Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / PERSEFONE’s BOBBY VERDEGUER Talks New Album And Orchestral Madness
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: From Persephone, the smallest band of the smallest country in Andorra,
- 0:05Speaker 1: and and we are happy to announce that we have
- 0:09Speaker 1: a new album coming out on December fifth, So go listen.
- 0:14Speaker 2: Hello, Hello, how are you?
- 0:18Speaker 3: I'm good? I'm good. So is it just yourself that's
- 0:21Speaker 3: joining me?
- 0:22Speaker 2: Yeah?
- 0:23Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, no so Bobby is it?
- 0:25Speaker 2: Yes?
- 0:26Speaker 3: Yes, nice to meet you. How's your pain?
- 0:28Speaker 2: Yeah? All good?
- 0:29Speaker 1: Like it's in the morning here, I guess it's late
- 0:32Speaker 1: over there.
- 0:33Speaker 3: Yeah, it's eight o'clock in the evening. And what is
- 0:37Speaker 3: there in the morning?
- 0:37Speaker 2: Yeah, in the morning. It's okay, it's not super early. Yeah. Yeah.
- 0:41Speaker 2: I've been a week for for for some time now.
- 0:44Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 0:44Speaker 3: Coordinating those time zones can be fun. Sorry. How's how's
- 0:49Speaker 3: things pain?
- 0:50Speaker 2: Yeah? Oh good? All good.
- 0:52Speaker 1: Really happy with with the new singles, you know, and
- 0:57Speaker 1: and trying to to promote it as much as we can,
- 1:00Speaker 1: because making a live album it's a stupid idea. Yeah,
- 1:11Speaker 1: I mean, marketing wise, it's it's really complicated, you know,
- 1:15Speaker 1: you know too, Yeah, you know, people don't even have
- 1:20Speaker 1: time to listen to albums right now. Yah.
- 1:24Speaker 2: Imagine it's not new music and it's live music.
- 1:28Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, you really need to like music, you know,
- 1:33Speaker 1: to to to put a full album right now, you know,
- 1:38Speaker 1: and enjoy and try to find some moments for yourself,
- 1:41Speaker 1: you know.
- 1:41Speaker 4: So yeah, I have a marketing genius. I just like
- 1:44Speaker 4: people want to listen to it.
- 1:46Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, hopefully, hopefully this is the best album you
- 1:49Speaker 1: will ever listen.
- 1:50Speaker 3: You know, well I get to listen.
- 1:52Speaker 4: And I mean, one thing I absolutely love is when
- 1:57Speaker 4: two genres, particularly contrasting genres come together and con mind forces.
- 2:02Speaker 4: And it doesn't get much more contrasting than Jeff progressive
- 2:05Speaker 4: metal and live orchestra.
- 2:08Speaker 3: Like It's Chef's Kiss. It was sublime.
- 2:11Speaker 2: Oh nice, thank you so much.
- 2:13Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I was very pressed.
- 2:15Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you nice.
- 2:16Speaker 4: Yeah, it's but yeah, you're right, like just finding time
- 2:19Speaker 4: to do things and put it on and just put
- 2:22Speaker 4: it on in the background and just listen.
- 2:23Speaker 2: And yes, you know, find some time to listen to music.
- 2:27Speaker 1: You know, when when you have an album that you
- 2:30Speaker 1: are like willing to listen or you're you've been waiting,
- 2:33Speaker 1: you know, to listen to it. I don't know how
- 2:35Speaker 1: how people does it, but are really trying to find
- 2:39Speaker 1: some moment just to do that, not you know, walking
- 2:43Speaker 1: or or doing several times, you know, cooking and listening
- 2:46Speaker 1: to the music. No, obviously I do that too, you know,
- 2:49Speaker 1: but if I really want to dig, you know, listen
- 2:53Speaker 1: to album deeply, I need to be focused because there's
- 2:56Speaker 1: so much work into that.
- 2:59Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 2:59Speaker 4: Yeah, when you listened to it from a fellow musician's
- 3:02Speaker 4: pointed perspective, you are you want to listen to the
- 3:04Speaker 4: composition and what goes into it, and yet.
- 3:08Speaker 3: There's a lot of complexity. It's a little ring.
- 3:10Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure.
- 3:12Speaker 1: And and if you are you know, if you have
- 3:15Speaker 1: like the physical one, or you have like the you know,
- 3:18Speaker 1: the cover and the book and everything, and you really
- 3:21Speaker 1: want to.
- 3:24Speaker 3: Even a smell of like the City covers.
- 3:26Speaker 1: Real. Yeah, We've been talking about this, you know, within
- 3:29Speaker 1: the band that it's it's getting you know, everything is
- 3:33Speaker 1: so digital right now.
- 3:34Speaker 2: I'm not complaining, you know, obviously, I know.
- 3:37Speaker 1: That it's super useful, you know, and I listened. I
- 3:41Speaker 1: listened to music obviously and streaming and stuff. But I
- 3:45Speaker 1: really like the going to buy an album physically and
- 3:50Speaker 1: yeah and have it and listening to it and yes
- 3:53Speaker 1: that Yeah, I don't want to sound like the old guy,
- 3:57Speaker 1: you know, like complaining back in the days.
- 3:59Speaker 2: I remember, it's not that.
- 4:02Speaker 4: I think that's why vinyl is making quite a big
- 4:04Speaker 4: comeback as well. Most most bands and artists that are
- 4:08Speaker 4: releasing new stuff as well, even though rereleasing you know,
- 4:11Speaker 4: anniversary albums, they're all doing vinyl.
- 4:13Speaker 3: I mean, I'm yea love love good vinyl.
- 4:16Speaker 4: And honestly, sometimes the sound quality isn't you know, you
- 4:18Speaker 4: can't beat it. It's you put it on like a
- 4:20Speaker 4: decent sound system and it's it's got its own, its
- 4:24Speaker 4: own quality. So I agree, yeah, yeah, it's just expensive
- 4:28Speaker 4: to do the press vinyl.
- 4:29Speaker 1: Yes, that's another thing that I wanted to say, you know,
- 4:33Speaker 1: and some people I think they are just buying it
- 4:35Speaker 1: because it's more you know, limited or something like this,
- 4:38Speaker 1: not for the sake of listening to it.
- 4:41Speaker 2: But it's okay to you know, for a viny you.
- 4:44Speaker 3: Have one that you don't open and when you listen to.
- 4:46Speaker 2: That's the thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 4:49Speaker 4: Yeah, no, that's some what's exciting. So it's been a
- 4:52Speaker 4: little while in making this album.
- 4:55Speaker 1: Yes, we recorded the whole thing I think was May
- 5:01Speaker 1: last year, but we've been super busy doing a lot
- 5:07Speaker 1: of stuff too, you know, so since we do not
- 5:10Speaker 1: work only for the band.
- 5:12Speaker 2: You know, we have our daily jobs and stuff.
- 5:14Speaker 3: Yes, music on the money.
- 5:17Speaker 1: Yeah, it's not easy, you know, to to invest all
- 5:22Speaker 1: the time doing this and something like this. You know,
- 5:26Speaker 1: we need some preparations not only for the recording, but
- 5:29Speaker 1: also mixing this properly. It's not an easy task, you know,
- 5:34Speaker 1: because there are many many layers and different sounds. You know.
- 5:41Speaker 1: We also we last year after the show, we toured
- 5:46Speaker 1: quite a lot. You know, the last summer we went
- 5:50Speaker 1: to the US, We did a lot of festivals, so
- 5:53Speaker 1: I think we did like I don't know, like forty
- 5:55Speaker 1: almost forty shows straight in the summer and then live
- 6:02Speaker 1: you know obviously, and we went to Australia like a
- 6:07Speaker 1: month ago or something like this, you know. So and
- 6:09Speaker 1: we've been like busy doing a lot of stuff regarding
- 6:13Speaker 1: the band, and also we had this live album, so yeah, multitasking.
- 6:19Speaker 3: Multitsing day. Yeah.
- 6:20Speaker 4: So when you come back to the land and do
- 6:23Speaker 4: you know, have you been at quite a few times,
- 6:25Speaker 4: haven't you as a band?
- 6:28Speaker 1: Yeah? No? No, first time yeah, first time yeah, yeah
- 6:33Speaker 1: was so so it's super super cool experience.
- 6:37Speaker 2: You know, we toured with.
- 6:41Speaker 1: Bellacord that we didn't know each other, but you know,
- 6:45Speaker 1: we knew the other each other's band for many many years,
- 6:49Speaker 1: you know, but but we didn't knew each other and
- 6:55Speaker 1: it was.
- 6:58Speaker 2: Super nice, actually nice nice.
- 7:00Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a nice place to be.
- 7:03Speaker 4: And so you guys hail from which is a very tiny, little,
- 7:07Speaker 4: tiny little country landlocked in the middle of between.
- 7:10Speaker 2: Yes is it? So it's between Fronts and Spain.
- 7:14Speaker 1: I want also to mention that we were touring with
- 7:16Speaker 1: or Fells Omega, because I don't want to not mention them.
- 7:21Speaker 2: Or Omega.
- 7:23Speaker 1: They are also from Australia and they are super nice friends.
- 7:27Speaker 2: Of us and super nice guys.
- 7:29Speaker 1: And obviously I wanted to say Bella cor because you
- 7:31Speaker 1: know they were the headliners. Yeah, or everything happened thanks
- 7:35Speaker 1: to them, so big big thanks and hauck to them
- 7:39Speaker 1: because they are the best. So yeah, I know, it's
- 7:44Speaker 1: a super tiny small country between France and Spain. Yeah,
- 7:51Speaker 1: we are eighty thousand inhabitants, which is a neighborhood in
- 7:57Speaker 1: every big city.
- 8:01Speaker 4: So we come out of and or when on the
- 8:04Speaker 4: last thing that is music and death metal to begin with,
- 8:07Speaker 4: And you guys puts into because you're reminded for a
- 8:10Speaker 4: while and happening since two, two thousand and one.
- 8:12Speaker 2: Yeah, yes, so.
- 8:15Speaker 1: We are not the only metal band right now in
- 8:18Speaker 1: but we've been the only we've been the only metal
- 8:21Speaker 1: for quite a long time. And yeah, also the idea
- 8:25Speaker 1: of doing the live album. It also was like an
- 8:29Speaker 1: excuse to make like a celebration because our first album
- 8:32Speaker 1: came in twenty twenty oh four, so last year it
- 8:37Speaker 1: marks like the twenties anniversary, you know, of our first release.
- 8:42Speaker 1: So the album is kind of you know, in the
- 8:45Speaker 1: physical format. Just wait a second, because yeah, yeah.
- 8:51Speaker 3: I know, I love the artwork right very.
- 8:54Speaker 1: It's our guitar player design he's been designing, like the
- 9:00Speaker 1: merchandise and.
- 9:01Speaker 3: All that they look right on the shirt, good merch Oh.
- 9:04Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, we are releasing that too. So in the
- 9:07Speaker 1: in the album, h not in the Spotify release or whatever,
- 9:12Speaker 1: you know, yeah, digital, but in the in the physical
- 9:14Speaker 1: we wanted to put like the twenty years celebration, you know,
- 9:18Speaker 1: because for us, for us, it marks like a important moment,
- 9:23Speaker 1: you know, in.
- 9:23Speaker 3: The Yeah, it's a milestone for sure, yeah career.
- 9:26Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, And and to be doing with you know,
- 9:29Speaker 4: the orchestra, like I said, that's just sublime perfection. You
- 9:32Speaker 4: guys already have such a sophisticated down so to be
- 9:35Speaker 4: able to combine that is really quite quite unique. And
- 9:40Speaker 4: and you did it really well, and that's the thing.
- 9:42Speaker 4: But doing things like that, to do it well is
- 9:44Speaker 4: even more of a credit to yourself. And it's yeah,
- 9:48Speaker 4: high class.
- 9:50Speaker 2: It was really stressful, you know, situation, because it would.
- 9:56Speaker 3: Have been a lot of rehearsing and well going into that.
- 9:58Speaker 1: No, no, that's a problem. That much rehearsal that the
- 10:03Speaker 1: big class. Yeah, because we only had like two rehearsals
- 10:10Speaker 1: with the orchestra.
- 10:11Speaker 2: Yeah, they arrived the day before their recording.
- 10:16Speaker 1: They did They did one, which is normal you know
- 10:19Speaker 1: for them, because they are used to do this kind
- 10:21Speaker 1: of yeah, of course stuff. So obviously they had like
- 10:25Speaker 1: all the music and all the music sheets for many
- 10:29Speaker 1: months before, you know, because our keyboard player was working
- 10:31Speaker 1: with the director of the orchestra the arrangement. Yeah, so
- 10:37Speaker 1: the day before their recording they arrived, they did one
- 10:40Speaker 1: rehearsal just themselves, you know, like okay, you know, okay,
- 10:44Speaker 1: we should change this note whatever, And then we did
- 10:48Speaker 1: one full rehearsal and I think we did another one
- 10:52Speaker 1: the day of the show in the morning.
- 10:54Speaker 2: And that's it, and then it was the show wow.
- 10:57Speaker 1: So and everything was recorded, so you know, the extra
- 11:01Speaker 1: uh pressure of not fucking things up it will be recorded.
- 11:07Speaker 2: You know.
- 11:08Speaker 4: It's the worst because when you're not thinking about things,
- 11:10Speaker 4: it seems you play your best, I think, and then
- 11:12Speaker 4: when you're trying to concentrate all the time.
- 11:15Speaker 1: That's the worst. And also we played songs for the
- 11:18Speaker 1: first time, you know, so it was like really really stressful,
- 11:24Speaker 1: like for real.
- 11:24Speaker 4: Sound that yeah, and I like to say, and then
- 11:27Speaker 4: recording that in you know, taking something that's live but
- 11:30Speaker 4: so complex and then putting that in studio. That's it's hard.
- 11:34Speaker 4: It can be really hard to tweet that. So obviously
- 11:38Speaker 4: you had the session recorded live and then you tweet
- 11:41Speaker 4: it further in the studio, which yeah, and then it's
- 11:45Speaker 4: sometimes you got to walk away from it and come
- 11:46Speaker 4: back because you.
- 11:47Speaker 3: Listen to it so much and then you just get lost.
- 11:52Speaker 1: We had David Castillo, which is he's the producer of
- 11:57Speaker 1: the album. He's a the one behind the mix and
- 12:02Speaker 1: the recording and everything.
- 12:03Speaker 3: He's like mastering.
- 12:04Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 12:05Speaker 1: Yeah, he's a legend, you know, because he's worked with
- 12:08Speaker 1: so many great bands. You know, he's done I don't
- 12:11Speaker 1: know OpEd and Lepros and so and and Catatonia and
- 12:16Speaker 1: whatever band you want to put here in Europe. You know,
- 12:19Speaker 1: he's being there. He's super natural with the sound and
- 12:25Speaker 1: we are super good friends since the last time we
- 12:27Speaker 1: recorded together. So he flied to Wandora, he spent some
- 12:31Speaker 1: days here with us, you know, and then he had
- 12:35Speaker 1: the super nice job of getting all the tracks.
- 12:42Speaker 2: Together exactly and put them together, you know, to try
- 12:46Speaker 2: to save the night. And the sound.
- 12:49Speaker 3: Is amazing engineering of the night as well.
- 12:52Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a huge thing, like you know,
- 12:55Speaker 4: to do that again, to do it live and then doing.
- 12:58Speaker 1: Yeah, it's super super different. And at the same time,
- 13:02Speaker 1: we were so happy to have him, you know, because yeah,
- 13:06Speaker 1: we knew he was already you know, he's not a
- 13:10Speaker 1: front of house guy anymore because he doesn't do like
- 13:13Speaker 1: a lot of shows now. Yet he's been doing that
- 13:16Speaker 1: for many years with great bands. So it was like
- 13:19Speaker 1: the Okay, this is something different, you know, because it's
- 13:21Speaker 1: a venue, but everybody is sitting, you know, there's no.
- 13:26Speaker 3: You cannot you.
- 13:28Speaker 1: Cannot push the sound or the volume too much because
- 13:33Speaker 1: we are recording that, you know at the same time,
- 13:36Speaker 1: so you need to pay attention to the recording and
- 13:39Speaker 1: at the same time to the live show, so it
- 13:41Speaker 1: was like a complicated Oh that would have been inside
- 13:45Speaker 1: complicated evening. Yeah, he's super chill and so he managed
- 13:48Speaker 1: to do it everything like just perfectly.
- 13:50Speaker 3: Well it sounds right, Definitely, he's definitely pulled it off.
- 13:53Speaker 3: It's impressive. So yeah, so what he.
- 13:56Speaker 4: Plans to the future after you've just done this, mamth
- 13:59Speaker 4: ever getting that because it comes.
- 14:00Speaker 1: Out, Oh yeah, after after the super smart idea of
- 14:04Speaker 1: the album. Now we have we have some shows we
- 14:09Speaker 1: have next week we are playing in France, and then
- 14:13Speaker 1: nothing else for.
- 14:14Speaker 2: The rest of this year, which we are already almost
- 14:16Speaker 2: in December.
- 14:17Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. Next year we are doing the seventy k
- 14:24Speaker 1: the boat that goes from Miami to you know, Caribbean
- 14:30Speaker 1: coast or I don't.
- 14:31Speaker 3: Know where, huge, huge, big run, and then.
- 14:35Speaker 1: We have a tour in the US that we cannot
- 14:39Speaker 1: announce yet because we are still waiting for the announcement. Yeah,
- 14:43Speaker 1: and working on the new album because this you know,
- 14:47Speaker 1: the last release was twenty twenty four. Obviously this is
- 14:50Speaker 1: going to be released in December this year, but it's
- 14:55Speaker 1: not new music, and yeah.
- 14:56Speaker 2: We want to we want to work on that, you know.
- 14:59Speaker 3: Yeah, is it December sixth that it comes down?
- 15:03Speaker 2: Five? December fifth fifth? Yeah, it's nice.
- 15:08Speaker 4: So well, I watch this space and I heard that
- 15:11Speaker 4: it is getting intraction because, like you say, it's a
- 15:13Speaker 4: lot goes into it and and I mean I think
- 15:16Speaker 4: it sounds great and that, like you said, that contrasted genres.
- 15:19Speaker 4: It doesn't get much more contrasting than classical music.
- 15:23Speaker 1: Oh yeah, it's the most. Yeah, it's everything that we
- 15:26Speaker 1: can do, is there, you know, all the notes that
- 15:29Speaker 1: we know how to play, you know, is.
- 15:33Speaker 3: Some new ones you know.
- 15:34Speaker 2: Yeah, but it's you.
- 15:35Speaker 1: Know, it's it's a nice I want to say, or
- 15:40Speaker 1: to picture that, you know, it's like a nice picture
- 15:42Speaker 1: of the band if you don't know it. If you want,
- 15:46Speaker 1: you know, to to learn about us. You have music
- 15:50Speaker 1: from several albums. You know, it's live, it's more real,
- 15:55Speaker 1: I want to say, you know, or authentic, and it's
- 15:58Speaker 1: a nice way you know, to to discover us if
- 16:01Speaker 1: you've never listened to Persepona or maybe you know obviously
- 16:08Speaker 1: for the old time fans, you know, because they are
- 16:10Speaker 1: like classic songs there.
- 16:13Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah, because you guys had a pretty big
- 16:15Speaker 4: following Japan, didn't you.
- 16:17Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I don't know that's about deco metal.
- 16:21Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I don't know Japan or so, you know,
- 16:24Speaker 1: but we've been here for many, many years, you know,
- 16:26Speaker 1: so we've toured a lot. We love Japan obviously, you know. Yeah,
- 16:31Speaker 1: it's like it's our one of our favorite places, you know,
- 16:34Speaker 1: to play.
- 16:36Speaker 2: Lately.
- 16:36Speaker 1: We've been in China too, and it was amazing. We've
- 16:40Speaker 1: toured Europe many, many times. So yeah, yeah, I would
- 16:45Speaker 1: say that this is music for everyone obviously, not just
- 16:47Speaker 1: for one.
- 16:48Speaker 3: Yeah, not definitely.
- 16:49Speaker 4: So it's got say, it's got the mix, it's got
- 16:52Speaker 4: a little bit of everything that you guys are about.
- 16:53Speaker 4: And I'm relatively new to your bands, and I certainly
- 16:57Speaker 4: certainly enjoyed it. So thank you so much. Hardful you
- 17:02Speaker 4: guys can compack to another against.
- 17:05Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know. When it's really really far from Andora.
- 17:10Speaker 3: How long is the type of fly?
- 17:11Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't want to.
- 17:13Speaker 1: I don't even want to say, because it was so
- 17:15Speaker 1: so crazy because it was you know, it was so
- 17:18Speaker 1: much oh yeah, many many stoppers because it was it
- 17:22Speaker 1: was super expensive, you know, we were waiting to for
- 17:26Speaker 1: that and and so we decided to and I was
- 17:29Speaker 1: waiting for if we could get other shows in our
- 17:32Speaker 1: way to Australia, you know, yeah, because we needed to
- 17:35Speaker 1: stop in Asia, so I was waiting to get some
- 17:39Speaker 1: shows there, but it didn't happen. So the so the
- 17:43Speaker 1: flights were already booked and it was like Andorra to
- 17:46Speaker 1: Barcelona by car to Dubai, Vietnam, Singapore Brisbane, which was like,
- 17:53Speaker 1: I don't know, two days and something.
- 17:55Speaker 4: Yeah, that stop parting by usually it's a standard one,
- 17:58Speaker 4: but yeah, you have the extra.
- 18:00Speaker 2: You can do. Yeah, because it's super it's expensive. Yeah,
- 18:06Speaker 2: it does.
- 18:06Speaker 4: It does, unless you look out for those ship flights.
- 18:08Speaker 4: But you're trying to plan again, tour.
- 18:11Speaker 3: Around that is impossible. But yeah, no it does, especially
- 18:13Speaker 3: when you go to your band equipment and everything.
- 18:15Speaker 1: Yeah, so you some sponsorship, oh yeah hopefully you know
- 18:22Speaker 1: imagine the flight company.
- 18:24Speaker 2: Yes, please, it would have been amazing.
- 18:26Speaker 3: Yeah, then wen'll be touring. Yeah but yeah, well no,
- 18:29Speaker 3: thank you so much for having your shout this, Bobby.
- 18:31Speaker 3: It's been grad awesome.
- 18:34Speaker 4: Thank you so much, Bobby. We'llill being touched and well
- 18:37Speaker 4: let you know when that's out and congratulations and.
- 18:41Speaker 2: Thank you so much. Thank you bye bye bye bye