AINA - Phantoms of the Metal Opera
by Stelios Basbayiannis (05/03/2004)

AINA is more than a metal opera, is a project of love and labor for Sascha Paeth, Thomas Rettke, and Amanda Sommerville.(Story writer,singer,vocals teacher).Along with the cream of the crop of the German/Dutch Metal scene have created a music piece of work equal to the Lord of the Rings. A fantasy story that deserves your full and truly attention. Amanda calls for a little chat on the story of AINA one cold February night. Narrator of the fairy interview: Stelios Basbayiannis

How difficult was to gather all these people ,have them agreed and then proceed.
Most of the people recorded their parts at their studios wherever and whenever they wanted, so it needed coordination  to get the whole thing together, but as it seems it did fine. It wasn’t too bad, I wasn’t in charge of doing these Sascha Paeth, was, but as far as I know it wasn’t too bad

How limiting you find the term “metal opera “?
I think it is a little , it wasn’t our decision it came from the record company ,I don’t think it is a typical metal opera, sort of speak, because of all the different influences in the music, so yeah it limits a little the whole project, especially some people I know back in America, when they listen to  the term metal opera, they asked what is it a metal opera? Between us we call it a rock opera, but it wasn’t our decision to put it on the album cover as a subtitle.

On what basis you did the selection of the singers?
Quite a number of the singers involved was friends of ours and have worked in our studios in the past, for example Ander Matos, Tobias Schammet is a good friend of Sascha, Simone Simmons also but it was mostly Sascha’s job to come to the different characters and the people to play the role. So we tried to work with the people he had in mind and listen to their works and distribute the roles basically on what we felt they could do.

Are there any singers/artists  you would like to work with, but they couldn’t or you couldn’t reach them?
Yeah sure a couple of people for example we were talking to Ronnie James Dio about , but he was on a world tour and he couldn’t find time to do it, Luca Turili was supposed originally to take a part, but he got through management problems and the deal failed . But for the most parts, the 90% of the people we had in mind said yes, and it is a good percentage.

A very good percentage I must add. A big part of the classical music reminds me of classical pieces that were used to the early Disney classics like “Fantasia”. Do you agree with that.
Yeah in some extend not necessarily Disney, but it was a decision to listen like a film score, it is a film to your ears, so the arrangements and  all these it does sounds like a Hollywood film score,. I think that’s what I like at AINA these bombastic, epic underscores, going on in it

Who is your favorite hero , out of the whole play?
I am some kind of a bad girl, I really like Torek and especially the way he sings the part and bring the character in life, I really like the character Thomas play and some of the small parts like the one Sass Jordan plays and the one Simone plays, she did a great job .I am a person who likes things depending on the mood

When you were planning and composing you did that with some persons set for the roles, or you adjust them to the roles as they were agreeing.
Actually we didn’t write any role with any specific person in mind. We chose the people for the role after everything was written and finished. Basically we had for example the melody in mind and with all these people we decided who was fitting the role from all the available peole. And then entering the studio for me it was very important that the people become actors as also singers in their visions, so there was more conform to the role instead conforming the role to them

I read your surprise with G.Hughes performance, and I agree it differentiates from the others, but isn’t it something you should ask from all the participants?
Yes we were really happy in the end with the way his performance turned out, he put in his performance his really own unique, individual he embodied the character, for us it was very important he put all his character, style in to the role, so it was very important his whole effort for us.

How difficult is for you to be a musician and a producer of yourself, at the same time? How difficult was to produce in such a variety of places and people.(these was for Sascha)
I am sure it was quite a big job for him and he was pretty much the only person he took care of these and he is the only one who take care of such things in the projects he does,. I remember him  saying oh my god ,he wants these he want that and things has to be done, and we had to take care of things to pronounced correctly, and to send the information sheet, the demos and trying to introduce the story, send the demos, so he definitely had a difficult job to coordinate all these things.

Working with children choir and all these singers, was Amanda Somerville a key person to all these work? Are you going to involve in any future projects?
You know the rest of us work together in a constant basis and we had that for the past several years, so the HEAVENS GATE I must say I join them almost 4 years ago and work in a lot of projects with them. As if there is going to be a second  part, when I first saw the end of the booklet, I saw the “to be continued” sign and that came form the Transmission records and if something like that comes from the record company it means something and shows some interest and it will be produced by the AINA team

Your lyrics are having heavy references to fantasy subjects .Why do you prefer this kind of lyrics? In your opinion a fantasy story is more appealing to the metal audience in our days?
Well for me I am quite a dreamer actually and before I had the story written I tried to come with some specific elements that I wanted to be specific part of the story, so I got through my head about them, there were definitely some main things I wanted to have and a main love story as well, a triumph and defeat things like these. My goal to come to something unique to all these it was out there, although to be honest I don’t follow a lot the metal scene, so I didn’t know exactly what was going on exactly out there .So as far as trying to create something like the Lord of the rings, if you write something  obviously you cant not be influenced by something considered the standard work out there, in the genre of storytelling. But I had to write a metal opera, something that will appeal  metal audience, but the story actually came out of me and I senD it to Hans and asked if it was Ok, and he answered it is ok, but you can easy say it is written by a woman. So I started a little more gore details like slaughters, rape of the maidens and I asked how is that for a girl, but I didn’t sit with a specific intention of coming with something that fits in to a box.

How satisfied you are with Transmission? Was it easy to find a contract when you told them is about a metal opera ?
This something that is very unique and different from the other projects around. Hans from Transmission records came to us  and asked if we could do a metal opera for him, it was like a contractual work for him. He called Sascha who had done some mixes for him in the past and he was a big fan of his work and says I had these idea, of having these metal opera with all these famous singers and I want you to do it for me. Sascha said he would definitely try and gave me  a call if I wanted to be a part of it. I am really happy on how things turned out, Transmission records stood behind us a hundred percent and given us the freedom to do what we want although it was their idea and one thing not very well known. They asked us to do the project early in 2002 and didn’t listen to one single song until it was finished in October of 2002.And we had complete freedom they trusted us in everything, and until  when he first listen in  September to something Hans just funded the whole project. Everything came from him

Don’t you think that been at Luckassen’s record company could help you to have him participated ,and that you would be compared with his Ayreon projects?
That wasn’t my decision as far on who will work on the opera. That was mostly Hans and we didn’t afraid on comparisons with Ayreon and to be honest I didn’t know that Ayreon exist until AINA was released and people starting the comparisons with AVANTASIA, NOSTRADAMOUS, but I just did the project and didn’t think on possible comparisons while we were finishing the opera

Seeing the excellent booklet of the limited edition, don’t you afraid of the high cost? On the other hand don’t you feel those who will get the single version are a little unlucky?
I don’t know first Hans printed the limited edition so I don’t know if there is going to be another edition of a single cd, I don’t know, you have to ask the record label for that.

Are there any plans for touring? Or even to present a part of the opera on stage ?
We are talking about a possibility of a big stage show , one that has to be very expensive , and is going to be a big production, but nothing is sure, from my point of view I would definitely like to see a live show of it

What are you listening to these days?
Like I told you, I am not a fan of metal scene, although from working with bands like EPICA and AFTER FOREVER I really like these kind of music, but I personally prefer the folk, opera, jazz influences, like Tory Amos, Sherryl Crow, Tracy Chapman, Sarah mac Lachan is my all time favorite that’s what I like

Are there any leftovers from the cd that will come to a Japanese version as bonus tracks? How do you feel that your European fans have to buy sometimes your cds as imported on high prices, for one or two songs?
Well actually there is Japanese version, of me singing the song of Oriana at the Japanese cd, nothing else, except if you want to listen to me singing the song in Japanese.

Which are your musical influences?
My mom was in to LED ZEPPELIN, BLACK SABBATH, PINK FLOYD, my dad is a folk guitarist he is a singer /songwriter like the KINGSTON TRIO, John Denver ,Paul Simon so I grew up on completely different influences with my personal favorite being Paul Simon

A message for our readers?
I thank you so much for your support and I hope when people listen to AINA they could transport to the world of AINA and find their self lost in this world and there is also a hidden track in to the cd, not in the end ,it is in the cd somewhere you have to read the story well to find it, it means “in the beginning”

Is there anything else you want to add and I didn’t ask you?
There is a hidden track that until now nobody knows it, it is at the beginning of the story.

HEAVENS GATE , what about  them, do you know anything?
No I don’t think so Thomas Rettke and Sascha working on a solo album for him , not signed yet but hopefully it will get released sometime in the future

Thanks for your patience to answer all my questions...

Stelios Basbatiannis