“Travel improves the mind wonderfully, and does away with all one’s prejudices.” – A wisdom that Oscar Wilde already knew during his day. Taking a closer look at the history of IN LEGEND quickly reveals how the leitmotif of the journey eventually formed the history, sound and character of the band. Man, as creature of habit, tends to refer to himself as being free of blinkers until he eventually finds himself swimming with the stream again. Creating rock music without guitars smells like iniquity, but that’s actually far from the truth. It is rather a worthwhile journey to new horizons.
The musical adventure once began in Burkina Faso – the country Bastian Emig grew up in. Its celebrated music had a big impact on the growing artist and made him develop a unique drumming style that he would later transfer to his self-taught piano playing.
Until today, Bastian, who nowadays lives in Germany, has been creating all of his musical outpourings with the gift of being able to autodidactically study and compose music. His playing, comprised of melodies played with an uncompromising feeling for rigour and catchiness, could soon be summed up with an own genre: Hand-hammered Piano Craft.
The first own song creations were met with great approval and provided the much-needed motivation to further pursue the own vision. As a result, Bastian recorded the first demo Ballads ’n’ Bullets, the title of which would later be used for the first album. A detour eventually helped record the first EP Pandemonium: Bastian took the chance and extended the album recordings of his second band Van Canto in order to hone his first own effort.
Soon after, a band arrangement was formed with the help of Daniel Wicke and Dennis Otto, allowing INLEGEND to play live.
After a myriad of concerts and festivals the album wasn’t long in coming. Ballads ’n’ Bullets marked the first ‘key’ milestone along the way and steadily gathered new fans around the band.
In order to withstand the live performance strain, the band successfully added another member: Emergency Gate keyboarder Daniel Schmidle.
Of course the insanely high output by Bastian did not stop. New sound characteristics were tested and brought to the studio. While being liberated from the band setting, a huge ‘army’ of fresh piano sounds came to life: Rough diamonds waiting to be converted into gleaming jewels.
The HOFA studios in Karlsdorf would become the band’s home port for one and a half year. Here, all experiments in songwriting and production were initiated in order to take the INLEGEND sound to a new level. After recording the drums, the guys ended up in a loft in Bingen where the gospel- and children’s choir could be recorded. Besides, Benni Cellini (Letzte Instanz) and Henriette Mittag were sucessfully recruited to add a special strings touch to the yet unnamed sophomore record.
The vocal recordings in the sauna-turned-vocal-booth of Bastian’s father then led to the completion of the first step, followed by a return to the HOFA studios in May 2013. Here, Stones At Goliath received its finishing touches in long weeks and nights alongside producer Jürgen Lusky.
During the recording process, Daniel Wicke and Dennis Otto left the band. This could not stop the peaceful campaign against Goliath, but rather encouraged Bastian and Daniel to continue on their path.
Having found new strength through a stable line-up, founder, heart and motor of the band Bastian Emig could now also put his passion into the visual component of INLEGEND. A joint effort with Black Box Music (Rammstein, In Extremo) led to a completely new stage design whose fiery brilliance and splendour could already be admired in the video clip for the song “Envoys Of Peace“.
This video marked the start of a new era: No fans, no bands. Along with PledgeMusic, INLEGEND launched a Crowdfunding campaign in order to finally release Stones At Goliath from its calm harbour into the glistening light of the public eye.
The result of all the hard work? Light and shade. Innovation. Pure lifeblood. A band like no other and an album as never before. Just for you.