(I left the grammar slightly incorrect cause the interview really
reads better in a Russian accent so hastav miniev pokoya and spesiba,
oo koosi myoo jopo if you have any complaints).

MI: OK, describe Desert to people who have never heard of you.

AR: So, I’m a vocalist of Desert – the band from Beer-Sheva, and we
are playing dark power metal. The band consists of five “crazy
Russians” and is existing since 2002.

MI: Crazy Russians? What makes you crazy?

AR: I’m joking. No, we are absolutely normal people, but our true
love for heavy metal makes us a little bit crazy.

MI: What is normal?

AR: I mean, every one of my bandmates is working or studying in the
university, and I’m also married and father of a very beautiful two
year old “metalhead”.

MI: Awwww.. So what are some of the bands that influence
you…besides Children of Bodom?

AR: I don’t think that our music is influenced by Children Of Bodom –
we like this band very much, but our style is different…First of
all, I’m singing with clean vocals, and we are not playing death
metal. Each member of our band has his own music tastes – for
example, I’m taking inspirations from the songs of Manowar, Blind
Guardian, Grave Digger, Iced Earth, Rage and from a hundred other
power metal bands.

MI: What are some of the other musical influences?

AR: For example, our keyboard player Oleg Aryutkin is getting his
inspirations from jazz, blues, funk and other musical styles, so our
guitarist Max Shafranski (the founder of the band who is writing
almost all music material) likes classical music, our former drummer
came from nu-metal…In other words, you could find in our music
influences not only from heavy metal but also from another styles.

MI: Former drummer? The one on the demo (which I enjoyed very much)
isn’t your drummer anymore?

AR: Yes, you are right…Den Kovalev, drummer of Desert since the
creation of the band, has left us after our last gig at Moto Rock
Show.

MI: Chaval, he’s mad cute (heh) Now I know why I thought you guys sound
like Children of Bodom- the classical influence. It really adds to Desert’s sound, I think it’s one of the main reasons I like it so much. It’s really quality music.

AR: Thank you! The quality of our music is courtesy to Max – he is
our main composer.

MI: What is Desert’s lineup now?

AR: Max Shafranski – guitar, Vadim Shulman – bass, Oleg Aryutkin –
keyboards, drums..mmm – we have a new drummer that is kicking serrious
ass, but we’ll announce his name very soon!

MI: What’s Moto Rock Show?

AR: Moto Rock Show is a bikers’ festival that’s taking place each
year where you could see a lot of long-haired “warriors riding their
horses made of steel!” This year it took place near Arad and we have
played there a very good kicking ass gig.

MI: Woow. Tell me when the next one is (hope it won’t be on Shabbat)
… there’s a real biker culture here? How big is it? Also, do you
have a bike?

AR: It’s a pity but I have no a bike nor a car nor a driving license!
But I’m in process of doing the driving license. I’m also a great fan
of biker’s culture: beer, freedom and heavy metal! Also these shows
are mostly held on Shabbat, and some few hundreds of bikers
participated in the last one.

MI: Aaaaah sh*t.

AR: 😀

MI: 😛 So how long has Desert been around?

AR: The story of our band started in 2002, but I’m singing there
since January 2004.

MI: How did you come to meet them?

AR: Well, I had started to look seriously for a suitable band where I
could make my dream come true – to be a singer of heavy metal band –
since summer 2003. I spoke on the Internet with a lot of people, tried
to make my one band, started to play on guitar – but everything was in
vain. I didn’t find any serious people that I could play with. I
also tried to enter already existing bands that used to play something
like “power metal” such as HellFire (now it’s DamnNation) and Stone Of
Tears, but with HellFire the problem was that they are living in
Benyamina, very far from me, and they even didn’t check my voice
possibilities. And the guys from Stone of Tears told me I’m singing
OK but in a different style from their music (I know that I’m not
Bruce Dickinson like they need). So in January 2004 I found on the
Internet a small advertisement that some power band from Beer-Sheva
was looking for a vocalist, so I came to a rehearsal, sang with them
Edguy’s “Vain Glory Opera” and won the place of frontman.

MI: Aw, man, I love Stone of Tears so much. Igor (Semchenko, lead
guitarist and founder) is the best. They need Yochai (Davidoff,
former vocalist) to come back and that’s it. Anyway, what has Desert
done so far together as a band?

AR: So from January 2004 we made a very, very difficult work – from
the kindergarten band we have started to grow to musicians. First of
all, I changed by myself all the lyrics and almost all vocal lines of
the songs. When I came the band had been playing just three songs from
our first demo, except “More Than My Life” and a few covers.
Incidentally, “More Than My Life” had participated in the finals of
France’s Goth Metal World Radio Conquest! Anyway, so we started to
write new material and played our first gig with me as vocalist on
24.03.2004 in Beer Sheva in a very small club. After that gig, the
very talented keyboardist Oleg Aryutkin joined us so with his
participation the arrangement of our songs became more perfect. The
new songs were written, the new gigs were played.

In August 2004 we started to record our first 4-song demo “The Way To
Honor” released January of 2005. The demo was sent to a lot of
fanzines and labels all over the world. We received a lot of
positive reactions and reviews. And Greek label Secret Port Records
took it for official distribution. Now we are planning to enter the
studio something near the end of December to record our first
full-length album.

MI: Can’t wait.

AR: We too! 😉

MI: Anything else you wanna tell the world?

AR: I want to wish the Israeli metal scene to grow up and reach the
level of the scenes all over the world like Europe, Japan, South
America…We have a lot of metal fans here, a lot of good musicians,
so I hope that metal in Israel (especially power metal) has a future!

MI: Oomein.