Transcription

Alan Troian – Hecatombe (drums)

Interview by Sergio Rapetti
Transcription by Marco Negonda
Hecatombe is back to Metal.it, after the review of their demo “Nightmares”, with this interview taken by email with the drummer Alan Troian. The Brazilian band plays a solid Heavy Metal, supported by Alan’s drumming, whereas I noticed some flaw in singer’s performance... but they said they will get even.

SERGIO: let’s start from  the beginning...
ALAN: Mark Nicolau and I are friends since we were 11 years old. We used to play together at school, me at keyboards and Nicolau at acoustic guitar. Rafael Gomes, our first bass player, used to play keyboards with us. We had the idea of starting a band off the ground so we started. I decided to play drums and Gomes did with bass. On the other hand, Mark chose to play guitar and sing.

SERGIO: Why  did you choose a band name like Hecatombe? It looks more appropriate to a Death/Black metal band... don’t you think it could be confused?
ALAN: We don’t worry about misunderstanding even if some people think we are a Death Metal band. We’ve chosen this name because it sound very decisive.

SERGIO: Let’s talk about “Nightmares”, reviewed a while ago on Metal.it too!
ALAN: This is our first demo. We didn’t try to do anything that could sound like a particular genre; we didn’t worry about creating a typical sound. We didn’t want to be a traditional Heavy Metal band, since we are influenced by metal, progressive, classical, thrash, that is to say by many different genres, and we just composed our songs. We believed that everything would be as spontaneous as possible this way, and I say, it worked.

SERGIO: Is there any concept among lyrics?
ALAN: Not exactly. Some lyrics are outcome of improvisation, of inspiration. The only thing one can consider as a rule is that I prefer writing lyrics in first person; I feel more at ease this way. The only peculiar theme is “Student of the Devil” track number one, which is a story divided into parts. This is the 1st part and we are working on furthers, the story is ready but it will not be included in a single album, it will be distributed among several albums. We also have one more theme to develop that may end in a concept album, but only in the future, when we’ll have a contract with a label.

SERGIO: Who does influence you mainly? Your Heavy Metal is powerful...I guess you’re inspired by historical and classic bands...
ALAN: Yes, but not exactly classic bands. We are influenced by Megadeth, Bruce Dickinson and Iced Earth. Also by something of Metallica. But we also are strongly influenced by bands like Dream Theater, Judas Priest, Halford, Hammerfall. As I said, there are many types of Heavy Metal influencing us.

SERGIO: What do you expect? Do you think you could be noticed?
ALAN: Our purpose is to keep on working hard to our dreams come true. We want to be more professional, to record many albums and to play our music for head bangers of the entire world. We believe that we could conquer our space by working hard, honestly. We don’t mind if music scene is saturated. If we work properly, we’ll be successful in this.

SERGIO: Right... how did audience receive “Nightmares”?
ALAN: Surprisingly, we got only positive receptions about demo. Press is publishing good reviews, and just this gives us the will to carry on and make music honestly. After every show, lots of people come to congratulate us, to tell us they liked the band and the show, etc. We have much to learn but, as far as we received good opinions, we are on the right way to get through. For reading those reviews check out www.hecatombe.ca.tc . As you will have listened our songs you’ll can send us an e-mail through the website.

SERGIO: Any future plan? Are you working at new songs?
ALAN: We are writing new stuff for a new demo still untitled. There are 4 songs ready, the second part of “Student of the Devil” included, do you remember? The song hasn’t a title yet, but it’s finished. We did some gigs in 2001 and this year are we starting right now. We hope to do more shows thanks to the new demo; the problem is that here in Brazil musicians aren’t paid for playing... only a small fee depending on audience’s size. Therefore, it’s hard for a band to play far from home.

SERGIO: How can metal evolve in this new millennium? Which bands can you suggest for the future?
ALAN: As far as we see, metal scene is growing constantly, supported by local media. So we believe that metal scene is getting bigger; I think that Akashic, from Brazil, have a great talent and I bet that they will be famous soon.

SERGIO: How is metal scene in Brazil at this moment?
ALAN: Our scene has both positive and negative points. The positive ones are plenty of bands, metal fans, fanzines and people who go to shows to know new bands, even if not so much known. If people like a band, everybody sing its songs and have much fun. This is the good point. The negative one is that there are a lot of people thinking that to be a musician doesn’t require dedication, some venues’ managers don’t want to pay for a gig, they don’t give us appropriate equipment (mixer, monitor, etc.), they don’t invest in promotion. They only give you the stage: bands must make everything else and to play by themselves. And this is a big problem.

SERGIO: one more problem: internet?
ALAN: our oficial website is www.hecatombe.ca.tc. The pros of Internet are that it provided communication with fans, with friends and web magazines (like I’m doing with you), you can contact music clubs, people can listen to your music quickly etc. The cons are that, in order to organize a show, it takes more time and still depends on the telephone to solve problems.

SERGIO: OK, that’s all! Thanks a lot!
ALAN: Thanks you Metal.it, for the opportunity you gave us to show people something more about the band. Hey, visite our website and listen our songs. Thank you!!!! Stay metal, friends.