Welcome to the home of fire and ice! – Introducing: Mezmerized

Mezmerized was founded by Anna Király and Oliver Mudra in 2019. The two of them started to work together the same year and soon found their unique style in this popular, modern yet heavy sounding genre. So the idea of a band came to light pretty quickly and the work has begun. Mezmerized entered the studio at the end of summer 2019 to record their first single “Desire”, that got released with an official video in October the same year.

Mezmerized now opens new doors into a genre of the outstanding combination of electronic sounds, catchy melodies, and heavy riffs. Welcome to the home of fire and ice, take a seat ladies and gentlemen and let’s read our exclusive interview with Anna & Oliver!

Beginnings:

Anna: Oliver and I met in 2019 and pretty soon we realized we had common interests in music. The idea of the band came to light very quickly. In the beginning, we thought about changing the direction of Sorronia but honestly, a new direction meant a new beginning for us and so we wanted to start it from zero. After that point, we had a clear vision for the new band and the work started on new songs and everything just went from there. I left behind Sorronia and Ideas because I felt I wanted to do something different. Something that had nothing to do with the past and I really wanted to do it with people whose vision was similar to mine.

Oliver: Anna roughly described to me what she had in mind musically. I already had a bunch of ideas recorded at home, so after working a little more on them, I showed the first demos to her and she was like: “Okay, you’re in.” Ha-ha! That’s pretty much how it started. It still works the same way, only this time instead of “Okay, you’re in” it’s more like “Okay, you can stay”. (laughs)

Behind the name:

Anna: We actually wanted to have a cool sounding name. Nothing more than that! (laughs) As far as I remember, the word “mesmerize” came from Oliver, and then we went from there!

Oliver: As I recall, Anna was in Finland when the name hit me from out of nowhere. I really liked the sounding of the word so I immediately called her and I was like “hey, how about Mesmerized, it sounds pretty cool”. I’m almost sure we went with the double-Z spelling half-jokingly, but it definitely gives some kind of modern edge to it, I guess! (laughs)

Inspiration:

Oliver: The thing that really inspires me is the fact that I’m allowed to write catchy songs. (smiles) I always hated when metal elitists said that you have to play a certain way or that you have to have a certain song structure to be real metal. That’s bullshit! No matter what era of rock/metal music I think about, it’s always been about great songs for me. Whether it’s Black Sabbath, Van Halen, Led Zeppelin, or something from more recent times, like Five Finger Death Punch, Nickelback, or Ghost; these bands are all about great, well-written songs. Writing catchy and memorable songs is the new anti-trend anyway. (laughs) But yeah, the thing that inspires me the most is the music itself.

Anna: Absolutely, as he says! (laughs) Catchy songs what we are going for! The same goes for the vocal melodies, I write them that way! I actually like a lot of different styles and bands. It is always hard to choose. But my metal interest started with Nightwish back in the day and from there, my world opened. I love film scores, folk music, classical music, many bands from different metal genres. It depends on my mood what I listen to.

Teamwork:

Oliver: I usually come up with riffs and a basic song structure first. I give the song some basic drum lines as well and start to write the synth layers. That gives Anna a solid foundation for the vocal melodies and the lyrics. We have a pretty neat workflow when it comes to songwriting.

Anna: It is going very easily! I basically come up with the vocal melody ideas first to the rough demos, then write the lyrics to them.

Inspiration behind Electrolyze:

Oliver: The fact that back in October 2019 we already knew that there’s going to be a finished Mezmerized album in 2020. Obviously, there are tons of things you have to take care of in order to even think about releasing an album, but that’s the beauty of it: walking along the road towards your ultimate goal. Also, I feel really lucky to have those people around us we are currently working with. They are a significant part of this journey and their enthusiasm towards the band can always give me a huge boost of inspiration.

Anna: The fact that there is always something to work on makes you feel energized. I can’t stop thinking, I have plans all the time and that inspires me the most. Working on the debut album was a very great journey, I enjoyed every minute of it. It was pretty exciting to work on our own deadlines and see the whole thing come together. It is very special for sure.

Oliver: Getting GG6 on a board is a good one! (laughs) But only because it was so damn simple. We had about 2/3 of the song Cyanide in the demo version done. I remember we were both sitting on the couch in our home studio and were like “damn, this song could use some growling parts from Henrik” (we’re both fans of Amaranthe). And Anna was like “yeah, totally! I’m gonna reach out to him”. I think it took like 30 minutes from that point up until Henrik said “okay motherfuckers, I’ll do it!” Haha! (laughs) I did the growling parts on the demo to give him a rough idea about rhythm and stuff. He only had one request: he insisted to do his signature “ÜÜÄÄÄÄÄ!” as much as he felt like. (laughs)
Anna: He was absolutely awesome! I remember saying that I would reach out to him and Oliver didn’t really take it seriously until the point I told him “Oh, by the way, Henrik said okay”. (laughs)

COVID-19:

Anna: It is a very unfortunate situation! We had international tour plans, we were discussing the details with the main act but then COVID-19 came. We are very sad about it but for sure, we will make up for it! (smiles)

Oliver: Other than the tour cancellation Anna mentioned above, and some studio works being rescheduled, this whole thing doesn’t really have any significant effects on the band. Most of our plans are scheduled for 2021 and not 2020 anyway. Now, if COVID-19 will still be a thing in 2021, that’s gonna be a whole different story, unfortunately.

Online concert:

Anna: The idea in itself is really great to give something to people, but honestly, it is not the real deal.

Oliver: To be honest, to this day I have not seen one online show that managed to even come close to a real concert. When it’s an actual live stream, it’s almost guaranteed to have an awful, shitty sound and weird camera work. It doesn’t feel like you are in the first row of a metal festival, to say the least.
When it’s performed on a stage, like an actual live concert without a crowd, it may work if it has the essential audiovisual post-production work put into it. We were actually contemplating doing the latter one, we’ll see what the future might hold.