Interview: Infected Rain

On Sunday November the 17th Eluveitie, Lacuna Coil and Infected Rain performed at TivoliVredenburg in Utrecht, The Netherlands. You can read our live review of that show here. Before the show DutchMetalManiac’s Tim van Velthuysen sat down with Infected Rain’s Lena Scissorhands for an interview.

Hey Lena, how is the tour going so far?

Very good, really awesome. We are surrounded by really good, friendly musicians. We are very welcomed in every city we play. We have a bunch of older fans following us and a lot of new fans that discover us, so it’s really good.

That’s nice. I am also really looking forward to tonight’s show.

Me too. We love The Netherlands. We try to play here at least once a year.

You recently released your new album, Endorphin. How are the reactions you got on it so far?

Those are really positive. Everybody loves it. A lot of people say that it is our best work. A lot of people can relate to all the emotions that is put into it. I really think we did a great job. I’m very proud of it. We are all very proud of it as a band. So yeah, the reactions are really, really good actually.

It’s really nice.

Thank you.

I want to pick out three specific songs. First of all Black Gold, what’s true gold in your opinion?

Sincerity, being yourself is very rare. Finding people that are themselves and are sincere is so rare lately. Everybody’s faking, you know, we are living in this world of internet. So, people forget about the real friendship, the real feelings, the reality, the things that we have around us already. They want more, they want something that is not achievable, or that is achievable but in order to go there, they forget about what they already have and they lose that. So sincerity and being themselves, being yourself. That is true gold.

Being authentic?

Definitely.

Another track I want to pick out is the latest track on Endorphin, Storm. It’s quite different, much calmer and quite electronic.

Yeah, we did electronic songs before, on other albums. This one is a little bit more mellow. I feel like it’s a perfect way to end the album. Also because of the theme of the song. It was perfectly made, like the melody around the lyrics are so well, like, married together. I wanted to underline this endless search for this balance, between people, between people in nature, in general balance. It feels like we lose it, we don’t have it anymore. Even balance between ourselves, body and mind, you know?

It really makes that you want to play the entire album again.

Thank you so much.

The last track I want to pick out is the powerful track Lure. In its description you said that it is arrogant and brave and that that’s a complete new feeling for you.

Yes, it is. I never been so demanding and dominant, especially through my lyrics. I’m not really a very dominant person in life, too. But I felt the need to be because I’ve been having some really big changes in my life. Some of them not really pleasant. So I had to confront certain feelings I was not ready to. So, I felt the need to be stronger, more powerful, more demanding and remind myself that I can be whoever I want to be, no matter who is next to me.

You said that it is a new feeling. Do you like it?

I love it.

Okay, that’s great. It also sounds very confident.

Thank you.

Where do you hope that will bring Infected Rain?

Infected Rain is going to be where we want it to be. Like right now we want to be here, this is perfect, this is amazing. And we’re not going to give up, we want to conquer the world and play in cities and places where we’ve never been but mainly we want to give and leave something to the world that people can relate to. That’s something that can help emotionally to people. I listen to a lot of music and everybody in the band does and I can relate to a lot of other bands and musicians like emotion-wise, which I hope our listeners can have through our music.

You were independent until February, then you signed to Napalm Records. What made you change?

Yeah, we were independent for ten years. In all these years there’s more and more work and we became just so overwhelmed with work. We were our own managers, own booking agency, own secretary,  own artists, own designers and musicians. Everything was on us and it was always like that. Then the band started being more popular and more wanted by people and we really needed somebody else on board that believes in us and loves our music who can help us. Professional people who can bring us to the next level, that’s why.

And to take something out of your hands?

Yeah, just help out with that. So we can be just musicians, you know.

That’s probably what you love the most, right?

Yeah, exactly.

I saw quite some YouTube comments in which Infected Rain was compared to Jinjer. What do you think about it?

I hate it and trust me, everybody in the band hates it and, trust me, everybody in Jinjer hates it. You know why? We love each other, we know each other forever, but this is not a competition. Why do people compare? We are compared to other bands too, Arch Enemy, Otep, Butcher Babies and I’m sure they are compared to us. This is just so exhausting. This is like, we are not even similar bands. The fact that we come from a similar place on the planet, doesn’t mean we are the same. The fact that it is two girls singing doesn’t mean we are the same. And the more people compare us, the less is the opportunity that we are actually going to tour together, because everybody keeps asking about that. No, it’s not going to fucking happen, because you compare us. Stop comparing, accept that there’s two bands with different artists and it’s going to be way better. I just don’t understand. We all hate this endless comparing. We hate it, all the bands. We’ve even been talking with them about it. Oh, I’m so tired about it, everybody is. We love them. We play with them on a lot of festivals. Unfortunately, it’s something that neither they can get rid of, or we can get rid of, we only can continue to be ourselves and they can continue to be themselves and that’s it. If people’s minds are limited to compare us, it is what it is.

I agree. It’s different.

Thank you. It’s so different. I know back in the days other bands had this problem. I remember seeing an interview of Chino Moreno of Deftones for example, I am a big fan of them. I remember him saying that back in the beginning of the 2000s it was so crazy because they were endlessly compared to Korn and vice versa. Absolutely different bands, but nu metal was big and all the nu metal bands were compared to one another. So probably the struggle was there when Metallica and Pantera were there or, I don’t know, Led Zeppelin and Def Leppard. You know what I mean? So, I guess everybody has to go through that sooner or later. It doesn’t matter how big or small the band is.

You come from Moldova. How’s the metal scene over there?

I’m so tired of this question honestly. That’s not because of you. It’s just that’s there’s none. There’s no metal scene unfortunately. I wish I could say more. Moldova is such a poor country. There are no possibilities for younger generations, especially underground like alternative young artists. We don’t even have clubs to have gigs for beginner bands. We don’t have metal bars, even.

How did you do that in your starting years then?

Nothing, nothing. We just had to rent a place, pay a lot of money and maybe have one show a year in our own country, maybe, sometimes not even that. So, we just played outside Moldova all this time.

That seems difficult.

It is. We have a lot of good musicians, a lot of talented young people, our generation or after us. But unfortunately, sooner or later, they give up. They start having families, kids and work doesn’t allow them to travel. Yeah, it’s impossible.

I understand. Thanks for your answers.

Yeah, you are very welcome.

Enjoy your show!

Thank you so, so much. It was a pleasure.

Is there anything you want to say to our readers?

Just keep doing what you’re doing because we love our fans so much. We are here because of our fans. So, just give us that love that you have for us and it’s going to be awesome.

You can also read our 15th part of Promoting Bands, which includes Infected Rain, here.

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