Photo: Luka Rudman
Ambitious. Bold. Those are two of many possible adjectives to describe the latest EP On Shoulders of Giants from international act Seventh Station. Taking five compositions from their favorite classical composers of the 20th century, these musicians reimagine these works in such a way that you experience a progressive record that can be moving on multiple levels – incorporating aspects of metal, jazz, gaming themes, all the way to circus/cinematic movements. We spent time recently talking with guitarist Dmitri Alperovich about the latest EP, how decisions were made in reinterpreting this material, how color factors into the ideas and atmosphere, favorite albums, challenges, how teachers and work ethic factors into where he went career-wise, and what’s in store to support the new release.
Dead Rhetoric: On Shoulders of Giants is the latest EP for Seventh Station. Can you discuss how the songwriting unfolds on this special product – do you have specific trademarks at this point that have to be a part of the process, or do you pretty much start with a blank slate and go where the inspiration, environment, and atmosphere take you song to song?
Dmitri Alperovich: On Shoulders of Giants, it’s a reimagination of twentieth century classical pieces. With this EP we tried to give our respect and our heritage to those composers. The process of writing for this one went a bit differently, because this is already written music. The arrangement process – for some arrangements I took the original score of the orchestration and basically divided it into instruments, who plays what. After this process, we started the pre-production, which we were searching for interesting soundscapes. If it’s in the guitar world, the keyboard world, or even the vocal world. Each of us contributed our knowledge and inspiration to the general sound. That’s more or less how things went.
Dead Rhetoric: Out of the five songs which one do you believe posed the most difficulty in terms of parts or arrangement to get just right – where all the musicians would be happy with their performances?
Alperovich: I believe that each of these pieces has a very special arrangement. We tried really hard to give each piece its own life, and reimagine it. Like trailers or movies – you have everything from horror, romance, comedy. Each of these arrangements has its difficulties to play on one hand, and it’s magic while we play them. If I choose personally, one of my favorites to play was “Nagasaki Kisses” which is the Ralph Vaughan Williams first movement of Symphony Number Six. You have a lot of colors, from really cinematic, Hollywood style movements to jazz bar things – our vocalist is doing amazing stuff in his vocals there because there are no lyrics there. I believe this piece represents all of what Seventh Station is about – whatever color we want to be, we are. I really like this piece, and it ends the EP with an epic solo, at least from this side I really love this.
Dead Rhetoric: Did you have a bigger pool of composers to pull from and then decide on the five final tracks that you wanted to pay tribute to?
Alperovich: Each of us chose our own composer. Because we are all classically trained musicians, we all grew up on this. Of course, we have a lot to choose from, a lot of composers we wanted to pay tribute to. In the end we chose the ones that we felt resonate the most with us, and we wanted to have a bit different styles of composing from track to track. It was quite hard to choose from, I think we chose the right composers for each of us.
Dead Rhetoric: Being a global band with members spread out across the USA, Slovenia, and the Middle East – what do you consider some of the biggest challenges when it comes to getting things accomplished in a timely fashion?
Alperovich: I believe the hardest thing is since we are all good friends, that we don’t have the ability to see each other as friends every day. We are very close to each other, some people in this band I’ve known for twenty years already. Even before this band existed. This is the hardest part – the creative part we manage to capture through technology. It’s not that difficult to work together over long distances. Since we are all very professional in what we do, it’s actually not that hard of a task from my side. A lot of times, we will see each other during this process. I as an example flew to Turkey to record the keyboards, Israel to record the bass and vocals, Eren my co-producer he came to Slovenia to oversee the drums. We are doing it together, obviously it’s harder because we need to fly. We manage it and we are very happy. Thankfully we are able to spend more time together in person when we have tours.
Dead Rhetoric: How did the cover art come about for this EP?
Alperovich: Actually, we saw this amazing picture from a Mexican artist. We thought this would resonate with what this EP is about. The title says On Shoulders of Giants, we are trying to create from a heritage, something small that we are so humbled, we want to give this small input to these big giants. The cover art from my eyes, it’s what’s been born, this little devil from all the giants. I see it in that way. I’m not sure if that’s what the artist intended.
Dead Rhetoric: Where do you see the importance of the lyrical content and melodies next to the musical components the band develops?
Alperovich: I see things quite equal. Everything that we have to do, I see it as having an additional layer. The music can tell a magical story, but lyrics can add another layer that music can’t. And videos can add another layer that music or lyrics sometimes cannot. I see it going hand in hand – it’s all creating one big piece, one big story. Music gives the atmosphere for this storytelling.
Dead Rhetoric: So, do you believe the genre that you play in gives people a multi-sensory experience?
Alperovich: Yes, but we are trying not to think in terms of specific genres. Seventh Station, it really depends on the song. We can be classical, we can be jazzy, we can be progressive metal, we can be thrash metal. We can be whatever we want to be. That’s what I like about this band. On this EP as an example, our keyboardist put in some Japanese sounds, Gameboy sounds from the 80s. We see it as more like colors than genres. Each genre is like a color, and why should we use one color when we can use a lot of them? I don’t want to say all of them – but I want to believe that the world is full of colors, and we should use them. And that’s saying something from someone who is color blind (laughs). I still see the world full of colors even with this, and that’s how I see music as well.
Dead Rhetoric: This EP explores classical composers in a reimagined platform that works well with the band’s progressive metal outlook. Can you elaborate on where you see the similarities in these classical composers next to what you are aiming to achieve through your music? Do you enjoy the freeform experimentation that this genre naturally lends itself to?
Alperovich: Yes. It’s very natural for me personally since classical music is written based on ideas, on motifs. This is exactly the style that we use for composing. Or trying to do. Some songs are more like verse/chorus, others are advanced. The only form you can do this is like a movie – you have an idea, the continuation of an idea, the explanation. It’s similar in that way – I’m coming from a classical way of composing. I’m sitting in front of the instrument because then I can let my mind be free of what I actually want to say, not to be bound by the instrument. I think about the music, what it needs and what I want to say with the music.
Dead Rhetoric: Are you also conscious of the intricacies and technicality of some of these compositions versus creating hooks and melodies that people can hold onto and remember?
Alperovich: We like to take the listeners on a journey. I see it more like we use our knowledge and technicalities in order to show the listener the story in different ways. I would not say this process is going through my head too much when I am composing because I am afraid to lose the story. We invite people to forget about the technicalities and hooks, and just listen to the story. And hopefully for them to find something of themselves in the story. I am not always thinking about the difficulties; I want people to connect to what we want to share.
Dead Rhetoric: After independently releasing your previous two albums, you signed with Dutch label Layered Reality Productions for this new EP. What do you enjoy most about their approach to promoting your music, and do you believe the DIY approach previously helped set things in proper motion to position Seventh Station in a better light globally?
Alperovich: I will answer (this) backwards. We are very proud of what we have done as a DIY act before we signed to a label. We managed to learn a little bit about the process, a little bit about the industry. It was a good lesson. What I like most about signing with Layered Reality Productions is that they are similar people to us. They are searching for music and for stories. They are really supporting their artists emotionally. From a promotional point of view, we are all in one group who love to listen to this music. They are very supportive; I went with them to the ProgPower Europe festival in the Netherlands last October. It was the first time I met (the staff) in person, and they are such amazing people. Tom the label manager – it was so fun hanging with him, good-hearted. He loves this music, it’s always good to work together. I don’t feel like it’s a label, I feel like it’s a family. I’m very thankful to the label for this opportunity, it’s a great flow of work.
Dead Rhetoric: What would you consider three of the most important albums (metal or otherwise) that have helped shape your outlook as a musician? And what would you consider the best concert experience you had as a member of the audience – plus what made that show so special to you?
Alperovich: Dream Theater – Scenes From a Memory. For a lot of us in the band, this shaped our views on progressive metal. Our keyboardist has worked with Dream Theater, and works regularly with Jordan Rudess. And I would also say the discography of Frank Zappa. Not a specific album, because to talk about one specific album would be a bit of a sin. He has so much stuff, and a lot of people don’t know his classical pieces. They are amazing.
About a memorable show. There are so many of them, it’s hard for me to pick one. One of our last shows in my hometown, it was really nice. It’s always nice to play in your hometown, you see the growth of the band. We see so much love that people are giving us, we are growing together.
Dead Rhetoric: What is a pivotal or critical moment that helped shape your musical career?
Alperovich: I would say one of those moments has nothing to do with the band, but personally for me. It was through my teachers of music and guitar that really shaped my career. I have a lot of support; I had old school music teachers. It was a really great experience to see how much they cared, and how much they gave me, this belief. Through this belief I managed to work hard to become the musician that I am today. It’s a great mixture between the Russian/European old school approach with at the same time, unconditional love. This really shaped me as a musician, to be with heart open and eyes open.
Dead Rhetoric: How do you view the state of the world that we are living through currently? What concerns you most going into the future?
Alperovich: As a musician, the attention span of people today, it’s very low. We had two choices after the Heal the Unhealed album. We had really good reviews, but we also got some reviews from people that didn’t have the patience to understand the story (laughs). Because we added a lot of Russian language, the topic was of Soviet Russia from a historical point of view. I was born there, my parents are from there, so some people didn’t have the patience to understand why we did this. There is a radio sample of two minutes on there. We could be more modern in that way. A lot of prog bands prefer to write shorter songs – the attention span of people today can be three to five seconds. If there are no vocals, it’s very hard for them to listen. We choose to go all the way in what we want to say and how we want to say things.
The world became impatient, and they need a lot of stimulation from minute to minute, second to second. Social media of course contributes a lot to this. The work of artists is less appreciated with Spotify and all these streaming services. It’s a great opportunity that everyone’s music can now be heard. On the other hand it’s hard to make business when people pay ten dollars a month and listen to thousands of albums. You get 0.0027 cents out of one stream. Less power to the musicians. Money rules the world. You need balance in order to succeed. Music will always win; art will always win. Even if it’s not in my time.
Dead Rhetoric: What’s on the horizon for Seventh Station over the next twelve months? Are there other bands / side projects from the members of the group that we also should look into?
Alperovich: There is always work in Seventh Station. Our vocalist has another band Subterranean Masquerade, they are always performing in Israel and working on material. For Seventh Station, we are preparing for some shows – one in Germany, we have a tour in the UK opening for Imperial Age, some shows in Israel, some festivals in November. We are preparing for a lot of shows, and starting slowly to write the next album.