Aura. Interview with Valeriy Vedishchev

Interview by Andrew Stanton

Hello and welcome to Inside the Darkness.

Hello, nice to meet you! My name is Valeriy, keyboardist, composer and leader of the AURA band.

- Can you tell our readers a bit about your history, please?

The AURA band was founded by Valeriy Vedishchev in Moscow in 2009. Initially, it was a power-metal project in the spirit of Nightwish, in the same vein a demo was recorded, one of the songs of which - “Mistress of the Runes”, contributed to the band gaining some fame. In 2010, this metal-edited song was released as a separate single on the disc-supplement to Dark City magazine. Gradually, the band in its sound comes to an organic musical fusion, the fundamental is power metal with elements of many other styles of music - from black metal to folk. In 2012, the band released their first EP “Comet”. During the same period, the group actively plays concerts in Moscow clubs, and in November 2011 in Orenburg it takes part in the Russian sympho rock music awards festival. In February 2013, the single “Ghost of Fate” was released, which quickly won the recognition of listeners and was aired on the “Keeper of Dreams” program on radio Echo of Moscow. In the same 2013, the group performed in St. Petersburg as an opening act for the group Xandria, receiving good reviews from the public and German fellow musicians.

In September 2013, the band’s first album was released, entitled “Inspiration”. The album received high marks from listeners and music journalists, both in Russia and abroad. In the summer of 2014, the group made its way through the sieve of qualifying rounds to the MotoMaloyaroslavets festival, acting as a headliner on the small stage of the festival. In December 2014, the group released a new single “Sun-Spring” and the first official video for the same song. The video and single received excellent reviews from both old and new fans of the group. In May 2015, the group releases a new EP “From the Heroes of Yore”, dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the Victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War, and also, in July 2015, takes part in the tribute to the group “Charisma” with the song “Hunter”. In January 2016, EP “From Heroes of Yore” was recognized by the European metal channel as the best in 2015 in the nomination “Best EP in the native language”. In May 2016, the band released the single “Snowstorm”, which also won the recognition of listeners, and performed at the Russian Metal Stars festival, sharing the stage with such luminaries of Russian metal as Master, Mavrin, Catharsis, Black Obelisk, Arda, Kruger, Gran-Kurazh and others. Also in May 2016, the group took part as a headliner in the annual festival Tribute to Epidemia, and the group’s keyboardist Valeriy Vedishchev and vocalist Svetlana Berseneva took part in the jam session of this event together with musicians from the groups Corsica, Coliseum and others. As a result of this event, the group released an official concert video for the coversong “Feanor”. In August 2016, the group performs as a headliner at the largest three-day biker rock festival in Altai “One Road”. In September 2016, following a trip to Altai, the group together with Vladimir “Svat” Mullov (the vocalist of the Barnaul band Territory 22) released the single “Duga”. In addition, since 2016, the group has been actively trying themselves in acoustic sets, performing in this capacity on the radio (Moscow speaking), in cult clubs (Archeology) and events (in memory of Victor Chagall in the Nikitsky quarries).

In December 2016, the computer game “7 Demonologists of Peter the Great” was released, the soundtrack author of which is Valeriy Vedishchev. In April 2018, the band released a new single, “My Philosophy”. In the fall of 2018, the band took part in the opening act for such eminent foreign bands as Sirenia and Cradle of Filth. In May 2019, the group signed a contract to publish their second album with More Hate Productions. The second album of the group “Evil Magic” was released in September 2019, the presentation was held in December 2019 at the Moscow club Rock House. The album also receives high marks, both in Russia and abroad. In February 2020, the band released the single “A Dream to kill”. In February 2021, the first official video clip “City” for the song from the second album is released. In September 2021, the group takes part in the Rock on the water festival on the same stage together with famous Russian bands as SLOT, F.P.G., Elysium, EPIDEMIA, CATHARSIS, BLACK OBELISK, OBE - REK. The band filmed their second video clip in October 2021, with a premiere expected in January 2022. Also, three new songs are currently in the mixing stage and are planned to be released soon.

- Who is in the band?

Valery Vedishchev - keys, music, texts

Svetlana Berseneva - vocals

Vladimir Arekhta - vocals

Axl Pekov - guitars

Val Vasilieva - bass

Denis Zolotov – drums

- Will your lyrics always be in Russian?

It is not important for us in which language to sing, although Russian is our native language and therefore gives more expressive means for conveying our feelings in texts. We have a number of texts translated into English, perhaps after the release of the next disc we will record them for our foreign audience.

- What are your lyrics about?

There are completely different texts in terms of focus - love lyrics, philosophy and esotericism. There are songs about friendship and betrayal, war and escapism. Emotions give inspiration and interfere with all feelings into one common cocktail, which, through the stream of consciousness, breaks out onto paper and turns into lyrics for a song.

- Your sound is like a cross between Power Metal and Melodic Death Metal. Are these two styles that inspire you?

It’s not just these styles of music that inspire me. I listen to a lot of different music - from classical to metal in its most difficult forms. In my playlist there is a place for both Vivaldi and the Behemoth. I just love to write that kind of music.

-What bands did you like growing up?

I think it makes sense to only talk about foreign bands) Nightwish; Children of Bodom; Blind Guardian; Iced Earth; Demons and Wizards; Finntroll; Ensiferum; Cradle of Filth; Anorexia Nervosa; Haggard; Dimmu Borgir; Behemoth. These are the ones that I remembered) It happens that you listen to some band and only one track from the album catches your ear and it settles in the playlist, and you don’t listen to the rest.

- What can fans expect from your new album?

From the new - there will be a sufficient amount of male vocals, since we now have a vocalist. Otherwise, the musical component will be in the same vein.

- What other Moscow bands do you associate with?

Witchraft, Esenta, Anckora, Eden, Alexandrite, many of them! I would not like to offend anyone, there are a lot of talented and cool guys. And the metal party in Moscow is quite small and in fact, if not personally, then through one handshake, everyone is familiar.

- Are you planning a tour?

Given the pandemic, nothing can be said for sure. So far, everything is in the work of the management.

- Do you have a message for our readers?

We are very glad that people outside of Russia are interested in our music! Visit our resources and listen to our music! And – of course – STAY METAL!)

https://aurapow er.bandcamp.com

https://www.facebook. com/aurametalband

https://www.youtube. com/channel/UCKu8CvoJlzR_GLxHSEiAxlQ

https://open.spoti fy.com/artist/12DX J1Ddnrfa79D23kgJiG

Thank you for your time.

Thank you for your questions! Pleased to meet you!