photo © John MacMurtrie 2002

Julie

Musical Discoveries: Tell us a bit about your background before Without Face.

Julie: My musical way started together with my acting in Without Face, where I joined just exactly after the recordings of their first album, Deep Inside, in January 2002. It was not my first meeting with the band though, as I already knew the guys and wrote a few lyrics for this first album as well.

But after the recordings there were conflicts in the band, so half of the people were changed, which means that on the new album Astronomicon there was a new bass player, keyboard player and female vocalist--me. With the new members, the music evolved into more progressive, technical stuff where the monumental and magical atmosphere got an even bigger role than before.

What happened then?

We have always thought concerts are the most important and greatest things in a band so we played as much as we could. When Deep Inside released in Hungary we did hundreds of gigs there, and slowly started to look for possibilities in abroad, which means we finally also signed to an American label, Dark Symphonies who re-released the first album.

Soon after the band got an offer from Lee Barrett, the founder of Elitist Records, a division of Earache, so with the new album we ended up with them. We mainly chose Elitist/Earache because of the new concert possibilities. These came soon after when we made a little UK tour with Arch Enemy and Corporation 187, and this year in January we made a 33 date tour with Samael and Cathedral. It was certainly one of the hardest but still fantastic times of my life I think!

Please tell us about your new band. What are the plans?

It's called To-Mera. We--the ex-Without Face guitarist Roomy (as he also left the band) and me--are working hard to arrange everything with the new band right now. I don't want to explain too much about it yet, but it's already obvious that the new material won't miss technicality, crunchy riffs--nor beauty--this time topped with only my vocals. Between the new members' influences I can mention Pain Of Salvation, Messugah, Dream Theater or Opeth. So metal fans have something really cool to look forward I guess. We will see soon!

Who else do you find yourself listening to all the time?

I am obsessed with progressive bands. But lately I seem to listen to almost everything. Lately what I can't take out of the CD player is Madder Mortem's Deadlands and Pain Of Salvation's Remedy Lane and the albums of our label mates Wolverine. They are totally amazing!

photo © Zoltán Pitrolffy 2002

How did you develop your vocal style? Eaborate on further on your musical training and education.

Now that I'm back to Hungary for a while I continue training at my "old" singing master. I'm really happy about it as my voice developed a lot thanks to her. And about my vocal style, it all just came naturally. I sing what comes out of me, so I don't think about styles. I just sing. Though sometimes I felt a bit limited in Without Face, so in the new band, To-Mera, I would like to experiment a bit more with feeling and ideas. Hopefully the experiences I got there, in the studio or on the tour, will all help me to create something interesting.

What artists to you feel have influenced your music over time?

Well, in Without Face all of us had a bit different taste, so there was a bit from the 80s rock bands in Peter's drum playing (Queensryche, etc.), a bit classical music in Sasza's keyboard work, progressive bands in Roomy's guitar play, a little jazz in Akos' bass work, and in the vocals, I could say loads of music as with Andras we were both listening to lots of different styles from Loreena McKennitt to Moonspell.

What was your role in Without Face?

Well, ince we have started to try to exist in abroad, I arranged all things for the band except in Hungary, with the label, being in contact with people, or concerts..the website--almost everything. I had all the possibilties to do it. I also made all the interviews for Astronomicon. It was far too much responsibility sometimes to be honest, especially after the band moved to England.

About songwriting, I rarely took part from the basic song writing, though we always wrote everything together. But I told them that I liked this or didn't like that and then we changed it in some cases and didn't in others. I was responsible for writing all the lyrics and the vocals. The vocals together with Andras of course.

Please explain the creative process in the music you have recorded.

Well it all happened with--usually--our keyboard player or the guitar player coming with some good ideas and then we started to build the music around it, and then it finally happened to be a song. The lyrics were usually ready before the music, but I sometimes wrote them together with the music, and by the time it was finished, the lyric was ready too. And then we could start writing the vocals.

Do you have a career or work outside music?

After I finished high school--where I learnt environment protection--I started to attend university, but as we moved to England with the band I just left it. Without Face was the most important thing in my life and I didn't care whatever I had to give up for it. I basically built all my life on it. Now that it all collapsed, and I'm trying to re-build. I'm convinced that music is the only thing which can ever make me happy and satisfied, so it is always going to be the most important thing in my life. Everyting else comes after it. I may start another university course in the future though. I don't know yet!

photo © John MacMurtrie 2002

What about the live performances?

As we started to play abroad I got in a strange/hard situation. Since I hadn't been the 'frontwoman' before, and in England Andras didn't speak English I had to take on this role from one day to another. At first I felt horrible; it took a long time for me to feel more and more natural on stage, and having to speak with people on the stage was not easy for me either. But by the end of the Samael tour I had lots of experience, and today I feel totally different on stage compared to how I was at the beginning of the tour. I really love playing live anyway, and if we will have the possibility, we will surely make some live material, and a video also.

What are your plans for 2003?

I'm trying to get my life back on the right way of existance at first, and then do everything for my new band. I have no long-term plans though, I try and wait for things to happen. You know "sitting silently and the grass grows by itself." It's a hard thing to do for such impatient people like me!

How has the internet influenced your musical career and the promotion of your music. Do you plan to make a website for your new band or for yourself?

The internet became a very important promotional possibility, and I will surely have a website for my new band soon. I think its very important. Someone hears you, the first thing they do to go and try to find out about you on the internet. No matter if they are in Brasilia or Japan. If you don't have a website that'?s a kind of non-existence these days I think.

To be honest internet was there at all the big and little happenings of the band's life. We got in contact with both of our labels through the internet, arranged gigs--made interviews--almost everything happened through it. There were times when I had hundreds of mails to answer one day. So, I think it's a very useful thing, and I will try to use it as much as I can in the future also.

More about Julie
Astronomicon

Interview, reviews and HTML © R. W. Elliot 2003
All images © Earache Records 2002
used with permission
Last updated 24 May 2003