Thy Catafalque’s Róka Hasa Rádió has been released a few months ago, featuring the clean voice of Attila Bakos, who shows us the last few year’s very best vocalist performance I think. On the next pages you’ll get to know about Woodland Choir, Attila’s past and his plans…

Greetings! Please tell me a bit about yourself: musical history, training, studies, etc. What you feel important…
Hi! I don’t have a serious musical history. In the late 90s I visited a vocal coach, but it didn’t get me any significant results, in the end I learned it myself how to handle my voice. I studied classical guitar for more than a year, it was kinda special as a 80 years old blind man was my teacher. He had incredible hearing, I never felt that he would slow me down just because he couldn’t see. He often mentioned that I should have chosen piano, but I insisted on playing guitar, ha-ha. I completely forgot musical theory, in fact I never used it. The source of my melodies is my feelings, and I always hear if something is not right. That’s enough for me.

You haven’t released anything for a long time. What happened in the past years? Why is this long silence?
I had other things in my focus, I built up myself, as for my musical creativity it was like a temporary reclusion. The one and only important thing that remained was my voice. I practiced a lot, almost every day, so that I could reach the level where I could actually do anything I wanted to. In my vocal range I don’t have technical difficulties anymore. This is where the true freedom of art begins for me.

Why did you choose this musical style?
Let’s say it provides me a playfield where I can freely play all that is me. Of course it is not just Woodland Choir, but all the projects I’ve been involved in. The entirety of these is like a theatre where I really enjoy trying myself in different roles.

Did you get criticism like your music is cheesy, slushy?
Not with these words, but some people have found it to be too emotional and romantic. It doesn’t really bother me, as I just express myself, what I feel, regardless of it being usual or not. By the way the whole For You album is about love, so if my music is too cheesy for someone, then who knows, maybe love is too.

In your earlier songs you sing more gently, different from the way you do on Thy Catafalque’s album. Is this due to Tamás, or is this just a result of improvement?
Improvement shows in the way I act in the different roles. Thy Catafalque needed this kind of vocals, at least that’s what I felt, and Tamás liked my ideas as well. And yes, a big thanks goes to him as he composed this wonderful music, where I could sing the way I did.

Does the forthcoming material follow the same direction?
As for Woodland, I’d say yes, but the themes will be a bit different. There will be songs about love, but more of them are about me. The name Woodland Choir will change to Serenity Rise. (edit: it won’t) There are 9 songs ready, more than 40 minutes waiting for recording. No Hungarian songs this time, but there might be some on the next album, as Thy Catafalque showed me how I love to sing in my native language.

Speaking of Thy Catafalque: how did you get in contact with Tamás?
We have known each other from the Index forum (a Hungarian forum), and I mentioned him earlier that I’d love to sing on his music. I was pretty surprised when I got his message in May 2008, that he has two songs for me, so let’s see what I can do with them. Actually they were parts of the songs “Molekuláris gépezetek” and “Őszi varázslók”. I liked the music very much, it was easy to sing on it. The recording took me 2-3 days, and these vocal lines became close to final.

How much did Tamás take part in the vocal composing? Is it the work of the both of you, or you just sang already composed vocal lines?
He told me to follow the melody of the synth here and there, but I composed most of the vocal lines. I like to have a free hand in this, and Tamás gave me the most possible freedom, which made our cooperation smooth and easy.

What was your first impression when you heard these songs?
That I have never been touched so deeply by a music made by Hungarian hands, and I have to play a role there, ha-ha!

The song “Köd utánam” is fantastic, brilliant! How did it feel to sing it? How did you like it’s lyrics, and what do you think about Tamás’ lyrics in general?
I like his lyrics very much, he can always catch the moment, when everything is so simple and sweet, and he plays with it so easily, that I really admire him. The lyrics of “Köd utánam” are brilliant as well. I finished it’s vocals very fast, it was pretty obvious.

Have you been involved in other projects lately? Any future plans?
There are many plans, I’d write about current projects now. I’m a member of the Norwegian band Quadrivium. I’ll do vocals on the 2nd album, which is going to be finished this year. We already did an Arcturus – Wintry Grey cover for the Old Crown, New Spawn tribute compilation, and it got very good reviews. I’ll do vocals on Erlend Antonsen’s (composer of Quadrivium) acoustic project as well. The songs are finished, we are ready to record them. If you like Ulver’s Kveldssanger, you might as well like this one. I’ll also be singing on the first album of Gyula Havancsák. He is known from bands like Árnyak, Vale of Tears, Sin of Kain, Alison Hell, he currently plays bass in Bornholm. His own project is called Ashen, you can except a mixture of orchestral, ambient, and progressive metal.

I know Quadrivium, I wrote a review about their first release in this issue. Did you like Adversus?
Let’s say I saw good potential to which I could imagine my vocals. The first release is pretty much like old Arcturus, which is not a problem, but Quadrivium’s true essence could not be seen there yet. As Erlend told me, he just had to do this album, to be able to move on. Of course this is something you say from a distance, when he actually composed Adversus, it was his everything, you can’t even do creative work any other way.

How did you get into connection with them? Will the new album be different? How much did you get a free hand?
I sent them an e-mail in July 2007. I told them I like their demo, and that I could add some high pitched vocals if they want to. Erlend replied that I can give it a try, so I added vocals to the demo version of Into the Void. He liked the result very much, and told me that it only depends on me, to what extent I want to take part in the band. As for the vocal melodies, I have a free hand, but Erlend has no problems with telling me if something can be done better. I noticed that he likes if I don’t really mess with the mood of the song. Of course this is no problem, I can always come up with more ideas. The new Quadrivium won’t be completely different, but it is much braver and experimental, therefore more original.

Are you a regular member, or just a session vocalist? Are you a band doing shows, or is Quadrivium a studio project?
I’m a regular member, but since it is a studio project, there is not much difference.

Would you play live with them?
Gladly.

Let’s get back to your own music: your older stuff is more ambient, atmospheric, with a darker tone. Do you agree? What is the reason of the change?
I never really composed dark stuff, but compared to the new one it might have sense. The older stuff is like an experiment in the world living inside me, and the For You album is like the core of that world, which is nice and peaceful to me. I also use my voice there, which gives all kinds of music a brighter tone.

Your demos are instrumental. Is it easier for you to express yourself with lyrics nowadays? What led you to the more folkish melodies?
I’d say that I had to become mature enough to be able to write lyrics I’m satisfied with. English can be hard for me many times, I still feel that my Hungarian lyrics is closer to the essence that is the source of my words. It is not just the fact that I can speak Hungarian better than English, but the Hungarian language itself. For me it carries a beauty I haven’t found anywhere else. I think the folkish melodies were always there, but they became more alive when I switched to the classical guitar-flute-voice trio.

How does it feel to look back to the early recordings? Are you satisfied?
Although I have much better equipment today, I always tried to get the most out of my possibilities, so I don’t think I could have done anything better. I like to listen to them sometimes, it feels good to bring back the feelings that motivated me.

What do you think: should a musician/artist always be present in the scene and media, or should he step forward only when he can put something serious and valuable on the table?
An artist should be free, and do whatever he thinks is the best. If that means being present in the media, then so be it. If that means working in the background until he can show something new, then so be it as well.

Do you care about how many people listen to your music, whether it reaches those who like this genre? Who are the people who listen to your music?
It does matter yes. I like making my stuff easily reachable, as I like reading/hearing feedback. I have no idea about the people who listen to my music, I guess they are those who like it, ha-ha.

You use both Hungarian and English in your lyrics. Which one is easier for you to express your thoughts with?
As I have written earlier, it’s Hungarian. I started to use English with Taranis, because I wanted everyone to understand my lyrics, and later I used it because many times it is an easier and more flowing feeling to sing English. Nowadays I started not to care about who understands my lyrics and who doesn’t, so it’s possible that in the future I’ll use more Hungarian.

Do you have help when you compose or write lyrics, or do you do everything by yourself?
I don’t have help, nor would I accept any, these are absolutely lone time activities for me.

What’s your opinion about using samples/PC instead of real instruments? As far as I know, you composed your earlier songs on a PC.
I use samples even today, but much better ones. I don’t see a problem here, technology follows demand, a lot of people want to create music, and it is not that easy to get a whole band together, not to mention having a full orchestra behind your back.

There is an unreleased, downloadable song called The Flame on your website. What’s the history of this song, what are your plans with it? It’s a beautiful song, I like it very much.
I composed the music 3 years ago, it’s special because I haven’t done any other song in this genre. Back then I thought it will be wasted, so I put it away, but lately it came into my attention again, and now I could also write lyrics for it. It seems that it took 3 years for something inside me to grow up to what this song expresses. I don’t have any plans with it, it’s there on my site, that’s it.

Give me a heads up on the story of Descend. You have two downloadable demos and two Katatonia tributes on your site.
Descend was founded by Gyula Vasvári in the late 90′s, the first instrumental demo called DecadAnce was released in ’99. I liked it’s melodies very much, so I sent Gyula some vocal samples I did, he liked them and we started to work together. We only met a few times, we used to send our stuff to each other. The first demo featuring my vocals came out in 2001 and it’s called Disillusioned. This step was necessary for the Sunflow album which was released in 2003. We can say it was the fulfillment of our cooperation. Barna Katonka helped a lot, he is responsible for the drums, and Gyula brought the best ideas of this project. Then a change happened in my life, which caused me to turn my back to almost everyone, so we split up. Both Gyula and Barna are playing in Neochrome now, but we are in touch, we also meet sometimes for lazy nights. The Katatonia tributes are sweet memories from 2001. The band announced a competition, you could enter with more songs, so we did an ambient version of Day and A Darkness Coming. Although we did not win, it was a lot of fun.

You have a lot of recordings of you singing other bands’ songs on YouTube. How did the idea come? Some of them are pretty astonishing! The way you sing Simen’s vocals gives me goose bumps!
I saw a lot of people doing stuff like this on YouTube, and as I have recordings I did earlier for fun, I thought what the hell, why not make a Simen tribute of this recordings. I also did the choir part of Týr – Sinklars Vísa. I got very good comments, but to tell the truth, I always knew what I was capable of, so it was a healthy show off from my part, but oh well, I really enjoyed it, ha-ha. Later I did many videos because listeners asked me to. I haven’t uploaded anything new lately, I want to focus on my own projects now.

Do you consider yourself as exhibitionist? Do you like being in the center, or do you only want to show what you are best at?
I don’t want to be in the center at any price, I feel pretty good in the background as well, and I also like being alone. However I always want to show what I’m good at.

What inspires you? Be it anything…
When it comes to session vocals, the feelings caused by listening to the music inspire me. As for my own projects it is a bit harder to tell. I feel like a music is playing inside me, a source that is always there, always exists, but I can only hear it when I pay attention to it. Then I feel like riding a wave, and I let it take me. When I’m ready, I hide this source from me, as I don’t want to be high on weekdays, ha-ha.

Your music offers calmness, peace, and love. Are you like that yourself?
I am what you see of me. I don’t think it’s important what I think of myself. I prefer to show it in a way I consider pure and honest instead.

Are you/were you interested in the esoteric, or religions?
If those few silent years I was searching for myself counts among these, then yes. Every spiritual guidance carries the same essence. They exist so that one day they won’t be needed anymore. They helped me a lot to remember who I am, and to find the directions that serve me best in this life. There is nothing else left but to open up 100% to my experiences, to actually live, that’s why I’m here on Earth after all.

I’d like to know your thoughts on today’s world.
I couldn’t have been born in a better time, so many things are happening now. People are waking up, the way they see the world and think about it has changed a lot. The old, dusty patterns are becoming even more of a burden, the institutions created to be perfect are on the verge of collapse, be it governmental, or religious, the change is there everywhere. As opposed to a lot of people I see the world’s crisis with excitement, I’m very curious about the new that is going to replace today’s unacceptable patterns.

What kind of music catches your interest nowadays? What do you listen to?
I listen to a lot of genres, it depends on my mood. Ulver’s Shadows of the Sun and Anathema’s Hindsight have been my favourites lately, as well as Nefilim’s Zoon among the harder stuff.

What have you changed since the beginning of Woodland Choir?
I kinda answered this already. As a summary I’d say that I have grown up to myself, I realized that the world I’m living in is not independent of me, it’s only me who can give myself the freedom I need, and only I can put obstacles in my way, even though it seemed unbelievable earlier. So I’m doing what I like the most, I have no plans, every opportunity seems to come by itself, mostly on musical fields, as I’m pretty confident there.

A general question I ask of every musician: what do you think of mp3s, internet downloads, myspace, labels, music industry.
I rarely listen to anything else than mp3, I only buy CD if it has some extra value to me, if it’s a good feeling to possess it. I don’t feel guilty because of the downloads, it doesn’t even interest me that much, but it’s clear to me that even the labels need some kind of a change. There are many tries to control people’s behaviour with shocking punishments, but it’s a stillborn idea. I can’t think of an exact solution, but there has to be a way where the musician can feel that the label serves him, and even the label can make a living doing his part… This constant money grabbing ruins everything. I think everything works best when the participants do what they do because they love it. There may be only a few examples for this today, but then what the hell, I’d let the whole world fall, I really think this is the way it could work well. Money is overvalued, even though it is practically Nothing.

There is a photo of you on Myspace where you commemorate your haircut. Was it that hard to get rid of it? Ha-ha! What did your long hair mean to you?
I’ve had long hair for many years, it wasn’t easy to let it go, ha-ha. I don’t know what it meant, I just liked it. Then I changed and I wanted something looser, something easier to treat, so I let it cut. The hairdresser was very sympathizing, he looked at me like I was in front of a great loss, even though I only wanted to get over it, ha-ha.

Thanks for the interview and for your time! I wish you all the best!
Thanks for the opportunity!

http://www.myspace.com/holdmagazin