WINDS keyboardist Andy Winter spoke to Metalraw.com about a number of topics including their latest album, Prominence And Demise, out now via The End Records. Here are a few excerpts from the chat:

Metalraw.com: Talk to us a bit of the relationship between this Prominence And Demise and the first two works of the band.

Winter: "The new album is more intricate, heavy and progressive than any of our previous works. It is perhaps more ambitious too, as it took a lot of effort to produce. It's a bigger album, longer album, and most likely our most accomplished album overall. It is a step in the right direction for Winds."

Metalraw.com: Can we consider Winds as band or is a project?

Winter: "What is the difference? More importantly, does it really matter? We are Winds. We have released four albums so far. We're not really concerned with labels like this. Project or band, this kind of metal or that kind of metal. Metal at all? All of these are questions we don't care about!"

Metalraw.com: How did you form Winds and how or why did you choose that name?

Winter: "We formed Winds as a result of mutual musical interests and a desire to create this type of music. Originally it started out as the idea to combine elements from classical music with metal. But as we evolved, it became much more than that. I came up with the band name, as I thought it was fitting for the style we played. The name was suggested to Hellhammer (MAYHEM, DIMMU BORGIR), who approved it for all intensive purposes. We at least knew there was no other band with this name, and we also liked how it sounded for this project."

Metalraw.com: How do you do to record? (Knowing that must be busy with your other projects)

Winter: "We get together for things like drums, vocals, strings, etc. Guitars and piano are often done independently. We just find the time to schedule these sessions, and most of the time we just do one thing, and then work on arrangements, and do the next step far down the road. This is why it took about 3 years to completely finish this album. It was a lot of work. Not 3 years of working every day on it, but it probably took 2-3 times as much time to do this one as it took to do the other albums we ever did. So in a way, we spent more time on this one than all the other ones combined."

To read the entire interview head to this location.