With a stomping sound that launches out of your speakers from the moment you hit play, Arctic Dreams get straight to the point with their unique style. We caught up with the band to talk about their singles 'Frozen Little Beings' & 'Storm', whilst looking at what else 2025 has in store…”
Who is answering the questions?
[Alex_Y]: Alex_Y
[Gena]: Gennady
[Mirko_Death]: Mirko_Death
[Roman]: Roman Dubrovin
How did you get to the band name, and what does it mean to you?
[Alex_Y]: This is a story I've told probably a thousand times already…. Arctic Dreams started in 2009 when I moved to the glorious city of St. Petersburg and met our first guitarist Sydius. There were two conditions for choosing the name: first, it was because we are fans of Nordic culture, Scandinavian metal and everything that is connected with it. Secondly, it is that at that moment (as it happened) we all lived in one apartment not far from the famous club “Arktika”, which was located in the Research Institute of Arctic and Antarctic. At that time it was a cult place for heavy metal, where many famous metal bands and local bands performed.
When did you realise that you wanted to do music full time?
[Alex_Y]: Well, this realization didn't come to me right away.)) It all started when my grandfather bought me at the market a cassette with one heavy metal Russian band. At that moment I was 9 years old and the realization that I want to become a musician came to me at the age of 12 and I went to the classical guitar in the local house of culture. That's how I decided to become a musician.
[Gena]: I don't know when, but apparently things went downhill after that =)
[Mirko_Death]: 30 years ago listening to Slayer
[Roman]: I still don’t do music full-time. *crying sounds*
How did the idea for your latest release come about?
[Alex_Y]: Well our latest releases are singles for the new album, which we are planning and will try very hard to finish by the end of this year. We started writing it in 2023 right after the release of our first album “And The Agony Has Started”. The tracks themselves will generally be in the same direction as the first album, but will be much more varied. So far we have managed to release two singles in 2024: a song about Vikings “Storm” and a track about the Dyatlov Pass: “Frozen Little Beings”, which were quite well received by the public. At the moment we have started recording our third single and it will surprise you, I don't know if it's good or bad))) Stay tuned)))
[Gena]: On the last release, the idea generator was Alex
[Mirko_Death]: Tough question, i just took a guitar and ideas rush thru me.
[Roman]: Alex showed me tabs, and I completed the drums. That’s my whole contribution to the sound.
Can you tell us about the themes and influences that run through out?
[Alex_Y]: Oh…..That's a very broad question... We don't really have a specific concept for our project, we just don't want to limit ourselves to anything. We are inspired by many different sources: history, books, movies, video games, etc. But we try to put each theme into our own meta universe to bring everything to our unique sound and performance.
[Gena]: Everything around me, sometimes the weather can influence my creativity
[Mirko_Death]: Social, life experience,death, disease
[Roman]: Usually, it’s books
Who produced the release, and what were they like to work with (If you produced it yourself, then what do you love the most about working that way?)
[Alex_Y]: Well the main producer is always me, because my decision will determine how the final version will sound. I deal with the general concept, the sound recording approaches and the final arrangement. We do them together, everyone offers his own variants. But Gena does the mixing. He is a professional guitarist and sound engineer, and it was he who came up with our current sound, which we plan to develop.
[Gena]: Alex is in charge. I'm only in charge of mixing and mastering
[Mirko_Death]: Alex is a mastermind.
[Roman]: All credits to Alex
How would you say that the sound of the band has grown/changed over the last couple of years?
[Alex_Y]: Grown but many many heads higher. At the start of the project, mixing was handled by me, but I'm a stickler for the old sound, which doesn't suit our project. When Gena came to our project - he suggested a very interesting variant of our sound, which I liked and since then he does all the mixing of Arctic Dreams.
[Gena]: It's still evolving and I expect it to get better and better with each new release
[Mirko_Death]: Sound is always in progres
What do you want your latest release to do for the representation of the band?
[Alex_Y]: We want to show our listeners other facets of our project. We are not limited to black-metal or death-metal, we go much further and wider than any styles. That's why I don't like when someone tries to call our music a certain genre, I personally call our music “arctic-metal”. Although sometimes we have to put our music in a boundary for example, when you apply for some festivals.
[Gena]: I wish that after listening to our last release people would like to listen to the rest of our backlog.
[Mirko_Death]: To show who the fuck we are and how pissed off we are
[Roman]: Quality. At least, I hope so
What else can we expect to see from the band in 2025?
[Alex_Y]: Well like I said we plan on finishing the album and that will be the main thing we plan to do
[Gena]: New releases and new live shows
[Mirko_Death]: New sound, totally new ideas
[Roman]: We had a plan to release an album, but now I’m not sure that we can make it in time.
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