INTERVIEW: Between the Buried and Me
26 SEP 2011 @ The O2 Academy, Bristol
with Paul Waggoner and Tommy Giles Rogers
CLIQUE AQUI PARA VER A ENTREVISTA COMPLETA EM PORTUGUÊS
Eduardo Piloni for Mondo Metal
www.mondometal.com.br
Tommy Rogers
EP: BTBAM had come to Europe in the last few years as a support band. A couple of headlining shows, but now you are actually able to present a full headlining tour. How does it feel?
Paul Waggoner: Man that’s ultimately what we wanna do, you know? We wanna be a headlining band and be able to have a long set – choose the songs we wanna play and not have to really make compromises – as far as you can only play this or that song, worrying if it will fit as a set. We wanna be able to create our own show. That’s our goal. We kind of hit that point in the US, but we’re a little behind in Europe. Hopefully this tour will help a little bit.
EP: I remember when you played with Lamb of God and Job For a Cowboy in London, your set consisted of only 3 songs!
Paul: Yeah that’s it! There were a couple of shows where we actually only had 20 minutes to play. We ended up just playing one song, that’s hard for us when we have a short set because our songs are so long.
EP: I know. On our radio show, BTBAM appears mostly with songs from the first album, due to their length.
Paul: Yeah those are really the shorter songs, it kinda sucks but… we don’t wanna sacrifice or compromise our songs just so it can get on the radio.
EP: You said you were a bit behind when it comes to playing in Europe. What is the big difference then between headlining in the US and here?
Paul: Well in the US, people like us… (laughs). And well in Europe… they just stare at us.
EP: Was it like that everywhere you’ve played here?
Paul: Nah nah, I’m kidding. Some shows we’ve played have been really good, really interactive. Kids seem to really like it and other shows they just kinda stare at us. But they don’t leave, so I guess that’s a good thing! It’s just a little bit different, the cultures are different, people react differently to the music. In the US kids are more aggressive maybe, typical American person.
EP: Well, It is also part of the British culture when it comes to gigs, to grab a pint and watch the band as a whole performance kind of a thing. Maybe you should not take it always the bad way.
Paul: Yeah, yeah! well last night in particular, what was last night? Birmingham! They were just like … (making a still staring face). I actually thought they didn’t like us! But when we finished they were going crazy, encore and stuff and I thought “Wow! I guess they did like us!”. In general, Europeans – and British – are more subdued, more… well-behaved haha.
EP: You were definitely more accessible to the fans earlier on on your careers in America, maybe it just took a bit longer to kick in abroad.
Paul: Yeah it’s almost like we’re starting over in a way in Europe. We’re trying to convince people to like us, whereas in the US we have a fan base and its pretty solid. Here we have to create one.
EP: You guys come from North Carolina, it’s not a very big scene for what you guys do, is it?
Paul: Relatively small scene but there is a pretty tight-knit group of musicians in North Carolina, to be honest. Some very talented people are in that space. I mean, that’s how we all met, we’re all from different cities but you know we just found each other because we were all pretty good at what we did.
EP: Metal sub-genres by default come as a wave, with a niche of origin in a certain region. If you get your neighbouring states – Virginia, Georgia they have their own trademark scenes. Having said that, I can’t think what were the bands that you played with in the beginning…
Paul: in the early days… well in NC there was Hopes Called who was like a Christian band we were friends with. There was also a band called Code Seven who started at the same time, we all kind of grouped together. I guess we’re fortunate that we’ve stayed together and kept going as a band, whereas some of the other bands broke up. But we also had to network with other bands in other parts of the country – we became friends with the Red Chord very early on, as well as The Black Dahlia Murder and we did tours with them.
EP: So you had to go a little bit further.
Paul: Yeah, you know, you can’t stay local – you’ll never get anywhere if you just play in your own state all the time. You’ll end up playing for only 100 kids. We certainly had to venture out and make a career for ourselves.
EP: Do you feel the weight of your journey as a band? I mean, you already have 6 studio albums on your shoulders plus the cover album.
Paul: Its been kind of a blur, the band has changed so much. When we listen to the first album, or whenever we them it feels like a different band. We’ve evolved so much not only musically but evolved as a band. When you put it like that, I can’t believe we’ve been a band for that long, that we have that many albums. It’s jus constant evolution, every album is a new experience for us and we try to do something new. That’s always been our objective: to do something different.
EP: Do you look at yourselves back then and say like wow this is good? We’re going somewhere with this?
PAUL: Back then? No we never thought we would get to the level of where we’re at or certainly not to a very high level. Then, especially, this kind of music was not popular at all. We played to maybe 100 kids and that was already good! At some point it got more popular – progressive metal and metal in general – we just kept riding the wave. Back then, man, we were young and we were just doing it for fun. We wanted to be in a band, you know?
EP: Although bands always want to evolve, fans always love to listen to the old stuff live, which you rarely play.
Paul: Yeah definitely, older songs are part of the band’s history, there’s a different value to it. If you want to stick around for a long time I think you have to continue to evolve you can’t write the same record every time, fans will get tired of it also as a musician you will get tired of it also. The thing is: not many people know our first songs.
EP: Then came Anatomy Of… its a quite daring album. It somehow achieved a rare success within the media, being an album of covers in its entirety. How did it come about the idea of recording that album?
Paul: Well, the record label mentioned it and we just thought it’d be fun. We really just did it for fun! It was a way for us to cover some songs maybe our fans would be surprised that we were influenced by. The average BTBM fan has never heard Queen or King Crimson, some of the young kids especially. We thought it would be fun to put our spin on it and play some of those songs and see how people reacted to it.
EP: I believe the main reason for its success is that in every single cover you can feel the essence of BTBAM… Would you say those are particular songs that you guys loved or mostly bands that actually inspired you?
Paul: Both, I mean we’re definitely influenced by it, by a ton of so many different kinds of music – that album is reflective of that. Our goal was to show people “Hey we love all this stuff!” not only do we love it, it inspires us!
EP: But they are not really technical. It brings the question of when did it you guys decided to become technical?
Paul: You know sometimes I don’t really think our music is as technical as people think! I would say complex, and the only reason that it is complex is because of all the influences we have, and the fact that the songs are 15 minutes long – and we cram a lot of ideas into those 15 minutes. You can see all the bands we covered on that record in our music. If you take one of our original songs and break it up you can see how we draw inspiration from those bands. The word technical gets thrown around quite a bit but to me it’s just complex and experimental. When I think of technical I think of bands like Dillinger (Escape Plan).
EP: And then came Alaska with a different line up. That was the album responsible for putting you on the spotlight, not only in America, but that was when the media embraced and exposed BTBAM in Europe. The production, composition and concept – every element in Alaska went up a notch. Was it the turnover album for you as a band?
Paul: Yeah in a lot of ways because it was, like you said, a new line up and we felt like we had a group of solid players that were going to be in the band for a long time. Once Alaska came out things started to catch on a little bit, people stared to know who we were. We had more exposure; it was definitely the first record that, even today, most of our fans know BTBAM from – Alaska forward.
EP: Did things also improve professionally then for the band?
Paul: Yeah definitely! That’s when tours started getting better for us and album sales were getting better. We started to get more press coverage. It was an important record for us.
EP: Any particular reason for three members leaving the band pretty much at the same time prior to Alaska?
Paul: I think it was pretty typical of a lot of young bands. When they get to their 20’s they realize “Man, it’s hard to make money doing this…”, they wanna get a real job or you get married, or whatever, you know? People just grow up and become different and realize they don’t have time to be in a band anymore or just couldn’t handle touring. A lot of bands break up because of that! We decided to keep going and find new people – I’m glad we did.
EP: Alaska set the tone, but then Colors came and, in my opinion, that’s the definition album for BTBAM. It was a whole pack so to say: A concept album of one song broken into colours and themes, illustrations, live DVD with Colors on its entirety, a website fully dedicated to the album with loads of different insights from the band and fans alike… Did it happen occasionally or that was what you always wanted to do?
Paul: Yeah I must agree that was a monumental record that kind of defined our careers. Alaska was the first record with the new line-up and we were trying to find our chemistry. Colors was different; we knew what we wanted to do, what kind of band we wanted to be, we just went for it. We wanted to produce the full thing – the one song kind of vibe, the album production and visual stuff. We wanted to separate ourselves in our own way from other metal bands that are in our category, group or genre. Ever since that is the direction we’ve been going, therefore that was a really important record for us.
EP: And how did you come up with the idea of Colors as a thematic album?
Paul: That came by right after we played the Ozzfest in the US, and that festival is very, very metal. We did the whole summer on that fest and we didn’t like it! It wasn’t us! That’s not how we’d like to portrait ourselves as a band. So we came back and we wanted to do something completely different.
EP: Parallax: The Hypersleep Dialogues was released not long ago, via Metal Blade – what was the reason for the label change?
Paul: Well, we were done with our contract with Victory Record and were supposed to sign a new contract with them, but we decided to go a different direction. We didn’t think our band was suitable for that label, the bands they were signing were not the type of band we wanted to be associated with. We talked to one of the guys in Metal Blade, and they were in the same page as us, we all wanted pretty much the same thing, and it just worked out. That was the best decision for us so far. It has been pretty good!
EP: Why EP as the chosen format?
Paul: We wanted to get something out with Metal Blade quite quickly, to kind of kick-start the next chapter in our career. At the same time we didn’t want to sacrifice quality for the sake of that. We thought “hey we never released an EP, lets do it!”.
EP: And like Colors and The Great Misdirect, you still managed to maintain the very same concept of a one-song-album vibe.
Paul: Yeah, it’s definitely designed to be listened to as a complete record, a complete piece – from beginning to the end.
EP: Do you feel the heavy scene picking up again as a genre?
Paul: It’s hard to say because CD’s don’t sell anymore… really! I guess in any genre except for rap and country. But the scene is cool now, it’s cool to be a good guitar player, a wicked drummer; people are into being or recognizing good musicianship – it’s ever so popular. So you get more people coming down to shows, more people searching the internet for certain players. There is definitely some popularity growth in this kind of music, which I never expected. It adds some value.
EP: There are certainly more festivals, but I hardly imagine BTBAM playing festivals.
Paul: Yeah, it’s hard for us in a festival environment; it’s hard to make an impact. You get 30min to play and you try and play epic songs in the middle of the day, outside where it particularly doesn’t sound very good. We prefer to play in a club, the we can play our own shows. But hey, sometimes we’ve got to do those festivals, it’s part of the thing as you said – they are highly attended.
EP: It compensated by the exposure a band can get I guess…
Paul: Exactly. We can’t really turn down a festival offer; we have to take it, although we don’t particularly like to play it. And honestly I don’t think many bands enjoy playing festivals, it’s just good for your career.
EP: BTBAM Played in Latin America already, Puerto Rico and Mexico… have you had any offers from other countries?
Paul: Not really. I think we will go to South America eventually; it’s got to be something small though. I’d like to play there, but it’s so expensive to travel it’s going to be hard. We’ll do it when we can make it work financially.
EP: You did play South America with Lamb of God thought!
Paul: Ah, they are my brothers from Virginia. But Lamb of God are huge! It was their first time there and they played venues for a couple of thousand of people, sold-out concerts – it was amazing! If BTBAM went we’d expect to play for 100, 200 people maybe.
EP: Any of those places or concert in particularly you enjoyed most?
Paul: I loved Argentina! But I liked everywhere. Colombia and even Venezuela was ok. But the highlight was definitely Brazil and Argentina. We spent the night out in Sao Paulo – very big city, it was lots of fun.
EP: Changing subject, one thing that strikes curiosity about BTBAM is the flag you carry about being vegetarian. Is Dustie the only one not in the vegetarian club?
Paul: Well, now we’re 3 vegans and 2 meat eaters. Blake goes back and forth (laughing).
EP: How come you haven’t managed to convince them to change, being the majority?
Paul: They just are not compassionate people… Soulless zombies! I’m kidding… no I’m not! They are horrible really. (gets all the band laughing and ganging up on them)
EP: You’re also straightedge, aren’t you?
Paul: Then again, all the vegans are straightedge.
EP: All the three? So where does all this burst of creativity comes from?
Paul: Creativity? Is it creative not to be straightedge haha. I don’t know man, we’re just old hardcore dudes and that was popular at the time when we got into heavy music, there was a lot of literature about veganism and straightedge, we just adopted into the lifestyle and stuck with it.
EP: BTBAM by the complexity of the compositions are hard to describe. It feels like a band that will caress your head just before bashing it against the wall. How would you describe your sound?
Paul: Oh, it’s hard to describe. I just say it is experimental heavy music. I don’t want to say we’re heavy metal, because when I think of heavy metal I immediately think of Pantera or Lamb of God. The word progressive is thrown around too much, we’re a heavy band but we’re not afraid to adventure into other territories – experiment into different sound.
Tommy Rogers: We’re chemists!
Paul: Metal chemists. (laughing)
EP: Tommy, you are the main lyricist of the band. Your lyrics are quite abstract though carrying a lot of different meanings: parallel lives, rebirth, the position of human kind in the world, the world as a living organism… do you have any religion or belief?
Tommy: Not really. The big thing with me and lyrics is only writing when the inspiration is there. Just like writing music, anytime it’s been forced, it will sound forced, you’re going to look back and not be proud of what you did. About the meaning of it, I guess it’s just my views as I grow up. With metal it seems that lyrics specially are much of the same, over and over, and I just try to put my spin on things and make it as unique as possible. With our music being the way it is, it is important the lyrics to fit as much as possible. When I listen to it I get a lot of imagery from the music itself, it’s almost like watching a movie. So I try and make my lyrics fit the sound.
EP: To finish off, I’d like to go back and make a quick journey through all your releases. In a short sentence, what comes to mind when you think of… (handing them a hard copy of):
- Between the Buried and Me, self titled album:
Tommy: Rushed!
We did the record in 5 days! It was crazy.
- Silent Circus:
Paul: Mark naked (former drummer).
Tommy: Yeah, he was naked the whole time. It was also the fist time we were in a proper studio recording.
- Alaska:
Tommy: Disaster!
Paul: Proper disaster. A little known fact – this album was almost completely ruined. We recorded everything and when we were about to mix the drums, they were all shit! We had to re-record everything!
Tommy: Not only the drums! My takes were gone as well. Borderline disaster!
Paul: Yeah, I didn’t remember that. Stressful!
- Colors:
Paul: Chilled!
We had a lot of work to do for this album, but we were very well prepared and it went really smoothly. Let’s say, “Well prepared for”! (Tommy cracks up laughing).
- The Great Misdirect:
Paul: “Very well prepared for”!
I mean, we were there and all I remember is that we had an album, like a well-oiled machine. It was easy! I’d then describe it as “Well-oiled machine like”.
The Parallax:
Paul: Cold!
We recorded this album in Toronto, Canada, in the middle of winter and it was freezing.
Tommy: A bit rushed as well. We had 7 days to track the album.
Paul: Yeah, but being a short release it wasn’t that bad. I’d say “Piece of vegan cake”!
MONDOMETAL: INTERVIEW WITH EVILE
London 29th SEP/2011
@ Relentless Garage
CLIQUE AQUI PARA VER A ENTREVISTA EM PORTUGUÊS
Five Serpent’s Teeth – Release concert.
Eduardo Piloni: When one hears the story of Evile it almost sounds like a fairy tale. An unsigned band plays a supporting stage at Bloodstock, nails a record contract and all of a sudden you guys were touring with bands that you’ve probably loved since you were kids- Megadeth, Exodus and Machine Head. How did it feel back then?
Ben Carter: Well, in a way we were just kids then, we’re still kids! So to us it was like “OMG It’s Megadeth! Dave Mustaine’s walking down the corridor”. It was just bizarre. We’re still maturing and really kind of naive about the industry so to have such a big tour as Megadeth in the first year of being signed was just ridiculous. We never expected that, then we went on the road and were taught so much about how to conduct ourselves back stage and how to present ourselves on stage, how to be a little bit more professional with gigs and it just taught us so much. That continues in good strength because after that we’ve gone on tour with Exodus, you know the festivals we’ve been doing – Bloodstock and Sonisphere and Download in the U.K – everything set us up really, really well. Back then we were just blown away by it all!
EP: Were they helpful with you guys?
Ben: Yeah, definitely! Just their experience rubbed off on us I think and in turn it made our jobs a little bit easier, they made us feel at home on the road with them even though they were so far above us in terms of experience. We learned so much in 6 weeks.
EP: I guess in a way the style of thrash metal you play helped you guys to be inserted into that exclusive niche. I mean, sometimes it just feels like you came straight from the 80’s – the raw and intense grip in which you play…
Ben: I think so, that’s really good. We get guys in their 40’s coming up to us and saying “Thank you!”, and we go “Why?” and they say “Because you made me feel like I was 15 again”. To me that’s mission accomplished.
EP: And you’re not even that old to sound so 80’s.
Ol Drake: I’m the youngest at 27, we’re not young but we’re not old.
Ben: I think what’s good about thrash is I’ve always said it makes you want to feel like you’re full of energy. People who’ve been watching it for 25 years, if it makes them feel like they’re 15 again and you know, job done for us. It’s supposed to fill you full of beans and bring your energy levels right up to make you jump in the mosh pit.
EP: Then there was the American tour – Overkill, Kreator, Gama Bomb… long miles?
Ben: Definitely! 40,000 miles I think it was. Here we have people whining “I’m not going on the bus” for half an hour.
Ol: In America the touring ethic is completely different, because the territory’s so big. The bands over there are used to travelling over 10, 15 hours to get to the next gig to play 20 minute shows. Whereas in England, people won’t travel 2 hours without bitching and moaning about it! It gave us a good wake up call, not that we bitch and moan about travelling, but the work level that you have to put in when you’re over there, just to do your job, increases 10 fold. The States is a much harder market to tour in.
EP: It’s true, and what about the answer from the crowd in America?
Ben: We went down really well I guess…
Ol: Well, when we started, and because we were English and new, you could tell that people kind of stood there like “We don’t care”! But a month later we did the same circuit again and we noticed that the same people that were there in the other gig going “we don’t care” were like “Hey, we got your album now!”. So, every time we went round it just seemed to get a bit better.
Ben: I think it takes people a while to get us, because we’re not strictly old style thrash and we’re not pushing new school stuff so we’re kind of stuck in the middle somewhere, which is quite unique.
EP: Yeah, I think this is more noticeable with Infected Nations, second album that hit top 100 in the UK. That album showed another side of Evile, a little bit more diverse, different from what we had seen before. A tad more technical would you say?
Ben: Yes, our record label actually said to us that we’d written album 3 before album 2 (laughs). Because we’d gone from the pure thrash sound into this almost prong-esque, complicated thrash style and we’d missed out on an album in between somewhere! The big difference is due to us getting a lot of song writing out early on in our career. The songs on the first album they’d been kicking around for 4 years before we actually recorded the first record. We went “Right, let’s see what else we can bring to the table”. I think some fans got it, some fans didn’t and I think maybe we pushed the envelope a little to far that way but I’m glad we did that because its led us down the path to album 3.
EP: Of course, it all ties in really well. How did it come about to get Michael Whelan (legendary for artwork of Sepultura, Overkill and Stephen King) to do the artwork for Infected Nations?
Ol: That was a joke! My brother (Matt) and I were listening to Beneath the Remains from Sepultura, and I just joked with him “lets get MW to do the album cover!” and he mocked me… I said why not? So I emailed him just saying we’ve got this concept for our new album and he replied saying “Yeah! I’m on! Cool! Lets do it!”.
Edu: No way!
Ol: I did say look we’re a small band; we can’t pay you 100grand like Stephen King can! So he did it, in our miserable budget just because he enjoyed it. (laughing).
EP: It seems that money and media attention has gone back to metal, loads of quality bands showing up out of nowhere. Do you feel this vibe going around at this moment?
Ben: Yeah, it seems great again! I think it got shoved underground for a bit by all these other genres coming through like late 90s early 2000s
Ol: Poo (nu) Metal hahahaha
Ben: And a lot of other genre’s coming through that took the focus away, the bands were still out working their asses off but they just got overlooked a little bit and so they got pushed underground. 5, 6 years ago it’s all come back! It’s great to see the bands that started still doing it today, working their asses off, touring everywhere as many gigs as they can. It definitely keeps the door open for people like us to come in, which is great you know? We still look up to our idols and if they’re still doing it, it drives us to do it as well.
EP: But it still is hard to make a living out of it, isn’t it?
Ben: Oh definitely, incredibly hard. People think you’re loaded when you just get signed, but its not like that at all! It’s just a bigger, longer ladder to climb you know? Money becomes an issue, it really does. But if you love it then you do it and you don’t ask questions.
Ol: You do it, but if you have to do it this way lets say for the next 3 albums, it just wouldn’t be worth it! You can’t go on tour, then come home and not have money to pay the bills.
Ben: In the beginning it is just cool to be in a band, but we’re not kids anymore and we’re getting to the stage where we want to start putting money into our future and I think its really, really hard to become an adult when the industry pays you like you’re still a kid. And they expect you to do gigs and travel for nothing, sometimes not eat for a day! Then when you get home and you’ve got no money to pay your bills that’s when you realize “Shit, I can’t grow up like this”.
EP: On the other hand, today it’s the release concert for your third album. By the positive critics and reviews, could it be the break up point?
Ol: I don’t know, man, I don’t think about it. We don’t even want to be rich or anything we just want to make a living out of it, just so we can tour, come home and be O.K.
EP: I don’t want to touch a sad subject because it’s a positive and important day for Evile today. I would just like to know, after what happened to Mike (Alexander, former bassist who died in 2009 during an European tour), how uplifting was the support from all the other bands that came out to the rescue?
Ol: I think, to an extent, we wouldn’t have got through it, as well as we did without all these bands. We had Ozzy Osbourne and Metallica going like “Oh yeah, raffle these off me!”.
Ben: Slayer, Annihilator! Even bands that we’d never heard of and thought wouldn’t have given a shit about what happened us, they sent their stuff through to us in support, or called to send their condolences. It’s really nice that that kind of family atmosphere exists in our genre. I don’t think it exists in any other. Everyone just clubbed together and got us through it and we’ll always be grateful for that.
EP: That is true, when you’re into metal, being a musician or not, you are always going to be an eternal fan – if you don’t live metal, you’re not here.
Ol: Exactly!
EP: You do have another single that was just released, another cover, a Nirvana cover, Ben – you managed to double pedal Dave Grohl’s drums!
Ben: laughs, What can we do?! I think with a track like that because its so definitive on that album, it breaks up the album in so many different ways… I’m sure the guys knew what to do with the lead guitars and everything but the drums are so… pure! Yeah, pure and “grungey” and, how do you dirty up something up that’s dirty as hell anyway?! Double pedal (cracking up laughing).
EP: Musically speaking, I honestly believe you guys needed to dumb down your play, I felt like you could have played that in the toilet!
Ol: Haha no man! The main bass line in it is really cool! (doing a face he’s not sure he believes himself) No disrespect to Kurt Cobain he’s great but he just likes his chords too much, I went over it and I was like ”Aaaaaarghh!”. So I thought “Right, I’m doing that riff on guitar just to make it more metal”.
Edu: Yeah I heard that, I was gonna ask you about it…
Ol: Yeah, and it just worked really well ahaha.
EP: As a thrash metal band, are you not scared of the criticism after pulling out a Nirvana cover, when everyone blames them mostly for fucking up metal in the 90’s?
Ben: I think anybody who knows us now knows that we’re not scared to go completely off the wall. I’ve always said that right from the beginning, a band’s always got to go forward. You can’t make the same album 5 times in a row, you can’t move sideways in your career, you have to move forward and to do that you have to change and evolve. Evile will always evolve you can’t just stagnate in the same water and do the same material and tread the same ground all the time.
Ol: Unless you’re AC/DC where that works, but yeah you gotta go forward!
Ben: I think when people ring us up and say would you like to go a cover for a tribute album we’ll jump at the chance because its something new and something fresh, something different that we can then make our own so we love doing stuff like that.
If people come up to us and say you’re not thrash anymore, we’ll just say “Well, listen to Enter the Grave” – we’re still the same band that made that album, we’ve still got it in us!
EP: Perfect! So now the new album you’re just a few hours way from officially releasing this new album, I can see your smile! How was this journey, man? Rehearsing, studio, recording, and now releasing on tour?
Ol: It’s been great, as soon as Infect the Nation ended I personally started writing riffs from then on. It’s been two years non stop, now it’s just a big blur to be honest – an enjoyable blur! Now it’s like “Wow!”, all that effort will be shown onstage.
Ben: And I think the hard work put in rehearsals really showed when recording. We sat down and got all our parts nailed properly before we went into the studio, which is why we got them down so quickly. It definitely raised our confidence levels to do it live. Now we just have to get over the nerves, bang it out and make people hear it!
Ol: Playing and begging to the crowd… “Like this, like this, you will like this!!!”
EP: Anxious?
Ben: I’m personally really nervous tonight, not because I don’t know what I’m doing, purely because it’s the start of a new era of Evile.
EP: But you must be really proud as well…
Ben: Oh yes for sure, it’s a really great album we’re all really, really proud of it! It’s just those early days when you don’t really know how it’s going to go down live. Once on stage, it will settle.
EP: In Memoriam… is it going to be in the concert?
Ol: Not today, we’re really proud of it, love everything about it! It means something for people who’ve lost someone in their lives, not just in mine. But it will have to be the right time to do it live. A big crowd who want to hear a lot instead of just “Can you play that fast song you do?”. If you’ve got 500 people screaming for thrash you don’t go “Right, we’re going to play a ballad”.
EP: Even with most fans knowing what it’s about?
Ol: You know, I don’t want people to feel like they have to sit through it like “Oh it’s Mike, lets go through it…” We’ll play it when its right, I think it’s a contemplative song so you have to listen to it with your own ears and your own head, in your own way. I don’t think it’s a song that will go down particularly well at a thrash gig but that’s not to say that when we’re a couple of years down the line we wont make it part of the set. Just right now it’s not right.
Ben: I think when enough people care and enough people wanna hear it then we’ll play it. Yeah, then it will become the norm in our set-list.
MONDOMETAL: ETREVISTA COM EVILE
Londres, 29/09/2011
Relentless Garage
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE ORIGINAL INTERVIEW IN ENGLISH
Show de Lançamento do Five Serpent’s Teeth
Eduardo Piloni: Quando se ouve a história do Evile até soa como um conto de fadas. Uma banda sem contrato, toca num palco secundário do Festival Bloodstock, conseguem um contrato com uma grande gravadora, lançam o primeiro álbum e já saem em turnê com bandas que provavelmente eram fãs desde criança: Megadeth, Exodus e Machine Head… Olhando pra trás, como vocês se sentiram?
Ben Carter: De certa forma éramos apenas crianças naquela época, quer dizer, ainda somos crianças! Pra gente foi tipo “Porra é o Megadeth! Dave Mustaine ali, andando nos corredores do backstage com agente”… foi meio bizarro. Nós ganhamos experiência, sinto que éramos bastante ingênuos quanto à industria toda, assim sendo que ter uma turnê inteira tão grande quanto aquela no primeiro ano era inimaginável. Aprendemos muito em como nos conduzir no backstage e como nos apresentar no palco. Nos fez muito mais profissionais. Tanto que logo em seguida já saímos em nova turnê com Exodus. Hoje somos chamados para os principais festivais do país – Download, Sonisphere, tudo graças à como começamos nossa carreira.
EP: E essas grandes bandas foram receptivos e positivos para com vocês?
Ben: Com certeza! A experiência deles meio que passou pra gente, facilitou muito nosso trabalho. Sempre nos fizeram sentir a vontade em ambas as turnês, mesmo estando a um nível tão superior. Foram 6 semanas de intenso aprendizado.
EP: Acho que o som que vocês tocam facilitou a inserção da banda dentro do nicho exclusivo do thrash metal oitentista. Mesmo sendo novos, e desde o primeiro instante do primeiro álbum, Evile traz um ar dos anos 80, o espírito, a pegada…
Ben: Pois é, eu acho que isso é muito bom! Tem pessoas com 40, 50 anos que vem apertar nossa mão e dizer “obrigado!”. Tipo… por quê? “Vocês fizeram eu me sentir com 15 anos novamente”. Ah, pra mim isso é missão cumprida.
EP: E vocês nem são dessa geração pra soar tão anos 80.
Ol Drake: Eu sou o mais novo, com 27 anos. Não somos novos, mas também não somos velhos.
Ben: O que eu curto mais do thrash é que sempre te faz sentir cheio de energia. E se conseguimos fazer pessoas que ouvem thrash por mais de 25 anos sentirem-se com 15 anos e cheio de energia novamente – trabalho feito! É isso mesmo que queremos, que quem escute fique cheio de gás, energia até o topo e que solte tudo no mosh pit.
EP: Vocês também tiveram um par de grandes turnês nos EUA. Gama Bomb, Kreator, Overkill. Extensos kilometros, não?
Ben: Putz… nem me fale! 40.000km acho que foi! E aqui encontramos pessoas reclamando ter que entrar num ônibus por meia hora…
Ol: É que na América a ética das turnês em sí é tão diferente por conta da extensão do território. Todas as bandas por lá estão acostumadas a ter que dirigir por 10, 15 horas pra chegar no próximo show e tocar 20min, enquanto na Inglaterra carinhas não viajam 2h sem chorar. Isso nos deu um bom tapa na cara. Não é apenas o fato de ter que viajar tanto, mas o nível de trabalho e profissionalismo é potencializado 10 vezes quando se está na América. É difícil e penoso fazer turnê por lá.
EP: E qual foi a resposta do público?
Ben: Acho que foi bom, acredito que eles conseguiram nos engolir! (risos)
Ol: Bem, no começo, como somos Ingleses e eles não conheciam muito, deu pra notar que eles ficaram meio que olhando desconfiados numa tipo “não estou nem aí…”. Mas um mês depois fizemos uma nova turnê pelo mesmo circuito e notamos que as mesmas pessoas que estavam “nem aí” já tinham nosso álbum, camiseta e vinham pra gente “E ai, pô curto muito seu som!”. Parece que cada vez que passamos por lá vai ficando melhor.
Ben: As pessoas tendem a levar um tempo pra entender a gente. Não estamos presos restritamente ao thrash old school, mas também estamos distantes da nova escola – estamos meio que presos no meio, algures, acho que somos um pouco únicos nesse sentido.
EP: Pois é, nota-se isto principalmente com Infected Nations, segundo álbum, que atingiu o top 100 em UK. Uma sonoridade diferente, com mais diversidade, um outro lado da banda – mais técnico você diria?
Ben: Bem, nosso produtor disse que nós gravamos o álbum número três antes do segundo (risos). Saímos de um thrash puro pra começar este thrash meio prog, complicado, parece que ficou faltando um álbum de virada pelo caminho! O que acontece é que escrevemos nossas músicas muito cedo em nossa carreira, alguns temas do Enter the Grave (primeiro álbum) foram escritos 4 anos antes do álbum ser lançado, e já com o Infected Nations rolou de colocarmos toda nossa criatividade pra fora e ver o que iria nos trazer. Sei que alguns dos fãs antigos estranharam de princípio, mas a maioria gostaram; talvez forçamos um pouco a barra com esse álbum mas a verdade é que nos abriu a cabeça e nos guiou o caminho até o Five Serpent’s Teeth.
EP: Com certeza, vê-se que há uma conexão natural entre os dois álbuns. Agora, como rolou de conseguir o lendário Michael Whelan (autor do cover art de Beneath the Remains, Arise , Chaos AD e Roots do Sepultura, além de Obituary e Stephen King) pra fazer a arte?
Ol: Cara, começou tudo como uma piada entre eu e meu irmão (Matt)! Estavamos ouvindo Beneath the Remains e eu brinquei que eu ia ligar pro Michael Whelan pra fazer nossa arte também. Ele tirou o maior sarro de mim, e aí eu pensei “por que não?”. Então eu mandei um email pra ele, falando sobre nosso novo álbum, que eu tinha esse conceito e que conseguia visualizar a arte dele pro álbum, e ele respondeu “Yeah, tô nessa!”. Mesmo dizendo que somos uma banda pequena, que provavelmente não tínhamos grana suficiente pra arte dele como Stephen King, ele topou fazer dentro do nosso mísero orçamento porque ele curtiu o projeto (rindo).
EP: Os festivais de metal são cada vez mais abundantes. Sendo uma banda estabelecida no fim da década de 2000 e crescendo a cada álbum, vocês sentem que a música pesada está novamente crescendo em geral?
Ben: Certamente, a vibe está muito boa novamente. O problema é que o metal foi meio que degradado por estes sub-gêneros que vieram entre os anos 90 e começo de 2000.
Ol: Poo* Metal hahaha
* poo = cocô, pronuncia-se pu, fazendo referência ao nu metal dos anos 90.
Ben: E muitos outros gêneros de música pesada que tiraram a atenção da mídia e empurrou o metal pro underground, mesmo com as bandas ralando pra cacete pra sobreviver. Cinco, seis anos atrás acho que o metal ganhou uma nova força. É muito massa ver as bandas que começaram isso tudo ainda tocando, ralando em turnês fazendo o maior número de shows possível, o que acaba mantendo a porta aberta pra bandas como a nossa, tá ligado? Nós ainda olhamos pra eles como ídolos, e posso dizer que o que eles fazem hoje ainda acaba nos guiando.
EP: Verdade, mas imagino que ainda é difícil de extrair dinheiro deste mercado e fazer uma vida apenas disso.
Ben: Pode crer, extremamente difícil! Algumas pessoas pensam que temos tudo na nossas mãos quando lançamos um álbum, que estamos feitos. Não é assim, é apenas mais um degrau que subimos de uma longa extensa escada, cheia de degraus pra serem ultrapassados. No meio do caminho, o dinheiro se torna um problema, mas quando se ama o que se faz, não se questiona.
Ol: Pois é, fazemos a música que amamos, mas se tivermos de fazer isso desta maneira por mais três álbuns por exemplo, não será possível. Não podemos pra sempre dedicar nossa vida para gravar álbuns, sair em turnês sem fazer lucro, voltar pra casa quebrado e não conseguir nem pagar as contas.
Ben: No começo é muito do caralho, mas temos noção que não somos mais crianças. Estamos em um estágio das nossas vidas em que temos de cuidar do nosso futuro, e fica tudo muito mais difícil quando se trabalha numa indústria que te paga como se você ainda fosse aquela criança, que espera que você se sinta bem em apenas poder tocar e viajar o tempo todo as vezes até sem parar pra almoçar… e quando chegamos em casa, temos nossa vida batendo na porta e temos que pagar pra viver. Aí falamos pra nós mesmos: “Merda, não podemos viver assim pra sempre”.
EP: Na outra mão, hoje é dia do show de lançamento do mais novo álbum – Five Serpent’s Teeth. As críticas têm sido extremamente positiva, alguns meios colocando a tocha do metal em vossas mãos. Vocês acham que este podem ser o vosso momento?
Ol: Cara, eu não penso nisso. Não somos pessoas que queremos ser ricos, saca? Estaremos bem se este pudermos viver fazendo isso – sair em turnê, fazer nosso trabalho, voltar pra casa e estarmos bem, confortáveis!
EP: Hoje é um dia feliz para vocês, não vou prolongar uma conversa que traz forte lembranças, mas eu gostaria de saber, após o que aconteceu com Mike Alexander (baixista original que morreu durante turnê européia em 2009), o quão importante foi a ajuda de todas as bandas e personalidades para manter o Evile?
Ol: Eu realmente acredito que não conseguiríamos passar por esta barra e continuar fazendo nosso trabalho como fazemos hoje sem a ajuda destas bandas. Tivemos caras como Ozzy Osbourne, Metallica chegando pra gente tipo “Toma aqui estes ítens pra vocês leiloarem e arrecadar fundos!”.
Ben: E Slayer, Exodus, Anihilator! Bandas que nunca ouvimos falar entraram em contato com a gente, seja pra enviar os sentimentos ou pra nos ajudaram a divulgar o leilão. É incrível a atmosfera e o sentido de ajuda que existe no thrash principalmente e no metal em geral, duvido que exista tal semelhança em e qualquer outro gênero. No momento de dificuldade, todos se uniram e nos tiraram do abismo, seremos eternamente gratos!
Edu: Verdade, todo metaleiro – seja músico ou não – é também um eterno fã, e isso faz a diferença.
Ben: É isso mesmo.
EP: Vocês lançaram também há algumas semanas um cover para uma revista, parte de um tributo ao Nirvana. Lounge Act foi a faixa escolhida, e você Ben conseguiu meter um pedal duplo na batera de Dave Grohl?!
Ben: Hahaha o que mais poderia fazer? Quanto à faixa, é um som bem definitivo no álbum deles, meio que separa o álbum em diversas formas… tenho certeza que os outros caras sabiam o que fazer com o baixo ou guitarra mas quando se fala de batera de grunge, como se pode fazer algo que já soa sujo prá caralho ainda mais sujo? Pedal duplo! (gargalhando)
EP: Musicalmente falando, pra quem conhece Evile o sentimento que passa é que vocês tiveram quase que desaprender a tocar pra fazer aquela cover. Fala sério, vocês conseguem tocar Nirvana até a caminho do banheiro, não?
Ol: Haha cara, não é bem assim! Pô eu até curto a linha de baixo daquela música (fazendo uma cara que não acredita no que disse). Sem faltar respeito ao Kurt Cobain, mas são aqueles acordes dele que ele ama demais e como guitarrista é meio aaaarghhh… então falei: “vou meter um riffão aqui só pra fazer mais metal”!
Edu: Pois é, eu notei, ia perguntar o que se passou ali…
Ol: hahaha… Funcionou!
EP: Mas como uma banda de thrash metal, vocês não ficaram com um pouco de receio de tocar Nirvana, onde uma massa ainda culpa o grunge por quase arruinar a onda do metal nos anos 90?
Ben: Quem nos conhece sabe que não temos medo de fazer algo fora do padrão, completamente diferente. Desde o início temos como princípio que a banda tem de evoluir sempre, não podemos fazer a mesma coisa em 5 álbuns. Isto seria como estagnar na carreira, nadar contra a corrente – não é algo que acontecerá com Evile.
Ol: Funciona com AC/DC, não com a gente.
Ben: Pois é, temos de ir pra frente. Se alguém bate um fone e pergunta se podemos fazer uma cover para um álbum tributo – tamos nessa! É algo novo, fresco e a enquanto pudermos fazer isso da nossa maneira, como amamos e tocamos, aí podem contar com a gente.
E se alguém ousar vir pra nós e dizer que não somos mais thrash, bem… eu mando eles ouvirem Enter the Grave! Somos a bada que gravou aquele álbum! Ainda temos a mesma pegada em nós.
EP: Agora vocês estão há apenas algumas horas de oficialmente lançarem o novo álbum aqui em Londres. Dá pra ver a satisfação e alegria que vocês estão sentindo. Como foi a jornada do Five Serpent’s Teeth – estúdio, gravação e agora turnê de lançamento?
Ol: Fantástico! Desde que terminamos Infected Nations eu já comecei a escrever riffs. Foram dois anos de trampo, intenso - e hoje olhando pra trás esse processo todo é como uma névoa, tudo se mistura em uma só coisa. Agora é tipo: “WOW” todo o trabalho será mostrado.
Ben: Foi realmente muito esforço colocado em ensaios e escrevendo música com e sem a banda que quando chegamos no estúdio pra gravar conseguimos fazer tudo muito rápido. Isto também aumenta nossa confiança de subir no palco e fazer o mesmo ao vivo, só temos de ultrapassar essa ansiedade, só quero estar lá em cima, tocando as músicas pra galera ouvir.
Ol: Tipo meio que gritando dentro de nós em expectativa “Curtam isso… vocês vão curtir o som!”.
EP: Ansiosos?
Ben: Eu pessoalmente estou muito nervoso hoje! Não que eu não saiba o que estou fazendo, mas é pra mim o começo de uma nova era para o Evile.
EP: Uma nova era… orgulhoso por chegar até aqui como chegaram?
Ben: Com certeza, estou realmente muito orgulhoso do que fizemos! É que ainda é muito recente, e é apenas um sentimento de expectativa sobre como vai soar ao vivo e qual vai ser a resposta do público. Uma vez que estivermos lá em cima do palco, tudo isso fica pra trás.
EP: Fique tranquilo. A passagem de som foi perfeita e tenho certeza que também será no show. In Memoriam (música dedicada à Mike Alexander) estará neste show?
Ol: Hoje não! Estamos orgulhosos de ter escrito este tema, amamos o resultado final e tudo o que significa, não só para nós mas para todos que algum dia já perderam alguém na vida. Apenas terá de ser um momento mais propício pra tocar esta música. Quando for uma massa maior que podemos fazer um set mais variado talvez. Se tem 500 pessoas gritando por thrash e os riffs rápidos que estão acostumado com Evile, não acho que cairá bem tocar uma “balada”.
EP: Mesmo com todos os fãs sabendo o significado da música?
Ol: Pois é, eu não quero que as pessoas tenham de ouvir a música e entrar na vibe tipo: “Ah é pro Mike, vamos entrar na onda…”. Não rola, vamos tocar quando for o momento certo, é um tema contemplativo – tem se der apreciado com mentalidade certa, da maneira certa. Realmente acredito que não seja um tema pra um show de thrash metal, mas isso não que dizer que em um par de anos não fará parte do nosso set-list. Não agora.
Ben: Verdade, quando tiver pessoas suficientes que se importam com a banda e tudo o que o tema tem pra dizer, sim, será meio que uma norma no nosso set-list.
EP: Beleza, muito boa sorte daqui a pouco e vejo vocês da roda!
Evile: Valeu Eduardo e Mondo Metal, muito obrigado!
After a heart-warming last day in the UK, kissing good bye all my friends at Jamie’s and getting Kristina’s notebook signed at Food Passion- a long day was still awaiting. Loads to pack and quite a few chores to be completed, thanks to Ladka and my neighbour all jobs were done and i can rest assured my house/cat will be looked after whilst i’m away.
That did not mean i had much sleep. None whatsoever. But the excitement of leaving home and the ever reaching realization i’d be with Kristina in a few hours, not to mention Noelle after almost 2 months away… plus her family in Malaysia! It was enough to keep me awake.
4am I leave the house. Last sight of Britain was an inspiring one. The Sun rises behind the fields giving its skies lysergic orange-purpleish tones, accompanied by a thick low mist that extended between trees. Lush! (write Lush! on the board)
Eyes are heavy. Legs weak. Check in done, I drag myself to the boarding gate where I sit and wait. One and a half hour still to go… People start arriving, I blink a heavy lingering blink, and when my eyes open all seats are taken! Kids… thousands of them it seems. Earphone off – endless screaming, a mind shattering clatter that feels like the world is about to end! Earphone on… chill out music. Ah! Like magic the never ending horror residing in that room turned into a comedy show. People are weird!!! The more normal they look the weirder they are. Fact!
“Emirates flight to Dubai will start boarding soon” the stewardess announces. Everyone rushes to the gate, as usual. Business men, old ladies, wheelchair users, men of all creed and belief, and of course – families with kids… All those little buggers with their panoply of toys, trolleys and gadgets. What the stewardess forgot to mention is that they were going to call people by groups! Disabled persons first, families with kids then, followed by and organized seating from back to front of the airplane. Chaos was installed!
Wheelchair users were the easy ones. There was in fact only one disabled person. When it came to families and kids… God almighty! Parents were rugby tackling people in despair, as if the plane would leave without them at any time! I could swear I saw a father throw his kid forward to his mother, like an American Football throw just to get there faster… maybe I was already delirious at this time. I wish I had seen it tho. I would not be surprised.
When they started calling people to board from the last seats, I was already trapped between the mass and the gate. I was - unfortunately - sitting in the front of the plane, and i knew or a fact that it would take bloody long for me to get to my seat. Animosity reigned in the room, and in an exhilarating quick chain of thoughts, I casually showed the steward my DUBAI-DELHI boarding pass, in which seat was in the back of the plane and already walking in I was allowed into the tunnel. That was smooth and put me in a very good frame of mind, albeit the plane departure as a result of all confusion was 1 hour overdue.
The stewardess was an overly friendly american girl. She was standing on my seat, after a few jokes she moved away. A very nice Pakistany couple sat by my side. I can only remember telling the man: “I haven’t slept properly in ages. I haven’t slept at all tonight. I know i will pass out in a minute, would you PLEASE wake me up every time food comes!”. “No problem”. And so he did! What a saint of a man… bless him! First round was breakfast… continental. Dinner was next and it was the schizzle!!! I was so hungry then I could’ve eaten a whole cow. When drinks came, I somehow felt like something really refreshing and sharp to clean the palate – “Tonic Water!”… “I would not mind some Gin aswell” I mumbled… “Of course, Sir” the American stewardess replied, handing me TWO 50cl bottles of gin and adding “I will give you another one after your meal 
” Paradise!!! I did not need any help to sleep, but all that gin sure knocked me out. The 3rd bottle though, I kept for Kristina…
Just before landing, the man by my side engaged a conversation. He was going to Malaysia as well. I talked a bit about the country and he reminded me of the Barça x Real Madrid match later that night, adding he supported Real Madrid… I guess I let go a bit of a rage towards that institution, anyhow thats besides the point and completely irrelevant to the course of this tale.
ARRIVAL IN DUBAI
There I was… expecting my bag. 1 hour is past. Bags stop coming, and there I still bloody am… “Baggage Service”. Track: Sent to Delhi! WHAT?! “But I’m only flying to Delhi tomorrow, I confirmed when I checked in”. “Sorry Sir. We can retrieve you bag, most probably, but it would take a minimum of 4hours…” Sod off… Kristina must be freaking out outside already. So I go!
INTERMISSION: Faye and Meg, thank god you did not go on with the plan of hiding inside my luggage… You would not have seen Kristina! ahaha..
With time only enough to pass thru Duty Free and grab a couple of bottles (once it is illegal to purchase alcohol in Dubai without a special license – mainly during Ramadan) then I stormed out! Kristina is there, and with a mix of surprise, excitement and disbelief on her face… It was nice seeing her =)) Unfortunately i had to carry out all people’s requests of hugs, pinches, squeezes, bites and licks (Faye, you again?! ;o)…
On the way to the taxi, the heat of the Middle East strikes. I had forgotten how it was, and how much one can sweat in just a couple of minutes out under those conditions! Its not only the temperature that bothers you, but the hot breeze that stubbornly keeps hitting you, constantly. The feeling is that after properly marinated one can easily be served as a slow roast after long hours out there… I’m damn sure of it!
Into the taxi, asap, and Kristina drops the bomb: “We’re going to Jamie’s!!!”. “Really?!”. I honestly haven slept in bed since I last been into a Jamie’s Italian restaurant… and I had the whole goddamn grill section at 9am! What about all the fun in Dubai? Hard Rock, crazy discos full of gringos and expats??? Its Ramadan… Hard Rock is closed. Jamies it is.
Getting there I get to meet all her colleagues. Most of them seemed to know I was coming, and the sight of the restaurant’s decor with all that familiar jazz: Vespa, canned tomatoes, Bottle Green cordial, oven gloves and all that merch, added by the white shirts, tie and aprons I remember I had just dumped pleasurably in my laundry basket just a few hours ago… boy, that felt weird!
Weird was a feeling that was quite washed away when i received the menu… no pork! no alcohol! WoW! That was exciting… what would I eat?! I would not be able to recommend anything were I working there. The waiter sure did… a bit nervous, he talked thru the specials and recommended a rhubarb/strawberry/ginger fruit juice. Starters? Meat plank! I had to try it without pork. Main: King Fish steak cooked on the wood fire s/w vegetables with pesto and dollop of mayo on top. Dammit they were nice! Musatti espresso and the best news: Bill was 100% comp! Manager came to speak to us personally and offered the meal. So nice of her =) Kristina, you must be very loved xxx It wasn’t a bad idea after all to go to Jamie’s, was it?!
PS: During the meal she took her time to read all the sweet notes on her book… Guys, she teared up! Thanks all for the effort, mainly you Charis <3 It meant a lot to her.
Back to her apartment, we catch up for a while just before heading to Reece’s room. Reece is a safe and very sound South African dude, who is head of the bar at the restaurant. He welcomes me very warmly just to cool us down with a lovely 5L Heinneken keg… Lets not get into the legality of those drinks. So cold, just what I needed! We chat and listen to music for a good while, until his roommate Jacques arrives from work and we start the drinking game. That was the last whistle of the night… Two games, 5L keg + a case of beer was gone, and so was I. So were all of us! Kristina and I had plans to go early to the beach and roam thru famous sights of Dubai to take some pics, but honestly I do not remember hitting the bed.
When I opened my eyes it was already 12.30pm. Time enough to enjoy the last few hours with Kristina and stretch once more to the airport. Stuff bellies because no eating or drinking are allowed outside during Ramadan. Cab, coffee at the airport (when I see the newspaper with the best news yet: Barça 3 x 2 RM), and it was time to say good bye! Kristina it was great seeing you, and on behalf of the whole Jamie’s Oxford I can say: We want you back!!!. Thanks for the hospitality xxx
FLYING TO DELHI
Time to think of India… It is going to be 3 weeks! Never been, and with all fairness I have no expectations. I’m in a kind of a let it be mood you know. Drink the wine kind of a thing… anyways. Hitting Delhi, I found my bag. Straight away! What I could not find was the bloody hotel pick-up. Changed some cash, and the lady said: “Outside… they wait outside, Sir.” She was partially right. Most of the pick-ups were outside, but no board with my name on it. Trying to go back into the airport, two security guys stand by the door: “Ticket?”. “No, I just came out, need to check something inside”. “Entrance only allowed for departure, Sir. You have to go now. Out, out!” making movements with his hands to emphasize my direction out. Noelle was in the train and she would be in the hotel long after me. So I quickly jump into a taxi – which was the worst decision I could´ve ever made. Oh well, let the journey begin!
At first instance I thought “Its quite hectic… nothing far stranger than I’m used to see in São Paulo”. The minute the taxi gets closer to the city, my jaws drop. It was about 9pm and the roads were completely taken. By all kind of vehicles, people and species! My taxi driver surely pays 2 road taxes. He must! I haven’t seen him driving ONCE with all 4 wheels inside a single lane…
Amidst the clutter of Delhi’s traffic you can find pretty much anything – a weird 3-wheeled hybrid between a truck and a van, dogs, pedestrians, disabled people on the pavement begging for money, thousands of bicycles; the rickshaws and the autorickshaws (tuk-tuk); which are a 3-wheeled vespa with roof! Trucks carrying people on top of the roof top, buses carrying people hanging by the door… It is all chaotic but still very peculiar, so particular of the city! They all seem to know what they were doing and after a minute you forget accidents can happen.
Getting closer to my hotel, the taxi driver drops me. “This street”, he says, pointing to this place I had no intentions of waling into. It was 10pm and the street was buzzing with people! Such narrow alleys and it felt busier than Cornmarket on a saturday afternoon. Food stalls everywhere. Shops, street sellers… “I cannot walk there sir. Take me to the hotel”. “Sorry no taxi”. Leaving me unattended, with my best “I’m-full-on-tourist” look, full of bags, sunglasses on top of my head, camera and laptop bag carrying a Duty Free package, i basically had both hands taken, and no courage to face the crowd.
I did not need to… the crowd came to me! “I carry for you, Sir”. “I take you to my hotel, Sir.” “Very nice, air con, clean sheets. Best price”. “Come on my bike, Sir. 50 Rupees” No, No, No, No, No!!!! I had absolutely no clue of where I was. Each person sent me on a different direction. Half of the crew tried to make me use their rickshaws or tuk-tuk. The other half tried to sell me something. This man tried to sell me all his collection of fake RayBan’s, when I clearly had my sunglasses on top my head. I gave up. Found a shop by the corner, he seemed friendly. No english. Call Noelle, who speaks to him in Hindi just to find out where the hell i was. Call the hotel who sends a pick up. Rickshaw. The bicycle one!
Finally I felt i was going to be safe, rest my bags and just relax! The receptionist of the hotel was with me, while the poor man pedaled us thru the narrow streets. Just before the last corner, between shops and restaurants, a huge figure approaches… swaying toward us, I see… It’s an elephant!!! Two men on top, as if it was normal, they stroll the big mammal around the city. Our rickshaw showed no sign he was going to stop, until very close he made the wise decision to pull over and let the beast pass… A sensible decision I’d say. Don’t wanna imagine who would win that clash…
As the elephant passes, the receptionist asks: “So how you find it?!”.
“Crazy!” – with a silly grin on my face.
Live Review: EYEHATEGOD + Church of Misery @ Camden Underworld, London
All photos by Eduardo Piloni (c) Mondo Metal. All external use must be communicated.
Camden Underworld, Londres, 26 de Junho
Domingo que é bom vem devagar, acompanhado de uma boa cerveja, amigos e música alta. E pra celebrar o dia mundial da “porranenhumisse” – após um sábado negro de riffs matadores do XII London Deathfest-, nada melhor que um dia de sludge e stoner metal fechando o final de semana no The Underworld em Camden. Os encarregados da nada árdua tarefa foram Church of Misery e EYEHATEGOD, como parte da turnê “Re-tox and Nihilism Over Europe” que passou por 13 países.
Os Japoneses de Church of Misery, banda de Tókio e um dos maiores expoentes do gênero no país, conseguiram a proeza de trazer positividade a um som obscuro de letras sombrias, que lidam com serial-killers e massacres. Culpa disso é o carisma e entrega do vocalista Yoshiaki Negishi que não parou um minuto no palco, e conseguiu arrancar sorrisos de todos, inclusive da imprensa e fotógrafos que se alinhavam para ver o show do backstage. Yoshaki esteve com a galera, recebeu de braços abertos os que ao palco lhe visitavam, e os refrões eram cantados por quem quisesse se aventurar no crowd surfing. A banda se mostrou em grande sintonia, e o seu sludge com tons psicodélicos agradou. Entre poucas palavras com um inglês não tão fluente, despediram-se com muita gratidão e reverência, e a recíproca veio do publico entre muitos aplausos.
Roadies em cena e os PA’s tocavam o melhor do jazzy-blues de New Orleans (NOLA).
EYEHATEGOD demonstra naturalmente o orgulho no peito do simples fato de ser de Nola; na atitude – não apenas como músicos – mas na maneira de viver a vida. Como o caricato vocalista Mike Williams diz: somos do sul, de New Orleans, e tocamos como vivemos, vivemos como trabalhamos… lento e pesado!
Nola é a capital do Sludge Metal mundial, com bandas como Crowbar, Down, Soilent Green, Kingdom of Sorrow, e claro, EYEHATEGOD que merece créditos como um dos, senão o grande precursor do gênero. É muito normal e quase que universal a troca de membros ou criação de projetos paralelos entre a comunidade sludge de Nola. Maior exemplo sendo Jimmy Bower, guitarrista do EYEHATEGOD e do Superjoint Ritual, também baterista do Down – que aliás tem presença confirmada para o dia 14 de Novembro no festival SWU que acontece aí no Brasil. Será a primeira apresentação deles em terras brasileiras e aqui eu deixo minha dica!
Quando todos os membros estavam já sobre o palco, Mike Williams deposita sua garrafa de Vodka perto da bateria, que viria a ser degustada no gargalo durante toda a apresentação. Enquanto a banda se sentia confortável com o palco e todos se cumprimentavam como se estivessem pra começar um jogo da NFL, Mike entretém o público com piadas esdrúchulas e até arrisca uma sátira cantando um blues acompanhado pelo baixista Gary Mader. O público grita “EYEHATE GOD EYEHATEGOD” e Mike imenda: “Por quê?… Ele não existe”.
Em clima de grande descontração, uma tiete ganha espaço, saindo do backstage. Embreagada ela rouba o pedestal de Mike e grita algo sem sentido. A banda, meio que sem saber o que fazer, manda ela fazer um stage dive, enquanto o público pede para ela tirar a blusa. Nem um nem outro, o segurança leva a garota para o backstage, não sem antes ser escrachada por Mike Williams.
Distorção e microfonia… quem conhece EHG sabe que esse é um sinal de que o som está pra começar. A reprodução ao vivo, entretanto, é perturbadora… o zunido intenso leva-nos até a descrença que aquilo realmente esta acontecendo. Nada breve, estende-se por minutos sem fim, e todos os membros preparados e olhando para o baterista Joey LaCaze se perguntam: “E aí?! Qual vai ser?”. EHG não toca com set-list e cada tema vem como surpresa… até para a própria banda!
Sister Fucker Pt.1 abriu o concerto e daí pra frente a freqüência do baixo e a afinação gravíssima das duas guitarras tomaram conta do Underworld. O som, muito alto e a bateria bem microfonada, traziam toda a melancolia caótica no melhor de EHG. Brian Patton cresceu junto com o som, e o trio da frente formado por figuras muito diferentes – Mike, Brian e Jimmy – se completaram. Mike tem uma postura única no palco, ele e seu pedestal que por inúmeras vezes atingiu o teto baixo do sombrio Underworld. Brian está sempre envolvido com algum outro artista, segurando a vibe do som, e Jimmy, para além das linhas lentas e pesadas, é dentre todos um fã que está em cima do palco. Ao fim de cada tema ele é o primeiro a bater palma pros próprios caras e quase que invariavelmente puxar o próximo som.
Sem um setlist pré definido – marca da banda de ir com o flow do show – fica muito complicado lembrar quais foram os temas tocados, mas pra quem ta assistindo é impressionante a diferença que faz no desenrolar do show. Como se a banda tocasse sempre o som certo pr‘aquele momento. Algumas faixas sempre marcam mais o show, como New Orleand is the New Vietnam e a inconfundível Dixie Whiskey. Em meio ao show, quem aparece novamente ao palco? A doida embreagada… mas desta vez Mike não perdoa! Após mostrar os peitos pra galera, Mike da-lhe um safanão que lhe manda pra roda “Good bye, b*tch!“.
Infelizmente ela não seria a única perturbação ao show… já na segunda metade, o amplificador do baixo pediu água. Técnico de som no palco, mais piadas e estórias do fantástico mundo de Mike. O problema não durou muito para ser arrumado. Também não tardou a retornar. Mais dois sons – Story of the Eye / Southern Discomfort – e o amp caiu novamente. Impossível explicar a vibe que estava naquele local. A banda não fez firula e enquanto o técnico suava para arrumar o prejuízo, Mike aproveitou e iniciou um parabéns em ritmo doom para o baterista LaCaze! Brinde de Vodka e o show continua. White Nigger e a fantástica Jack Ass in the Will of God foram outras duas músicas tocadas antes que o amp realmente acabasse com a paciência dos caras.
Mike se mostrou meio frustrado com a situação, enquanto Jimmy berrava: “Não páre pô, vamos tocar, vamos!!! Toca essa porra!” Era esse o clima do Underworld, mesmo com mais de 1h de show, ninguém queria parar. E verdade seja dita… as guitarras e seus tons pulsantes são tão graves que daria perfeitamente para continuar o show sem o baixo. Aposto que mais da metade do publico nem notou a falta do instrumento. De qualquer maneira, Gary estava ali pra tocar e não queria ficar de mão abanando. O publico mostrou um grande apoio, e enquanto Mike e Joey deitavam a vodka, Brian tomou a iniciativa de pegar um outro amplificador que estava no backstage, provavelmente do Church of Misery, e trouxe correndo pro palco – trabalho rapidamente executado.
Um final de show caótico que estranhamente muito tem a ver com toda a vibe da banda – desprendida, descompromissada e diversão acima de tudo. Após o show, alguns membros ficaram pelo palco cumprimentando os fãs que não os deixaram. Mike despediu-se agradecendo a um show memorável. Idem!