Interview with PEACE AFTER PAIN
!!!CROSSOVER THRASH METAL FROM SPAIN!!!
We had a conversation with Mark (Guitars/Backing Vocals). Enjoy!
Welcome to the FILTHY DOGS OF METAL Webzine.
Tell us a few things about PEACE AFTER PAIN (Members, Starting Year etc).
Hey There!
First of all, thanks for the interest shown in the band putting together this interview for us. Here is Mark, Guitarist of the band, I will start saying that the project was born as a result of putting on hold my previous band, Alkoholizer (Thrash metal, from Sardinia), after our last tour in the Iberic peninsula, I decided to look for people to form another band that more or less played a similar style, but even more crossover. That's when I found Kiba (our current drummer) and his fella, Mike (who was the first singer before Arnau joined the band right after our first gig) through a music ad page. In the meantime I got in touch again with some old fellas from the metal scene in Catalunya (Spain), Oskar with whom we already played in another Speed Thrash band that didn't consolidate, and Victor who was already active with other projects. Both of them also played in Asphyxion, another thrash metal band from here. Also the name of the band was really quite clear to me before finding the band, Peace after Pain simply represents any moment in life where you have to overcome yourself. It describes that feeling of Peace after the constant effort to overcome any obstacle. And here we are, with our current lineup: Arnau (Vocals), Mark (lead guitars and backing vocals), Oskar (Bass and backing vocals) and Kiba (Drums).
You have recently released your album ''The Essence of Insanity''. What is the feedback from your audience as well as from the press?
Oh yeah, it’s been quite recent however the audience react very well, we spike our views and streams in Spotify / Youtube, everyone already following us was excited and feedback has been great so far. We are just waiting to get more reviews from the press and see what’s the feedback, however it’s been rerally promising as of now.
Label or DIY and why?
I would say DIY has always been our first choice, however in terms of available time, we felt like we need a label, and finally we decided to reach out to my old Friend Corrado from Punishment 18 whom I worked together since almost 20 years now releasing some of my old bands and projects. Why would I prefer a label? Just a matter of time, and having someone supporting you to spread your stuff where you cannot arrive by yourself.
Is there any funny or weird story from the recordings or from your live shows that you would like to share with us?
Ouch, difficult question ahah! It’s been 7 years of weird stories actually! Ahaha, probably the funniest one has been last summer while touring in Italy (Sardinia). We were so fucked up and tired after the flight and the show same night, that we went to sleep in the hotel. All of a sudden our Singer started snooring that hard that was exactly the same tone of his voice while singing, we actually thought he was having some health issues or some shit happening. Another story from the glorious ones, have been during our last clip recordings where we were pretending to “have a fight” but in the end, Arnau again ended up with a broken rib, I swear it was not on purpose hahaha but we had to cancel a gig due to that. I also remember while touring, our guitarist usually like to be a pain in the ass, he was just taking a coffee (You know italians!!) while we were on a rush. The bassplayer driving and just shouting we gotta go, then our guitarist just came out from the bar stiring the coffee, looked at him and said: “Hey fugget about it!!! I gotta drink ma coffee now, c’mon, wait a litteel bit hey… the bass player just put he gear and left him there hahahaa. They came back to take him after 30min while the others were convincing him to calm down same day of a show! Hahaha! Naaa we are all Good Friends in the end, but we just love pissing off each other. And yeah, you gotta know that our drummer has a weak point with Chinese shops selling Halloween / carnival shit, usually whenever we go to rehearse, you can expect him dressing something different like weird glasses, colores wigs, fulfilling the rehearsal room with Monster masks and shit like that. It’s a funny band in the end! Ahah!
Do you prefer Vinyl, Tape, CD or Digital Format and why is that?
I would say Digital as it will reach more people in less time with less efforts, in the end the goal of all of this is people listening your music. Vinyl if Physical format of course, Great saturated sound, nothing to do with the Digital formats like CD.
Your music style is Crossover/Thrash Metal. Which are your main influences (Favourite Artists / Bands etc.)
Ouch, it's an infinite list dude!! hahaha, but according to the tastes of the whole band I would tell you all the Brazilian thrash, Sepultura, Ratos de Porao, Attomica, Deathraiser that in mine and Oskar's case have always been a supremous influence also in our previous bands.... I could also tell you hardcore from Boston / New York, any band.. Personally quite a lot of Italian hardcore, Raw Power and Negazione in primis.. Integrity is a band that is also part of the “influences” of our singer, while with Kiba, the drummer we share quite a lot of Crust, like Wolfbrigade, Disfear, and lot of black/death metal which we also played in previous projects. And so I could go on all day hahaha, surely from the relatively new bands I would tell you, there are brutal bands like Pest Control, SSS, DRAIN, MindForce, Lowest Creature and Insanity Alert. Just to stay within a similar style to ours.
Which things do you think a band should sacrifice in order to succeed? Have you ever sacrificed anything in your life for a better future for your band?
Oh man! That’s for sure, probably I wouldn`t say you have to sacrifice stuff, it is really individual. Sometimes, in our case at least, we sacrifice family time, or simply time we could have dedicated to other stuff / work / people, but in the end you always choose what you love the most doing… It sounds a bit egoistic, but that is what it is.
Describe your ideal live show as a performance band. Have you already experienced that?
Probably we were closed to it, we are not big fans of festivals, we prefer feeling the crowd and play to médium sized venues where people can really live our music, jump from the stage, mosh and all those things that make you feel alive. I would say our last shows have been really closed to it, probably I’m expecting to repeat it all around Europe now. I will tell you after that depending on the crowd participation we will see in each country! haha
What attributes do you think that a new Thrash Metal Band should have in order to gain identity and be unique?
Simply one thing, DO WHAT YOU FEEL!!! Let’s be honest, we are not inventing anything new, but you can be unique simply playing within your style, we don`t really think about labels or being closer to a certain sound or band, we simply play what we feel, and actually whenever we are composing a new song and we start smiling, we know we reached the goal. Simply don`t force yourself to imitate something, just do what you really feel.
Arnau (Vocals)
Mark (lead guitars and backing vocals)
Do you believe that Digital Platforms help the new Thrash Metal Bands? Which, do you think, is the ideal way for a band to promote its work?
If you start with a DIY approach as we did and everyone is doing nowadays, I would say Digital Platforms are the ideal way, simply because you can upload your music right away, and have a massive amount of people listening to you for free. That is a positive thing in our view.
Tell us a few things about the New Underground Metal Scene in Spain (Bands, Fanzines, Webzines, Metal Clubs etc.)
Would you believe me if I tell you that we don`t feel there is a real underground scene here. To me it’s quite divided, collaboration is not that frequent and to be fairly honest, it should be more cohesive. Too much differentiation between subgenres of metal or hardcore, too many insignificant Little snags. All in all, we do participate to festivals or plan gigs in different Clubs during the entire year, but again in our personal opinión, bands in general are not highly supported in this environment. We still fase lot of webzines asking bands to pay in order to have a review or interview in their page, you know, it’s quite disappointing as no one is making a living out of it.
Oskar (Bass and backing vocals)
Kiba (Drums)
Do you know anything about the Hellenic Metal Scene?
Sure man! Back in the day, we were in touch with lot of realities from there when the so called New Wave of thrash metal blown up in 2006, always liked thrash metal from Greece, you got great bands over there, and some of them were actually under our same label, Punishment 18.
The last 4 years, worldwide in the world, we have faced many dark, strange & new situations in our everyday life (covid, lock-down etc.) Did all of this affect you positively or negatively?
To be honest we never give up living our lives due to the Lock down, I remember the Police found me on a bike riding from the rehearsal room to my house in the middle of the night, and put me a fine, 100 bucks due to the pandemic. It can be considered immoral if you like, but we always went the opposite way to it. The only way it affected us negatively was that we were no table to play any shows, and the only 2 times we played was having people sitting on a chair in front of us. Can you imagine that at a thrash metal show? HAHAHA
What are your future plans?
Well, we are in the studio ending up to record our second álbum and planning 2 new clips and future shows from September onwards to promote “The Essence of Insanity”. Basically it’s a full Schedule plan for the upcoming year ahhha! We like to keep ourselves active!
Thank you very much for your time & keep up the good work! The closure is yours.
It’s been a pleasure man! Thank you for the interest again and to all readers supporting us in the future! Stay Tuned for all the new upcoming stuff, you will hear from us very soona gain! STAY POSITIVE AND KEEP ON THRASHING!!!
By Steve the Filthy Dog.
PEACE AFTER PAIN CONTACT:
https://www.facebook.com/peaceafterpain
https://www.instagram.com/peaceafterpain/?igshid=1c32abioco18v
https://peaceafterpainshop.bigcartel.com/
https://peaceafterpain.bandcamp.com/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/3QqmHJ9pTpYSPLzJ4aJgT7
https://www.deezer.com/en/artist/79470312