Hanna Tsepesh: Olá(Hello in Portuguese) João Brito! Thanks so much for accepting this interview and Welcome to THE GATES OF METAL! First of all: how are you and how are the things doing with your concerts? João Brito: I’m fine thanks! But to answer to the second question I have to mention the history of the members of this project.
We are three old members of a 90’s garage band with several music styles influences, but with a favourite one, the dark metal of the 80’s and before that (Bathory, Celtic Frost, Black Sabbath,…).
The 90’s project finished also in the end of the 90’s with some live appearances and almost 10 years later we had the opportunity to come out with what we consider a mini-studio project, recorded by our own means, due to the fact that the tasks of the three members are actually:
João Neto – design & artwork
Ricardo Silva – bass, composition and production
João Brito – voices, guitars, bass, drums, keyboards, composition and production.
So, when our minds started to play notes in front of our eyes again, we made “The Comet” (demo-2009), warming up the engines.
During this year we finished the 2º demo “The Lords of Lies” and started to feel that we must go forward in a different way due to the fact that are only 2 members playing.
The idea is to join to the music some recorded video scenes and the stage performance of some Psi-Kotic friends of us and of art, in order to achieve a nice live performance of this project.
But we have to fight a natural enemy living in our habitat (South of Portugal – The Algarve), people here like, our pretend to like the fashion empty fucking retarded music, so there are almost no places to make a live performance of dark metal.
But we are preparing animated videos of some songs to put in our page and in youtube and a first live performance with this project is a main goal.
Hanna Tsepesh: What inspired you the most to create the lyrics and what process the band use to create the riffs to comply with the lyrics?
João Brito: We are big fans of music, it’s a part of our lives since the beginning of the 80’s, and we had some instruction in music achieved during that period, so the question is simple, if you got the opportunity to have the material to play and record, and if you have time, the inspiration is like the air we breath, first the guitar riffs start to appear, then we add the rhythm section (bass and drums), followed by some keyboards and finally the lyrics naturally fit the music!
Hanna Tsepesh: What are your favorite bands? You have any musician that you admire the most?
João Brito: The three members of this project listen to several music styles, although metal is like their homeland! It’s the blood that runs through their veins! They listen to many different bands like Bathory, Celtic Frost, Arcturus, Dead Can Dance, Bauhaus, Black Sabbath, Death, Dimmu Borgir, Immortal, Iron Maiden, King Crimson, Pink Floyd, Voivod, Kreator, Metallica, The Mission, Moonspell, Paradise Lost, Satyricon, Skyclad, Summoning, The Young Gods, Tool, Type O Negative, Watain, Venom, Amon Amarth, Draconian, Finntroll, Killing Joke, Joy Division, The Cure, Queens of the Stone Age, The Strokes or Sonic Youth!
Hanna Tsepesh: You have another band or some future project?
João Brito: In terms of art, no!!! Only João Neto have is main project, that is design and artwork, he is a good one, believe me!!
Hanna Tsepesh: I would like to know if you had or have any guttural technique lessons or any other preparation?
João Brito: No, no, there are no lessons, only feeling and will to express in the right way the spirit of the riffs and of all that composes the instrumental part, with our limited resources!
Hanna Tsepesh: What was the highest and lowest point of your career as a musician?
João Brito: Simply the fact that we live in a fucking society, with rotten rules, rotten habits, rotten way of living, and if you do not have some “luck” besides your willpower, you can not survive making music, loving music, breathing music.
Hanna Tsepesh: Is a really truth and sad truth! Let’s talk about the “ The Lord Of Lies” Demo. For people who don’t listen yet can you tell to our readers what they can expect from this Demo?
João Brito: This is the second demo of the actual project, after ten years without playing the ideas flow very quickly but the engines need some time for warming, so the second its more solid and defined than the first, and we hope that the third work will sound better than all the others before. So that’s it, we try to put our best and proper feeling in the sound that we made, releasing our energies and as we kept on playing and pleasing someone out there, we will be pleased too and consequently free our minds!!
Hanna Tsepesh: You make the most things in the band and in this album…is a difficult process for you?
João Brito: There are not so many people in my shinny tourist region that like or understand this kind of sound, so it’s difficult to find someone to play with you and consequently understand and sympathize with your ideas!! Due to that fact, when we love music and if we got the opportunity (chance to acquire equipment) to play it, even if we are one or two, just let the music flow, compose and play all the parts that we need to record some songs with beginning, middle and end.
Hanna Tsepesh: How has the response been to the Demo by the fans and media? João Brito: This is a young project and with little exposure to date. There are others fanzines making reviews and two or possibly three metal programs on radio that intent to pass some of our music. But unfortunately the music do not pay our bills, and we all have normal jobs, but we will make our best to spread the message and our sound, as long we have all our fingers and we kept on breathing we will continue to make music!!
Hanna Tsepesh: If one of our readers wants to buy your demo, what they can do?
João Brito: Just send us a message to psi-kotica@sapo.pt, we’ve got demos in cd with a nice artwork done by our member João Neto. It’s true that this work as the first one are available for free download in some sites, but it reflects our intention in present us to everyone and show our kind of sound. With the next work we will have a different attitude, and only the fanzines, record labels or radio programs will be able to get free demos in cd or free access to download our music.
Hanna Tsepesh: what is your favorite music in this Demo and why?
João Brito: Almost all the songs in this demo were recorded maximum at the second take, so you can imagine how spontaneous it was, but one of my favorites is “Hell is Here”.
Hanna Tsepesh: What is your opinion about the metal in our country (Portugal)?
João Brito: The Portuguese metal scene in terms of bands it’s better than what we can imagine due to or small country. We’ve got one of the best metal bands in all planet earth, Moonspell, but the country in himself have few good places or with metal feeling, specially in our south, to perform a dark, different, extreme, whatever you call, METAL band!! The majority of the people are in a different frequency!!
Hanna Tsepesh: Do you want to send any message for the people who going to read this interview?
João Brito: We hope that our music tell to you something like it does to us and thanks for all your support and friendship, because when you see that someone like your work or is in the same frequency, you know that you have the opportunity to grow, and of course consequently it will be better to all the parts. Psi-Kotic Hails to everyone!!!
Hanna Tsepesh: Thanks o much for your answers and time. THE GATES OF METAL wishes the entire band a big success! Hope to see you guys very soon on stage…
João Brito: Thank you Hanna and continue to do your nice work, supporting and keeping metal alive! A big Psi-Kotic Hail to you!! Metal Rules…
By: Hanna Tsepesh
To listen to some PSI-KOTICA music’s and for future information’s go at:
www.myspace.com/psikoticaband
