Dragonforce – Vadim Pruzhanov, Keyboards

It’s early November and DRAGONFORCE pulls into The Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles, CA for an evening of extremely talented musicianship and SMNnews was able to take a few moments to chat with keyboard whiz Vadim Pruzhanov.

How are you, what’s going on?

We shot a video yesterday for “The Last Journey Home.”

Are you excited about it?

Yeah, it has a bunch of actors, we had to do acting ourselves, it was really exciting. I can’t really tell you too much about it but it will be so good when people see it.

Without giving it away what makes it so different?

It’s more futuristic, the storyline, it’s meaningful, it’s more of everything. It’s good, It’s good, it’s just amazing.

Does it have the comedy aspect?

Not so much comedy, more of a storyline, really cool graphics, a lot of acting by the band, extra actors to help out with the storyline. It’s going to be different.

Was it your idea or the directors?

I think the director came up with the concept and we helped with some ideas so it was like a whole team effort.

Where did you shoot it?
Just downtown, not too far away from where we’re from now. We started early morning and went to late at night.

You guys spent the summer on the road with DISTURBED and SLIPKNOT, good times?

Yeah, it was a blast, parties every night, barbecues, hanging out with bands, hitting it off with all our good friends, it was amazing man. We got drunk so much and that was the only time I was drunk every single night and now I’m like cutting down.

You’ve got a longer set now.

Longer set, more moves on stage, have to concentrate on playing which sucks (laughs) and it’s alright, I’m having a great time. Every single night there was booze, you would drink, every night one band would be organizing a barbecue and organizing drinking games.

Any future tour plans with any of the bands from the summer?

Not yet, so far just POWERGLOVE and TURISAS for now as we finish the whole US leg and Canadian leg the 19th of December then next year we do some European shows, some Japanese shows, then I think we come back and do some more here.

You’ve built a huge fanbase which started as a cult type following. What do you think attributes to this success?

Definitely helps out that the true fans that listened in the early days like some of the people that I met outside today right now sticking around. The fact now that we have so much of a variety with exposure with Guitar Hero, touring, word of mouth, a lot of little kids with their parents, young people, old people too.

It’s not just the classical metal fans anymore.

No, it’s a bit of everything, sometimes goth looking people, hardcore kids, emo kids, some metalers, whatever, just everyone.

It’s something special when you break out of that certain stigma you have.

It’s cool if people enjoy this kind of music. Back in the days, Rock was really popular in the 80’s, everyone listened to it. Trends come and go but with us we’ve never been attached to a particular genre or trend. When we started out with this genre, it wasn’t really popular at all. It seems to be going really well so far.

Any plans for live material?

We’ve thought about it but just waiting for the right time, find the right time when we learn the songs really well (laughs). I mean we’re alright, much better now playing wise. We need to find enough material for the fans to like. So I mean probably next year we might do something.

From the stories I hear about the craziness that surrounds your band on the road with the trampolines, the girls.

We have so much stuff filmed, some explicit material as well (laughs) that we’d love to share but unfortunately we probably can’t. We’d like to release a live dvd at some point and release a touring, not so much a live thing but a life on the road.

When you’re in the studio recording and learning the songs to go out on the road, do you ever think, “what the hell did I do there?”

Not really normally. A lot of the times things are really rushed with us and I don’t really like it that much. We all have busy lifestyles and people do this and that. We get together for one rehearsal before, like pre-production, and we pretty much go through the songs once and everyone knows them. When we start off it’s rusty and not that great, but as we go along it gets better and better. For this tour it was one and a half rehearsal.

How do you stay in shape to play all the time?

I don’t know. I just sort of, I learn the songs and if you play them a lot of times you memorize them in your brain especially when I’ve written parts. The songs are not really, to us, they’re not really that complex. We’ve always been playing this kind of stuff.

Did you possess the natural talent at an early age or did you really have to work hard to get there?

As a kid I studied classical music. I didn’t study as such but I went to this school, my parents put me in this school. Right now I don’t have much to do with the classical training. I always practiced a lot but with DRAGONFORCE lately I don’t have time to practice. As a kid I was playing all the time, I had Bryan Adams on and try to pick out all the melody lines and play that. I had a Yamaha PSS keyboard where you press the button and it picks out a chord for you and I’d play melody lines like GENESIS or BRYAN ADAMS.

I never imagined Bryan Adams as a big influence.

Not really, I was into {Black}Sabbath, {Led}Zeppelin, Bryan Adams my dad listened to it and I was a kid and I would just play all these things. They asked me to go to this school I really didn’t want to do it (classical music) or study it. Now I’m happy that they made the choices that they have.

You’ve been on tour for a while; do you pay attention to the media at all?

It’s always interesting to see what people write in reviews. There’s always gonna be people who criticize you for what you do. If you get a person to review the band, if the person doesn’t like the band they’re not gonna say, “oh yeah, they kicked ass.” But it’s always nice to convert people who don’t like the band. We’re very happy even if it’s a bad one because it’s still made an impact if somebody really hates us or dislikes us because it’s a passionate feeling (hate).

Do you pay attention to the gossip columns in the UK?

I flip through KERRANG or METAL HAMMER sometimes I see us in there. But newspapers you’d have to ask Sam, he reads newspapers.

Any of you ever shag a page 3 girl?

(long pause) Even if they did I wouldn’t be able to tell you. (laughs)

Lily Allen or Kate Nash?

Mmmmm, Kate Nash probably. Good question. (laughs) Kate Nash because she’s less violent. I hear Lily Allen likes to punch people in the face. I have both their albums. I find their accents fascinating. They have very strong English accents.

If you had to write a song about Chavs, how would it go?

Are people going to really get this? Power Metal Chavs listen to Dragonforce. We get some Chav fans. Maybe we’d start singing with strong cockney accents. I don’t think the other guys would agree. I come up with these great ideas all the time and they always say no, I wonder why. (laughs)

What are you listening to right now that people wouldn’t expect of you?

The ENCHANTED Soundtrack. In the movie it’s really weird as actors usually look really stupid and silly when they start to sing but in this movie they look silly until they start singing and when they start singing it’s really pleasant so I forward it to the singing parts.

If you could perform with any band or performer in the world, who would that be?

I’d love to play with Devin Townsend, I like his music, he’s pretty good at what he does. Or I don’t know, I could play with Steve Vai to see how crap I am and make me look so bad and I’d be embarrassed and that would be funny.

Doesn’t Tony MacAlpine play keys with Steve Vai now?

Yeah, I think he does. These guys are too great, I’d never put myself in that category. But I’d love to play with Devin Townsend.

If somebody could bring you something on the road to remind you of home, what could that be?

Bring me cheesecake. I’m a big fan of cheesecakes. If I had em on the rider I’d be fat as fuck.

Anything else?

I want to Thank all the fans for all the love and support and support and love and all the street teamers as well.

(+35 rating, 7 votes)

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