MOONSPELL – Interview with Fernando Ribeiro (vocalist)

MOONSPELL is the band that dominated the hearts of fans in the 90s of the last century, especially after the debut album “Wolfheart”. As we know, the band created the unique style that is a combination of Black Metal’s predation with the dark melancholy of Gothic Metal, which attracted many fans and imitators. Soon MOONSPELL will run to major European tour, so Fernando told us about it, as well as about various releases and re-editions…

Hi Fernadno! Literally in a few days you will go on a European tour with ROTTING CHRIST and SILVER DUST! Ready? Suitcases packed?

Hello Pawel, that’s right. In fact, I never unpack! I have at least one road bag always ready with stage clothes, a book, hygiene stuff. We have been doing this since 1995 so, I guess we know no other lifestyle. I have to be ready, in spite of missing my wife and kid, my routines, my hometown but I know the value of sacrifice and how playing live matters for us and the fans. Still the only way to get to the bands, without filters, based upon the true ritual which is to play and watch music live. So yes, I am ready, now its time for our fans to get ready too.

Did the label choose ROTTING CHRIST and SILVER DUST? Do you know these musicians?

ROTTING CHRIST are our brothers since I can remember! During the late eighties and then in the early nineties that we have been in touch and toured and shared many stages together and lived many adventures! So, yes, we chose each other to embark in one of the longest treks of our life as bands.  Being friends and respecting and loving each other’s music is very important in a tour.

As far as SILVER DUST goes, they are a tip from our agency who organized the tour. I have never heard about them so I am curious and supportive about their presence on out tour and hope they take the chance, as we did, to learn and expose their music to bigger crowds.

How much time will you devote to each concert from a future tour?

I believe, give or take, that we will play a headliner set of 90 minutes on most towns.

In addition, during the tour you will play a concert almost every day, you move and stay in hotels, etc. How does look an organization these points at MOONSPELL?

The best is to keep it human. Touring for so long might be great but it doesn’t come without its dark side of frustration, being tired or depressed. So to help each other and to support with patience your touring companions that’s what we should care about first. The tour is long, it will be eventful for sure and we can’t plan everything ahead, so it’s better to keep a positive attitude.

Does the band with such experience have any concert slip-ups or problems with the organization?

It doesn’t matter if you’re Metallica or Moonspell, shit will happen. Experience for sure helps to try and improvise and go around the problems and make the show happen. This is a tour where we can’t miss a date, otherwise it might fall like a deck of cards. We have experienced countless problems: tourbus breaking down, missing planes, stages burning or falling, it’s rock and roll and it doesn’t come without danger and problems to be solved.

Do you remember any funny or dangerous concert situations?

Dangerous: we were once attacked by nazi skinheads in Spain. They threw drinks at me and started threatening me. Our keyboard player Pedro threw a big monitor box at them, hahahah, and they were totally angry and stalked our bus with nazi chants and shit like that. We had once a similar problem in katowice, in the nineties.

I’m sorry about that. I remember such period in Poland. As a Pole, all I have to do is apologize to you…

… Funny: well, where to start? In Beijing, china, they had a really bad smoke machine that dripped fluid everywhere. That tour I was wearing a gladiator’s helmet for the first song and entered the stage all militar and ceremonial and tripped on the liquid. My helmet flew from my head and I almost feel entering the stage, I looked like a bad acrobat, very silly but it was China and I think nobody got it or thought it was a part of the show, that flying helmet.

Hahaha… You need to have a really good physical condition if you play on the stage over one hour. Do you care for your health? Or maybe sex drugs & rock’n’roll? Hahaha…

It’s like sex: all about pressure, moisture and rhythm. If I keep this in control I’ll pull the tour. I care as much as I can about my health on a tour but I couldn’t go through one without the fun of having a drink or two or a smoke. It’s a question of timing and reading your body signs but also not to be encased by your hypochondriac mind. Balance is everything.

You’ve been moving around the Metal stage for almost 30 years. What changes have you noticed over these years that have taken place both among fans, music recipients and organization of concerts?

Everything look way more professional but also everything looks all about the same. Of course shows are much bigger, much more production but sometimes I miss things with taste instead of volume! But it’s undeniable how Metal has involved since the nineties. It’s true that if you started touring in the nineties like I did, you kind miss the wilder part of things, everyone is very serious about their job these days, yet I can’t deny that conditions improved and so did bands and many injustices have been corrected through metal going stronger and more professional.

Do you think that all this eclecticism in Metal turned out to be good for the music?

Eclecticism has never been bad for anything. Personally I like that inside the “same” style you can please so many different sensibilities and taste.

Long time ago you released a live music video to the immortal song “Alma Mater”. Playing this song in front of fans is probably totally satisfying. Everyone is crazing, singing, experiencing emotions with you… Are you able to describe the feelings that accompany you while playing “Alma Mater”? Or is it just a routine?

Alma Mater can never be a routine for us. If that happens, well, it’s better we pack up and go home for good. Playing live, any song you choose, is for sure the only thing that is enjoyable in the midst of a tour full of traveling, meeting strangers, sweating your ass. Your songs are the stronghold and when you play them you have to be the first one to feel good about it. Having a crowd for it was never we took for granted. I remember playing Alma Mater for Immortal fans on the first tour and they didn’t even blinked, so we had to make that song into an anthem that is now sung by the thousands. How could this be boring for us at all?

Will the female vocalists accompany you this time too?

No. We might have a special guest here and there, but it’s just us, the ugly wolves on stage.

All fans probably hope that there will be pyrotechnic effects, multimedia projections, costumes and para-theatrical performances during the upcoming concerts…

No pyros. No need. All bands have them now. However Moonspell is an old school, theatrical band and atmosphere is everything on our shows. So in addition to the chosen repertoire, we are bringing our full scenario from 1755 and our performance will be to the max and with the passion we put on things. Don’t expect a tank or a dragar, hahahah, with all due respect, but I hope we have enough arguments to win the crowd over.

During any shows was your behavior in 100% spontaneous or did you have any behavior pattern? I am asking because some bands have carefully developed behaviors, poses and gestures that they repeat during a tour.

If you mean the last Dvd show it was an absolute stress for us. We had not only to play it like we mean it and we did but most of our crew was more nervous than us! So we had many times to act as a peacemaker and we had a loooong day. You can see it on the documentary attached to the DVD, I looked absolutely thrashed, tough couple of weeks but the result was awesome. And that counts the most. We do have our markings, stuff that we think it looks or feels good, yet we don’t have a script or any other rules than entertain the crowds the best we can.

Yes, in 2018, Napalm Records released Live DVD / Blue Ray / 3CD package “Lisboa Under The Spell” – the recording from a concert in the arena of Campo Pequeno in your home town of Lissabon, which took place on February 4, 2017. Do you plan to record any concert this time too?

Hell no! Maybe here and there we shoot some footage but it will be a while until we embark on such a project again. I do have plans for some live content for the next album but too soon to even think about it. First we have a giant tour to complete.

What do you do when you rest from playing concerts and composing?

I run my own company and I have my book and records label ALMA MATER. We release Portuguese Metal bands like Okkultist or Ironsword and also take care of Moonspell catalog and distribution in Portugal. It’s a lot of work but I like to get busy, I still love the scene and working with other bands. In my personal time I read a lot, write a bunch of articles for the press and magazines, swim and of course spend time with my wife and kid, my favorite thing to do.

And how is Alma Mater Books & Records prospering nowadays? Which books and music could you particularly recommend?

Books and records are a business of passion. And like passion they can’t go right, lots of problems and heartbreak all the time… but that’s the love for what you do and I am still happy I can go on with the label on my spare time and doing something for the Portuguese bands and bring some of the dark culture and poetry I like to Portuguese language too. Last book I read that really impressed me was The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell, last music I was listening to, with gusto, was Paradise Lost’s debut album Lost Paradise.

Oh yeah, great album! The fans when they receive a new album then they often compare to a previous album  of a band. It seems to me that in the case of MOONSPELL, old fans always compare each album to “Wolfheart”. How do you perceive this album today?

It’s a great album, better than what we ever expected for our own debut, it surprised people and it still does so I don’t mind at all, that our music is scrutinized under Wolfheart or Irreligious all the time. It’s a sign that the album still roars powerfully and that became a symbol of a generation. I can only thank the Wolfheart fans too. What I know is that for us Wolfheart was just a step in a ladder we wanted to add a few more steps to, it’s Moonspell for sure, but it doesn’t represent the whole of Moonspell in which we are still working. Also there will never be another Wolfheart for the simple reason that there will be not 1995 again.

In turn, in 2017 year you released the album “1755”. The album is a bit different, but it is still MOONSPELL. How did the old fans react? Once, at a certain time, THERION played similarly… a professional choir that gave the cathedral climate… Orchestral insertions – majesty…

This album is a concept about the great Lisbon disaster, an earthquake that took place Nov 1st, 1755 and that destroyed our capitol, changing the country for good in a quite violent manner. I love Therion concept albums yet I was thinking more of being faithful to our story, an episode of Portugal’s history, and so to say create the right atmosphere for the storytelling.

The album also is different because of the language. Why did you use Portuguese? In my opinion, it sounds more mysterious. But probably some might not like it…

There will always be people not liking our music, it’s not even worth mentioning it anymore. Portuguese was chosen simply because it felt right to tell this story in our native language. No big explanation behind it, more of an “artistic” call, so to speak.

In addition, on “1755” you made folk’s insertions like from Arabic music. Such music probably had a significant impact on the development of folk music on the Iberian Peninsula…

Yes. Arabians colonized the Peninsula around 700AC and build very important caliphates here. Also they were a very cultural people, with their own alphabet and manners and the Pre-Portuguese and Spanish folks were surely influenced by Middle East culture. That’s why we also have a different opinion about them than most of the world, we know their culture, their religion, their music and it used to be a great influence in our ancestors.

In 2018, you released a limited edition of vinyl with two versions of the song “I’ll See You in My Dreams”, which in 2003 served as a soundtrack for a short horror film about zombies. Somehow I don’t think this piece was released before?

No. Just now, via our own label, Alma Mater Records. It was a song only die-hard Moonspell fans know from the movie and live so we decided on Halloween 2018 to release it on 7” single, that was almost immediately sold out.

By the way, this video came out cool. Definitely it encourages you to watch the whole movie…

You should, it’s a really cool zombie movie made in Portugal.

In turn, this year you released a limited vinyl with three versions of the song “Scorpion Flower”, previously recorded in 2008 on the album “Night Eternal”. Once Anneke van Giersbergen (ex-THE GATHERING, ex-AGUA DE ANNIQUE, VUUR) sang hospitably in it… Will they be new versions of this song this time?

I believe this is one of our best songs ever thanks to Anneke of course. It has never been released as a single and we took the chance we got the rights back for a few Moonspell albums to make it available. Fans loved it and so did Anneke. There is a few alternative mixes on the EP for people that like those kind of versions and the artwork is amazing, it went down really well, another release for the band’s label.

In December, Napalm Records will release the re-editions of “Sin / Pecado” and “2econd Skin”. In what form will these releases be? Why did you choose these materials?

Deluxe digipack and gatefold LP with a bonus 7”single with some Sin songs remixed. It has always been our goal to keep our “old” material alive. Many times people couldn’t find anything original by Moonspell, just the odd bootleg or the overpriced collector’s LP so together with Alma Mater, Century Media and Napalm we will be working on every Moonspell release after Sin/Pecado. It’s a big, fan-friendly project, I am totally involved on it and help choose the materials myself to make the editions more personal and band approved.

Soon it will be two years since the release of the last album “1755”. Do you think about your next album? What can we expect and when?

Expect nothing. Embrace everything.

Always, when some band is asked about the genre of music performed by this band, their usually said that it is pigeonholing, it does not matter…. And I am an old fan of Metal and many years ago it was important how the band is defined, so I will ask – MOONESPELL is Black Metal or maybe Gothic Metal – or maybe as it is fashionable lately, combining styles – Gothic Black Metal? Or maybe a rare genre – Dark Metal?

Good question to which I don’t have a proper answer. Personally I tend to like the Dark Metal thing as a definition of what we do. It sounds bad perhaps but also it’s silly when you already try to dress the package with exaggerated decor. Moonspell are musicians that try to find a cool mark for the band, something people recognize as Moonspell, it’s not as simple as it sounds, it’s a lifetime project.

Well done. Thank you very much for the interview. It was a great honor for me, among others because MOONSPELL has accompanied my path with Metal since the beginning of the 90s and you was always among my favorites.

Thanks for the interview. See you in Hellas!!!

https://www.facebook.com/moonspellband/

http://www.moonspell.com/