GIANT WAVES -the band is one of the oldest groups in Russia who making great mix of post-punk, darkwave and gothic-rock.
Formed in 2004 as The Imaginary Stigma, musicians were raised up on goth and coldwave classics, found their unique sound and released “Gifts Of Imagination” in 2009, worked with many famous European bands, such as Skeletal Family, Vendemmian, Last Days of Jesus and Two Witches.
In 2012 renamed as Giant Waves, the band played many shows around Russia with lots of famous European formations like Diary of Dreams, Golden Apes, De/Vision, Lowe, Amnistia, Minereve, Torul, Die Selection, Soviet Soviet and took part in first Russian gothic open-air festival “Dark Entries”, Lumous Gothic Festival (Finland) and Dark Spring (Germany).
According to Side-line Magazine the band sounds like: “An imaginary hybrid between Big Country (for some of the carrying guitar parts) and The Lords of the New Church for the new-wave & post-punk inspiration and interesting eclectic approach, which also unleashes a few dreamy passages spiced with some melancholia”. A new album “In a Haunted Town” is a wonderful release for those, who like goth and post-punk tunes.
Interview
First of all thank you very much for the questions. We are Giant Waves from Volgograd, Russia. Somebody might know this city as former Stalingrad.
10 Fragen / 10 Antworten
1. When and why did you become a musician
The first time I became musician is when I heard my dad’s records of The Beatles, at the age of 6, I guess. The second time, and more practically, is when I met my band mates as a teenager, and we got involved into post-punk, synth-wave and classic goth-rock.
2. What are your characteristics? What makes you special?
Oh, we are just four nuts who are locked in the asylum called Giant Waves, mixing Christian mysticism, pop music and decadent way of thinking.
3. Who and what inspired you??
Well, first of all people that surround us, their lives, passions and so on. If I start listing all our musical priorities that influenced us, it would become a GOTHICAT showcase brand. Everybody knows all these bands )
5. How do you imagine listening to your music? Where do you like to listen?
Well, besides your private space, I think it is parties and clubs and our live shows.
4. Who are your most important role models and why?
I am really into many mystics and explorers of the unknown, artists, musicians, poets..something like Gustav Meyrink, Richard Moult, Andrei Tarkovsky or David Tibet. Not a full list so to say )
6. What role do social media play in your career? How important is YouTube or Instagram for you?
Well, we’ve been involved into studio work a lot so far, so you can find nothing much there except guitars and synths pix. Also we had some changes in a band, and now are working on some collabs with European bands, so as soon as we have new songs, we will be back in a row )))
7. Do you actually do anything besides the music?
8. What has been the best performance you’ve seen so far?
Well, almost everybody is involved in similar fields. Andy, our drummer is a DJ and a live sound engineer. Michael, guitarist, is a studio guy )) he also works on his theology Phd. Denis, the bass player, is a professional designer. And I teach English at school )))
We played Dark Spring Fest last year, so I guess all the bands that were involved, are the best so far )l!
9. Who should play you when your life is filmed?
10. Last question: What do you want for the next 10 years, what do you need for it?
Oh my!…no idea ) Keanu Reeves? )))
I think we want to be more involved into international dark-scene. It is pretty comalike here in Russia, and also we sing in English, you know it is a bad decision to do it in this area. But I am a teacher of English, and it’s quite natural for me)) But it is a fucking linguistical discrimination, you know ))) Couple of years ago we took part in Jagermeister Indie Awards, and after the voting, we were in top 10. Pretty good. But there was an article then, about the bands, and the journalist was like “who the fuck wants to listen to Russian band singing in English here in Russia nowadays”? )) So, you know, we want to be heard, record new albums, play festivals find a nice booking agency and so on ))
