First of all thank you for accepting Metal Perspective’s invitation and congratulations for "Crimson Skies".

Hi Giannis. Thanx a lot and you ´re welcome:)

As a relatively new band can you tell us in a few words about the history of Cloudscape up to now?

Yes of course. Cloudscape was formed in 2001. We recorded several demos and tried to get attention from various record labels but, unfortunately we had no luck due to the lack of contacts we had back then. We also sent out demos to magazines and webzines in order to build up a reputation about the existence of Cloudscape.
However, during fall 2002 we contacted management and production company Roastinghouse in order to ask them if they were interested in trying to help us out finding a proper label(s) since they have daily contacts with different record labels. We signed a management agreement with Roastinghouse so, much because of them we finally reached out with our music to record labels.
In April 2004 we entered the Roastinghouse recording studio and recorded our self-titled debut so, when we were finished with the recordings in May/June 2004 several interested record labels knocked at our door. We signed for German label "Metal Heaven" and the Japanese label called "Marquee/Avalon". Our debut was released in Asia in December 2004 and all over Europe in late January 2005.
After that we did several concerts in Sweden and in October we went to The Netherlands in order to perform live at Progpower Europe which was our first concert we did outside of Sweden. The gig turned out to be a success and the feedback was fantastic.

What did you do as a band since the first release of your homonymous work? What was the medias’ and the audients’ reaction to your first CD?

The response from press, media and fans turned out great and most of the reviews I ´ve read was awesome. We started to compose the songs for our second album ("Crimson Skies") directly after finishing the recordings of our debut album. Both me and Bjorn Eliasson were very inspired and had lots of new song-ideas so, we had no reason to wait and waste any time so we started to write new songs.

We did a few concerts in Sweden (as I mentioned in the previous answer) and at Progpower Europe but, of course we hoped that we ´d gotten more opportunities of performing live.

Do you think that in the first self-titled work of yours your influences by Neoclassic Metal (from Malmsteen to Symphony X and so on) are very obvious?

We didn’t try to sound like a certain band or so, we just compose music in the vein we like and hope that our songs will turn out good. However, we are fans of both Yngwie J. Malmsteen and Symphony X (+ many other bands) so I guess it’s a natural thing that we reminded a bit like them stylewise. On "Crimson Skies" though I think we sound more unique because, we feel that we have found ourselves musically and that we have found a style that we are comfortable with. On the debut there was 3 – 4 songs that were quite old (the oldest one was written in 1996) but, on "Crimson Skies" all songs are new and fresh and written after finishing the debut. What I´m trying to say is, we are very satisfied with our debut album but, we believe that "Crimson Skies" is more like...our own sound....Cloudscape-sound...., if you know what I mean even if of course comparisons probably can be made.

Can you give us some details about the recordings?

Roger Landin (drums) entered the Roastinghouse studio during the last week of December 2005 in order to record the drum parts. We were completely finished, mixed & mastered in mid-March. The recording sessions went really smooth and we were really inspired and fired up during recordings. This time our main producer was "Pontus Lindmark" who did an AWESOME job. I really hope he’ll get the recognition he deserves because, he is the STATE OF ART (producer;). Anders "Theo" Theander was more like a "supervising producer"....executive producer. Pontus mixed the album the way he thought was the best for the songs (with a few inputs from us of course).

How long did it take to finish the recordings of "Crimson Skies"? Mention some facetiae during the recordings.

It took approximately 3 months to finish "Crimson Skies" (incl. mixing and mastering).
Facetiae???? I don’t know that word, hehe??
We were never in the studio all together but, me and Bjorn supported Roger during the drum sessions and Roger and Patrik supported me during the vocal recordings.

In "Crimson Skies" I discover influences by Conception. Tell us who are the musicians that made you buckle with your instruments and mention some musicians that you were influenced by synthetically in the creation of your music.

To be honest with you, there’s no band or artist that have inspired us in making "Crimson Skies". We only have our own personal "heroes" musically that we always have and have grown up listening to. We never like sit down and listen to a certain band and say "lets make a Conception-like album/song". We have our style, our way of composing and performing that we think resembles the "Cloudscape-sound". We don’t deliberately write songs in order to sound like a certain band. It’s nice to be compared to all those great bands you’re mentioning thou. Bands we listen to in general, which have had some impacts on us are bands like Yes, Rush, Kansas, Dream Theater, Toto, Yngwie J. Malmsteen, Symphony X, Fates Warning, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath etc etc etc.

My personal vocal heroes are David Coverdale, Bobby Kimball and Russell Allen to name a few.

What do you think is different about "Crimson Skies" since your debut?

I think "Crimson Skies" is more dynamic, melodic and a bit more progressive as well. Still it’s as heavy as the debut but, I think it’s more varied in general and have a futuristic approach. I do think that our fans that liked our debut will like "Crimson Skies" as well because, the difference ain´t that big I think but, we have extended the limits a bit more on Crimson Skies and found a way of composing that we feel is more unique for us.

Can you tell us a few things about the fabulous cover (maker etc.)?

The artwork is made by the fantastic Mattias Norén. The cover shows glass elevators that connects earth and the mysterious cloudscape, hehe;). The only directions we gave Mattias was to make the cover in red color. We sent him a pre-production CD of our songs and the album title (Crimson skies) so, he listened to the songs in order to get into the right mood of creating a fitting cover and booklet that resembles Crimson Skies. He has used fragments from our debut cover as well which is cool?

How would you characterize your music?

Hehe, I get this question quite a lot so, I suppose I can wake up in the middle of the night rabbling it up, hehehe....juz kidding;). We describe our music to be "melodic metal with progressive touches". I think that’s a descent description of our style in general. I think our music is heavy, dynamic, atmospheric, beautiful, aggressive and so on...

Tell us about your inspiration sources and about the songs intentions.

The only genuine inspiration sources we have are based on our moods or experiences. I get very inspired by visiting places or cities I haven’t seen before, majestic natures and so on. I also get very inspired during evenings and nights. The beautiful colors in the sky before sunset are a big inspiration source for me as well. I was on vacation with my family on the Greek island of Crete (Makrigialos) in August last year so, when I got back home from there I had 2 new song-ideas in my head ;-).

Do you have any plans on touring? If you were to choose some bands for the tour, which bands would they are? Can you describe us a typical live appearance?

Our next live performance will be at the well known "Sweden Rock Festival" on June 9. That concert will most likely be the biggest thing that has happened in the Cloudscape history when we talk about live performances. The concert will also be recorded and filmed so, we’ll see what we decide to do with that material. If the concert goes at least decent maybe we’ll release the live recording in one way or another ;-)
We have no confirmed tour just yet unfortunately. Maybe we will do a small tour in Germany later this year since a German booking agency contacted us and wanted to book us for a few concerts. We really hope that we will get a tour organized this time since we have 2 albums released. We are a live band so the main priority now is to try organize those things. We would love to visit Greece for concerts and the rest of Europe as well :-).
There are many great bands that we would love to tour with so, it would be hard to choose only one band. However, it would be great to do a tour with our friends in "Pagan’s Mind" or "Wolverine" for example. As long as it’s a band with nice members we would be happy. The band we’d tour with should also play music in the same style in general as Cloudscape.

To end up I would like to thank you once more for your presence in Metal Perspective, close with your message to our readers.

It was nice doing this interview and I’m grateful that you have shown interest in Cloudscape.
To the METAL PERSECTIVE readers, the Cloudscape fans and future Cloudscape fans to come I would like to say:
YOU RULE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU make all of this worthwhile!! Check out the new CLOUDSCAPE album entitled CRIMSON SKIES which will be released on JUNE 3!!!!! If you totally have missed out on us please check out our self-titled debut ;-)

We would also be honoured if you visited our website and our forum at:
www.cloudscape.se
www.myspace.com/cloudscapemetal

Take care, stay metal and spread the word!!!!

Yours sincerely:
Mike Andersson (Cloudscape)