enjoy the interaction between us and them.
Maybe the new album and its topic will give us the reason to think about adding some elements to our shows, but that’s not actual.
About your second question, we played band’s first European tour with this line-up supporting Rhapsody Of Fire. It was at the beginning of 2020, but the end of the tour was cancelled due to government restrictions all over the Europe. Anyway, we really enjoyed this experience, we had a lot of fun, the whole crew was awesome, so a lot of good memories. We make maximum to build on this and to go on another tour as soon as it will be possible. Except of this tour, we played some interesting gigs mainly in Germany, we also supported Freedom Call and The Unity during their last shows in Czech republic and Slovakia.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
I am not aware I do wild things at live shows, haha. So the answer is the fans. Metal fans can be really wild and cool (in a very positive way) in different places. It’s amazing to observe how some of them can enjoy the live show of their favourite band. Personally, it is the best satisfaction for me as a musician. That’s why we play live.
On the other hand, I can’t stand today’s addiction of recording everything on mobile phones, which also happens at live shows. Fortunately, there’s just a minority of people who do that. My message to them is “Enjoy your being at a live show, not sharing the low quality video among your virtual friends.” I do not like it as a musician as well as a fan.
What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?
T: I actually play Warwick Thumb bass from 1989, which is an awesome instrument. My amp is the good old Marshall DBS 7400. Together with Glockenklang Double Light box, it creates really straight powerful sound, so I do not need another effects or so, what I am not a big fan of.
L: I use two electric guitars during our live shows, namely ESP M-II Custom and Standard, then also acoustic guitar Godin ACS Nylon SA USB LB. My kit consists of Engl E530 Tube Preamp and Poweramp E840 + box Engl E412.
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What, if anything, are you plugging/promoting at the moment?
T: We would like to promote new album, but the best promotion for it is by touring, which is not possible now.
What are your plans for the next 6 months or so?
T: Our plan is clear. Finish and release the album and then go on tour to promote it as much as possible. It would be great to play in countries we never played before, such as UK.
If you were second on a three-band bill, which band would you love to be supporting and which band would you choose to open for you? A chance to plug someone you’ve toured with, or a mate’s band we’ve not heard of before!
T: Touring with Rhapsody of Fire was one of my big dreams, so that’s fulfilled one, at least for me personally. It was the very first band I listened to in this musical style. The possibility to play with them means really a lot to me.
Back to your question, I think each member would answer to this in a different way. Personally, I would like to experience supporting a really big name in order to see and learn how it all goes in the backstage and on tour in general among these big bands. I mean bands like Iron Maiden or Judas Priest. This is totally different level of everything, so it would be great to learn from them what we can do better.
Regarding the opening band for us, then Memories Of Old is my choice. It’s a quite new band from UK, they released very good debut album recently and we are in personal contact with Billy Jeffs from this band. He writes some lyrics for us and we met just online so far. It would be really nice if our bands will play together in the future. Both, Symphonity and Memories Of Old, are in Limb Music family, so it is not unrealistic to make it possible.
Thank you for your questions! Greetings all of the readers of Moshville Times and all the listeners of good music!
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