Interview with Edgar Fernandes (Bass) and Pedro Freitas (Guitar/Vocals) of Through The Silence by Lady Kat Chaos and Lori DeLuca, March 1, 2015.
Kat Chaos: Hails Edgar and Pedro! How are both of you this evening? Since many don't know Through The Silence, let's get the standard questions out of the way. How your band name is structured and what is the story behind it?
Edgar Fernandes: First of all, thank you for this opportunity. Through The Silence (TTS) formed in 2012 and we are from Terceira Island, Azores. For those who do not know, it is an island located in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
Pedro Freitas: Hi, thanks for the opportunity. Our name came along by writing some suggestions on a notebook we had. It took some time but eventually we glued some words together. Through The Silence sounded cool, so we ended up sticking with it.
Kat Chaos: Through The Silence formed in August 2012. Since you are based in Terceira Island, and Portugal is home to numerous bands that have risen into the music scene, what are some bands we may have never heard about that you support? Moonspell and Malevolence are well known; are you fans of these bands? How does it feel to come from a country filled with many music influences?
Pedro Freitas: I like Hills Have Eyes and More Than A Thousand. I respect Moonspell a lot, although I'm not into their genre at all. There's nothing I can say about Malevolence because I've only heard the name; I'm not familiar with their work. Portugal doesn't make playing metal easy, and on top of that we live apart from the main Portuguese land, which only makes things harder and places us further away from popular and common influences.
Kat Chaos: Why is it difficult to play metal in Portugal? Is hard to buy instruments and CDs? Is it not accepted?
Pedro Freitas: It's hard to make a fanbase playing metal, particularly being based in such a small place as our hometown. Buying stuff isn't really a problem, although we rely mostly upon online stores.
Kat Chaos: Since I am on the topic of influences. Who would be your influence as a bassist, a guitarist and vocalist?
Pedro Freitas: When I started playing I was a huge Blink-182 fan, so Tom Delonge was a big influence for me. As time went by and I grew up I got stoked with James Hetfield and Matt Tuck.
Edgar Fernandes: I don't have any influences as a bassist, but I like several bassists.
Kat Chaos: Who are some bassists that you like?
Edgar Fernandes: Lemmy, Steve DiGiorgio, Steve Harris.
Kat Chaos: How long have you been playing your instruments? Did you take lessons or are you self-taught?
Edgar Fernandes: I start to play bass late, about 7 years ago. I learned by myself and from playing with friends
Pedro Freitas: I started playing 11 years ago. I’m self-taught.
Kat Chaos: What gear do you both use?
Edgar Fernandes: I play with ESP LTD B-50 bass guitar, bass cabinets 4x10 Hartke and a Behringer Ultrabass BX4500 amp.
Pedro Freitas: I play a Washburn P2 guitar with Epiphone chrome covered humbuckers and a Bugera 333-212 combo and a 120w tube amp.
Lori DeLuca: Do you give lessons?
Pedro Freitas: I don't give lessons, but oh well, you never know what the future may bring...
Kat Chaos: I'm sure you are making an impact in your town. Do you see more individuals now creating bands and following your footsteps by creating a scene?
Edgar Fernandes: Well we can say that in the scene we are trying to build (metalcore) we are the first band. But we have punk, hardcore punk, heavy metal and death metal bands.
Pedro Freitas: There's definitely a scene here; it's small but it exists. There aren't any new bands coming around lately, unfortunately.
Kat Chaos: Do you feel that metalcore scene gets looked down upon or is it more accepted today?
Pedro Freitas: I think it is looked down on in general, because nowadays it's hard to find something original in the metalcore scene. Most of the bands sound the same. We classify ourselves under the genre mostly because of our sound and the bands we're influenced by.
Kat Chaos: You list yourselves as metalcore. What makes you classify yourselves under that genre? Are there quite a few people who write off metalcore bands for various reasons?
Edgar Fernandes: Well, metalcore is another subgenre. We have good and bad bands, good music and bad music. The problem is that nowadays everyone wants to be like well-known bands and it ends up becoming generic.
Kat Chaos: Many bands were obsessed with breakdowns, what made you not fully focus on them? What metalcore structures do you follow?
Pedro Freitas: We don't feel breakdowns are that important. They're cool and we use them, but we tend to focus on the melody. There are a lot of elements in our songs.
Edgar Fernandes: That´s the problem, breakdowns after breakdowns. We’re trying to avoid this type of structure; we play thrash metal riffs and melodic death metal too.
Lori DeLuca: When did you know you wanted to be in a band?
Pedro Freitas: I knew I wanted to be in a band when I watched the music video for "Dammit" by Blink-182 for the first time at a friend's place. He had bought his first guitar recently and was trying to play the riffs; my mind was blown away.
Kat Chaos: In December of 2014 you released your debut EP 'Debt Of Words'. Your sound has a professional tone to it. Where did you do the production?
Edgar Fernandes: It was by Tiago Alves from the local band Anomally and he start a home studio call Waveyard studios.
Kat Chaos: Take us through the writing process for 'Debt Of Words', and how you shaped it into what it became? Can you talk a little about the inspiration and behind the songs 'Dawn Of Sorrow', 'Fallen' and ‘Odium’? Is there any message in your lyrics?
Pedro Freitas: All the songs in the EP were written between 2012 and 2014. We wanted to make a "collection" of our strongest songs at that time, so what made it into the CD was what we felt was our best material. Dawn Of Sorrow was written by me, except for the lyrics, I just wanted to make a fast, short and straight to business song. As I was playing Castlevania: Dawn Of Sorrow at the time I got the name from it. I came up with the intro riff for Fallen by mostly joking around. The general theme is giving up your soul for something you love. I didn't write the lyrics, but this might be accurate. Odium was by Vitor Parreira our guitar player except for the lyrics. Those were done by our vocalist André Lopes and as the title suggests it's about hate. We try to put messages and meaning through our songs.
Kat Chaos: Speaking of "Odium" wasn't this song chosen for the compilation "Unsigned Artist Christmas" for Afflicted Records? How have compilations helped bring Through The Silence to the masses?
Pedro Freitas: I guess it helped spreading the message about us.
Edgar Fernandes: We believe that opportunities to participate in compilations is always a good way promote our work and know about other bands.
Kat Chaos: Edgar, what were you looking for in terms of bass work? Which songs from your EP do you find shows your best talents?
Edgar Fernandes: In terms of bass work, I give priority to the rhythmic cohesion; I don't really care about flashy stuff. Maybe "Fallen" "Salvation" and "Odium".
Lori DeLuca: How do you prefer to write your songs in English or Spanish?
Pedro Freitas: We write our songs in English.
Kat Chaos: Between clean and melodic or screams, what type of vocals do you prefer, Pedro?
Pedro Freitas: I like doing both of them and I was lucky enough to do both on the EP. I’m really proud of my vocal tracks on Odium. It was fun recording them because we worked the vocals in that track like a "question/response" situation, if you know what I mean. All the other tracks came along really well too. I’m more used to clean vocals than screaming. Like I said I like them both but I don't consider myself a "pro" of course.
Kat Chaos: You put a lot of effort into your song structure. How important is the connection between harmony and mood while writing a new song?
Pedro Freitas: We like to let it flow as naturally as possible, building up the song from the beginning like it's a story, giving little pieces of harmony along the way to make it full circle.
Kat Chaos: Did you set the bar high then with 'Debt Of Words'?
Pedro Freitas: We wanted to make sure we did our best work on all the tracks, putting a variety of ideas along the way to help each track stand out on its own.
Kat Chaos: How has your debut EP differ compared to your first demo, lyrically and musically? Is your demo still available?
Pedro Freitas: With our EP we had a much clearer image of where we wanted to be musically and lyrically. At the time we recorded our demo we were still exploring what we had and starting to know each other as musicians. Our demo is still available, on Youtube and Soundcloud.
Edgar Fernandes: The demo song "Memories" is our second song we made. At that time we were still not sure about our sound. Now lyrically we are completely sure what we want.
Kat Chaos: When some write material they tend to put their interest in making the sounds heavy, epic, or ‘world-ending’, how do you try to avoid your songs from fallen short and making sure it has substance to it?
Pedro Freitas: We try to give the listener one thing at a time and make sure the buildup for the stand out part of the song is highlighted as best as we can.
Kat Chaos: Your ambition and commitment to growth will take you far. Some have forgotten passion and just see dollar signs. What are the roots musicians have lost over the years?
Edgar Fernandes: Hahaha dollar signs, what is that? Our few concerts are basically for free; our payment is to see people have fun, support us and support local bands.
Pedro Freitas: I think the bigger picture here is that the music industry has become a ruthless money making machine forcing a considerable amount of artists to adapt their ways so that they can still make a living out of their work. So we'll always see artists who started out doing what they believed in changing their ways with or without a choice.
Kat Chaos: Edgar, are you still experimenting musically in what direction you’d like to head in?
Edgar Fernandes: I’ll head into where the band takes. Like I said before, I’m not interested in making money. What comes for good is always welcome.
Kat Chaos: Do you work with a contract and rider?
Edgar Fernandes: Most of the concerts we play are basically for free. We organize the events or the others bands do and invite us.
Pedro Freitas: Usually we don't work with contracts because we're not registered; neither are pretty much all the artists in our home town. However, we often discuss riders and general conditions for the gigs.
Kat Chaos: What shows do you have coming up?
Pedro Freitas: We're taking a break at the moment due to some members’ personal affairs.
Lori DeLuca: If you had to pick the place you would love to play at where would it be?
Pedro Freitas: Somewhere in the UK or USA probably.
Kat Chaos: Do you need to rent spaces to hold your event along with the other bands?
Edgar Fernandes: We go into bars, talk to the owners and make the proposals.
Pedro Freitas: Usually we don't need to rent spaces.
Kat Chaos: Have you ever been turned down from a bar and then when the owner hears about the turn out from another bar do they tend to call you back wanting to be a part of what you are doing?
Pedro Freitas: Not at all.
Kat Chaos: Through The Silence is self-managed, self-booked and independent of any record label affiliation but has accomplished a great deal so far. Do you see the band ever wanting to become involved with any agencies or do you see a better opportunity doing things yourselves?
Pedro Freitas: We would probably benefit from a digital distribution deal at the moment and we'll certainly think about it. However, for gigs we can manage ourselves as long as we play where we are.
Edgar Fernandes: It's complicated because living on an island gives us the disadvantage of being isolated. That's not good for any label. As I've said before we'll look into whatever comes into our hands and if it’s good, I don't see why we shouldn't give it a try.
Lori DeLuca: What is the best advice you would a kid just starting out?
Pedro Freitas: I would say, work hard, be proud of yourself, play with feeling and never give up.
http://www.facebook.com/through.t.silence
Kat Chaos: Hails Edgar and Pedro! How are both of you this evening? Since many don't know Through The Silence, let's get the standard questions out of the way. How your band name is structured and what is the story behind it?
Edgar Fernandes: First of all, thank you for this opportunity. Through The Silence (TTS) formed in 2012 and we are from Terceira Island, Azores. For those who do not know, it is an island located in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
Pedro Freitas: Hi, thanks for the opportunity. Our name came along by writing some suggestions on a notebook we had. It took some time but eventually we glued some words together. Through The Silence sounded cool, so we ended up sticking with it.
Kat Chaos: Through The Silence formed in August 2012. Since you are based in Terceira Island, and Portugal is home to numerous bands that have risen into the music scene, what are some bands we may have never heard about that you support? Moonspell and Malevolence are well known; are you fans of these bands? How does it feel to come from a country filled with many music influences?
Pedro Freitas: I like Hills Have Eyes and More Than A Thousand. I respect Moonspell a lot, although I'm not into their genre at all. There's nothing I can say about Malevolence because I've only heard the name; I'm not familiar with their work. Portugal doesn't make playing metal easy, and on top of that we live apart from the main Portuguese land, which only makes things harder and places us further away from popular and common influences.
Kat Chaos: Why is it difficult to play metal in Portugal? Is hard to buy instruments and CDs? Is it not accepted?
Pedro Freitas: It's hard to make a fanbase playing metal, particularly being based in such a small place as our hometown. Buying stuff isn't really a problem, although we rely mostly upon online stores.
Kat Chaos: Since I am on the topic of influences. Who would be your influence as a bassist, a guitarist and vocalist?
Pedro Freitas: When I started playing I was a huge Blink-182 fan, so Tom Delonge was a big influence for me. As time went by and I grew up I got stoked with James Hetfield and Matt Tuck.
Edgar Fernandes: I don't have any influences as a bassist, but I like several bassists.
Kat Chaos: Who are some bassists that you like?
Edgar Fernandes: Lemmy, Steve DiGiorgio, Steve Harris.
Kat Chaos: How long have you been playing your instruments? Did you take lessons or are you self-taught?
Edgar Fernandes: I start to play bass late, about 7 years ago. I learned by myself and from playing with friends
Pedro Freitas: I started playing 11 years ago. I’m self-taught.
Kat Chaos: What gear do you both use?
Edgar Fernandes: I play with ESP LTD B-50 bass guitar, bass cabinets 4x10 Hartke and a Behringer Ultrabass BX4500 amp.
Pedro Freitas: I play a Washburn P2 guitar with Epiphone chrome covered humbuckers and a Bugera 333-212 combo and a 120w tube amp.
Lori DeLuca: Do you give lessons?
Pedro Freitas: I don't give lessons, but oh well, you never know what the future may bring...
Kat Chaos: I'm sure you are making an impact in your town. Do you see more individuals now creating bands and following your footsteps by creating a scene?
Edgar Fernandes: Well we can say that in the scene we are trying to build (metalcore) we are the first band. But we have punk, hardcore punk, heavy metal and death metal bands.
Pedro Freitas: There's definitely a scene here; it's small but it exists. There aren't any new bands coming around lately, unfortunately.
Kat Chaos: Do you feel that metalcore scene gets looked down upon or is it more accepted today?
Pedro Freitas: I think it is looked down on in general, because nowadays it's hard to find something original in the metalcore scene. Most of the bands sound the same. We classify ourselves under the genre mostly because of our sound and the bands we're influenced by.
Kat Chaos: You list yourselves as metalcore. What makes you classify yourselves under that genre? Are there quite a few people who write off metalcore bands for various reasons?
Edgar Fernandes: Well, metalcore is another subgenre. We have good and bad bands, good music and bad music. The problem is that nowadays everyone wants to be like well-known bands and it ends up becoming generic.
Kat Chaos: Many bands were obsessed with breakdowns, what made you not fully focus on them? What metalcore structures do you follow?
Pedro Freitas: We don't feel breakdowns are that important. They're cool and we use them, but we tend to focus on the melody. There are a lot of elements in our songs.
Edgar Fernandes: That´s the problem, breakdowns after breakdowns. We’re trying to avoid this type of structure; we play thrash metal riffs and melodic death metal too.
Lori DeLuca: When did you know you wanted to be in a band?
Pedro Freitas: I knew I wanted to be in a band when I watched the music video for "Dammit" by Blink-182 for the first time at a friend's place. He had bought his first guitar recently and was trying to play the riffs; my mind was blown away.
Kat Chaos: In December of 2014 you released your debut EP 'Debt Of Words'. Your sound has a professional tone to it. Where did you do the production?
Edgar Fernandes: It was by Tiago Alves from the local band Anomally and he start a home studio call Waveyard studios.
Kat Chaos: Take us through the writing process for 'Debt Of Words', and how you shaped it into what it became? Can you talk a little about the inspiration and behind the songs 'Dawn Of Sorrow', 'Fallen' and ‘Odium’? Is there any message in your lyrics?
Pedro Freitas: All the songs in the EP were written between 2012 and 2014. We wanted to make a "collection" of our strongest songs at that time, so what made it into the CD was what we felt was our best material. Dawn Of Sorrow was written by me, except for the lyrics, I just wanted to make a fast, short and straight to business song. As I was playing Castlevania: Dawn Of Sorrow at the time I got the name from it. I came up with the intro riff for Fallen by mostly joking around. The general theme is giving up your soul for something you love. I didn't write the lyrics, but this might be accurate. Odium was by Vitor Parreira our guitar player except for the lyrics. Those were done by our vocalist André Lopes and as the title suggests it's about hate. We try to put messages and meaning through our songs.
Kat Chaos: Speaking of "Odium" wasn't this song chosen for the compilation "Unsigned Artist Christmas" for Afflicted Records? How have compilations helped bring Through The Silence to the masses?
Pedro Freitas: I guess it helped spreading the message about us.
Edgar Fernandes: We believe that opportunities to participate in compilations is always a good way promote our work and know about other bands.
Kat Chaos: Edgar, what were you looking for in terms of bass work? Which songs from your EP do you find shows your best talents?
Edgar Fernandes: In terms of bass work, I give priority to the rhythmic cohesion; I don't really care about flashy stuff. Maybe "Fallen" "Salvation" and "Odium".
Lori DeLuca: How do you prefer to write your songs in English or Spanish?
Pedro Freitas: We write our songs in English.
Kat Chaos: Between clean and melodic or screams, what type of vocals do you prefer, Pedro?
Pedro Freitas: I like doing both of them and I was lucky enough to do both on the EP. I’m really proud of my vocal tracks on Odium. It was fun recording them because we worked the vocals in that track like a "question/response" situation, if you know what I mean. All the other tracks came along really well too. I’m more used to clean vocals than screaming. Like I said I like them both but I don't consider myself a "pro" of course.
Kat Chaos: You put a lot of effort into your song structure. How important is the connection between harmony and mood while writing a new song?
Pedro Freitas: We like to let it flow as naturally as possible, building up the song from the beginning like it's a story, giving little pieces of harmony along the way to make it full circle.
Kat Chaos: Did you set the bar high then with 'Debt Of Words'?
Pedro Freitas: We wanted to make sure we did our best work on all the tracks, putting a variety of ideas along the way to help each track stand out on its own.
Kat Chaos: How has your debut EP differ compared to your first demo, lyrically and musically? Is your demo still available?
Pedro Freitas: With our EP we had a much clearer image of where we wanted to be musically and lyrically. At the time we recorded our demo we were still exploring what we had and starting to know each other as musicians. Our demo is still available, on Youtube and Soundcloud.
Edgar Fernandes: The demo song "Memories" is our second song we made. At that time we were still not sure about our sound. Now lyrically we are completely sure what we want.
Kat Chaos: When some write material they tend to put their interest in making the sounds heavy, epic, or ‘world-ending’, how do you try to avoid your songs from fallen short and making sure it has substance to it?
Pedro Freitas: We try to give the listener one thing at a time and make sure the buildup for the stand out part of the song is highlighted as best as we can.
Kat Chaos: Your ambition and commitment to growth will take you far. Some have forgotten passion and just see dollar signs. What are the roots musicians have lost over the years?
Edgar Fernandes: Hahaha dollar signs, what is that? Our few concerts are basically for free; our payment is to see people have fun, support us and support local bands.
Pedro Freitas: I think the bigger picture here is that the music industry has become a ruthless money making machine forcing a considerable amount of artists to adapt their ways so that they can still make a living out of their work. So we'll always see artists who started out doing what they believed in changing their ways with or without a choice.
Kat Chaos: Edgar, are you still experimenting musically in what direction you’d like to head in?
Edgar Fernandes: I’ll head into where the band takes. Like I said before, I’m not interested in making money. What comes for good is always welcome.
Kat Chaos: Do you work with a contract and rider?
Edgar Fernandes: Most of the concerts we play are basically for free. We organize the events or the others bands do and invite us.
Pedro Freitas: Usually we don't work with contracts because we're not registered; neither are pretty much all the artists in our home town. However, we often discuss riders and general conditions for the gigs.
Kat Chaos: What shows do you have coming up?
Pedro Freitas: We're taking a break at the moment due to some members’ personal affairs.
Lori DeLuca: If you had to pick the place you would love to play at where would it be?
Pedro Freitas: Somewhere in the UK or USA probably.
Kat Chaos: Do you need to rent spaces to hold your event along with the other bands?
Edgar Fernandes: We go into bars, talk to the owners and make the proposals.
Pedro Freitas: Usually we don't need to rent spaces.
Kat Chaos: Have you ever been turned down from a bar and then when the owner hears about the turn out from another bar do they tend to call you back wanting to be a part of what you are doing?
Pedro Freitas: Not at all.
Kat Chaos: Through The Silence is self-managed, self-booked and independent of any record label affiliation but has accomplished a great deal so far. Do you see the band ever wanting to become involved with any agencies or do you see a better opportunity doing things yourselves?
Pedro Freitas: We would probably benefit from a digital distribution deal at the moment and we'll certainly think about it. However, for gigs we can manage ourselves as long as we play where we are.
Edgar Fernandes: It's complicated because living on an island gives us the disadvantage of being isolated. That's not good for any label. As I've said before we'll look into whatever comes into our hands and if it’s good, I don't see why we shouldn't give it a try.
Lori DeLuca: What is the best advice you would a kid just starting out?
Pedro Freitas: I would say, work hard, be proud of yourself, play with feeling and never give up.
http://www.facebook.com/through.t.silence
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