Fernando Ribeiro (Moonspell)
May 2008
2007 saw Moonspell releasing two non-regular albums. One of them was a “best of” compilation that came out on the band’s previous label Century Media. I guess it was their idea…
Yeah, obviously it’s the labels idea. What can I say? In one side it’s a sign of importance to have a “best of” because it means that you really achieved something on the scene. Century Media has all the rights of making such releases. My stand about them: we’re not the kind of band that goes in the press saying, “It’s a shit. They wanna rip you off.” I understand that labels try to play with their back catalogue because the record sales are so going down for everybody. Everybody’s downloading so much stuff so the labels have to find with their own weapons. I don’t have a problem with this. It’s just something that you can decide to buy or not. It’s something for the true fan and the true collector that wants to have everything from Moonspell. A “best of” is always by all means a complete record. I helped Century Media to come up with the idea of the tracklist but my idea was to do a double one to put some unreleased tracks there and put some remixes there, but they wanted to go simply for a “best of”. I think it’s cool. I have a copy on my shelf so from time to time if I wanna listen to Moonspell I’ll play thins instead of all the albums. I have a couple of “best ofs” from bands like Motörhead, AC/DC and sometimes they work. It’s not something we thought about too much though, our concentration was on our new album.
You are working together with SPV since the release of Memorial. Are you satisfied with the change?
I think it was good even though I love Century Media as I have good friends there. I believe that the change was definitely in our benefit because I think Century Media took us for granted and they were not believing so much in the band as they did in the past. I’m quite happy with SPV that is a totally different label with a totally different set of minds and way of working. I’m quite happy with the job they are doing for us. When Memorial was just a demo that we used to shop around, Century Media wasn’t too enthusiastic about it, Nuclear Blast wasn’t enthusiastic either, but SPV was and once we released Memorial both Century Media and Nuclear Blast regretted signing us. To me the most important thing is the band and the albums and that we have a good relationship with the label.
You have re-recorded some of your old demos and your new label put this out under the title of Under Satanæ in last October. Was it in the plans for a long time?
Under Satanæ was born for many reasons. One of the most important reason was the fan demand because this was an early EP and some other songs that people couldn’t find anywhere other than downloading from the net. So basically a lot of people were interested in having these songs again so instead of doing a remaster and doing what everybody does we said, “Why not record these old things again?” and that’s what we did. Honestly I have to say that it was too much work. (Laughs) I couldn’t figure out that those songs were so complex to play and we had to go from scratch again. But in a way it was enthusiastic as well and I think it brought justice to the songs. Now they have the potential that they didn’t have when we first recorded them. It was a very interesting project and in the end I was very enthusiastic about it.
How about the feedback from the fans? Do they like it?
Yeah, it seems so. It’s always a tricky record because no one, not even Moonspell can bring back the time and sometimes you forget that a record belongs to a time as well. For instance Wolfheart would be welcomed differently if it was released later. It was very interesting to do this but we have to agree that it’ll never be the same because those times bring back good memories and some kind of naivety in the scene that doesn’t exist now. But regardless of all that I think it’s a good record and it got very very good reactions.
Did you already have most of the new album ready when you got involved in the re-recording of the old songs?
We started writing for Night Eternal two years ago because writing for Moonspell is more of a continuous process. It’s not that we sit down and write just for now, it doesn’t work like this. We’re constantly having new ideas. In between the tours and in between the recording of Under Satanæ we were writing songs for the new album.
Memorial was probably your biggest success so far as far as the record sales go. It reached the Gold status in Portugal. Did it put some extra pressure on you when it came to writing new songs?
Not really. I mean not only Memorial but fortunately Moonspell has a past that people regard very highly and obviously this is on one hand is great but it’s also a curse. We’re always be compared to the last album and we’re always be compared especially to the early albums like Wolfheart and Irreligious. They became very important releases for the scene so we have to live with this pressure since forever really. When we did Wolfheart people liked it so much that they said that Irreligious will not be the same. And it goes on ever since. So basically the pressure here is not focused on that evolution, the pressure here is on the quality of the music. We’re hoping that a good album generates good reactions. But sometimes it doesn’t work in metal. There are very good bands with good albums that people do not like. With Moonspell we try to keep it very romantic while being down to earth as well. We have enough pressure artistically to create new emotions with our music so we’re not thinking about if it’s going to repeat the success of Memorial or not. I hope it gets as close to the hearts of our fans as Memorial was and from what I gathered from reviews and online forums and the response we’re having so far, it is going even further because Memorial was a very harsh, aggressive album while this album has more emotional moments, so it seems that a lot of the fans were missing those emotions that we got back with Night Eternal. With Moonspell it’s always good that there is something lacking all the time, there’s no perfect album so we take that gap and start writing the new album from there.
You mentioned that you basically write all the time, but is there anything like a formula in Moonspell?
Actually, we don’t have a formula of composing. I mean what works for Moonspell is that Pedro and Ricardo start writing stuff with their form of expression but I think a Moonspell song in its final version has more of us because Mike has a characteristic way of playing drums and I have a particular characteristic way of singing. Normally it all starts with a conversation where we all meet and talk about our ideas and we tell each other what we like and what we don’t like. We’re not a band that goes into the studio and jam… I mean when we jam it’s just for fun, there’s nothing good comes from there because in the end we’re already playing death metal and B-sides and Slayer’s and other bands’ songs and we’re not playing our own music. (Laughs)
One of the nicest surprises about the new album is the guest appearance of Anneke van Giersbergen…
Yeah. Anneke is a good friend of us and she has a common history with Moonspell. I mean we toured with The Gathering back in ’95 and it was a really good tour for both bands and it was the start of the gothic metal movement. When we started writing Scorpion Flower I thought that it needed the female element. I was writing a lot about the female energy and about the earth and love and when we got to this song Anneke’s name popped in our head. We sent her the song that she loved it and she added her magic into the song and she created one of the best moments of Moonspell to me. It was something we should have done earlier but I guess it was worth the wait because it was a song that Anneke liked very much. Anneke is the original. I mean we have a lot of death metal bands using female singers but I think Anneke, for our generation of bands and friends, is the girl that brought the feminine side into metal.
Did she record it on her own or she joined you in the studio?
It was through the Internet. Of course we would have liked having Anneke in the studio but it really doesn’t matter nowadays. We emailed back and forth about the song and she did a perfect job by recording her vocals. And it was really great because she came to the video shooting. She was kind enough to join us in Belgrade, Serbia to record the video, which is available now on the official Moonspell MySpace page. I think it’s a great video and Anneke plays a great role in the video.
How did you end up shooting the video in Serbia?
It made sense to us because it was a good deal for us. We had a good time over there as well and became friends with the crew. They are very experienced in this kind of music. It was a good combination of everything. We got great visual material for a very good price from friendly people. For sure it’s strange for people to understand that we went up to Serbia from Portugal just to shoot a video but we are very satisfied that we did it this way.
Speaking of Anneke… what do you think about her new band Agua de Annique?
I love it. She gave me a CD but I already listened to it online as I wanted to see what she’s up to. I really liked it, it’s a great album. I mean it’s not a metal album. People cannot expect a gothic or a metal album; it’s more like alternative rock but I think it’s really good, really sensitive and it’s one of my favourite songs lately. It’s always on my playlist. I also really liked The Gathering. A lot of the magic came from Anneke’s vocals and I’m glad she continued with music after quitting The Gathering.
Do you have any other guests on the album?
Yes, we do. We have invited three Portuguese singers, Patricia, Carmen and Sofia. Patricia is a DJ and an actress and she played in some bands before. Carmen is the singer of Ava Inferi, a very good band created by Blasphemer of ex-Mayhem. Sofia has a local dark rock band. We wanted to bring some female elements into the album and we wanted to have a choir as well. We didn’t want to have a big choir though but something more private, so we had these three vocalists.
As far as I know you have recorded a bonus track for the limited edition of the album. How is Age Of Mothers in style compared to the rest of the album?
Actually that’s a really good song, one of the crowd’s favourite and one of mine as well. We didn’t want to make an extensive album, we just wanted to make an album with 9 songs that could grab people and not bore them. Age Of Mothers is kind of a strong song and we tried to put it on the album but it didn’t really fit with the body of the album. It doesn’t differ that much from the album, it’s a song with a large female vocal intro and goes from there. It’s a bit surprising because the chorus has female vocals.
In general, do you think that most of the bonus tracks that bands are releasing are up to the standards of their albums or they are called B-sides for a reason?
Well, when we go to the studio we have 12 songs and we record them and then when it comes to the mix we try to think about what songs would fit the album the best. Obviously we give our best into every song but there are some things about them that make you think they either fit or don’t fit the album. It’s not the question of the quality, it’s more of the question of essence in a way. Sometimes when I listen to albums that are great but they are very unbalanced when it comes to the tracklist. And I believe that nowadays it’s one of the most important things to have a good tracklist, something that can appeal to people and surprise them from the intro up to the last note of the album. And when you have too many songs sometimes the attention gets distracted. I mean there are even scientific studies about this. But I think it’s good to have these bonus tracks because you can put them online or on special editions. I think it’s a good compromise. And sometimes it happens that some people like the bonus tracks more than the album tracks but you can never predict that and you have to make this choice by yourself. To me what counts is to have a strong album first and foremost but most of the bonus tracks are very enjoyable. They are off the album not because they are bad songs but because they don’t fit the album.
As we already mentioned the new Moonspell will have different editions with different packaging. Do you like the idea of labels releasing the same stuff in 3-4 versions?
I think it’s a great idea. The die-hard fan is someone that buys everything and he’s happy about it and people don’t feel ripped off. Night Eternal has two editions, the normal jewel case version and the limited edition with the bonus DVD. And in Portugal we’ll have an ultra limited special edition with about a thousand copies. Nowadays people want more. They get the album online, they get the videos online and they download stuff for free from every band. We give them everything, so the least they can do is to buy one of the editions. Nobody is forced to buy the limited edition or the jewel case, you can buy whatever you want. I think special editions are a great idea, first because the way they look is great. When I was a kid we only had the plastic box edition, nothing else. Now you have the choice of getting something extra. There are a lot of people that complain about special limited editions and they should think twice. By downloading stuff they are taking money from the labels, they are taking money from the band and they are taking money from the business and they still complain about everything. Moonspell have put the album online already for almost three weeks so people can listen to it. I think it was a generous thing from us. Regardless from that we see promos on sale on eBay, we see the torrents with our full albums there next to the porn movie. Sometimes the people that are uploading our promos on the Internet or selling them on eBay, they are the ones that complain about the limited editions. It makes no sense. I’m totally in favour of limited editions but the last word is always from the fan: if you are a true fan you buy one of the editions whether if it’s the limited edition or the jewel case version.
What’s gonna be on the bonus DVD that comes with the limited edition?
The European edition will be different from the Portuguese because we already did this DVD for Portugal in the past. In Europe we’ll obviously have the full album coming with the limited edition, two other versions of Scorpion Flower and it’ll have the bonus track Age Of Mothers. The bonus DVD will contain three live songs of us in Wacken last year and also the videos will be there from Memorial. It was completely our idea and we paid for everything. It’s the band giving these to the fans for the same price.
What song from the new album are you looking forward the most to perform live?
We haven’t checked with the other guys of what we’re gonna perform live but I think that the title track Night Eternal would be a great moment live. I hope that someday we can perform my favourite song on the album, which is the last song called First Light. In general I’m looking forward to perform a lot of the songs from Night Eternal because all the songs are very playable live. I also love playing the old songs live and we start playing Love Crimes again from Wolfheart. I couldn’t remember that song but it’s such a great song. (Laughs)
There are some festivals booked for Moonspell during the summer but how about a proper European tour?
Nowadays it’s very difficult to tour especially when the festival season is on. I’m very honest with these things because sometimes people think that there are other reasons but nobody will pay 20-25 euros to see Moonspell when they can see 50 bands for 50 euros on a festival. We are booked for a couple of festivals until September and then we’ll do some one off shows in some territories in Portugal and Spain and other places. After that we’re trying to get on a US tour and then we’re going on a tour together with Cradle of Filth, Gorgoroth, Septicflesh and Asrai, which I think is a great package and we are even going back to Budapest in December with these bands.
Do you also plan to release a live DVD anytime soon?
Yes. The DVD from the Antidote Tour is still waiting to be released by Century Media. They had some trouble that I didn’t quite understand but it’ll finally come out on the 20th of October. It will be Moonspell’s first DVD and we’re trying to make this more like a real anthology. We want it as a double DVD with also the Polish show from the Metalmania festivals and a couple of other shows that we recorded. We also want to add all the video clips and the making ofs to this package. I think it’s a great project and I’m helping Century Media to put it together.