REKA, who are about to hit European roads, were so kind to share some thoughts with us. Here is the interview conducted on July 8th and August 22nd.
Hi! Good to have you here. Please make a short introduction for readers that may not know you and tell us who you are.
Hello everyone we are REKA from Moscow,Russia. We play atmospheric post hardcore, and we’re doing this since 2007. We’ve done 3 European tours and ready for the new one for 3 weeks in September so will much appreciate if you’ll try to catch us in your city. my name is Alec, I play the guitar and i will try to answer on question better than my mates)
Cool [smiles]. So you’re releasing your split with IN THE HEARTS OF EMPERORS from Nykoping, Sweden. Tell us how did you team up for this joint and the whole story behind it.
Well for us its a big pleasure to meet guys from IN THE HEARTS OF EMPERORS, we played together something like 4 shows last year in Czech Republic and Germany and really enjoyed our time, they are amazing guys and they play nice music. We hang out a lot before issue this split [smiles]
[smiles] “Renaissance” 12’’ (a modified version of the “III” album), on the other hand, is already available and I must say you really made it. This sludgy post metal / post hardcore atmospheric soundscapes got even better this time and definitely heavier. What was the purpose of this re-release?
At first thank you for kind words! This album is our first vinyl release ever, we might say or words of passion and love for such amazing guys who made it real: guys from MOMENT TO COLLAPSE, BOTOND, NIKITA, RADEK and BJORN!
About the sound, we’ve been working hard to make that songs. Lots of time passed in our garage lots of changes in the structure, but finally we made that songs sounds good. Much thanks to Johan from Celeste who was also co-producer of this record.
Does the title mean you abandoned numbering your releases? [smiles]
Actually that album is not really re-release of III , because it doesn’t have the song Expectative which will be released later via Moment To Collapse, so we decided to gave that album it’s own name and own artwork.
Friends from what other projects did you tap to collaboration for this album?
On that record we have different drummer Anna, she played with us for a year, and of course our dearest friend and unfortunately ex-vocalist Sebastian from CELESTE.
How important for you is the artwork stuff? Tell us more about the graphics you put on your covers.
We have our own vision how our albums should look like, before we’ve got albums which were released on CD’s and the cover art for them is the first theme that we made out. Every cover for album means it own verse. Water, Fire, Ground, Air, and the spirit. If you will grab our covers together you’ll have pentagram. But all vinyl releases will have different artwork and conception also. Our dearest friend and artist Lina from Saint Petersburg made lots of our artwork, you should check her masterpieces here.
You’re guys still with Moment Of Collapse Records. Can you tell us what this relationship mean for the band?
Well we met Basti on the Fluff Fest 2011 and had great conversation full of kind words and after that we became good friends. For us it means a lot, we much appreciate guys from Moment To Collapse at first we’ve got the first vinyl record, they made the new merch for us which is also very helpful. Before we made everything by ourselves : I and II releases, artwork and merch. Only the III was released on Moscow based Old school Kids Records, kind words goes to Sergey Voloshin.
Cool. So you’re hitting European roads once again in September. Tell us more about the trek and what can we expect this time?
It will be the longest tour we ever had, 3 weeks, some of us quitting jobs to do this. We hope to visit new places and countries we’ve never been before such as Sweden, Belgium, Netherlands and will grab with us a new singer. His name is secret)
[smiles] Nice. Don’t you miss the almighty Fluff Fest? [laughs] How do you remember your last year’s performance in Rokycany? Who’s that kid crowd surfing on your Facebook wall? [smiles]
Yeah Fluff Fest that year was sick, we played on the same time with YEAR OF NO LIGHT but we had crowd on our show. We were surprised. [laughs] that kid is our friend’s son, he is hardcore kid since 5 years old) he was also hanging out with ROSETTA vocalist on the main stage)))
[smiles] Nice. Looking further back, how was the rest of your 2011 touring schedule? Any original stories from the road?
The best story is about one of our promoters in Czech Republic made a mistake and prepare show for the July not June, and we’ve got the Last Minute Show, but finally it was fine) And also funny story when we went to supermarket in Brno. Sebastian was a driver and didn’t saw “meter height” before underground parking. I think you can imagine how it was [laughs]
[laughs]
Ok, but how come you don’t play this year’s Raketa Fest? [smiles] What’s your experience with the fest?
For us is a problem to play local shows because our vocalist was from France and our drummer is from different city (Saint Petersburg) for us is more simple to play somewhere in Europe)). Raketa dudes is our friends they do great fest, Actually we have our own punk-hardcore festival Youth And Beauty. We’re making it for 4 years and last year we had near 1000 visitors)
Ok, let’s go back for a while. Tell us about your previous projects. What other bands did/do you play?
When we started we were half of FORTUNAE VERBERA (drummer Pavel, bass Igor, and Denis (ex vocalist) took the guitar) and half of OPTIMUS PRIME (Alec on second guitar and Jimbo on vocals) both our bands played screamo/post hardcore thats why our first album have lots of melodic and sounds more screamo than metal.
Lots of musicians standing behind screamo acts participate in post metal ventures. These two worlds exist simultaneously within the same scenes, venues and involve largely the same people. What’s the link between screamo/post hardcore and post metal/ atmospheric sludge music scenes?
For my opinion all people in punk-hardcore scene are pretty close to each other because of the years past together, because of activity ( political, social) some philosophical points of view and all this things are pretty close to the music. No matter what kind of music is it Screamo, punk, indierock, metal, people communicate with others and no matter what are listening to or playing you’re part of movement.About screamo and post-metal for us its true, but for us it became logical continue of previous bands, we were close to post rock and metal and just started the new project where we can continue this way.
How strong is your local screamo/post hardcore and post metal scene? Would you like to recommend some fresh blood for us?
My answer will be not full if i will not separate two scenes – punk hardcore scene and Major bands scene. This is the main thing, because I don’t separate punk scene between genre of music because for me it still the same, as you told the same people play in different bands, and that’s why I don’t think we have SCENE of post metal or screamo. We recommend to check the bands like IO APREA, NAMATIJRA, DEHUMANIZATION, MARIE CHANTE, THE OCCULT, WOLVERINE BLUES, BLUESBREAKER, …
Is that true that Moscow is a really very racist place? There are so many stories about your local skinheads attacking coloured people, etc. Is there an open fight between Moscow Antifa-alike movements and neo-nazi fools? Do you live close to these groups of people? Are you an activist yourself? Your thoughts please?
This is true that here in Moscow and Russia at all lots of nazi skinheads. I think nowadays this wave is not so huge but in past years, 5 or more years ago it was really dangerous on the streets. Like everywhere lots of nazis are football hooligans and many of them are just stupid teenagers. Our band against all kinds of prejudgements like racism, homophobia, sexism. I think we are not activists because we’re not fighting on the streets. Nowadays this war is really unseen and it continuing in the places that is on the outskirts of city. Now lots of people just living usual life or even sitting in the prison, unfortunately not only from the racist side, also antifa guys, that is very unfair. But this is Russia, here can be everything, if you heard about Pussy Riot, so we are not surprised about anything.
What are your favourite Russian scenes besides Moscow? [smiles] What parts of your country stand strong with their activities around hardcore punk?
What other parts of the Old Continent do you like the most? Both, musically and geographically?
Of course at first its Saint Petersburg,lots of nice kids and music. Then i guess it will be cities like, Vladimir, Nizhny Novgorod, on South its Krasnodar, on Siberia its Kirov,Novosibirsk,Omsk,Perm,Ufa,Barnaul, Kazan as well as so fucking far away Vladivostok or even Yakutsk, where is no railway and you can get there only by plane. Everywhere lots of amazing guys and great bands. Also i would like to recommend Ukrainian scene and Belarus scene. Also awesome guys and bands.
What do you do besides REKA? Tell us a secret [smiles] How do your everyday lives look like?
No secrets, we are living usual life, working and trying to survive).
Thank you so much. Idioteq wishes you all the best for the rest of the year. I hope your mini tour will make you cry after you go back home in the end of September [laughs]. Anything you’d like to add?
Thank you for interesting questions, hope you guys not get bore, catch us in your city in September. You can check updates here and here.
Take care.
