Mar de Grises pour l'album "Streams Inwards"

1. Hi! When I interviewed you 2 years ago for the release of "Draining The Waterheart", you told me you would try to release a new album in less than 4 years. I'm glad you made it... and even more if we consider the "First River Regards" EP. Besides, you left Firebox for our french metal label Season Of Mist. A lot of things seem to have changed so how spent these last 2 years for the band?

AA: Hello again! And thanks for your words; we indeed could make it in a reasonable time now! As I think I told you in the last interview, the main reason behind the 4 year period between the first two albums was because our former keyboardist/vocalist left the band. Yes, some things have changed... We left Firebox not because we were unpleased there but because our deal with them consisted of two albums. We had and have a very good relationship with them and the time we were part of the label things worked smoothly, but when the deal ended, you have to take opportunities, so we considered it was a right time to aim at bigger opportunities in terms of promotion, distribution and reaching more people and, why not, trying with a label like Season of Mist. Things have worked very well with them so far. But apart from the label shift as the major change for the band in the last years, I would say that other things are still quite the same as always. Main driver behind our band is the same as always; honestly and genuinely expressing what we need and want to express in order to fulfil a natural need of communicating, creating and expressing what you feel, and I think that as long as that stays that way, there will always be continuity in whatever we want to say, regardless of the form and of course keeping value judgment aside. Unless we have had a significant and extreme change in that point of view of course, but that hasn't changed.


2. "Draining The Waterheart" was a critical success and it was really deserved. Did you see your public growing with this second album?

RG: Ah cool! Thanks for your kind words. Mmm I could say yes, but we can't really appreciate it. I mean, here, in far far away lands that is Chile, is difficult to appreciate it well. You know, living here we aren't part24/7hr of the metal circles, and even when it was possible to read a tons of good comments and articles, or be in contact with fans via email, even with all that it is difficult for us to have a real view about all it. Because in Chile we are not getting the face to face, or real, feedback that is possible doing gigs or touring in Europe. Of course, we know that past album sold better than the previous one, media and fans interest is increasing, for response for our last tour in Europe was really good, and for some of this good reason now we are working with major companies such as Season of Mist I think. That is a good one, because main idea for us about work with labels is try to show our music to more and more people.
But it's a strange feeling for us. The situation looks as when your friends tell to you about something very good, in a situation that we can't check and prove how real it is Haha.
Well, we will see for our upcoming tour in Europe. We can't wait


3. Before talking about the new album, just a few words about the "First River Regards" EP: how did you think about releasing your first demo? Was it a request of your fans or just a personal wish?

RG: Both. Many fans were requesting this stuff since many years, the older fans in special. This stuff never had kind of distribution or something similar, in fact, it was never officially released for sale on the stores, just for sale some handmade copies in gigs and for promoting our music to some labels in those times. This release includes our only demo. I mean, it is the only recording from the first times of the band, it was a live/rehearsal recording and catched our most pure and natural essence as musicians in those days... and it includes a special band appearance in Europe for the Doom Shall Rise Festival (Göppingen, Germany, 2005), with real stage sound/images. Nothing about these fake “live” albums that big bands are releasing in these times... In some way we had the debt, a case pending, with our older fans, and a similar situation inside the band for release it in a proper edition. It was a good idea I think. The eco-packaging gave kind of a collection stuff aura, and it is a good way to tell the new fans about how the band started.




4. For those who don't know yet, your new album "Streams Inwards" is available since August 30th on Season Of Mist and I must admit that even if I really enjoyed it, I were very surprised by some of its elements. I might be wrong, but I felt a galactic atmosphere in it, like a journey through the universe, very different from "Draining The Waterheart". At first, could you tell us more about the concept of this album?

AA: Yes, maybe. There is indeed a common idea between the conceptual part of the overall album and specifically in the lyrics that has relation with galactic or cosmic issues, but in a metaphoric way to refer to emotion as the main connection and language of the self with the universe and everything around. Having in mind that emotion is the immediate response to environmental stimuli; it is what determines human motivation, behaviour and “movement”, regardless of the type of emotion. So, in that regard, emotion streams, just as heat or forces at a cosmic level, as a result of the manifestation of consciousness of the universe. I think all streams; all movement universe's creation. Human life is another stream, guided by emotion. Emotion streams the human stream, sort to speak, because emotion is what determines human behaviour, or human movement, from the mentioned perspective. So the name Streams Inwards refers to these processes, coated with metaphors that in many cases inevitably resulted in “cosmic” topics due to what I tell you. Therefore, the use of this kind of topics lies in another level of an aligned hierarchy; the human level and emotion. In other words, I believe emotions are the most real manifestation of the self as part of a whole, a whole that is just as alive as we are, being the planet, and the universe. Man seeks to feel, whatever the kind of feeling or emotion may be. Thinking is a channel that always ends in emotion and not vice versa, although emotion indeed is what also gives birth at the same time to thought, but always “ending” on another emotion, so I think emotion is what always determines thought, irrespective of the direction and the step of the process; it is just as real as rationality is in a world where that rationality is overrated. So, the streams inwards to which the title refers carry everything that we are, they give form to our inner worlds and at the same time they model our need to express, communicate and create.


5. The artwork is very strange but very close to the atmosphere of the album at the same time, a vortex imagined by Kubrick, deep and psychedelic. Who designed it and how do you interpret it?

AA: Yes, maybe! Like the sober side of those colourful cosmic vortexes just before the final scene of 2001: A Space Odyssey! The artwork is always intended to stay aligned with all the concepts that we find are present behind the title and/or lyrics; specific to this album, to the concepts and ideas mentioned before. It was done by Jérôme Cros, who did a nice work and understood the idea I think, idea that relates to the intention of, the rational attempt of, providing a fully consistent package in terms of the message to all human senses. Weather we achieved that or not is another subject…haha…and of course listener/seer could reach a much more accurate appreciation regarding that. I think interpretation is at least equally accurate against the “official” story when it comes from the receiver of the “message” when speaking about music and art. So my own story to interpret the cover and the album title, the one mentioned in above “speaks”, never before.


6. Musically, the first part of this new album show a new Mar de Grises, less atmospheric, more melodic and more aggressive, a compact and heavy doom/death. I know it's not easy to analyse its own music, but did you feel your music that way?

RM: Yes I guess we visualize it like that. It is a variation we had to do, as you say we always have been more ethereal in our approach, on the other side I believe there is an unconscious change, we needed to communicate things in a different way this time, our lives change and with this our emotions. Maybe there is not a “law” that we had for this time, the melodies, textures and concept of aggression are created and worked freely according to what our hearts tell us, maybe the best answer for this question is more emotional than intellectual.



7. While listening to these new compositions, it made me think about a few bands of the doom/death elite like Slumber, Swallow The Sun or Daylight Dies. For "Streams Inwards", were you influenced by some bands you discovered recently or by your long time favourites'?

RG: Mmm not really. We know them, and I have liked those bands since many years, in a personal opinion. But those bands, or others with a similar sound, are not a big influence in our compositions, I think.
I could affirm that our sound depends more on an internal process and thinking than our personal preferences or favourite bands. I mean, for each album and compositions, sounds depends more on our mind states, emotions, feelings, in order to construct a sonorous story than our musical influences. In Mar de Grises composing is not only about handful of sounds, we are always trying to represent our emotions creating something coherent or consistent in a story format. That is the main reason for including musical elements from many different musical styles, including different structures and musical arrangements for each song. I can recognize that for “Streams Inwards” sound is more clear, a bit less oppressive maybe, more experimental and melodic in some way maybe too... but main reason is always to to represent our actual state minds and emotions, and each song still has a special different characteristic between each other. If you can find some similarities this are about some specific moments of the album, or some specific song. Mmm ...probably on the past everything was darker, and in a introspective mode, because our life moments. Today we can see some lights at the end of the path, and that is giving us some more typical elements in a form of a more usual “musical” language, I think.


8. The second part of the album (from "Catatonic North") is different from the first one. You leave your doom/death for a more atmospheric style, with a few experimentations ("Knotted Delirium") and even a bonus track of deep space roaming, "Aphelion Aura". What is the meaning of this second part? Does it represent an important side of your music you want to explore?

RM: Yes sure, I guess we have become like a two-sided band because we like that straight, powerful songs but on the album it seems that this and the avant side are more separated. To clarify this I must repeat that we work more on a emotional process so the results are never too over-thinked and actually we are not very conscious of the true meaning of this.
On Knotted Delirium maybe we applied the most experimental process on the songwriting because there´s a lot of improvisation and an instinctive approach on the decisions, this is one of the more “free” creations that we have done.
On Aphelion Aura we wanted to extend the aesthetic that Mar de Grises can give, a new total approach and with the phenomenal work that Natalia Suazo did on the vocals, something new to us and to the rest.


9. Were there a change into the writing process that made this album a bit different from the previous one? Who participate to its composition?

RM: Maybe it isn't too different from the previous album, me (R. Morris) and Juan compose the music and then we work with the band on the arrangement and lyrics for the most of the songs. If you feel it different from the previous album is because our lives are different, and obviously we don't apply the same rules when creating, we are constantly trying to add something new to our line of composing, with the next albumIi believe it is going to happen the same.


10. On this new album, we can also hear more clean vocals, better than what we could hear on "Draining The Waterheart". Is it something you always wanted to develop on your music? Did Juan work hard to improve its skills?

RM: For this album the use of clean vocals came very naturally, clearly Juan has improved a lot in his vocal skills and he did a great work on this album, the guy is a good musician and we all work to improve our skills. It is a very pleasant thing to hear good clean vocals on this time and I believe we will continue to use this feature for the future.


11. One of the major critics of "Draining The Waterheart" I made two years ago was the sound, a bit confused compared to what we can hear nowadays. The production of "Streams Inwards" is much better, clearer and more powerful. Who worked on it with you?

RM: This time we worked on the recording and mixing of the album with the help of Igor Leiva (Poema Arcanus) and Gerardo Hormazabal. And we agree, this time we got a much better sounding album, we had more control on the aesthetic on the timbre and mixing so it is closer to what we really want to accomplish in a production. This is because we worked with people who are familiar with the style and closer to the band and we participated on the decisions of the mix and mastering.


12. Is there a tour planned to promote this new album? Maybe with Season Of Mist, you will come to see us in France?

AA: Yes there is! We are going on tour on December this year along with Swallow the Sun and Solstafir. Nice opportunity. It would be our third tour across Europe and hopefully the first of many more. We are looking forward to it. Swallow the Sun is a great band and I didn't know Solstafir until a couple of months ago and I think they make a really interesting and bizarre mixture in their music. Very nice. And well France will of course be part of the tour. The French dates are Dec 11 in Marseille, Dec 17 in Nantes and Dec 18 in Paris, so hope to see you there!


13. What are you listening to these days? Any good things to share with our readers?

RG: Nothing really new or special I think. Right now I'm listening to the new Enslaved album. Everybody knows them probably... I really like their last releases. It is a very nice mixture of epic and progressive metal, and I don't care if they are black or not haha. New Alice in Chains sounds great for me too. I saw them in Glasgow some months ago, and I really can't stop listening to that album. The same about the American The Dillinger Escape Plan, and Converge... but about something more under related, on last weeks my stereo included the new funeral opus of Shape of Despair, the pagan stuff of Drudkh, new Torche (USA), Solstafir discography (fucking killer stuff!), Ghost Brigade, last cds of my compatriots Poema Arcanvs (high quality progressive doom death), Neurosis, Alcest, and well some non metal stuff like Massive Attack, David Gilmore, Ulver, and pop music haha 


14. Thank you for answering my questions and I really hope we won't wait 4 years for the next album ;) The last words are yours.

AA: Haha, no we definitely won't take four years again! Well thanks to you for your support and for giving us the opportunity to be part of your website for the second time. Thanks to all the French fans and to everyone who someway feels interested or connected to our music and for reading these words. We really hope to exchange feelings and with you in our shows in the upcoming tour. Au revoir!