PART 2: Metal music is for fans, no matter what it’s called
READ PART 1: Pulp Summer Slam bands: ‘Metal labels are for magazine writers’
In his previous post, Francis Brew reports on what metal bands Dragonforce, CircaSurvive and Amoral said was common among them...and the many permutations of the music they played. All headlined the annual Pulp Summer Slam held April 27 at the Amoranto Stadium in Quezon City.
Finland’s Amoral, with the addition of rail-thin vocalist Ari Koivunen whose pipes earned him a finalist slot in the Finnish equivalent of “American Idol,” weighs in on the “growth” aspect of being in a band.
Amoral’s earlier work was rooted in death metal and guttural growling; Koivunen’s powerful melodic singing gave Amoral the chance to make a stylistic shift.
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“We got a singer,” guitarist Ben Varon deadpans but, he expounds: “Like the rest of the guys here, we don’t wanna limit ourselves in any way. And people are like, ‘Oh, how come you don’t sound like you did when you were 20-years old?’
Amoral’s more melodic ‘stuff’
“That was 10 years ago and ever since Ari joined us… that was the biggest change and I don’t think we’ll have a change that big again. Who knows? The new album has more melodic stuff; that’s what we’re into at the moment.”
Old fans of the band need not worry however: Koivunen, as evidenced in live videos online, can growl out the old material as well as soar into the stratosphere melodically.
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Marc Hudson replaced long-time singer ZP Theart. “They saw that I was quite hunky and had long hair,” he jokes. “No seriously, I did my audition through YouTube… then they tested me if I could sing the old stuff and some new stuff and since then we’ve done a world tour and an album.”
Mounds of hair
What else does Hudson bring to the table?
“Mounds of hair,” intones Dragonforce’s Herman Li.
Silence, someone claps, and the room laughs.
Now listening to tango
“With Marc, the style is different, the energy is different, the way you approach composition… and it’s good to have that kind of change. Sometimes you get stuck from doing the same things all the time. It’s a good shake-up.”
Amoral’s Masi Hukari shakes things up musically by listening to tango and Astor Piazolla. Technique, he emphasizes, is different from music.
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“Let’s face it… you set the metronome and go da-da-da-da-da. And in about 15 to 20 years it gets really easy (laughter from the bands) so… after that, it’s music,” he explains.
‘It’s all about shredding’
Ben Varon responds in a monotone drawl, “I don’t know what the hell you just talked about because I think shredding is fucking awesome. It’s all about shredding, it’s not about the music at all.”
Amid the laughter, Circa Survive’s Brendan Eckstrom chimes in, “I’m so pissed at these guys ‘cuz they can shred and I can’t shred at all (laughter) cuz I never sat down for 15 years so…”
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Eckstrom is influenced by David Gimour and Peter Green “to put a little bit of emotion in my playing.”
Punk rock spirit
His co-guitarist Colin Frangicetto also admits to having a less technical approach referencing Jonny Greenwood, Jimi Hendrix, and Jimmy Page who “have a super-emotional, dirty, almost punk rock spirit to what they do creatively.”
He finds ways to fill his role within the band, allowing the others to shine by “laying something down that is almost invisible to the ear but if you took it away it would be super-bare.”
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Li, who mostly spoke for the bands throughout the Pulp Summer Slam press conference, sums up everything neatly, describing the guitar as “pretty much having no peak to the mountain… but we only learn stuff that we come across. We only learn things that we face and solve the problem then.”
We only play what comes from pour hearts
He continues, “Everyone has a different style of music, and really only play what comes in our hearts and I’m sure it’s not (just) about ‘oh I wanna play faster or more technical’… you can produce your own guitar or tone or sound. The world is so big; it’s infinite.”
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Sam Totman punctuates the conversation by saying, “I wanted to learn to play fast and…everything what everyone else said.”
No crazy stories, but there’s a connection
Anthony Green, when asked about how Circa Survive inspires their fans to be musicians says “Meeting people every day on tours like this, we do come across our fans who are also musicians and whether or not they play in a group or just really enthusiastic about music, it’s pretty gratifying to know that they are true music aficionados, connoisseurs, so um… I don’t really have any crazy stories but it’s really nice to share an audience with people you can feel connected with like that.”
He may as well have spoken for Amoral and Dragonforce too.
Music is for fans isn’t it?
Even if businessmen insist otherwise.
