Hi guys, thank you for doing this interview, how are you doing?
Marco: Everything ok, but we have much to do, like every time during the release of our new CD "Skylight".
Illusion of Light is a band that is active for a long time, it originally started off as a one man band (only Marco), what do you remember of these days?
Marco: Oh yes. in this time I was a young teenager. I never thought, that "illusion of light" would be so successful. But I liked to work with music. So I tryed to work with my "AMIGA 500" PC. And I created my first songs.
In 2003 Julia and Peter joined the band, what influence did it have on the music and the making of it?
Marco: We had the chance to use femal vocals. This was a big wish of me...to have famal vocals in my songs. And with Peter we had the chance to perform our music also live. Than there was another result: If more people work together the music and songs got different.
Do you always follow the same path in composing and recording music, can you give us an insight look of how the music of Illusion of Light is created?
Marco: Most there is an idea of an sound. We work with this idea and we create the sounds and melody of the song. Then we create the lyrics for the song. But it can be also, that there are some pieces of lyrics. With the help of the lyrics we create the sound. Then we produce the final sound by recording the synthesizer-sounds, singing the vocals. After all... I am mixing the sounds and make the master-file. And then...listen, listen, listen... changing sounds and so on... until... we love the song.
Over the years you have released several albums, when you compare those to each other, what progress have you made over the years?
Marco: I think we learned to work with our voices. I think the singing got better :-) . Also I think the sound of the instruments got better because I learned much in mixing. I think our music sounded "harder" in the older albums. The reason is, that we used other sounds in the older albums then now. The best album is "Skylight" :-) . But this is every time my opinion about the last album, that we release. I think also, that we are a little bit "harder" then in the albums before.
Your made it a goal to release an album every year, why did you make that goal? Does Illusion of Light have other goals as well?
Marco: I like to create new songs. So at the end of every year 10 to 12 songs are ready for release. So we decide to release the album. This gets to a goal for every year. The main goal is, that we bring our music to many people also in other countries of the world. We like to get friendly feedbacks from all over the world.
The new album is called Skylight. Can you tell us a bit more about the album?
Marco: The new album is for free download. We wanted to say "Thank you" to all the people who like our music. You see, that there are only 9 songs on the album. It was also a test, to see, how the people react, if we choose this kind of release and we thought, that this number of songs is ok. Then we made new versions of "Ameisenstaat" and "Experimente". We love the songs and we missed some sounds by listening the older versions very often. We find, that the new versions sound better. Then we have an interesting "Intro" and an interesting "Outro". The "intro" is a little bit harder than the rest of the album and the "outro" is climax of the album for me. Orchestral sounds with synthesizer sounds. The other songs are, like also in our other CDs, danceable songs with a change in singing of Julia and me.
Some of the songs are in English while others are in German, what made you decide to record songs in both languages?
Marco: We can answer in short words. ...There are no rules. We decide with our feelings. Sometimes we want to speak in german and so we do that. :-)
When listening to new album I hear a melodic electroband that offers a good quality album. These days there are many melodic electro bands, what are you trying to add to the music to give it an original sound?
Marco: We create our individual synthesizer sound and dont try to copy other bands who work in the "Electro Sound area". The next fact is, that I listen often other music styles and not only independent music. So the ears are open for new elements in the music. And last but not least are our vocals very individual.
Will the album be supported concerts and releaseparties? Are there any planned already? And when looking at your website I see a list of many concerts you gave but in 2010 there was just one show. Does the website needs updating or did you do only one show?
Marco: At the moment we have no booking-agency. So its very difficult to get good gigs. We had one release-party in Potugal but at the moment there are no shows. So we can say we are a "concert-less-band". Hope that it will get better, but maybe, that there are no gigs this year. And yes, last year we had only one gig. Nobody wants to see us... :-)
What can people expect of an Illusion of Light liveshow?
Marco: We make an show with our best songs and often we speak to the fans. So we have much fun. Such things I miss at the moment a little bit.
What will be next for Illusion of Light?
Marco: At the moment we work with new material to create the next album. We made some remixes and projects with bands from other countries like hungaria or argentinia.
Any last words for our readers?
Marco: Thanks a lot for your interest. I hope you like our music and maybe if we have a little bit luck, we can make a live show for you in the next years...sometimes. :-)
http://www.illusion-of-light.com