Dreamlike
Horror
Deadly Christine is the
person behind this weird and claustrophobic musical endeavor that listens
to the very eloquent name Dreamlike Horror. As you can find in the interview
that follows, she is responsible and she was and still is involved in many
projects and bands. She did things that have never, until now, being aknowledged
to her and generally Deadly Christine is a gifted musician with inspiration
pouring from her veins and mind. So I'd recommend you to read the interview
we did below, cause I bet you'll find it very interesting!
1. HELLO! “DELIGHTFUL SUICIDES” IS A VERY
WEIRD AND UNIQUE PIECE OF MUSIC… ARE YOU CONTENT WITH THE FINAL RESULT
OR IS THERE ANYTHING YOU’D LIKE TO CHANGE?
Hi there! Well yes I would have changed a
few things. You have to understand that we composed the songs in two very
different periods of our lives, therefore both the recording and the quality
of the songs are not the same all the time. I would have wanted the album
to be more omogeneous in its entirity, but we decided to be faithful to
the songs we made in the past, so we just included the old unreleased material
and the new songs.
2. YOUR ALBUM IS MAINLY BASED ON EMOTIONS AND
ON THEIR CREATION AND NOT SO MUCH ON MUSICAL NOTES. SO, THE MAIN INGREDIENT
OF YOUR MUSIC ARE THE DEPRESSING, MELANCHOLIC AND MENTALLY UNBALANCED STATES
OF MIND AND FEELINGS. WHY? WHAT DO YOU FIND SO APPEALING IN THEM?
I don’t find it appealing, I don’t think things
over in advance when it comes to Dreamlike Horror, I just let them take
over me. It is the songs themselves that come out from me. They are songs
created from pure suffering and pain. Songs I wrote when I was in deep
pain through my psychological crisis. Those songs are like a valve to let
my steam off, it is my way to take the negativity out of me, to express
my suffering in an artistic way. It is a need, an urge I have, they reflect
my state of mind, for how depressive, illogical and insane it can be...they
are like a mirror of my soul, of all the things my heart went through.
Not a single time have I listened to my own album without getting tears
in my eyes...I relive everything I suffered, it all comes up to the surface
again everytime I listen to it.
3. DARK AND GOTHIC IS HOW I’D BEST DESCRIBE YOUR
MUSIC WITH SOME SLIGHT BLACK METAL TINGES EVERY NOW AND THEN AND A MALIGNANT
AND ILL-OMENED ATMOSPHERE. DO YOU AGREE?
Yes I agree. I would define my music as highly
atmospheric and melodramatic for the heaviness of the lyrical content.
Some journalists have defined it as neoclassical and I agree with that
too has some parts are really close to classical music, talking of which,
we also have a cover of Chopin concluding the album, the wonderful “Funeral
March” which Aphazel has reperformed and re-arranged with brilliant results.
The perfect ending to a very depressing album.
4. BY THE WAY IS APHAZEL RESPONSIBLE FOR THE BLACK
METAL GROWLS? WHAT DO THE MALE AND FEMALE VOCALS STAND FOR HERE? WHICH
ARE THEIR “ROLES”?
Absolutely NOT. Good that you asked this question
because I read on several reviews that Aphazel is doing the growls. He
is NOT doing any vocals on Dreamlike Horror, the only vocalist is me. I
do all the voices: clean ones, growls and the voice of the little zombie
child. I hate that people don’t see the difference between my growls and
Aphazel´s growls because also when I was in Ancient I did a lot of
growling and extreme vocals though it seemed that people thought I was
only there to do the clean vocal parts. Then they were getting shocked
when they were seeing me live on stage, when I was taking the growling
beast out of me. I saw many people´s jaws drop and say: “ Oh was
it her doing this part then?” YES IT WAS ME! I am an extreme vocalist in
the first place, I actually I am a lot better at extreme vocals than clean
ones. Before Ancient I sang in many small black and death metal bands as
lead vocalist.
5. LET’S SUPPOSE THAT YOU WERE ASKED TO PRESENT
AND REVIEW “DELIGHTFUL SUICIDES”. WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TRYING TO BE AS OBJECTIVE
AS POSSIBLE?
I would say that it is a very intense album,
very atmospheric and depressive and that is a concept around human fears
and obsessions. It is a bit like a journey, better to listen to it at winter
time and alone. The production is not the best as I said the songs were
recorded in different periods and different studios. It is not an album
for everyone, it is something to chill to at night, an album that should
help to meditate and leave the ordinary world behind. A mental trip.
6. TELL US A FEW THINGS ABOUT THE LYRICS… WHICH
ARE THE MAIN TOPICS THAT INTRIGUE YOU TO TALK ABOUT?
I talk about some macabre aspects of my personality.
I take out mostly my sensitive side, the one that is scarred and wounded,
the one that so often was too hurt to have the strength to go on living,
the one that secretely aspired to suicide. I talk also about haunted houses
I lived in, hallucinations I had, my desire to be eaten by the man I love
and die by his hand, my desire to kill, my desire to enter the other dimension
and leave this mortal world and all the problems and suffering that come
with it.
7. THE EXPRESSIONS DELIGHTFUL SUICIDES AND DREAMLIKE
HORROR ARE DARK, ELOQUENT, METAPHORICAL AND… AND DREAMLIKE YES! I THINK
YOU PUT IT CORRECTLY THERE! WOULD YOU LIKE TO EXPLAIN TO US HOW YOU CHOSE
THOSE TITLES, HOW YOU CAME UP WITH THEM AND WHAT THEY MEAN TO YOU?
I don’t come up with anything, it is the words
that come to me. When I write my lyrics I am like possessed, inspiration
comes without warning all of a sudden and wherever I may find myself I
need to grab a piece of paper and start writing as fast as I can to keep
up with the speed of my thoughts. Most of the time the lyrics come already
perfect for the songs with no need to re-write them or re-adjust them.
They are already perfect in the purity of their essence because they come
from the pure essence of my real emotions. I could never write lyrics planning
it, sitting at a table and thinking: now I am gonna write about “this topic”.
I don’t work this way. As far as what they mean to me, well “Delightful
Suicides” says it all. The delight of suicide, seeing it as a liberation
from torment and oppression and unhappiness that we have to deal with in
this life...therefore delightful. As far as “Dreamlike Horror”..well the
horror of music comes from hallucinations I have, I got visions of it all
and try to describe them musically. I find myself in a dreamlike state,
as raptured.
8. WHAT’S, ACCORDING TO YOU, THE BEST AND WHAT’S
THE WORST PART IN YOUR MUSIC? ARE THERE ANY FIELDS YOU’D LIKE TO EXPERIMENT
TO IN THE FUTURE?
The best part is the intensity of the atmospheres,
the sounds we choose and the effect they build up... they make me travel
with my mind to places far away...they make me explore my own soul to where
my clear consciousness cannot arrive.
The worst part is maybe that it is very depressive
and it drags you down, it is a difficult record and not a easy listening.
It is one of those records that “grow” with time, it takes time to understand
it. I experiment all the time. In fact Dreamlike Horror is not the only
project I have at the moment. Did u know I also play in electronic projects
and make also gothic-trance, jungle dub with islamic influences? I am constantely
challenging myself on multiple levels, also musically. There are no borders
to my madness.
9. DO YOU HAVE ANY PLANS FOR LIVE SHOWS? DO YOU
THINK YOUR MUSIC CAN BE NICELY DELIVERED ON STAGE OR DO YOU THINK IT’S
FOR PRIVATE LISTENING?
We are talking about preparing a live set
but we will have to hire some session members in order to be able to perform
the songs live. On the record is me and Aphazel doing everything but it
is impossible to recreate everything like on the record when it is just
two people cause we have too many instruments. I personally think that
Dreamlike Horror is for private listening but maybe we can find a nice
theatrical way to propose our music…
10. IF YOUR MUSIC WERE AN EMOTION, WHAT WOULD
IT BE? IF IT WERE A PAINTING, WHAT WOULD IT SHOW?
It would be desperate melancholy. If it was
a painting it would be the extremely beautiful classical masterpiece “The
Suicide of Ophelia” which besides I was originally planning to use as album
cover. If you never saw this painting I highly reccomend you to look for
it on the internet. It shows the beautiful Ophelia drowning herself in
a river...it is not scary, it is very peaceful but macabre at the same
time. She is just under the surface of the water, her mouth slightly open,
her skin so pale and beautiful...she is just there like a dead doll in
her beautiful dress...all the flowers around her...ahhh it is wonderful!
That is a delightful suicide!
11. WHICH ARE THE WORDS THAT BEST FIT TO DREAMLIKE
HORROR AND TO THE MUSIC SIDE OF YOUR PERSONALITY?
Atmospheric, theatrical, melodramatic, emotional,
macabre, sensitive, hallucinating, mystical, painful.
12. THANK YOU! IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU’D LIKE
TO MENTION AND I FORGOT TO ASK YOU?
Christine Parastatidou
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