SOURCE – It would be a perfect way of kicking the interview off by asking about how Dawn of Ouroboros got started out in the first place – Could you shed some light on the history of the band for readers?
Tony Thomas (Guitar/Synths) – First thanks for the interest in talking with me about the band!
Dawn of Ouroboros started as a few random songs I had written for fun. I asked a couple of my friends if they would be interested in contributing their abilities. Chelsea for her vocals, Ron for his drums, and David on bass. We never expected this band to be anything more than a fun project to do as friends. Once we started showing others our demos, we had several people tell us we should consider pursuing the band a bit more seriously. We definitely did not expect to get such a positive response. But it’s been fantastic to know many people have been enjoying what we do.
SOURCE – Each album is a chance to grow for a band, so what kind of growth do you see on this new record, ‘Velvet Incandescence’?
Tony Thomas (Guitar/Synths) – The way we approach songwriting is to just jam out ideas without thinking about what kind of sound we are going for, or what audience we are trying to appeal to. We just try to have fun in what we’re doing and find ideas that sound good to us, and go with that. I’d say with this album, there is a fair bit more improvisation during the writing process. The guitar solos are improvised, and the majority of the vocals, particularly the clean singing was fully improvised during the album recording.
SOURCE – Given the distance of time, how do you feel about ‘The Art of Morphology’ in 2023?
Tony Thomas (Guitar/Synths) – The Art of Morphology was the first album I had ever written so it will always be special to me. There are some areas I feel Im not particularly thrilled about now, but there are two songs in particular “Sorrow’s Eclipse”, and Spiral of Hypnotism” that I’m particularly proud of, and still surprised that we created them.
SOURCE – How did the songwriting and recording process for ‘Velvet Incandescence’ compare to your previous album?
Tony Thomas (Guitar/Synths) – We did the same approach as in we just jam and go with whatever sounds good to us, without thinking about what we “should” sound like. As mentioned before, this major difference here was that we did more improvisation during the studio recording.
SOURCE – What are your expectations for the ‘Velvet Incandescence’ album?
Tony Thomas (Guitar/Synths) – Ideally, we’d love it if people responded to it even more positively than our debut. But at the least we hope it’s received as well as the debut was. Other than that we really try to not have expectations, we just write music how we want to, and if people enjoy it as we do then we are incredibly thankful for that.
SOURCE – Do you believe the instant communication technology that exists with the proliferation of social media platforms has been a stronger benefit for bands like yourselves to increase your global reach beyond what the record label can provide for promotion/publicity?
Tony Thomas (Guitar/Synths) – Yes, absolutely. Our debut album was released the week of the COVID shut downs in 2020. Without social media, and being able to interact directly with fans. I doubt we would have been able to get the level of exposure that we did. It essentially allowed us to maintain an interaction with a fanbase that would not have been able to develop otherwise, due to the inability to perform live for nearly a year and a half.
SOURCE – Streaming has recently surpassed downloads as the main source of revenue in music. Do you think it can sustain the industry?
Tony Thomas (Guitar/Synths) – I’m heavily into studying the data generated online about our music. Streaming has absolutely not surpassed downloads, or physical purchases of music as the main source of music revenue. I see streaming as the modern equivalent of the radio. It’s really there to just get exposure. The industry will be sustained as long as there are people who want to start bands and create music. We write music because we love it. Getting any sort of reward is only a bonus, and not something that drives us to create.
SOURCE – Is there anything else you’d like to mention before I let you go?
Tony Thomas (Guitar/Synths) – Again thanks for taking the time, and we hope that people check out our album “Velvet Incandescence ” and that they enjoy it. We love writing and performing music, and it means so much to us when others take the time to listen.
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