Interview:


If there's a place where most different cultures meet and intertwine, that's most certainly Istanbul. How has this meeting point influenced your lives, and ultimately your band? Is Furtherial influenced by your city's rich cultural heritage? Do you think the Progressive side of your music comes from this will to experiment, to blend and discover new territories?
Baser: Of course there are influences of that mixed culture in our lives, both conscious and unconscious. When it comes to music, we did not plan to use any ethnical or oriental elements. I usually think that metal music should be heared as metal. On the other hand, since every culture has its own unique elements, music is inevitably affected by them. If this effects are unintentional, the production of yours are heard more specifically and better, I think.
Bora: Like Baser said, we do not try to add any oriental elements intentionally, but if you take away the distortion from the guitars, you can totally hear our local influences in the melodies and the chord progressions.

What was the reason of changing the band name from Extinction to Furtherial, and what does the latter mean?
Baser: First reason is; there were another bands with the name Extinction. Secondly, Extinction era had a more death metal based attitude. Some of our songs in our first album has that kind of compositions. (for example The Newborn, Defeat) In time, we had new inspirations and naturally our music has evolved to something different. So we decided to have a name with a different meaning and also a different feeling.
The name Furtherial is derived from the word “further” with the attachment of “-ial”. It’s intented to mean “that which belongs to the further” or “from the other side”.

You've just released Through Struggle: Part One, the first from a two EPs set. How come two EPs and not an LP? Please tell us about the three tracks on it and what's the link between them and the cover artwork, if any, of course.
Baser: Our first purpose in making an E.P was preparation for our 3rd album. But the process has been delayed for too long. Besides there was an opportunity to record an another E.P so we tried to use it. Through Struggle Part One is mainly focused on the concept of loneliness as a result of bereavement. The main character of this story is an old and barren tree who leaves its forest to find a new one.

Is the second part already recorded? What can you tell us about it? Is it linked lyrically too with the first part, I mean is it a concept behind the two EPs?
Baser: Yes, it is already done. It’s concept is more about spiritual recovery. Not the same continuous concept but it’s linked somehow. And musically, it has some small differences from our previous works.

This year you've also had your first gig outside Turkey, in my country, Romania, and from what I saw on YouTube, it was a hell of a show. How was the experience? Do you plan on repeating it soon, to play other countries, too?
Baser: It was absolutely perfect. For us, besides the concert, it was also a great experience to see a different country and environment. Also, the people at the show was very participant to our music and they really loved us as if they have known us before. So we would love to come back there, of course.
Önder: Amazing audience. The festival was also wery well organized, we'd love to come back.

And talking about gigs, how's your live activity at home? Do you get to play live often? Are there many venues and festivals currently active over there? And how's the audience?
Baser: We also have a cover band called Razor, which we do most of our live playing with. Every Wednesday and Saturday we’re on stage for 4 hours each at the Dorock Bar at Taksim. And we often have gigs with Furtherial both in Istanbul and other cities.
Bora: We recently opened for Thurisaz at Dorock Bar Taksim and our last festival performance was at the Headbangers' Weekend in Istanbul headlined by Eluveite and Kalmah last March. The metal festival scene (actually the whole music scene) has been getting smaller for the past few years due to all the crazy stuff happening in and around Turkey but it started to get better a little bit this year. We're planning a small tour around January. And of course we play two days a week at Dorock with our cover band, Razor, which is our kind of day job.

Take your time and think about it a little, then answer this: what would be the best compliment one could make about your music?
Baser: I guess someone saying that they can feel what kind of people we are through our music would be the best compliment.
Bora: I sometimes get asked by people about what our genre is. I take that as a big compliment as I think that the reason they can't just pin a genre on us is that they find our music as something new and different from what they've listened in the past.

December 2017


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www.facebook.com/furtherial
www.youtube.com/user/FURTHERIAL