Emily on the White Sea coast....  near Archangelsk










Here is an interview of Emily from HeavyMusic.ru:

If you read in Russian, you may read it here (:

John Sinterson:
I think, the most of our readers needs no explanations, who Emily A. Saaen is. For whom this name in unfamiliar I recommend to visit the official site of this multi-talented singer, composer and soundproducer and listen to her music. But Emily is famous not only by her solo works, but also by participating in many musical projects. Her voice, music and play we can hear on the albums of the Moscow blacksters "Stigmatic Chorus", on the second release of electro-pop project "Altera Forma" and many other bands. It being known that not only Russian.
To know Emily better, HeavyMusic.ru has asked its question. From this interview You will find out: which questions are better not to ask, what kind of relations is between Emily and Duncan Patterson, Emily's thoughts concerning labels, and many more.
And a little digression - Emily uses inverted smiles, so (: - is a good sign.

My name is really Emily. And, indeed, I'm bored with this question much more, than "Why do you sing in English?" or "Are your breasts natural?" At such moments I want to answer with something unprintable... Or to change the name - how's, for example, ms. Guinevere Cucumbers?

Oh, yes, honor and esteem... And also worldwide fame... (he portal Realmusic.Ru has announced a contest "Decadence refined", well, I couldn't ever pass by such heart-rending title! As a great secret I was told by guessers, the second place it's because of English text (halleluiah!). 20th of may the festival "Velvet Underground" will come about, at which I convey a brand new program, and Some Mysterious Prize will be presented to me. Hopefully, it's a huge hank of a shielded wires or a new firewire eightchaneller... Or a lamp stack Mesa Boogie Rectifier would come in highly handy (:
And on the 17th of may the same song is gonna be performed in the final tour of one more competition (MuseON.ru). In the nomination "world music" at the moment I'm first on points, but everything will be decided during the live show. In who's favour even no doubt. Ooh, I'll drive away loads of prizes! (:

Certainly! Into "Utter silence". It is written under the influence of one of the series of my favorite cinemaopus "Sex and the city" on the lyrics by Pavel "NoWayOut" Gromov (the band "Antisisters" we're almost relatives). His ten year old words wonderfully overlaid my worries about Carrie Bradshaw's destiny. Poor thing, however, that Big a considerable beast!

It's faith is covered by an obscure gothic mystery... Everything is written, recorded and mixed and, as soon as I'll have money, will be released there and then. On my own. No more labels. Gosh, periodically I read contracts, actively sent by a different companies mother dear! Such feeling, that a musician is a certain milch unit and, in addition, a complete imbecile, who can be hanged round with noodles of suuuch dimension and color (a Russian idiom for "to string along"). In the same expressions, what is significant. On the whole, don't want anything about that. No more labels, free music only!

Here's, for example, the just received letter:

Hello, dear Emily. I happened to stumble upon your MySpace page and was so moved by your music that I felt I had to contact you. I ended up visiting your official site afterwards and listened to more samples, which literally brought me to tears by the sheer beauty and delicate emotion you convey. I've heard many different bands or artists that are very good and pleasant to the ear, but seldom am I moved in such a way as this instance. The feeling I get inside reminds me of when I first heard Dead Can Dance and The Gathering, two of my favorite bands. You're style does not resemble these bands, but you hit that same indescribable chord within me. And that's when I know I've come across something special when I can't describe it in words. There are many pretty voices out there, but few that can combine it with heartfelt emotion and a musical aesthetic just as beautiful. Even if there were no words, your music taste is impeccable. You already have one more fan overseas in America anxious to hear more and support your music.
Sincerely,
Zachary Camacho

Here are such responses...

Emily A. Saaen - one-woman project. How do You perform live? With a sampled music?

It is clear. Without music that would be sad, right? (:
I play and record minus-one exactly the same way, as if guest musicians would do it, only there's much less chances for club sound engineers to bungle the sound. It's not a secret that the majority of underground actions are carried out in places, where drunk, not very sane citizens at best should be named "sound cutters"... A competent live sound engineer is a big gift of fate! And it is time to get my own. Well, and organizers frequently turn out to be uncapable to cover a passage, a residence and a fee to all the staff, but it's all needed to work at a decent level. There's one more reason - I'm very authoritarian and sometimes even aggressive in my own music, will not tolerate a wheeze. Bad musicians we don't need, while good ones are complete personalities with their own style and preferences, not some machines to upload a midi-file into, and go ahead... Working exclusively solo, I entirely control the process. Today it's an ideal form of creation for me.

Asking a musician about music style he plays - a totally hopeless undertaking, isn't it still clear? (: Everyone after all will contrive a heap of complex constructions, just to squeeze into a whole spectrum of sensations from own music, from other musicians influences, etceteras... We got here ethereal, doom, progressive, new-age, ethno and... Somebody, name it somehow, ah? It's even not my occupation, I just write music!
And as a listener, as a rule, categorization can't be done. Metalheads of every stripe, new-agers, manifold goths, well, and people far from underground too. Neighbor-granny likes, she comes under the door to listen, while I record something.

Well, exactly WHOLE?! O-o-oh... So, in a chronological order... We don't take childhood, juvenile age too... Ok, back 10 years. "Autumnal Discord" for their first and, alas, only album I've recorded some keyboard parties. "Dementor" there are Slovak deathsters, I wrote the interlude. The first recording and mixing experience! Just yesterday I stumbled upon it, raking aside the archives, laughed long. Thu-u-us... Then "Mental Home" (a monstrous back-vocal on "Black Art" album). A funeral doom orchestra "Saints Everlasting Rest", such formation fabulous has been. Everything was "by doom", as uncle Funeral (the guitarist) used to say: keys, violinist Fyodor, who was usually taken for a girlie, a male growl, my maidenly whines, a rhythm-section with a speed 40 bpm, two guitars... I'll burst out sobbing right now! There it is, nostalgia for youth - has sneaked up unwaited. Ah, how fairy we did went on our first out gig in... mmm... 97, kind of, year? What a pity, no recordings left. Somebody has erased a DAT, "brutally" and "true" recorded in a cellar somewhere back of beyond...

Next... And what's next? Some lapse of memory. No, frankly don't remember.

I used to work as a designer, then further learned everything related to music, received treatment (some serious problems with eyesight). Then "Sorat" appeared (power-prog), with them a demo (vocal a disaster) was recorded, after which I thoroughly revised my own views on a vocal school and went to assimilate jazz. Two years by 6 hours every day, mother dear! But the result... Parallel "Stigmatic Chorus" (vocal, keys, music), haven't alighted from studios in about a half year, a concerts...

Nevesy (Cheliabinsk), Woid (Kirov), ID Molotov (S. Pitersburg), Moon Far Away (Arkhangelsk), Igor Gorkovoy's jazz-band (mega-profy, unique musicians and wonderful people... have learned much ), and many-many more... Guys, who remembers - drop me a line! It's not pathos, it's a lapses... "What lapses"? (:

From the current projects - Altera Forma, H42, DJ Negative (Moscow), Canonis (Tatarstan), Andi VAX (Kiev), Year Zero (Latvia), Skinny Project (Italy), The Offering (UK), Enregistrement Sans Contact (Canada), Loop Me (Argentina), Zoid (Japan)... With Belgorod jazzists we play now as well, jazz is such a thing... Once you try with good musicians, it's impossible to stop (((:

And right now I'm recording vocal parts for the new Irish project of Duncan Patterson (ex-Anathema, Antimatter). Four tracks are ready; we both are in childlike glee of what's coming out! The release is planned for this autumn (: Here we only need to correct my "charming" pronunciation, and go straight to the final recording. What? No, I don't see any technical sense in going to Ireland for it, while I love this country very much! Have been thinking about moving there for a long time, maybe, it is time? The universe has shown me every sign possible (:

...There's one more project called "Welwet". At the moment it's my favorite brainchild. The work is boiling over, we write a song per day, working distantly... Meanwhile I won't say a word, both of participants or music, no concreteness at all not to overlook. What is clear as noonday is that a bomb gathering cooler than a hydrogen (;

I like their first album very much too. Everything's so cold and elastically - a sheer virtual sex of nanorobots (: They invited me after V/a "Russian Existence: a tribute to Project Pitchfork" was released. The guys are big lovers of experimentation, I think, they won't limit themselves by a collaboration with only one vocalist! This autumn a remixes disk is planned, a couple of mine are going to be there too. It is turned out, that very curious to pick out of thing some missing or forgotten by authors widgets, dibs... At last I became to understand, why do people want to cut out again what's made before them - with totally different edges the piece turns, possible su-u-uch things to drag out to the light of the day... (((:

A cardinally another attitude to a musician, totally different organization of a working process... In ex-USSR an average statistical organizer is constantly reiterates: "I've putted in an advertisement, I run, rule over everything, such poor thing I am, don't see the light of the day, and you even want some humane treatment for yourself?" - in a word, burdens you with his own charges, while every musician's duty is to come and play his program. To rehearse before concerts, not to think about advertisement, flyers, posters, topics on forums. Not to take aback by a journey, a hotel, food and so on... There's no such brothel abroad, there's nowhere to be found, that's all! You'll slightly sneeze - a first-aid kit is being delivered. Not because you're a star, but because you're needed healthy. An organizer is just doing his job to let musicians with their. Everyone is just discharge one's own obligations. And everybody's happy. In Russia now, true, gradually forms on a new layer of organizers and promoters - as a rule, it's people who have visited a mythical "there" and have seen "their" job.

Well, just moved to Archangelsk. Guys are young, full of energy and talented, and without problems have found the new singer, who's much more fitted both the collective by age and music by her vocal qualities. Now they have changed the name to "Solar", during three years re-recording the album. Power-metal lovers will like it, I'm sure.

I get there - it's as easy as pie. Guys have changed a plenty of singers, but with me happened a mutual understanding. Plans matured for couple of years, I listened to prerecordings for a long time, sang some versions... The thing is that guys did not limited me as a vocalist only - I has engaged in recording, arrangements and mixing... The first song was made especially for the compilation "Colours of Black-II", but the album... The album is not recorded yet, there's even no tracklist precise (while labels are showering us with shackling agreements and type noodles). I will now slightly rake away all of suspended works and accumulated tasks, then will grab all my irons, laptop, microphones-preamps, and will go on a visit them for month. Meanwhile about terms nothing to say, early, but the process has started.

Does contents of the field player ok? Let's go alphabetically: Amorphis, Anathema, Louis Armstrong, Bel Canto, Mari Boine, Carcass, Cat Rapes Dog, Clannad, Cradle of Filth, Death, Dream Theater & Co, Elysium, Excrementory Grindfuckers, Garmarna, The Gathering, Joe Hisaishi, Martin L. Gore, The Hope Blister, PJ Harvey, In Extremo, Tony Levin, Madonna, Marcus Miller, Massive Attack, Mediaeval Baebes, Moonlight, Oomph!, Portished, Rakhmaninov, Kari Rueslatten, Seal, Sieben, Simply Red, Sting, Therapy?, Tool, TypeoNegative, U2, Sarah Vaughan, The Virgin Prunes, Victor Wooten, Wolfsheim, Zodiac, Rob Zombie.
There's no ours in the list, you right - I read from the current state of the playlist. And ours I listen to "there", when irrepressibly throws up in the fatherland (:

I got no such fantastic qualities. Listen to mentalhome's "Black Art" - there's everything obvious. To learn need from right people, to work hard need, as a horse! And everything will come, everything will grow on - a timber, a power, a compass...
About care: there's a notion vocal hygiene. Includes lots of moments from the right bearing and control of vocal modes during talk 'till elementary unsicking with colds. And how's here not to sick, when you are permanently in trains and planes? What schedule, when you fall asleep at 8 pm to wake up at 2 am? Nooo, need asap to become a star... Send Britney to indefinite maternity leave, confiscate a limousine together with a corporate summer hut -and to look there after my precious voice (((:

Well, not only around Russia... I had time to live almost everywhere in Europe, it's just interesting, and I enjoy traveling. Born on the Azov sea cost in Taganrog (yes, Anton Chekhov is my countrymen), but it was long ago. Only left warm child's remembrances until 7, then - travelling. Longer of all lived in Moscow, about eight years. In Archangelsk there are terribly cold, really! Winter for 7-8 months - that's too much... Constantly was ill, immunity has collapsed... Belgorod is a marvelous city. Only when arrived, understood, why is it on the third place by inland migration (ater Moscow and S.Petersburg) - a wonderful climate, ladscapes of a fairy beauty, quite wellgroomed city as a whole. Even a word "fuck" on walls is stenciled - very in a civilized manner... A real Europe (;

Am I restless?.. Simply, when you've lost home in childhood, it is complicated to live without it. Without this feeling of warm, protectability... So as to be, where to come back... This home feeling I have experienced as yet only in Ireland, there's a lovely hamlet at the very south of the isle, at the bay with seals, with wooded hills, crystal streams, air itself is shining, rain for breakfast-lunch-dinner... All in all... that's it, it is time! It is time there. Home. From me even all the music with some kind of celticism comes out, sure sign! (((:

Well, constantly something happens... Sheer amusement (((:Specifically? Ha, for instance, we played jam session in Archangelsk with Sergey Manukian (he is a jazz figure, if somebody is not in the know - pianist, vocalist) So... well then: "And now for my friend Vladimir we are going to perform his favourite song!", maestro declares, I'm about to slip away on the sly from there, and he stops me: "Ney, echo me", says, "There's everything in standard". A marvelous intro, damn beautiful fusion, and... all of a sudden he pulled something about "Natasha's white haunches behind the branches"... mother dear!.. Next two minutes I, growing lilac as an eggplant, just dreamed to merge with the backdrop of the same color, periodically blathering out something in microphone direction... In a word, fun seized everyone. Except me (((;

My job is music, rest - music, love - music, family - music... There's nothing else, well, and no need. I'm a happy person (:

It's a vile misinformation! There was only two projects in Russian. Generally, you know, with the same success one could ask why do I sing instead of playing cello...

Never read interviews - it's either pathos, or lying, or derisive. There's next to nothing of musician's personality behind it. Only in music opens all the depth of emotions, strength, tenderness, passion, pain, warmness, peace, love... Listen to music. Otherwise, why do we write it?!

Today
• Antisisters "UNZ!"
• Garmarna "Vedergallningen"
• Immortal "Pure Holocaust"
• Rainbow "Long live rock-n-roll"
• Tom Waits "The black rider"

Always:
• Anathema "Alternative 4"
• The Gathering "Souvenirs"
• Kari Rueslatten "Spindelsinn"
• Dream Theater "A change of seasons"
• Sarah Vaughan "Benny Carter's sessions"