(Jesus & Oscar) Hi Luci! We were prepared for such criticism. We knew it would be difficult to understand for the average metal-head. Some people have a default taste, and a standard aesthetic sense, who think that there is an obligation to follow a pattern, a guide or a script. People usually have a need to feel part of a collective, like a flock of sheep. When someone does something that comes out of the ordinary, when someone breaks the rules and attempts against the “Gestalt”, people just do not try to understand. It is easier to refuse to comprehend before listening or asking the meaning of some things. The booklet of "Ars Subtilior from within the cage" has information that would help to understand it, and we believe that it is a fundamental part of the global work. You know? Is like someone standing in front of a “Miró” or “Pollock’s” painting and thinking: "It's a mess... It could have been done by my little boy. It has no sense". Therein lies the real problem: most people instead of trying to stand to the level of the intellectual work, prefer stooping it to theirs. However, when someone breaks with a predetermined art, these things happen. It happened in “Ars Nova”, occurred in the “Baroque”, occurred in “Dodecaphony”, and it will happen over the centuries again and again. However, at the beginning it is impossible not to be a little bit disappointed about these criticism, but afterwards, if you really believe in your work, this criticism is even funny, because it seems that many reviewers have been offended and outraged with this album. Our purpose, at least, was not to remain indifferent in listening, and I am glad to think that this is what we have achieved.

LH: On the subject of being unconventional, it’s rather difficult to know how to categorise your music. It was presented to me as “progressive death metal” which, while I hear a lot of death metal in your sound and have no arguments that it’s progressive, I don’t think that tag sums you up well at all. I can hear a lot of different influences in your music – of course “Ars Subtilior” which is a style of music in itself, I can hear some folk especially in ‘Trapped In Flesh’ and also noticed on your Facebook group that you posted a link to the rather excellent Krzysztof Penderecki’s ‘Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima,’ whose influence I can definitely hear in your sound. So how would you personally categorise your music, and can you give us a better understanding of where you are musically coming from with your influences?

(Jesus & Oscar) We really love contemporary music. Not just “Penderecki” but “Xenakis”, “Bartok”, “Ligeti”, “Stockhausen”, “Schoenberg” and so. It could be said that we are in every streams, but also it could be said that we are in no one. We are trying to have an unlimited range of sources which could inspire us when we are composing, always being consequent with the evolution of music itself, with a great sense of transgression. Is what we call “Eclectic Mineral”. Music and art evolve at the same time that they absorb residual substrates of the previous tendencies. We make all our compositions in order to create concrete emotions and sensations. We try to immerse the audience in a sonorous carousel of several minutes. If anyone wants to know anything more about the “Eclectic Mineral” you can read our manifest in our websites, and more interesting documentation, such as the greater characters of “Eclectic Mineral” ever.

LH: So, I’ve already briefly mentioned the “Ars Subtilior” part of the album title, but the “Within The Cage” part still has me intrigued. At the end of the booklet, you mention “all the lyrics were extracted from the notebook written from within a cage and a box.” So, is this a metaphorical cage, or is there some other meaning to this – or is it simply a name I’m reading too much into? ;)

(Jesus) With "Ars Subtilior" we wanted to make a tribute to those artists of the late XIV and XV who were forgotten because of the extreme complexity of his compositions (We are not the only disinherited in history, of course). About “Within the Cage” is something more personal. Oscar, who writes all the lyrics, has the habit of writing in a unique notebook lyrics, tales, histories and compositions since he was a teenager. When we decided to use a few of these lyrics for this album, someone close to him read this notebook and commented that the lyrics were so dark, claustrophobic and closed in themself that seemed to be “written by a person who had been living during all his life enclosed in a box or a cage, without light, without life, without any contact with outside, without space to move, without space even to breath”. The comment was so spontaneous and so funny that we really liked it, and we thought that it would fit well with the general idea of the recording. The music of “As Light Dies”, the “Eclectic Mineral”, would be defined as an “Ars Subtilior” written from within a cage (or a box) from nowadays.

LH: The lyrics on the album appear to be in three different languages – since my foreign language skills are poor I can only really comment on the few in English. I find ‘Trapped In Flesh’ especially intriguing as there seems to be a real frustration here of someone, or something, trapped within and obsessed with revenge – “…demon trapped in a kid’s body that longs for freedom...” There also seems to be a recurring theme to do with childhood and infancy, such as here and on ‘The Disinherited’ which speaks of abandoned children and being haunted by images of headless babies (and which I also find rather poetic). Could you talk a bit about the meaning of these lyrics and what the issue with childhood here is?

(Jesus) Someone said recently that we are the Babel Tower of Metal, and maybe he was right. We have just started to experiment with other languages. You can express the same idea in using different sound textures. We have used French, because our admiration to all the French music, and Spanish because it is our language. In the future we will use other languages to see what we get. “Trapped in Flesh” and “The Disinherited” are expressing fears and emotions that we all have felt when we have been a child, or a teenager. On one hand, the hate to all the people of your classroom at school, high school or even university (here you got the Columbine tragedy), and on the other hand the fear of the dark, the creepy urban tales you listen, and the fears instilled by your parents to obey them when you're a kid. Concretely "The disinherited" is based on a story written by Oscar called "The terrible inheritance", which it is only written in Spanish.

LH: As I mentioned, I wouldn’t like to guess what the other lyrics are about – but to me the album flows very well (albeit in a very schizophrenic manner!) and I have a hard time believing these are just 9 randomly placed and unconnected pieces of music. Is there a concept that connects all the songs together?

(Jesus & Oscar) The album would require several listenings to understand it at 100%. The Music, lyrics and the artwork itself, have different structures which all together form part of a unique work. This is a symmetric album indeed. Each song has a reflection-song, except the song which is in the center. The songs have a relation with his reflection-song. When you realize the details which this album has hidden, the album takes on another level, maybe not better, just different. We like the concept of total work of art created by “Wagner” (Gesamtkunstwerk) where everything flows in an organic way.

LH: ‘Die Letzte Fuge Vor Der Flucht’ is one track that very much fascinates me. With the church organ it sounds rather like it’s meant to represent a funeral, and then towards the end what sounds like total destruction and rioting. Could you explain what’s happening here?

(Jesus & Oscar) We really would like each listener to imagine their own story. The music is like a book, each one would experience it in a different way, depending on the perception he would have. Arguably the track evokes a break, a change of order in history. Also it can be interpreted as renovation and nihilism. That also could mean that the “Eclectic Mineral” has arrived to stay.

LH: How did you go about recording this – it mentions in the booklet that the church organ was played by Jesus Ruiz from the Magisterial Cathedral of Alcala de Henares in Madrid. Was this track actually recorded in this cathedral and was it a challenge to get this part down on CD?

(Jesus & Oscar) This composition was a birth, because the fugue itself uses the same structure, patterns and harmonies used in Germany during the XVIIIth century. Once completed, we wanted to give it the respect and veracity that it deserved, so we spoke with “Jesus Ruiz”, a musicologist friend, also the titular organist of the cathedral of “Alcalá de Henares” to record it, and he agreed without delaying. It was a great experience recording in the night, without people in the cathedral, listening to music composed by you through one of the best church organs recently manufactured in Spain. It was really creepy and funny because there were even people who apparently was frightened due to not understanding why the organ was being played so late in the night. Maybe they thought that there was some kind of phantom of the opera dwelling among the walls of the cathedral. As well as the fugue, we recorded some sounds which are included in the soundscape, to take advantage of the reverb which this extraordinary place has. The rest was added at studio.

LH: You actually started the album, confusingly, with a song entitled ‘The Very End.’ Was there a particular reason for this?

(Jesús) As mentioned above, the album is part of a whole. The beginning is the end. Everything flows the same way as if it was a mirror. Also, it is a nod to an interlude of our previous album named “The very beginning”.

LH: You have two guest female vocalists on the album, Cristina Rodriguez and Mar Del Valle, whose vocals on ‘Sombra y Silencio’ I particularly like. Both appear to be relatively unknown – are they involved with any other bands/projects and where did you find them?

(Oscar) “Mar del Valle” is the partner of a good friend of mine. She usually is an illustrator, but she had a voice that I found interesting, and I proposed her to sing the song. “Cristina R. Galván” had already worked with us in several times, especially in shows, doing some vocals. She had already done a few voices in our previous EP "Gea" and she was on a few dates in our European tour. Also in a more active way, she participates in my personal project named "Garth Arum". She has participated in several local bands and projects. Now she sings and plays percussion in a folk band from Madrid.

LH: The album was produced by Dan Swano. How happy are you with the job he has done on the album – is this the first time you’ve worked with him?

(Oscar) The end result has been 100% satisfactory, of course after giving a million turns. There has been a lot of really hard work behind him. He is a wonderful person involved with his work. He is really professional. He doesn’t care if you are a well-known band or not. Always he is going to do his best. It is the first time that we work with him, but I would not mind to do it again.

LH: The album was recorded in late 2008, which is quite some time ago. What were the reasons for the delay in putting out the album – was this down to finding a suitable record label to release it properly or where there some other complications that prevented you from releasing it sooner?

(Jesus & Oscar) Well, the recording began in late 2008 after our tour in Europe, but this didn’t end completely until May 2009. There were some adversities, which aren’t nice to remember. After May, we thought that summer was the wrong time to get in touch with record labels and we decided to wait until September to start to move it. We got in touch with "Solitude Productions" in the late 2009, they liked our music. It took about six months to be released. You have to do these things slowly if you want to do them right.

LH: You were previously on Mondongo Canibale records, who released ‘A Step Through The Reflection.’ What happened here – was it just a case of them taking you as far as they could and then looking for a label who are in a better position to finance you and to get your music to the right audience – and how did you come to sign with Solitude/BadMoodMan Music?

(Jesus & Oscar) “Mondongo Canibale” gave us the chance to release our debut, and we will be grateful to them forever. In Spain, they are one of the best Metal labels and they do a really good job. With “BadMoodMan” we wanted to take the next step (through the reflection, lol), and get a more global market. We consider "Solitude/BadMoodMan" one of the most important emerging labels, because it is growing really fast. Besides this, they had bands of great artistic quality, and experimental composition, as “Kauan”, “Re123+”, “Ea” and etc. We are really proud to be part of this label.

LH: I see from your website that you have performed three live concerts so far in 2010. I understand the scene where you live to be very much centred around power/classic heavy metal so has this meant you have found it quite difficult to find suitable gigs to play and to establish a local following?

(Jesus & Oscar) Of course we find it difficult. Spain is a country of contrasts. The food is spectacular, as its weather, landscapes, wines and women (lol). On the other hand, we have a cultural poverty despite having given great artistic geniuses to the world in every period as “Picasso”, “Buñuel” or “Albéniz” among others. Here it seems that anything goes. The less the intellectual or physical effort, the better it is. You have to get out of your shit by your own, and go as high as you can because nobody will support you. That is why we have such great geniuses, because they had to prove themselves more than anyone else, sacrificing their own personal lives for their art and going outside the country. Once they have returned, they have been applauded and have set them on a pedestal, but until then, no one has been aware of his effort. Thus, the most conventional and classical genres are the most followed. New tendencies are not frowned upon, simply are unknown, and no one cares about them. Fortunately, nowadays this seems to be changing somewhat lately. Anyway, we have not been worried looking for live shows, because there have been some changes in our line up, and because we are working on new songs that will be part of our third album. This will change in autumn.

LH: Do you think it is likely for you to tour further afield – specifically to come and visit the UK?

(Oscar) Sure! We would love to play outside of Spain again, especially in the UK because we haven’t ever played there. Let’s see if we got a chance for doing it.

LH: You seem to be a creative bunch of guys – I read somewhere that a couple of you write poetry, there are some interesting paintings and drawings on your website too and most of you are also in other bands. Could you tell us about what other projects you have on the go?

(Oscar) Well, is not poetry exactly what we write. I usually write essays, novels, tales and so. I have a few musical projects, the mainly ones are “Garth Arum” (my personal project), “Der Kartoffelkult” (a noise project) and “The fatalitas band” (a band rockcore/noise).

Jesus Villalba is involved in many artistic projects related with painting, which have a very personal painting style. He has exposed many collections in Madrid. Also we write some essays together.

The rest of the band hasn’t any other music projects, but they are involved in other things as studying, investing or sports.

LH: I read on an interview done some time ago that Jesus Villalba was working on a film script. How is this coming along and can you tell us anything about it?

(Jesus) It could not be finished due to budgetary reasons. But we will keep on publishing videos related with the “Eclectic Mineral”.

LH: That’s all the questions I have for now! Best of luck with the band and feel free to leave a parting message if you have anything to add?

(Oscar) Thank you Luci for this interview and your support, and we would like to thank all the staff of “MetalTeamUK” as well. Also we want to invite all the UK metal-heads, which consider themselves not being part of the typical average listener, to listen to our work. Visit our website and our Facebook. Well, hehehe, my little Guinea Pig "Fantasma" is trying to jump on the keyboard of my laptop, so I think that he wants to say hello to the Guinea Pigs of the UK.Regards from Spain and be “eclectic”, my friends!

For more on the band check out http://www.myspace.com/aslightdies

Interviewed by Luci Herbert

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