Spotlight on … Nýr Gata.

*When did you really get involved into music in general and into metal specific? Who was responsable for your interest in (metal) music?

Music in general already since the Kindergarten. My older brother and me listens a lot to tapes & cds of my fathers little collection. Mostly music from Germany. My brother and his friends are responsible for listening to metal. In our village almost everybody listen to metal to this time.

*Which artists or bands did influence you the most?

When Nordmann and me started with our first band we played a lot of medlodic death and and folk metal. Almost the entire Scandinavian Metal scene influenced us but mainly we played songs of Children Of Bodom and Wintersun. Both are the biggest impact but later also a lot of Black Metal bands entered our play list which influenced us also.

*Which instrument do you play and how and when did you learn to play? Did you had lessons in school or private lessons? If so, was that because your parents expected that from you? Or did you learn to play the instruments by yourself? Do yo still follow some lessons?

We both had acoustic guitar lessons when we were about 9 / 10 years old but that was not the decision of the parents. By becoming teenagers we bought our first electric guitars and from that moment we trained on our own with tabs and video lessons we found online.

*Do you listen to or are you intrested in other styles of music beside rock / metal? If so, what is the kind of music you prefer to listen to?

Almost everything except Techno / Hopuse and current Hip Hop / Rap music (80s & 90s songs were great). Both of us listens a lot of other music then metal but metal is and I think will be the main thing.

*Is music a full time job for you now or do you have a job beside music? If so, what kind of job are you doing? If you would be really succesful with music, would you quit your other job?

Music is our passion but not an income for us. We both work in office jobs and I think I would like to keep it that way, even if our music would be really successful. That way we don’t need to create music or playing gigs even if we would be in a very uninspired phase to generate an income.

*If you could start a complete new band (something like an all star band) with other musicians on other instruments, which artists would you pick for wich instrument and why? Would you still go for a melodic black / death metal project?

I think it would be something within the Death / Black Metal genre for sure but there are too many artists I would like to meet and working with. Impossible for me to pick only 4-5 persons.

*If you had been banned to an uninhabited island and you may pick 5 albums to listen to, wich albums would you choose and why?

That’s hard. Impulsively I would pick:

1.Wintersun – ‘Wintersun’: It´s still one of my favorite albums and as mentioned before a huge impact.

2. Children Of Bodom – ‘Something Wild’: I would like to choose almost all albums but I think I will go with ‘Something Wild’. That Album is a reason itself and ‘Lake Bodom’ was one of the first five Children Of Bodom songs I have listened to.

3. Taake – ‘Over Bjoergvin Graater Himmerik’: It was the first “true” Black metal Album that blow me away. Such a great sound, atmosphere and one of the best varied songwriting I know.

4. Blind Guardian – ‘Imaginations From The Other Side’: ‘Imaginations From The Other Side’ was one of my first metal alums ever and for me one of the best albums of the band still. Ages like wine.

5. S.O.A.D. – ‘Mezmerize’: Sometimes you need something funny / crazy. This Album is still a great one.

*Every new album of a band or an artist is the best one, so they say. So here is a chance to promote your album. Why should a music lover buy your album? What are the standout tracks for you on this new album and why?

I think for people who also love a more melodic way of Death and Black Metal it´s a good match. It´s an ode to all the great band that formed our way of writing and thinking about music. We have a good mix of death metal riffing and black metal atmosphere on this album and as always we are exploring some edges of those genres. My favorite tracks are the opener ‘Himmels Fall’ and ‘In Trümmern’. I think those will show the listener the style of our new album.

See “CD-Review” for a review (written in Dutch) for the new Nýr Gata album ‘Luna Aeterna’ (Nahetal Klangschmiede) –

*Is there a chance that you will promote these songs through live concerts? If so, would you prefer small clubs or big festivals? And is there a chance we can see NÝR GATA in Belgium?

We don’t have a live line-up and unfortunately there are no plans to change that in the near future.

But who knows. Someday maybe.