Ardours is a promising band formed in 2015 that brings a new gothic athmosphere to the metal world. The two main artists are Kris Laurent and the famous Mariagela Demurtas (from Tristania). They have already launched an album and most recently an EP. We talked to Mariangela Demurtas to get to know more about this project.
M.I. - Who got the ideia to start the Ardours project?
Ardours came up as a collaboration in the beginning, between me, Mariangela, singer of the band and Kris, my old friend from Sardinia, instrumentalist and producer of our music.
We considered to actually make a real band out of this initial project as soon as we saw the good connection and results out of our collaboration.
M.I. - How did it move from an ideia to reality?
We started to share ideas and then to put real effort in building and producing songs. Once we understood there was something promising there, we decided to look for a record deal.
M.I. - Who are your main influences?
We have lots of bands and artists that influenced us, for sure we can say that dark music dated from the 80’s and the 80’s music in general are what is behind our sound.
M.I. - What do you think Ardours brings to the metal world?
I do not have a real thought about that, because I never think we belong to metal or any other specific genre, we do only know that we like what we do and we think any kind of people could listen to our music.
M.I. - With already an album and most recently an EP launched, what kind of feedback have you got so far? Did it match the expectations?
We are very happy with the feedback, we have received very good words from high level professionals in the business and we have some loyal fans already. We are certainly not the biggest surprise of the year, but we can see that people really loved our first album and this last EP as well. We feel grateful.
M.I. - How would you describe your first album?
I would describe our first album as very atmospheric and poetic with a modern sound.
M.I. - How did you come up with the title?
Album title? We thought our song “Last Place on Earth” was explaining the meaning of this album at its best. No matter what we go through in life, we can always find solutions and ways out, to make it ‘til the end.
M.I. - Which are your favourite songs from “Last Place on Earth”?
It is a very hard question, for some reasons I love them all…
M.I. - Tell us how the writing process works for you.
Writing process is simple...Kris writes the instrumental parts, I put my vocal lines in there and check what text of Tarald (from Tristania) matches with those feelings, then, I work with Tarald to adapt the text to the music in case we need some changes, and then I work with Kris on building structures and producing.
M.I. - You have recently launched the “Eu4ria” EP, where can your fans listen to the songs and buy them?
Eu4foria EP is available only in digital format, and it is ok for us because those are covers. We mean, a physical package makes more sense if we wrote the songs. Eu4foria was great fun for us and we feel proud of it, but when it comes on being us, our songs definitely tell it better.
M.I. - Why have you decided to make an EP with covers?
It was our label’s idea. We found it interesting because we had open choice regarding the songs to choose from, and it’s so funny to play something you love from other artists, but by the way you see it.
M.I. - Any fears regarding this work?
Fear can’t be on the way, because fear stops everything and we do not give it a chance.
M.I. - Which song means the most to you?
As I said, all of them have been in my heart and in my mind as an experience, all of them mark a time of my life. I love them all.
M.I. - In “Eu4ria” we can listen to a different sonority then the one in your previous work, what have you done different?
I definitely sound different on the EP. Technically singing, I added more compression to the voice. Also, the microphone was chosen with that intention. During the vocal editing, it was clear that we had the 80’s pop rock that sounds we wanted to have. But yes, I put my voice on another level on this EP.
M.I. - What are your plans for Ardours?
Well, plans will be different than expected due to the Covid-19, but we want to put our heads into the music right now and write a bunch of new stuff.
M.I. - Did you had the chance to do a lot of performances? How has the live feedback been?
Our lives went pretty well until now, we had only two shows until now but they both went pretty well. Some people came to congratulate us at the end of the second show and they were also shocked because they didn’t expect the band was at the second concert and the sound was so good. We’ve been around, I guess we know how to work, hehe.
M.I. - Any shows planned for the next months?
We had a show planned in Milan at the end of May... but guess what? Maybe it is not happening... so we will wait to see if in October we’ll be going to The Nederlands or not.
M.I. - What would you like to say to your fans? And to your future fans?
I would like to thank our fans for truly believing in our music, we know we love this and the fact that we can share it with you all, makes us happy! A big thank you!
For Portuguese version, click here
Interview by Tatiana Andersen
