Imperial Age – “We Almost Canceled This Tour…”

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Imperial Age were set to tour Europe back in 2020 but due to the Pandemic and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, their tour seemed to be destined to never take place, However, with perseverance and dedication, the band finally got back on the road and I had the privilege of sitting down with Alexander Osipov and Jane Odintsova to discuss these difficulties and much more!

Hi, my name’s Nick from The Rock Fix. I’m here with Alexander and Jane from Imperial Age! How are you guys?

Jane: Hello. It is so nice to be here again. It is really hard to describe what we feel.

I could imagine. The big thing in the room at the moment is how long it’s taken for this tour to finally take place! What’s it like for you guys to finally get to play these shows?

Jane: We almost cancelled this tour. We set ourselves a deadline. That if we do not get our visas by a certain time, a certain date, then we will write a message that we cancel this because it is just impossible to postpone it again and again and again. But, exactly on that date, I received the message that everything was ready and okay. And we’re going in just two weeks.

Alexander: So it was like, a bit stressful, but still very pleasant news for us. So it’s just super cool.

That’s really cool! With it being such a long delay, did plans for the tour really change?

Alexander: Oh no, we play a two-hour set on each show. That didn’t change and everything was okay. The only things that were changing over the course of the past, like three and a half years were the dates and the values and everything. But once it got sorted, although it’s on a very short notice, which was like two weeks ago. The rest was absolutely fine.

Was there anything you guys had worked on during the huge delay due to the pandemic?

Alexander: Well, um, the pandemic was actually more or less okay for us. The shit started with the war. So, um, over the past 11 months, frankly speaking, we didn’t do any music at all. Cause we were so busy with, you know, like moving countries and trying to organize all the tours to happen and trying to release the new album and stuff like that.

Jane: We composed the new album during this time. We were supposed to play the previous album back then.

Alexander: Of course. So we have a completely different set list now.

When it comes to the new set list, have you found any different challenges with the newer songs to the old material that you’ve been used to playing?

Alexander: During the Pandemic? We played an online show. It was our second online show and it was kind of rehearsal for the new album. We played it right before going to the studio. Am I right? We did this before?

Jane: No, after the record, but still it was some kind of rehearsal before the European tour, which we did in September. And now we are completely prepared. We know all these songs. We played them, not 100 times, but, enough to be comfortable with them.

Over the past few months, we’ve seen countless bands have to rearrange or straight-up cancel European tours due to costs. Did you have any of these difficulties when setting out on tour?

Jane: It is mostly not about costs. If you are an artist and if you have confirmed tour dates, if you have all the papers from the promoters, I see no problems in getting visas. Because, like what’s the problem? They don’t want to give touristic visas. That’s obvious for Russians but for artists, no problems.

Alexander: Our guys, receive Visas with no problems. And with regard to the UK Visas, it is also not about money but it is just about time. It takes so long to wait that the dates you set before for the shows keep passing by and you still, have no visa. So you have to postpone again and again. It’s all about time, but no other issues.

I guess I’ll finish off by asking this. With this being your biggest show to date, has the atmosphere around the show got to you differently?

Alexander: Yes. I mean, I haven’t realized it yet, but yeah.

Well guys, I hope Your set goes amazingly. I can’t wait to see it!

Jane: thank you and please have a good night.