From their debut album ‘’Way of the Queen’’ in 2015 Erika Strečková has been a pivotal component of the success and sound of Symfobia. Her inimitable voice and vocal range outlet more than just an interpretation of the bands sound but a passion for music and life itself
‘’I come from Slovakia as our whole band. I joined the band when I was at college. At that time I had another band and the guys from Symfobia came to our concert. After the concert, they asked me if I would like to sing symphonic metal, I said that maybe yes and that's where it all started.’’
‘’Our oldest member of the band, the bass player Peter Bugár, is 60 years old. Together with our guitarist Peter Varga, they founded metal music in Slovakia. Each of the members of Symfobia has some basics either in music school or private lessons, but what they have the most, are years of experience and hard work.’’
‘’Slovakia has about 5 and a half million inhabitants. Metal music is definitely not mainstream here, but we have a lot of rock and metal bands. There is only limited space to grow our fanbase here, so we try to concentrate on abroad more.’’
As a child, I attended music school, where I studied singing. When I was 15, I went to technical high school, but I didn't stop singing. For four years I attended private lessons with a former opera singer. She was 80 years old, but I've had never seen a lady like that before. So much energy and love for music and singing. Finally, I went to college with a focus on music and theater. It’s quite hard to describe my singing style. It's not opera, but there are good basics/ elements to it. “
“I've been singing since I was little and I really enjoy it since then. In the third grade of elementary school, a teacher asked what we would like to be when we were adults, I replied that the singer. The whole class laughed at me and I felt very sorry. Until now, I remember that feeling. Since childhood, a lot of people discouraged me from singing, from music, lately from our band, but I've never been interested in anyone else's opinion, just my feeling. I will sing as long as I enjoy it and as long as singing makes sense in my life.’
“I've been in a band since I was 15 years old. I was in three bands until I got to Symfobia. From the first band, the hardness of the music I sang always increased. So from pop music, I switched smoothly and naturally to metal.’’
Symfobia released the excellent “Smog of Tomorrow” in 2019 that bought further worldwide attention and incorporated many musical styles and lyrical ideas that removed many boundaries normally Associated with the genre.
‘’Well, I can't imagine how we would incorporate reggae music or hip hop into our music, but as they say, never say never. We do not limit ourselves in any way, but we will definitely always try to remain a symphonic metal. Rather I think, times bring various technical achievements very quickly, and the future of music can still be very interesting in terms of sound.’’
’Reactions to the album have so far been only positive. We’ve already sent the album to all corners of the world and it is much more successful than our first album. Which is a big challenge for us to make the third album even better.’’
‘’The music has always been here and will always be there to give us something. We love symphonic metal because the combination of choir and orchestra with hard guitars and drums is very strong. And if you add a strong text to all this, I believe that a person will not remain indifferent to the topic for long. The listener will think about it and where there is a presence of thought there is energy. And we all know how important energy is. I love listening to love songs, but even more I love listening to lyrics that tell me something important that is happening around me and I may not have noticed it yet.’’
“The lyrics to our two albums were written by our lyricist Rastislav Getta. We told him some ideas, we discussed each text thoroughly and worked on it until it was perfect. So far, I haven’t dared to write a text in English, but in the third album you will definitely find my lyrics too.’’
Erika is a light in the dark with not only her voice but her outlook on life
“This whole world, my life experiences but also the experiences of people I see, I hear and read about. My motto that I gave myself is to try to be a better person every day. I don´t look to the past very much and I don´t worry much about the future, I try to live here and now. The more a person is present, the more things inspire him.”
“We all have a dark side and we all learn all our lives. I'm not an expert on life, no one is, but it's definitely not healthy to suppress something. It is important that we shed light on our dark side and begin to realize it, what it is doing to us and what can we do with it. I have never seen a little baby born full of hate. Hate is something learnt from others. Man learns from man, and until we begin to learn from the wiser, stronger, kinder ones, the world will remain under a great shade of darkness.”
And the events of 2020 may influence the bands next eagerly awaited album.
“I think it will. We already have some ideas :)’
''Work has already begun on the new album, but it will definitely take about 2 years to finish it. And that is my humble estimate. We never made music fast. We are in no hurry, we want the album to be as good as possible so that we and our fans can be satisfied with it.”
‘’If it weren't Covid - 19, we would have had the busiest summer of our career right now. Unfortunately, we had to cancel all concerts, tours and festivals. We haven't played a concert since the beginning of the lockdown and we'll probably go crazy if the situation doesn’t change in a while. We made a new music video for Smog of Tomorrow song and in the autumn we should be touring in the Czech Republic. We have quite some news we will reveal soon.’’