Interview
Listen to the interview . . . WMA
Check
out Hardrock Haven's first interview of 2006 with Yan Leviathan
and Lance King from the band Avian.
Band
bio: Guitarist Yan Leviathan, who had been in several local bands
over the years, but never anything remotely serious, formed Avian
in November of 2002 after being inspired by Progpower III in Atlanta.
After getting home from the weekend he began writing songs. Within
a couple of weeks, he had managed to come into contact with some
influential people in the metal world and began recording the
songs in a studio in Phoenix, AZ.
Yan
chose the name Avian from his all time favorite book: The Gardens
of Rama. In the book, the Avian is a bird like creature that is
extremely intelligent and kind-hearted. Avian's debut album is
titled "From The Depths Of Time" and is a concept album
about "Guardians" out there monitoring us: "Where
are they now; They're out there watching!".
To Yan's huge luck, when negotiating studio fees with the owner,
Don Salter of The Saltmine, Don had mentioned that he was a good
friend of David Ellefson, formerly of Megadeth (now F5). Don set
up a meeting between Yan and David and it went very well. Yan
gave David a rough demo of a few songs, and a couple of days later,
David called and said that he would like to play bass on those
songs and also co-produce them. Obviously Yan was very excited
and the guys went into the studio the following week, bringing
along the drummer of David's F5 project, David Small. Over the
next few months, December 2002 - September 2003, they were in
and out of the studio recording the songs.
As
a matter of fact, David was the one who introduced Yan to Lance
King (ex-Balance Of Power, currently Pyramaze), who signed on
to do all of the vocals. In the summer of 2004, Lance introduced
Yan to keyboardist Jonah Weingarten (Pyramaze). After a few discussions
via email and phone, Jonah flew to Arizona and recorded all of
his keyboard tracks in 7 days at Yan's home studio; Yanmonster
Studios.
In
the fall of 2004, members of Avian relocated to Atlanta, Georgia.
Avian is currently hard at work on the follow up to "From
The Depths Of Time" which will be recorded in February of
2006 with famed producer Tommy Hansen (Helloween).
Additionally,
the band is preparing for their debut performance at the world
famous Progpower USA Festival. Avian will take part in the pre-show
party along with Dreamscape, Orphaned Land, and Outworld, on Thursday
September 15, 2005.
Intromental
Management will begin shopping "From The Depths Of Time"
in June 05 with an anticipated release date of early fall 2005.
Musically
Avian is a nice blend of old school heavy metal (think Iron Maiden!)
and the power metal / true metal of nowadays (such as Hammerfall,
Edguy and the likes). Strong songwriting, great guitar/keyboard
parts and brilliant vocals. With "From The Depths Of Time"
to be released in 2005, the heavy metal scene for sure hasn't
stopped bringing great bands to the world of music - Avian being
one of the very best.
