Interview With The Gardnerz

Listen to The Gardnerz for the first time was one of those pleasant surprises that you always want to experience. Death Doom done with class, made by talented musicians who know that this music should sound heavy, deep and elegant at once. So after doing a review, I requested an interview. Well, here is the interview with this very good band, that every lover of the genre should listen. 

Note: the answers given by Francisco are in Spanish, because he wrote it in this way; and who we do the blog we have decided to respect it.

Puro Ruido: Hey, how's it going in there? It is a pleasure to interview.

Wilhelm: Hey man, I am doing great, great weather outside. I have just started the night shift at my job so I have a hopefully calm evening ahead of me here at work and that time I will spend writing to you. Thank you, I feel honoured that you have taken time to talk to me.

PR: How active is the band in 2014? Are playing live? Composing new songs?

W: We have mainly been practising the songs we will record for our new album all at their own place of course, since we still live far away from each other. We will start recording early this summer, so we are stoked to get cracking.

I have not written any new songs for The Gardnerz in a good while, we had more than enough to choose from for the new album, so we are all going in that direction.   

PR: The biography of the group can be read it in Internet (facebook, homepage, etc), so we are going to obviate it. But what interests me is to know why The Gardnerz born. So, what motivated the creation of this band?

W: The reason I formed this band was that I had been away studying in Florida for a semester and I did not have a guitar with me, so when I got home I had to get the poison out.

My idea was to create a musical playground for myself. I have had felt constrained in my previous bands, not being able to do what I wanted and so on, so with The Gardnerz I decided to do exactly what I wanted. I mean I wanted to do something in the Death/Doom metal spectrum. But I do not want to be confined just to slow power chord chugging, so anything goes in this band, well I mean you will not find any love ballads or nothing, or will you??        

PR: Death Doom, Doomy Death, are the tags used to categorize the music of the band. However, I think it is not easy to put you a definitive tag because the musical spectrum within you move is quite broad. There are limits when composing? Or anything that fits into the musical context of the group is welcome?

W: As I said above, I want to create Death/Doom metal, but since I listen to and play almost all kinds of music I can’t help but sneak in all kinds of influences in the band. I think one think that really has helped us get a bit of a different sound is our drummer Vedran since he is more into the progressive side of metal I think he has added a lot of cool stuff and flair to the music. Where most drummers in our field would just keep the beat Vedran always makes it more interesting. If we talk limits, I try to stay away from the biggest metal clichés, that was one of my mail goals, to try to create something with a sense of self. I have never seen the point of all the “clone” bands out there, and because of that I did not want to create one myself.

I am not saying that we are doing something totally new, but I do feel and a lot of people have told me that we do sound a bit different. So hopefully we are on the right track.        

PR: Speaking of music, what are the most obvious differences you find between the full lenght and you other recordings?

W: Besides length? I’m only joking. I feel that we have gotten better with every release.

I feel that the first album was an experiment where I was trying different things and trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I do not mean that I think that our first album is bad, I love it, it was my first real album, so I will always think it is my baby but I feel that  our other (newer) releases are more in line of what I want to do, and the “Exiting Reality” single being the crystallisation of this. And since we changed drummers after the system of nature I think we got a more cohesive sound since we got to practise as a band for it all fades, as we did not get to do this for the first album. And for the single Vedran and I spoke a lot about the drums and so on, what would work best.    

PR: In "It All Fades" included the great and original version of Darkthrone's "Transilvanian Hunger". Let me say, is absolutely brilliant what you did with that song. make it in that way, it was planned? Or did it arise in the middle of an improvisation?

W: Thank you! As with many great things, this cover arose out of a mistake. I was working as a guitar teacher and a student had requested the Kansas song “Dust in the Wind” and while learning it I played the chord sequence wrong and voilá I had the basics for that cover. And a few years later while we were recording “It All Fades” mini album our bass player (Francisco) suggested that we should include an acoustic cover of a Metal song, and after some thinking I remembered that I had this little gem in the archives. At first my idea was to just do it as a little interlude or something, but I thought it came out so cool that I decided to do the entire thing and thanks to Paulina’s fantastic performance I think this mistake turned out to be a great one.        

PR: While we're on the covers, one of the bonus tracks included in the full lenght is a cover of a band I love: Vulcano. Why chose to do a song by that band? By the way, there is a connection between The Gardnerz and South America, right? I mean, there are Latino members, and the EP was mixed and mastered in Chile, or am I wrong?

W: Yeah they are a great band, I was fortunate enough to se them live last year. What a show!

That cover was our bass player being at it again, he wanted to get something South American on the record so that is why we did the Vulcano cover. Besides that it is great to pay tribute to such a great band.. You are correct, Francisco is from Chile and our former drummer Juan Pablo Donoso is also from Chile. And “It All Fades” and “Exiting Reality” recordings were both mixed and mastered in Chile.    

Francisco: Claro, en el debut de The Gardnerz grabamos dos integrantes sudamericanos, Juan Pablo Donoso (Sadism/Pentagram (Chile)/Thornafire) que fue quien tocó la batería, y yo que sigo siendo el bajista de la banda hasta el día de hoy. Bueno, yo soy chileno pero criado en Centro América (San Pedro Sula, Honduras), luego viví también en Brasil (Sao Paulo) y desde hace casi 10 años que estoy en Europa... ahhh y mi esposa es una compatriota de ustedes, de Belén de Escobar en Buenos Aires.

El album “Bloody Vengeance” de Vulcano es una total maravilla del Death Metal, así que porqué no hacer un cover del tema homónimo??? Son tantas las bandas en Sudamérica tocando versiones de bandas de Europa o de Norteamérica que me pareció lo más apropiado para esta banda sueca el hacer una versión de una banda de mi continente.

En Chile yo toqué en una banda que se llamaba Kanatran (que una vez tocó en Cordoba, antes de que yo estuviese con ellos) y el ingeniero (Cristian Rodríguez Lunecke) de la banda era buenísimo, así que cuando grabé el segundo disco de Inner Sanctvm (Uruguay) le mostré a Wilhelm el resultado que habíamos obtenido con él y de ahí no pasó mucho tiempo hasta que nos decidimos a trabajar con él para The Gardnerz.

Te puedo contar que hasta Dan Swanö me dijo que felicitara al ingeniero por los resultados que había escuchado de él, y además está el asunto economico ya que trabajar con alguien en Chile puede llegar a costarnos un cuarto de lo que tendríamos que pagar por hacerlo con alguien acá en los países nórdicos, y el resultado NO es un 75% inferior, me entiendes a lo que me refiero???
Luis de Vibrion un día me comentó que estaba hacienda las reediciones del material de la banda y que necesitaba a alguien para remasterizar, así que le recomendé a Cristian y el resultado quedó también realmente asesino.

A todas las bandas les recomiendo que si quieren sonar a un excelente nivel sin tener que vender la casa para pagar el ingeniero, deberían darle una mirada a la página web del estudio (www.15sonido.cl).

PR: What place of importance occupy the lyrics in the band’s music? For what I have read, use the lyrics to express what you think about the man, his decadence and related questions, but in a philosophical way

W: For me the lyrics is very important, I view it as since I have a chance to express myself why not do it. I have not written all the lyrics but all the lyrics are based on my ideas and thoughts.

When I did not write the lyrics I gave the person writing and idea of what I wanted the song to be about and yeah you are correct, our lyrics are my reflections on men and his/her roll in society. We have lyrics about religion, politics philosophy and so on, the once about religious are anti-religious, and are discussing fallacies of religion and holes in their logic. The political stuff is mainly about over-consumption and how our capitalistic society is bleeding us dry. I don't want the lyrics to be too preachy, but I think it is pretty obvious what we believe.

We have also had lyrics about the environment and such. I know it might sound very negative, but that is not the point, just wallowing in the misery. I want to point out the problems we have in this world and ways people are living that I think are wrong.

The main idea I have been trying to convey on our “Exiting Reality” single is the adage: “you only get what you give” and the idea that “you are the master of your existence”. In the first part of our single Niclas wrote/sings a line that goes "The hand of god is my own” and I think that perfectly illustrates what I was going for. Forget the gods and create your own paradise.                  

PR: Wilhelm, take the opportunity to ask you something about your ex-band: Tristitia. Has this group stayed definitively in the past?

W: Well I was only in that band for such a short time so I can't really say too much about it. But I know they put out a demo or something last year, maybe it was just songs online I can't remember, but for me it is in the past anyway.

I keep in contact with the main man in that band Luis B. Gálvez (also a Chilean guy) every once in a while.   

PR: Wherefrom does inspiration come to create? How is it the creative process?

W: I view creating music as a hobby, similar to laying a puzzle, and instead of doing puzzles or what have you I write songs. For me that is the best aspect, playing around with ideas and see what I can do and then to see how the song grows and changes when the other members add their parts and ideas.

I write and demo the songs at the same time, if not I would never remember since we don't practise as a "full band". I generally start out with a riff or an idea and then just takes it where it wants to go, so the songs starts out with guitar and a drum machine, sometimes even bass if I feel especially productive, then everyone in the band gets my demos and gets to give their two cents.  

PR: What vision you have of the current panorama of what is the scene of the Metal, already in the Underground or not? Or think that is not having a good moment?

W: To be honest I am not keeping track so much of the metal scene in general. I think the scene is so over flooded with boring clone bands, that it is boring beyond belief.

Of course sometimes you get a gem thrown your way, but I mostly keep to my old favourites, anyway since I write for a Metal website (www.heavyhardmetalmania.net) I get a shit load of albums sent my way. Unfortunately very little attracts my interest, some new or newer bands I should say that I think are really good are Doomed, Septekh and Embalmed.

One band that I only last year got in to is Dying Fetus, oohh boy, I had missed a great band there, now I can't get enough of them.

And the entire “Core” scene never caught my attention when it was called “Hard” or “Grind”, and the Metal and Death Core scene is not for me either... good or bad I don't know, just not for me.

I think it is great that bands are trying to expand on sounds and change up things, but that doesn't mean that it will appeal to me. I try to spend as little time as possible with things I dislike, I see no point in spreading your hate and dislike about things, I think it is better to try to promote things that you like.    

PR: Ok, I think this is all. By the way, it would be great to see you playing live, here in Latin America. Want to leave a message for your Latino fans?

W: I hope we will make it over the pond one day to play for you. And since we have so many contacts in South America I think this will happened sooner or later.

Thanks for talking to me and a huge hug to all the fans and friends in South America. We are extremely happy with all the support! Hugs and keep it slow! Wilhelm. 

Francisco: Espero que para este próximo año (2015) podamos organizar algo para tocar en Sudamérica, con Wilhelm hemos hablado al respecto y por supuesto que sería espectacular el poder presentarnos en vivo para ustedes... yo también no hayo la hora de viajar a Argentina nuevamente y comerme todos los helados de dulce de leche que mi cuerpo pueda resistir, comer alfajores de maizena y tomar fernet-cola hahahaha.

Para mi Argentina es un país muy especial, mi esposa es argentina, parte de mi familia vive ahí también, y hace algún tiempo un gran amigo mío alemán (Jan) se fue a vivir al Paraná, así que espero dentro de poco poder estar nuevamente en tierras argentas.