Zisis Petkanas from Rock Οverdose had the chance to talk with the adorable Greek singer of Visions Of Atlantis Maxi Nil ,about band's upcomming album, her future plans, and the international metal scene. Enjoy the interview...
RockOverdose: Hi Maxi and welcome to Rockoverdose.gr. How are you these days?
Maxi Nil: I'm doing really good thank you!Happy and impatient!!
RockOverdose: Tell us all the latest news of VOA.
Maxi Nil: We finished the recordings of our 5th album ETHERA and now we're in the mixing process.Photo shooting and video on their way too...
RockOverdose: Would you like to give us more infos about your upcomming album "Ethera" which is going to be released in late summer/fall of this year? Any song titles maybe?
Maxi Nil: Of course not!!hahahahaha...I only can tell you that we're all super excited about the result and we believe that it's the best album this band has ever released!
RockOverdose: Which will be the differences from "Delta"?
Maxi Nil: hmm well not that much orchestra,full of guitar riffs,super rock vocals,much more modern in general!
RockOverdose: Who is responsible for the music and the lyrics part of your music?
Maxi Nil: In this album Martin Harb(keys) Cris Tian(guitars) and myself are responsible for the songwriting,I wouldn't leave out of it my brother Mario Plank of course!We worked so much our vocal lines together this time and we are both super happy about it!
RockOverdose: After the album "Delta" , you decided to release the EP "Maria Magdalena".Did you have a lot of ideas that were left out of "Delta" and you wanted to share them with your fans?
Maxi Nil: Most of the songs of our EP were recorded with Delta but didn't make it to the final cut.A few months after the release of Delta,our label Napalm wanted us to release more material in 2011,so we sat down re-recorded the songs we left out in the first place cause we needed to change them a lot and we added
one more.Our fans embraced this EP so much that it came to position #1 on amazon.de and stayed in the top 50 for months!
RockOverdose:You are in the band since 2009. How have VOA fans accepted you, and how comfortable do you feel now with the band?
Maxi Nil:I call the VoA fans "atlantics" these people showed so much love that I would never expect it in my wildest dreams and I'm so grateful about that.Now about my voa family...we are a family,like real brothers,we fight,we talk our hearts out,we laugh,we share a deep honest love.
RockOverdose: What’s going on with live shows now? Are there any plans to visit Greece?
Maxi Nil: In June we're playing at Novarock fest in Austria with small bands like Metallica,Linkin Park,Evanescence,Machine Head,Marilyn Manson,Nightwish,Within Temptation...etc besides that nothing more is confirmed yet.About Greece we have some things in mind...you'll hear about it soon!
RockOverdose: What’s your experience with Vision Of Atlantis as a singer for almost three years now, and tell as your best and your worst moments with the band.
Maxi Nil: In 3 years that I'm with this band I did so many things that I would never imagine I would do in my whole life!Three official releases (including Ethera),travelling and touring around the world,playing great festivasl and the greatest of all Wacken on a big stage...making good friends around the globe...what else can I ask for?After thinking all these things all bad memories such as getting no sleep,or being stuck to Africa without knowing if we'd get back home,just disappear in the blink of an eye!
RockOverdose: Would you like to share your experiences from your performances at Wacken, Masters of Rock and MFVF?
Maxi Nil: These festivals are historical...and are my favorites so far!MFVF is kind of a family to us now!I can't say much cause if I start telling you all I will write down a novel!hahahaha It's the paradise of every musician!The stage,the sound,the crowd,the backstage area,the food...EVERYTHING!And especially Wacken!The bands playing at the 3 big stages have their artist village where they have a dressing room,extraordinary wc/shower with plasma TVs playing Metal DVDs,a great restaurant,a girl for massage and in general an amazing village with a big cozy fire in the middle for the night.(our dressing room was next to Motorhead's by the way =-p)
RockOverdose: Ok, you are visitng Greece very often. And as we know you are singing here too, Would you like to tell us about it?
Maxi Nil:Half of the year I'm in Greece so I have to do something there too.I'm singing in quite a few bands either as a guest member or in cover bands of various genres like folk,electro,rock,metal...I love to experiment and use my voice in different ways but I'll always be a rock singer in the end.=-)
RockOverdose: Talking about greece, I would like to ask you about a band you had joined here, On Thorns I Lay. Are we going to hear any news from this band?
Maxi Nil: On Thorns I lay are not a live band anymore and this has as a result not being able to sign with a label because no label wants to sign a band that won't play live.So the other members of the band decided to upload a rough mix of the album we recorded in 2003,in sound cloud and that's it!I have them in my heart cause they were the first professional band I ever joined and I played with them really great shows such as supporting Amorphis.I wish them all the best!=-)
RockOverdose: Back to Visions Of Atlantis again. The line up of the band had a lot of changes through the times. Do you think that this line up will be more stable?Is it staying like this for good?
Maxi Nil: This line-up,according to the old members,is the best this band ever had and I'm very happy they feel this way!We have all agreed that if this line-up will need to change Visions of Atlantis will end,so we're pretty sure that this is and will be the final one!!
RockOverdose: What do you think of the metal scene nowadays, and are there any great new bands? What about the Austrian and Greek scenes?
Maxi Nil: : The music industry is going through hell right now and so does the metal scene BUT!I see bands popping out with amazing productions,artwork etc and some of them have great songs too and this makes me very happy!I love when I listen to new bands with great sound having also great songs!They're not many but they are out there for us to enjoy!Now about the Greek and Austrian metal scene...actually in Greece we have a bigger and more important metal scene than Austria (no offence guys it's the truth!) but this means at the same time that we have more competition.Write good songs,have a good production and believe!
RockOverdose: So Maxi, before we close this interview, is there something else you would like to announce, or add?
Maxi Nil: : I want to announce that I'm going for president!!!hahahahahaha
What I want to say is a big thank you to all the people who believe in VoA and me and they still buy our albums because this is the only thing that keeps us going.My best to all of you guys and gals!Stay true to yourselves and to the ones you love!
RockOverdose: Thank you Maxi, we wish you the best!
Maxi Nil: My pleasure!All my best to you too!=-)
For Rock Overdose:
Ζisis Petkanas
Vivi Jd
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