Interview with Vicent

Q>> Hi Vicent ! Let's start with a question regarding a recent happening... Why was your keyboard-player fired ? Wasn't he good enough or were there some personal troubles ?
A>> There's been nothing personal with the firing of our keyboard player. I think it's not even been an amiable or a difficult split-up. It just came naturally, as we had some shows scheduled and he wasn't showing up at rehearsals and refused to play live as he was studying for his University finals. I understood his position but also told him that nobody had ever been absent to a show and gone on with the band. I mean, there's always time for everything. Once the band is not your top priority, one should accept that he's not ready for what's going on and should quit by himself. We just found out that we could sample and trigger "Big Open Wound" key parts on stage and hired our previous key player to play the tracks from our first album in the live shows. Besides, all the keyboard parts of "Big Open Wound" have been created and arranged by myself and the help of the producing team. The guy didn't play a note on the recording as he had no time for it. I think we did the best in order to progress and avoid future hindrances. Also now the songs sound far better than ever before.

Q>> You said you composed all the key parts. How come? Have you written parts for each musician in the band ?
A>> No, I didn't even mean I wrote all the key parts but that they were written by me and the producer. In fact I've been less involved in musical composition in this last work than in the past. I wrote all the lyrics and arranged most of the songs as I was in charge of running the entire pre-production process.

Q>> You're still an important part of the band... Tell us something about your latest lyrics. Do you have favorite ones ?
A>> Well, my latest lyrics are quite less poetic than the previous ones. I mean, in our first album, my situation and all around me was fairly different than it's been lately, and all that had a big influence on those lyrics. The difference is that the way to express myself back then was more abstract and the topics dealt more with symbolism as a means to express myself. These latest lyrics deal more with experiences I had with love, hate, drugs, people I despise and a universe more reachable for everybody. Nonetheless, it's not strange to me that people inquire about the meaning of my lyrics, because I usually use symbols and images to express myself in songs, even when I sometimes write lyrics addressed to a particular person or situation. I think the bottom line is about a sense of loathing for a world I don't feel fit for, a perception of an upcoming and increasing dysfunction between the world and me. Of these latest ones, I don't have faves, but if you ask me about them all, I'd say "The Ecstatic Gift" from the "Fall From Grace" CD is the preferred one, for I wrote it as a poem and then created the music for it.

Q>> Why do you feel like a stranger in this world ? Have you been often depressed lately ? Why ? A>> Well, I wouldn't say stranger. It's just that what happens around - or even away - of what we believe we're aware of, to me is not believable. I really have the feeling that those who open wide their eyes and senses can see that the world's a sheer fake. Most people are clones of others; the rest are simply a demented cattle and we're day after day obliged to take part in this tremendous parade of horrifying performances… very different from what life should be according to my ideals. That is where my loathing for mankind breeds from. I don't feel like I ever fit in this and to feed my beast even more, there's the music business, of which I won't say a word, as you all should know about it. The way we're taught to love, to mourn, to enjoy, to hate... I don't see anything right in it. On the other hand, I haven't been depressed lately; I don't wallow in it that much. I release my demons through music and lyrics and take life in a cynical way (the philosophical current). I try not to take things too seriously or I'd become really mad. I took everything much in earnest in the past and had very bad times, especially as we were creating "Fall From Grace". I don't say I'll never be depressed again but I hope I can face bad moments with strength enough to avoid the torments of current morality.

Q>> From what you say it seems that - as many artists - you would be very sad if you couldn't express your feelings in music... What if music didn't exist ? What would you do ?
A>> Of course to me it's very important to release myself of the unbearable weight of life through music - especially with the lyrics I write - but the next question is impossible for me to answer, as I wouldn't feel any meaning in my life with the absence of such important part of my existence as music is. I think it's everywhere and part of our lives, even with us in our struggle to come out of our mother's womb, of course, still ignorant of what awaits us outside. It's the fluid through which lots of feelings flow, while other arts are also streams to let our torments and elations come and go. So I really can't imagine my life or any life without music, and in a way I feel sorry for those who just believe that it's got nothing to do with them, so that way they close an enormous gate to their personal growth. Just to close this chapter, I'd say that all good and bad things in my life have a particular soundtrack.

Q>> Let's talk about the recording of "Big Open Wound"... Was it a pleasant experience in the studio?
A>> Well, it was a pretty exciting experience. We thought about recording some new tracks last October 2002. Once we decided we were going to record these 5 songs, we chose a producer to make it; previous one was produced by myself and, though it was more or less as expected, I wanted an extra ear and a slightly different approach. So we chose a well-known man for us, J.A. Serrano, 'cause he was the guit player on our first CD and he is an experienced musician and also a man with very good taste and a great variety of tricks and resources, apart from being a member of an organic Electro band or something similar. In November we arranged some dates at his home and we worked once or twice a week there to demo the stuff and to create some arrangements we didn't have in the beginning. The Voivod cover track wasn't even thought of before getting into his home studio for preproduction; it was created right there. Same happened with lots of other details in other tracks that couldn't be the way they are without those sessions. After finishing the demo we scheduled a studio for March 17th 2003. We just had 5 days to finish the whole process, but as we had all the arrangements prepared or even already recorded, we could finish it in record time according to our standards, as we lasted like one year to record "Fall From Grace". The final results of "Big Open Wound" weren't good enough in the beginning due to an erroneous mastering process, so it took me almost one more month to master it at a friend's studio, but I can say now that I learnt a lot about tunes and frequencies and, though it's been a long process, I'm fairly satisfied with the result.

Q>> Do you enjoy recording as much as playing live ?
A>> I should say I didn't but this time I'd say I really do. I mean, the live experience is something that charges yourself with tons of energy to carry on and it's unlikely that anything else can give you that same vibe. On the other hand, the level at which we still make shows involves lots of effort charging and discharging equipment, traveling to very shitty clubs and venues, dealing with not very trustworthy people...so, it's got its hindrances. Recording sometimes turns into a very heavy chore, but it's a necessary process of morphism; this is giving form to all that you've struggled for during some time, in order to make it audible and give it all the ingredients to create that special flavor. I think that this really straining and sometimes painful process is very enjoyable, as it's also part of our learning process in music. Let me say I love both, with all the good and bad things that come attached.

Q>> Let's talk about your musical taste... What artists/bands do you listen to these days ? Have you discovered a couple of good newcomers lately ?
A>> That's really a hard one to answer, because my tastes are in constant evolution. If I had to speak for these last days or times, I listen mostly to Electro and EBM bands, sort of Suicide Commando, Wolfsheim, Solitary Experiments, Din Fiv, Blutengel, Project Pitchfork, Velvet Acid Christ and tons of others, but also mix them with some stuff like Samael, Septic Flesh, Dreadful Shadows & Zeraphine, also Sentenced, Him, Charon, Entwine... Among my tastes you'd also find Paradise Lost, Sator Absentia, Carnivore, Archon Satani, Type O Negative, MZ 412, Dead Can Dance, Cophnia, Carcass, Sophia, Lycia, IRM, Bolt Thrower, Nile, COF, Dimmu Borgir, In Strict Confidence... don't know… It would be unending, a wide variety of styles that could have as a common factor, a special sensitivity for the darkest side of it all and a good deal of misanthropy. As for newcomers, I wouldn't say a particular one as most of the bands I like are on for quite a long while. But you could try me next month or when I probably feel in a different mood and I'd tell you ones before others or the opposite. From the music that surrounds me, I just can't stand Power Metal and some Nu Metal acts. That's really not for me.

Q>> What is it that you don't like in Power and Nu Metal? Is it the music itself or the attitude of the musicians who play those styles?
A>> First of all, both styles don't appeal much to my taste and I want to believe that there's where it all starts. In the case of Power Metal, it also has very much to do with the repetitive schemes, the high-pitched and annoying vocals, the ridiculous posing, the childish topics they use to deal with, their fake and stupid brotherhood, their dated mentality, their "all in the band trying to be instrument heroes", and definitely the arrogant and disgusting media they've got backing them up. As for Nu Metal acts, I won't say I hate them all, as I like some Korn stuff, and some Soil tracks and maybe I could find some others that are daring enough to grab my attention. But you know, this is a very fashionable style among mostly upper middle class kids and it's got a lot to do with very expensive and saggy clothing, piercing art (that I love but not in a fashion way), dreadlock hairstyle, stupefacient stares and very little content in everything they do. Apart from that, nowadays, especially the American media are trying to create Nu Metal superstar acts one month after another, which is really fake. It doesn't respond to a true innate quality in most of the bands, but to an omnivorous hunger for fast success and a greedy taste for cashing fast & forgetting faster. I think most of the times, musicians are not totally responsible for what happens around them, but many of them are able to sell out and do what magazines and general media teach them to do. I feel them as a very large community of unhearty nerds.

Q>> You were talking about "fake brotherhood". And I totally agree because I've seen much disparagement, hate and arrogance in the Metal scene. For years. Do you think this is gonna change in the future ? Some people say music unites people, but they must be far from reality to say so, don't you think?
A>> You said the right words to describe the way all the scene is like. I'm in this for a very long time, could be said about 20 years as a music lover and almost 15 as a musician. I've even been involved in a couple of Metal magazines down here and my bitter conclusions are, that everybody in here feasts in their own crap. I've met people who shouldn't be considered even as shit, who are running big things in Metal and are doing it all for their own profit. When you have a close look to what occurs, it's all pretty clear: music is the least interesting thing for those who pull the reins and musicians are even less important. I see too many soulless assholes pretending they're good reviewers, connoisseurs, musicians, label owners, producers... I mean there's a rotten core which is pumping slime relentlessly and just some can feel its smell. Most just wallow in it and think they're going to the beach. I don't see a solution for such big scale manipulation. I just recommend putting lots of feeling and heart and soul in what people do… even when I know there are just very few who I can address this way. Brotherhood in Metal is done and gone, but there's still a way to save one's pride: by opening wide your eyes...or closing them forever.

RNO

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