Rising Dream: In-depth Interview With Goran Paleka

By Mikhail Madnani, July 13th 2011, Mumbai, India

1. Hi Goran, Thank you so much for taking the time for this interview.

Well, it's my pleasure to have this chance.It's good to find new channels of communication and new people to talk to.

2. Give us a brief history of Rising Dream.

We came to be around the end of 2004 as a collective of musicians and friends previously acquainted via other bands and projects. It was only in the next couple of years that we found our true sound and direction of what came to be known as Rising Dream, which took several band members out of the game. That wasn't because of differences in taste or break-ups but because of personal reasons that did not permit time to the band. It is a brief and turbulent history with ups and downs as always, but tons of shining moments too. All In all, it was a great basis for current line-up and band direction and it gave us a lot of experience and a lot of friends.

We released our first album entitled "Failed Apocalypse" in August 2008 and supported it with a tour and summer festival shows. For a year and a half now we have been writing new material with the new front woman Ines, and now we're off to do several summer open air festivals in Europe and prepare for the new album together with producer Rickard Bengtsson (Arch Enemy, Testament, and Firewind). It will be released sometime during spring 2012 after which we'll set out on some serious touring.

3. The band has gone through numerous line-up changes since the beginning. Do you foresee the current line up sticking together?

It's not that much of a problem when you lose an instrumentalist in that early stage, but when you have issues with the main vocalist, you have a problem. I'm sure after all the altercations we have a steady long lasting line-up. Because many good and big things are upon us and we feel the excitement about the future and the new album. Ines is a great vocalist and adds new power to the band. I'm sure she'll make a mark on Rising Dream's future.

4. I first heard about Rising Dream last year when I reviewed your album Failed Apocalypse and when I heard you opened for Iron Maiden in 2008. You have also opened for Helloween in 2004 at your first gig. Can you describe your experiences playing live and along metal bands like Stratovarius, Destruction and Amon Amarth?

Yeah, and it was a great review. Thanks. It's kind of a treat to play with those bands 'cause we were all following their work in the past and now we have chance to taste their every day routine and production. It's also a great way to reach their audience and promote Rising Dream to different kinds of fan bases. You get to meet some band members and not others. For example, we only met Stratovarius / Helloween / Deep Purple for several minutes, but we toured with Destruction. So you see different levels on which one can make a connection. Anyway, we hope to continue to support names like those, one way or another.

5. You had a very successful "failed tour" in support of your past effort. The tour took you through festivals in Europe as well playing with the likes of Deep Purple. Give us the highlights of the shows and any interesting stories from the tour.

Touring is a great way to love and to hate your band members at once haha. It was a great time to be in the band. Each day is different from the others with all the travelling and waiting. Similarly with the festivals you have great crowds and bands all together on some random fields, quite boozed up and having fun. Sounds good, right? Haha.

I have tons of good memories from the tour and one sticks out at the moment. It was when we were somewhere in Italy at this rest house / petrol station. Our keyboardist Ivan loved his green camo trousers and camo shirt and he stuck with 'em all the time. So as we had to continue our journey we found out that Ivan is missing. We were waiting but he was nowhere in sight. We were quite worried by now but then he just popped out from somewhere and looked like he was in shock. As he explained, he was pressed to the wall, frisked, bullied and interrogated by the Italian military officer backed by the whole bus of his colleagues. They asked him, "Where are you from?!? What's your unit?!? Where are your comrades?!?..." all because of his green camo outfit. Now that's something you don't expect when you're on tour. or do you? Haha

6. The band has come a long way from the first self released CD to a major label deal and opening for huge metal acts. What would you say has changed and what has remained the same with the band?

A whole lot has changed music wise and business wise with us. Everything is on a larger scale now and we're heading towards an even more professional approach. All those support shows have helped us spread the band name so we can now focus on our music even more. On the other hand, our relationship within the band remained unchanged; we're still great friends and understanding band mates. Some of us have families so we've broadened our friendship even more. They're also great drinking buddies.

7. How did the deal with Dallas Records come through? At one point you were the only Croatian band signed to a major label.

Well, there were two signed metal bands to the same label at that time and it was sort of a breakthrough on the Croatian metal scene. We were quite persistent with the idea to release our debut and Dallas Records seemed as a good opportunity. They were opened for new genres and new ideas at the time so there were no bigger obstacles there.

I'm not sure on what level can we maintain our cooperation now days as they're only regional and we have wanted to go international for some time now. Let's wait and see.

8. Tell me about the songwriting process involved in a Rising Dream album.

There's always a creational core in the band - guitars and keys. Most of the instrumental ideas emerge from there. Then we shape it and punch it with the rhythm section. Sure enough everyone has a say in this process. I've written most of the lyrics on the first album, but now we have more diversity in the lyric writing process. The songwriting process for "Failed Apocalypse" lasted a long time as we had no deadlines for a debut. Now we've shortened the creative period so the songs are also more compact and more energetic. We're quite excited about the new material.

9. How was the reception for your current promo single that features 3 songs?

Right now we digitally released only one of the three new promo songs. This one's called "Religion for the Weak". We think it's a good song and we have received positive responses from our audience so far. Soon we'll release two more promo songs to give everyone an idea of our new sound with our new female singer. We expect good reception because we now know how the crowd reacts to our songs. We enjoy playing them live and our audiences enjoy them as well.

10. What are your plans after the new album is released? Any tours planned out?

To be exact, we're entering the studio in September so the album should be out sometime during spring 2012. We hope Rickard (Producer) will bring out the best of us and our sound. We're looking forward to it.

Serious touring is our main goal after the release. We already have many interesting engagements for the summer of 2012. We plan to promote the album as much as we can and as far as we can, so stay tuned!

11. Leave a message for your fans here.

First of all, thanks to everyone that has supported us this far. We're alive and kicking and we'll bring you a new dose of Rising Dream licks and screams soon enough. We're excited about the new album and hope you'll enjoy it as much as we do. Stay tuned to our website and check us out live whenever you can. Cheers!

Check out Rising Dream's official website.

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