Aeternam
Middle Eastern influences in metal? It’s sounds odd, especially mixing a culture that isn’t too fond of (death) metal, but Aeternam are making it work for them. I recently caught up with guitarist/singer, Ashraf Loudiy, to speak about the band’s beginnings and their new album, Disciples of the Unseen.
André Monnéy: For the record, introduce yourself and what you do in the band.
Ashraf Loudiy: I’m Ashraf Loudiy, guitarist and main singer of Aeternam.
AM: To start things off on a random note, who do you think would have a more brutal band Whoopi Goldberg or Rosie O’Donnell?
AL: Haha, actually I think Whoopi got kind of a Chris Barns look! ;) Since Oprah is not a choice I think I will vote for brutal Whoopi!
AM:How did Aeternam get its start?
AL: Antoine and Alex did play music together in one or two bands for fun, but things got more serious when I moved to Canada. I met Antoine in college where he was studying jazz drums. Antoine was impressed by my guitar playing and I was impressed by his drumming. After writing a bunch of songs together, we started to look for any other musicians interested in playing metal with us. Remy Duval, a friend of ours, joined as a bass player and Samuel Dubois as a keyboard player. But, one member was missing… a horny belly dancer! BUT, since there were none available, we finally decided on a second guitar player…
We started jamming some retarded power metal songs; however, the more we wrote songs, the more aggressive they became. I went back to Morocco for the summer holidays, and started working on some songs for my previous thrash metal band Imperium. That’s when I came up with “Circle in Flames,” which actually made it on Disciples of the Unseen. Since I couldn’t continue with Imperium, because of my studies in Canada, I presented “Circle in Flames” to Aeternam. Even though it was not really the exact style of metal we intended to play, it was still a step in the right direction. That’s basically how we decided that we wanted to play melodic death metal with oriental feels. We started writing in this direction and testing songs in live settings.
AM: How did the signing to Metal Blade Records come about?
AL: Two days after we had the final master of Disciples of the Unseen, we uploaded some of our songs on MySpace. We got some great reviews on local metal websites and that impressed some of the Metal Blade guys. They loved the songs, the band’s look, the MySpace design etc. etc. and they were interested in signing us. It’s a great opportunity for us to sign on a major label like Metal Blade Records you know. It’s not something easy to achieve for metal musicians nowadays. I’m very happy when I write new music today because I know that my band’s music and message will be known worldwide. ;) That’s really amazing.
AM: You guys are getting ready to release Disciples of the Unseen. How was the writing and recording process for the record?
AL: As I told you, the main challenge was to find our proper style. We wrote just under 30 songs before we chose the best of them that made it on Disciples of the Unseen. Writing this album was like doing chemistry. We had to put the right dosage and try to bring out the best out of every influence that we had. As we are influenced by all the metal arborescence since the early Black Sabbath and also a lot of oriental stuff, it was not easy to make a homogeneous album. The recording process was very rewarding for us individually as musicians. It was our first experience in the studio and our producer was aware of that. He helped us as much as he could and he did a great job. We really enjoyed working with Jef Fortin and our daily routine was amusing: good food, recording all the day, drinking beer…
AM: Considering you guys are from Canada, where did the Middle Eastern influences on the record come from?
AL: I’m originating from Morocco and I moved to Canada in 2007. I brought this influence with me from a country that is rich in culture and music. The atmosphere of the place you live in will have a lot of influence on your perception of sounds and beats. Even lyrically, I was influenced by my life before I came to Canada. Being a diehard metal head in a Muslim country, I needed to express my opinions on religion and social issues. That was the main thing that made me realize this place is not for me anymore. However, the oriental sonorities and the Arab culture are part of my blood, even if I live in Canada. It is something that is inside of me and that comes out quite naturally. My band mates really got into these influences and that is how they were exploited to develop what is now our sound and style.
AM: Do you have a video coming out for any of the songs on this new record?
AL: We would love to make one for Disciples of the Unseen, but there is no opportunity for us to do it at the moment. We don’t want to make a shitty amateur video; we will wait until we can do it properly. We are looking for a specific style and image that would require a lot of work and I’m sure that the results are going to be great once we get the opportunity to do it.
AM: You guys are a really new band. Do you feel like you still have a lot to learn with this new album, “Disciples of the Unseen,” and the upcoming year?
AL: Yes, we need to know how things work, especially with touring. We are young musicians and we never expected what’s happening to us right now. We want to do our best and promote our album as much as we can, while being realistic. Also, our main goal for 2010 is to continue writing new music and learn to develop as musicians. We are lucky enough to have people helping us out and we really are learning from their experience. That has been our attitude since day one you know? We don’t take what we have for granted and we don’t even take what we’ve accomplished for granted. The day we start to believe that we know everything is the day that we peak. We obviously don’t want that!
AM: There are a few shows on your Myspace. What are the plans for upcoming tours?
AL: Yes, we are going to do a few shows in Canada as we can’t tour extensively for the moment. We are going to support the album in Canada as much as we can but we will be ready to hit the road right at the beginning of the summer. We still need to find good help for our booking as we are still very green, as they say. The word is out now, we’re fresh out with a debut album and we can’t wait to play it live…A LOT!
AM: Is there anything else you’d like to leave your readers and our fans with?
AL: Stay tuned for news to come on Aeternam.ca and look for your copy of Disciples of the Unseen. Cheers!