1. Hello my friend, pleasure to have you on Rotten Pages ´zine. How are you doing today? Let us set the scene first. Where do we find you right now? Please describe your surroundings.
Hello, the pleasure is all ours! We are currently preparing for our next live performance, so you find us in our rehearsal room. Gear everywhere, lots of cables on the floor… Creative chaos in the air :)
2. Death Metal as a genre is one of the most complex genres in music. In my mind. More generally, why you chose to have a Death Metal sound? It is part of yourselves?
Definitely. The album is very complex, as it incorporates not only brutal technical riffs and death growls but also beautiful clean singing and atmospheric ethereal electronics. The final result turned out to be exactly what we had envisioned from the very beginning, so yes, this is us.
3. Speaking of your debut album “Where Do You Come From”, how did the recording process take place and are there any memorable anecdotes to mention?
The recording and production process was, just as the final product, also very intricate. All guitar and vocal parts have been recorded at “Pepinio Records” in Sofia, Bulgaria. It was a great pleasure to work there with the help of our good friend Petar Bratanov while the electronic parts were created by Ivan Shopov (Cooh). The drums were recorded in Poland by Michał Łysejko (Dieth, ex-Decapitated). The final mixing and mastering took place at Zed Studio, also in Poland. Managing all this was challenging, but very rewarding in the end.
4. Your music sounds complex, so I guess it took quite some time to build everything! Tell us more about it!
Yes, it did. The musical mastermind behind everything is Anton Dimitrov (Tony Flo), the lead guitarist of the band. He was the one to spark the flame about 10 years ago together with Milko Dyulgerov, the harsh vocalist, as their previous band ITSI had come to an end. However, they had already piled up quite a lot of ideas so they continued their work. The creation of the album took about 7 years with Tony being the main composer and musical architect. Milko contributed with the harsh vocal parts. The next key milestone was the joining of Borislava Yordanova, who wrote the beautiful clean vocal parts. All the lyrics are a joint effort of Borislava and Milko. Along the way we were joined by other talented musicians who made the band whole and completed the lineup.
5. How much time does it take to put a record together? Do you have extra material that’s left out after choosing what fits you most?
The time needed to put a track together greatly varies. We were in no rush to release the album, the main objective was to craft every riff and every phrase to our sense of perfection. Some tracks were done in a single breath while others took years to complete. There are definitely ideas which have been saved for future releases so there will be a continuation of MoGa’s story in the years to come.
6. The album tells the story of the little red alien, which is also your band mascot, who has traveled through space and time to visit different planets. Would it be possible to explain the history behind this character?
Yes, the red alien named MoGa has traveled a lot throughout the universe and has now come to our planet to get to know us. Each track of the album depicts an episode of MoGa’s journey on Earth. This concept has been laid at the foundation of the album at a very early stage. The alien experiences a plethora of feelings and emotions during his encounters with our world which are as complex as our music.
7. What do you consider the strengths of MoGa as far as musicians and your death metal craft?
Our music comes straight from the soul. We didn’t strive to mimic something which has already been established. We have intentionally strayed from the beaten path to explore uncharted musical territory. Our band lineup consists of skilled musicians of very different backgrounds. This is very helpful and allows us to replicate the sound of the record in a live situation as well as we can.
8. With so many death metal bands coming up these days, how do you manage to keep your material relevant? How challenging is it to come up with newer material?
Times change and with them of course also the tendencies in music. Tony has written the music with one thing in mind - being genuine. This is why we cannot be constrained to one specific genre of music. As long as our product is a multilayered combination of different styles we have no concerns about public reception. From what we gather the first feedback from critics and fans indicates that this approach has paid off.
9. If you had to represent Death metal with a picture, a painting, sculpture or maybe a "famous" piece of art, what would you choose?
We talked a lot about death metal being very complex. So I guess we’d need a whole art museum for what you ask :) However, if I had to answer the question with a single piece of art, then I'd mention a piano piece called Claire de Lune by Claude Debussy. It is written in an odd time signature, it defies the established laws of music at the time and it is truly experimental. This is what death metal is all about.
Another interesting thing to mention is that our album cover art is a real painting which has been created by the Bulgarian painter Bogdan Dyulgerov (who also happens to be the father of one of our vocalists). Once we saw the painting we immediately knew that this is MoGa the alien. We didn’t look for our cover art, it literally found us.
10. What is music for you? Does it bring you some new emotions or it helps you to get rid of some negative emotions?
Both, I guess. Every musician has their own approach to music. It has certainly brought a lot of joy and happiness for us but also a fair share of hardship, pain and struggle. At the end of the day, we are very satisfied with what we do and what it gives us.
11. Do you often play gigs in Sofia, and how does it occur? Is it in small bars, or is there some bigger "official" concert places for metal bands? Is the crowd numerous during your live appearances?
We released our album at the end of October 2023 and played it live for the first time on Nov. 2nd, 2023 at a well-known club and concert venue in our home town of Sofia. We were thrilled that we had a full house that night. There are a few shows coming up, most of them in similar venues.
12. Sofia is known for having a quite developed commercial metal scene. Would you say it's rather something positive or negative concerning the influences it could have on the deep underground?
Without the deep underground the commercial metal scene wouldn’t exist. Everyone has started small, including the most commercially successful bands. We are happy to see the genre is growing and the metal scene is generally expanding. Of course we are delighted to be a part of this expansion.
13. Could you tell us more about the metal scene in Sofia? Is this a quite good state on a metal point of view, and were there good Death metal bands to check out in the past?
Sofia has an interesting underground metal scene. There are definitely some cool bands to check out, especially in recent years. If you want to dig into the past, then check out ITSI, the band which preceded MoGa and ultimately laid the groundwork for our current formation.
14. Are there some parts of the world that really impress you due to the quality of the bands coming from the same area? I mean are you involved with what happens in South America, Asia, etc...???
It’s hard to name one specific “metal hotspot”, we appreciate every piece of good music we hear no matter where it comes from.
15. What does the future hold for MoGa? Is it in your plans to release any new material?
We are certain that there will be more encounters with our little red alien friend. We already have some new material for upcoming releases so we definitely haven't seen the end of this story yet.
16. Finally, is there anything else you would like to share with your fans and the readers of this interview?
Stay true to metal and rock on! And of course I would encourage all your readers to check out our band links and give our album a listen.