It is nice to see that the global pandemic has at least given us some new projects forming, including a stellar debut from Russia’s Sieta. Soon to be released “Novgorod” will definitely get Sieta noticed and for good reason….lots of killer tracks and a solid production make for a worthy listen. Main man behind the project Aleksandr Mokin fielded some questions from us regarding the upcoming album, the name and history or it, writing and recording and a few other things of note… check it out…

Novgorod

Congrats on your epic debut album “Novgorod”….are you excited for the release and what do you expect the feedback to be?
“Thank you. I was preparing this release for so long I can’t even believe it is finally nearing. I don’t know how the wide audience will like it, as it is based on a very specific idea close to me, but I hope that at least people who share this idea will enjoy and appreciate it.”
Could you give our readers a brief history of the project up to this point? How did you choose Sieta as the band name and how does it represent what your vision of the project is?The name ““Sieta” means “sorrow” in old Russian, it represents sorrow for what our nation has endured through the centuries.
Me and Sergey Stepanenko participate in several bands. First time we worked together was on my progressive DM project Skyglow. Then we both worked with Viktor Khaychenko on his project Critical Extravasation, so I invited them to record Sieta’s album. I came up with it while making the Skyglow’s album. Dmytro Herasymov, with whom I also worked on Skyglow, recorded the drums and I invited Artemiy Gorchakov from Hated to do backing vocals and participate as a drummer on our upcoming music video.”

Have you achieved a sound that you feel you will continue with or are you still trying to find a signature sound/style?
“Though I try to come up with something new for every album, people say that everything I write has a recognizable style. I don’t feel like continuing with that particular sound, unless I’ll think of how to improve or expand it. I don’t like to stay at one place musically.”
What other influences besides music do you have……books, movies, hobbies, etc?
“It may sound cheesy, but the movie “Braveheart” was somehow an inspiration for “Novgorod”. Maybe in terms of a plot.”

Writing History

How does the music in your other projects influence what you do in Sieta?
“As I said, a lot of death metal stuff leaked into “Novgorod”. Also, the very idea for it was to create a prologue to “Thousand Years of Terror”.”
Could you describe the basic concept or ideas that you have in “Novgorod”? Is there a genre of music you could briefly describe yourselves as?
“This album is a historical “metal opera” about the uprising of an ancient Russian city of Novgorod against the baptism. Musically it is a blend of folk and black/death metal. The lyrics are written in Old Russian and Old Church Slavonic. The main album’s concept is the battle between Paganism and Christianity, which meant freedom vs slavery for them at the time. It is shown in the album with interchanging the languages and folk / black metal parts.”

While this is a studio-based project, do you foresee ever doing live performances at some point? What would be the circumstances have to be for this to happen or not?
“I don’t think so, as it requires twice as much time. The only possibility for it to happen is that we’d become famous enough for me to quit my job and make money on concerts.”
How do tracks come together as far as music and lyrics….is everything worked on at the same time? Or do pieces come together with lyrics later or vice versa? Does everyone contribute?
“Everything was written by me. I first came up with the concept and a plot, then wrote all the music and then the lyrics.”
Is there a writing/recording/practice schedule? How do the various members obligate time to work on music with their schedules outside the band?
“No, everyone just recorded their parts at home and did not practice the tracks on a rehearsal base.”

Killer Cover

You have a killer cover of Forefather’s “Theodish Belief”….how did you decide on covering this track?
“I just thought we need to make something else before starting to work on the album. I guess my eye just fell on this track.”
What do you see as the future of this project going forward? Is there a goal of what you hope to accomplish with newer releases?
“I will be working on Skyglow’s next releases for now, as it is a project where I am free to do whatever I want, while Sieta is strictly a folk metal project. Maybe I will make something for it in the future, but for now I want to focus on collecting the material I’ve written for Skyglow into some kind of release.
Everything I write will be released as a part of “Skyglow Productions”, which have a YouTube channel and an Instagram account. If you are interested, you can follow me there.”

Any music you have really gotten into so far this year? Any releases you are looking forward to?
“Personally, my most awaited release is the Critical Extravasation album. It is sick material, but the recording is going very slow. I’ll try my best to help it see the light as soon as possible, but there is still a lot to do before we can release it.”

Closing thoughts?
“Stay tuned.”

By: Jeff