Amateur God's Blaz Erzetic has this to say about his new record's dark sonic brew.... Q. What are the roots of your music? What are your influences? A. My conceptual influences are dark contemporary pop/rock like Mylene Farmer, All About Eve, Celtic Frost, Tiamat, Type O Negative, Sisters of Mercy, Atrocity, The Gathering, and big guns in electro like Jean Michel Jarre (Metamorphoses), Orbital, Front 242, Rammstein, Art of Noise, and Voivod. Other artists who gave me drive have nothing to do with this type of music, like Bell-Book-&-Candle, Rush, Francesca Chiara, Marjorie Biondo, and Belly. Q. How would you describe the musical foundation of Amateur God? A. The kind of music I make is a little hard to define, as it's a mixture of styles. I guess you could call it dark-quasi-gothic-semi-vocal-ambient. Although the music ventures into extremes sometimes, I wanted to keep its feet on the ground with some pop grips. Q. Who do you see as the audience for this CD? A. Probably those who are into alter, dark, and underground... the kind of people who go to shops where the main attractions on the shelves are CDs of Front 242, Die Krups, and Aphex Twin. This sort of record isn't for the Britney-Spears-and-followers audience. Q. Have you put out other records? A. I was a part of an audio-visual project called MarryAnn. The album, Intolerance, was released by Panika Records in Slovenia. I've played guitar in a few bands. But Near Life Experience is the first record I've made on my own. ***** "You can't help yourself from being carried along with it, and the instrumentals have an abundance of catchy riffs and short intersections, which are intoxicating. The way it's all been assembled is fascinating." --Modern Dance UK "Hard metallic beats, droning ambience, mild vocal sampling, mellow acoustic guitar rhythms, piano, ambient electronica, and other eclectic elements combine to create something that might be like a softer Godflesh, darker Neubauten, harsher versions of Ethereal and even New Age elements... all combining to create an eclectic blend of dark mood music." --TG Mondalf, RhythmUS