W.ANGEL’S CONQUEST – interview with z Nicholas W.Angel

Life is beautiful and amazing! It’s many sided and colorful. It has black and white stripes at once, ascents and downfalls. And I find this great – said Nicholas W.Angel, the leader and guitarist of W.Angel’s Conquest, the band which carrys a positive message, despite the difficulty of functioning in Ukraine, which is mussed by many problems. I invite you to read the interview with this man who still has positive look at a future.

The W.Angels Conquest’s music is full of positive energy. This is in contradiction with the current situation in Ukraine – the conflict with Russia, the internal divisions, the economic problems. Is the music for you to escape from everyday problems?

Thank you for your kind words. Music has always been and still remains a very important part of my life. Any single event, conversation or even a trip in public transport can turn into a musical composition, so it can be said, that I’m living by the music, breathing it. No, the music isn’t the way of escaping the reality, it reflects my (and ours) internal condition – which is undoubtedly positive, our music also reflects our belief in future and belief in success. I’m sure that it’s necessary to keep the positive mood in our difficult times.

In Poland, we know that Ukraine has a strong Black Metal scene. And what is Ukrainian scene of Heavy / Power Metal? Is this kind of Metal popular in your country? Could you recommend some Ukrainian bands from this genre?

There are a lot of bands of various genres and streams here in Ukraine. It is most regrettable that comparing to Poland, the consumption of rock-music in Ukraine is not well-developped. Consequently, most of bands remain amateur because musicians do not anticipate any perspectives and opportunities for development. A very large number of musicians abandon music and get “usual” jobs in order to feed their families. That’s why rock music is not so popular and well-spread in Ukraine. Each stream of rock music definitely has its dedicated fans who attend concerts and support their favourite bands. Unfortunately, I don’t follow on-stage life of our country and I can’t say anything about other bands though I know they exist. Sometimes other musicians get in touch with me when they need help or some advice about sound engineering, session works and arrangements

In the line-up of the band is not mentioned a keyboardist, and meanwhile you have inserted a lot keyboards on the album. Who played on the white and black keys?

I finished “faculty of academic piano and liveshow keyboards”, so when our keyboardist girl Lady Dea left, I took her responsibilities. During live performances we use pre-recorded playback.
This turned out to be the best possible solution for the current moment.

The album title is “Taste of Life”. So how does a life taste?

Life is beautiful and amazing! It’s many sided and colorful. It has black and white stripes at once, ascents and downfalls. And I find this great.

How does the matter look with concerts in your country at present? Do you play any concerts outside Ukraine? Will you play some gigs W.Angels Conquest in Poland?

The situation with concerts in Ukraine is not stable, taking in account that rock music is not the most popular genre in our country. Several times we performed concerts beyond Ukraine, right in Poland, I’m talking about our support of the “Sabaton” from Sweden. The concerts took place in Warsaw and Krakow. I was very impressed by the responsiveness of the public and beauty of these cities, that’s why we’re working now to be able to perform in Europe and particularly in Poland.

“Taste of Life” is your fifth full-lenght album. Was the music of the band changed through all these years? And how does the band was changed?

Each of our subsequent albums is much more sophisticated and carefully considered comparingly to the previous ones. And at the same time our band advances and becomes much more proficient and I may say mature. Our style keeps to progress and our songs become more and more multi-faceted and from the point of view of performing much more complex. I hope that our listeners find this changes much more interesting and uncommon. Still we tend to keep up the style that we had chosen at the very beginning long long ago, I am talking about haunting folk melodies and «modern» sounds and keyboard passages. It is interesting to combine academic melodic elements with synthetic electronic sounds and integrate them into power metal.

Some time ago the band had a different, shorter name. Under what circumstances it was renamed from the Conquest to W.Angel’s Conquest? Does the cause of the rename was a conflict between members of the team Conquest?

Some time ago we got an offer from Warner Music Japan to issue an album and a collection of our best tracks. And they asked us if we had any juridical problems due to the name, because at that moment there were several bands in the world using the name «Conquest». We have consulted with the lawyer, specialized in copyright, and were offered to change the name in order to avoid possible problems, because the legislation about copyrighting in our country is rudimentary, that puts us in a very vulnerable position. We were considering different variants as for example replacing one letter or taking the totally different name. And we made a conclusion that stating my scene pseudonym would be the most logic and simple decision, because it’s me who is the creator and leader of the band. The Japanese were satisfied with our decision, the change in the name wasn’t too significant, and the audience had no inconvenience while getting used to another name. No, of course there were no conflicts between the ex or current members of the band, we all keep good and friendly relationship.

About what are the lyrics on the latest album? I do not use English very well, but the song “Spirit of Freedom” – indeed my favorite on the album – inspired is probably the recent events in Ukraine?

Our song “Spirit of Freedom” describes the events that took place at the Maidan in Kiev in winter 2013-2014. The song tells us the how the people were tired of the thief and gangster being in power and decided to take matters into their own hands. It is the song about pride and belief in the better future, about those who died in those tragic events, I mean the Heavenly Hundred, who sacrificed their lives for the hope of the better future for their brothers, sisters and children. And actually there’s no any conceptual idea in the album. It’s indeed the Taste of Life, in which absolutely everything can happen – love, hate, phantasy, reality.

How do you promote your latest album? Have you got any support from the label?

We promoted our last album to the extent of our forces and knowledge. At that period of time we lacked some certain knowledge, and surely there were some things that we missed and that’s why we didn’t manage to do everything as perfect as we desired, but in general the situation turned clear for us and in future we’ll get better results. The label helped in promoting as much as could, and we are satisfied with the cooperation.

What are the plans of the band for the future?

The band has a lot of plans. The main thing now is to enter the European market and to start performing in Europe, possibly in the USA. At this moment we’re working on the next release. I won’t reveal any details, let it be our little secret. I hope everybody will learn everything soon.