Era
Vulgaris
Are you in search
of original music and patterns that haven't been already played a thousand
times? Looking for a new sensation? A new masterpiece of progressive and
technical thrash metal? Well this might sound as an advertisement to you,
but truth must be told... What you are in search for listens to the name
of Era Vulgaris and hails you from Ireland. Now that you found the name
out and the path is open, you know what you have to do....
1. HELLO THERE! COULD YOU FIRST POINT OUT
THE MOST IMPORTANT MOMENTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS OF ERA VULGARIS UP TO NOW?
Chris Rob: Hi Christine! The most important
moment in the life of Era Vulgaris so far, and the most satisfying, was
probably the day I got the e-mail from PlasticHead UK saying that they
wanted to distribute our album in the UK. That felt really good.
Up to that point we had no idea how other people, strangers, would view
our music so landing a distribution deal with the UK’s biggest independent
distro was a deciding moment of clarity when we could say, yeah, all the
hard work was worth it. Seeing as how we had absolutely zero profile
outside Ireland up to that point it was especially rewarding as we knew
it was just the music that had tipped the balance.
After that the biggest achievement is really
just gaining fans, receiving mails from all over the world from total strangers
saying that they bought the album on import, having the opportunity to
connect with people like that is really what you aim for as musicians.
Every person who sends us mail hammers that home a little bit more.
2. YOUR MUSIC DWELLS SOMEWHERE BETWEEN PROGRESSIVE
AND THRASH METAL. HOW DID YOU ACHIEVE THIS COMBINATION OF SUCH DIFFERENT
SOUNDS?
To be honest we never really thought about
it. We didn’t have a direction in mind, just four guys jamming and
writing music together. What you hear on the album is a culmination
of all our influences, our influences being every single band, album and
song that we enjoy. The influences that come out strongest are the
music obsessions that the four of us have in common; prog and thrash.
So maybe only two of us are really into blues, maybe only one of us into
fusion jazz so those elements are less prominent. I think it’s better
to just allow any influence to creep in, if it works it works, if it doesn’t
– fuck it, try something else.
3. IF YOU WERE ASKED BY SOMEONE WHO DOESN’T KNOW
YOU TO DESCRIBE “WHAT STIRS WITHIN”, WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TRYING TO BE AS
OBJECTIVE AS POSSIBLE?
As objectively as possible I would say “What
Stirs Within” is the greatest album of the 21st Century and everyone should
own it! Next question…
Hehe, just messing. I would say that
“What Stirs Within” is an album that has the potential to appeal to almost
any rock or metal fan. How much you enjoy it is really on a scale
of open-mindedness, I mean, it really demands quite a lot of the listener
in terms of varying styles. Some people like that about it but other
people hear the bits they like, the heavy bits, the fast bits, the melodic
bits, whatever, and just wish that the whole album was in just the style
they like. So there’s at least something for everyone there; maybe
only a minute, maybe the whole thing!
4. WHICH ARE THE STRONGEST AND WHICH THE WEAKEST
POINTS OF YOUR MUSIC?
Fuck, what a question! Hehe! If
I have to be judge to the band I guess I’d say the strongest point is diversity.
But that’s only a strong point to people who enjoy diversity! So
maybe the weakest point is diversity too, what a fucking world we live
in, haha. I’d say the weak elements of the album originate from the
fragmented way the whole thing was recorded; it took two and a half years,
two drummers and I can’t even remember how many studios and recording rooms
to get this done so it was difficult to maintain a cohesive sound throughout.
Discerning ears will pick up on this on the album.
5. NAME SOME OF YOUR MOST BELOVED BANDS AND ALBUMS.
WHO ARE THOSE MUSICIANS THAT MADE YOU REALIZE THIS IS THE PATH YOU WANT
TO FOLLOW?
I like the way you phrased that question because
that really is the most important thing, that defining moment, the road
to Damascus where the fucking sky opens up and – BAM! – you know you have
no choice but to pursue this. We’re all 80s kids, we grew up with
Guns N Roses, Metallica, Faith No More, Megadeth, Iron Maiden, I mean that
stuff was everywhere back then, even on MTV (younger readers will find
this impossible to believe! Haha). It was Kirk Hammett that made
me want to play guitar anyway but at that stage I had no plans of making
a career out of music.
The band that did that for me have turned
into a personal obsession, a really big obsession. Led Zeppelin.
The greatest rock band of all time. I was 16 when I first heard Led
Zeppelin IV. Man, you go through that album track by track and every
single song could be a different band, a totally different sound but every
song is just perfect. That was when I realised that you didn’t have
to put yourself in one corner and stay there; you could use the whole room
and make it work!
As a band we are all attracted to bands that
do that same thing; Faith No More, Blue Oyster Cult, Atheist and Queen
would be other great examples; they just write great songs, they don’t
care if it’s fast or heavy or slow or blues or even a ballad. People
get so caught up in genre. Fuck genre, a big capital F – Fuck genre.
Music should always be about the quality of the song, the composition –
if you can’t look past how much like a bear the singer sounds or how much
distortion is on the guitar then that’s pretty damn backward.
6. ARE YOU CONTENT WITH THE FEEDBACK YOU’VE RECEIVED
THIS FAR? WHAT WAS THE MOST FLATTERING AND WHAT THE MOST UNFAIR COMMENT
YOU READ ABOUT YOUR MUSIC?
We were actually just talking about this in
practise yesterday and agreeing that overall we are surprised at how good
the feedback has been; I mean we’ve had some REALLY great feedback.
We’re very glad to see there are so many people out there who obviously
see music the way we do; something that needs to be pushed, stretched and
messed about as much as possible. Music is that rare thing that you
can take apart and put back together again as many times as you want and
it will always work; so go wild with your screwdriver, mess it up!
The most flattering was possibly from www.blistering.com
who described Harmonic Discontent as “possibly one of the greatest prog-metal
tracks of all time”. When you read something like that for the first
time you really have to read it over and over, I mean screw ego on this;
we were shocked, grinning like little kids with the keys to a sweet shop.
Seeing it described as “a masterpiece” by Metal Sound Magazine as well,
haha, just crazy…a masterpiece? It’s very strange thinking that people
see our album the same way I see Individual Thought Patterns or Unquestionable
Presence.
Unfair comments. Well, aside from the
good reviews we have had some bad ones, some people really didn’t like
what we were trying to do. Some people in fact seemed to be offended
with us fucking around so much with their precious metal pre-conceptions.
But even that, I’m not sure if I’d say it is unfair, it’s their opinion
purely and some of these journalists I have spoken to since, they seem
surprised that I’m not even in the slightest bit cold towards them, but
hey – I hate loads of music, that’s the nature of it. My favourite
quote from a bad review is definitely this one from www.powermetal.dk
“now they are ready to unleash this monster
onto the rest of Europe…but sadly the monster turns out to ugly and not
much fun to listen to”
Brilliant! Haha!
7. THE PRODUCTION IS VERY IMPRESSIVE. DID YOU
HAVE A SAY ON THE SOUND OR DID YOU LEAVE ABSOLUTE FREEDOM TO YOUR PRODUCER?
I’m glad you like it – it is a matter of high
contention between those who love the production and a lot of people who
hate it! I actually produced the album myself (if you own the album
you can now figure out what Chris Rob is short for!) with the help of co-Producer
and Engineer Ivan Jackman. I was there every step of the way in the
recording and mixing process. I love being in the studio, I’ve studied
sound engineering for years and really did my best to train my ears.
The end product is the result of a compromise between myself and Ivan,
it would certainly be dangerous to leave the decision of the end product
with just one person. Then of course the whole thing was sent to
Alan Douches in New York to be mastered, we had less say over that although
we did send the first version straight back because it sounded way too
modern for four rock fanatics like us!
8. WHAT KIND OF TOPICS DO YOUR LYRICS DEAL WITH?
WHICH ARE YOUR SOURCES OF INSPIRATION?
The lyrics deal with all sorts of personal
issues and outlooks on life. The album name is the clue to the direction
the lyrics take and if you read from the beginning of Brittle to the end
of Harmonic Discontent you’ll see that the lyrics progress from a point
of introspective failure to openly expressed self-victory. That’s
why on the inlay, where the lyrics are typed, the song titles aren’t written,
so you can just read straight through. When I was about halfway through
all the lyrics I noticed that this theme was very similar to the novel
Dune by Frank Herbert so I decided to work in some references to that.
The samples you hear on the album are taken from the movie adaptation,
I would highly recommend both to your readers!
9. IS THERE SOMETHING IN PARTICULAR YOU WANT TO
SUGGEST WITH THE ALBUM’S TITLE “WHAT STIRS WITHIN”?
Haha, see above! It’s about taking control
over your own life, how you have to reach a point where you stop blaming
other people for who you are. You have to decide what you want to
be and then just do that, cast off everything outside of yourself and look
inside; what do I need to change to achieve this, stop blaming other people
and just up and fucking do it!
10. WHAT KIND OF EMOTIONS DO YOU THINK YOUR MUSIC
CREATES TO YOUR LISTENERS?
You know Christine I really have no idea,
it’s very difficult for me to imagine how other people hear our music at
all! Seeing as how lyrically it deals with very personal issues the
emotions it stirs in me as music are somewhat clouded. I’d like to
think though that the songs have the ability to stir as wide an array of
emotions as it crosses from style to style.
11. IF YOU HAD TO “TRANSLATE” YOUR MUSIC INTO
A PAINTING, WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE IT TO SHOW?
Jessica Alba and Shakira wrestling?
Haha, um, I dunno – you sure like unusual questions! Okay, I’ll try
and answer this. If it was to be a painting I would want it to be
by Salvador Dali, a painting showing the progression from an acorn into
an oak tree. I can’t really imagine what that would look like but
I’m sure Senor Dali would ‘translate’ it pretty well!
12. HAVE YOU GOT ANY PLANS FOR LIVE SHOWS? HOW
WILL YOU BE PROMOTING “WHAT STIRS WITHIN”?
We have played quite extensively around Ireland
and have been lucky to support bands like Destruction, Amon Amarth, Ephel
Duath, Entombed…bands whose work we really dig. We have ourselves
a booking agent now so we’re working to organise a European tour for 2008.
Certainly we would love to get to Greece, Jim especially – he has a degree
in Greek and Roman Archaeology – see you there soon!
13. WILL YOU SHOOT ANY VIDEO CLIPS? IF YOU HAD
A BIG BUDGET, WHICH SONG WOULD YOU CHOOSE AND HOW DO YOU IMAGINE IT TO
BE?
We may do, it would be great to do that.
With youtube and the internet in general it is a very good way to generate
interest with a music video.
If we had a big budget I guess we’d make a
video for Harmonic Discontent because visually or even narratively you
could do so much with it – it’s almost like three songs in one. But
I mean, what do I know about music videos? I’d be happy enough with
that wrestling idea again! Haha, just joking; but I would find someone
who obviously has great vision for these things and just let him follow
his own creative sight; this is exactly what we did with Janto who created
all the artwork for What Stirs Within, just gave him the album name and
the lyrics and allowed that to be the only inspiration for him.
14. YOU COME FROM DUBLIN. HOW EASY IS IT FOR A
BAND FROM IRELAND TO MAKE THE BREAKTHROUGH IN THE MUSIC BUSINESS? ANY OTHER
INTERESTING BANDS YOU THINK DESERVE OUR ATTENTION?
Maybe you should ask me in six months or a
year! Well, it’s not easy anyway, we’re a very small island so getting
to other countries to play and making contacts can be difficult.
I guess Greece is in some ways in a similar situation, thousands of islands
and even mainland Greece is sort of removed to the east from the central
section of Europe. We both have quite small populations too but metal
bands from both know it is possible to really make a name for yourself.
Greece gave the metal world Rotting Christ and we gave it Primordial. They
really are the beacon holders of the Irish metal scene, but who knows,
someday I might grab the beacon from Nemtheanga and run off with it!
Hehe
There are plenty of really awesome Irish metal
bands at the moment though, your readers should keep an eye out for For
Ruin who we will be touring with in Ireland soon, their debut album will
be released this Autumn, great black/death metal band. Then Slave
Zero (hardcore/death metal), Mass Extinction (speed thrash 1987 style!)
and the names everyone should know; Primordial, Cruachán, Mourning
Beloveth, Sol Axis; we have a really vibrant scene here, lots of great
bands; if the industry decides to shine its light on Ireland it will reveal
a lot of waiting talent.
15. WHAT TITLE WOULD YOU GIVE TO ERA VULGARIS
AND YOUR MUSIC?
We’ve always avoided doing this really.
I mean we get called prog-metal but we’re not like any of the other prog-metal
bands I’ve ever heard, probably because of the thrash elements. I
dunno, maybe I would call us prog-rock with balls. Heavy metal balls!
Haha.
16. THANK YOU! IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU’D LIKE
TO MENTION?
I’d like to mention that we don’t have a distributor
in Greece yet so get in touch! And like I said, we will be on the
road in Europe next year so if we pass through your beautiful country make
sure to come and judge us for yourself! A big thanks to Behind The
Veil and to all your readers for taking some time out for Era Vulgaris…enjoy
the music!
Christine Parastatidou
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