1. Please explain the development of CONXIOUS a little?
Michael and I have been playing together for endless years. Actually we began playing fusion, but soon came the metal and rock influences and it was time to take a new musical direction. Michael and I remained as constant factors while other band members came and left. But now we have a very stabile and special line-up. Victor is studying bass in Vienna and lives all of his virtuosity in our songs. With Albert we now have a singer who supports us with his powerful and well trained voice and his charming appearance.

2. What meaning hides in your band name CONXIOUS and how did you think of it?
We had a lot of bad luck with our former names Mindgallery and Brainstorm. We tried anything possible to find our final name, even a competition on our web site. Then, as someone who never heard us before was again trying to describe the core of our music, I thought of the word "conscious". That was best possible name there was. To avoid any mistakes, we enhanced the X. I must say that I find our band name quite perfect. Yet if some people don't know how to spell it.

3. You are one of the little ambassadors of the - sadly much too small - Prog Rock/Metal scene in Austria. Is it hard to prevail in this country as a rock band?
There isn't really a scene. Actually were on our own. For years I liked the idea of organising an Austrian prog-festival, but the amount of work is rather deterrent. It's very hard in the prog-business in general and there are only a few bands who are able to live from their music, even international renowned bands. But at least we get a lot of reviews from all over the world and with our new CD, which will be released in early 2005, we want to get a useful record deal. In Austria we at least created our true fan base and our live shows are developing to be great parties. The most important thing is that our music is a lot fun to us. Everyone who ever held his record in his hands after a year of hard word, being completely satisfied with it, knows how fulfilling this is.

4. About your current album "Between Arrival & Departure", what can you tell me of its creation?
We invested unbelievably lot of work, passion and time in that album. That's why a normal playtime of a CD was too short for us and we came up to 77 minutes. Besides working a 40 hour job and cutting your private life down to a minimum, it is very hard to work on this every night and every weekend. There we also had a quarrel with Alex who showed up unprepared and a morning-after feeling and being late as well most of time. The CD is meant to be a journey diary, while journey stands for a part of your life, a relationship or life itself. It begins with open questions, describes friends and aims, then disappointment and in the end it's all summed up and new aims are discovered.

5. In general, in what way are you satisfied with your CD?
One of our critics said that we are incomparable to any other band and that our music is something really new. And that's exactly what we wanted. Of course now a year later there are several things we'd change, far most considering our sound. Maybe we'd also reduce everything a bit at some parts. You could almost describe it as a sumptuous production. But seriously, that's just how we are. Less is more was never our motto.

6. How were the reactions (fans, magazines,...) upon the album so far?
We received great feedback. Interesting for us, we received a lot from South-America. And how fitting that is for our Brazilian intro on the CD, which is a homage to the time Michael's and I spent in Brazil. You can read all about it on our web site. Most of the negative reactions were about our singer and mostly it was justified.

7. How would you explain your music to someone, who's never heard you before?
We play very melodic, we are fond of interesting rhythm-changes and we like to show that we can play. If Alan Parsons had more fire up his ass and Eddie Van Halen would be in the mood, this could be it. Add Prog like Dream Theater or Arena without those bombastic keyboards. All together it's simply conscious - CONXIOUS

8. So far your line-up never featured a Keyboarder, which is rather unusual for a prog-band. Did you ever consider one?
We did consider but a permanent Keyboarder didn't fit the sound we wanted. In progressive rock there's also a lot of unity pudding. Without keyboards we stand out from the classic prog sound, but we want that to be.

9. "Between Arrival and Departure" is now a year ago and in the meantime you've got a new singer, Albert Leibel. When is the next album to come?
We are commencing the recording at the moment. The new album will be called "Between Never Before and Never Again" and will be released probably in early 2005. The sound will be again very melodic and versatile but only more direct and harder and probably more comprehensible.

10. Where do you see yourselves in 5 years?
In 5 year we see ourselves with at least 3 more albums on sale. A record deal and a European tour are reachable goals. Maybe even shows in North- and South-America.

11. Closing up, you have an opportunity for a commercial: Why should one surf on your homepage and order your CD implicitly?
Our CD is unique. You can listen to it a hundred times and still discover new things. On our homepage you can get a foretaste of it. Plus there are songs, videos, interviews and many reviews of our CD. Besides there are many photos as well and we're simply a good looking band.
Thank you for taking time for this interview and good luck for the future.