Garza Podcast - 158 - GAEREA: Black Metal, Portugal, Spirituality & Art

Episode Date: January 6, 2025

Garza sits down in-person with GAEREA. https://gaerea.com SPONSORS: https://distrokid.com/vip/garza 30% OFF! Sweetwater - https://imp.i114863.net/rnrmVB CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Anonymity & Stalkers 02:41 - Scammers, Cash vs Digital Currency 05:56 - Gateway Bands Into Black Metal 11:36 - Evolving as a Band & Writers 14:03 - Expanding Your Perspective 18:06 - Writing & Interpreting Songs 22:00 - Wearing Masks on Stage 25:08 - Spirituality & Afterlife 30:33 - Thomas Ligotti Books 35:22 - Growing Up in Porto, Portugal 39:44 - Writing an Album in Two Weeks, Pros & Cons 46:02 - Writing & Deleting Riffs 52:30 - Writing New Album, Coma 54:14 - “Hope Shatters” 57:00 - “World Ablaze,” New Musical Direction 1:02:14 - Philosophy 1:09:45 - On Tour With Zeal & Ardor, Zetra 1:13:18 - Playing w/ Black Metal Bands 1:14:48 - 8 Forms of Art 1:16:40 - Jordan Peterson

What's up, man? All good. All good. Thanks for having me. I never thought I would be in this room with you. I never thought I'd be talking to someone from Portugal, so there you go. You never did? I never thought I would.

But am I the first Portuguese person that you speak to? No, but definitely the band artist. Okay. Totally. Okay. Garia is in the house. It is. I like it how it's, um, it's just like your band is.

Garya you know I couldn't I I couldn't even find your name good I could find it we we do we do our best to not have our names out there of course yeah if you really want to find them you will find them but I guess it's the same with I guess it was the same with sleep not back in the day internet all that you could see their faces all that all that stuff all these blogs or something which makes it more interesting for the fans, I guess, every now and then. Totally. Some of them will really want to dig in into the whole thing. Like we've been saying with like Sleep Token and shit like that.

Sure. Which can go a bit wrong every now and then, but for the most part, I think it's just a cool thing. How could it go wrong, you think? I don't know. I mean, weren't... slip token suffering from some stalking like a year ago or something from some crazy fans

I mean that's not cool but I guess it's I mean if it's a band that explodes that much I guess people go crazy over it this might make sense or might not make sense

people forget that humans get weird real quick yeah humans are weird and a lot of these fans forget that behind those masks there's also humans that uh yeah they they don't want their addresses posted out there nobody wants that nobody does not even if you don't use masks on stage you don't you don't you don't want that shit out yeah even like people that are like from our hometown that are very private they even they don't like being out there like the address anything that could be tracked

you know yeah i mean who does right we do live in a world where you should be a bit careful about that yeah you should you know yeah yeah i mean even i'm even a bit like uh careful where i like swipe my credit card you know these days uh i never know like because i remember like some years ago in portugal there would be like these devices that people would put in like atms and yeah and it would just like clone your your your um your card so i always had that shit in the background all these scams and I live in Portugal so it's like European Southern countries so there's a lot of scams there yeah I mean we're not we're not that different from Greece Italy Spain I mean we're all the same we're all the same people with

different accents yeah I mean it's it's southern European countries yeah we do we do know our ways around in the streets and some scams might occur every now and then so yeah even these days I'm a bit careful like where I swipe my card or can I pay with cash instead I don't know it's just my defense mechanism for down then have you seen uh terminator two terminator two yeah with honors forcing anger I I probably did on a Sunday afterno you got to watch it you got to rewatch it I got rewatch it yeah all right I'm only I guess over here it's like a super massive classic movie you know what you were talking about that and it made me think about there there's a scene

where the kid steals someone's, I believe credit card information. So someone uses a debit card, right? Jay, I know, and then he gets, he has some like device. And then he gets the, yeah, yeah, this is, this is the scene.

Yeah. Those things that I remember on TV were something like that, but it was some sort of like device. So you put the card and the moment it enters the machine, it goes through this device. Yes. And it would just like clone it or I don't know. I don't know what we would do, but it would be certainly dangerous for your account. Totally. Even now, I should go back to cash. I should just cash it up. Just walk around a lot of cash. Yeah. But then, but then you have cash.

Right. And then it sucks. I mean, I live in the Netherlands. There's not even very nice ways to put cash into your account anymore. Everything is very like cash. The banks are not the banks in the Netherlands don't have like these like physical Places where you could go just like to deposit money anymore. Yeah, I don't know about here in the States, but yeah, it's just like becoming so cashless so digital that Yeah, you could do cash, but they they even took away the cards my uh our our drummer Ernie he he he has his card on his phone and like it's like a The scans his phone. I'm like we don't have a card anymore Yeah, tapping, yeah. It's stupid.

Yeah, it's just, I love that part. Yeah. I love that part. Which it goes back to humans. They're just weird, you know? Walmart doesn't accept tap, though. They don't? Good.

No, they don't. Because Walmart gets even weirder around like 10 p.m., you know? You know what I'm saying? Isn't it kind of crazy? So your band, you basically started the band and you're better in like 10 years ago. Yeah, yeah. It's crazy, huh? Yeah.

I guess like formerly you would say formed in 2016 16 yeah so it's been eight years in the house something like that eight nice you're what you're in your bedroom listening to Lincoln Park all right I was a Lincoln Park fan yeah sure I'm from 94 so yeah there's nothing to hide there I was a Lincoln Park kid yeah that was your gateway band correct it was one of them yeah it starts with I mean I remember like driving with my father used to have a cleaning company so I remember like him had a big pickup truck and we would just

like listen to scorpions and Lenny Kravitz and all these iconic rock artists which stayed in my heart forever but and then you just of course you get to high school and you discover Lincoln Park at least for kids of my age at least for me and then and then slowly you get your first guitar in these

discover slip knot and then all hell breaks loose yeah once that you find like the real gateway it's over oh this is where this is okay this is at least there's like the direction yeah yeah i did i did have a big jump because my first band was a black metal band like my first proper first ones right out of the gate's black metal so all of a sudden i was doing i don't know from i don't know lincoln park sleep knot some corn And then all of a sudden, Belfigar, Dark Funeral, Rockna Rock, it was a big jump. So all the other things that I missed, like all that transition,

like bands like yours, for example, I only discovered afterwards. Because I was never like a super death metal guy or deathcore guy. These days are a bit more. So I skipped all those things because all of a sudden you have a black metal band and you only want to listen to mayhem and all the lore around it, all that shit, because we're 15 or 16,

and everything is very crazy. Yeah, doing your research on it. Yeah, I want to dissect all that thing. Yeah, yeah. Who burnt what, who died where, you know, all those things. So, yeah, I skipped a lot of things, and then I discovered it as I went on this journey of playing guitar and all that stuff.

How did you skip it? Did you like, okay, here's Lincoln Park or something on it, and now there's Mayhem? How did you find it? I don't know. I really wanted to play in a band, and all of a sudden there was this opportunity of a local band. I think we played just like a couple of shows. They needed a guitar player. I already knew how to play guitar, and I just wanted to be in the band,

and they were very aggressive, extreme. And for me, it was like a gateway to, like another world, yeah, with bands like Dimo Borger and Cradle and the heavier shit of Moonspell, a Portuguese band. So yeah, it's... And then as you go through, through, of course, other bands and creating even my own, I discovered other stuff. But I skipped all the death metal scene for a while to, like from like from like, from new metal or very aggressive hard rock music to black metal yeah wow it's like uh it's it's like your body knew what it wanted it's like i guess i i was always very intrigued uh these days i

get bored more easily uh because i mean you see the world and and sure you also get to know some like a lot of bands and all that so so the the the sparkle uh kind of gets lost a bit every now and then but uh i guess that's why i i try to always like listen to other stuff also i barely listen to black metal these days yeah can you say how old are you are now or no i'm 30 30 okay yeah dang already sick of black metal dude you know fuck this shit dude i'm kidding i'm kidding i'm kidding yeah dude you know i you need to like clean the palate you know yeah clean clean the pallid and then and then you go back you're like oh yeah exactly Yeah, it is.

Yeah, I mean, there's stuff that I always listen to. But even within the black metal thing, I mean, of course, you get, like, super intrigued by the classics. Of course, Venom and other canceled bands and mayhem and shit like that. But I was always, like, super intrigued by the level of production of, like belfigure or or i was always like how can these bands sound so massive um and if i want to if i ever do a band i would like to have something as astonishing and like super produced and like very uh where you can hear everything that it's happening without having to be recorded on a potato you know yeah yeah it's all this actually sounds good you know so you know and then you

You kind of took it to a whole other, on a realm, you know? It's like a whole other, just like the look. It's like it's not coarse paint, but masks. It's not, you kind of took like your own thing with it. Yeah, we're not, we're not the first band doing it, of course. Of course, you draw inspiration from other bands. But then we always kind of knew what we wanted to do. I always had some sort of like vision.

for it and we stuck to it and some of it still stands some of it changed but we always kept this first look because i think it's important to keep it i i i don't see it changing just because uh just because it's old or just because it's getting old uh it's something that i we would always like to keep it because it reminds me of that bedroom time where I just decided to write music. I mean, it's important for me. I care for those things. There's a level of truth to that, you know? Even like, even if your opinion changes, it is kind of, sometimes it's still you.

Yeah. I mean, opinions should change. Sure. Yeah. I mean, it's very common that I, there's some songs that I don't want to play like. not because I don't like them, it's because maybe I don't believe in what I wrote back then anymore. Because it changed my perception, my, my, what I believed in that specific song, what is written there, changed for me. And sometimes we just like updated versions of that into new songs.

Yeah. So, so yeah, it's just like I want to do something that, we all want to do something that we believe in. And if we play these songs live now, it's because we really believe in them now. We're not going to play other songs just because they should be there or because we need a very specific track there. But if it's just outdated, and it's been eight years, and I'm sure you would understand that.

Sometimes it's just like, yeah, it's not the place anymore. It will remain there in the discography for the fans that really love that track to her. hear it but yeah it doesn't fit the set anymore and you're a very uh i noticed you're like a very like reflective guy very uh introspective and uh and i heard you talk about perspective uh i believe it was right before you started writing coma is that is that true uh yeah i mean i mean always had that thing like like, always had albums where this album is in the, like, first person view.

Or then with the first album, it was that. And then we wrote another album called Limbo where it's exactly the same world, same thing, but viewed by another person and how that would change. And I think it's just something that I always keep in, in my mind, like, I always view it, like, for example, this microphone. It has this view, but, like, there's another, other parts of the microphone, if you look it in another perspective. And I think all life should be viewed in all possible perspectives for you to understand

the full concept of it, otherwise it just gets too narrow. And I think that's the most important thing for me when I, I write music or write lyrics, sometimes I like to revisit other things just to see if I still believe in them and how would I write it now and what do I believe in now? Because I think it's, our whole belief system is the most important thing that we have sometimes. Yeah, I know like a lot of people, a lot of people listening struggle, you know, a lot of, most of them are younger gentlemen. How do you, it's really hard to get out of your own head. You're just like, neuromminded. How do you expand your perspective?

That was a question, one of my questions for you. I don't know. I mean, for me it's very important to, like, consume a lot of art. Like, and most of all, when we're out on the road, we love to meet our fans, and we love to ask them very specific questions, which most of them will answer. And some of them, it's just like,

what it's not what is your favorite song but like what drives you to come to a show why why is this song

so important to you and it's not it's not because we're looking for for this ego rise of our of our spectrum it's because 99% of the times people will refer to these songs and say

or explain this whole thing based on their belief system. So they will say, oh, this song or for example, wow, this song helped me through that moment. This song is very empowering for me. And sometimes just a song about fucking mental, tortured, self-destruction.

It has nothing to do with empowerment. But, you know what? Once you release a song and you know this, it's not yours anymore. It's just partially yours. The rest is just for the world to think about it and interpretate in their own in their own way and if they think like

yeah this song that is completely about I don't care if it's about suicide or whatever it helped me through that moment and yeah now I feel better I feel a bit worse when I listen to the song because I know what it's all about

what it's about for me as the artist but if it's completely different for somebody else great I shouldn't be the one like, no. No, no. You should feel bad about this song. Yeah, it's like a, it's a tough line, man. It's like you want to talk about the song, what it means,

but also you don't want to ruin someone else's, like what it means to them. So it's like this tough line. Yeah, I always think that making music is very selfish. You make the song and you write songs. So you know this, you write the riff. And this riff brings you to a certain moment in your life or just like, this riff makes me feel something.

That's why it ends up in the song. And then it's there. For me, that's the most unique moment of creation ever. That's the real moment where the artist grabbed the instrument and based on his own feelings, he created something. And you will never, ever be able to replicate that ever again. Even live, I don't believe you can always feel the same way you felt when you created

that specific song or when recorded that thing. Everything is just like reflections and fragments. If you play that song like 200,000 times, at some point it just gets a bit automatic. You can't help it. You can't, like, feel like be super cathartic all the time. when you listen or play that song. It doesn't work like that with us. So, and I guess it's the same, once you put the song out,

you put the song out and then it's for the world to listen to because you want the world to listen to the song. And whatever they want to feel with the song, whatever they want to do with the song, interpretate it in different ways. I think that's the beauty of it, of all art. It's out there. There's always like the,

the vision of the artist and the creator, but I don't think it should be always like super demanding. Like, no, you're supposed to feel this because the artist felt this. It doesn't work like that way. People weren't there. They weren't in your head. They don't know what were you like going through

when you made the song. You can explain it the most you can, but it's, in the end, it's just another moment of reflection, I guess. Mm-hmm. We are brought to you by Distro Kid. the easiest way to get your music on all streaming platforms. Get your songs onto iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube music, and more. Check it out at distrokid.com slash VIP slash Garza to get 30% off your membership.

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and want to support the podcast, click the link in the description below so they know that you came from here. I wonder like if, like you have a certain kind of emotion, then you, hopefully you're able to put that on a record and then they relate to that,

but in their own way, it's like what it's like what it's like what is that it's like sometimes sometimes you're channeling something you know you know what the fuck you're channeling you know it's like yeah i mean i think i think there's also like we have some we have some songs like that in the set where we're playing the set for the first time uh all these like homo songs and and like clinging for the first time on stage it's fucking scary now we're a bit more okay with it. But, you know, a lot of new things.

But a lot of like these songs, I guess they become more complete the moment you play them more and more. Of course. Otherwise, it's just like a project thing that you compose, recorded, and people listen. I think the moment you have to pull it through live makes it more important, more unique.

And you understand a bit more of, I understand a bit more of the song, at least for us. That's how I see it. Yeah, sometimes the song will evoke another emotion years later. It's weird. I guess so. It keeps going. Yeah, I guess so.

I guess so. What do you think about when, like, what, what mindset do you go into when you're jamming? Because I don't know what it's like to wear, like, like the face covering on stage. What is like, I seem like to go to like a different mental place. I heard you touch on, but you didn't really elaborate what that was. What do you think about? Like on stage or in the moment of writing?

Oh, the stage. Oh, stage is chaos. Yeah. It's survival mode. Yeah. It is survival mode. I mean, fortunately, the band is growing and we play bigger stages. And you know, bigger stages have more space, more light.

A light guy with us all the time, you know. Of course, nice. So, but through, we still struggle a bit. It's also something that is very important for us to never completely makes us super comfortable. So there's no like fans on stage or, uh, uh, tricks. I mean, the truth is that this shit gets very warm, very fast. We struggle with breathing and seeing the instruments. And yeah, at some point you just have this wet cloth over your face

and you still have to sing, breathe, move, walk around, interact. And I know, I mean, I'm not complaining. We did this to ourselves, but I think it's something that is very important because it helps us not just become better at what we do, but it also the moment you have to struggle with something you have to find ways to overcome it in in and whatever that may be the truth is that we always do it we never quit like quit playing just because we're not comfortable we have to fucking do it and uh i guess it just like throws you into a different mode in your brain of like i wouldn't call it like survival mode but like you have

to do it with the same intensity as the beginning of the set even if you're not comfortably if you can't see you can't breathe can't do anything you still have to do it and some some and it's just great to feel like we can do it still so i don't know how uh i don't know how but uh yeah the the truth is that it's just something that like pushes you through those like very uncomfortable moments on on on on on the stage into something else i think like i just like transcending into something else in your in your mind i'm not a super spiritualistic guy but i think these moments are what i would say like the closest that we have in the band uh like at least your mind will bend itself into something else for you for you to for you to

finish the set and do, still do whatever you're supposed to do. Mm-hmm. You said that you're not a spiritual guy. I am not. I suck to talk to if the person is super spiritualistic. I either zone out or... You zone out, nice. I don't...

I get it. Why there's spiritualism? I get it, but it's just like, I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. It's not something that interests me at all. At all. At all.

Wow. I wonder, what did you? Yeah, because I mentioned earlier, like, you're, you're, uh, I was doing my research. You're a very, like, reflective person you mentioned, like, you sit down a lot alone, just think and let, and let your thoughts just wander. So I was going to ask you what, what you think about, but, uh, Yeah, do you, if you're reflecting, does that subject ever come up at all? Spirituality?

Yeah. No. I don't know. I was not brought like super, the whole way of like being brought up in Portugal. Yeah, it's really Catholic and all that stuff. But I think the fact that I also had an upbringing that, I could believe in whatever I could also made me think of

all the things like when you're like 16 and discovering all these black metal bands and also questioning some of your beliefs and what you're taught and you kind of make up your own mind of what the world might be or what the beyond of this world might look like and I don't know I just I just believe there's nothing

so there's nothing so So let's just do the best we fucking can with this life. I mean, because I hope I'm wrong. I hope I'm wrong. I hope I wake up after I die. But I don't think I will. I don't think. And I don't even think we'll have the conscience for it.

Wow. It's just a fucking void. My opinion, I mean, I don't know. Who knows? No one knows that. People pretend to know. Some people pretend to know. Some people really want to believe in something.

It's very important. I mean, I have nothing against people really needing want to believe in something. I also really need to believe in some of the things. But I don't know, maybe I'm also just like very young still. Maybe when I'm 80, if I get there, I will probably really want to wake up after I die because you're getting closer to the end, you know? Yeah. It's like, shoot, maybe.

While you're wrong, everything, everything can go fuck itself. but I get it. I mean, I try to get all the perspectives of it. Yeah. I hope I'm wrong. You have an interesting thought process. It's cool.

I just sit and thinking. Yeah, there's nothing. What do you think? I think there is a, afterlife is not the word. I believe that we turn into, I believe everything is energy. So I believe that, you know,

your physical body, dies so so the arm this is either buried or cremated yeah um and then i believe uh you turn into energy so you your conscience will always like remain at least i i basically believe in consciousness i only relate that because uh songwriting okay um so i'm trying not to put it too much on myself uh that's what i i since song there's songwriting it's like okay i'm always like where what do those rips from you know so i believe uh when you're grinding you're working your ass off that's how you earn the right for these could be uh you know hip-hop artist i passed away could be kirkobane could be hendricks could be a singer they're like oh and they basically like you're channeling dead people

i truly believe we're just channeling dead people that's interesting yeah uh or their spirit i believe those that energy kind of lives on and they only go to people like they're basically lifers when you you know what happens to me sit down and you're just writing for hours and all sucks out of nowhere or rip coming out of nowhere

it's something like that lyrics you know I'm like I'm always like where did I come from? It just doesn't feel like this doesn't I can't I can't take credit for that it feels like it feels like it's somewhere else so that I believe that once you

pass away I believe that's where I believe that's when life begins and hopefully there's other you know you or another uh myself garza that's writing there's their songs and you kind of and you pop in like right right right right at the right moment you pop that would be really cool that i hope you're right that would be cool i'm hope i'm right i am wrong pretty often so you know we're all we're all very wrong and very right but i really hope i'm wrong and you're right what what kind of books do you read because i was i was can ask you what kind of started this whole thing for for you being like a just sitting down and

thinking what was there like like like like a moment for you i used to read way more and i hate and i hate to say but i don't read that much anymore um would would would look way better if i if i said it i still read a lot but i don't um i'll be honest but um honest honest place yeah i mean i i i read a lot of like thomas ligati uh in the beginning of like this this whole journey uh kind of like trying to find if some of the thoughts that i had would match somebody else's and uh yeah what are some of his books dead dead dreamer is that is that songs up a dead dreamers conspiracy against the human race i think that's the that's the name of the book so okay so thomas how do you say last thing again i'm sorry legotti okay so uh so two gs and two t's i think so the yeah that's the

book so this is the one this shit rules i mean what's it about it's a whole i think it's a whole like i mean just the title alone i'm sorry yeah it is it is very um i wouldn't call it dramatic it's i think i think it's very it's very logic at at a certain point where he just like takes specific points of our society and just basically questions them it doesn't destroy them is not I don't think it's pretentious to that point, but he will question it and he will take like moments in time and just like, what if this and that? And I think that really inspired our way of like developing our own concept because everything we do in Gator concept wise is a what if it's very like fictionary, imaginary. What if we wrote an album about a person that inside the inside a coma? and what happens inside the state of coma when nobody really knows yet.

You don't know if you're alive or if you have conscience or if somebody pulls your finger, if you're going to feel it or not. There's different states. So all this record is, of course, based on that, so all these songs are about that, could be like fiction, could be imagination, could be memories, could be just like wishes that never will never become true but i think that like critical thought of like what if i would take like these two things and put them in the same world like a mad scientist and just like sit around and see if they can multiply or like how can they evolve and for me that's that's that's that's the best thing of like sitting around and and thinking or like in the first record we made a

a record where it would be like, what if society wouldn't have feelings, for example? Let's take out empathy, happiness, sadness. Let's take all these things. Let's take out religion as well. And again, of course it has flaws, but for me it's just like very interesting to think about all these paradoxes and how would a world or, for example, the city that I grew up most in, like Porto, how would Porto be if the world would be like that? Interesting.

Yeah, I mean, for me it's interesting too, because it makes you like think of what could be like taken out of the equation, what would be most important. And then in the end, you just realize that all these things are important. I mean, of course it would be great when you think like, oh, it would be great if like sadness wouldn't exist or like deception wouldn't exist.

But in the end, all these things are part of how we function. You need those things to exist so you can appreciate the other ones. So, and I also came to the conclusion that taking out religion, at least in my own thoughts, it's also a bad thing because we need that. I think it's just something that it's very needed for us to believe in higher entities and higher grounds and have something to hope for. and something to help us explain some moments in life. I think it's very important.

That's why, in my opinion, that's why we created it. Well, maybe for you it's music. Well, maybe for you it's music, right? Yeah, I would say so. I was going to ask, so, you're from Portugal, correct? Yeah, yeah. It's a small town, close to Porto, yeah. It's, first of all, it's a, it's a, it's a beautiful.

I mean, I was just, I mean, maybe you could kind of correct me, but the pictures I was looking at were just beautiful. It's kind of, it's, so it's a, it's a coastal town. Yeah, it's where, it's where one of our biggest rivers meets the ocean. Yeah, so in these photos, it's just like right around that corner, it's going to be ocean. So yeah, it's, uh, it's really, yeah. beautiful have you ever been no there no specifically i've been to uh lipsin uh madrid if you guys ever played at this festival we have in the north uh sw war barousels probably not like

no i wouldn't say so yeah what uh yeah what venice to have out there is uh is do you know the you know the heart club yeah yeah okay in all those photos you could probably see a hard club because it's very close to those like landscapes really okay yeah um did you play a hard club no it's nice not did i remember no it's nice but that was part like the close i assume that's probably the closest venue to you or even yeah that that would be the place where what i went to all my shows and the place where whenever we play portugal we would play there it's they have like two rooms like one for three to four hundred another one for a thousand so it's it's the place

Okay. I would say important. It makes sense. What's it like growing up there? It's just like, man, it's like you're right by the water, man. Sick. Porto was great. I mean, I studied there.

I went to college there. High school was in the city I grew up in. But poor was great. I mean, it was right before this whole touristic boom. So everything was cheap. That's pretty recent, huh? Like, I think it was like three years, right? It's still recent.

because I heard that town actually in Pacific they was getting like an uptake of like over a million tourists I think I think portal started winning the low those like touristic destinations things the moment I stepped out of it oh wow so in 2016 or 15 when I finished my studies yeah I mean I'm just like getting an apartment for like of course like divided with another four dudes but for like a 180 dollars we're almost in the same rate conversion yeah um and now you can't get that for i don't know

less than six or 800 for a student that's fucking crazy um but yeah it's a beautiful city everything everything is happening all the time um can't compare it to new york or l a of course but for us for our reality yeah i mean you go out at night and and uh there's this like you can go to the to the music college and there's going to be all these like sacks, uh, jams and, uh, you start get drunk there. And then you move on to the next bar and then, and then there's a show there. So that that culture, uh, exists a lot in port.

And even more now with, with tourism blooming so much. And a lot of tourists like pouring in their own culture into the country. Is that, uh, is that good or bad thing, you think? I think, I think it's great. Of course, you lose the small shop of the lady that sold like homemade cookies she's not going to lost because probably someone's going to offer more money for that spot to build like the Nutella place but yeah you lose some of those things but i guess it's the same thing with every every city that is that is growing it's it's the it's the worst part of uh growing a city you lose some of the authenticity of of uh

of the place in order to accommodate more tourists. Yeah, yeah, one place that might be secret now won't be a secret in a few years from now. Yeah, yeah. It's crazy. It is, it, of course, it's a sad part of it, but. What record did you write in two weeks? Mirage.

Mirage. Mirage, I thought it was one before. You wrote Mirage in two weeks? Yeah, Mirage was co-written to me and, uh, and, uh, uh, a guitar player that is not with us in the band anymore. Yeah, we wrote that in two weeks. Pandemic, angry at the world. We were gonna go on tour and then we weren't again.

And I guess we're just like, you know what, I'll just grab the fucking guitar and write some riffs. Yeah. But yeah, that that was two weeks, two weeks at home. just riding furiously and angry at the world. How long were those days? How long were those days? Long. Very long.

I'm with the whole day doing it. Did you have like a conversation like, hey, we're just going to, hey, let's just like block out two weeks. It's just happened. Everything was blocked anyways. There's no, there's no shows. There's no like activities to do because you can't go anywhere. there's no tours there's uh there's nothing so we basically finished the the whole limbo spectrum of promotion of whatever could be done without going on tour with it and then it's just

like all right let's grab the guitar and see how this like uh all these feelings channel if they even channel to something and it just it just it just flew out poured in like super fast super super uh super uh inspiring moments uh yeah interesting you had some you might have had some dead spirits hopping you were there who knows i don't know maybe who knows right see see it all this it's going to be one one big circle it's kind of it's kind of pretty i think it's kind of fucked up why you might have you might have predicted like the pandemic with a limbo it's like it's like it's like it's like you put your own man on limbo you know what i'm sure i do i'm sure i did i'm sure i did i'm sure i did i wonder if those spirits would like help you uh find lost picks and

those like the the drummers used to like tighten their their oh a drum a drum key the drum keys all those things that like go lost into the the the void and probably the the the place where all these spirits lie they could bring those back every now and then yeah it's like a it's like a bone yard both for drum keys right yeah yeah what did you learn from that From what? From a... From writing in that span of time. I don't want to do it again.

I don't think it's great. I love most of the songs, but it's just something I don't want to go through. Coma was like six months of writing. Between tours, between very happy moments. That's the best. Between very, like, chaotic, happy, stressful moments of a band that is doing everything we can to make something happen

and not just be angry at the world at home because we can't make it happen. So I value way more those six months where you do a bit every day than two weeks of not doing anything and just being angry and pouring everything you have into something and then discover that you have a record, which is an amazing record still. I really love it. It's important and I think it's going to become an important record

because of what it meant. But I appreciate way more the time, the different energies that were poured into the creation of coma because we had that time, we had all those different spectrums. I mean, we're on tour. then all right i'll stop we're going to it and then i come back and i have more ideas and yeah i'm going to listen to these songs uh again after two or three weeks oh this thing i'm

going to change because i have fresh brain now all these things didn't happen with mirage because we don't touch the songs after they're done yeah yeah still don't do it's kind of only something you could do once in your life like sometimes you'll try to go back and do something like again it's this it's a moment in time man it's can't you can't I don't think I could ever do it again, writing an album in two weeks or writing. So their songs in coma, they were writing a day, of course, but sometimes that just happens.

You write the whole guitar part in the day and then just put drums, done. Perfect. Four minutes of blast beats. But yeah, I mean, sometimes it happens. But just doesn't mean that you have to write like two or three songs a day. Yeah

We didn't feel the need to do that It just happened I would send like one song And then Our other guitar was like Oh I got another one And I was like

You know what I got another one So It just felt a bit like that Two three songs a day Yeah There were days It was just like

I would make like two songs I remember the day I wrote Salve Just finished it And then started writing Mirage like half a mirage done like the same day we had like two songs almost done

and it's two songs that are they became singles just to happen I mean I don't know it just it was a weird moment but I also think it's it's our one of our last records where we have like 20 riffs

in a in one single song yeah that's crazy 20 riffs yeah I'm gonna try that just put 20 chugs dude 20 different kind of chugs do one song yeah all of it in one song like you know after this one it's going to be this one and this one but only the only way i could see like it works is that uh sometimes your best idea is like like the first thing that pops up like that like the initial

spark okay that that's it so i assume like if you're writing two to three songs a day you're kind of trusting like the first spark yeah and that's it and you're just kind of how how they feel feel though okay it's done how to like how to feel oh hey this is good song or maybe well i don't know this might song might suck uh i think if i can't finish it it sucks for me if i can't finish it that day sucks that's i will not like wake up and try to continue it because it's just like ah no there's something off here so i just delete and try again but once it delete it yeah Oh, you're freaking hardcore. I will delete riffs.

Oh, you can't freaking... I will delete riffs. Yeah, I mean, it's... If it doesn't click on that moment, I don't think it's going to click anymore. Really? I don't think so. You never know, man.

Save it. It's been eight years of deleting riffs. Oh, no. You fucking delete her full records, man. Probably, probably. I mean, there's one song in a coma where those riffs, were never deleted because they were never recorded.

Oh my gosh. But Wilted Flower was an intro song that we used to play in our first shows eight years ago. Really? The... Nice. All that beginning, like half the song was the intro to the first shows we did. Wow. And I just...

And when writing the record, I was like, I wonder if I remember that song. And it was just right there. I was like, I'm going to try this. And the whole song just remembered years later. Yeah, it just served itself. Yeah, it's fucking old. The beginning of this song and the first, until like the third riff,

it's just stuff that could have made it into the first record, but it was just supposed to be an intro. That's something that we would play, all this. Yeah. That part? Oh, this part, yeah. Simple, simple riff. Boom.

Nice. I think it's our ballot of the record, or it's becoming the ballad of the record. Well, good thing you are. And it's really cool to play every night. Nice. Well, good thing you didn't. Record it, is it, it would be gone.

Yeah. Yeah, see? Maybe if I would have recorded it, I would have deleted it. Exactly. Yeah. So imagine how many of those kind of riffs that you could have had. I have some, but they were not very good. If I deleted them, I don't believe.

I mean, oh, I don't believe in those riffs. Yeah, it's like, it's like a, it's like a mental trick because you're, because once you experience, okay, like the song's done like within like one sitting, this kind of flows out of you, you know? Yeah. Then you all, your mind is wants to compare that moment when some songs need like a day or two. Sometimes a year, dude, I've seen like a song won't, it just won't. it just won't connect

and then your mind this attaches your memories to that oh wait this won't connect fans but then you know it's no I mean I don't know

for me it's just like if I can finish the song that day I can revisit it now and like you know what I'm gonna listen to this have some people around me and

we're gonna like move into structure maybe we're gonna delete parts and we're going to work on this but if i can't finish the song i'll delete this fucking song right then when i need to go to bed and it's not done i still need like that riff or that specific thing and i don't have it it's not coming out it's not gonna come out the next day it's just like then you just wake up it's like it's like when you work until 3 a m like editing something and then you wake up it's 9 a m just like what the fuck what was i doing

this sounds like shit so yeah dang it's like overworking your brain into just like forcing it for for me it's forcing it uh maybe for other person would be just like work in progress yeah yeah yeah wow see this it's all about how do you do you do that like you collect the riff and then after a week you will revisit the riff and like this new riff glue there it could work i just collect riffs i basically i like writing a lot of shitty riffs i basically i like writing a lot of shitty And but but but they're all they're all recorded and sometimes you and the ones you remember tend to bring to the guys See see see if it connects you know you guys you guys all right together right yeah same same room

That's crazy yeah I love that love it when that when that when that one now it's different you have technology This is our first record we're writing with a e-kit so we're not being Punished with live drums It was kind of like a we always write as like a sprint all you have is like a couple sprints because your body is toast so basically it's like loud drums in a garage just like your ears are just

they're toast we've been doing that since the past like six records but now we've had with the E kit the volume is low you're like oh you can like hear everything and then you're done jamming you're like oh we could keep going or we could stop so technology is really try to use technology as like a tool

as opposed to like the whole thing I like stretching, like modern and like old school. And what works from like either side, you know? That's cool. That's a really cool way to do it. We never tried that. Yeah, well, be in the same room your band sucks. Because then you get really annoyed. Yeah.

I wish I could, I wish I could delete band members. That'd be sick. Drummer, delete. Yeah, I mean, yeah. Sorry, you're in. I couldn't help, I couldn't help. I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I I gotta talk shit, dude.

I gotta talk shit. It's cool, man. Well, so what's, uh, so since, it sounds like, uh, writing a record in two weeks, maybe just kind of sparked like the, because obviously it was a really big jump with the coma. So it sounds like that was like a mindset prior to that even happening, right?

Yeah, I, with coma. So we've done the, the disson black metal album. We did, we've done the black metal album. We've done the cathartic, liberating post whatever people want to call it black metal album and uh i think now was the time where we all realized without having to speak to each other that we're going to do something different we're going to try other things we're going to flirt with other genres and in the end if it

doesn't sound like black metal we don't fucking care because it's also the first album where we had that mindset of does it have to fit that ball Why does it have to fit that box? We never fitted that box. When we were trying to be a black metal band, a lot of people would call us a hardcore sort of like black metal band. And now I guess we are finally,

a hardcore black metal band with some metalcore elements with some like post-black with some, I don't know, whatever elements people might want to find it. For me it's just like very authentic version of ourselves now and it's a band that doesn't care for the style we're feeding in

we just care for making very emotional important music for us and if people relate to it it's a perfect combo I was curious like what was like how did you guys come up a song

like hope shatters how does something like that come up because that's the second track right? Also, I think the order of the record is exactly the same one as I wrote the songs. That's weird. Yeah. Your brand's nutty.

I don't tend to change that. I don't know. I'm very spiritualistic with that. If it's the first song that I wrote, it needs to be the first song. It needs to be. It's been like that since a few albums. Yeah. Say, it could think you're a bad thing.

I don't know. For me, it just makes it more authentic and important to me. Makes me like the record more if I stick to those things. It's a bit crazy, I know, but it's just... Interesting. What? I don't know if it's some sort of like ADHD. Like, if it was the first thing I did, it needs to be there first. Yeah.

I don't like, like, we do that a bit. Like, I think World of Blaze was the last song that was written and then ended up playing like the third or the first track. but all the rest was it's a Reaper timeline. So yeah, I think I think I don't remember like particularly the feelings behind the creation of Hope Shadows, but I think it was, I see it as our, it's the Salve's song of Coma. It's exactly the song that a lot of people were expecting to be the first single. because I think Solvies are mostly some track still.

So people were probably expecting a very like death metaly black, super fast, aggressive song with like cathartic vocals. And that's what Hope Shatters is. It's all Gerea things into one song. But it's not the most important track in the record, in my opinion. All the other ones that are, not what Gediah would do are for me the most interesting.

Hmm. Yeah. So what's your personal favorite? Oh. Poets for sure, because there was a lot of like, uh, sleepless, sleepless nights in that studio. Uh, World of Blaze is probably one of my favorites because, uh, we had, we had a moment in the studio where, uh,

Well, the place was the last song we recorded. Because, yeah, we recorded the same way I wrote them. And then we just placed it in a different place. But anyway, even our producer was like, this is not the band that I know. If you guys put this song out, everybody will hate this. This is a metalcore song. Nobody likes this.

You don't have fans for this. I don't know this band. I'm out. Not I'm out. But I don't get this. which is a very like harsh way to put it. So we stopped what we're doing. Head back to the kitchen area that we had in the studio where we're like eat, drink, cry, laugh, play games.

A lot of crying. All those, yeah, all those shit, those things that you want to do in a different room in the studio. Yeah, you guys are crying, hell yeah. Yeah. While drinking good wine. But anyways, and we just sat down and some of us, believed and if we're gonna release this song first needs to be the first single because we want we want to in the end game i think it's important for us to be the first getia band and not a band that will follow the tracks of a lot of other bands sure so if we want to be bold and we have a

bold cover we have a bold record that it's very different from all the other ones let's have the most different track and release it as the first single and then we opened the spectrum into songs like Hope Shedders so our fans can understand what kind of band we are and give them a bit more tools to work with so yeah it was that discussion so for me WorldW is very important because he made us a bit more close together in the studio

because we had that discussion some people believed in the song some people didn't not not hated the song but like is this something we want to put here? Maybe it's some, maybe it's a song that would make more sense somewhere else. But then as you go through the process, as record a song, you put it there, you find a nice placement and there's a strong,

of course, concept behind it that truly matches the album. And then make a fucking kick-ass video and a nice promotion around it. I mean, it works. It worked really well. It's a song that will stay in our set lists, hopefully for a long time. Works really well. It's a great when people don't believe in, like, a certain song,

as some members do. Yeah, it wasn't like, oh, I hate the song, I don't want to record it. No, everybody loved the song. It was like, should we do this, you know? Should we make that step? What was the part that you started to step back and call it? question things. Was there like a specific part in this record? No, and that particular song.

I was always very certain about it. But I think it was after we recorded it, we had that like debate where I think it was in the studio where we were like, we're all together like the whole family is there and he's there for a whole month. And you start to realize, or everybody starts, we synchronize all the visions that everybody has for the band. And everything just like glues together in a perfect Lego puzzle where everyone understands,

what are we gonna do and what kind of band we want to try to become. And songs like this open the discussion, at least for us, for that. it's probably like super inspiring in what what you could do next you know if you try something different it kind of something turns on in like the back of your mind

so oh shit I'm about ready for the next one only I know and I can't say anything so good good good good good good good man yes you know always always jamming but it is yeah it is inspiring

I mean the fact that we made it right record like this opens, opens so many gates for us, like, all right. Now the sky is the limit. I mean, in terms of like experimentation, uh, because again, we don't want to make the same black metal album all over again. We already did that. And I always believe that as a fan, I might not like the new album of a certain band, but I love that one.

All right. I'll listen to the album that I like. It's fine. It's not about make it or break it to band, in my opinion, if they release an album that I don't like as much as the other one they still have the other album that i really like it's true awesome it's true right yeah i uh i really like that i kind of like how there's no like again there's no names it's cool it's not even like i don't think i ever seen that before where like it's not even a name it's just like the band you it's it's a really interesting way

to to go about your uh music unless people really do a like we're talking like a really deep dive it's pretty cool and then uh and then i liked i liked how you were like describing uh how people are with wearing their own masks so i'm sure people might question you about it but then like uh you know people are 10 like most people are not uh honest about what they say and think you know so this so in their in a way they're they're wearing a mask but but you kind of found a way i'm assuming that you actually brought out what's inside and just put it out in the surface yeah it's there's a lot of layers to that question but yeah um yeah i mean the fact the fact that we have no names it's important because i i never saw it like

about the members or about who's doing it um for real i i don't care Even when I go see a show, I don't care if the guy has like long blonde hair and he has like a fan to his face and he looks amazing when he does a solo. I don't care for that. I care for the performance and how amazing the whole unit of that band behaves, the visuals, how amazing it's sounding. And I also love when there's fuckups. I love that. It's all the things that you hate as a musician. Of course. Fuck, the laptop stopped working. But the way you deal with that, it's what makes for me like live music way more interesting. Now I get to see who this band really is on this moment of weakness. And for me, that's really cool.

And we also have to deal with that as you go through the years of playing live. but I mean the fact that for me this is an this is an escape for my emotions

all the things that I would not dive too much without having this band I can do it with this band I can do it because this is an extension of who I am a big extension of who I am and

yeah it's yeah it's where you channel all these thoughts and and ideas and experiment with them and in the end as much as you're talking about somebody else in the song i realize that after a while you just like understand you to talking about yourself because it's still your opinion it's still your vision it's still your beliefs it's still you playing around with these things and and then it's just you in the same room alone doing all that you can You know, think about other people, but it's you.

So, and that's something that I realized a couple of albums before. Because, I mean, yeah, we talk about society. We talk about this urbanistic lifestyle of the individual loss in the big cities, all that stuff. But in there, we're not talking about society. We're talking about, I'm talking about me. So it is my ideals and I could be wrong about a lot of things, but it's, It's also a very perfect way for me to channel all these things, like back and forth with the listener and see how that changes

as we tour, as we release music, as we talk with people that also have really nice ideas and visions of the world. So yeah. It's like you're in the song, but you're not at the same time. I'm sorry? Right? It's like you're in a song, but you're not. Does that make sense? I probably says I'm really dumb or really smart.

I'm not sure yet. I guess so. Yeah. It's cool. What gives up people their own thoughts about it? It's always like that with art. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, and I think the great thing about the music aspect of it.

And that's why I love it so much is I think, in my opinion, It's the only art form from all the seven or eight forms that mostly resembles with people. And I think it's all about like, a lot of people will say, oh, this particular song is the song of my life. This song was there. They will not say that about a painting. And I love paintings. I'm not shooting on paintings.

I'm just saying that music has that otherworldly power of bringing you back and forth. forth through life and it can be a death metal song could be a Johnny Cash song could be whatever and I think that it's not like we have more responsibility no but I always have that in the back of my mind that mostly for coma and that that was a very important thing for us we want to make songs we don't want to make tracks previously yeah let's make tracks like this very heavy track that talks that about despair and this very important thing right now. But for a coma, we wanted to make songs.

Like, I want to make something that will become very important for the fans and people will understand that we are trying to make songs, like memorable moments for the people that like our music and things that people can understand as that. Of course, it's pretentious, but, I don't fucking care. We tried that. Yeah.

It's what we aimed for. I want to make songs. I don't want to make aggressive tracks anymore. I don't want to make like blast beats five minutes or even 13 minutes. We used to have like Odyssey songs of 13 minutes in limbo. I don't want to do that. I want to make songs that people will remember forever. That's what I'm trying to do here.

If it happens, yes. If it doesn't, yeah, well, we tried. All you do is try. yeah well i'm sure your drummer's stoked i'm sure i'm sure i'm sure not stoking he likes the fact that there's no blast bits for five minutes straight yeah but he can also express himself way more i think he's become a way better drummer in the last couple of records because of that he can be himself he can have all these like minimalistic jazzy parts every now and then yeah he's an amazing percussionist yeah and that's where he shines most and um

We always try to give him like all the space in the world for him to express himself in that way. Yeah, give him some space. Yeah. You know, play drums. Yeah. Or delete. Delete drums. Delete them.

Delete them. Oh, God, drummers piss me off. Dude, dude. They do. Yeah, you do. But how's the, you're just wrapping up a tour, right? We're finishing out. Yeah.

The last four shows, I think. Last four, how has it been for you guys? Amazing. this is the biggest tour we ever did really yeah all congrats man it's awesome oh thank you i mean we're touring it with two amazing bands uh zillanardo were always a band that i looked up to um i just love i just love everything about it and the more we tour with them the more i the more questions i have you know like fuck how the fuck do they sing like this how the fuck do how can you create music like this.

I don't know, for me it's like in my fan perspective, since it's a band that I really love, I could never do music like that. I would love to, but I can't. It's just not my DNA as an artist. But there's bands out there that I look at them. There's bands that you see like, yeah, maybe if I wanted I could do a song like this, fine.

But there's other bands that are there. It's so unique. It's so them, the way Manuel sings, the way they put like, I don't know, even the sample work is out of this fucking world. I mean, it doesn't fit my brain how they, how he comes up with shit like that. And it makes it so unique, so important. It's a very important band.

And it's, they're the reason why most of these venues are sold out are very close to it. We're playing very big venues for our standards. So, yeah. And for us, it's great to always to, or at least for the first time be the metal band in the package

where the black extreme band in the package playing with Zetra that being this like this cosmic goth synth wave vibe to the table and Zillanar that brings of course they're also a metal band but they're

also not a metal band they're they bring all this like rock crowd that also have a more open mind to discover new shapes of music. And for us it's great because there's a lot of new faces. It's not just the black metal tour that brings all the same fan all the time.

It's great that we play for a lot of new faces every night. It's like all kinds of people. Yeah. All kinds. A shit lot of people that never heard of us. And that's important. And it's great for you to step out of that bubble because we've been used to play black metal shows.

And of course, there's always that dude or that amount of people that will come to that show in that city because you always play the same kind of packages. So this story is great because we sometimes play the same cities we played before. But those people are, some of those people are not there. There are other people there. So I see it as a plus.

I always think about those things as, being something cool. We play for younger crowd, rock crowd. I don't know. Maybe they like a lot of metal. Maybe they don't. Maybe they're just like, have this open mind where they don't fit exactly

in any genre. But I think it's a tour that has that value for that, has a bit of everything. Yeah, I was going to, you kind of sparked a couple of things. How, so when you play the black metal show, it's like straight up

like the black phone shows how how how do people react to you guys we're very explosive uh i think i think that's our thing i mean we shaped a bit of our sets to match this tour a bit we we we wouldn't bring like the death metal black songs um but most coma is is is is quite fitting for this tour it's a very like explosive but also very um melancholic dramatic minimalistic album uh with a lot of like rock passages. So I think I think it blends quite well. I mean, I think we're the band that

gets the crowd moving a lot. There's been a couple of fights on this tour, something we never had before on tours. Like big fights, like security, police coming. That's great news. It's great. I mean, we never had that. It's a big moment.

Yeah. For sure. It's all the things we want, right? It's fights in the crowd. Unfortunately, so, yeah, it's a moment. Cool. So, yeah, I think, I think it, I think we're the, our job in this story is to get the crowd moving and be super pumped up for the, the ritualistic passage of a Zeal and Arder. Yeah.

That's great. You said to me, no, so you said, I'm going to understand if I heard you correctly, you said there's eight forms of art. Isn't it? Is there eight forms of art? Jay, how many? We might need to need the fact-check this because I don't want to sound like an idiot. I mean either, let's check it.

Or maybe you said there's many forms of art or three major forms? I said eight, because I thought it was eight. Okay, what are the eight forms of art painting? One. It's one. Sculpture, okay. Photography.

Okay. music of course for drawing okay five cinema so movies six six theater oh yeah seven okay what's the

I think it's lecture I have people talking like lecture literature literature literature okay sorry is there more I said eight without being completely sure I don't know what I came from

I got it right That probably came from energy. So on their diet. I can't help him. I'm sorry. A forms of art, huh? Okay. What time is it? It's probably time for you go. How are you on time?

I don't even know what time is it. I know what? What? 513? This will be an amazing time to wrap up. Okay. Anything that we missed? Anything that you need

that we should put out there. Nothing. I think we would stay here. Like, I would miss the show and just, like, chat with you for hours. Yeah, we had one more beer and started growing. Yeah, more beer and all that. Eight forms of art.

Okay. Well, I learned that. I was thinking, like, are you familiar with a Jordan Peterson? Jordan Peterson, you wrote, uh... It sounds strange to me. It's pulled up a picture of them. I can't see from here.

This guy. That he has books called like the 12 rules for life. So this guy, he got big on YouTube. He's like a professor, super smart guy. His books are, he's really, he's been great at like making complicated subjects and making him simple. People like me can understand. But so he's now doing tourists where he's in arenas now.

So when I was like, wouldn't that be a form of art? What kind of art would that? be speaking on stage would that kind of be that would be yeah theater lecture i wouldn't say it's theater uh would that be theater right oh no i don't think so hmm got me thinking i wouldn't call it theater because theater still needs a script and the story to it and and it's and it's based on on acting you need like hot chicks dancing around you right you need like some stuff going on, like a love story or something, right? Yeah, that would be theater.

I would say so, yeah. All right, well, the record coma dropped not even two months ago. No. So, congrats. I'm excited for you and for your band and where this takes you. You know, it's cool. Thank you so much for having me. Yeah, any time.

Thanks a lot. Who knows where it's going to go. We'll see. We keep on working. And, yeah, may the spirits guide us. Yeah, well, may the spirits guide you. All right, well, yeah, thank you for your time and good luck at the show. Thank you.

All right. All right, all right. That's it. Appreciate it. Later one.