Can you tell us about the origin of the band name, a history of the band and a little bit about the various members? Are you all from the same area? How did you get together as a band?
Well, since Mizarates is a one-man band… This story is just my story 🙂 I started to write music probably 15 years ago when I was a kid, but it all was a quite random process – 30 seconds parts written in GuitarPro, you know… I have never learned to play guitar “in a right way” with a teacher, regular exercises and a metronome, so my skills were far from perfect to play complex music like metal, so I was too shy to join an already existing metal band 🙂
Only two years ago, being 26 years old, I finally decided to create a full length album. I bought a new guitar, pro-level audio-interface and the real story of Mizarates has started.
Ah, about the name. It was invented 15 years ago when I was just trying to create a well-sound never existing word 🙂
Who are your favourite artists/bands and how have they influenced your own sound?
It’s a very tricky question, because my favourites are changing each year. I guess that Machine Head is the band who formed a fundament for my style of riffing and mixing melodic parts with aggressive breakdowns. I like to use the following technique to polish my style – If I found a band with a really cool and unique sound, I’m trying to write a few riffs in this style. You will never get the same result as the original, instead, it will be an interesting mix of your and their styles. An exercise – could you find a song on my album that was inspired by Loathe and the one that was inspired by Vildhjarta? 🙂
Did you always have the ambition to be a musician and in a band or did you originally have other plans?
I never had the ambitions to be a professional musician, but always wanted to create music. My full time job is far away from the music industry and I’m not sure I will ever transform my hobby into a profession with regular releases and every year tour 🙂 But who knows!
What songs or albums are on your current playlist?
At the moment at my playlists you could find Loathe, Spiritbox, Vildhjarta, Vola, many random bands with “they have only one good song”, some local non-metal bands like “Помни Имя Свое” and several songs from my last album, haha.
Do you sing in the shower?
Nope, haha. I usually sing when there is no one at home – at the moment my vocal is far from perfect (and not everyone around is happy with a growling!)
Do you have any plans for the band for this year and into next year?
I guess this year I will just get some rest, because creating a full-length album completely on my own was a huge challenge that I didn’t expect. I just want to start learning vocals to do a second release for a wider audience. Maybe at the beginning of next year I will do a cover to Rammstein – the band that led me into metal music a long time ago.
Do you currently have any new songs/albums ready to be released?
No, just a several 30 seconds demos I usually start from
If you could play at any venue in the world where would you choose?
I don’t know to be honest, as a bedroom guitarist it’s hard to imagine me performing even in some small club, haha. Let’s say it will be Brixton Academy, London!
Do you have a favourite album? If so, what is it?
At the moment it’s a Loathe – I Let It In And It Took Everythings. It’s a whole new level of music in terms of songwriting, harmony, layering, complexity and heaviness. Usually when you are describing a band like that you expect to hear a “music for musicians” but that’s another case – so many bangers and hits on this album. Really impressive job.
Do you have any guilty pleasure songs/albums?
Maybe just “Элли на маковом поле” – it’s a cozy russian band with melancholic lyrics that I love to listen in a moment of sadness 🙂
If you were putting together the greatest show on earth, who would be playing?
Let’s just combine all the guys from my typical playlist from the previous question somewhere in a small club with well-designed acoustic 🙂
Can you remember the first album you bought with your own money? What was it and do you still have it?
It was a Rammstein – Volkerball DVD and I’m not really sure it was a legal copy of the disk, haha, because at those times we didn’t have a lot of legal music distributions. But it was awesome to see Rammstein guys with those black guitars with flamethrowers on it, a truly inspirational experience for little me those days 🙂
As your fans will be reading this, is there any message you would like to send out to them?
For me as a beginner artist it’s really important to have some feedback. It could be a positive review, critical review, any type of comments without direct abuse, haha. It helps me a lot with understanding what should I do next and gives me motivation to proceed in general.
Finally, let us know all your social media sites so your fans, old and new, can find and follow/like you!
Main social media where I’m trying to post even small updates is IG: https://www.instagram.com/mizarates.music/
I use Youtube for guitar playthroughs:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWY5WPLMKil8uOr3vg3ZokA
For just following new releases you could subscribe to bandcamp (https://mizarates.bandcamp.com/) or any other streaming platform
We, at The Metal Asylum, would like to thank you for your time. Is there is anything further that you would like to add?
Thank you for letting me talk to you! Keep pushing and see you next time with my new release, this time with vocals on it!
This interview is purely the property of The Metal Asylum