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01 Avril 2012 – Maria Arkhipova de Arkona nous a accordé quelques instants avant sa prestation au Club Soda de Montréal. L’entrevue initiale a été réalisée en russe puis transféré dans la langue de Shakespeare par notre traducteur (et journaliste). Bonne lecture !

Thorium: First of all, hello and welcome in Montreal.

Maria: Thank you

Thorium: Just to let you know, our Russian level is not perfect so sorry if everything is not perfectly understood, it will be translated after. Feel free to speak English though Russian is still ok for us! The third edition of Paganfest USA has begun three nights ago. How is the beginning of the tour so far?

Maria: Everything is fine! We are travelling with great groups. We are going in the same bus with our friends. We really have a wonderful time.  People are greeting us perfectly! The beginning is amazing and we hope that the continuation will be the same!

Thorium:  We are glad to have you here, what are your feelings regarding this tour and line-up?

Maria: I’ve already told that we are travelling with wonderful groups and nice people. Today the group Ex Deo joined us. Unfortunately, I don’t know much about their work, we would like to hear it later.

Thorium: Did you make any special preparations for this tour?

Maria: No, we didn’t have any special preparations. But during the tour we decided to diversify our track list. We decided to change it for every night. I mean, for the first and second concert we played one setlist, for third and fourth another and etc. So it will be always different track list203.

Thorium:  This is your second time in Montreal, your first show last November was incredible! Can you compare russian and canadian metalheads?

Maria: Thank you! No, I can’t compare because people are very much alike here and there. We receive a lot of emotions and support from them. People welcome us as well in Russia as in Canada. I think that it’s not the matter of words.  Obviously, here people can’t understand me. It is a matter of emotions and atmosphere. So I think here and there we have excellent shows.

Thorium:  What is the difference between touring in America and in Europe?

Maria: Hmm…May be there was no shower in some places. hahaha

Thorium:  Speaking of touring, in your 10 years as a band, what is your favourite venue or what was the best one?

Maria: I can’t mark out any place, because for us each concert is first of all a feast, holiday of soul, holiday for our audiences,  no matter  how many will come – 10 or 1000. So each concert is symbolic for us.

Thorium: I know it’s hard to get in Canada from Russia, did you have any problems?

Maria: No. Everything was fine and fast enough. Embassy didn’t let us down. For sure there were some difficulties, but I can’t say it was too hard. Everything was quite simple that’s why we are here now.

Thorium:  You have two children, how do you conciliate your personal life and your life on the road?

Maria: First of all my mom helps me. I’m so grateful for that. But when I am in tour of course I miss them terribly.

Thorium:  You recently had your 10 years anniversary concert how was it?

Maria: It was awesome! We invited a choir and an orchestra of 4 people to participate in the concert. It was 3 hours program. We played absolutely all our songs from all our albums. There was also DVD shooting, so later we are planning to make a video, don’t know if we succeed, but we will do our best. Also there were a lot of people on the concert. Support was excellent! Everything was amazing!

Thorium:  Can you tell us more about Arkona, the name of the band and who chose it?

Maria: Arkona was a spiritual center of the Baltic Slavs, which is located on the island Rujan ( Rugen). Nowadays it is a German  territory. Earlier it was the temple of Svjatovit, but in the 11th century the temple and Arkona were destroyed by Danish King.

I chose the name of the group and there is a good story about how it came. When I had the old line-up of musicians, we once gathered in the room and started the discussion about the name. We were thinking for a long time. After I very loudly exclaimed: –  ‘shouldn’t we call the group Arkona!’ – ‘why not?’ – ‘cause it fell!’ – ‘so, lets restore it to life’.

Thorium: You write the songs yourself, concerning history and mythology, can you tell us a little bit more about your themes?

Maria: Our themes are based on the history of the culture of our nation. In my lyrics I also represent the reality of the modern world. My philosophy and ideology is to live in harmony with nature that is surrounding you.  This is what I express in my work.

Thorium:  You also are an historian, how does that fit with you actual way of life?

Maria: Hahaha this is not true! I’m not a historian at all! I can say more, I don’t trust historians, I don’t trust books in general. I prefer to rely on my own opinion and my vision of life.

Thorium:  After Slovo, what can we expect from Arkona in the future?

Maria: Now I’m preparing materials for future work. I’ve already finished 4 songs. I want to say that the album will be very depressive, not like the  other albums.  It will be something new in the Arkona’s creative work.

Thorium:  Any ideas of doing only acoustic albums?

Maria: Yes of course! We thought about that, but didn’t have enough time for realization of the acoustic album. We need to sit down and think over the arrangement, the things we want to realize. That’s the matter of time. I think in future we will do that. We will see…

Thorium:  Any other big tours planned after the Paganfest?

Maria: We planned to visit lots of festivals. But we don’t plan any big tours. Just single trips. It will be possible to talk about future tours only around autumn or winter.

Thorium: Have you tried any vodka here in Canada? What do you think?

Maria: I hope I will try tonight! Hahaha

Thorium:  Thank you. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. Bye. Thank you. Bye. Bye.

Entrevue réalisée par : Jonathan Vallée et Frédéric Séguin le 01/05/2012

Traduction depuis le Russe par : Ksusha Polukhina

Photographe : Paul Blondé