SUPERBUTT - Music For (smart) Animals

Hungary isn’t exactly your biggest Metal supplier. However, there are some great bands that have managed to export their good quality Metal, like Ektomorf (did I just say “good quality” Metal??), Wall Of Sleep (did I just say “export” their Metal??). In fact, no, there are VERY few famous Metal bands from Hungary, and Superbutt is probably the most exiting one of them. Their new album, Music For Animals is a damn fine piece of heavy rock that sounds like nothing you’ve heard before. Think Ozzy-like Metal; made of insane heavy riffs and super powerful vocals. Fantastic singer András Vörös tells THE METAL BLOG a little more about Superbutt, it’s new record, and truckloads of other interesting things.

Music For Animals was released a couple of months ago in France, although it’s been out a long time in the rest of Europe, what happened?

Andras: Nothing special, just simple practical reasons. We have a new upcoming label (Sonic Attack) with their headquarters in Berlin, and first they wanted to focus on the territories which they are more familiar with, so it took a couple of month until the physical distribution and promotion could start in other important countries, like France. But then again, does anyone really care about physical distribution in the 21^st century? Whether you can buy Music For Animals at record stores or not, if someone is interested, they can get it through the internet from anywhere around the world anyway, so I guess the official release dates don’t really matter anymore.

How’s the feedback already? I read some pretty nice reviews in Germany for example…

So far, we can’t complain. Indeed, we received some very nice critics from Germany, UK and other countries and it always feels great to find people who appreciate what you are trying to do. These kinds of things prove you that your efforts are not for nothing, and if we can make some people happy when they put our records on, that makes us very happy too.

The record surprised me because it sounds so heavy! Was it something you specifically focused on?

Surprises are always good, aren’t they? On the other hand, no we didn’t focus on anything specifically; this is just what came from us naturally. You probably know that almost the entire line up of the band changed in the last few years, and with the current line up, we sound more complex, more deep and more heavy. It was also a natural development, because ideally, you are constantly moving towards something through your career and life in general. In our case, this move is not towards being more commercial or successful as it sadly happens to many bands, but towards being able to express our feelings in a more and more sophisticated way. This is where we stand right now, and I’m sure it’s still far from the end!

Do you have the same problem understanding that cover?? 

I also noticed the tremendous melodies and your awesome performance András; sounds like a lot of hard work…

Well, thank you very much! I have to mention here, that Adam, our great friend who plays drums on Music For Animals and whom we wrote the album together with helped a lot with vocals. He was there with me at the studio almost all the way and supported me with lots of great ideas, plus did some pretty awesome background vocals himself too. What you hear is the product of our work together and I’m glad that it seems to catch other people’s attention too.

Does this “heaviness” represent something specific as well in the “concept”? Is their any “concept” at all by the way?

If a concept means that we decide in advance that we want to write an album that will sound like this or that, then no, there is no concept. All we focus on is writing music that each of us will like in the end, no matter if it’s a fast paced rock song like Cleaver or a darker, more complex track like The Murder Of Socrates. All that matters if we can all approve and feel good about each number that’s on the album, we don’t care if it fits into a concept or not.

Your music really reminds me of what Ozzy Osbourne likes to compose, very heavy stuff yet with a lot of melodies and cool hard rock songs…

Yes, I think you got a point there! That’s how it all comes together in the end. Our guitar players are into very heavy stuff, Attila is a real black metal guy and even if he listens to something more digestible, it will be still complex like Pink Floyd or Peter Gabriel, while Tomi listens to anything from Lamb Of God to Slayer. They are responsible for the musical background, and I’m trying to put something on top of that, which matches more my own roots, which could be anything from Ozzy to AC/DC or the 90’s rock and metal from Faith No More to Monster Magnet. And Music For Animals is what you get as a result.

And what are the lyrics about? The “Music For Animals” title sounds very sarcastic…

Yes, it does indeed. We’ve always been sarcastic, I guess that’s justthe way how we are trying to survive the world around us. Other than that, it’s very hard to describe what the lyrics are about. God forbid that I want to compare myself to your great poets, but just for the sake of the example: can you tell what the poems of Rimbaud or Baudelaire are in general? I guess not. Each one is different and each one has its own story. Also, I guess the best is not to try to explain what I was thinking when I wrote the words. I’m just trying to “paint pictures” with my sentences and I hope that they will induce some thoughts in the minds of the audience too.

Is Superbutt a “political” band?

No, we’re not political because we believe in the supremacy of art over politics. As an artist, I resent the idea of wasting our time and energy on getting involved in subtle fights for money and power. Politicians and their parties come and go, music and arts are forever. On the other hand though, there are certain traditional values that we are always proud to stand for, and thus we were happy to play a big anti-racism festival in Budapest two years ago and supported Amnesty International in one of their campaigns too. But I think promoting the cause of “liberté et égalité” should be natural to any civilized human being, so I wouldn’t call ourselves political, just because we do it too sometimes.

Do you think music has the power to change things? I mean on the field?

Yes, it definitely has and that’s why you have to be very careful not to use this very powerful weapon for the wrong purposes! And there’s one more important thing to remember: who are we to tell people what to do or think? What should make us believe that we are the possessors of some kind of truth that we have to preach to people? We’re not prophets (but then again, who is?), we’re observers trying to describe what we see around ourselves, and thus hopefully help people to form their own opinion.

And a brand new video, for your pleasure

What’s going on in Hungary by the way, people here are very concerned about your new government and some of its decisions…

Oh, don’t even ask me, I’m embarrassed enough… Anyway, let’s just say that our politicians are nothing but a shame, but they will soon finish their course because these kind of people are always bound to fail. They will too. But well, like it or not, it’s nothing new in history, sometimes narrow minded and power hungry people get behind the wheel (look at George Bush in the US back in the day for example), but sooner or later they prove how incompetent they really are and they will be forgotten as quickly as they came.

OK, enough said about politics: are you going to play some live shows in France to promote the record?

Yes, hopefully we will. As a matter of fact, we just played tow shows the weekend before I got your questions and we had a great time as always, so we are looking forward to going back as soon as we can.

And how would you describe Superbutt on stage, in 3-4 words?

You see, that’s a very hard question to answer for me, because I can’t see it from the outside… To me, being on stage is the most intense experience that cannot be compared to anything else. I guess “catharsis” is the right word, isn’t it? Well, let’s hope that it comes across the same way to the audience too, but you will have to ask them about this, not me…

Do you think it’s necessary to see the band on stage to fully understand its music?

I certainly do hope that our live shows are more than just simple presentations of the songs you already heard on the albums, so yes, I think we can say that whoever likes our music from the records, won’t regret if they come out to a concert too.

Thanks to Eric and Dirty8 for the interview!

http://www.myspace.com/superbutt

http://sonicattackrecords.com/

COMO MUERTOS – Muertos De Siempre…

One of the ugliest news just hit the french metal scene: extraordinary Death Metal band Como Muertos is no more. After five years of existence, marked by the release of a couple of EPs and a fantastic LP (Cronical Del Dolor, self-released) the band got fed up with the constant struggling and decided to call it quits. A sad yet unfortunately very realistic story... “El Doctor”, the band’s guitarist agreed to answer my questions about the band’s demise and also about it’s last production: an awesome split-LP with their buddies Genital Grinder, a band that’s been on hold for five years and that has decided to reunite earlier this year. Ironic, isn’t it?

Note: French readers can scroll down this page to read the interview in French!

« El Doctor », I want to start with the split CD you guys just released with Genital Grinder on Apathia Records. How did you get involved in that collaboration?

Oh, that’s a very classic story you know… I’ve known BST (vocals, guitars in Genital Grinder, also member of Balrog) for a long time. He used to handle the sound engineering on our shows. In fact, I’ve known this guy for ages. We played a few shows together back in the late 90s, when he used to play in Garwall (a French Black/Death Metal band that’s pretty much disappeared after a good first record, “Black Beast”, released on Holy Records in 2004).  And as he told me he wanted to re-activate Genital Grinder, the split-LP idea came up very naturally. The vinyl format is extremely attractive and it gave us the opportunity to “test” our new line-up because as you know, we’d just replaced Mike (drums) with “El Satanico” and “El Lenador” on guitars.

The split LP with Genital Grinders is out now on Apathia Records!

That’s precisely why I love the split-LP format: it gives the bands the possibility to “test” new things or to release some songs that didn’t fit on any of their albums.

This is exactly how we saw things as well. For instance, it gave us the opportunity to compose a pretty different song, “Sangre De Mi Sangre”, that is a lot slower and “heavier” than our usual stuff. The rest of the songs are new, but they sound like other Como Muertos songs you know: heavy as hell and in your face! The “LP” format is also very cool, I love the sound quality and it has a very developed artwork.

Tell me a little bit more about the other songs you guys wrote for this split.

The first song we wrote was "La Furia Del Verdugo", and we’d started working on it before the split-LP thing. It’s a lot faster than our usual stuuf and that is due to the fact that we’d just changed our drummer. The remaing songs were composed specifically for the split and they sound like pure Como Muertos!

Allright, about that Como Muertos sound, our readers need to know that your band has 2 important specificities: the Spanish vocals and the Gore/horror movies-inspired lyrics.

The Spanish vocals thing came up very naturally: our singer, “El Maestro” is Spanish and he’d been willing to use his mother tongue forever. When we tried that on our songs, it sounded really awesome, so we went on with it! As for the lyrics, we love the 80s and 90s horror movies and our songs are all about horror, sick medical stories, black magic… All of that nasty stuff.

Cronical Del Dolor, one of my favorite Death Metal records!

What I LOVE about the music also is the HXC and punk influences you guys have, really fits the Spanish vocals, the result sounds unbelievably furious and angry!

Well thank you very much, I take this as a compliment because this is precisely what we’ve been trying to sound like. I love the raw energy that you can find in rock, punk or HXC music. No need for crazy technical riffs or whatever some bands do, I love in-your-ace angry music! Our biggest influence is without a doubt Entombed, I think you can tell that when you listen to Como Muertos!

And so you guys quit just after the release of the Split LP. How come?

Well, I’m gonna try to make a long story short, because I could discuss this decision for ages and try to justify it… The thing is, when you start trying to be an extreme Metal musician, you have plenty of dreams and a huge ambition; I mean what’s more gratifying that being an artist and living out of your passion? The problem is that the more you do this, the more you realize it’s a long hard road, no matter how motivated and how many sacrifices you’re ready to make. I think we did everything we could to create something with the band and to be able to find a proper record deal that would give us the possibility to make things the way we’d ambitioned. And from the very beginning I kind of decided there would be a deadline, the idea was to give it a shot with maximum energy and sacrifices for a few years: if it works, hooray, if it doesn’t, we quit. And after 5 years of intense and crazy efforts, I think we did a good job with some cool releases and shows, but nothing really happened “businesswise” and we had no possibilities to take things a significant step further. I think with such a nice “final” release, it was the right time to stop Como Muertos. All in all, I’d say I was personally fed up with the constant struggling and my patience was completely exceeded.

Does it leave you bitter? Or just satisfied and proud? Because no matter what, the band had a very nice reputation, and everyone who’s listened to your LP was pretty much impressed…

Not bitter. But I do have some regrets, because I still believe this band had a fantastic potential…

When things don’t work out very well in their own country, some French bands try to work on the European market. Did you try that? I mean the Spanish vocals could’ve helped…

You know, when it comes to Extreme Metal, you have to be honest; lyrics don’t matter that much. But we actually did have some international offers; weather for tours or even record deals. But again, the offers weren’t worth it, at some points, it’s easier to stay independent…

I also feel that you guys didn’t get to tour that much…

You’re right, we didn’t. Although we did play some pretty nice shows, like the Metal Ride Festival in Nancy, The Chaulne Metal Fest or the mighty Inferno Festival in Norway. We also played a superb show with Loudblast... We generally tried to play well-organized and “valuable” shows. We didn’t accept shows that cost us money or that happened in crappy conditions. What’s the point of doing that anyway?

Why Como Muertos rule, reason n°1

Not easy to start a Death Metal band in France nowadays…

Well starting it is pretty easy my friend, but making it last is a whole other deal!

And now what?

Personally, I’ll take some time off before starting another band. I’m going to focus on my sound-engineer job. It’s an alternative way to keep on “making” music. The other guys have other projects: Gorio still plays for Ritualization, and they’re starting to be succeful you know, El Satanico’s still with Impureza and Veloce Hystoria, El Lenador plays in a tribute band and El Maestro’s just started a 70’s influenced rock band.

Why Como Muertos rule, reason n°2

El Doctor, what would you say to close this interview?

Well, I want to thank all of our fans, regardless of all the shit I’ve been telling you about, these five years have been very much fun. And to those who don’t know Como Muertos, it’s never too late, you guys can check us out on the net, I’m sure you’ll still find all the info you need!

www.myspace.com/comomuertos

www.comomuertos.com          

http://www.apathiarecords.com/

VERSION FRANÇAISE

Une fois n’est pas coutume, une interview en Français sur le Metal Blog. Et il ne s’agit pas de n’importe quelle interview, puisque c’est « El Doctor » guitariste des géniaux Como Muertos qui a bien voulu répondre à mes questions.

Vous le savez peut-être déjà, le sujet principal de cette interview concerne malheureusement le split du groupe, qui a décidé de jeter l’éponge après 5 années de bons et loyaux services. 5 années d’efforts surtout pour faire décoller le groupe. Les temps sont durs pour les musiciens ; mais en ce qui concerne Como Muertos, ça ne les empêche pas de tirer leur révérence sur un superbe split LP avec les revenants de Genital Grinder. Ni de répondre à un énorme fan de leur musique, totalement séduit par ce putain d’album qu’est « Cronica Del Dolor », véritable MUST pour tout amateur de Death Metal qui se respecte. Bref, tout ce qu’on a envie de dire, c’est MERCI !

« El Doctor », parlons en premier de ce split LP avec Genital Grinder. Comment cette idée est-elle née ?

L'idée du split est arrivée assez simplement en fait. BST (chant guitares, également Balrog) faisait le son pour nos concerts et du coup, nous parlions assez souvent de nos projets respectifs, et au fil des discussions, il m'a dit vouloir relancer Genital Grinder et que partager une galette ensemble pour se faire un bon petit split en format vinyl lui plairait bien. Nous avons bien évidemment de suite été tenté par le projet et cela nous permettait en plus de tester le groupe avec ses nouveaux membres puisque El Satanico est arrivé en remplacement de Mike après l'album ainsi que El Lenador à la deuxième gratte.

LE split LP avec Genital Grinders vient de sortir chez Apathia Records!

Vous connaissiez Genital Grinder et leur musique avant ?

En fait, je connais BST depuis un bail, cela date de mon premier groupe ou nous partagions une date commune avec un de ses anciens groupes, notamment Garwall, cela doit nous faire revenir vers 98, 99... Et j'ai donc par la suite suivi un peu ce qu'il faisait avec Genital et ses autres projets.

Personnellement j’adore ce format qui met en valeur 2 groupes et qui leur permet de tenter des choses différentes ou de proposer des morceaux alternatifs…Comment avez-vous approché ce split justement ?

Un peu comme tu viens de l'expliquer. C'est vraiment un très beau format, avec une bonne qualité de son, et qui met beaucoup plus en valeur le travail du graphisme qu'un simple cd. Ce split fut aussi l'occasion pour nous de composer un titre un peu différent de ce que nous avions l'habitude de faire, et cela donne le titre Sangre de mi Sangre qui est bien plus lent et lourd  tout en gardant cette volonté de riffs catchy avec quelques passages un peu plus « ambiants ». Après, l'ensemble reste quand même du pur Como Muertos, simple, efficace et dans ta gueule!

Et les morceaux présentés ont-ils été composé spécialement pour ce split ?

En grosse partie, oui. Le premier titre que nous avons composé fut La Furia del Verdugo, et nous l'avions commencé bien avant que l'idée du split arrive. C'est d'ailleurs le titre le plus brutal et speed de nos 4 titres, un peu en opposition avec les compos du premier album, et dû aussi au  fait qu'entre l'album et le split, nous avons changé de batteur, ce qui amène toujours un peu de neuf, et dans ce cas là, c'était une énergie  plus extrême. Et en ce qui concerne les autres titres, ils ont été entièrement composés pour ce split.

Vous avez tout de suite opté pour 2 particularités : le chant en espagnol et les thèmes de vos paroles : pourquoi ces 2 choix ?

Cela s'est fait plus que naturellement puisque El Maestro est Espagnol, et il avait  envie depuis longtemps de chanter dans sa langue natale, et très franchement, quand il a fait les premiers essais, ça a de suite plus que bien fonctionné. Et pour ce qui est des thèmes de nos paroles, ce sont à chaque fois de petites histoires mélangeant le gore, l'horreur, la médecine, la magie noire, les zombies etc etc.... enfin tout ce que l'on peut trouver dans les films d'horreur des années 80,90.

Cronical Del Dolor, un des albums de Death préférés!

Dans vos influences, j’ai noté également pas mal de punk, j’adore ce côté punk et fou mélangé aux refrains en espagnol !

Merci à toi, car c'est vraiment ce que nous voulions faire, mélanger  du metal extrême avec des influences plus punk, ou même rock. J'aime beaucoup cette énergie que l'on peut retrouver dans ces différents styles, c'est en général très épuré, et cela va droit au but sans non plus tomber dans la surenchère de tempo ou de technique. Mais je pense que l'influence principale de Como Muertos nous vient du  groupe suédois Entombed car j'adore ce groupe, et je pense qu'on le ressent un peu dans ma façon de composer....après, j'essaye d'y apporter ma petite touche personnelle afin de ne pas juste faire un copié collé de mes influences.

Vous avez donc décidé d’arrêter aujourd’hui : qu’est-ce qui a motivé cette décision ?

Alors je  vais essayer de faire cour car je pense que je pourrai tourner en rond pendant des heures pour justifier cet arrêt...

Quand tu débutes dans la musique, tu es plein d'idées, de motivation et d'espoir, mais plus les années passent, plus tu te rends compte que c'est quand même une belle galère de vivre sa passion même si tu es plus que motivé, prêt à faire des sacrifices, et à te donner à 200%.  Franchement, je pense que nous avons fait le max pour faire tourner le nom du groupe et nous faire remarquer par un label digne de ce nom, mais ça n'a pas pris... Et dès la création du groupe, je m'étais dit que je mettrai tout dans ce projet mais que la galère ne devait pas durer trop longtemps et qu'il fallait rapidement trouver un bon label avec un peu de moyen pour que nous puissions faire les choses comme nous les imaginions. Cinq années après, il s'est passé plein de choses, on a réalisé de super concerts et quelques bonnes galettes, mais bon, le groupe n'a pas réussi à décoller comme on le voulait, et c'était donc le bon moment avec cette dernière petite sortie. Pour résumer, ras le bol de galérer et peut être un manque de patience, en ce qui me concerne.

Est-ce qu’elle vous laisse de l’amertume ou la sensation de satisfaction d’avoir tout tenté ?

Très sincèrement, aucune amertume mais un petit regret quand même, car avec un peu de recul, on se dit qu'il y avait quelque chose à faire avec ce projet.

Avec vos choix justement, notamment celui du chant en espagnol, vous auriez pu tenter l’aventure à l’étranger…

Tu sais, que tu chantes en espagnol ou en anglais, je ne pense pas que cela change grand chose dans le metal, et surtout dans l'extrême. Après, nous avons quand même eu des contacts à l'étranger, que ce soit pour des concerts ou des labels, mais pour ces derniers, ce qu'ils proposaient pour la plupart ne valait pas la peine, autant rester en autoprod’, et faire le boulot soit même car au moins, tu sais comment il sera fait.

Avez-vous eu l’occasion de tourner aussi ? Je n’ai pas l’impression que vous ayez fait beaucoup de dates, mais je me trompe peut-être !

En effet, nous n'avons pas fait des tonnes de live, mais nous avons quand même participer à des dates bien sympathiques comme le Metal ride à Nancy, l'Inferno festival en Norvège, le Chaulnes metal Fest ou le Divan du monde avec Loudblast. Et il y en a bien évidemment eu d'autres, parfois bien cool, et parfois bien galères, mais ce qui est sûr, c'est que nous avons tenté de privilégier les bonnes dates, avec une bonne orga et un minimum de budget, car au bout d'un moment, jouer à tout pris même quand tu sais d'avance que cela ne va pas être rentable financièrement ni même positif pour le groupe, cela ne sert à rien.

Facile aujourd’hui de lancer un groupe de Death Metal en France ?

Oui, c'est très facile de lancer un groupe de metal en France, après, le faire durer, c'est une autre paire de manches!

Et maintenant ? Allez-vous remettre ça avec un autre groupe par exemple ? Est-ce que d’autres styles de musique vous attirent ?

Personnellement, j'attends un peu avant de me remettre à la musique en tant que musicien, je me concentre plus sur mon taf d'ingé-son dans mon petit studio, c'est une autre manière de continuer à participer et à créer dans la musique. En ce qui concerne les autres de Como Muertos, Gorio joue toujours dans Ritualization, qui commence d'ailleurs à bien cartonner, El Satanico poursuit sa route avec Impureza et Veloce Hystoria,  El Lenador joue dans un groupe de reprises des classiques du rock, metal, et El Maestro vient de lancer son nouveau projet plutôt orienté rock, hard rock 70s.

Un dernier mot pour nos lecteurs ? Peut-être pour convaincre les novices de se pencher sur votre album et sur ce split LP ?

Et bien juste un grand merci à ceux qui nous ont soutenu pendant ces quelques années, ce fut quand même malgré toutes les conneries que je raconte bien sympathique!! Et pour ceux qui ne nous connaissent pas encore, il est toujours temps de bien faire les choses, passez sur notre myspace si vous voulez découvrir le groupe, et je suis sûr qu'en cherchant un peu, vous trouverez tout ce qu'il faut sur le net!

www.myspace.com/comomuertos

www.comomuertos.com          

http://www.apathiarecords.com/

Black Rainbows: “when you play rock’n’roll, you must have fun man!”

The more I listen to that record, the more the statement becomes obvious: Supermothafuzzalicious is one of my favorite albums this year. The thing is, Italy’s Black Rainbows have reached a surprising level of excellence with their third album. Not that the previous records were bad or something, it’s just that the “pretty cool Italian stoner rock band” has become one of the best stoner/rock bands around. Supermothafuzzalicious is not as heavy or as dark as its predecessor, Carmino Diabolo; it’s even what you could describe as a “fun” record. Sounds fun, makes you wanna run around naked and hug strangers, but it also sounds like the fruit of the hard work of rock experts. Wondering how come? Well just try to measure the perfect balance on Supermothafuzzalicious: heavy riffing, cool choruses, psychedelic elements and a sick beat that will contaminate your mind before you know it. Everything falls into place; the record is so dynamic, so entertaining and simply EXTREMELY pleasant to be listened to. What else do you guys need to run to your local record dealer and grab a copy of this masterpiece? An interview with the power-trio mastermind, Gabriele? It’s your lucky day coz’ all you need to do is to scroll down that page and you’ll get to read a very cool interview in which you’ll sense the genuine passion of Gabriele for Rock.

First question is pretty simple: how does it feel to be releasing your third record?

Hey Yath!  We feel good!!  When you arrive to this point, it sure means that there’s at least someone out there who likes you! So it’s pretty satisfying. We had to work hard to get there: hundreds of concerts and lots of work at home; blood and sweat man! But now here we are and the feedback is very good so far, and everywhere! And we still are into this rock n roll life, for sure!

What does the title “Supermothafuzzalicious” mean? Is it an addition of all the words that would define the music on the CD?

Yes it is! The album title came to mind, when I was playing with the word « motherfucker » from that word I thought why not motherfuzzer, after that I was thinking to something about 70’s stuff, something delicious, and i added mothafuzzalicious… But our sound is a turbo sound! So came “Supermothafuzzalicious”!! And I thought yeah! I fuckin like it!! It sounds very nice in your ears! And I think it reminds a lot what we do and what is in the album: the use of Fuzz!!

Congratulations also on the artwork, it’s really fantastic, who conceived it?

The artwork this time is a masterpiece by GODMACHINE from UK (Carmina Diabolo artwork was made by Angryblue). For me he’s the best and most Talented illustrator right now, and we are honored to have his drawing on our best record ‘til now!

AWESOME!

I do think the guys is super talented and the art really reflects the atmosphere on the album…

Illustrations in this kind of music are very important, they evoke what is in the music, they are very close, imaginary and psych music. Something colored and a bit dark at the same time!

Was it an easy record to make? It sounds like it was.

The production was pretty much the same on the previous albums. I recorded everything by myself in the Channel 5 Studio… So we had a lot of time to spend on the basics sounds (for me it’ s the most important passage). Have time to mic the guitar amp in different ways, or try to mic the snare with different mics… After that we go to Pino Santamaria’s bigger studio. He’s got a great sound man; and we trust him a lot... He took care of the mixing part of the album with us… Last but not least: Fabrizio de Carolis a Reference Mastering studio, the best of middle Italian master studios.

Black Rainbow's mastermind Gabriele

Supermothafuzzalicious also sounds “fun” and makes me want to party.

Songwriting of this album seems easy but is not. To a first approach everybody can listen to it but there’s more, yes the bit sometimes is fast and is rock n’ roll, and when you play rock’n’roll, you must have fun man! This is sure! In fact last song of the vinyl (the bonus track) is a cover from the mighty Eddie Cochran “C’mon everybody”. Our tribute to the roots of rock!

It’s like a big scream of your love for rock!

With these songs we wanted to explain how much we love this kind of music, how much we are in debt with that, coz’ is the music style we play… Yes, maybe sometimes we are reffered to as a Stoner rock band, but the root comes from that. We start playin’ our instruments inspired from band of the 50’s and 60’s, and 70’s… And we want to spread the word of rock n roll!!!

I also felt it was a very personal record for you; because of the lyrics as well.

Yes it is, especially the lyrics, sometimes you have the song inspired by blues rock lyrics like “Lady” that is a song that talk of women or “Burn Your Nation” rock’n’roll hymn, sometimes you have the psychedelic lyrics like “Solar System” or “Mastermind”, I like the album coz’ there is a lot of different atmospheres from one song to another, songwriting-wise and even in the way I sing these new songs!

Tell me about the groove and that “dancing” beat on the record, it really stands out…

After the last album ”Carmina Diabolo”, we wanted to make the new record, with cool beats and so it goes, inspired by rock’n’roll beats we created this album! Especially when you play live, I think you win if you have songs with “dancing” beats, cause people go to concerts yes to listen, but everybody at least wanna dance! And they reminds you cause you bit them with your beats!

Carmina Diabolo, Black Rainbow's second coming was much heavier and darker than the new album

Do you think some of your fans will be surprised? You previous records were a bit “darker” and “heavier”.

I think yes… Maybe they were expecting a Stoner volume number 3! But you can recognize it still is the same band that wants to explore new things, I think we are not a band that found a formula and that repeats it in every record, we are professional musicians and we can play also other things… Our big influence comes from the band Motorpsycho… They have explored all kinds of rock, from psychedelic to hard rock and so on. We would like to do quite the same, in the next steps we want to make something more psychedelic and loopy tunes, we are not only into stoner things, even if we comes from there!

Great, because I personally LOVE the psychedelic effects, with the use of awesome keyboards, how do you insert them to the songs, because I guess most of the songs are written based on riffs?

For the previous records I used to play all the Synths but for this album we called our friend Dario Di Gennaro, who is a professional keyboard player as well! After we done all the basic tracks, he started having fun with the songs, so we tried a lot of different things, dub the riffs or improvise on the songs… At least we cut all the shit things and kept the good ones!

Although people use the term “stoner” rock for many bands that have nothing to do with stoner rock, I consider Black Rainbows as a genuine “stoner rock” band. Even though you were just saying that Black Rainbows is a “rock” band that will explore many different territories... 

Yes, like I said before, we are not only in this kind of music, you will discover on the next albums, we are stoner oriented yes, cause we love that tune… But step by step I think we want to change and will evolve, maybe more psychedelic, maybe more hard rock we don t want to be the same band on every album… We can do better!!!

And what is the definition of stoner rock anyways?

Is the sound that bands such as Kyuss, Fu Manchu, Nebula, Monster Magnet have played in the early 90’s, it means the use of some amps, the use of fuzz, some kind of drums, detuned guitars and basses, it comes as well from late 60’s and early 70’s bands like Captain Beyond, UFO, Black Sabbath, Hawkwind…

I also think that this record will help you take things one step further, it’s potential is pretty huge and it sounds universal, any rock fan can like it!

Yes we hope to increase our fan-base… Coz’ in that album there’s much work, blood and sweat! Yes a general rock fan can find in it many things, when you listen first time it is catchy and sounds easy to listen to… But we need more audience, so we still are working hard and touring as much as possible.

How’s the feedback on the album so far?

The feedback is so good, in a few weeks we’ve sold a lot of albums, we had 2 European tours and we are doing another European tour in April with Farflung from LA, lots of good reviews and people contacted us just to say that they loved the album! This is a step further indeed!

Do you guys have any special double LP edition planned?

In April we will release on Longfellow Deeds/Heavy Psych Sounds a split album with 6 unreleased songs including 3 incredible songs from Space Rock Legends: Farflung. It will be a single vinyl, with an inner-sleeve with lyrics and credits. The artwork was done by Rise Above. It will be a limited edition vinyl and or digifile… Will be a super cool album: something like 40 minutes of unreleased music. Farflung recorded 2 of their songs at the Rancho de la Luna (Chris Goss studio) with amazing guest appearances from Dave Catching (QOTSA, EODM), Gene Trautman (QOTSA, EODM)… Really cool!

Are you going to tour to promote these releases? Any chance to see you guys on stage in France soon?

We have played in December with NY heavy psych band Naam. The Paris gig was just awesome! Maybe in April we’ll be in south-east France… Just check the dates on the web right here!

On the song “Burn Your Nation” you say you wish you were born in the USA. You ever been there? And did Black Rainbows play any shows there?

Absolutely. You know US is the land of rock n roll… The entire story started from there… So it’s just a fun sentence, like some sort of verbal tribute! But we’ve never been there… But we are planning to go so soon!!! Very soon... Stay tuned!

Behind The Line: Great video for the second track on Supermothafuzzalicious!

What’s you’re wildest dream? Like the rock’n’roll artist you’d most like to tour with?

Wildest dream?! 6-months touring; non-stop and visit all the countries. Not sure if we go on tour with Kyuss, Monster Magnet or Fu Manchu… Maybe all three of them!!

Great! Thanks Gabriele for the fantastic interview and thanks to Xavier for Longfellow deeds records!

http://www.theblackrainbows.com/

CHRISTIAN MISTRESS – Interview with the Mistress behind the mic: Christine Davis

I’d already loved Christian Mistress' first LP; “Agony And Opium”, out on 20-Buck Spin last year. With "Possession" however, their second coming, the band has taken things to a whole new level. Christian Mistress has signed a deal with Relapse Records, and “Possession” has got everything a great record needs: catchy songs, fantastic artwork and an singer that truly stands out. Christine Davies has an outstanding voice; full of Metal Power and filled with Blues Passion. More than enough for you hard&heavy rock maniacs to check out this very promising band.

Until then, enjoy the interview with the band’s n°1 asset: singer Christine Davis.  

My first question is extremely simple: what or who is the “Christian Mistress”?

Well, Reuben (drummer) drooled this name onto the page he was drawing on. We hated the name at first but grew to like it for it is somewhat rude and has a good, memorable ring to it. No secret meaning really, we just like the connection to the Virgin Mary in a sacrilegious sort of way.

Can you tell me more about the band’s line-up? The band was formed a few years ago; you guys played in other bands before?

I met Ryan at a show I played with his previous band.  We hit it off; he and his friends were all at the front of the stage headbanging with more fury than I had ever seen.  One year later I moved to Olympia, WA from Portland.  Ryan and Oscar had been playing together for a few years off and on and they asked me to join them. This was in 2007, I told them I thought their songs were killer but I wanted to wait until I knew who else would be in the band. Eventually, they got Reuben (drums) and Jonny (bass) who were friends of mine already because they dj'd at a club I was the bartender at. We already got along great and I loved their tastes in music and attitudes so I decided there was no way I could pass up trying to start a band with all these awesome people.  Reuben is and has been my favorite drummer of all time and Jonny is such a great bass player and even-mannered person to be around at all times.  I joined the four of them in 2008 and we have been going strong ever since.

Things seem to have gotten to a new level with that new CD. How did you guys land on Relapse Records?

We have been happy with Relapse, they are very easy to work with and good people. They listen to us, have time for us and gave us the budget we needed to record the record on 24 track analog as we wanted to.  It seems like a great fit for us so far.  We were happy with 20 Buck Spin but wanted a budget to work with for the recording so it would have been Relapse or another label so I can't say that it was necessarily a big step, just a natural progression. We never actually signed to 20 Buck Spin, they just happened to be friends of ours that offered to put out our first record. The response from metal heads worldwide was enough to make us realize that people were going to continue to listen to CM and we might as well look for ways to fund making our ideal record.  The music industry is a strange beast and Christian Mistress was quickly swept up in its tide before we had a chance to see it coming.  Signing to a label didn't change our process; Relapse gives us complete artistic freedom music-wise.

Did you feel any extra “pressure” now that you’re releasing a record on an important record label?

Not really, we had already written all the songs for the new record before we signed to Relapse.

How is Possession different from your previous material?

We are excited that it turned out with such a heavy, amazing sound.  It is a bit different than our last LP, “Agony and Opium” so we are anticipating the response to the songs.  Because we are so close to them, hear them, play them a million times - it is hard to hear the freshness that people hearing the songs for the first time can enjoy.  Also, I am glad it is finally out because it has been a long time now that we have been playing some of those songs.  We first expected this record Possession to come out in 2011 so we are thrilled that it is finally out and available for people to hear.

I feel that your major influences are the earliest metal bands, like in the beginning of the 80s, when the frontier between hard-rock and heavy metal was very thin…

I agree, more of the merging of hard rock, heavy metal and heavy punk rock - we absolutely love the early Scorpions records from the 70's.

I really loved the guitars, especially the very classic metal stuff… And also the fact that there is a fantastic melody on each one of the songs. Is it something you specifically focus on?

I think so, the songs have intent to sound good and this is what we think sounds good so that must be all there is to it.

Your voice is clearly the band’s biggest asset. You have that bluesy swing to your singing. That’s the 70’s influence I guess…

A lot of my favorite bands are from the 70's - Uriah Heep, Motorhead, Scorpions, Hawkwind, Blue Oyster Cult - it's true.

And how do you guys compose? Very complex process or just jamming’?

The songs come easily for us; we have a strong chemistry together as musicians. Oscar writes the main guitar riffs and then we jam them out at practices. I listen to the completed or near completed songs and then decide what the vibe is going to be for the vocal parts and lyrics that I write. This is the typical Christian Mistress writing process and if the songs on Possession are any different from earlier Christian Mistress songs, it is because we have evolved together as musicians into a more cohesive direction. The last song on the new album - All Abandon, was really the song that shaped the style of all of the songs on the record. So, there definitely was a plan stylistically for all of the songs on Possession to have a certain brooding, heavy yet raw and exuberant feel to them.

I Love the artwork as well, seems a little bit “mystical”. Does it mean anything specific?

The central element is my hand with the fate lines radiating lightning.  The plants beneath them are the black flowers from the song 'Haunted Hunted' on Possession.  And of course the original Christian Mistress symbol that was on Agony and Opium is making an appearance again in the background.  We were honored to have Benjamin Vierling make this painting for us.

Are you guys touring already? Any chance to see you in France?

We will be in France in April 2012.  The dates should be up on our website soon: christianmistress.com.

What’s Christian Mistress like on stage? In 3 or 4 words?

Take this riff to the grave.

What’s the coolest thing we can wish you for 2012? Like what are your craziest dreams for the band??

I want to tour Japan and play lots of crazy shows in France!

Any last word for your French fans?

We hope to see you in France this April and make sure to come say hello at the shows!

Thanks To Christine and to Frank for making this interview possible!

http://www.christianmistress.com/