ZONARIA

We make our own music

This band has something untypical within. The music of ZONARIA is a hybrid of melodic black/ death metal with symphonic elements, which we already knows from anywhere, but includes a very strange and very difficult to describe element, don’t letting to put this band on a one scale with the others of sounding similar hordes, which names since a many years are the tools in the hands of giants the music business. I don’t know yet, or the new album of Swedes titled “The Cancer Empire”, released anyway via Century Media will guarantee them the incomes letting to realize the most hidden of dreams, but the attitude of Emil, a guitar player of this group clearly shows a strong feeling of self value, meaningless of time and realities of life. Read, please what told to me this young, but excessively reticent and modest artist.

-ZONARIA is a type of band, sounding as the matter of fact very similar to the bands like CHILDREN OF BODOM, DIMMU BORGIR, CRADLE OF FILTH. How do you think, would it be a chance to interest by your music all fans of those groups too?
I don’t know, we are trying to make our own music, you know, of course we are inspired by a different bands, but we always wants to have a new fans, you know, we don’t want to steel something from other bands, so but… Yeah, it’s true that we always liked CHILDREN OF BODOM or DIMMU BORGIR, but we try to make something different.

-As I know, your beginnings dates in a year 2001, when you were playing yet under the name SEAL PRECIOUS, isn’t it?
Yes.

-So, when and why you have decided to transform yourself into ZONARIA?
It was very early. We only had this name for like half a year or a year maybe, something like that … And we still were very, very young, so and we pretty soon thought that the band name is not very good, so we knew that we need something different for our band.

-The name ZONARIA sounds very good, it’s very mystical but the same hard and strong name. What means exactly the name ZONARIA?
From the beginning we chose the name, because we thought it didn’t sound like any other band name, you know, there’s no other band that sounds like ZONARIA. But you know, when we read more about it we found it there’s in the Greek mythology like there is a mountain to the God, a mountain Olympus and among of all that mountains there is a road like dangerous path called ZONARIA, but we chose the name because we thought that people will connect it to our music and to nothing else.

-Your latest album “The Cancer Empire” was released in this year under the banner of Century Media. In which kind of circumstances were you discovered by them? Was it difficult for you to sign a deal with so enormous label?
No, it’s been very easy for us with Century Media, cause we recorded a one album with Pivotal as first, but we only signed the only one CD for them, so we sent the requests to different record labels and Century Media was one of the label that was interested, you know, they have contacted us and said, you know “we really want you” and “we want to release your new album” and was easy, very simple and they are very nice people, so…

-You recorded a new stuff in the walls of famous Fredman Studio, of course with Fredrik Nordström as producer. Which productions from this place liked to you so much, that you have decided to do it exactly there?
Pretty much everything is every gun, cause from the beginning like the first album that make him big was AT THE GATES and for that moment he has done better and better productions every year, you know: ARCH ENEMY, IN FLAMES, SOILWORK, OPETH, DIMMU BORGIR – he has done everything, so you know, pretty much every band we were listening to when we were kids has been recording CD’s there, so it was a great opportunity for us to record there.

-I have noticed that ZONARIA is not typical black or death metal band, you are not interesting with the Satanism or occultism, so which kinds of themes includes your lyrics, what sings exactly your band about?
Yeah, that’s right, it’s not about satanic stuff and anything like that, it’s more about, you know, when and how people use the lies like a politics and a different things in a world to get more power themselves, they lie to the other people and use, you know – to get more power and that’s what is about.

-At the beginning of this year you have played a successful tour with MARDUK. Would you be so nice to share with me a few of memories, please?
Yeah, it was a tour in the Balkans and in a lot of the countries there was no good venues, you know, so a lot of times we were freezing in backstage rooms without toilets and we must go through over crowds to toilets and stuff like that, he, he… So, it was very funny tour, you know, you can always learn something new from everything you do.

-Have you got maybe something else except of ZONARIA- a side projects or something like that?
No, no at this moment. When I was younger, you know, I played with some of my friends, with other friends like a couple of fan projects but that’s like four, five years ago, so now I only have ZONARIA from musical stuff.

-What would you do, when somebody would tell you, that ZONARIA plays a commercial shit? Would you break a nose of this idiot or maybe laughing directly into his face, say to him, that he’s a person with a lot of complexes and personal problems?
Ha, ha, I don’t know, it sees very different. But look, we don’t make music to make money, we don’t make any money, so I couldn’t be commercial, so you know – it’s a person that doesn’t know what is talking about.

-For this moment you are busy by the promoting of the fresh stuff “The Cancer Empire”, but maybe have you got yet a some of ideas for new album and if yes, tell me please in which still will it be?
We have discussed some about it, we haven’t contained a conclusion about how we want a CD to sound, but we just know, that we want to take a time for it takes, cause writing songs is a long process for us, so you know, this is matter how long time is good, so we don’t know yet, but we will see.

www.zonaria.com

Line Up:
Simon Berglund - vocals, guitar
Emil Nyström - guitar
Markus Akebo - bass
Emanuel "Cebbe" Isaksson - drums

Discography:
Infamy and the Breed (2007)
The Cancer Empire (2008)