Hails, Fernando! Your brand new CD is out these days; so it would be interesting if you could tell us a bit on this the Moonspell’s latest album, right? Could you tell us the existant differences between the new CD and the previous ones? Has Moonspell’s sound changed in any way?
We believe that even though this new releases hold something that is genuinely coming from our past releases being, therefore, a natural successor to them, this new album and EP represent an ascendant progression of Moonspell to a more mature, adult, deep and intense form of performing and mixing with the rightful balance all the increasingly wide spectre of our influences.
How have the composing and the recording periods been like? Who has produced the album? How many songs did you have when entering the studio?
The composing was very smooth and it was fuelled basically because we were tired of exploring a singular aspect of Moonspell aesthetics and we were dying for experimenting within ourselves and to create new songs. That is why we did the general structure of the album within a matter of months, in a total record time. Then we worked a lot more on studio, we pre-produced the album one month before going into the real studio and then spend there 8 entire weeks working hard in every single aspect from the album, from the intro, details, to lyrics, to the general song, to a very particular arrangement. We used Waldemar Sorychta as producer and Siggi Bemm has mixed and mastered the album. Moonspell also had a stronger input on this record that is why we share the production credits. We had 14/15 new songs (including covers and versions from old songs) and they were split between “Second Skin” and the forthcoming LP “Pecado”.
Please tell us a few lines (what is their concept, how is the music like, what do the lyrics speak about…), on each of the songs that compose this new CD.
I would take a long to explain as detailed as you purpose song per song what is the meaning of the whole album and it is not my intention here to make it easy for people and bring all the interpretations to them as such an early stage. then again I do not want to ruin the expectations concerning the album. Anyway ina a general insight the album is much more powerful, intense, very balanced exploring new melodies and a kind of unorthodox aggression within our sound and basically it was made very freely without any prejudice and should be listened to without any prejudice as well. Lyrically the main point is a symbiosis between real and unreal, a crossing of fine lines between these two dimensions which brought a lot simpler but more meaningful texts.
Let’s change the topic a bit: In July you played in the Dr. Music Festival in Les Valls d’Àneu here in Spain. What do you remember of that gig? How did you feel playing live there?
It was one of the most beautiful places we had the chance to play outdoors, the atmosphere of the concert was great, the audience very eclectic and we were also very happy with our performance there and with the reaction of an audience to whom we were basically unknown.
You take part in Rotting Christ’s last CD “A Dead Poem” as a guest-vocalist on “Among Two Storms”. How did the idea come? When I was told I very looked forward to hear it, but when I did I got a bit dissappointed because your vocals are nearly unnoticeable. Do you agree with me? Was that done in purpose?
I am a big friend for a long time of Rotting Christ and Sakis in special and I can stress that the bands grew up together and we are strongly linked bya very peaceful and enjoyable friendship. Sakis likes what I do in Moonspell and as he was searching for this kind of vocals for that chorus he invited me to perform them. I agree that my vocals could be louder on the final mix but the producer thought otherwise so I accept his decision and anyway the vocals added at least some density to the chorus I think.
Talking about live touring, how was touring with Type O’Negative? Moonspell have become extremely popular throughout Europe, but especially in Germany you’re considered real gods. Why do you think that is so?
Touring with Type O was the best professional and personal experience we had so far and we respect very much Type O since they were fair to us at any moment of the tout and helped us a lot to underline our growing position on the European scene. On the other hand I am proud of having shared the stage with such a humble but important band such as them. About Germany in particular I do think we have become one of the most appreciated and important bands in their territory but I would not go as far as godhood. We have a great following in Germany since we play very often there, and also because we have great promotion. Musically I think we brought something very different and fresh to the German scene and people fell very much for it.
Are you planning to do any tour? Do you already know dates/places? Have you prepared anything in special to play live?
We will go on a small 3 weeks tour already starting off on the 4th of December that will cover the hot spots in Europe for Moonspell. this tour will suit the promotion of our EP “Second Skin” and we will try to present also some new songs into our set as an appetiser for the next album and for the upcoming tours. We will be in Spain from 18th Barcelona, 19th Madrid and 20th Bergara (Bergara? Where the fuck is that city?). we are bringing some of our new lightshow and stage set and hopefully a much more chemical, wild and intense band performance that will top any other show of Moonspell so far
I suppose Century Media expects a lot from this new album. How is your relationship with them? Have you spoken on sales’ figures? How many albums does Century Media expect this LP to sell? Could you please tell us the selling figures of all your previous works?
Our relationship with Century Media is based upon dialogue, swapping ideas, mutual help and objectivity. we are happy to be in Century but only after we proofed we are able to become one of their top priorities (Did they doubt it? Can’t believe it!!!-ed!). We are a developing band ina developing label and we think it is definetely a good combination. I do not know about the expectations of Century concerning this album selling but honestly I try to avoid numbers in my head when I deal with music. We talk about everything with Century even record sales naturally. They are all rough numbers but I think we sold like 12,000 from “Under The Moonspell” (and is incredibly still selling), 50,000 from “Wolfheart”, and around 90,000 of “Irreligious”. With this last one we hope to reach 100,000 with the release of the new one. The best thing is that all these releases are still selling in a constant basis!
This interview will be edited on webzine Metalzin’s pages on the Internet. There is an active Metal life on the WWW. What do you think on the Internet? Do you navigate? Do you think it’s a good way to promote one’s music to all the world?
I think Internet is a smooth, efficient and vital way of getting informed about things that are in your range of interest. I am only afraid it kills a little bit the old fashioned way of researching which I find truly important on one’s education. Anyway music pages are a great help to humanise the unpersonal virtual communication since they are mostly not an informative site but especially something warmer, where people contact in a spontaneous but organised way. We have an official Internet page (www.rum.pt/mmonspell) which is always considered as one of the most complete and interesting pages by its visitors. Bearing this in mind we agree it is a very good way of promotion and of course a must for any modern band. Therefore I leave you with an open invitation to get into the cyber side of Moonspell visiting our site (https://www.rum.pt/moonspell).