Just as the french one was still a few years ago, the spanish Stoner/Doom/Sludge scene remains very confidential on the worldwide sphere; who can honestly cite instantaneously more than a couple of Doomed bands coming out from there and worth checking out ? Until a few weeks ago, I could have cited Horn of The Rhino, Lords of Bukkake and Tort, but now I would assuredly add MotherSloth, a great new band from Madrid which you should really give an ear at...Their debut ep "hazy blur of life" is a hard-hitting 4 tracks affair which reveals a solid and effective blend of metallic and southern tinged Stoner/Doom and Sludge. Buzzing and groovy, this is a seriously promising band who can already be ranged in the category of worthy stoner/sludge-drenched Black Sabbath worship !!! Liking this very much and having been told that the guys were already working on new stuff, I thought it would be interesting to know quickly more about them...
- Hi Alvaro and Sloth, first let me thank you for presenting us your band through a few questions ! Well, MOTHERSLOTH formed in 2008 but it took you 4 years to record this debut EP "hazy blur of life"... was this rather long delay essentially due to line-up problems or was it voluntary not to rush things up ?
Alvaro – It’s been four years to work on maturing concepts and search of the ideal components. Right now it’s very hard to find musicians who are willing to get involved in a project, then musicians who like this project and finally, ones who are capable of doing it.
- The previous singer has been dismissed from the band just before entering the studio and replaced by the singer of Stoner band Fungus... why and was it the only solution you had in urgency ? is it temporary or is Fernando now a full member of the band ?
Alvaro - The recording of our EP had been planned for the first months of 2012 and we had to stop the sessions due to differences with our former singer. Shortly after we were lucky to find Fernando available , it seemed almost as predestination !
Sloth - It is curious how things get defined right before recording vocal parts. This has happened to me in previous bands as well. Fernando has worked with the band for some months and helped shaping melodies and structure. We have also been doing fantastic gigs with him. He has open doors in MotherSloth to be a full member of the band.
- So how are the reactions of fans and bloggers about "Hazy blur of life" ? it's only digitally available for the moment but is there a physical release planed for the (near) future ?Alvaro - There has been a very positive and warm welcome from people we have been able to reach. The ones who already knew the band are happy because of the quality of the recording, and the ones who didn’t , seem to be pleased by our choice of songs released
Sloth – Our intention was to publish some of our early material, along with a couple of recent songs, so that people could have a listen to us and get to know what we do. The plan is to record four more songs and see if we can release an album soon. It is now when we are having offers from labels to edit and release physical copies, I guess it’s also a matter of time and exposure.
- Just like the french scene, during long and long years the Spanish Stoner/doom/sludge scene has been pretty confidential (at least from the outside), it now seems to move a bit more... how do you feel this evolution and which bands are worth discovering lately ?
- Just like the french scene, during long and long years the Spanish Stoner/doom/sludge scene has been pretty confidential (at least from the outside), it now seems to move a bit more... how do you feel this evolution and which bands are worth discovering lately ?
Alvaro – The musical quality in a territorry is established by two basic factors, musical tradition and the good luck of getting to know talented bands or artists.
Well, now having been a country with large music tradition it’s a relief that we are being able to remove the linguistic limitations. Now people in Spain listen to music in English, internet has open doors to all kinds of music styles and it’s only the people, the individuals who put or keep barriers up and not listen to it.
Well, now having been a country with large music tradition it’s a relief that we are being able to remove the linguistic limitations. Now people in Spain listen to music in English, internet has open doors to all kinds of music styles and it’s only the people, the individuals who put or keep barriers up and not listen to it.
Bands such as Arenna, Guadalupe Plata, Adrift or Ofunkillo are noticeable examples of capability/quality of this country’s music scene.
Sloth - I just discovered The Shooters , Hela , Chivo and Ynterceptor….Horn Of The Rhino’s last album, Grengus, is a good one, too .
- Vocals by Fernando on the EP are great but in my opinion suffer from a problem of accent... Again like french and people with latin-origins in general , it seems like spanish people aren't really at ease with the english language... what's your opinion on this ?
Alvaro - The problem with Spaniards and English language is easy to notice and at the same time easy to solve, but as always, in this country, tradition stands over any kind of change. It’s a tradition born in the times of the Spanish dictatorship. First, as a method of censorship and then evolved to a kind of art, dubbing all foreign films and programs to Spanish is a practice that is permanent here and has been for many years. This has produced generations of citizens who are not used to any subtitles or foreign accents. Perhaps this can illustrate the problem.
- Vocals by Fernando on the EP are great but in my opinion suffer from a problem of accent... Again like french and people with latin-origins in general , it seems like spanish people aren't really at ease with the english language... what's your opinion on this ?
Alvaro - The problem with Spaniards and English language is easy to notice and at the same time easy to solve, but as always, in this country, tradition stands over any kind of change. It’s a tradition born in the times of the Spanish dictatorship. First, as a method of censorship and then evolved to a kind of art, dubbing all foreign films and programs to Spanish is a practice that is permanent here and has been for many years. This has produced generations of citizens who are not used to any subtitles or foreign accents. Perhaps this can illustrate the problem.
- Do you have gigs planed for the next months ? French band Huata and more recently Verdun toured in Spain but I presume that it's not something that easy and current , even for national bands... ?
Sloth - You’re right, it’s hard for a new band to organise concerts without the promoters help and support. We do have a couple of concerts in our agenda before the summer, but our priority now is to finish working in our new material to publish a second EP this year. We are also busy working with a second guitar player again, our friend Alex Fabián, this will definitely give the band a new edge, we love exploring textures and sounds within our music.
- Your style is a pretty original blend of Stoner, Doom and Sludge with Southern tones, it reminds me Earthride at times ! are those tones an integral part of Mothersloth's sound and who are some of your influences on this precise point ?
Alvaro - Yes, since the moment this concept started going around the head of Sloth, our drummer , most of these tones and melodies were established as you say, as an integral part of our sound. I would cite Black Sabbath as our main influence.
Sloth - We also brought many other influences to our music, and this let the door open for including whatever we enjoyed playing, we really want to express our ideas and feelings in the most open way, without restrictions of musical genres.
Sloth - We also brought many other influences to our music, and this let the door open for including whatever we enjoyed playing, we really want to express our ideas and feelings in the most open way, without restrictions of musical genres.
Lately we have started working in more depth and finishing some songs we had which we wanted to keep as instrumental tunes, when we practice we often are in the middle of long jams that we thought were good starting points for new approaches in our songwriting style, so nowadays we feel we want to go further and stop thinking on songs with typical structures, verse chorus verse solo etc. we take the song and let it go , wherever it takes us and we feel there is a lot of freedom in what we do.
I have been listening to Krakow, YOB, Cathedral, Moho, Pentagram, Spirit Caravan a lot recently.
Álvaro – Thank you for the chance to get close to people , Cheers from Madrid !
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