Infected Rain’s latest album, TIME, is a musical journey that entails progressive and nu-metal sounds as well as seemingly heavier electronic elements that act as a second guitar to help guide the listener through each song. It even features a sitar and seemingly Middle Eastern-sounding elements that speak to Lena’s childhood. It hits hard when it needs to, while still containing some delicate aspects, and Lena Scissorhands’ (Elena Cataraga) voice truly shines during both.
Scissorhands is a humble and vulnerable musician who truly cares about her craft and band. Everything she and Infected Rain make, lyrically and melodically, has a deep meaning to them. She will hold onto lyrics and poems till she finds the perfect song to use them for and ensures there is true love behind all of her and the bands’ creations which is especially heard on their newest record.
mxdwn: Hi, my name is Eve Pierpont, and I’m the editor for mxdwn’s Music Features section. I’m here today with Lena Scissorhands of Infected Rain. Hi, Lena.
Lena Scissorhands: Hi. Hello.
mxdwn: How has the lineup change affected the band, including the addition of Alice Lane?
LS: I think it changed it for the best, the best version of us at least. That is how we feel internally, now how it feels externally, we would have to ask our followers and fans, but I gotta say that that doesn’t mean that, you know, there’s anything specific we can mention here. It only means that sometimes certain changes are needed. Now, in our case, it was a long time coming, unfortunately. It was something that internally we were working on for years, just different, you know, ideas, different aspirations, different even need of each musician when it comes to this career, and even like a specific song or a specific album, or a specific music video, there’s always like a lot of people that talk about it, right? Because a band is always, at least three, four or five musicians. Imagine having all musicians be on the same page, it’s hard, and no one is expecting that. The only thing is that eventually, if the ideas and needs for certain things for the future of the band are so different and so diverse, you try and, you know, we tried and work it out. We tried, and we were trying not to let that influence the band or the band’s decisions, and we didn’t even notice how it actually did affect it a lot, and as soon as certain things went back to their place on the shelf, you know, like their own path in life, their own aspirations, and even though the decision was very hard, it was something that was long coming. It needed to be done for the future of the band and for the future of each member, even separately, even the ones that are not in the band anymore. Everybody has a future, and if you want a different future than where you’re going, you should back up and change your route, and it doesn’t matter. So, we can talk about this for a long time. What I was trying to say here is that we didn’t even feel how much we needed that, really, as a band. We knew something needed to change and we didn’t know at what level, at what degree, and even long before we chose Alice as our bass player, we started working on a new record together, and since the very first like, skeleton ideas that were given to me by my musicians, by Vidick and Eugen, I already knew that I can feel the freedom they have, the balance they have between them, and this album is going to be something special, we have so much to say. Then Alice joined us when we were already composing the album, so she didn’t take part in the composing process, but she did record her bass for the, I don’t know, half of the album. I don’t know how many songs. It doesn’t matter; what I’m saying is she didn’t join the band soon enough to be part of the process. It was just the older members having the feeling, more free, I guess, in a way, and having so much to say and that’s what led to the album time.
mxdwn: Gotcha. Yeah, that totally makes sense. So, the production aspect of this album is very notable and varied from song to song. Can you speak to the creative process behind adding touches to each one that kind of makes them their own audio adventure?
LS: Well, I can only speak about vocals because I don’t take part of composing the melody for the instruments. I compose my vocal melodies based on the music that my musicians give me. So I listen, this is the process I have, and it seems to work well for me; I listen to the ideas that they give me. It can be one song at a time or sometimes they will send me a few, not even finished songs, but like, at least for me to understand the direction they’re going and maybe even the emotion behind the instruments in the first place because often I try to match it with lyrics, at least what it gives me, right? And then it can give one impression to one person and a completely different one to another person, I’m sure, so this is what I do, and I start applying the ideas I had put down in the form of poetry because I just write all the time. I have ideas down. I have a bunch of notebooks around me, and notes in a phone if I’m not next to an actual physical pen and paper, and I just write things down. Often it’s just a word, a word that fascinates me, a new word because, hey, English is not my first language. I moved here nine years ago, I live in America now, and reading books and using this language more helps me with my vocabulary for sure. But I started writing very early in my teenage years in Russian because it was the language used in my family, and with me and my friends. Then, I wrote a little bit in Italian. I wrote in English even way before joining the band, just like my own so-called diary, but it was just like little ideas down, and as I said, it could be a word, it could be a phrase, it could be right away a rhymed piece, and I just put them down. Often I go back to it and I’m inspired to continue the idea, but also often I’m not inspired and I’m not there yet to continue it, and some lyrics I don’t touch for years because then the right song comes out and you’re like, okay, even though, for example, “BECAUSE I LET YOU,” it’s about a very painful experience in my life that I’ve been through years and years ago, and it is the realization that not only I live with this pain, but also it’s still hurting so much. I do know that I have to do something about it, and this is how music helps me. I put it into words and I put it into melody, then I put it into emotion together through melody and words, and it helps me. It’s a very, very unpleasant journey, to get healed that way. It’s a method that not many agree with. It’s the, so-called fire with fire. Even my mom, she once told me, why do you continue dwelling on this? It’s been so long, you know, let it go. Or she would say, close that door and don’t open it anymore. Of course, she said it because she loves me and she doesn’t want me to be in pain so much, but often we need to live with that pain and to embrace it so we can learn from it. Otherwise, if we close it, if we ignore it, it comes out later. It will come out later like boiling water at insane temperatures that will overflow everywhere, right? So, this is what I do with songs. I just apply my own life experiences in the form of rhyme and melody, you know? That’s the creative process I apply not only to Infected Rain but to anything that is given to me that I accept to be part of, like a featuring song or a completely new song for a different band or a side project or whatever it is. When it comes to everything else, you would have to ask the musicians because I don’t know how they come up with certain ideas and why in that moment, I ask myself often. I’m like, how the hell did they put that together? You know what I mean?
mxdwn: Yeah, totally. I am the exact same way where I kind of like dwell on things and agree that, you know, confronting the pain is kind of how you process it and get over it. I totally understand what you’re saying, and I actually kind of had a question about that song, “BECAUSE I LET YOU,” it kind of sets the tone for the whole album as the opening song. Was it written specifically be to be the first song?
LS: No {laughs}. Not at all. In fact, I believe Vidick sent us his idea of how the songs should go in the playlist, and I remember me and Eugen, we reacted to that. Yeah, man, I mean, whatever order we put it, it’s gonna work out because we are such big fans of this album, and we love every single song, right? But I definitely did not expect, “BECAUSE I LET YOU” to be first, I definitely did not expect Vidick wanting to start the album with that hit of pain. But I think it’s for the best because after every weak moment, we do have stronger moments, and probably there is something beautiful in showing your weakest parts first, and when I say that, I only mean emotion wise, obviously, because musically, it is just as strong as any other song on the album, at least in my opinion, it is. I know I might sound biased, but ever since the very first interview I’ve ever done in my life, connected to Infected Rain, I’ve always said, and I hope that will never change. I am a big fan of Infected Rain. I really am. I think it’s very important for the musician to love its own creation, because if I am not gonna like my own songs and I’m gonna release them, I’m gonna hate myself for sure. So, we make sure that these songs speak to us in the first place, and then we release them.
mxdwn: That’s awesome. Totally makes sense. That’s beautiful, actually. I was gonna also ask what was the inspiration behind it, kind of lyrically, but we don’t have to go into that if it’s too hard.
LS: Yeah, I mean, it’s okay. It’s pretty self-explanatory, literally the chorus says love, the first thing, there’s a choir of me saying love a lot, right? Because it is about love, it’s a love song, and it’s about how much we open up for the people we love. And hey, when I say love, I don’t just mean romantic love, okay? In my case, it was, that’s what inspired me, and hurt me, and led me to write the song, but love is love no matter what. It’s a love for a parent, for a sister, for a brother, for a friend, for, you know, a significant other. It can be for your own child. I don’t know. Love is love, man. It’s so beautiful, and it’s beautiful all the time. So, that song is about love and about how much we really give to the people that we genuinely love. Not just say, I love you just because the words sound pleasant, or because you think that that’s what the people want to hear because I actually don’t trust much people that say, I love you, like friends or whatever, or people that you barely know and they say, I love you. I really love you. You know, I don’t know. It’s hard to trust those people that say it all the time. It means that phrase has no value to them, at least in my opinion. Maybe, hey, again, I only can speak based on my own life experience. My father was like that. He would just say so many empty words, you know? And as a child, you don’t even realize that an adult can lie because lying is not okay, right? So, when I realized for myself as a small, small child that my father was lying about everything, about his feelings, about his intentions, about all the promises, and not only to the children, but also to my mother and to people around, nobody ever knew who he really is, because we started seeing so many lies. But that’s a different story {laughs}, that’s more for the song “Homeless” from the first album. With this one, I wanted to bring to the attention of people that love is only happening because we let it, but also the opposite of love happens because we let it, and why do we let it happen? Because we trust that the people we love are not gonna hurt us. No matter how much we burn ourselves in the past, it’s a new person in your life. It’s a new reality. You are older, wiser, and you are like, okay, I’m gonna choose to believe again, and I’m gonna choose to trust again because it’s not fair for me to apply certain rules to this person that didn’t hurt me yet, or didn’t do anything to deserve me not trusting. Now, I’m not saying that you don’t have to trust, but I’m saying that, unfortunately, we get hurt the most from people we love.
mxdwn: Yes, yes, we do, unfortunately.
LS: I’m sure a lot of people can relate sooner or later in our lifetime. We do come across that, and it’s so painful.
mxdwn: It is. It really is. It’s so painful. Yeah, definitely. So, where did the decision come from to incorporate a heavier focus on experimental electronic passages? Do you foresee this becoming a bigger part of the band sound with forthcoming releases?
LS: Well, I wanna start here by bringing people’s attention to the fact that we’ve always done that always since album number one. The only difference in album number one, we had a DJ, it was a six-member band, and the DJ was doing a lot of those sounds live. He had a turntable and a lot of like things on stage. I don’t even know with all of those buttons, but he would do that thing. We wanted to preserve that somehow. When he was also, by the way, one of the few initiators of this band. It was the three of us, his best friend, the DJ and me that created Infected Rain, at the time and then later on when he changed, he moved to a different country, he moved to a different place, even mentally, and we decided not to look for a DJ and just to keep that element of electronics in our style. I think specifically with a lot of synths and a lot of unusual sounds, even the previous album, Ecdysis, is very, very much garnished. It is possible that with this album, you just discover it more because it’s more prominent. And those electronic sounds, they guide you almost like the second guitar would. And now that we have only one guitar, Vidick, the way he composed, he composed considering he has only one guitar. But that’s only my opinion. Hey, I might be wrong. I’m not the composer of the music. Again, I shouldn’t even really answer this question, but that’s what I think, based on what I see and how much I know my musicians and based on the answers they gave me when I asked certain things like that, but yeah. You should try and interview Vidick. He’s a very interesting person to talk to.
mxdwn: It sounds like it.
LS: I’m not saying Eugen only because he is gonna hate me for that, he’s still working on his English. Let’s say that he’s a very shy guy {laughs}.
mxdwn: Yeah, that totally makes sense, but I can see what you mean by your opinion, kind of like why it would stand out more on this one versus others.
LS: That’s my opinion.
mxdwn: Yeah, I gotcha. So having sitar riffs, like in “NEVER TO RETURN” is something that not a whole lot of people experiment with, but it creates a uniqueness and a fullness that like really stands out, I think. Can you tell me about incorporating that instrument at all into that song?
LS: Okay, so all so-called Middle East sounding melodies that you find in this album, because you don’t just find it in “NEVER TO RETURN,” it’s just the song that has it more prominent.
mxdwn: Mm-Hmm.
LS: All of those are some of my favorite parts of this album, to be honest. It’s very funny. I have two things to say about that, and I will try to be very fast about it. First of all, maybe it is because of my ethnicity or because of my upbringing, I used to live for many years in Armenia as a child. My father is Armenian, and I went to school there and I came across their culture and they have their own unique instruments. Now, I’m not saying that those instruments are exactly the same, but the whole idea of these like ethnical, Middle East-sounding melodies always spoke volumes to me since I was a child, had nothing to do with any music. I would always feel like I wanna dance when stuff like that comes out, and I would do this and that, you know, with my sisters and put some choreography, and we were always attracted to those kind of songs a little more. I don’t know why. Again, I am assuming that’s why. With Infected Rain, I don’t remember exactly when, maybe sometime around album number three or four, I remember throwing some ideas for vocals when we were working on the album, and some of them vocally were like that. It was not taken very good by my band. Not in a like, what the hell is this? But just like, hey, I don’t think this fits well here, you know? And it felt like it doesn’t fit well too, but I wanted, I needed help because I don’t have like an actual degree in music. I don’t know certain things that other musicians do know, and I wanted guidelines and help into how we can incorporate that. I could tell they don’t feel it belongs with us. Now with this song, when Vidick sent me the ideas for this song, I was like, no fucking way, you know what I’m saying? I was like, yes! I can’t wait to sit down with this song, one-on-one, and think about it. I can’t wait to put vocals for it. It was almost like a moment long coming you know? I gotta say though, that a lot of books and movies we watched around that time influenced it. I remember Vidick speaking so highly about the soundtrack for the movie Dune. He told me certain things musically that only a musician could know. For example, how the composer put together certian melodies that technically, by the rules of music, shouldn’t even sound good together, different tuning or whatever, and I don’t know these things because unfortunately I never had, again, a musical introduction as a child or musicians in my family, you know? So, it was very interesting and I listened to that soundtrack as well. I love listening to soundtracks in general, it brings you to that movie, to that atmosphere, but that is a good example of you seeing how I think musicians, specifically us, we can get inspired by everything around us. Sometimes more than others, sometimes we don’t even notice everything. But see, like something that I was trying to bring in Infected Rain before, had its own time. It was not the time for it, you know? And it’s really cool. I like it a lot and I hope we will do some more like that, and the music video that we did for it, oh my God, I had so much fun being a zombie and not caring to look pretty {laughs}.
mxdwn: Yeah. Oh, that’s awesome. I totally agree. Whenever I hear that kind of music or those instruments, I literally wanna dance like that.
LS: Yeah. It reminds me a lot of a movie that I watched as a teenager, which probably the majority of our audience and your audience, and you included probably watched, “Queen of the Damned,” and the majority of the songs for “Queen of the Damned” were songs already existing, the soundtrack is made out of either songs that already existed or some I believe Jonathan Davis composed the majority of the soundtrack, but there was a part where this girl is playing the violin on the beach, and it was very similar like atmosphere, a very similar idea, even though it was a violin, and it was very like Middle East type style. I remember loving that moment. That was the best moment in that movie for me, just that moment where the vampire’s looking at her, hunting her or whatever, and she’s just so driven by this music. Her eyes are closed, she’s playing this instrument. I believe that’s when I decided that the violin is my favorite instrument on this planet.
mxdwn: I can definitely see that, for sure. Having the ability as a singer to go from like ethereal vocals, so angelic to very powerful screaming is a very incredible gift that has the ability to give the listener like a truly emotional experience, I think. How do you switch from that, from one to the other in the same song? What is that like for you?
LS: Well, thank you. I really don’t think that’s a gift. I think that’s just an ability I’ve learned and still learning, that’s all it is really, because I’m not, I never really thought that I was born super gifted as a vocalist. There are so many vocalists out there that are insane with their instrument, you know what I mean?
mxdwn: So are you.
LS: However, I am a hard worker. When I get passionate about something, I don’t give up {laughs}, you know? I just don’t. I’m like that with everything in life, to be honest. Sometimes that’s a big problem, but here, you know, I’m very persistent and I work very hard and I bug my vocal teacher a lot. I hope she doesn’t think that way of course, but Melissa Cross was the one teaching me how to navigate that safely because even though I started alternative type of vocalizing way before I met her, I met her in 2013. I made so many mistakes before I met her, and I hurt myself so much, and even after I met her, like understanding what she’s really talking about, it took me years. Hey, I don’t know, sometimes I’m very harsh to myself I think like I can’t believe you didn’t understand this yet, or I can’t believe you only understood this now, she talks about this in your lesson in 2013. You know what I’m saying? Sometimes we need, again, the right moment or to understand certain things. I don’t know. Maybe we all function differently. Maybe if I had some sort of a musical upbringing, maybe I would’ve understood certain things a little bit better. But I think my persistency and my hardworking ability or I don’t know, discipline or whatever, helps me here. I’m still, as I said, I’m still working on it. I’m learning every day. Like yesterday, I discovered something very interesting while just rehearsing this new song about my voice, and I really like it. I can’t wait to rehearse again today and to remember that sensation because our instrument is our body. We need to learn sensations. That’s what we need to learn. The technique, the vocal techniques, are nothing else than you being in tune with your own body and listening to your own body without pushing, and that is the key. It’s so simple, sounds so simple, but it’s the most complex thing on the planet because we feel different every day. We sound different every day, and we have to remember those sensations so we can go back to them in the moment of need, like on stage, in the rehearsal room, in the recording room. So, thank you so much for the compliment. I really, really appreciate that. But I’m telling you, this is a technique that a lot of people can learn a lot, and it’s just as easy as having a few lessons with the vocal teacher you look up to. As I said, my vocal teacher is Melissa Cross, I highly recommend her. She’s not just the best in the industry, she is the most humble and understanding person. She made me embrace who I am and accept who I am as a person and as a vocalist. I don’t think anyone in my life ever did that for me. Apparently, I needed that because I didn’t even know I needed that, and I still need that {laughs}.
mxdwn: I understand, but no, I mean, I can definitely tell you’re a passionate person, and I can tell that that definitely can come through in your singing, and your discipline has worked out. I mean, it’s beautiful how you sing, regardless if you may be hard on yourself, but you shouldn’t be so hard on yourself. It is really special. But this record feels like a developmental step for the band and for modern metal. What does the album mean to the band and its future? Are there any potential collaborations you’re looking forward to, if there are any?
LS: I mean, we have many plans, but for now, we want to concentrate on presenting this album to as many people as possible. In fact, we are going on tour soon. I’m flying in a week to Europe. We will be playing in front of a different audience this time. We will be on tour with DragonForce and Amaranthe, and we are very excited about that, just for new people to discover you, it’s almost like they discover you with what you are now. So, hopefully, we can show our music at its best during this tour. We have great plans for this year, and most importantly, this year we started working with a management company that was out there for a while and very experienced in this world of metal, especially. It’s also a management company that wanted to work with us for a while now. It just didn’t work out. It wasn’t the right time, I believe. But yeah, the passion that these people brought feels like fresh air. Like, hey, you know, people do believe in us and they wanna grow together, and they have the ways to maybe introduce our music to people or places that never even discovered us or never even heard about us, you know? So, we are hoping for the best and we know no matter what, it’s a good experience and it’s a good journey. Of course, for the future in general, we have a lot of plans, but we need to see how this year is gonna play out for Infected Rain. The first, of course, and most important being, because of the album, people show you the reaction for the album, with how many people show up at your shows, how many people support, stream, comment, all those little things are very, very important for a career of a musician. So we are hoping that our audience knows that, and it can help even with just as small as a share, a like, a comment. If you can do more than come to our shows, and support with what you can, because seriously, all those numbers, unfortunately, those are the numbers that people look into, and those numbers bring the band either back or forward {laughs}. We do depend a lot on our audience.
mxdwn: Definitely makes sense. So, “PAURA” utilizes different languages, I hope I didn’t completely butcher that pronunciation, how did that decision come along and was it important for you to be inclusive of other languages?
LS: The song “PAURA” has an Italian intro. Paura means fear. The reason I chose to name it in Italian and to have this intro in Italian, the song is in English. The reason behind that is because my entire family lives in Italy, and my family moved there when I was a teenager. Okay. Me, myself, I spent years there. I finished high school and did three years of university in Rome. I have beautiful memories about Italy. My family stayed, and up until this day, they live there in northern Italy. Now, I didn’t stay, I moved back to Moldova to my friends and my career to continue, and that’s how we created Infected Rain and so on. Now, of course, I would often visit, and I still often visit between shows, on tour and stuff like that. Now, long ago when I still used to live in Italy, my sister, my baby sister, I’m the oldest, she gave me a book, a small little book that was a nonfiction book just about fear and how it impacts our lives and certain tricks of what to do and how to deal with it. The book is in Italian. I think, I read it so many times now, the writer is also Italian, I never actually thought about this. I never actually looked into it. I don’t know if it’s a translated book or not, but it’s a book I tend to revisit often because I do understand that no matter how strong we are, no matter how good we feel in this moment of our life, we all have fears. Some of these fears actually are in the way of our success, of our happiness, in whatever regarding work, family, I don’t know, it can be as easy as just becoming healthier for yourself or whatever, right? I wanted to write about fears because I felt that often I fall into fear’s trap and it is in the way of my life. I wanted to write that also as an homage to my family and what they are now. They’re all Italian citizens now, and they speak Italian way better than their own language, and especially to my sister, that in that moment she gave me that book. I remember not even reading it right away, but when I did read it, it was the perfect moment, the moment that I needed to have that information in front of me, and it’s like that with music, it’s like that with so many things out there, books, movies, friendships. We sometimes don’t even know that we need something like that — faith, coincidence, universe, whatever it is, something is bringing that to us and hopefully we are aware enough to see it and learn from it. Now, that’s why I wrote the intro in Italian, it doesn’t rhyme. It’s just basically what fear is in Italian. Then the song itself is actually one of my favorite songs. It is a continuation of the song “NEVER TO RETURN” if you pay close attention to it, certain melodies are repeating even though the lyrics are completely different. Yeah, That’s what “PAURA” is. I hope it makes a lot of people think about, hey, what is really, what is my fear? Because we have fears, all of us, small and big ones.
mxdwn: I think it’ll have that effect. I kind of did notice that, but I wasn’t too sure if it was just kind of similar because I didn’t want to be like, oh, it’s similar to this song, because it does have its own feel though too, but that’s super interesting. I think it’s beautiful how it starts off in Italian. I think it really gave it kind of, I don’t know, a special kind of feel, for lack of a better way of putting it.
LS: I’m sorry to interrupt you.
mxdwn: No, it’s okay.
LS: I speak some languages because of my upbringing and I always thought that it would be cool to mix it up a little bit or to have parts in other languages in a song like that. It never felt right, so far, and up until this moment to do so. Also, I don’t want people to feel, in a way, I don’t know, offended that I chose a language over the other because I speak four languages, give or take on the same level. I also understand, a little bit, two more that are different and I’m losing those two because I don’t use them. I used to speak those just as good. It’s just like you have to use the languages to speak them and with time, certain languages get priority and I love languages in general. I really do. If I could learn more languages and I had time for that, I would’ve. I know how important it is for you to understand people and to be able to respond to people, and in this moment it felt right because of it’s history and that specific book, you know, I don’t know what will happen in the future with other languages if I’m gonna use it or not.
mxdwn: Yeah, it makes sense. I’m very jealous. I always wish that I could speak more than one language.
LS: Well you speak the universal one though.
mxdwn: Yeah, I know, but there’s some beautiful languages out there and I also do appreciate language like that, even though I don’t know any other ones, so it’s always been something that I wish I had more versatility in, but that’s okay. It’s really been a pleasure.
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