UMs Russell Garwood Speaks To Poema Arcanvs
For those new to Chilean band Poema Arcanvs, their music can best be described as an epic form of doom, but a single label does the band an injustice. The vocals are deep and sung, the music mid-paced, and the guitars both intense and melodic. Keyboards add more variation to an already eclectic sound which helps build dark atmospheres and enhances the contrasting quiet and heavy sections (part and parcel of the band's progressive sound). I have recently had the opportunity to chat via email with Igor (Guitars) about the nature of the band's music, their inspiration, and their future direction.
First of all, the band was formed in 1992, how did this come about?
It all started when Claudio (vox) and me were still on high school, you know, I wanted to make an extreme band right after I listened to a couple tapes of Claudio grunting. The grunts were quite impressive; I played guitar, so it was a simple and natural "let's form a brutal band". Anyway we didn't start to work seriously until 1995, due to the lack of proper members for the band. Before that it was just something for fun.
What inspired you to become a musician?
Well, I guess my answer is the typical: I started admiring people such as Iron Maiden, then Slayer, Carcass, Napalm Death, and so on. Also my big brother had a guitar (though it was a left - handed one), so one day I realised that I could be a metal musician just as the ones I admired. One weird thing is that first I learned to play on a left handed guitar (the strings were in the inverse order), so I guess I was some kind of freak playing in a very strange way.
Why, and how did you choose the name Poema Arcanvs?
That was back in 1997: we were looking for a proper bandname, as the band's style evolved from a death-grind style towards something similar to what we play now. The lyrics also changed from social - political subjects to more introspective ones, so our old name (Garbage, yeah, just like the pop band) didn't fit anymore. We started from a concept of lost and forgotten poetry, and we chose Latin language for its universality, and the fact that it is a dead language, so it was somehow related with the whole concept we were working on.
Your music is very distinctive and original, who do you consider your biggest influences?
Well, I think we have influences from both the melodic, dark kind of music such as Candlemass, Fields of the Nephilim, My Dying Bride to name a few; and the more dynamic - aggressive kind of music, such as Voivod, Kreator, Carcass, Death and others. We're metal fans in general, we don't get closed to only one style, but we like many forms of metal: thrash, doom, death, grind, etc.
Of course we also listen to a lot of other stuff which is not necessarily metal. For example we enjoy a lot the music from some folk-progressive-fusion bands from Chile. We also like bands such as King Crimson and the usual Pink Floyd stuff (everyone seems to like Pink Floyd). The world has so much music, so why just to listen to one particular style?
Who are a few personal favourites?
My Biggest influences as a musician (though they may not be very noticeable) are VoiVod (N°1), Candlemass, Old Queensrÿche, Carcass, Zbigniew Preisner (a Polish composer of film music), Fields of the Nephilim. Right now I'm enjoying a lot the works of Nevermore. In the Woods is also a great band for my taste. I could go on for hours naming my favourites.
What else do you draw your inspiration from, i.e. literature, films, art?
Inspiration comes from many places: some guys in the band are always reading different kinds of things: from poetry and philosophy to comic books. Good movies are also another source of inspiration. For example some of us (myself included) really enjoy movies from Krszystof Kieslowski, Emir Kusturica, Andrei Tarkovski and others; you know, obscure and "dense" movies (which usually don't come from Hollywood). It's a hard question, because we take inspiration from so many things, including life itself.
What do you do when you're not recording/touring with the band? Do you have any hobbies?
First, all of us do different things besides the band: Claudio B. Is a designer, Claudio C. is an engineer, I'm an architect, Luis works on computer stuff (something related with webs), Michel is still studying philosophy and piano.
The only common hobby the five of us share is drinking, I guess (hehehe!). I know Luis is into the train model-collecting thing (what a geek!). I just can't recall...I just pass many hours on the Internet researching about amps, effects, guitars and stuff; I don't know if it can be called a hobby...
Congratulations on your latest album, "Iconoclast"! It is quite a dark release (to me at least), was this intended or did it come about that way?
Thanks for your nice words! It's just because most of the music we like happens to be dark and sad, so it's an almost obvious thing that our music sounds the way it does. It wasn't that we said "let's make the darkest album we can". In fact, there's one song ("Desintegración") which starts with some major chords ..............uhh...well, it doesn't sound that "happy"...but it sounds kind of weird and psychedelic; and that's something we really like, you know, experimenting with different atmospheres.
Are you completely satisfied with the album or is there anything you would change had you the chance?
We are very satisfied with the way "Iconoclast" came out, both musically and sound-wise. Of course in a next record we would like to make things better, but that's nothing new, since every band in the world says the same. As I have said in other interviews, I can easily sit and listen to the album (and actually enjoy it), in fact I listen to it very often. Everyone who plays in a band knows how difficult it is to listen to your own album not drowning yourself in self-criticism and over-analysis. For me Iconoclast still passes that trial, and I think it speaks of a well-crafted piece of music.
"Iconoclast", was released through Aftermath Music, how did a Chilean band end up signing to a Norwegian label, and are you pleased with the move?
Claudio (our singer) has a magazine called Nubila. He had been in contact with Aftermath by reviewing some of their releases and publishing a couple of the label's ads in the mag. After we recorded the album we just started sending promos to foreign labels, as we thought this record was good enough to get their attention. Aftermath was very enthusiastic about "Iconoclast", and as we knew about the quality of Aftermath's work we decided to make a deal with them.
In Chile we're already very popular in the underground scene, and as the local labels cannot offer a significant degree of worldwide exposure, signing with a foreign label was the next logical step. Of course we're pleased with our new situation.
Are there any other labels you would consider working with?
Not at this moment, I think it is still too early to tell.
How is the music composed for Poema Arcanvs?
There are two main composers in the band: Michel (keyboards) and me (guitars). We both compose 90% of the music at home. Then we bring this kind of song sketches to our rehearsal room, and there the whole band starts to adjust the definitive structure for the songs. Then comes the arranging process. Most of the time each member makes his own arrangements, though sometimes any band-member can have an idea for a bass or vocal line, for example. Michel also composes on guitar many times, so I have to "learn" his riffs and then add my own ideas. It is definitely teamwork over a preconceived basic idea, I should say. Democracy is also something very important when we need to make some decision, in our "if you don't like the arrangement, try something else" policy.
The lyrics seem to be about legends and folklore. Are they based on a concept, or are they just based on far off lands and far off times.? What affects the decision as to whether they are written in English or Spanish?
The album is kind of a semi-conceptual one, I mean, there's a basic background subject which is focused in very different ways for each song. It's not a structured story or something like that, but just different views of the same subject.
This whole thing was born when I travelled to Macchu Picchu, in Perú (the ruins of a lost city that was part of the Inca Empire). Being there I was very impressed, because I began to understand the wisdom which underlies the Inca beliefs. Everything is based on a strong and amazing knowledge of nature and the universe (they were great astronomers and had a very accurate calendar, to name a few examples), so every god or ritual had its deep roots in the laws of nature. The song "Rite" is about this, and marks somehow the start point of the album.
Then the focus moves to the contemporary western culture, where beliefs have nothing to do with the real world that surrounds us, becoming just artificial images without substance. Not only religion, but also many times things such as love, friendship, success and others often become just fake images we desperately embrace to avoid the fear of loneliness, infinite and void. The album is about the destruction of those icons, hence the title "Iconoclast".
The language used is chosen almost randomly. Most of the time we write directly in English, but sometimes the first sketches are in Spanish. If those sketches sound good enough for us; and we feel that English language could take off some freshness from the first idea, we keep them in Spanish. I wonder how do they sound to your ears!
One of my favourite tracks is Chaman. What made you decide to leave the song as a short instrumental rather than basing a longer song upon the (extremely catchy) main theme?
Chaman was always thought as some kind of ritual dance music. Our intention was to keep it short and simple to give it some kind of "ethnic" vibe, with a strong rhythmic presence. It also marks a point of variation in the context of the whole album, as we like to put these little fragments of music between our longer songs. Making a "full" song from it could have stolen the simple magic of such a little piece of music.
Do you have any particular favourites on the album?
This answer changes every week. Right now "Desintegración" seems to be my favourite, but as I told you, it depends on the mood of the day. "Iconoclast" is also cool because it is quite different than the rest, you know, more up-tempo heaviness, a couple of odd-measured beats in the middle. Definitively a nice tune to play live!
Bands with a slightly unusual sound like yours often change their style between releases. In what direction do you see future albums taking the band, or do you intend to continue in the same vein?
I think we will continue being the same thing, but more experimental and harder to label than "Iconoclast" was. We want to keep the emotion and the atmosphere of our doom roots, and also take even further our experimental side. Something I can say for sure is that we're not softening our music at all. Hey, we're metalheads!
Talking of the future, are there any plans for the band to tour, and if so where?
Nowadays we're playing all along our country to promote "Iconoclast" in our local scene, that's nothing new. About the rest, we still have nothing concrete planned so far, but our intentions are touring as far as we can as the band becomes more recognised outside Chile. Of course Europe is in our future plans.
What's your local metal scene like?
It is a small but very active scene, I mean, there are a lot of bands, zines, a couple of radio shows, local gigs every week, bigger shows with foreign bands (Kreator and Destruction are coming next week!).
For example, we usually have 200-400 people crowds in our shows (with us as headliners). In the Moonspell show there were around 1500 bangers. For Iron Maiden there was a 25000 people crowd.
The big drawback of our scene is obviously how further we are, it would be more recognised world-wide.
You have opened for numerous bands (eg. Napalm Death, Moonspell), what is your best gig memory, and which band did you enjoy touring with the most?
Well, actually we did not tour with any of the bands you say, as each of them came only for a single show in our country[Russell:Hehe, oops sorry!]. Anyway we met them in those shows. I have good memories of Mitch and Jesse from Napalm Death (really cool guys), and also of Fernando and Sergio from Moonspell (also very down-to earth, cool wine-drinking partners). As for the show, when we opened for Napalm Death it was our first time on such a big stage (there were around 2000 bangers), so it was really special (besides Napalm Death being some kind of brutality heroes for us). Moonspell was also very cool (the crowd was full of chicks!!! Hehe), but I think the Napalm Death show has the first place in our memories. At January of this year we opened for Tristania too.
If time travel were possible, and you could go back and change just one thing (anything), would you, and if so what?
Yeah, I would record again all of our old demos, so I could fix all of my bad playing!!!!!!!! After many years it still tortures me!!!!!!!!....huh...sorry, I couldn't think in anything else. Funny question, by the way.
Hehe, cheers! In closing, do you have any messages for the Ultimate Metal readership?
Just burn your Icons! I just wanted to thank you for your interest and support. To the bangers: be sure to check out "Iconoclast". Also take a look to our homepage: www.discordancia.cl/poemaarcanus/, there you can find some MP3 samples from both of our albums. We really hope to see you all someday!
ARCANE CHEERS!
Thanks for your time, and good luck with the touring!
Cheers
Russell
"Iconoclast" is out now on Aftermath Music
For those new to Chilean band Poema Arcanvs, their music can best be described as an epic form of doom, but a single label does the band an injustice. The vocals are deep and sung, the music mid-paced, and the guitars both intense and melodic. Keyboards add more variation to an already eclectic sound which helps build dark atmospheres and enhances the contrasting quiet and heavy sections (part and parcel of the band's progressive sound). I have recently had the opportunity to chat via email with Igor (Guitars) about the nature of the band's music, their inspiration, and their future direction.
First of all, the band was formed in 1992, how did this come about?
It all started when Claudio (vox) and me were still on high school, you know, I wanted to make an extreme band right after I listened to a couple tapes of Claudio grunting. The grunts were quite impressive; I played guitar, so it was a simple and natural "let's form a brutal band". Anyway we didn't start to work seriously until 1995, due to the lack of proper members for the band. Before that it was just something for fun.
What inspired you to become a musician?
Well, I guess my answer is the typical: I started admiring people such as Iron Maiden, then Slayer, Carcass, Napalm Death, and so on. Also my big brother had a guitar (though it was a left - handed one), so one day I realised that I could be a metal musician just as the ones I admired. One weird thing is that first I learned to play on a left handed guitar (the strings were in the inverse order), so I guess I was some kind of freak playing in a very strange way.
Why, and how did you choose the name Poema Arcanvs?
That was back in 1997: we were looking for a proper bandname, as the band's style evolved from a death-grind style towards something similar to what we play now. The lyrics also changed from social - political subjects to more introspective ones, so our old name (Garbage, yeah, just like the pop band) didn't fit anymore. We started from a concept of lost and forgotten poetry, and we chose Latin language for its universality, and the fact that it is a dead language, so it was somehow related with the whole concept we were working on.
Your music is very distinctive and original, who do you consider your biggest influences?
Well, I think we have influences from both the melodic, dark kind of music such as Candlemass, Fields of the Nephilim, My Dying Bride to name a few; and the more dynamic - aggressive kind of music, such as Voivod, Kreator, Carcass, Death and others. We're metal fans in general, we don't get closed to only one style, but we like many forms of metal: thrash, doom, death, grind, etc.
Of course we also listen to a lot of other stuff which is not necessarily metal. For example we enjoy a lot the music from some folk-progressive-fusion bands from Chile. We also like bands such as King Crimson and the usual Pink Floyd stuff (everyone seems to like Pink Floyd). The world has so much music, so why just to listen to one particular style?
Who are a few personal favourites?
My Biggest influences as a musician (though they may not be very noticeable) are VoiVod (N°1), Candlemass, Old Queensrÿche, Carcass, Zbigniew Preisner (a Polish composer of film music), Fields of the Nephilim. Right now I'm enjoying a lot the works of Nevermore. In the Woods is also a great band for my taste. I could go on for hours naming my favourites.
What else do you draw your inspiration from, i.e. literature, films, art?
Inspiration comes from many places: some guys in the band are always reading different kinds of things: from poetry and philosophy to comic books. Good movies are also another source of inspiration. For example some of us (myself included) really enjoy movies from Krszystof Kieslowski, Emir Kusturica, Andrei Tarkovski and others; you know, obscure and "dense" movies (which usually don't come from Hollywood). It's a hard question, because we take inspiration from so many things, including life itself.
What do you do when you're not recording/touring with the band? Do you have any hobbies?
First, all of us do different things besides the band: Claudio B. Is a designer, Claudio C. is an engineer, I'm an architect, Luis works on computer stuff (something related with webs), Michel is still studying philosophy and piano.
The only common hobby the five of us share is drinking, I guess (hehehe!). I know Luis is into the train model-collecting thing (what a geek!). I just can't recall...I just pass many hours on the Internet researching about amps, effects, guitars and stuff; I don't know if it can be called a hobby...
Congratulations on your latest album, "Iconoclast"! It is quite a dark release (to me at least), was this intended or did it come about that way?
Thanks for your nice words! It's just because most of the music we like happens to be dark and sad, so it's an almost obvious thing that our music sounds the way it does. It wasn't that we said "let's make the darkest album we can". In fact, there's one song ("Desintegración") which starts with some major chords ..............uhh...well, it doesn't sound that "happy"...but it sounds kind of weird and psychedelic; and that's something we really like, you know, experimenting with different atmospheres.
Are you completely satisfied with the album or is there anything you would change had you the chance?
We are very satisfied with the way "Iconoclast" came out, both musically and sound-wise. Of course in a next record we would like to make things better, but that's nothing new, since every band in the world says the same. As I have said in other interviews, I can easily sit and listen to the album (and actually enjoy it), in fact I listen to it very often. Everyone who plays in a band knows how difficult it is to listen to your own album not drowning yourself in self-criticism and over-analysis. For me Iconoclast still passes that trial, and I think it speaks of a well-crafted piece of music.
"Iconoclast", was released through Aftermath Music, how did a Chilean band end up signing to a Norwegian label, and are you pleased with the move?
Claudio (our singer) has a magazine called Nubila. He had been in contact with Aftermath by reviewing some of their releases and publishing a couple of the label's ads in the mag. After we recorded the album we just started sending promos to foreign labels, as we thought this record was good enough to get their attention. Aftermath was very enthusiastic about "Iconoclast", and as we knew about the quality of Aftermath's work we decided to make a deal with them.
In Chile we're already very popular in the underground scene, and as the local labels cannot offer a significant degree of worldwide exposure, signing with a foreign label was the next logical step. Of course we're pleased with our new situation.
Are there any other labels you would consider working with?
Not at this moment, I think it is still too early to tell.
How is the music composed for Poema Arcanvs?
There are two main composers in the band: Michel (keyboards) and me (guitars). We both compose 90% of the music at home. Then we bring this kind of song sketches to our rehearsal room, and there the whole band starts to adjust the definitive structure for the songs. Then comes the arranging process. Most of the time each member makes his own arrangements, though sometimes any band-member can have an idea for a bass or vocal line, for example. Michel also composes on guitar many times, so I have to "learn" his riffs and then add my own ideas. It is definitely teamwork over a preconceived basic idea, I should say. Democracy is also something very important when we need to make some decision, in our "if you don't like the arrangement, try something else" policy.
The lyrics seem to be about legends and folklore. Are they based on a concept, or are they just based on far off lands and far off times.? What affects the decision as to whether they are written in English or Spanish?
The album is kind of a semi-conceptual one, I mean, there's a basic background subject which is focused in very different ways for each song. It's not a structured story or something like that, but just different views of the same subject.
This whole thing was born when I travelled to Macchu Picchu, in Perú (the ruins of a lost city that was part of the Inca Empire). Being there I was very impressed, because I began to understand the wisdom which underlies the Inca beliefs. Everything is based on a strong and amazing knowledge of nature and the universe (they were great astronomers and had a very accurate calendar, to name a few examples), so every god or ritual had its deep roots in the laws of nature. The song "Rite" is about this, and marks somehow the start point of the album.
Then the focus moves to the contemporary western culture, where beliefs have nothing to do with the real world that surrounds us, becoming just artificial images without substance. Not only religion, but also many times things such as love, friendship, success and others often become just fake images we desperately embrace to avoid the fear of loneliness, infinite and void. The album is about the destruction of those icons, hence the title "Iconoclast".
The language used is chosen almost randomly. Most of the time we write directly in English, but sometimes the first sketches are in Spanish. If those sketches sound good enough for us; and we feel that English language could take off some freshness from the first idea, we keep them in Spanish. I wonder how do they sound to your ears!
One of my favourite tracks is Chaman. What made you decide to leave the song as a short instrumental rather than basing a longer song upon the (extremely catchy) main theme?
Chaman was always thought as some kind of ritual dance music. Our intention was to keep it short and simple to give it some kind of "ethnic" vibe, with a strong rhythmic presence. It also marks a point of variation in the context of the whole album, as we like to put these little fragments of music between our longer songs. Making a "full" song from it could have stolen the simple magic of such a little piece of music.
Do you have any particular favourites on the album?
This answer changes every week. Right now "Desintegración" seems to be my favourite, but as I told you, it depends on the mood of the day. "Iconoclast" is also cool because it is quite different than the rest, you know, more up-tempo heaviness, a couple of odd-measured beats in the middle. Definitively a nice tune to play live!
Bands with a slightly unusual sound like yours often change their style between releases. In what direction do you see future albums taking the band, or do you intend to continue in the same vein?
I think we will continue being the same thing, but more experimental and harder to label than "Iconoclast" was. We want to keep the emotion and the atmosphere of our doom roots, and also take even further our experimental side. Something I can say for sure is that we're not softening our music at all. Hey, we're metalheads!
Talking of the future, are there any plans for the band to tour, and if so where?
Nowadays we're playing all along our country to promote "Iconoclast" in our local scene, that's nothing new. About the rest, we still have nothing concrete planned so far, but our intentions are touring as far as we can as the band becomes more recognised outside Chile. Of course Europe is in our future plans.
What's your local metal scene like?
It is a small but very active scene, I mean, there are a lot of bands, zines, a couple of radio shows, local gigs every week, bigger shows with foreign bands (Kreator and Destruction are coming next week!).
For example, we usually have 200-400 people crowds in our shows (with us as headliners). In the Moonspell show there were around 1500 bangers. For Iron Maiden there was a 25000 people crowd.
The big drawback of our scene is obviously how further we are, it would be more recognised world-wide.
You have opened for numerous bands (eg. Napalm Death, Moonspell), what is your best gig memory, and which band did you enjoy touring with the most?
Well, actually we did not tour with any of the bands you say, as each of them came only for a single show in our country[Russell:Hehe, oops sorry!]. Anyway we met them in those shows. I have good memories of Mitch and Jesse from Napalm Death (really cool guys), and also of Fernando and Sergio from Moonspell (also very down-to earth, cool wine-drinking partners). As for the show, when we opened for Napalm Death it was our first time on such a big stage (there were around 2000 bangers), so it was really special (besides Napalm Death being some kind of brutality heroes for us). Moonspell was also very cool (the crowd was full of chicks!!! Hehe), but I think the Napalm Death show has the first place in our memories. At January of this year we opened for Tristania too.
If time travel were possible, and you could go back and change just one thing (anything), would you, and if so what?
Yeah, I would record again all of our old demos, so I could fix all of my bad playing!!!!!!!! After many years it still tortures me!!!!!!!!....huh...sorry, I couldn't think in anything else. Funny question, by the way.
Hehe, cheers! In closing, do you have any messages for the Ultimate Metal readership?
Just burn your Icons! I just wanted to thank you for your interest and support. To the bangers: be sure to check out "Iconoclast". Also take a look to our homepage: www.discordancia.cl/poemaarcanus/, there you can find some MP3 samples from both of our albums. We really hope to see you all someday!
ARCANE CHEERS!
Thanks for your time, and good luck with the touring!
Cheers
Russell
"Iconoclast" is out now on Aftermath Music
