Band Interview - Erang

I recently enjoyed the latest album by 'Erang' a lot (my review), so I approached the artist for an interview and was responded on the affirmative. Thanks to the artist for being so generous and answering my questions.

So, here goes my Q and A session -

1) So, What is 'Erang'? How would you describe 'Erang' to new listeners? 

Erang has many faces.

It is me, the musician, but it is also a character from my personal Legendarium and, finaly, it is a (long forgotten) place as well : the Kingdom of Erang.

2) You have talked about your inspirations on topics from LotR and old-school video games, but what are your musical inspirations behind 'Erang'?

I really try to follow my heart and my imagination when it comes to music. When I start to compose I never close any doors : if a sound or an instrument fits my mood and my universe, I'll use it. So it is a very personal process you know and my inspiration really comes from non-musical sources. Of course, I appreciate a lot of different music and there is plenty of band and composers that I appreciate. To name a few who share some similar musical universe with me I would say Summoning and early Mortiis... but it is definitely wider than that !

3) Please tell us a bit about your new album ''?

Well, it's named " Within The Land Of My Imagination I Am The Only God ". This name deals a bit with the idea of freedom and our own private freedom : in my Imagination, I'm free. I can escape to another realm... to come back stronger in the everyday reality.

Furthermore, after Tome I, II, III and IV, I've started to name my albums with names of songs from my previous albums : "Another World, Another Time", "Casting The Ancient Spell Again", "A New Chapter in a very old Book" (this is an e-book)... so, for the last one, I used the name of the last track from Tome IV... This is the end of a cycle. The FIRST AGE was with all the Tomes, and now I've finished the SECOND AGE.

4) What makes this album unique? What makes it different from you previous releases?

As one of my listener noticed : it is my first album that doesnt have 13 tracks.

This one gets 17 tracks and it was a pretty amount of work to put it all together. As usual, in my opinion, the overall sound of the album is a bit different from the last one but I guess there is still the " Erang sound " : the basics are here but the sound is... wider and very diverse I guess.

5) Will you please tell us some of your favorite releases from 2014?

That's difficult... 4 or 5 years ago I was always interested in new music... Now, I only listen to old stuff that I like or to unknow people on Youtube or bandcamp : that's a good thing with Internet, you got plenty of talented and devoted people all around the world. And because of that, now, when I listen to "official commercial artists" I always feel like they sound overproduced and too much "professionnal" to my hear. I mean, of course, there is still some good music in the industry but, most of the time, it is not enough spontaneous, naive and innocent to my taste...

6) Can you tell us a bit about your future projects?

I would like to release some kind of concept album. I already have ideas and I'm still working on the whole concept... I just need to let the inspiration coming back because I've just recently released my last album... but I feel really motivate about it, I think and hope it will be an important step in my musical world !

For more info check out the bands bandcamp page - http://erang.bandcamp.com
Erang Facebook Page - http://www.facebook.com/kingdomoferang
Erang Youtube Channel - http://www.youtube.com/user/songsoferang