Interview: Of Infinity

Interview with Of Infinity by Sarah Bernardi

Please tell us a bit about your music
Ok, well I’m Alessandra from Of Infinity and Of Infinity’s music in a nutshell is female fronted melodic/gothic/prog/heavy metal based out of San Antonio, Texas, USA. The band has been together since 1999 and we just released a new three song CD called “The Essence Of Infinity”.

Please tell us a bit about the band members and how you all came to know each other personally/professionally, what are your musical backgrounds/experiences?:
There are 3 members in the band besides myself and they are; Nazareth (Guitars), Kurtis (Bass), and new member Carlos Teller (Drums). Nazareth and myself met over the internet while I was living in New Jersey and he was in Little Rock…when we decided to start collaborating musically we took monthly plane flights back an fourth until I was 17 and moved to Salt Lake City, Utah which is when Naz moved there as well. We met Kurtis in SLC through an audition and recently all decided it was in the band’s best interest to move to San Antonio, Texas when given the opportunity to do so, which is where we met Carlos. Both Carlos and Kurtis have been involved in other punk and death metal bands prior to being involved with Of Infinity and Nazareth was previously signed in black metal band, Fallen Empire in which he opened for such bands as Morbid Angel, Danzig, and Nile. I’ve been classically trained in piano and voice for well over a decade and I’ve been involved in off-Broadway musical theatre as a performer and the Utah Opera & Symphony as a composer.

What are your influences, musical or otherwise:
Each member of the band has their own personal influences, so pulling from everyone’s favorites, I’d say a pretty a good list of the band’s general influences would be: Children Of Bodom, Nightwish, Opeth, Lacuna Coil, Cradle Of Filth, Type-O-Negative, Iron Maiden, and Theatre Of Tragedy. There are a ton of great bands that we listen to, metal and other genres, but if I were to list all of them, this interview would never be over!

How is the group organized? i.e who writes, produces, publicity, etc
Well, I would say that Nazareth and I do about 50% each of the band’s compositions but other members are welcome to write their own stuff and improve upon what we have done. I do all of the publicity, promotions, website, etc. and I really love it… I’m actually a marketing major at the university I go to.

What are you trying to accomplish with your music?
I’ve actually never been asked this question before I don’t think. I started writing music because the piano was there and I just did it… there was no motivation like money or fame. And, we started the band because we love metal and thought we could write some really good music to go in the genre. I guess for myself I would love to be able to do this for a living, that would be a major accomplishment and I know the rest of the band would love that as well. But the music itself does not have any kind of persuasive political, religious, or life message to it… were not trying to change peoples minds about anything. I mean, a lot of our lyrics are meaningful and you can get a lot out of them, but I guess we just really want to give people something awesome and new to listen to. Some genuinely good metal.

What are your feelings on the current Gothic/Metal scene in the US, as opposed to the European scene? Do you feel that most of the music lies within the independent artists/underground? Or do you feel that the genre as a whole is becoming more mainstream?

Obviously the gothic and metal scenes in the US and Europe are very different, and if you’ve listened to any of our music you’d probably be able to tell that we sound more European than American in our style, so you probably know which one we favor most. But, I don’t think either are bad… both are different and both have their good and bad points. I think that it’s the independent and underground artist’s job to keep the scenes fresh. Many times when I hear indie metal, its usually poorly recorded death or black metal and its not anything new or good, but there are these times when I come across a really awesome indie band that should be signed and I feel really good to know that there are new bands coming up all the time with good music, its just sometimes their hard to find. I’m not sure if either genres are becoming more mainstream, but I think, if you can get really good indie and underground bands signed to get them good production and a lot of distribution and still give them complete creative freedom, why shouldn’t they be mainstream? Is it such a crime that a large amount of people enjoy the music if it’s actually good?

What are some of the themes and meanings in your songs?
Alessandra: On this past CD we did some collaboration with Steinbeck Award winner, Paul Greulich, where we used some of his poetry within our lyrics. I don’t want to speak for him on what his meanings are in his writing, but Nazareth also writes a good portion of the lyrics, so I’ll let him answer this.

Nazareth: Most of the lyrics I write have something to do with transcendentalism, religion, honor, valor, etc. Like all lyrics though, the listener can usually figure it out or make up their own meaning for them. Most of the time the meanings they come up with are just as important as I had intended them to be.

What are your future plans regarding new releases and tours?
Right now were working on music for our next CD which will be a full length. It should be ready in a year or so. And were now able to play out and around San Antonio, TX, so we’ll be doing that as well as doing mini-tours through the major cities in TX and hopeful throughout the south when we have the means to do it.

A word from the band…
I want to thank you and Collected Sounds for talking with us. We appreciate your interest in the band!
I also want to let the fans know that we have our new CD out for sale at a few retail stores across the country, but if you’re not around any of the cities they’re being sold in, you can get it online at our site at ofinfinity.com as well as off CD Baby. Both are secure and trustworthy ways to order our music and the CD is only $5.00, so if you like the genre of music we are doing, go ahead and pick up “The Essence Of Infinity”.

Thanks and take care! J

[Of Infinity Official Site]

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