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Spellbound
An
interview with Fernando Ribeiro and Mike
Gaspar of Moonspell
By Bob
Ignizio |
Portugal's Moonspell (Fernando Ribeiro - vocals, Ricardo Amorim - guitar,
Pedro Paixaio - keyboards, and Mike Gaspar - drums) have been steadily building a cult following
since releasing their first demo in 1993. They followed up that demo
with an EP and 6 full length albums, creating a style of metal that incorporates elements of goth and prog
rock with more traditional heavy sounds. Moonspell's most recent album, 'The
Antidote', was released in fall of 2003 by Century Media Records. In
support of that album, the band hit the road opening for Cradle of Filth and Type O Negative
on their recent US tour. When the tour brought Moonspell to Cleveland
this past November, I had a chance to chat with vocalist
Fernando Ribeiro and drummer
Mike Gaspar.
Bob: So how’s the tour going?
Fernando: It just started. We’ve completed the first
week of the tour. We’ve been having some problems with the tour busses and
schedules and all of that, but regardless we’re getting a very good response
from Cradle of Filth and Type O Negative’s crowds. It’s exactly the reason
we came here, to show our work to a larger audience, and this audience is
picking it up. So far, so good.
B: Kind of like when you toured Europe with Type O. That helped you
reach a wider audience there. You’re hoping the same thing happens in the
US?
F: You never know. It’s very different times. We
toured with Type O in 1996 in Europe supporting them on their ‘October Rust’
tour. It definitely did a lot of good for Moonspell and for our career, and
to the way that people were connecting with Moonspell in Europe. Obviously,
our hope is that it will happen the same, because I think these are bands
that all have something to do with each other. We were very influenced by
Type O Negative at the beginning of our career. It’s always a pleasure to
tour with them and see their shows.
B: It seems like a really good package for the fans.
Mike: I’ve been talking with the fans and they find
the package amazing. Even some people who haven’t heard Moonspell, which is
pretty normal, they’re surprised when they see such a good support band.
Usually the support bands just have an album or two, but we have 6 full
length albums and we’ve toured with these bands for years. We have a big
respect among technicians and tour managers. Some of the crew has even
worked with us in the past on our own tours, so it makes it very comfortable
for us, almost like a family.
B: Do you think ‘The Antidote’ might be the album that helps you break
through to a wider audience?
F: It’s still a question mark how the record will
do. We just set out to make a quality record with very good songs. And
that was fulfilled. It was a record that was shaping up inside of us and
people were expecting it as well. We never set our minds to doing singles.
We like to do good songs. It’s very important for a band like Moonspell to
have songs, and that they make sense for us. I don’t know if this style of
music will be popular again or not. It was in 96 and 97, especially in
Europe. But this tour is a good sign that metal music with a gothic
elegance and gothic visuals still has a pulse.
B: It does sound like there’s more hooks on the new album.
F: We wanted to do an album that was more physical,
more instinctive. For that we had to concentrate on making the hooks and
the riffs more memorable. It was coming out very naturally, but on the
other hand it was our intention to make songs that on the first listen grab
people, but also keep them returning to get the meaning of the lyrics and
all of that. It was very intentional on this album to make songs that were
catchy but also deep.
B: Every one of your albums seems to change somewhat. Do you have a lot
of people say to you, “why don’t you do another album like ‘Wolfheart’ or
‘Irreligious’?”
F: Regardless of the changes in our music, we were
always a progressive band. Even the first mini album was very progressive,
very experimental compared to the black metal that was coming out at the
time. We’re very proud of our past, but that doesn’t mean we have to live
in that past. With ‘The Antidote’ I think we came up with a very good
compromise between the past, the present, and also launching a few clues to
Moonspell’s future. People who don’t like what we’re doing now just keep on
listening to ‘Wolfheart’ or ‘Irreligious’, but a lot of people, the majority
of them, have followed. ‘The Antidote’ is getting a good reaction even from
old school Moonspell fans.
B: Is there any particular lyrical theme that runs through the new album,
or does each song have its own ideas?
F: I always write having both in mind. So each song
definitely has an identity of its own, and its very own space. But then
again there’s always a red line running across the album. I think for this
album we found it out after the lyrics and the music, and I think the common
element is fear, in a way. First because fear allowed us to make music that
is both powerful and spiritual. It’s also our answer to all that’s around
us. There’s no doubt that we live in a culture of fear. That has two
points that I focus on. The limitation of not going somewhere because of
your fears, but also the push that fear gives you to be more alert.
B: Any plans for a video?
M: We have a video for “Everything Invaded”. We did
that with a director named Tiago Guedes, who also did our “Nocturna” video.
His imagery was already so in connection with our music we had to go back to
him. Also with the last video we were completely surprised and amazed with
his work. We allowed him to write the whole thing, we trusted him to that
point. The new video is on the CD. We thought it was really important that
all the fans could have access to it, since it’s so hard to get on
mainstream TV. We also have it on our website so you can download it. The
theme of it is more like, talking about fear being this main element; it’s
more like a horror movie trailer. There are many images that would remind
you of classic horror films. One of the scenes is us being buried and
coming up from the ground like the scene in John Carpenter’s ‘Vampires’.
B: You recently changed bass players, but otherwise the band has been
the same for a pretty long time. That’s somewhat unusual in the European
metal scene these days.
F: This line-up, except for the bass player, has been
around since 1995 when Ricardo joined for the ‘Wolfheart’ tour.
M: I think for the Scandinavian bands, there are so
many talented musicians. For them they do it more casually. It’s very easy
for them to have other projects. Us Portugese, we don’t have access to as
many professional musicians who have toured and worked on a schedule to make
an album. It makes the quality of musicians a lot less skilled,
unfortunately.
B: In other words you’re stuck with each other.
(Mike and Fernando laugh)
M: It’s also what we’ve experienced, and the personal
factor. You have to live with that person. We’ve grown so much together I
think it would be hard to think of working with anybody else.
B: On ‘The Antidote’ you had Niclas Etelävuori, the bass player from
Amorphis, fill in. Is he touring with you also?
M: No, we have a guy named Aires Pereira. He did an
audition in Portugal. There we really saw the quality of musicians in
Portugal. They had lots of will, but unfortunately they couldn’t meet the
standards. Aires was the only one we saw who really blew us away with his
playing. At first we were a bit afraid because he played too well. But
he’s a very efficient person, he can learn the songs in a day or two.
That’s what we really needed because we already had some shows lined up.
Nikolas was an option that we had because our producer suggested him. He
was living in the area where we were recording. He’s also a great friend.
Our second tour in America was with Amorphis, and it was our funniest, most
adventurous tour. That’s what made us so curious about Finland, and
recording at Finnvox studio in Helsinki.
B: So is Aires still on probation or is he an official member?
F: He’s still on probation (laughs). Like Mike said,
we’ve been together so many years. I think it’s better for both sides if he
just has to worry about doing his part on stage. We share the same tour bus
and all of that, but the core of Moonspell is still the four of us. We’ll
see what the future brings. We want to know the person very well before we
marry them (laughs).
B: Will you come back and headline for this album?
M: This is like an appetizer. It all depends on how
the shows go and how people react, but if this goes well, as we hope it
does, we’ll be able to come back and have a longer set and maybe even a bit
of our own stage production.
Visit the Moonspell website.
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