"When you listen to our music, I think what you need is med - wine mixed with honey."

Eight years after their former visit to Bulgaria, Blackmore's Night return to the capital Sofia for a completely sold-out concert in front of 4000 people on April 17, 2007. Some two weeks before the show we called the Renaissance folk rock band's masterminds - lady Candice Night (vocals, horn, flute) and her legendary companion, sir Ritchie Blackmore (guitars, mandolin, domra; ex-Deep Purple and Rainbow) - for a friendly conversation regarding friendship, freedom, music, dressing up, Eastern Europe, Helloween, Sting, Iron Maiden and football...

Vassil Varbanov: This is good night for us, in Bulgaria, but good morning to you in the USA. Where exactly are you right now?

Ritchie Blackmore: We're in New York... where all the terrorists go.

V. V.: Ritchie, are you spending most of your time in the States?

R. B.: Yes, we live here, in Long Island, but we do a lot of work in Europe. What's nice about this project is we get to play where we feel we want to go, and my favourite countries are in Europe, whereas before, with the other bands I've been in, we went where the management and the agency wanted to send us. There were some places I really didn't like, and we used to work too much... With Blackmore's Night we can work whenever we feel like it, which is nice.

V. V.: Actually now, in 2007, it's the 10th anniversary since your current band's first release, "Shadow of the Moon". During this decade one thing got clear - you two live in perfect harmony. Is this a fake impression or it's true?

R. B.: It's true.

Candice Night: Of course we have a lot of stress and pressure every day, like everyone else does, but I guess we just have a different way of dealing with it. We try to put more beauty, healing, and creativity... When we get stressed, we pick up our acoustic instruments and try to write something beautiful to escape from the stress. Besides, we're really lucky to live in a place completely surrounded by nature. We're not in the middle of a big city - we have the ocean in our backyard and the woods next to us. We kind of get involved with the wild life, and all these things have an impact on our writing. You know the music industry - we love the music part of it, but the industry part can really be stressful, so we basically just try to make our own path, our own escape from the stress. We achieve it by creating our music, which helps other people to escape from this stress, too.

V. V.: Yeah, but when I was saying harmony, it was in terms of personal relations, as both of you look very happy together. Are there people around who envy and try to destroy what you have?

R. B.: I don't think so.

C. N.: We're really private people. One of the keys is to always keep your closest friends, and we can pretty much count on ours. We like to surround ourselves with people who are positive and very like-minded, so I don't think they need to rip apart anything that we have. We all get together and enjoy each other's company and anybody who tries to do something negative we just stay away from them.

V. V.: Candice, we had the chance to talk to the German guys from Helloween about a month ago, and we discussed their track "Light the Universe" where you also sing. They're hard rocking guys, and now we have this beautiful voice of yours. Was this collaboration just a label thing or you did it with pleasure?

C. N.: It's both, actually. They were looking for somebody to sing along with them, and I know they've never done that before, so it was kind of groundbreaking. They're on the same label in Germany as we are (SPV), and they contacted the label and asked them whether they knew anybody, and one of the company representatives mentioned my name. They sent over a demo and I fell in love with the song. At first I was a little nervous, because I knew Helloween's music and I thought it's gonna be too hard for me to sing and I didn't know if my voice will work, but I really think the pairing came out beautiful. About a year later they flew to a castle where I was at and we shot the video. That's when I first met them in person and we had a great day of shooting. We got along really, really well.

V. V.: Let's focus on Bulgaria now. Do you have any memories from your first two shows here 8 years ago?

R. B.: Yes, we had a great time in Bulgaria, that's why we wanted to come back. I like Eastern European countries - whether it's Bulgaria, Romania or Hungary - so it's always interesting for us to come back.

C. N.: Yeah, we have great memories. The audiences there were so amazing, and of course, when you play in a country for the very first time you don't know whether people are gonna understand your music, but everything was perfect, both in Plovdiv and Sofia. I remember walking those cobblestone streets, and someone had brought us a bagpipe of goat skin and I was trying to play it... We actually brought home a lot of traditional songs from Bulgaria and we listen to them all the time. Now we'd like to come back and give some of our music, too.

V. V.: Your upcoming show in Sofia on April 17 is sold out already, so obviously the feelings are mutual. However, Mr. Blackmore, are you tired of people from the audience screaming: "Hey, play "Smoke on the Water" and some old stuff!", or you don't pay attention?

R. B.: Well, at the moment I'm recording "Smoke on the Water" with Helloween.

V. V.: Really!?

C. N.: Ha-ha-ha, yes, that's the answer!

R. B.: Seriously, we don't get that often. We try to keep our audiences in the 1500-2000 range - they're more kind of controlled and they're quiet when they listen to what we do. When we play to a really big audience, like 5-6000, you might get a couple of those people you mentioned. However, they know what we're doing and seem to be very respectful.

C. N.: I think any real fan of Ritchie knows that no matter if he's playing Deep Purple or Rainbow or Blackmore's Night, his standard of musicianship, skill and talent are so high that if you've come to see some amazing musicianship and great songs, Ritchie's gonna deliver.

V. V.: The music Blackmore's Night play is very much based on classical stuff, which should be even harder to play - there's this mathematic precision, you cannot improvise that much...

R. B.: On some songs - yes. It's very difficult to improvise, because improvisation comes from freedom, and a lot of our songs are very structured. I find this quite frustrating, as it's a challenge to do that. I'm used to improvising on riffs, which is easy for me, but I'm not very good at remembering rigid melodies. It's great when it comes off.

V. V.: Candice, is it true that you've met Ritchie while working for a radio station in New York?

C. N.: Yes, that's right. I was working for the largest rock station in Long Island. Deep Purple called up and said they'd like to play a charity soccer match, and we said, let's make it together. We arranged the field and met them there, and the Purple guys, especially Ritchie, said they're not that young, but our guys calmed them down. Later we found out that everything Deep Purple said was untrue and that they're very good and they beat us very badly on the field.

V. V.: Were you DJ-ing at that time?

C. N.: I was actually doing a little bit of everything - I was doing voiceovers, commercials, some production work, helping out on-air DJs... I was trying to find where my niche was. I wanted to be around music somehow, but I didn't know where I would fit in. That's when my path crossed with Ritchie's and took a completely other turn.

V. V.: Do you miss working in a radio?

C. N.: I wouldn't even enjoy the way radio is now. I enjoy the freedom the band gives us. Now we're able to write, create and perform anything we want, whether it's folk or Renaissance music or instrumentals or pop or rock or tavern songs... It's just nice not to be in a box, and most radio stations, especially in America, are all very regimented, the major record companies are basically telling corporations that run radio stations what to play, so there isn't a lot of freedom and variety. Every radio here is playing exactly the same things as every other station. That's sad, because there's so much amazing music out there that people can't hear because it doesn't fit in that box or it's not on a major label. So actually I'm very happy I'm not working for a radio anymore.

V. V.: Two years ago there was this short film about Blackmore's Night doing concerts in castles, and it was amazing to see that all the people in the audience were dressed almost the same, in a Renaissance style. Where is the best place for you to play in these terms?

C. N.: Believe it or not, it happens pretty much everywhere we go. Germany is on the same mindset as far as dressing up that way goes, and we've been there every single year since we started. I remember people told us not to expect much when we go in England, for example, but it turned out there were more fans dressed up than there were in Germany, so we never know. Of course, we always encourage people to dress up, because for us it's more like an event, a carnival. We give people to express whatever they want to during that night, so it's nice to see them showing up as monks or jesters or princesses or Robin Hood - both little children and their parents. This way it really becomes like a big family show.

V. V.: Yeah, it's really amazing, because this way you offer to people something more than just music.

C. N.: Exactly. It's great, because when these people show up in costumes and see others wearing costumes, too, they make fast friends with everybody dressed up immediately. That's a wonderful thing to see. These days everybody has to wear what's fashionable, but when you come to our shows you can reveal your personality and identity, and you don't have to be like anybody else. We're kind of completely the opposite of what the fashionable is all about.

V. V.: You should start you own fashion shop and sell medieval and Renaissance clothes.

C. N.: Ha-ha, we should, we've been talking about that for a long time!

V. V.: What drink, according to you, goes well with your music?

R. B.: I don't drink anymore... I used to drink wine at dinner and beer or whisky on stage... When you listen to our music, I think what you need is wine mixed with honey - that's what we drink at the fairs. It's called med, you might know it. Anyway, what we're doing is a crossover between Renaissance music, rock'n'roll and folk, so there's not a category you could really put us into.

V. V.: And do you think that Sting was inspired to some extent from what you've been doing for his last year's album with John Dowland's music, "Songs From The Labyrinth"?

R. B.: I'm not sure. He had a very good lutenist - I don't know what his name was...

V. V.: Edin Karamazov from Bosnia.

R. B.: He's great... So I've got a couple of different theories about that. I never liked the Renaissance folklore effect which they sing in those days - I always liked the instrumentation and stuff. A lot of people told us Sting has released something medieval, but I don't think this type of music suits his voice, although he's a good singer.

V. V.: The next big British band coming to play in Sofia after you guys - although Candice is American - is Iron Maiden. Years ago you've stated in interviews that you don't like their music, but you respect Steve Harris as a football player. Candice mentioned this soccer game a decade ago, so do you still play, Ritchie?

R. B.: Yes, we play every Sunday. We play with anybody, no matter whether he's in a wheelchair or with crutches - it's more of a social thing really. It's a good way of getting friends together.

Copyright: Tangra Mega Rock