INTERVIEW MUEN MAGAZINE
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http://www.themetalmadman.com/kyrie.html
Interview conducted by Jet (Muen
Magazine)
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Jet : What is it like
growing up in Argentina? Are music and the arts a big part of your
educational curriculum?
Alejandro : We are all from what is called the "Great Buenos
Aires" area, which is the name given to the suburbs of the capital city
of Argentina. Basically, it is not too different from life in the
suburbs of many important cities around the world, but there is one
thing that affects us more often; and that is the economic fluctuation.
Anyway, to sum up, you start kindergarten at 3 or 4, primary school at 5
or 6, after 7 years, you start high school for 5 more years. As a boy,
sports are an important part of your life, and soccer is the most
important sport in this country. It is very common to make friends by
playing soccer in a club, squares, or even in the streets. Music and
plastic arts are part of our educational curriculum throughout both
primary school and high school, but they are not taken seriously. Music
class in school is mainly watching a guy in front of the class strum
some chords from a song that everyone knows for an hour, hoping that the
students will sing along, which I find a little sad.
Jet : You must have had many musical influences when growing up.
Who are they and do you infuse these influences when you write or in
your musical stylings? Are all your tastes similar?
Alejandro : We have all heard bands like Iron Maiden, Metallica,
and Megadeth when growing up. Then Helloween, Dream Theater, Symphony X,
Rhapsody, Yngwie Malmsteen, and Angra are bands that influenced us, too.
Apart from these bands, we all listen to classical music, and of course
the most important composers are among our influences (Mozart, Bach,
Beethoven...). Personally, I like some more hard rock stuff too, as well
as some heavier bands, but I'm not too much into extreme bands... that's
Sergio's (drums) territory. Diego (guitars and keyboards) also listens
to movie scores composers, like Danny Elfman or John Williams. Horacio (bass)
is really into power metal bands, but he's always open to listening to
new things too. So, basically, all those influences converge in our
music, and that's what makes us have a personal style. It's not like we
say "I want to write a song that sounds like Blind Guardian"... whoever
comes up with some new material, just shows the main ideas for the song
to the rest of the band, and then each member gives their instrument the
touch they feel is right for it. Then we fight for a couple of weeks
about the final details until someone finally says "ok, let's do it YOUR
way", and there we have a new Kyrie Eleison song... haha... Well, I
think that's a pretty good description of the process.
Jet : Kyrie Eleison translates into Lord have mercy. Does the
lord influence you when writing? What is the reason for choosing this
name?
Alejandro : The idea of choosing that name comes from Mozart's 'Requiem'.
His requiem K. 626 in D minor was dedicated to 'his own death' and –curiously-
he passed away when he was about to finish it. The Kyrie Eleison is one
of its best-known sections. We think the name fits our music and has a
strong message. It is like humanity looking for help from someone. As
for the Lord being part of the name, no, the religious aspect of it does
not have to do with the message that we try to send. Each one of us has
their own beliefs, but none of us actually follows any religious
practice of any kind.
Jet : The style of your music is very technical, almost
neoclassical, are any of you professionally trained?
Alejandro : All of us have taken lessons at some point in time. I
took singing lessons from the renowned professor Osvaldo Moreno for
about 3 years when I started to become really serious about making
music, but I never really took guitar or keyboards lessons. Diego took
keyboards, piano, and Spanish guitar lessons in different academies for
several years, and electric guitar with Carina Alfie and the renowned
Claudio Marciello (of "Almafuerte"). Sergio and Horacio took lessons too
with personal coaches.
Jet : Lyrics in your songs are very poetic. Do they come backed
with personal experiences? How do you come up with the lyrics? Who does
the writing?
Alejandro : Most of the lyrics are basically focused on the way
we see today's world. So, it is a mixture of personal experiences,
impressions, and just reality put into words. It is easier to write
about these things, because you can get something that bothers you out
and show it to the world. This means that we have an endless source of
topics to talk about when writing, and it's just a matter of listening
to the "mood" of the music to see what we are going to say in that
particular song. The idea is to make the lyrics fit the music the best
possible, so that they become a unity. Most of the times, the vocal line
is already written, so the lyrics have to match it. As for the poetic
approach, I think it just happens... probably, that comes through in the
lyrics that I write a little more, because that is quite close to the
way I talk sometimes. Among my friends, I am known for "saying without
saying".
Jet : Do you release your music in both English and Spanish?
Alejandro : Not for now, at least. The project was conceived in
that way... all lyrics are, and will continue to be written in English
until we decide to do something different.
Jet : "In The Arms Of Decadence" your last cd is very progressive
even epic! How well has that CD been received? What does the name of the
cd suppose to represent?
Alejandro : The reception has been amazing! The fans, the media,
other musicians, everyone who is into this style of music (and many who
are not) seem to love it. Some people here in our country does not
believe that we are Argentinian sometimes, because it is not normal to
see bands take so much time to produce their music and sound as we do in
here. We have seen great reviews from all over the world, and we receive
emails and comments from fans from countries we didn't even know existed!!
haha... It's incredible what the internet can achieve sometimes. Of
course, we have found some people who critized our work, and even a
couple who were pretty malicious about it (but fortunately, no more than
a couple). "...In The Arms Of Decadence" is a line taken from "Children
of Pain", one of the album tracks. It sums up the feeling we have about
society in general today. The way in which humanity is destroying their
own world: wars, insecurity, greed, pollution, carelessness... all of
this of course makes us a little not too optimistic about life, but we
feel that if more people see what we see and try to change at least a
small part, we have a chance to stop it.
Jet : Whats the music scene like in Argentina?
Alejandro : It's really hard to be a musician here. Especially if
you try to make music that is not ridiculously easy to listen to by the
vast majority of the public. It's pretty sad to see the so-called
musicians that are at the top of the sales charts. I think there is good
and bad commercial music, and most people here seem to love the latter.
Latin rhythms, pop, some folk-influenced or low quality Rolling Stones
kind of rock are the most popular genres. With this prospect, only a few
of us crazy people dare to try to go into metal. There are only a couple
of very popular hard rock / metal bands (Rata Blanca and Almafuerte),
but their style is not really close to ours. So you have hundreds of
really talented musicians that may just never be heard by more than a
very small part of the public. Other countries are more art-oriented and
make it easier for musicians to have places to play live, record, and
try to make a living out of music. Still, we love the challenge...
Jet : Do you think there is a big future and demand for more
progressive metal? Does it seem like the style is unappreciated? Do you
think people even realize all the hard work, dedication, and extreme
discipline that is needed to execute this music?
Alejandro : I would definitely love that, however, I'm not really
sure if there is a big future for it. But I do think that the youngest
people who get into metal are appreciating the style, and of course we
have the older people (like us, haha) who have heard so many different
styles that have found a new color in metal music by seeing its
progressive and symphonic influences. So, there is -and will be- a
market for our music; it's just a matter of getting enough promotion to
be heard by that potential market and being confident in your own work.
The style may be unappreciated by many people, but we can't focus on
that. Of course, it takes a lot of hard work to write, arrange, practise,
record, and play live this music style, and I'm sure that only a small
part of the audience realizes that, but we do this for ourselves, for
the people that appreciate it, and for those who simply enjoy our songs.
Jet : Are any of you involved in any side projects? What do you
do when not playing in Kyrie Eleison?
Alejandro : No real side projects at this time, but we are often
invited to participate in different projects. Diego used to play live as
a guest keyboardist for Jezabel, and I have sung live with Dominus
Inferi, Angel's Tears and some other bands. However, since we don't
really have much time, they are guest appearances, and not side projects.
We are all really focused in Kyrie Eleison.
Jet : Who did the artwork for the Decadence cd? What is it
supposed to represent?
Alejandro : It was done by a great artist called Pablo Aschei.
He's very talented, and he really likes the band, too. It represents the
"Decadence", incarnated by this beast who destroys our world, and you
can see that it was created by humanity, and also feeds on humanity
itself. It is a way of saying that people destroy their own world.
Jet : Would you like to be signed to a label some day? Why or why
not?
Alejandro : We currently work with Black Medusa (independent
label) in Argentina, and with Stay Gold in Japan. The good part of it is
that you can focus more on the musical aspect of the band, and not so
much on the business part of it. However, it is always difficult to
decide whether you want to sign with a major label or not (if that
opportunity ever comes, of course). I think that in the early stages of
a band, having a supportive label is very important to get enough
promotion, and unless you can quit your day-time job, it is something
necessary. What happens if your band makes it big? I really don't know
yet... I guess it's a matter of finding the right manager so that you
can get to the best agreement with a label.
Jet : "Pull me under" Is one of my favorite Dream Theater songs.
You cover this song beautifully for the tribute cd. Why did you choose
that particular song to cover?
Alejandro : Black Medusa, the label that was producing the CD
contacted us when they already had most of the bands who were going to
record for it, and they showed us the list of songs that they had chosen.
When I saw the list I was almost shocked that none of them had chosen
Pull Me Under, since it is their greatest hit, and of course it needed
to be on the CD. I suggested recording it to the rest of the band, and
after only a few days we were all working on arrangements for it, to
give it our personal touch.
Jet : What kind of element do you think all the strings and
choirs bring to your music? Do you often have a female vocalist that
accompanies the band?
Alejandro : The orchestral strings and instruments and the choir
are an essential part of our music and its character. They are what
differentiates us from most of the other bands here in Argentina. We
want to make songs that mix metal and classical music, and that can be
appreciated by different audiences. Some people who only thought that
metal was "noise", actually changed their minds after listening to us.
We always have guest musicians when we play live, and the amount of
guests depends on the occasion. Normally one our two female vocalists, a
male vocalist, and a keyboardist.
Jet : Describe your fans. Any funny or memorable stories?
Alejandro : The good thing is that we have a diverse audience.
There may be kids who just got into metal, adults, other musicians...
and also, it's not just men (as it happens with some other bands); there
are also many women who like our music, too. There was this live show
when we played no more than a couple of hours after Argentina had lost
the final for the American Soccer Cup to Brazil. So, we were not in the
best mood, neither were the fans, but after we started playing, we all
forgot about it... until I was talking in between songs and I said "thank
you for being here tonight in spite of the cold, and the soccer match
that we've just lost". So, one of the guys yelled from the audience: "man,
did you really have to remind us of the match??". The good part is that
most people just laughed and we could go on with the next song. It is
kind of funny now, but at that moment, I thought "ok, maybe mentioning
the match wasn't the best idea". You know, soccer is a big thing here...
Jet : Have you ever worked with any really big names? What was it
like?
Alejandro : No, we haven't. And there's a reason for that. Most
of the times, when any of the important international bands come to
Argentina, the producers of the show may contact some bands to act as
supporting acts. The problem is that normally, the arrangement involves
a quite high fee that the band that agress to play has to pay, and the
sound quality for those bands is far from being the best. We do not
agree with this kind of arrangements, and we do not feel that it would
be of any profit for us to do it, so we actually turned down a couple of
offers for that reason.
Jet : What would be your dream venue(where you always wanted to
play
Alejandro : It would be great to get to play in legendary
stadiums or places like Donington Park, or Budokan. Or headlining
festivals like Wacken or ProgPower USA. Here in Argentina, a great venue
to play in would be the Luna Park Stadium, as long as we manage to find
the right sound engineer, because it's not too easy to get a good sound
in there.
Jet : Do you have any sponsors? Endorsments?
Alejandro : Yes, we are fortunate to have some sponsors for
promotion, instruments, and accessories for them. At this stage, the
arrangements are not extraornadinarily beneficial for us, but they have
really made some things easier. And of course we are open to new
proposals.
Jet : What does the future hold in store for Kyrie Eleison?
Tours? Merchandise?
Alejandro : We are currently evaluating options for band T-shirts
and some other merchandise. As for touring, we have been contacted by
people from different towns in our country, and we are trying to find a
way to be able to play there, since there are certain conditions that
need to be met. Apart from this, we have just recorded a metal version
of the song "Total Eclipse of the Heart" for an upcoming compilation CD
of metal bands covering old pop songs. We came up with a quite
interesting and tempo-shifting version, that I'm sure our fans will
enjoy. And we are also working on new songs for what should be our next
CD... but that will take some more time. I'd like to thank you Jet on
behalf of the band for taking the time to come up with this interesting
interview, and for all the nice compliments. I really enjoyed answering
it. People like you and the magazine you work for are really important
for underground bands, and be sure that we appreciate it. For those who
want to have more information on the band, they can visit our official
website at www.k-e.com.ar
and our myspace site
http://www.myspace.com/kyrieeleisonband and
they can email us at info@k-e.com.ar
Jet : Thank you for taking a moment to speak with me, and great
success to you all.
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