Interview
ДИСКОГРАФИЯ SHIPS FLY UP
2024 - Apostasy (album)
2024 - Apostate (single)
2024 - Only Lovers Left (single)
2023 - Dawn of Sunset (single)
2023 - Genesis (maxi-single)
2022 - Rivers Without Time (album)
2022 - 14 (single)
2022 - Ships Fly Home (single)
2021 - M. I. L. Y. (single)
2020 - Love and Freedom of the Great Ocean (album)
2019 - Ghost Kingdom (album)
2018 - Dream Maker (album)
2017 - Journey to Ranucan (album)
Interview with Egor Fedotov for the Portuguese music webzine Hintf
2019
Egor participated in creating the soundtrack for the MMORPG Royal Quest and composed over 15 tracks for this game. In an interview with the developers, he spoke about the music‑writing process, how he embarked on the path of a composer, early setbacks, his first rock band, and much more.
Brief background on the interviewer and the publication:
Miguel Ribeiro (full name: António Miguel Barbosa Ribeiro) is a musician and composer, and one of the founders of Hintf and the Esperança Animal association.
The Hintf magazine has been in existence since 2010. It serves as a platform for promoting metal music, featuring interviews, reports, reviews, and news. The publication partners with major record labels, including Nuclear Blast, Primordial Records, Raising Legends Records, Season of Mist, and others.
The magazine is published in Portuguese. Below is the English translation:
Hintf: Many thanks for this interview. Please tell us how and when it all began…
EF (Egor Fedotov): Hi, Miguel. First of all, I’d like to thank you for your interest in me and my work. I’ve been making music for over ten years. My first compositions appeared when I was about sixteen or seventeen (I’m thirty‑one now). At that time, I was a very gloomy teenager who loved dark music such as black metal, doom metal, or death metal. Of course, I composed similarly dark music. My friends and I put together a metal band, and we played in local clubs. A few years later, I decided to leave the band and tried to find myself, because that question was very important to me. I didn’t find happiness in ordinary life and kept making music. I started writing soundtracks for computer and mobile games, as well as for advertising and video trailers. This was a big new step for me as a composer. I had the opportunity to work on some significant projects that gave me a lot of experience. It became my job for years. However, my soul was still unsatisfied. I couldn’t express myself in my work the way I wanted to. One day, I decided to fully realise my musical plans — and that’s when the Ships Fly Up project was born.
Hintf: Ships Fly Up — what does it mean? Is there any special reason for this name?
EF: It’s quite hard for me to answer this question, but I’ll try. The project’s name came naturally. I can share a little secret about how I write music and name songs. First, I let myself understand that the music and the names already exist. They exist either within my nature or somewhere in a parallel universe. I don’t know exactly where, but it doesn’t matter. I simply have a rough idea of what I want to achieve musically. I pick up my guitar and try to clear my mind of all extraneous thoughts. Then I start improvising and playing some motifs and melodies. If I manage to enter a certain state of detachment and let my heart guide me, then the music is born. The most important thing is to catch the main motif. This motif is true magic to me, because it really comes from an unknown space. I assume this space is a universal field of information. After that, I just need to do the usual musical work on the arrangement.
The project’s name was born in much the same way, but without a guitar. The key element is to fully trust your heart and let it lead you to your destination. It may sound strange, because it’s hard for me to put into words what I feel when I see the image of my project. It’s beyond the five senses, and that’s likely why I prefer to write instrumental music. I can only add that ships are flying upward, and they can take aboard all the brave souls who want to meet unknown worlds. There’s a ship for everyone.
Hintf: Any major lineup changes?
EF: Ships Fly Up is a one‑person project, so I don’t have any lineup changes to report. However, when I played in my old band about ten years ago, we made many lineup changes.
Hintf: What influences your music and lyrics?
EF: I’ve been influenced by various kinds of music. In the early years of my musical journey, I enjoyed bands like Dimmu Borgir, Satyricon, Burzum, Katatonia, My Dying Bride, and In Flames. Over the years, my musical tastes expanded. When I started writing music for games, I fell in love with the wonderful world of soundtracks. Perhaps it was the experience of creating soundtracks that helped me realise my ideas in Ships Fly Up. All SFU tracks are instrumental, but only one — You Can Change Everything — contains lyrics. The words in it are my attempt to tell people that no matter how bad and hard things are right now, we can always change something for the better — because each of us is a creator, and each of us has our own magical world.
My music is also influenced by my character. I have a philosophical and romantic mindset. Sometimes I can spend a long time pondering eternal questions: Who am I? Why am I here? What is the meaning of my life? These questions have always troubled me. I’m interested in the mysterious phenomena of our life, and this inspires me to write corresponding music. We know so little about ourselves and the world we live in, but when I write music, I feel authentic, I feel life, and everything falls into place.
Hintf: Could you please tell us more about your latest album, Ghost Kingdom?
EF: Ghost Kingdom is the third album, and it’s the darkest and most depressive work by Ships Fly Up. My father was very ill lately. It was a real ordeal for the whole family. It so happened that my dad passed away on the release day, March 15. He really wanted to listen to this album, but unfortunately couldn’t do so due to his poor condition. And my feelings likely reflected in the music. Thus, Ghost Kingdom is about life and death, love and hope, suffering and despair. Moreover, this album showed me worlds I couldn’t discover in everyday life. I think music is a guide to new worlds. You just need to trust it and take it by the hand.
The album is not only darker than previous works but also heavier. You can hear elements of genres such as doom metal and black metal. They emphasise the particular dark atmosphere I wanted to convey. Perhaps this was a nod to my own musical roots, when I started my musical path with dark metal many years ago. However, despite this, I tried to preserve the unique post‑rock / synth‑rock style of Ships Fly Up, which was born in the first album, Journey to Ranucan.
Hintf: What’s it like to have a post‑rock / synth‑rock band? Can you live solely from music? Or do you have another job?
EF: I don’t have a band yet. I write music alone. Sometimes I invite a sound engineer and an artist to work on my projects. I’m convinced it’s possible to live doing only music. I live that way. I’m a freelance composer. My tracks are sold on various platforms (I mean commercial music, not Ships Fly Up). To be honest, my freelance work doesn’t bring me much money. Sometimes I have to live with almost no money. But it allows me the freedom and the opportunity to do what I love. And of course, I hope everything will be fine, and I want things to get better. There’s a dream in my heart — and I’m walking toward it.
Hintf: How is the music scene in Samara?
EF: The music scene in Samara is very diverse. There are bands playing heavy metal, rock, punk, and more. Among the darker acts, I’d like to highlight Wine From Tears and Autumn Lethargy (this band, unfortunately, is no longer active, as far as I know).
Hintf: What are your plans for the future?
EF: As you know, Ships Fly Up is a one‑man band today. I’d like to create a full band and invite musicians to start performing live in the future. For this, I’ll need a bass guitarist and a drummer. So my plans are to give live concerts in different countries, including beautiful Portugal. I hope some label or people interested in collaboration will help me with that.
Hintf: What’s your opinion of Portugal?
EF: I’ve never been to Portugal. I’m sure it’s a wonderful country with many great people. I hope I’ll get the chance to visit Portugal one day. And maybe it will be a Ships Fly Up concert. Who knows?
Hintf: Please leave a final message for your fans and HINTF readers…
EF: Dear friends and listeners from Portugal and around the world, dear Hintf readers, thank you for listening to my music. My wish for you is simple, yet important, I think: Follow your heart. Try to do what you love. Be kind to the people and nature around you. As long as we, the people of Earth, are kind to one another, we will thrive on a cosmic scale. Thank you for your support, everyone. I wish you all the best.
Interviewer: Miguel B. Ribeiro
About Miguel Ribeiro
In 2010, Miguel founded Hintf Webzine — a platform for promoting metal music, featuring interviews, reports, reviews, and news. The publication partners with major record labels such as Nuclear Blast, Primordial Records, Raising Legends Records, Season of Mist, and many others. He also collaborates with various promoters, festival organisers, and radio stations.
Original interview in Portuguese is available on the Hintf Facebook page