AHRAYEPH Music has the ability to take you to the distant corners of the sky. To see the Fallen Ones enter our earthly ground. A world taken over by the Offspring of Angels. We had the privilege of talking to a musician who knows how to perfectly portray this world in his music. And although he has spoken to Peek-A-Boo many times before, living in our small country, he certainly deserves to be brought to the attention again. Ladies and gentlemen, let me present to you; RafAhráyeph. To us you are no stranger but to introduce yourself a little to those who are not yet familiar with your music, how would you put it into words? It's at once an easy and a tough question to answer... I could say my music is a reflection of me and how I view the world at large, which is the philosophical thing to do. I suppose I could take a description my late best friend bestowed on me and say it's 'Progressive Gothic Rock' or 'Prog Goth' for short, which is what I think most people will understand. But I guess what comes closest is that Ahrayeph is an expression and externalisation of the dark aspects of my life and what I observe around me. It's a better form of expressing darkness than being depressed, I guess... Say you could describe your music by naming both movie and classical literature titles, which would you choose? Well, coincidentally, I just rewatched Coppola's take on 'Bram Stoker's Dracula' last week. I felt that that's the perfect visual - and narrative - illustration of the kind of music and lyrics I write. Ever since I discovered Romanticism as a literary, and later visual, art form (thank you, Iron Maiden!), I've been partial to that form of expression. My literary influences are the usual suspects : the Shelleys, Byron, Pope... But there's also quite a bit ofmore modern influence like Sartre and the Beat Poets by way of JimMorrison. The start of Ahráyeph was with the 2006 ‘Heralding The Marooned’ EP. Was it a at that time conscious decision to take the direction that characterizes your music today? In one word, no. That came long before the E.P.'s release. At the tail end of the period when the band was still called Crucifire, I was jamming with David and Peter,my then band members and I had already started looking for a sound that was less ensconced in Metal. One afternoon, after listening to the The Cure's compilation album 'Staring At The Sea', I reflected on how their iconic song 'A Forest' moved me emotionally and then tried to put that emotion into my take on that song (as evidenced in the cover song I later released). That's when what I call the 'Ahrayeph Sound' was born. As a happy coincidence, I also found my lyrical 'voice' around that time. I was never happy with the worse-than-sophomoric lyrics I wrote for the Crucifire songs the year before. Luckily, www.peek-a-boo-magazine.be it all came together at that time. A few years later, when virtual synthesizers became available with the advent of computer recording, I was finally able to put it all together into the sound I had in my head and create a perfect sonic environment for myself that contributed to the creative process of the lyrical part ofmy songwriting With Coppola's take on 'Bram Stoker's Dracula', as you "Winterland. Summerla Dry Land mentioned before, in mind; Don't know if you've seen Roman Polanski's 1967 classic ‘The Fearless Vampire Killers’? Imagine that you are a professor slash Vampire hunter, which famous person would you like to be your bumbling assistant? Tom Cruise. It's about time he paid for his sins. Looking at your discography up till now, there are 3 albums, a special in 2018 re-recorded version of 'Marooned on Samsara', 4 EP’s, and several singles. Howdo you look back at what you've accomplished so far? For someone who apparently has a reputation for not finishing projects in some circles, I do feel pretty accomplished, haha! Seriously though, there were times when I wasn't sure I would get so far in writing such an extensive body of work. Like I said : it's a constant evolution and at certain points in that evolution you're going to have moments of doubt. Not necessarily because you don't feel like you're good enough,although that is sometimes a factor, but because you inevitably have moments where you're void of inspiration.These don't necessarily last long, but they feel - 18 -
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