Aspera - devoted and passionate!

Joachim: Robin and I saw Pagan's Mind's release concert for Enigmatic Calling, in 2004, and got really into that kind of music. At the time, we played together in a death metal band, but it seemed literally like a dead end, so we decided to start fresh, and form a melodic prog band of some sort. During high school we then picked up friends from our class, the ball started rolling and the rest is history, as they say.

Joachim: Thank you very much! We have been friends since high-school, and so the chemistry is pretty good. Having known each other and played together since then, we know each others boundaries, and what each member is capable of. We mostly write the music and lyrics together, and arrange the instruments together, too.

Robin: I realised a lot people comparing us to those two bands. To be honest, I really don't see the big similarity to Symphony X. In my opinion they are only minor. I’d say our music is a mixture between AOR music like Toto, Work of art, W.E.T, H.E.A.T, and that kind of bands, and the modern progressive stuff like Dream Theater, Circus Maximus and Pagan’s Mind. A keyword that in my opinion describes Aspera's music is hook! The most important thing with a song, is that it has a hook! The melody needs to stick to your brain, and that is something I feel we have successfully done with our album Ripples!

Robin: Usually, someone has either one or a few more ideas like a riff, a chord progression or a drum groove. He presents it to the other guys, and then everyone works on it together. In that way all members can contribute to the writing process, and as a result we all are 100% satisfied with the results!

Robin: The obvious reason was money. As you might know, it is not exactly cheap to hire a professional producer. If we had done this, we wouldn't have been able to spend as much time on the recording as we wanted, because of being limited to a budget. We weren’t keen on this being a stressful thing, either. We wanted to be able to experiment with different ideas and sounds, rather than having to do everything as quick as possible, to make it cheap. So we took that risk – enjoyed the ride – and when I listen to the CD now, I am really proud of the outcome. And we are glad we did it – as I think the album turned out great!

Atle: It's a tough scene and there are numerous labels that don't really bother that much for their bands anymore. They don't put much effort in promoting their bands, which obviously isn’t a good thing! We certainly were keen to get an established label, who shares our believes and views and helps us to be heard in an international level. InsideOut is one of those labels! They are very well known and accepted as specialists in the Prog scene, they always had a good reputation taking care of their artists, many good bands are on their roster – so that’s why we are very happy to be an InsideOut band!!

Atle: The music scene in Skien is very good! There are a plenty of local bands and the interest for playing in a band is very high. As a result many “hobby” promoters put on local festivals and concerts, so all the bands gets an opportunity to play live. They even manage to get some big national names for the shows as well as dragging people to those gigs. This is working well for years and gives bands, we also have been there a year ago, the opportunity to gain experience in playing live shows.

Atle: I think overall, Norway is very similar when it comes to festivals and concerts. So Skien is just a picture of how it is here in our country.

Rein: We are a band that is really devoted to and passionate about performing live. Being able to play in front of an audience and connect with it is really important to us. Unlike some other bands it the same genre, we’re giving 110% on stage, and we’re not holding anything back when it comes to making a hell of a show! Naturally, it is also very important for us to play the songs well, and create a great audio experience for the listeners. Our music is quite technical at times, and very nuanced, and we’re all perfectionists. So we’re doing our best to bring out every little detail of it. At an Aspera concert, you can expect an energetic, sonically and visually great melodic/prog-metal show!

Rein: We’re really looking forward to this year! Having just released our debut album, we’re excited about the reactions and feedback coming back to us from all over the world. We sure believe in our music, but we never thought we’d get only positive feedback all along. I haven’t seen one bad review or someone, who did not like us – even non-metal fans are hooked. So we now have high hopes we will be booked for festivals, gigs in the Nordic area, but also a European tour – or even US. We are working with 2 booking agents, so we should get out there at some point.

Nickolas: Definitively! We’ve just signed contracts with two awesome booking agents and they are working on getting us gigs as we speak. Prog Power Europe would be a great opportunity to introduce us to the Dutch crowd and as Rein said before, we also try to get support slots for bigger tours across Europe.

Nickolas: Thank you very much for your kind words! We are very pleased with the result, but as musician you are never too satisfied and look already towards the next step, meaning the next album. I wouldn't really call it pressure. But of course we have high expectations towards ourselves, to make an album which is at least as good as the first one, and get the full 10/10 out of every review.

Nickolas: It's very hard to name one song that I like the most, but one of my favourite songs on the album is Ripples. The reason I like that song in particular, is the power of it – this song hits you right in the face when you listen to it. It has catchy melodies, an "easy to remember chorus" and a kick-ass guitar solo!

Nickolas: That quote is really nothing that we made up. It's a pure fact that describes every member of the band. Everyone in the band works really hard and we are all very determined to make our dreams come true. We know there needs to be some luck involved, too. But if you work hard enough for your goals, the likelyhood is bigger that you will achieve something in the end – we want to have a successful musical career and play around the world, no matter what it takes!

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