Metal Symphonique: At first, thank you to give us your time to answer this interview for our website !
Gabriella: We thank you for the possibility for the interview! I have read a lot of the articles, reviews and interviews on your sites, and it is very cool, awesome site, good to become part of it

MS: How was born Velvet Seal?
Csabee: VelvetSeal was initially intended to be my side project with Gabriella, back in 2006/2007
We have been playing in different bands, that time,. And it just didn’t work out well, so we have decided to do a side project, a few tracks in English, where the music is a little more modern and epic then what we have been playing that time. After the first few songs were born, I have called David and asked him if he wanted to help me out in this project. Soon after those tracks were recorded we realized this is going to be more, and well, I think that’s when VelvetSeal was born.  We have received an incredible response from the media, and we felt that this “deserves to be more than a project, but rather a full time band.

MS: Did you come from different musical horizons? Is Velvet Seal your first band?
Balázs: Well, all of us had played in various bands before, recorded and released a couple of albums, even if those have been noted only locally in Hungary. I myself have been a session player since the last 10 years and have played on various Hungarian albums before, but the others as well
David: I would say because we all come from a different musical background we all have our own preferences in Metal music, but also a common taste that we all like the symphonic metal bands. All those differences however make the whole thing so exciting, and may help us break from becoming a pure clone of the already existing bands

MS: Your band is considered as a revelation, especially in the Gothic Metal which is victim of a proliferation of Within Temptation’s look-alikes… How could you describe your personal music?
Csabee: I think this is what David just meant to say. Once you form a band with Female vocals the first thing that happens is that you are straight away compared to the bigger names /bands etc, even if there is not much of similarity. Strange, because this does not necessarily happen when you form a male fronted metal band!!  I don’t think every new singer or band is compared to Iron Maiden or Metallica, right? J  So it is strange, but anyways we are used to this, and in some aspect it can even help us to get some promotion.
Gabriella: We ourselves don’t really consider VelvetSeal a Gothic Band, but more of a Dark Symphonic Metal band, yes, maybe a little similar to Within Temptation or After Forever perhaps but different in many aspects. My voice and singing style is really different, we don’t use operatic and soprano vocals, and perhaps our music is a bit heavier and more progressive than the above mentioned bands. And wait for the next album you’ll be surprised the difference will be even more audible.

MS: How do you do to distinguish of the other bands? Do you target a specific audience?
Gabriella: We try not too actually, haha J,  we let the audience decide on that!
Because the band is really new and this music is still in many countries an underground genre, yes we have to target a specific audience, and probably this is why most people label us as gothic metal or Within Temptation clones because that is what they might catch for the first hearing. Once you have a good established fan base, then you don’t need to worry so much about having a targeted audience, since I am sure that we will have some VelvetSeal fans probably from other metal styles as well. The festivals that are organized these days do help a lot as they offer the audience a group of known and unknown bands of similar genres.

MS: You are one of the new emergent metal bands, and “Lend Me Your Wings” was appreciated by the audience and Medias. Did you got feedback from the fans or critics?
Csabee: Yes, actually the first incredible feedback we received was when we have merely finished the promo version of the album and launched our websites.. We didn’t even think it is going to have such a good feedback internationally. So we were really surprised to read all those requests for reviews. When “Lend Me Your Wings” was finally released in May, we have had an enormous amount of requests for interview and magazine appearances. As per fans we are getting a lot of requests from everywhere within Europe about when will we finally be touring, because they really want to come see us live. WE have had a good few festivals this year, but unfortunately only in Hungary, so we are now planning to satisfy them J

MS: Can you describe us the composing and recording of “Lend Me Your Wings”?
Balázs: Composing is always a very long story. Usually what happens is that Caabee gets a basic idea of the songs, and elaborates them a little and gives us the demo to take a listen. This is the longer part because we usually get about 10% of what he writes, since he throws away a big chunk straight away without even showing it to us just because he thinks it is not goodJ  But you can’t help that. If we all like the track then Gabriella sings a melody line to it and Csabee starts doing the production, writing the orchestral stuff and so on. Once all is finished we add our own tracks to it, I do the drum pats, and we store it safe until we have a 10-12 tracks ready. Since this happens through a long time, when we will be recording the new album we record all the tracks again, to give it a uniform sound, and also to give it a final touchJ

MS: Your album is globally dark, but still shows originality, each track being different from the other... Are you satisfied or do you think you could still do better in your music?
Gabriella: Overall I would say yes we are! We wanted to make sure that the tracks on the disc are not the same because I believe this is important. This is why in some tracks we have used some exotic and traditional melodies, or instruments, which may not be so common in this music genre.  Of course we are already looking forward to the next album, since we have a couple of songs that have been finished since. Recording Lend Me Your Wings was a really long journey, so obviously we will now not make the same mistakes anymoreJ and hopefully the next album will be even more dynamic and powerful. You know when you do a debut album there is always a need for a compromise, unless of course you budget is unlimited, but we know that is really rare...

MS: What are your favourite subjects?
Csabee:  When writing the lyrics, I want to make sure they actually tell something and it is not just another love song, or nonsense bull.***t J Ok, I have no problem with other people singing love songs or “ My life is going to end because someone left me “ type of songs, but I personally don’t write these because for me lyrics have always needed to have a second meaning and to make the listener sit down and think over. Most of the songs on the album are talking about the different problematic aspects of life that everyone meets, of course without being too stereotypic,  some may be a grotesque mirror to ourselves and humanity, some may even be a little harsh and provocative to the blind.  

MS: Could we say that “Lend Me Your Wings”  is a concept album?
Csabee: well yes and no.. Concept album in the sense that all the tracks tell a story about depression, life, death, etc, but is does not follow a strict story line, no characters or whatsoever, even though I personally love concept albums way more, and I was planning to do one .. perhaps in the future VelvetSeal might release a concept album with a few guest vocalists as well, who knows?

MS: Can you explain us the idea behind the cover of your album?
David: The cover, was a funny story actually we have had a couple of ideas with our graphic designer who is a really close friend of ours, and we have had several discussion already but it was just never perfect. WE almost gave up, when accidentally we found a photo of Gabriella that was done during the breaks of the photo sessions when she was sitting relaxing and thinking, We knew straight away that it would make a perfect cover.  The graphic designer added a few ideas do it.. and that is what you can see on the coverJ

MS: What are your favourite songs on stage? Why these in particular?
Balázs: It changes from time to time, but our “all time” favourite is This Tragic Overture probably. It is actually a song that Csabee wrote because I asked him to write a song that is fast and easy to jump to, and where I can finally do some kick ass drummingJ and he never felt this would be a good idea.. in fact this song is the last one on the album on purpose even is the name says overture.. But when played live it is incredible to see how the crowd reacts! We have loved the track from the first time we played it live. It is funny because fans tell us the same, thing! They all heard the song on the album and wondered why it is there when it is so different, then once they hear it live they love it!! I think we might do a trend and have such a song on every album!

MS: Do you plan to do a tour in Europe? Will we have the chance to see you in France?
Gabriella: Yes in fact we are organizing it just as we speak. It was a long story already we have always wanted to do a tour but unfortunately for various reasons it could never be realized.
However we will be in the UK in March 2010 as we have been invited to a festival, and this seemed to be a perfect chance to make a tour out of it, and stop in a few cities before and on the way home in Germany, France, Holland, Belgium Swiss. We are looking and negotiating with a few clubs now to find the perfect spot, and once it is confirmed will let you know, and we are open for suggestions.

MS: Do you begin to think about the “Lend Me Your Wings” successor? Will it follow the path of this first album?
Gabriella: Yes in fact we have a few songs ready and quite a few that are being worked on. We have no idea about the release dates but it will hopefully happen in 2010. Yes probably it will follow the path of the first album but t will be even greater.  What is for sure it will be even more epic, more powerful and dynamic, perhaps live choirs and orchestra.  And a few more surprises, that you’d never expect.

MS: What do you expect in the future for your band?
Csabee: Whatever the future brings, we are ready to face it and will do the best we can to make things happen the way we want, you knowJ but to be a little more specific, 2010 I believe will be an important year for the band, since Lens Me was released in a quite unfortunately time of the year, in May when all the festivals are already organized and settled, we have missed a lot of possibilities. But this gave us the possibility to shoot our first official video, that will be released soon for the title track of the album, and also to strat writing new material, for the next years, since we plan to be there wherever possible in 2010 and to do a visit everywhere there is a demand for VelvetSeal.
We are aware that this genre may be a little overcrowded and the queue of bands in the “female fronted gothic” bucket may be a little too long, but I think we stand a chance, and we hope the listeners think the same.

MS:Thank you for your patience and your answers. Have a nice day! We hope to see you later on stage! And most of all, keep up having the same energy! Good luck!
Thanks to you and to all our fans in France!
We owe you guys an enormous amount of thanks for everything, keep it true and we hope to meet you soon in person when we finally get the chance to visit you in France, a country which we really love ourselves.