28.11.14

Interview with Kilmara 2014

Last month Metal Harem reviewed one of promising heavy metal album of Kilmara, a band from Spain. After some short of online communication we were able to ask for a writen interview. Kilmara drummer, Javi Morillo , is kindly answering all our questions in lengthy stories. Javi talked about how Kilmara as a band, their new album behind the scenes stories, their collaboration with Roland Grapow, and also serious discussion about how the current metal music scenes. Just read their full interview below. \m/

If you still haven't touch on this band, read their bio HERE.

Their latest album is "LOVE SONGS AND OTHER NIGHTMARES", released worldwide early this year. Check their full discography here.

Metalharem.blogspot.com, interview with KILMARA  (Spain)

Enjoy....

Javi Morillo: "Hello metalharem, it is a pleasure talking with you. This is Javi, Kilmara’s drummer..."

Q Metalharem.blogspot:  Can you briefly tell us again, who is Kilmara? Is this a full band, side project or solo project? Have you become friends each other before deciding forming Kilmara? The five of you, are you staying in one area?

 We have been dedicated only to Kilmara for a lot of years; every single project we think about is just for this band. We never wanted to put us any kind of musical limitations and, in the same way,  we never know which will be the next step for Kilmara. Obviously, this is like this, because we are friends. We know each other so much that we have forgotten for how long we do it. John, Kike and I, are the oldest members, because we played together before being called Kilmara. Wolf arrived a little bit later and Raul was the last one that came. We could say we live in the same area since we work one near the other.

Love Songs and Other Nightmares, Kilmara 3rd studio album

Q: The first impression listener going to acknowledge is your unique style. We hear bit of power metal, American thrash metal, and also death metal in Kilmara. How do you describe Kilmara styles, if possible? What kind of band that inspired Kilmara for going this direction?

We could say that what moves us close is the same attraction for the melody. Apart from that, each one enjoys music in his way. We are inspired by several groups, and we like classic groups as much as modern ones, but we always try not to be a copy of an existing one. In this last Cd we had the intention of giving more prominence to the voice and of being more consequents with Wolf’s registers. We wanted that the music would go exactly with what words want to express. 

Q: How is your 3rd album 'Love Songs and other Nightmares" being produced. Tells us the writing process, recording duration and any interesting stories about it.

After our previous disc (Don’t Fear The Wolf) many things happened in our personal and working lives that made us grow apart.  Although we tried to find time to go on with Kilmara, this became quite difficult and that was harmful to us.  However, John, who has always been the driving force in the group, found at that moment a chance to develop his creativity. We took advance of the critics (good or bad ones) that we had had about “Don’t Fear The Wolf”,  and we decided that Wolf should do all the lyrics of this new project. We were looking for a more sincere and direct interpretation. John composed the music, but he had to do some final touches after Wolf had written the lyrics. Even the vocal melodies changed several times. I went to record the drums in September 2012 taking with me some demos with different versions of the songs. The lyrics of some of the themes were recorded by Raul and John because wolf had a sudden lesion in his vocal cords. Although everything seemed a mess, we all had everything more clear than ever.

Q: And also about Roland Grapow. Can you tell us stories behind your collaboration with him. How many times have Kilmara worked together with Roland? Did he involved or influenced in creating / writing music for this album?

 “Love Songs and Other Nightmares” has been the second CD that we have recorded in Roland Grapow Studios. We had totally clear that we wanted to work again with him. He is very professional and he is also a friend. We explained him that this time we wanted to give more importance to the voice.  When I arrived ( I was the first one ) it was quite difficult because all the demos I took with me looked just like themes remnants.  He also gave me his opinion about the drums in “Don’t Fear The Wolf”. He thought they weren’t as good as they should be, and he had the intention of improving them in this last work. As soon as John, Kike and Raul arrived to Roland Grapow Studio, everything seemed to flow and Roland got really involved. He gave us some advises and he even took part in some of the backing vocals. We lived plenty of anecdotes, but the funniest for me was that he took us to a concert. His drummer (Marthus) was going to give a concert with his personal project (Inner Fear) near there, and although Marthus had recorded drums for Masterplan, Roland had never seen him playing at life.

Javier Morillo recording drum for album "Love Songs and Other Nightmares"
photo from Facebook

Q: How did you guys ended up with Sony Music, are there many new metal band that signed with 'mainstream' label as Sony. How is this going to help Kilmara in distributing your music.

The music business is not in a very good moment nowadays but Kilmara keeps on having faith in the truth record companies. We already knew that for people like us, it was going to be difficult to carry out a good distribution. We knocked on several doors and many of them were a fraud. Others were not interested in our music. In fact, Sony is being really good with us and now everything depends on the product demanding. It is simple, if things do not go further, it does not make sense that we wait a bigger investment.

Q. How is your view about metal music nowadays, in your area, Spain, Europe and across the world? As blogger we found many new metal albums everyday, is there a room for one more metal  band? How about the internet, social media, and uncontrolled music distribution over the web? 

I will let you know only my opinion. I think it is almost impossible to create something new. Besides, we have overload of music information. Record companies used to put some filters that are now lost because of the uncontrolled music distribution. This has caused quality deterioration because most of records are self produced.  Music industry is not working any more because selling discs does give enough money. Everything has been harmed by this. Groups record discs the best way we can and later….nothing happens. Nowadays, all the effort falls on a good promotion (of course, the group is in charge of it) in order to stand out from the others. The final product is often very poor because of the lack of wherewithal. Crowds just go to see a concert of renowned groups because they are the only ones that can keep the quality. Among all the options, people prefer what they have always been listening. I think it is difficult that this changes.

Q: Do you hear any fans feedback from our area, Indonesia and Asia in general, about Kilmara?

We are receiving feed back of half world! This makes up live with hopes. Knowing that our music likes gives us strength to go on.

Q: Lastly, what is your next plan for Kilmara, touring or producing new materials for next album?

We would like to tour all over the world but this is not according to our possibilities. We will do as many concerts as we can and we will go on working on taking our project as far as we can. We are already preparing new songs and really exited with Kilmar’s future.

Thank you! It was a pleasure! - Javi

and we thank you you to Javi, for the time and stories you shared to us. Please follow Kilmara on their website and social networks:

KILMARA :

Christian Wolfgang Kohl (vocals)
Jonathan Portillo (guitar)
Enrique Torres (guitar)
Javier Morillo (drums)
Raul Ruiz (bass)

Guests on their latest album:
Roland Grapow (Masterplan, ex-Helloween)
Pilar Villatobas (Resilence)

http://www.kilmara.com/
FACEBOOK
TWITTER



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