Rage guitarist and main composer Victor Smolski can be described as something of a Renaissance man. Besides having a flourishing career in metal and classical music he’s also known for being an accomplished racing driver. Ghost Cult caught up with him to probe his mind about Lingua Mortis Orchestra, Viktor’s latest musical endeavour.
What is the concept is behind the new album?
The story is mainly about a 16th century German village where witch trials are held and all the insanity that goes with it. I revisited that theme on my second solo album and it seemed like a great story to use on the new Lingua Mortis Orchestra album. I did a lot of research on this subject, including reading the original transcripts from these witch trials. It seemed like a great idea to use a true historic event as the base for the album. One would hope that all the religious bullshit would be over nowadays, but it’s still a part of our daily lives. Peavy (Wagner – Rage bassist/singer) really has some serious issues with religion in general.
Recording LMO was quite a complicated affair. How did you go about this?
It’s wasn’t an entirely new way of going about things for me, because I’ve done this type of orchestral music with rock and metal in the past. Not just solely with Rage, but also for other bands, like Atrocity and Leaves’ Eyes. I also scored a couple of movies as well. I have a lot of experience with this and I use different studios for different projects. Finding the right balance between the metal and the orchestral parts is the most difficult part, especially with recording and mixing; when I write this type of music I want to compose metal opera, if you like, and not some compact radio pop songs. A concept album should be like reading a book; it should take you places in your mind. Last year I did this classic opera piece with my father (a famous Belarusian conductor) in Minsk, Belarus, so I was really in the mood to do a concept album. We toured through concert halls with this music, it was a fantastic experience. For the recording process of LMO I decided to use two different orchestras in two different studios. The big orchestral parts were recorded in one of them and the smaller string and other instrumental parts were recorded in the other studio, which had this really dry sound. In order to get the best results the drum and guitar parts had to be played as tightly as possible. This would leave me more room as an engineer to capture the right type of sound for the musical part in question. It was a really good learning experience.
So how do you find the right balance between the orchestra parts and the metal parts?
From a composer’s point of view composing a classical piece is very much the same as writing a metal song. Both genres are very powerful in both emotions and energy. The main difference is that the instruments are arranged in order to capture a certain atmosphere or emotion. Besides, that it’s pretty much the same thing for me. Sometimes, the combination doesn’t work, as it does on S&M by Metallica. Some metal and orchestral parts don’t work well together. All the songs are written to be performed by a band and not by an orchestra. The orchestral parts had to be written to fit these types of arrangements. Sometimes that’s really difficult and it doesn’t work. When you write music with both the metal and orchestra parts in mind from the beginning and you keep an eye on the different musical dynamics it usually works very well.
You have a musical degree in classical music and jazz. How does this influence you as a musician and composer?
I started playing guitar at the age of six and I went to a special music school and I also had a full education in classical music. I really enjoyed it, because I found the right teacher. I learned to play the cello and piano. Later on I picked up the guitar again and went to jazz college and I discovered rock and metal and I really enjoyed that time of music as well. Some musicians are very conservative and play one type of music. This goes for both metal and classical music, but I like to keep an open mind and enjoy playing different styles and I use all influences from jazz, classical music and rock/metal for my own music. All the things I learned help me to make metal music more interesting.
So how do you use your own eclectic taste in Rage, without alienating the core fanbase?
Rage is a really special band with a very comprehensive discography spanning 30 albums if you include all the compilations and other special records. Every album is a little different from the other. I’ve been a part of the band for the last 15 years and albums before my time differ from each other as well. We always try to do something different and to experiment with things. I think our fans appreciate this. We always try to stay true to our musical vision and not let it be tinkered with for commercial gain. Sometimes I get really annoyed when I meet musicians from other bands backstage and they’re all about mellowing down their music in order to sell more albums, but they feel miserable about it, because they compromised the soul and artistic essence of their music. When you go down that road being in a band becomes like a regular job, especially when you’re doing this for many years. With Rage we are in control of our own destiny and we want to have fun with our music and maintain that level of intensity we are known for. Our fans know and appreciate this.
Besides being a musician you’re also an accomplished racing driver. How do you combine these two vastly different activities?
That’s true. Years ago I started racing just for fun and I became involved with rally racing. I also did Formula 4 in England. To my big surprise I was really good at this and along the way I won a lot of prizes and I was invited to join a professional racing team. Over the years I raced for Porsche and BMW and I did a couple of 24 hour races as well. For me it’s really important to have both things in my life, because both being a musician and a professional racecar driver takes a lot of dedication, discipline and focus. Sometimes it’s really stressful to combine both careers, but I enjoy both immensely. It also taught me the value of having a good team around me. You need other people if you want to achieve great things.
Raymond Westland
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