HMTV Canada Interviews Harmony Official

www.myspace.com/harmonyofficial

www.harmonymetal.net

HMTV Canada: Hi Harmony, Congratulations of signing with Ulterium Records Label I guess the band is busy at the moment getting ready for the release of your new Album?

A: Thanks! Yes, there has been a lot of work lately with the release of our new album, and also the EP "End of my road," and the re-release of Dreaming Awake from 2003.

HMTV Canada: What can fans expect or the highlights from your sophomore Album Chapter II Aftermath this fall?

A: The same melodic metal as on the first album, but I think we have evolved both as musicians and as a band a lot since then. The music and the sound are heavier and a little bit faster too

HMTV Canada: How is Chapter II Aftermath different or similar to the EP End of my Road that's being released on August 11th 2008 and your previous album Dreaming Awake?

A: The EP contains three tracks from "Chapter II: Aftermath", and two exclusive tracks. The two exclusive tracks are tracks that are a little different from the album tracks, that’s why we put them on the EP, not because they are "not as good," just a little bit different in style. The album is heavier and rawer (yet melodic) than our first album "Dreaming Awake".

HMTV Canada: Is End of my Road one of Harmony Officials rare CD's?

A: Yes, it’s an official release, and it might of course be rare someday. :-)

HMTV Canada: Do you have any musical video production in the works for Chapter II Aftermath or Is End of my Road Albums?

A: We will hopefully record a video for a track from the album. Not decided which song yet though.

HMTV Canada: What are your live performances like and do you sell merchandise and CDs at your show?

A: We mostly play small festivals at the time, and we sell CDs, t-shirts and posters.

HMTV Canada: Any upcoming tours planned for Harmony Official once Chapter II Aftermath is released this fall?

A: No tour is planned, but we will try to gig as much as possible. We have two gigs in Germany planned this year so far.

HMTV Canada: How did the End Time and Frizon Festival turn out for the band, did you share the stage with any bands?

A: They turned out pretty good. We sold a lot of albums at Frizon, and we were well received there. Endtime was pretty good too, although that was a festival focusing on harder music like black metal, hardcore etc.

HMTV Canada: Will there be any other festivals Harmony Official will be appearing at?

A: The only one booked right now is Metal Fest, Friedewald Germany, 25 Oct Germany.

HMTV Canada: The current lineup of Harmony Official still the same with Henrik Bath - Vocals, Tobias Enbert - Drums, Markus Sigfridsson - Guitars, and Magnus Holmberg - Keyboards.

HMTV Canada: Will Kristoffer Gildenlow continue to play bass for Harmony Official for future Albums?

A: Kristoffer will not play with us live, but perhaps he will play on coming albums, we will see. We have a good live stand-in bass player in Freddy Zielinsky.

HMTV Canada: What inspired the band to have Daniel Heiman as the guest vocalist for Harmony’s song track Inner Peace?

A: Daniel is a very good friend of Nesko Stefanovski who is a good friend of the band, he helped us recording the drums for this album. So, we simply asked if he would be interested in singing on one track on the album, and he was. Daniel is an amazing vocalist, so it feels really cool to have him on the album.

HMTV Canada: What do you consider Harmony's major influences to be when it comes to their music?

A: There are a lot of good bands out there that we listen too. I like bands like Kamelot, Nocturnal Rites, Rainbow, Styx, the list could go on for a while. We try, though it's hard, to develop our own sound and style though.

HMTV Canada: Who writes Harmony Official songs and what do you express in your lyrics?

A: Me and Tobias write all music and lyrics, although on this album I happened to write everything but the song Inner Peace, which Tobias wrote.

HMTV Canada: Will Harmony Official continue to work with Pelle Saether for the recording and mixing of the band’s music and Goran Finnberg for mastering in the future?

A: I have no idea, we will see what happens when it's time to mix the next album. They did a great job though.

HMTV Canada: What is the bands expectations for a well-mixed or engineered song and where there any challenges in producing Chapter 11 Aftermath?

A: We don't have a very large budget for making albums, so we try to put all the money we get into mixing and mastering. We record everything ourselves, in our home studios. So, there is a lot of file swapping between members. It seems like there is always some problems with those things, but everything turned out fine in the end. We wanted to have a little rawer sound this time so keyboards had to stand back a little this time, but here is still enough keyboards to please the keyboard lovers out there. We are really happy with the mix/master, it turned out pretty much the way we wanted it too.

HMTV Canada: What is the music scene like in Sweden is your genera of music popular in your area?

A: I think it's pretty good interest in our kind of music here. Bands like Hammerfall and In Flames have gained many, many fans in Sweden the last years, and bands like Iron Maiden always sell out everything when they get.

HMTV Canada: Where can fans access and buy Harmony Official CD and merchandise online through the internet?

A: Right now, the best choice would be through our label's web shop. You can find all our CD's there and official Harmony T-shirts as well.

HMTV Canada: Thank you, Harmony Official, for allowing our eZine to interview your band.

A: Thanks for this interview. I just found out that our CD will be released in Japan later this year which is a really good news for us. Gives us an opportunity to reach a whole new crowd. www.myspace.com/harmonyofficial Now, off to preorder the Aftermath album! ;)-by Markus Sigfridsson – Guitars.