Modern Doctor Jekyll.

We heard his mellow backup vocal in Diorama, his pushing voice in Frozen Plasma and this year we finally gonna hear him live with solo project. I’d rather call him the ever romantic “nine-to-five” artist who comes from parisian parallel world right into our reality. He’d rather call himself a modern Doctor Jekyll. All that’s about him and his name is Felix Marc.
I embraced the opportunity to ask him few questions about his plans, his band and something else…

Anastasia / logicfriends.ru: The most exciting things for you as an artist this year should be your first live performances as Felix Marc project. How do you feel about it?

Felix Marc: You name it: I get excited! The most important thing is to have fun throughout all my projects. Felix Marc solo being the 3rd project, I am excited if I can reach the same level as the other projects having not that much time to rehearse with all the people involved. But I am confident, because this time I have the honor to work with very talented professionals.

So far two dates are announced – 28/04 in Moscow with Diary Of Dreams and 11/05 in Bochum with Diorama. Any other probable dates to be added?

These first two shows will show to me if this project has enough live potential to continue. First I just wanted to do the show in Bochum with Diorama as a test balloon. But then suddenly the opportunity of Moscow appeared and I couldn’t say “No”. I want to see how the audience reacts, how the band harmonizes during the show and if I feel comfortable in what I am doing. If all of this proves worthwhile, I believe there can be more live dates in the future.

Your ever first show will be in Moscow. Was it on purpose or it’s just lady luck for Russian listeners?

As said before, it was a coincidence that the Moscow date appeared beginning of this year as an opportunity. First, I had in mind to perform end of 2012 at the Synthetic Snow Festival, but suddenly there was the slot end of April and I thought “why wait any longer”? So I hope it is a win-win situation for me, my band and the Russian listeners.

Last year you said that you were looking for musicians to perform live with. Who’s that gonna be? Someone from the current projects you are part of?

I could have played the easy card and just involve people from the current projects. But I didn’t want to create any confusion on the listener’s side. It is already complicated for some people to distinguish my music activities between Diorama and Frozen Plasma. My personal intention in this approach is to try something new and work with new people and share new ideas and influences that will hopefully produce a surprisingly new result for everybody – me and the listeners.
When I finally decided to try to put my solo project on stage, I first contacted an old friend of mine – Bernard le Sigue – who said that he wants to rejoin me with his bass guitar whenever I decide to do live shows with my solo project. He was motivated in the beginning and got me in contact with a guitarist and drummer before he decided that he doesn’t have enough time to support me anymore. The drummer knew another bass guitarist to replace Bernard and so the final lineup of the band is as follows:

Zura
Zura graduated as a classical guitarist at Tbilisi State Conservatory in Georgia and studied at the Stuttgart State Conservatory in Germany, before going to London to study composition at the Trinity College Of Music. He receives a Junior Fellowship Award and works as musical director of a Contemporary Folk Ensemble “Izbuha”. Zura was a member of the Philharmonic Renaissance-Barock ensemble “Iberia Consort”, the Indie New Wave band “Afternoon Version”, who receives „Best Band“ Award at the Pop Music Festival “Liga96″. At the same time he is co-founder of the Trio „Acoustic Guitar Experiment“, which becomes one of the finalists at the USA Songwriting Competition. In Germany, Zura was a member of the Sephardic music ensemble “Asamblea Mediteranea”. As composer Zura is winner of the “Close Encounters” composition competition. At present Zura continues to work as a guitarist, composer and producer and is involved in various projects.

Joe Haynes
Having started to learn E-Bass in 1998, Joe Haynes concentrated in the beginning on Jazz and Blues music to refine his know-how, but soon started to experiment with various music styles, like Grunge, Rock, Funk and Progressive. He is currently active with other projects like Beatnik, Sister Sadie and Bambus Orion, who play regularly shows in middle and southern Germany. Besides he is always looking for new influences and has even played in musicals and dixie bands.

Dr. Drum
The precise human clockwork of several rock and alternative bands in the southern west region of Germany, Dr. Drum, features his art also in bands like Roman Wreden, Sister Sadie, Subcultures in the fridge.

Besides this core line-up, I have invited guest musicians for the two shows to present some specials:

Alexandr Krivoruko / Mental Discipline (Exclusive guest in Moscow)
Mastermind of the Russian synth project Mental Discipline, Alexandr and I have been starting to collaborate after our meeting in Yekatarinburg in October 2010 during a Diorama concert. A first well perceived result was the track “Fallen Stars” where Alexandr composed the music and I wrote the lyrics and performed the vocals. This track made it to various Top 10 charts in Europe. During the concert on April 28th, 2012, at the P!IPL Club in Moscow, Alexandr will support me on the keyboards.

MyLucina (Exclusive guest in Bochum)
She featured me on the track “The Collector”, which appears on the latest album “Parallel Worlds”. Having worked in the past with Emilie Autumn and performed live with her on stage, MyLucina is currently working on her own album. She will join me on May 11th, 2012, in Bochum at the Matrix Club on the keyboards and contribute her unique backing vocals.

And me of course )

With your creative potential set up for solo project now, how do you feel – do you have strengths and ideas to bring into Diorama and Frozen Plasma?

As far as time remains between a 9-5 job, my family and the solo project preparations for live shows, I continue to work on Diorama and Frozen Plasma releases. Currently both projects are in album creation phase and I contribute as much as I can. However, restricting myself to perform only vocals for Frozen Plasma and not writing new songs.

Speaking about three projects you are in. Do you have any kind of ranking of which is most important for you? Or you just reveal in each of them different sides of your character – like aggressive and energetic one in Frozen Plasma, romantic – in solo project, introversive and melancholic – in Diorama?..

There is no importance ranking and I have never experienced a difficult decision to sacrifice one project for the other. First of all, they are all dear to me and musically quite different. I deal with a different setup of people, so it is like playing soccer, table tennis and downhill skiing at the same time. You can like all three sports and they don’t interfere. The other perspective is more interesting and I believe you are right when you say that I live different characters in each of the projects. Leaving me to be a modern Doctor Jekyll I guess. However, I think my solo project is not only romantic but truly personal, so my emotional involvement in this might become the highest among the other projects. This remains to be proven after the first live shows.

What’s the story behind the released in 2001 on Eta Tape track titled “Boba”? It is said to be “performed” by Diorama but lyrics are obviously taken from your “Winterwalk”…

Torben still owes me a huge amount of license fee for that one actually. I don’t know what inspired him at the time to copy my lyrics into this special track. Probably because I kept on playing it to him.

Last year you collaborated with Mental Discipline (“Fallen Stars”) and Suicidal Romance (“Ecstatic”). Any other interesting projects to appear this year?

I am always open for new collaborations if they interest me. However, I am not actively searching for new projects since my time capacity is more than limited currently. If they run into me like the aforementioned ones I will probably do it.

Are there any plans for new video clips from Felix Marc? Are tracks like “Parallel Worlds” and “Moscow Paris” left for afters?

From a financial standpoint there won’t be another video clip for the last album, even though I would love to do it. Especially the tracks you mention have such a creative message, that it would be great fun. I limited myself to do one video clip per album. But on the other hand, I have planned to film the concert in Moscow and make a video out of this material.

I don’t want to spoil the surprise and ask you to lay down all your cards but do you have something special prepared for Moscow gig? Or maybe not only Moscow – but all your future gigs to come?

I guess the guests in the line-up already reveal pretty much the secrets. For future gigs and constant specials I want to wait once the show is established. I still have enough ideas to expand the live show, especially with stage decoration and lighting.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and plans and see you in April!

Karacho. Spasiva ))

Anastasia exclusively for logicfriends.ru // march 2012