1.Where are you from, when was band formed and who formed the band, and back then who were your main influences in the music.?
OK. Firsty I wanna to thank You for Your interest in Tvangeste. It's nice to know we have a worldwide support.
We are from Russia. Small town called Kaliningrad near the Baltic Sea.
Tvangeste was formed in May 1997 by Michael Chirva 'Miron'.


2.Tell us little about the line up,who are the band members and since the beginning did you changed the line-up and why.Do you have line up problems,and is it hard to find the right people to play that kind of music...?
For nowdays Tvangeste consists of:
Michael Chirva - guitar/vocals
Nikolay Kazmin - guitars. Good guitarplayer with the excelent feelings of melody and speed technique.
He joined Tvangeste in 1997 and with his enter we count the begin of Tvangeste history.
Victoria Koulbachnaja - keyboards. She is a student of Moscow Conservatory. Also she plays in
Dis Pater (good doom/gothic metal) and Romowe Rikoito (gothic). Joined us in 1999.
Vano Mayorov - basses. Very talented guy with extraordinary undestanding how our rhitmic parts have to sound.
Before Tvangeste membership was in Divese (death metal).
and finally Natalia Chirva. She is the youngest Tvangeste member. Joined us this year ( march 2001).
She brought alot of interesting dark themes and her minds and thoughts will bring alot of new to Tvangeste sound.

It's realy hard to find somebody with metal brains, good music skills and his/hers own instrument in our small
town so it was alot of troubles with Tvangeste building. There's no good drummer so we have to play with "dead drummer" - drum machine.
Vanoe is our drum parts programmer and we could call him "Tgvangeste rhytm heart"

3.Who gave the name to the band and did you change the name,what does it means and does it fits in the music you play?
The name "Tvangeste" have given by Miron in 1996 even before final gathering of present members.
Tvangeste was the small Prussian dwelling destroyed by christians in 1255. They built on the ashes of proud nation their
castle. Its mane was Koenigsberg and it was germany territory up to 1945 when Russian Army kicked Hitler's ass. From that
times Koenigsberg was renamed to Kaliningrad...our native town. We live in this Great Land, we breath its air and we
proudly call our band Tvangeste as the sign of Connection between Great Past and Nowdays.

4.Tell us little about your music,who writes the music,who writes the lyrics and what are your lyrics about.Since the beginning did you changed your music stile....Who are you main music influences.What is your favorite song that you made...
Oh oh...it's hard to answer who write...all Tvangeste members bring to our style the piece of soul, the part of mind and heart. All of us have defferent favorites in metal (and not only) music. We have no one or two main band to be influenced with...I like Rhapsody nd Children of Bodom, Nikolay likes Covenant and Vivaldi, Victoria - Cradle of Filth, Vano - Morbid Angel and Natalia (the new keyboarder) likes Steve Vai...Favorite song we made...hmm...let me think...In my mind it's "From Nameless Oracle".
This composition is closest to my imagination and my point of view on metal music. But I'm not satisfaed with our songs...we can do much better I believe.
Our lyrics write me and Vano. our songs tell You
about love and hate, life and death of Prussian Nation...as You know almost
all of prussians were killed by christians in XII Century...
All our minds in this album is our tribute to Brave History of our Land...
Sorrow about Great Nation exterminated for the name of "goodness" and "love"...

5.Tell us little about gigs,how often do you have gigs,does many people come to see you play live,do you have some special act when you are on stage, what was your best gig...?
We have a shows not frequently 'cause it's too expensive for us. Yes. We pay fopr our shows our own money and never earn anything!
All our show are kinda theatre with metal sound. Stage in dark blue and red colors, monks with the torches, knights fighting (we cooperate with
"Baltic Raven" pagan organisation and its warriors hep us with shows, fire and pyrothechnics.
Every show we made gathered about 300 metaheads and it's good result for our region. Our best gig was in 4th of April 2000.

6.What about your local underground scene,can you tell us little about it,are there many people who listens that kind of music and support the underground and are there many metal and core bands...?
Hmm...we have alot of undegraund people. Mainly they are hardcore fans but we have many guys (gals) in metal too.
There are not many hard bands here. I don't mean hardcore...he he...this kind of music is very popuar in kaliningrad.
As about death/back/dom/gothic we have seeral great bands like DIS PATER (nice doom with gothic influences, ROMOWE RIKOITO (gothic).
By the way our keyboarder Victoria plays with both of these bands...

7.What do you do beside that you play in the band,can you earn money by playing your music?
Unfortunately we can't earn money for our music playing...I hope we'l get the good level in world metal charts and wi be able  to write music, play shows andenjoy it...but now we are workers. Every Tvangeste member has own business.

8.Are you religious,do you believe in Satan or God and what is your opinion about religion...
One of my favorite questions. The main part of our ideology (Tvangeste has their own points of view) is religion question. We aren't with any God and be sure we aren't satan's servant. We are People with clear minds and pure souls without alien blends ike   christianity, buddhism etc...we beieve in us as in Great Nature's Creations - PEOPLE! You can visit our website ( http://www.tvangeste.com ) for mre detail about our ideology.

9.Do you plan to made music video some day,and what kind of video you would
like to made...?
Sure. Final shootings are over and we are waiting for our firs video son . It will be available on our server and our abel's server
(   http://www.valgalder.com             ). It's video for "From Nameless Oracle" (he he as I said it's my favorite=).
It's hard to explain what kind of video it will be....I wanna know it myself... SELANI studio (Poland) promosses us
to make video too.

10.Do you know something about my country(Yugoslavia)and would you like to
play some day in my country???What do you think about current political situation on my country...?
Sure I know Your country and Tvangeste will be glad to play for Your metalheads smeday...I know Your Land lives not good days now  and I wish to All Yugoslavian People to all Yur nation be stronger and be sure You'll see the rise of Your Country!

11.What is your opinion about multination corporations.What do you think
about political corruption?
You know...I live in Russia where all politics are one big corruption. Mafia. Sure I feel they over me and I feel their decision that
make my life worse. I hate them but they are POWER and I hate this power...unfortunately we can do nothing to change Russian crisis and make
our life better. Too many stupids in our government....sad but true...I hate corruption but it's reality of our days.

12.Do you like horror and gore movies....what is your favorite...?
No I don't like tht kind of movies...I like educational films and...he he...Jackie Chan.

13.Texno,house and other shity computer music have taken over the world.What do you think about that kind of music,and do you think is there place for metal in future?
Techno, house and others aren't music in my opinion. All of them are kinda...hmm...moods...rhytmes but NOT MUSIC!
And I realy sorry too many people listen it and even don't know who're Bach, Paganini, Mozart, Vagner...

14.What is your opinion about commercial music scene and bands such as
Slipknot,Korn,Deftones........
If they live and create music it means somebody wants to listen them. So let them be...I don't think commercial music is too bad if
musician do his (her) work properly, foowing his (her) feelings. If they do what they wanna do why not?


15.What is the must important thing in music for you : brutality,speed,melody,technique,lyrics....metal and core in future.
I beieve all these things are MAIN in music creation...
This question is the same like: "What color of the rainbow is main?" for me. I'd let a chance to all of them.

16.Favorite drink.???do you use drugs and what is your opinion about drugs...
I don't drink and smoke. I don't use any drugs too. But I think if somebody wants to kill himself, to kill his life, his
mind. What wants to breat hearts of his relatives...welcome...I'm not against drugs but I don't use it.

17.Plans for the future...
As far as we signer to VALGALDER RECORDS (Norway) we have alot of plans. But main is to record our new album. Recording will begin in July 2001 in Poland (SELANI studio) where
many famous poish bands were recorded 9Christ Agony, Lux Occulta, Behemoth, Vader). This album wil be written with the help
of Symphonic Orchestra and Real Choir. We hope it wi find the best responses from al over the World and we'll be able to
pay somewhere abroad.

18.Say something for the end...
At first I wanna to thank You for this interesting interview and to wish You and Your zine all the best.
I wanna to thank all of people who are interested in Tvangeste music. I hope someday we'l be able to visit
Your country and play show. In the end of this long and interesting talk I wanna to tell You guys and girls.
Let freedom enter to You souls. Be cear from aliens mind 'cause You are PROUD NATION! Clear Your
minds from other's thoughts and BE YOURSELF as You are...Your God in Your Minds and this God is You!
With Friendly regrads, Michael/TVANGESTE

19.Contac info :
http://www.tvangeste.com          (Tvangeste officia website)
http://www.valgalder.com           (Valgalder records website)
post@tvangeste.com            

POST:
Valgalder Records
c/o Marius Olaussen
Prestlia 31
N-3520 JEVNAKER
NORWAY
(russian post is too slow so I hate to admit I can't trust it. Feel free to write to Valgader Records. These guys wil forward all
letters directly to us thru UPS).