Infected Rain formed back in 2008 in Moldova although Google lists your sound as Ukrainian Rock. Clearly your sound is still very eclectic and diverse which is what keeps it fresh. And I’m not just talking about the pounding guitar riffs but also the growling and clean vocals from you?

“We are just a metal band and like to keep it open for interpretation, we like to keep it open for the desires of the heart. If it sounds heavier awesome, if it sounds melodic awesome, we compose without putting ourselves into a specific big box. “Time” is your latest Album and 6th, what makes it different to your previous one, how do you feel you have changed and grown? This album is quite unique because previous to this album we had a line-up change in the band so it was a very emotional time for the band. It was crucial to find that balance, find that inspiration and pureness that we are always having with Infected Rain and being free in composing in different genre and mixing it up helps because we sing about emotions. Our messages are very emotional so this album is mainly sharing the emotions I had in that changing time in Infected Rain. Within that transition and with what was happening in my personal life what was happening with the world and so on? Every single album is unique like that because time passes and we are different everyday so hopefully with the new album cycle you are more experienced, better as a person and as a musician and next album is even better. That’s what we can hope for but we just create and do it for our mental sanity as well.

So let’s just talk about that line-up change, Alice Lane is now your new bass player and put one hell of spice to the bass parts of the new album. Can you explain what happened to the line-up change and how she came into the band?

“I don’t think it’s a good idea to get into details like that so we kept it pretty open just saying that we parted ways and that should be ok for everybody to accept that a band tries to keep certain things private. This needed to happen and temporarily we chose to only have a bass player, not a guitar player and bass player so instead of being five members to try and be four members. Our drummer and guitar player were looking into a new bass player and had a few people audition and a few people that were absolutely great for the part. It just so happened that Alice was better, more professional, fasting responding, very passionate and we thought why not. So I think she fitted in great, I love the balance we have in the band energy wise and on every single level to be honest.”

The reviews on the album “Time” from around the world have been spectacular with a lot of the media honing in on the impressive sound of the song Lighthouse and its message of empowerment and on how damn good your vocals on it. Writing this album was it something very deep for you?

“It always is because I chose to write about my own life experiences, my own fears and frustrations. It’s been an outlet for me even before I became a musician, I started writing it down and it helps me very much to go through this hard times as well so I hope that it can touch someone and people around the world can relate to that.”

What sort of message would come from Lighthouse the song?

“That’s an interesting question. It is a pretty metaphorical song and it is really about mental growth and being more aware. It’s inviting people to be more aware of their surroundings, more aware of possibilities, more aware about how powerful our mind can be. We can either use it in our benefit or it’s going to work against us because our mind is a very powerful weapon and Lighthouse is about not losing that light.

The video to the song is mind blowing and hypnotic, was there a deeper message that you were able to capture with the video itself?

“No not really I think that only empowered the main message to remember who we are and to remember our inner children.”

Talking of videos how has the creation of them changed over the years and how often do you like to go out of your comfort zone when creating videos?

“No, it sucks very much so but I gladly do it because of the result. It’s not comfortable and sometimes you are very cold and uncomfortable or hot or something has spikes in it and is hurting you. You get emotional; you get beaten down as there is so much going on in a music video. There is always a lot going on and you have to stand and perform for that and it’s hard, it sucks. So unless you are a professional actor and do that as a job and that’s different and you do that for a music video just to empower your lyrics and empower your music through visuals it’s quite challenging. Music videos are as important as performing live, music videos are as important as the music itself or the image or even logo.”

Going back to the album you then have a song called Vivarium with lyrics like “Embrace your pain, your imperfections, Become a child of your own creation. Do you really feel we are trapped in a world of gimmicks and fake promises?

“Absolutely, everybody knows it to. Look around us, like everything is false promises and everything is gimmicks. People don’t accept so many things just because they are true, the realness of our world of course barriers because we all have perspectives but the main things are the same and it’s just sad to see how people’s values change so much with time.

Infected Rain’s album Time is out now through Napalm Records

www.jinfectedrain.com

Live shots from Gefle Festival , Sweden July 22, 2022 by Lennart Haard