Gogo Melone, Vocalist and Orchestrials for Luna Obscura

 

 

1. We are speaking today with the lead female vocalist Gogo Melone from the amazing band Luna Obscura. Gogo, thanks very much for your time. Please introduce your fellow band mates and tell us where you are from.

Hello to you and your readers :)

We came from a provincial city called Serres which is in Greece and my band mates are:

Dimitris Papachristos - guitars/orchestrals/programming

Aris Potonos - Vocals/Lyrics

Stratos Kountouras - Bass

2. Let's begin back in 2000 when the band first started this journey. How did Luna Obscura come to be, and did this vision for the bands sound and direction exist from the very start?

We tried to find a way to express our feelings and?say the things that we want to share?so we started to work together. It was not so hard to make it happen because we are friends for many years and our musical influences?are almost the same. We always want to create a mixture of heavy - atmospheric - death?- gothic metal style but it was not so clear from the beginning if we would follow this direction. I mean we didn't have a plan at all, we didn't say "OK, let's go ... let's play gothic". We started to work and?most of our musical ideas were so close in this style so it was a trigger for us to make this choice for the band.

3. In May 2004, Luna Obscura released their first recording the well received "Darcanca" EP. The band had been together for several years at this point. What was the feeling among the members after releasing this first recording?

?It was weird and some of our best periods as a band! We had tried many months to complete "Darcanda", we had a lot of different ideas that we wanted to work on with but at the end we decided to choose only 3 songs. When?the?EP?came out, the only thing we wanted was our music to be listened by a lot of people so we started to make some shows and promote? "Darcanda" in every way we could. All the?comments were more than?great and this was very?positive for us and gave us the energy to continue.

4. 3 years later we see the release of the second EP "Evilyn", were there any lessons? learned from your first EP to your second that helped you in the writing and recording of "Evilyn"?

Hmmm...Not exactly, because if you listen the?songs the production is almost the same with "Darcanda"?so I guess that we learned more things from these EPs that helped us make our new album. The "Evilyn" has 2 songs, the homonym?song is very?different from all the others that people used to?listen from us. However it still remains a good song for us but we wanted to do the recordings and?separate it from the other songs. To be honest I never had imagined that it will be ever? released in some of our albums with the form and the construction that has at this time. I would better say that we recorded it more for us.

5. Now in 2008 Luna Obscura's first full length album "Feltia" is released. How does it feel to have your album released to the world?

We are very happy about it, we couldn't ask for anything more.

6. "Feltia" contains 11 tracks total. Are there any certain songs on the album you feel best capture the Luna Obscura sound, and do you have any favorites?

I believe that every song in this album is unique and they all absolutely represent the band and the things that we want to create with our music. Our sound surely has been enriched with more stuff but those who have heard older things from us, propably they'll find also enough elements that they remind the past. As for my favourite song, "The Ancient One" and "Codex Daemonicus 1516"?might be distinguished not only for me but for the listeners too.

7. One thing that caught my attention as soon as I heard Luna Obscura is the stunning quality of the writing and recording. I am a big believer in quality and not quantity. Tell me about everything that went into making your music so amazing.

?Thank you, I'm glad that you liked it! Our priority was to make a good production without missing the atmosphere. For those who like the atmospheric/gothic/death genre,they have to listen this album not because we have a good production but also for the way that we have worked with?the songs, with the lyrics, the vocals. "Feltia" is a mixture of the words feel and fall and the lyrics talk about anger, fear, suffer, nightmares, pain,generaly about every human feeling. Our producer is Stamos Koliousis from 210 Studios (Berlin). It's the first time we work with him and we are very satisfied with the job that he made for us. We recorded the vocals at STV Studios (Greece) with Steve Dickins who was our Bass Player and the producer in "Darcanda" and "Evilyn". Finally we did the mastering at Finnvox Studios (Finland) with Mika Jussila who has been worked with many popular artists like Children Of Bodom, Sonata Arctica, To Die For, Moonspell, Nightwish and many others. The album artwork was made by Zilas and also I work for the band as graphic designer.

8. Now that your album is out, will we see any touring or shows coming up?
Even if we have many months to play somewhere, we prefer to give some shows?when it comes the right time.?We don't close a month from the release date yet so we?need to make a good promotion? for the album and get in contact with some labels first.
9. Has the band had a opportunity to play outside your home country?

Not yet but if we have the chance we would love to do it in the future.

10. In closing, I would like to congratulate all the members and people involved with Luna Obscura on creating a excellent piece of work in "Feltia". We certainly wish the band all the best in the future. Please tell our readers where they can get their Luna Obscura merchandise.

Thank you very much for the support! You can find our stuff on our page www.myspace.com/lunaobscuraband.? Also available in a limited number of stores in Greece for our Greek fans and you can make an order via email at lunaobscura-@hotmail.com or management-lunaobscura@hotmail.com?

 

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