Written By Bob
June 25th, 2012
Cadaveria
Interview with Cadaveria Herself and Marcelo Santos of CADAVERIA
Thank you for this opportunity of this interview with you, for Metal Master Kingdom. I am asking these questions with Cadaveria, the person in mind. If other band members are included when answering the questions, please let me know who is answering those questions.
1. Your music has been called Symphonic Goth/Doom/Death Metal. What inspired you to enter into creating and performing this type of extreme Metal music?
Cadaveria: For me music is the easiest way to express myself. CADAVERIA styles is the result of the different band members’ musical tastes, the union of five minds loving extreme music, making noise and have fun.
2. And what do you consider your music style to be called?
Marçelo Santos: We like the term Horror Metal as it means a lot of things but nothing in particular. We are exactly like this, difficult to define and label, difficult to classify in one unique genre. We keep ideas from many musical genres and we cross from Doom to fast Death Metal tempos, without refusing classical Heavy Metal and Rock contaminations. The lowest common denominator that unites all these genres is restlessness of our world, made of dust and fog. So Horror Metal is definitely the most proper way to define CADAVERIA style.
3. Were there any particular events during your childhood that you can recall that an influence on your choice of music?
Cadaveria: Yes but they are very personal. In general the music I play is the transposition of myself, of my feelings and interests.
4. What inspired you to cover Blondie’s “Call Me” on your Far Away From Conformity album?
Marçelo Santos: We are attracted by the music of that period and we enjoy playing strange covers. We evaluated others songs before choosing this one, finally Call Me found a collective in the band.
5. I think it was a bold move to cover that song. Did you get any complaints for covering that song, or maybe did Debby Harry give you congratulations for covering the song?
Marçelo Santos: We god many positive feedback from fans for this cover, but we never heard anything from Debby… it’s a pity; we would have liked to know her opinion. Probably she didn’t know this version exists.
6. Do you plan to cover any other Blondie songs?
Marçelo Santos: No, this is not in our plans. If we will do another cover in the future we would love to explore new musical territories.
7. Have you had any operatic musical training?
Cadaveria: No we are self made musicians, except Frank Booth who has a degree from the academy of music.
8. Did you take singing lessons, say, as a young person?
Cadaveria: I took some lessons for one year time ago, to improve clean vocal singing.
9. You and Killer Bob are both member of DyNAbyte. What is the connection there between you two for being in this band?
Cadaveria: DyNAbyte is a separate entity from CADAVERIA band. I joined DyNAbyte in 2001 and since then I parallel carried out these two bands wholeheartedly.
10. DyNAbyte has more of an Industrial Metal flavor. Do you have a preference of the two types of music in both bands you perform with? Is one style closer to your heart than the other?
Cadaveria: Well my heart belongs to CADAVERIA band. DyNAbyte is however an interesting project, it represents a challenge for my way of singing as well as a way to enlarge my musical approach.
11. Baron Harkonnen was your keyboardist for, I believe it was 3 years in CADAVERIA. Why did he depart the band?
Cadaveria: Baron Harkonnen is better known with the name of LJ Dusk. He is DyNAbyte guitar player. He left CADAVERIA to dedicate himself to DyNAbyte and to his personal life. Since then we opted for a rawer sound and decided to use keyboards just in studio for arrangements.
12. You and Marcello Santos were both members of Opera IX, if I remember correctly. What caused the both of you to leave Opera IX and form CADAVERIA?
Marçelo Santos: We felt constricted in a closed genre that was Pagan Metal. This didn’t allowed Cadaveria and me to express ourselves as we liked to do. The character incompatibility with the other members of Opera IX did the rest. Now we feel completely satisfied and fortunately we play with musicians who go in the same direction of us. We are together since 2001 and we are more a family than a band.
13. Is there a special bond between you and Marcello, do you write your music together? Share the same vision?
Marçelo Santos: Me and Cadaveria have been sharing music, ideas and many other things for more than 20 years. It is natural that there is a very special feeling between us. This allowed us to understand each other without words. It is also true that we often collide on many subjects. Exactly ‘cause we know each other so deeply, we don’t have any fear to openly declare our opinions.
14. And if you share the same vision, can you describe the vision to me?
Marçelo Santos: It is a global vision about art in all its forms. Difficult to describe, but the important is that it still moves our souls and continues to astonish us.
15. I read somewhere that you were born in Biella, Italy. What was life like for you there?
Marçelo Santos: It is a quiet place where it is easy to stay alone with your own thoughts and develop gloomy music. The environment is foggy and damp and this helps writing such a music. Years ago a writer who was visiting our land wrote that he would not have been surprised to see dead bodies dangling from trees in such a place.
Cadaveria: In the song “Death Vision” I describe my land in this way: “… a marsh of crimes and nerves, hybrid of happy sprawls, lighted by invention.”
16. And what is life like there for you now?
Cadaveria: Quite normal. Playing, working, being busy as hell... having fun...
17. Was there much of a Metal music scene while you were growing up there, or did you bring the Metal to Biella?
Cadaveria: Heavy Metal in Italy is an underground genre. There are few people hidden in the corners, listening to extreme music. The same is for Biella.
18. The themes to your music are dark and deal with witchcraft, black magic, and occultism. Have you chosen these themes as a result of Catholicism and, perhaps, rebelling or defying religion?
Cadaveria: My lyrics deal with the inner side of myself. I talk about my interests, thoughts and feelings. Is more than expression of my mind than a rebellion to Catholicism?
19. Are you religious?
Marçelo Santos: Basically not. I worship life and death but not as a religious dogma. Rather like a fascinating miracle of emotions and chemistry.
Cadaveria: I don’t believe in any religion besides my own one. I think any collective and imposed-by-others religion is a limitation of our own freedom and a placebo medicine for human fears.
20. There’ a Metal band in Colombia that calls itself Cadaveria. Does this cause you any concern? I ask this question because I know sometimes bands will file a lawsuit against other bands that use the same name. Are you honored to know that another band has taken Cadaveria as their name?
Cadaveria: We already contacted that band to let them know CADAVERIA is a registered trademark and I own the rights on it. We are not interested in starting any legal action against them, but they must know they are not allowed to use this name. They changed it a little bit in Cadaverias Col, but it is not enough. By the way the world knows who is Cadaveria, the original one!
21. Do you expect to tour North America soon?
Cadaveria: I hope so. Horror Metal is the best album we have ever released and I want to promote it in the proper way, playing live as much as possible. Please connect to CADAVERIA official site www.cadaveria.com and FB page www.facebook.com/cadaveria for any update concerning gigs. Thank you.
Once again, thank you both for this opportunity for this interview and for taking the time to answer my questions. I wish you the best of fortune and hope to be able to actually witness your performances live.
Bob at Metal Master Kingdom
Thank you for this opportunity of this interview with you, for Metal Master Kingdom. I am asking these questions with Cadaveria, the person in mind. If other band members are included when answering the questions, please let me know who is answering those questions.
1. Your music has been called Symphonic Goth/Doom/Death Metal. What inspired you to enter into creating and performing this type of extreme Metal music?
Cadaveria: For me music is the easiest way to express myself. CADAVERIA styles is the result of the different band members’ musical tastes, the union of five minds loving extreme music, making noise and have fun.
2. And what do you consider your music style to be called?
Marçelo Santos: We like the term Horror Metal as it means a lot of things but nothing in particular. We are exactly like this, difficult to define and label, difficult to classify in one unique genre. We keep ideas from many musical genres and we cross from Doom to fast Death Metal tempos, without refusing classical Heavy Metal and Rock contaminations. The lowest common denominator that unites all these genres is restlessness of our world, made of dust and fog. So Horror Metal is definitely the most proper way to define CADAVERIA style.
3. Were there any particular events during your childhood that you can recall that an influence on your choice of music?
Cadaveria: Yes but they are very personal. In general the music I play is the transposition of myself, of my feelings and interests.
4. What inspired you to cover Blondie’s “Call Me” on your Far Away From Conformity album?
Marçelo Santos: We are attracted by the music of that period and we enjoy playing strange covers. We evaluated others songs before choosing this one, finally Call Me found a collective in the band.
5. I think it was a bold move to cover that song. Did you get any complaints for covering that song, or maybe did Debby Harry give you congratulations for covering the song?
Marçelo Santos: We god many positive feedback from fans for this cover, but we never heard anything from Debby… it’s a pity; we would have liked to know her opinion. Probably she didn’t know this version exists.
6. Do you plan to cover any other Blondie songs?
Marçelo Santos: No, this is not in our plans. If we will do another cover in the future we would love to explore new musical territories.
7. Have you had any operatic musical training?
Cadaveria: No we are self made musicians, except Frank Booth who has a degree from the academy of music.
8. Did you take singing lessons, say, as a young person?
Cadaveria: I took some lessons for one year time ago, to improve clean vocal singing.
9. You and Killer Bob are both member of DyNAbyte. What is the connection there between you two for being in this band?
Cadaveria: DyNAbyte is a separate entity from CADAVERIA band. I joined DyNAbyte in 2001 and since then I parallel carried out these two bands wholeheartedly.
10. DyNAbyte has more of an Industrial Metal flavor. Do you have a preference of the two types of music in both bands you perform with? Is one style closer to your heart than the other?
Cadaveria: Well my heart belongs to CADAVERIA band. DyNAbyte is however an interesting project, it represents a challenge for my way of singing as well as a way to enlarge my musical approach.
11. Baron Harkonnen was your keyboardist for, I believe it was 3 years in CADAVERIA. Why did he depart the band?
Cadaveria: Baron Harkonnen is better known with the name of LJ Dusk. He is DyNAbyte guitar player. He left CADAVERIA to dedicate himself to DyNAbyte and to his personal life. Since then we opted for a rawer sound and decided to use keyboards just in studio for arrangements.
12. You and Marcello Santos were both members of Opera IX, if I remember correctly. What caused the both of you to leave Opera IX and form CADAVERIA?
Marçelo Santos: We felt constricted in a closed genre that was Pagan Metal. This didn’t allowed Cadaveria and me to express ourselves as we liked to do. The character incompatibility with the other members of Opera IX did the rest. Now we feel completely satisfied and fortunately we play with musicians who go in the same direction of us. We are together since 2001 and we are more a family than a band.
13. Is there a special bond between you and Marcello, do you write your music together? Share the same vision?
Marçelo Santos: Me and Cadaveria have been sharing music, ideas and many other things for more than 20 years. It is natural that there is a very special feeling between us. This allowed us to understand each other without words. It is also true that we often collide on many subjects. Exactly ‘cause we know each other so deeply, we don’t have any fear to openly declare our opinions.
14. And if you share the same vision, can you describe the vision to me?
Marçelo Santos: It is a global vision about art in all its forms. Difficult to describe, but the important is that it still moves our souls and continues to astonish us.
15. I read somewhere that you were born in Biella, Italy. What was life like for you there?
Marçelo Santos: It is a quiet place where it is easy to stay alone with your own thoughts and develop gloomy music. The environment is foggy and damp and this helps writing such a music. Years ago a writer who was visiting our land wrote that he would not have been surprised to see dead bodies dangling from trees in such a place.
Cadaveria: In the song “Death Vision” I describe my land in this way: “… a marsh of crimes and nerves, hybrid of happy sprawls, lighted by invention.”
16. And what is life like there for you now?
Cadaveria: Quite normal. Playing, working, being busy as hell... having fun...
17. Was there much of a Metal music scene while you were growing up there, or did you bring the Metal to Biella?
Cadaveria: Heavy Metal in Italy is an underground genre. There are few people hidden in the corners, listening to extreme music. The same is for Biella.
18. The themes to your music are dark and deal with witchcraft, black magic, and occultism. Have you chosen these themes as a result of Catholicism and, perhaps, rebelling or defying religion?
Cadaveria: My lyrics deal with the inner side of myself. I talk about my interests, thoughts and feelings. Is more than expression of my mind than a rebellion to Catholicism?
19. Are you religious?
Marçelo Santos: Basically not. I worship life and death but not as a religious dogma. Rather like a fascinating miracle of emotions and chemistry.
Cadaveria: I don’t believe in any religion besides my own one. I think any collective and imposed-by-others religion is a limitation of our own freedom and a placebo medicine for human fears.
20. There’ a Metal band in Colombia that calls itself Cadaveria. Does this cause you any concern? I ask this question because I know sometimes bands will file a lawsuit against other bands that use the same name. Are you honored to know that another band has taken Cadaveria as their name?
Cadaveria: We already contacted that band to let them know CADAVERIA is a registered trademark and I own the rights on it. We are not interested in starting any legal action against them, but they must know they are not allowed to use this name. They changed it a little bit in Cadaverias Col, but it is not enough. By the way the world knows who is Cadaveria, the original one!
21. Do you expect to tour North America soon?
Cadaveria: I hope so. Horror Metal is the best album we have ever released and I want to promote it in the proper way, playing live as much as possible. Please connect to CADAVERIA official site www.cadaveria.com and FB page www.facebook.com/cadaveria for any update concerning gigs. Thank you.
Once again, thank you both for this opportunity for this interview and for taking the time to answer my questions. I wish you the best of fortune and hope to be able to actually witness your performances live.
Bob at Metal Master Kingdom
