NEVERLAND - Emrecan & Iris Mavraki

Neverland are a newcomer band in the genre of Symphonic / Progressive Metal. It’s\r\nline up includes members of the Turkish band Dreamtone and the Greek\r\nsinger Iris Mavraki. The drummer of the band Emrecan as well as Iris,\r\ngave Metalzone.gr and Vasilis Mazaris an interview to give us all the details of their band and debut album.\r\n\r\n

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\r\nMETALZONE: Neverland are a new chapter in the extreme sound\r\nso the proper thing to do would be to begin with a brief bio of the band and\r\nhow everything begun.
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\r\nEMRECAN:\r\nThe idea of Neverland came\r\nup in 2004 when Orpheus, who is our international manager right now, introduced\r\nus to his mother Iris. She has listened to our Unforeseen Reflections demo and\r\nour debut album Sojourn and liked our music very much. In the beginning,\r\nNeverland was planned as a series of concerts at which we would cover songs\r\nfrom various rock and metal bands with a live symphony orchestra but after a\r\nwhile this idea shifted towards making an album.\r\n

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\r\nMETALZONE: Your debut album is on the way, how do you feel\r\nabout Reversing Time?\r\n

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\r\nEMRECAN:\r\nWell, to be honest, we are really excited! It’s a great feeling to be\r\nwaiting for the album’s release. We worked nearly a year and a half to make the\r\nalbum, facing all kinds of monetary and scheduling problems. But luckily, in\r\nthe end, everything worked out fine. Reversing Time also marks our first major\r\nappearance throughout the global rock/metal arena and we are waiting our\r\nlisteners’ reactions with great enthusiasm.\r\n

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\r\nMETALZONE: We can find in your album some very interesting\r\nguest appearances like Hansi Kursch - Blind Guardian, Tom Englund - Evergrey\r\nand Gary Wehrkamp - Shadow Gallery. How do you feel as a band that you had the\r\nchance to co operate with such important artists of the scene? Was it hard for\r\nyou? Do you feel that Neverland’s music without them wouldn’t have the same\r\nimpact? \r\n

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\r\nEMRECAN:\r\nFirst of all, it was a great honor to have these incredible musicians in\r\nour album because they are the people who gave us the inspiration to make music\r\nin the first place and of course, we feel very lucky for finding the chance to\r\nwork with them. It was hard to fit in their time schedules because they are all\r\nvery busy people and it is not easy to find a suitable time for them to record\r\ntheir parts. For instance, Blind Guardian was on tour while we were recording\r\nthe album and Hansi’s recordings were cancelled several times!\r\n

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\r\nActually I don’t know whether the album’s music would\r\nhave the same impact or not without these guest musicians because we composed\r\nthese songs for them specifically but it is obvious that Reversing Time would\r\nbe a completely different album without their participation. The most important\r\nthing for us was to find their different musical aspects with our material, in\r\na way that they do not reflect at their\r\nown bands. If you want them to perform just like the way they do with their\r\nusual stuff, than there is nothing special \r\nabout having them as guests and I think they would not want to perform\r\nthat kinda songs either. \r\n

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\r\nMETALZONE: Reversing Time, apart from a debut\r\nalbum it can also be the beginning of the friendship between Greece and Turkey\r\nsince you have the Greek singer Iris Mavraki. How easy is it to co operate with\r\nsomeone who comes from a different culture especially since there is constant\r\ncontradiction between Turkey and Greece? \r\nCould music work as a bonding process?\r\n

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\r\nIRIS: From my side\r\nbeing Greek, it was and is one of my biggest efforts to show the entire world\r\nthat music can work as a bonding process... We are creating, writing, singing\r\ntogether.... Where politics fail many times, music on the contrary, creates\r\nbridges of love, brotherhood and understanding... Music together with the lyrics\r\nof the songs can take you to places beyond, can take you to Neverland, and can\r\ncreate magic in everyone’s soul. Our cultures are not so different, we have\r\nbeen living together in the past for many years. Its politicians who have\r\ndifferent points of view... Not us... We are artists, with strong will power to\r\nreverse time.\r\n

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\r\nMETALZONE: If I am not mistaking in 1981 you were in an audition for Pink Floyd, give us a few more details on that.\r\n

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\r\nIRIS: I went to London to Britannia Row studios in 81 after\r\nhaving sent a tape of mine to David Gilmour and I also met with Nick Mason at\r\nthe time. It was very interesting, I was maybe the only Greek singer to have\r\nreceived their opinion about my voice and was introduced to nearly everyone in\r\nBritania Row. At that time they were filming the Wall.\r\n

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\r\nMETALZONE: Your debut album is a mixture of\r\nProgressive and Symphonic Metal. Do you feel that Progressive Symphonic Metal\r\ncould characterize your music? What do you feel is the most interesting part\r\nabout your music and especially in Reversing Time?\r\n

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\r\nEMRECAN:\r\nI think you are right about Progressive Symphonic Metal but Neverland has\r\nmore than that. The album is a mixture of various genres including folk, jazz\r\nand even blues at times. We also used an ethnical instrument called "baglama"\r\nin three of the songs and it gave a completely different and authentic feeling.\r\nThe presence of a live orchestra also gives it a different taste. I guess the\r\nmost interesting part about our music is the way it is blended. When you first\r\nhear these different characteristics of the album, it may sound confusing but\r\nall the songs in the album are like the parts of a bigger picture, which makes\r\nReversing Time a unique output.
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\r\nMETALZONE: Is there a concept\r\nin your album? What themes are there in your lyrics?\r\n

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\r\nEMRECAN:\r\nReversing Time does not have a fully scaled\r\nconcept like Nightfall in Middle Earth or Operation: Mindcrime but the songs do\r\nhave a line. The concept underneath is about, facing our regrets once again.\r\nWhat actions would we want to correct if we had the power to reverse the time?\r\nWe began with this question and faced this question from various aspects\r\nranging from personal to more international issues. While songs like Reversing\r\nTime or To Lose the Sun are telling personal stories, Black Water and Mankind\r\nis a Lie are involved in the shame of Mankind.\r\n

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\r\nMETALZONE: Production and mixing duties have\r\nbeen handled by very important people within the business. Can you give us a\r\nfew info on that?\r\n

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\r\nEMRECAN: We recorded a total of 12 tracks at ATM Studios\r\nin Istanbul, with Erim Arkman and Alp Turac - who won the Eurovision Song\r\nContest back in 2003 together with Sertab Erener (for the song "Every Way\r\nThat I Can"). The Philarmonia Istanbul Orchestra recorded at MIAM Studios\r\nin Istanbul with conductor Hakan Sensoy. Ethnical instruments and sax parts\r\nwere recorded at Mars Studios in Ankara. The mixing process of "Reversing Time"\r\ntook place at Division One Studios in Gothenburg, Sweden where bands like\r\nEvergrey, Hammerfall and In Flames work. The mastering was handled by senior\r\nmastering engineer Leon Zervos, at Sterling Sound in New York who worked with\r\nnames like Avril Lavigne, Santana, Inxs, Skid Row, Duran Duran and Aerosmith.The\r\ncover artwork was done by French artist Jean Pascal Fournier who has previously\r\nworked with Edguy and Avantasia, near to lots of other names. \r\n

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\r\nMETALZONE: How are things in the metal scene in Turkey? Do you believe that\r\nNeverland can be the first band to be recognised by the metal audience? How do\r\nTurks feel about the Hellenic scene?\r\n

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\r\nEMRECAN: Turkey,\r\nunfortunately, does not have a developed music market and industry. The\r\nsituation is worse for rock and metal bands. Since the sales are very low,\r\nthere are no labels out there to support metal bands but I hope Neverland will\r\nbe a nice example for the upcoming bands who want to have a place in the global\r\nrock and metal arena. We are the second metal band, after Mezarkabul, signing a\r\ndeal with a major label from Europe. To be honest, we don’t know much about the Hellenic\r\nscene but we know artists like Yanni and Rotting Christ (Two extreme examples,\r\nhow about that hehe) but hopefully in the future we will have the chance to\r\nmeet people and learn more about your scene.\r\n

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\r\nMETALZONE: Is there going to be a tour in Turkey and Europe? Are there any thoughts\r\nfor a live appearance in Greece?\r\n

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\r\nEMRECAN: Yeah,\r\nof course we are going to tour in Turkey, Europe and hopefully in other\r\ncountries throughout the globe but at this point we don’t exactly know when\r\nthis is going to happen. Since Reversing Time is our debut album, it will take\r\na bit of time to present the album to people and in order to have a good tour,\r\nthey should demand you but hopefully, in a short amount of time you will be\r\nseeing us live.\r\n

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\r\nMETALZONE: Tell us about the future plans and send a message to the fans that are\r\ngoing to listen to Neverland!\r\n

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\r\nEMRECAN: We\r\nbegan writing material for our new Dreamtone album, actually recording demos\r\nfor the album right now. After completing that, we will get to the studio to\r\nrecord them. Besides that, we are rehearsing, rehearsing and rehearsing hehe,\r\nfor the upcoming shows of both Neverland and Dreamtone.\r\n

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\r\nTo our listeners; Thanks for supporting us and hope to\r\nsee you live soon!!!\r\n

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\r\nVasilis Mazaris \r\n

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