Blackened Horde: How did the band get started?
Band: SHININGSTAR was formed in the fall of 2020. Alexey – drummer and vocalist – wanted to play symphonic metal and he had been thinking a long time before about creating a serious project which will be promoted worldwide. Alexander – our talented composer, guitarist and keyboard player – already worked with Alexey in another project Dark Matters. And Luka recorded an album for her previous band Ethir Anduin with Alexey as a producer. We all have a lot of ideas and thoughts in common. So Alexey suggested his idea to Alexander and Luka. And that’s how SHININGSTAR was born.
Blackened Horde: What kind of music do you play?
Band: The main genre of music is symphonic metal. But we’ve always loved symphonic metal and also heavy metal. If you look at the history of the creative path of each band member, there are death metal, black metal, deathcore projects in our discography. Everyone has a lot of experience in extreme metal genres.
And this time we want to combine the heaviest styles of music with very beautiful melodies and harmonies + symphonic arrangements. We are creating something new!
Blackened Horde: How has the fan response been?
Band: Well, we have a lot of feedback’s from the whole World. And happy to see that our music can touch your hearts as it touches ours.
Blackened Horde: Where did the band name come from?
Band: SHININGSTAR is a very bright and resonant name with a huge meaning for us. We have the most ambitious goals, and SHININGSTAR is the guiding star for us. And, besides, we live in the northern part of our country – the north (polar) star has a lot of meaning in our lives in a romantic way and is directly related to the purpose of the group.
Blackened Horde: Introduce the band members and what they do in the band.
Band: Now we have 3 official members:
Elena “Luka” – vocals
Alexander Nazin – guitars, bass, keyboards
Alexey Semenov – drums, vocals
2 main songwriters: Alexey and Alexander.
Alexey is responsible for the rhythmic component, composes the composition, draws the whole structure and decides how it all will be combined.
Alexander comes up with melodic arrangements, orchestrations. He saturates songs with symphonism. He is our talented composer.
And Luka adds her own character to the vocal arrangements of course 🙂
Blackened Horde: How many albums/CD’s have you released?
Band: We released 5 singles at the moment. Each single has a common concept, but was created as a separate composition. All the tracks are very different from a musical point of view. And there will be a full length album which will combine all the singles and something new.
Blackened Horde: Tell me about some of the songs on the latest CD?
Band: First single (“Shining Queen of the North Star”) is closer to classical symphonic metal.
Second single (“At the Edge of the Universe”) is closer to old school, to melodic death metal with symphonic moments and some parts have elements of deathcore.
Third single (“Fire. Wind. Water. Earth”) is completely different in the mood. It’s closer to electronic metal as Rammstein, with elements of symphonic metal and core music.
Blackened Horde: Where do the lyric ideas come from?
Band: Well we live in the northern part of our country. And our lyrical inspiration comes from our folklore, fairy tales, old stories, what we have absorbed since childhood.
Blackened Horde: What is your view in Satanism and Occultism? (If this applies)
Band: Satanism and occultism is a very ancient fiction that actively feeds on human energy resources, in principle, like another religions. And we don’t use religions theme in our creativity.
Blackened Horde: Do you have any side projects?
Band: Only Alexey. He has many side projects and the most popular are Infiltration (death metal) and Hellbomb (black metal hardcore).
Blackened Horde: Who are some of your musical influences?
Band: If we talk about SHININGSTAR music, our influences start with Nightwish, Dimmu Borgir, Black Tongue.
Blackened Horde: What is the band like when you play live?
Band: The visual part in our work has a huge meaning. Our songs are the stories and we want to show you these stories. That’s why we are preparing for a concert show and have a hope that we will be able to demonstrate our visual image to you soon (as soon as the epidemic is over).
Blackened Horde: Have you guys ever played in another country?
Band: Not yet because of the Covid Pandemic. But of course our members have had this experience before with other projects. Some of them have experience of sold-out concerts and major festivals, which is what we are actively striving for and working on it.
Blackened Horde: How big of a crowd do you normally get?
Band: It’s a hard question because we started our project in 2020 and hadn’t normal show without limits.
Blackened Horde: How is the crowd response when you play?
Band: It’s so sad but we still can’t answer this question. Because we has some shows but with limits.
Blackened Horde: What do you think about the underground scene?
Band: We think that underground music is beautiful and much more interesting than not underground music. We know many bands who play amazing and unbelievable music but still are underground.
Blackened Horde: What are some of your new favorite black metal/death metal bands?
Band: Black Tongue, Darko, Septicflesh, Shadow of Intent, Lorna Shore, Second To Sun, Ethir Anduin.
Blackened Horde: Since the Covid Pandemic has that hurt the band in making music at all?
Band: Of course, no! We stayed productive all 2020 🙂 When you don’t have live shows, you have more time to concentrate on creating new materials and shooting video clips and etc.
Blackened Horde: What advice would you as a musician give to a fellow musician just starting out?
Band: Do what you love, constantly improve and never give up! Follow your dream!
Blackened Horde: When do you guys plan on writing any new material?
Band: We never stop doing it. We prepared the whole album already, just need time to release it (because we signed to Italian label and they work with pre-promotional, that’s why the release will be only in November 2021). And now we are working hard with new materials and hope to release the next album in 2022.
Blackened Horde: What does the future hold for the band??
Band: We have many plans. Firstly, the release of the debut album on TimeToKill Records (Italian label). Secondly, active concert activity worldwide. Thirdly, work on new material and of course many more interesting things.
Contact them at:
https://www.facebook.com/shiningstar.metal
https://www.instagram.com/shiningstarmusic/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGojhviiYmPepqW0M4K1ZoQ
https://shiningstar.bandcamp.com
https://linktr.ee/SHININGSTARmusic
https://www.youtube.com/c/SHININGSTARmusic
