Hi Attila and thank you very much for this interview. Let's start with a boring question: Can you give us a short biographical note about Everwood?

It's all my pleasure! Well, we started this whole thing about 8 years ago with the bass player and good friend of mine, Viktor Erdos. After several changes we found the members for the current line-up in 2002: Tamas Rabel (drums), Ferenc Farkas (guitars) and Balazs "Balu" Koncz (vocals). After the recording of the album there was a little change in February; Tamas was replaced by a new drummer: Nandor Barabas.

Could you give us some more details about the recording and the production (place, how long, e.t.c)

Mind Games was recorded in the Bakery Studio (Hungary) with the help and assistance of Zoltan Varga and Viktor Szabo. It lasted for 3 months and it was a great experience for the band! We learned a lot of small things there while we tried to do our best.

What's the feedback you receive from the metal community, talking about the media and the fans? Are you satisfied with their reaction so far?

We had many positive feedbacks from the fans although the album was released only a couple of weeks ago. And the media is just about learning the name of Everwood but we already have some good critics too! The rest is only a matter of time…

How would you describe your music? In my opinion it falls somewhere around progressive and symphonic metal, am I right?

You're not too far away from the truth. All the band members listen to different kinds of music so I could say we take a little bit of everything from rock/metal then we mix them up and put ourselves into it and come up with the thing called Everwood!

What are your main influences or favorite bands?

As I mentioned everything from rock to metal, from classical music to the latest waves. Personally, I listen to a lot of old stuffs like Kiss, Meat Loaf, Bon Jovi and the newer ones like Dream Theater. But even a movie or a book can inspire my songwriting.

"Mind Games" is a very good album and in my opinion a unique and fresh progressive metal approach. There're two things I've noticed about your music. First of all the extensive use of the keyboards, which I could say lead the whole project and secondly your persistence on the rhythm or lead guitar parts, more or less ruling out the solos. Why did you choose such an approach?

Let' me say that it was meant to be this way I can't talk about any previous discussions about our musical style. We did not choose this kind of sound the sound have chosen us! This is what comes out from us naturally.

Who is mostly responsible for the songwriting? Is there a typical process you follow?

Maybe I can answer your last question with this one. The reason is that I wrote more than half of the songs that's why the leading role of the keyboards. But everybody in the band have many ideas for example Ferenc, our guitarist is also a great songwriter, he already brought 2 cool songs for our next album!

Is there a concept behind the album's title? Generally, what topics do you like to deal with in your lyrics?

Maybe the concept is that most of our lyrics are about some body experiences and this takes us immediately to the mind and soul of a human being. We try to translate the simple or not simple feelings of love, hate and so on and to talk about them in our songs. For me love and death are always in a beautiful connection in the lyrics.

Can you give us some details about the excellent cover? How did you manage to come to a deal with Gyula Havancsak?

He was a colleague of our former drummer. We only had a couple of ideas in mind about the cover, concerning about the "Games" in the title. We told him these and he listened to the album then he came out with this great cover. He did a hell of a job, thanks him again!

What's your opinion about today's progressive metal? With so numerous bands out there, what should someone possess in order to make a difference? Do you believe you are capable of making a name for yourselves?

Actually, in my opinion we are not really a progressive metal band. Since we are in common with these bands in many things but we also have similarities to bands from other genres of metal. So because we play such a colorful music I believe we have the chance to make a name for ourselves. Or we will be headliners one day, who knows? Anyway, we do everything for it and for the music we love!

How's your cooperation with Burning Star records so far? Which was the factor that influences your decision to sign a contract with a new, unknown label? Can it cover your needs?

The cooperation among us is good so far. The reason we chose them is very simple: they offered us the best possibilities but it's also nice that they are newcomers just like us and still hungry! At the same time the guys became very experienced at other labels so we believe they are able to raise their own soon!

Hungary is mostly famous for its excellent wine called Egri Bikavér (Bull's Blood) and the great bridges, across Dunabe River, that connect Buda with Pest, rather than its metal scene. What's your opinion about the Hungarian metal scene? Are there any bands you single out?

We have a great metal scene in Hungary the only problem is that the media does not play metal music at all. But perhaps it seems like changing slowly however it will take a long way until metal will be on the channels. We toured with many cool bands in Hungary and some of them have become a good friend of ours!

Are you going to perform live soon, even outside Hungary? Are the any live shows scheduled, yet?

We just had a couple of fantastic live shows on 2 festivals both were outstanding experiences! At this time we are about to confirm the dates of an Autumn tour and some of them possibly will be abroad. For further details I suggest to visit our website (www.everwoodsite.com) frequently!

What are your future plans? Are you working on new material?

Now it's time for touring with Mind Games, which is the best way of promoting! We also writing new songs for the following album I can promise that nobody will be disappointed with them! And we will shoot our first video for Heart So Cold soon.

Attila thank you very much for this interview. I wish you all the best for the future. Is there anything you'd like to add?

Thank you very much! Stay tuned, Everwood is on its way!