Thank you for taking the time for this interview.
1. This is your first visit in Greece. How did you decide to come to our little country during that period?
According to the statistics on our FB page, there are very many fans of our band in Greece. If I’m not mistaken, Greece is on the 3rd place, so when we got an offer from Made of Stone Productions, we gladly took it
2. What are your expectations from your shows in Greece?
I think it will be a good show, many fans are already writing us on Faceboo that they’re waiting for our concerts very much! We are preparing a big program both with solos, cosmic psychedelic jams and with heavy riffs.
3. How is the psychedelic rock scene in Russia? What other fellow bands would you like to recommend to your fans?
There are many good bands in Russia we used to play on the same scene. These are Vespero, Brand Band, Reserve De Marche, Without God, The Grand Astoria. I want to say a few words about my space rock side-project with the musicians of Vespero – Maat Lander. It appears to be an interesting symbiosis of our bands, being too “guitar” for Vespero and too electronic for The Re-Stoned. I hope to come to Greece with this project next year.
4. What are your favorite Greek bands, in case you have listened to any of them?
Unfortunately, I know not many Greek bands. I like Daemonia Nymphe for many years already, and Craang, I’ve listened to them on bandcamp. And I’ve listened to the bands, which will play with us - Astray, Solarmonkeys, Breath After Coma.
5. Which have been the most influential bands or records to you and your music?
I think we are absorbing all the music, we are listening to. But not all of it stays in our hearts forever. Such situation I have with ñ Black Sabbath, Jimy Hendrix, King Crimson, Led Zeppelin – I’ve always returned to their creation and got inspiration there. Usually I listen to lots of different music from free jazz to doom.
6. You have an impressive discography in terms of both quality and quantity, for a 5 year-old-band. What is your motivation to keep writing original music such as yours?
There is only one motivation – to be honest with myself and to play music, which gives me satisfaction. If it brings joy to other people too – it makes me happy!
7. Tell us a bit about your records. Which is the one you are most proud of and which one would you recommend to someone who is not familiar with your music?
Our albums are quite different. There is more improvisation and psychedelia in some of them, and more thought-out structures and heavy riffs in others. It’s better to listen to all of our albums and EP’s, but I would recommend to begin with Analog and Totems.
8. Most of your works are instrumental tracks, but in your album Plasma, you included 2 cover songs with vocals in them. Have you ever thought about integrating vocals in any of your future compositions?
Yes, the main concept of the band is instrumental psychedelic rock/stoner. We have some tracks with vocals – a cover on The Hollies and our own track on a split with Wo Fat. I think the voice will appear in different forms in our next recordings. But there will be no albums entirely with vocals.
9. What are the plans for your next release?
A new album is in the making. It will appear next year. The art-work is on its way – it will be a real picture! The whole material is almost recorded, only few compositions are left. I hope, we will begin with mixing in the beginning of February.
10. Which of your albums will be available in your merch booth, especially in vinyl form, for us old school lovers? (I’m still waiting for a LP version of Revealed Gravitation)
Unfortunately, we have not much vinyl left. The vinyl releases took place long ago and we’ve sold almost all of them. We’ll take the Re-Session album on vinyl to Greece. We haven’t released Revealed Gravitation on vinyl yet. We’ll take the CD’s of all our studio albums. And of course there will be some T-Shirts and perhaps an ultra-limited edition of CD’s, which will be made especially for this tour.
11. Staying in the topic of merchandise, has internet piracy given you a hard time selling records or do you think that your music can spread easier across the world that way?
There is nothing to be done with it. We live in such a moment, but such things as vinyl and box-sets can’t be downloaded. Anyway, people are buying enough mp3’s, vinyl’s and cd’s on bandcamp. Probably they would buy them more without torrents, who knows…
12. The lineup of The Re-Stoned has changed several times. Who are we going to see on stage in the upcoming shows?
Yes, unfortunately, the rhythm-section of The Re-Stoned changed several times. It hinders to go further, but one can find something good in it – different people, different ideas and different sounding. During the last years our concert rhythm-section stays stable. Alexander Romanov on bass and Aleksei Volnov from the Brand Band on drums.
13. Would you mind giving us a little tease of what we’re going to listen in your shows in Greece?
I’ve mentioned before our concert program. I think the jams will be different at every concert, this will be interesting. So I advise you to visit all our gigs. They won’t be equal anyway!
14. You may close this interview however you wish. Can’t wait to see you in Athens!
Thanks for your questions, see you!
