DOL AMMAD – DOL THEETA // electronicARTmetal

Magic Fire Music : Hello Thanasis, how are you? I’m happy to talk to you again for this new interview.

Thanasis : Hey Cedric! I am fine, I am currently under the air-condition trying to cool myself, it’s ridiculously hot in here, like 35 degrees! I am also happy to catch up with you again

Magic Fire Music : Before talking about the new album, I’m gonna ask you: how is Greece these days?

Thanasis : Apart from extremely hot, Greece is a mess these days… Things have calmed down a bit after the recent second elections that resulted in a co-operative government of 3 political parties but we face serious social and financial problems. Apart from extreme unemployment, reductions in salaries and pensions, shortage of medical supplies in hospitals and pharmacies, we also witness a big rise on social and racial violence…

Magic Fire Music : Your country is facing a terrible crisis. Were you afraid concerning the release of your album under those circumstances?
…

I was drinking my regular gallons of milk when suddenly I was interrupted by a Facebook request… Thankfully it was my good friend Cedric from Magic Fire Music with a great bunch of questions for a new interview…

Magic Fire Music : Hi Thanasis, how are you? It is our second interview with you. That deserves to be celebrated! What happened for you since the release of Dol Theeta?

Thanasis Lightbridge : Hey Cedric! Nice to talk with you again for Magic Fire Music! Well after the release of “The Universe Expands” by Dol Theeta we focused in completing the release of the Dol Ammad EP “Winds Of The Sun” with some very special tracks and also to put together a nice Videoclip for the main song “Winds Of The Sun”. Apart from that I am finishing my second master’s degree in music/visuals technology. I also did some productions to local bands and visuals in the concerts of a retro-jazz project.

Magic Fire Music : The EP of Dol Ammad has just been released. Why did you choose to release a digital version of that EP and not a CD? …

Dol Ammad & Theeta interview

Your biography has been covered in your ProgArchives profile so let’s bypass the biography details. But why did you choose those two names and which bands were you influenced by ?

I was looking for some strange-looking and strange sounding names back in 2001 when I started with Dol Ammad. It appeared to me inside the game “Descent 3” which had a level with a fuel refinery called “Dol Ammad”. I then did a little research and “Dol” is a Tolkien word meaning “castle”. “Ammad” is probably an Asian word meaning “Pillars”. Along the way I discovered that I needed at least two more projects to explore my experiment of “electronica art metal”. I decided that the next 2 projects will also have the “Dol” word in front of them and this started with Dol Theeta in 2008. “Theeta” is the eight letter in the Greek alphabet and is the first letter of my name. I choose it mainly because I liked how it sounds.

Let’s start with Dol Ammad. Please tell us more about your first album Star Tales from 2004

“Star Tales” was a big checkpoint in my career, it was my debut album and a product of lots of hard work and …