sunnudagur, ágúst 08, 2010

Endless Dark in the Spotlight @ IMX

Endless Dark - Mixing Sweet and Sour
Endless Dark is a six-piece post-hardcore band from Ólafsvík, Iceland. Aged between 18 and 22, the band started out in 2006 mainly doing covers by bands such as HIM, Type O Negative and Billy Idol, and started in its current form in 2007. The band came second in 2009's prestigious Global Battle Of The Bands competition and have recently started making waves internationally.
Iceland Music Export had an interview with them:
What can you tell us about the place you come from in Iceland?
We come from Ólafsvík and Grundarfjörður which are both small towns in the west of Iceland. There are not many activities for youngsters there so we end up playing music pretty much 24/7.
You describe your sound as post-hardcore. Can you break that down for the uninitiated?
It's a mixture of heavy metal riffs and sweet pop-related melodies.
Who have been your primary music influences internationally?
HIM and Type O Negative were our first influences but as our music evolved we started to listen to bands such as Killswitch Engage, Underoath, A Skylit Drive, We Came As Romans and Prefab Sprout.
Which Icelandic bands have left the biggest impression on you?
Shogun, Agent Fresco, Sign, Dikta, and The December Project.
You recently came second in the Global Battle of The Bands - how was that experience for you?

The experience was great but it was really just an opportunity to meet very important people that we are working with at the moment.
Had you played lots of gigs in Iceland before that?
Yeah loads.
You have also been signed to a big touring label - what's the story there, how did it happen etc?
Our manager Egill Kári Helgason was able to pass us on to the right connections in the UK, which led to a meeting with X-Ray Touring.
What does this mean for your future plans?
This opens up a lot of doors for us, not just in the UK but also in the rest of Europe and now we're currently on an UK tour and another one is in the works.
You recently played Sonisphere - how was your first key international experience (aside from GBOB)?
Sonisphere was a whole different level of experience for us, and it was great. We were really amazed with the reaction we got.
Where would you like to play most?
Doesn't matter where as long as we get to play internationally with bands we respect and get our music heard across the globe.
What are your current recording plans?
We're putting the finishing touches to our debut EP. There has been some interest from labels but nothing set in stone yet and we hope to have it released in the next few months. We just released our song "Cold, Hard December" as a digital release through www.tonlist.is.
www.youtube.com/v/WuS6SiH1Rys&hl&fmt=18

I saw one of your videos. You've evidently got a lot of energy. Presumably this is important to your recordings as well as your live shows?
Our live shows are what we have been getting recognition for so we try to incorporate that into our recording and our videos.
What's the most difficult aspect of being an emerging band in Iceland these days?
Financially it's not the easiest thing in the world so it's just about how bad you want it and how much you're willing to sacrifice.
And what's the best thing about being a musician in Iceland in 2010?
It's a small country and the music industry here isn't the biggest so it's pretty great to be able to play in other countries.
Endless Dark @ MySpace
Source: IMX

Engin ummæli: