SOLITUDE AETURNUS: Polish Gig To Be Filmed For Upcoming DVD

Lords of Metal e-zine recently conducted an interview with SOLITUDE AETURNUS guitarist John Perez. A couple of excerpts from the follow:

Lords of Metal: What made you decide to take a break after "Adagio"?

Perez: We took a break after "Adagio" on purpose. We intended to take a break. We were all going to do different things for… maybe a year or so. Just take a break to recharge the batteries for SOLITUDE. So, we did take our break. When we got back together, we took our time to write new material just to make sure that it was right. One thing led to another and we had problems. One of the main members of the band — at least to me — Edgar Rivera on guitar decided to quit, that was a big problem. I was very concerned with this, you know, Edgar was such a big part of our sound that I was afraid that if he left we would not sound the same or would not be as good, so I almost did not want to continue without Edgar. So that took a long time for me to be able to decide to get back on our feet and do another record. After some time with this, our drummer (John Covington) quit. So we had problems with finding a new drummer and that was a year long process in itself. All these little things like these among other things like daily life, work, members going through some personal problems in their lives, ended up to one very, very long delay after "Adagio". We've been working quite hard for several years, trying to get this thing back on the running and it was very, very frustrated for us as well to get back on our feet with this.

Lords of Metal: So it was not a split of the band, but a combination of situations that made it that long…

Perez: Pretty much though. We did take about a two years break after 'Adagio'. We decided to do a couple of things for ourselves. And then our intention was: shortly after that we record the next record. So about the year 2000 and 2001 we started to write songs for the next record. Some of the songs you hear on the album are actually as old as that. There is not one song on this album that is newer than three years old. Most of these songs are very old songs now to us.

Lords of Metal: If I compare the sound of the new album with the older ones, I would say it is less polished and a more chunky and organic production…

Perez: I think I will have to agree, this album is the best sounding record we have done. We got a guitar sound on this album that I am more happy with than what we have done in the past. Maybe that is where the organic feel comes from, it is a little warmer. More warmth. It is a fuller and richer and thicker sound, I think it is a better sound. We worked hard on the sound and we are very happy with that. We got what we were looking for.

Lords of Metal: In the past you often went to England or abroad to record an album, but this time not I think. You recorded it in the USA, isn't it?

Perez: Yes, we recorded it here which is in the Dallas port work area. We recorded it in a studio called Nomad Studios. It was more convenient for us to do it here this time. We love recording in England, we had such great recording experiences over there. We definitely wanted to go back there, but you know, everybody's work situation, we were not able to do that. The advantage of recording somewhere outside of your hometown is that you haven't got any distractions, you are able to concentrate a hundred percent on the record, but on this record we were not able to do that, so we just made the best we could and did it here. And I am glad we did. 'Cause we really got a good sounding record.

Lords of Metal: So it was a new experience and also new people, you worked with another producer…

Perez: Well, the fact is, we produce all our records since the beginning. We always give the engineers co-production credits cause we feel that someone who is engineering a record in the studio with you and putting ideas in and work with you… well, it just feels right to give co-production credits. We have always given everybody who has worked with us on albums co-production credits but the truth of the matter is that we produced the albums ourselves. From the first record to this new one. We know the sound we are looking for and we are the ones that are actually producing and trying to get there, so we used different engineers… yes… but as far as different producers goes, we basically produced it.

Lords of Metal: Let's talk now about the former live experiences, because this year in spring, you started to play gigs again. And you have chosen Europe for that. It was a tour in Greece, Germany and Italy, isn't it?

Perez: This is true and we were actually invited to play Greece several times and we were only able to do it this year. The guys in Greece along with the promoters in Germany and Italy pulled their resources together and they brought us over for a mini tour. Quite a good tour. We got off with a shaky start, we had to do the first gig without Robert because he had a passport problem. It was at the Doom Shall Rise festival. That sucked, oh man, it was a nightmare. So we had to do the best we could that show and we did what we could. Robert got there the next day, so we did the shows in Greece and they were just phenomenal. There was a really good crowd in Greece for SOLITUDE AETURNUS. The Italian gig was pretty cool too. We went from there and played the [Keep It True] festival and that was amazing, just a super response. It was a mini tour, but we had a good time and we enjoyed to be back in Europe after so many years. Hopefully we will come back in the spring. I don't have any dates yet, but we are playing in Poland in February. We are playing one show and this will be filmed for a DVD.

Lords of Metal: Aha, that's news. Tell me a bit more about that if you are able to…

Perez: Absolutely, we play there on the thirteenth of February I believe and it will be put on by Metal Mind Productions. We are going over there and I think we are playing a warm up show and I think on Saturday we are doing the show that will be filmed for a professional DVD. We are all excited about that and a little nervous cause we have never done that before. That'll be our next show we will do overseas. And come back for a tour in April or so. That is how we have planned it more or less, hopefully these plans will come out.

Lords of Metal: Another thing is: at the time of "Adagio" DVD time has not arrived yet, but now everybody is making one…

Perez: It seems to be the thing to do. I mean, the music industry is in a sad state right now. CD sales are running down all across the border, it is a difficult time for the music business. But people are buying a lot of DVDs these days, so they try to keep the machine rolling. It is a commercial move, I think, we are just doing it to do it. It is a great thing to have a DVD. They will put it out on Metal Mind Productions.

Read the entire interview at www.lordsofmetal.nl.