JULY 2nd 2019 
AEGONIA EXCLUSIVE

Welcome to MetalTitans, we recently had the opportunity to talk with Eli (Elitsa Stoyanova) – vocal, violinist for Bulgarias atmospheric/doom/gothic/melodic/folklore/fantasty band AEGONIA. Read on, check out this interview.

Interview By: Metal Mom

There are probaby many people who will read this and won't have any idea of who you are, so let's give them some information about you.

How did you come up with the name for the band ?

Our first release “The Forgotten Song” is a concept album and it is based on a fantasy novel of the same name, written by me under the writer’s name Nea Stand. Aegonia is the fantasy world of this story. When we were composing our first songs of the album, Niki came up with this name, and we both agreed it fits the style of the music and the story.

You formed the band back in 2011, so still really a new band still, what made you decide to form a band and play this type of music?

Niki and me were playing in another band before that. It was nothing serious, just playing with some friends for pleasure. At one point the other band members had no time to rehearse any more, so we decided to start a new project, because we really wanted to continue playing. In the beginning we only played short improvisations with violin and guitar. Then we started to improvise with vocals and write lyrics for the vocal lines. The lyrics were pretty much an improvisation at first, and we were really surprised and excited when we realized that the lyrics of the songs are connected to each other and tell us a story. That is how the story of the forgotten song of Endoriel was revealed to us – through the music. We did not plan this, it just happened.

How did you all come together to form Aegonia?

At first it was only Niki and me. When we had a few songs ready, Nasko (Atanas Georgiev) – who is a close friend of ours – joined the band on bass. We were soon invited to play on a small festival, so we searched for a drummer. We started playing with Rosen Paskulov, and he plays the drums on “The Forgotten Song” album and “The Maid And The Mountain” single. Ivan Kolev joined us in the autumn of 2018, he recorded the drums for our single “Samodiva”.

(I hope I have the names right, it was hard to find out who was in the band. – Thank you for this comment – I added the names on facebook.)

At what age did you know that this was something you had to do?

I really don’t remember exactly, I guess it happened gradually. I always loved playing the violin and singing. I remember that when I was a teenager and I was listening to Paradise Lost, their songs sounded so perfect to me, that I badly wanted to be able to compose such wonderful melodies and guitar riffs. I am so happy that now I can write my own songs together with my friends from Aegonia. This is music that I really enjoy playing and listening to. I hope there will be a few people out there that will enjoy it too, like we do.

I have to ask, because that is one long genre listing, Atmospheric, Doom, Gothic, Melodic Death, Folklore, Fantasy, Metal, are people confused by all the genres put together?

Not that I know… It is a bit hard for us to define our musical style, that is why we have listed the genres that have influenced us the most and from which we combine elements in our music.

When you write your songs, do you put each into it?

No, each song can be or not be a combination of these styles. For example, “The Maid And The Mountain” is mostly folklore, it has nothing to do with death metal, but some of the songs (not all of them) in our debut album “The Forgotten Song” do have growling vocals. I always liked music to be diverse. We have unrecorded songs that sound quite differently than “The Forgotten Song” and the folklore singles – with Irish sound, with opera vocals – we play them live… This is something we will work on in the near future.

Who writes the lyrics for your songs?

It is me who writes the lyrics, often together with our vocalist/guitarist Niki.

Where does the inspiration come from to write them?

The lyrics in our first album are based on our fantasy novel of the same name. Most inspiration for that story we get from travelling to small villages and towns and also hiking in nature. The lyrics of our folklore songs “The Maid And The Mountain” and “Samodiva” were inspired by the authentic songs and tales from the Rhodopi mountain in Bulgaria, and also by nature.

What kind of reaction do you get from your home town?

It is generally positive.

You released your debut album April 9, 2019, have you had a good response to it so far?

Yes, we have a good response. We don’t have many fans, but there are people that really like the album a lot, and we are very happy with this.

How did you come up with the title of the album "The Forgotten Song" ?

The title comes from the fantasy story that our album and the novel tell. In the world of Aegonia the biggest power of a sorceress/sorcerer is her/his song. This story is about Endoriel’s forgotten song...


Very elegant album cover, who was the artist for it?  Did you come up with the idea for the cover, or did the artist?

The cover was made by our vocalist/guitarist Niki. He is interested in design as well. Our logo (that you see on the album cover) is also made by him.

Now that the album has been released will you be touring in support?

We already played a few shows in Bulgaria, but we have not planned a longer tour. We are focused on several upcoming events though. One of them is a very interesting summer festival in Plovdiv [BG] called Lost Age. The idea of this festival is to gather people interested in medieval or fantasy music, history, clothing, etc. We also plan an acoustic live in Sofia [BG] together with other musicians in support of book 2 from our series “Tales from the lands of Aegonia” and of our new video Samodiva.

We wish you all the success with the new album. Thank you for taking the time to do this interview with us, we really appreciate it.

Thank you very much for your interest, I wish you all the best!