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INTERVIEWS - 'ETHEREAL VOICES' MAIN MENU
NERVECELL INTERVIEW - by Fonda
(All answers by Barney Ribeiro and Rami Mustafa)
"A-C-Z" - Hellish greetings Nervecell, So what’s keeping your nights busy? It seems you’ve been busy promoting and touring the world. How were you able to get such great acts in various Metal Festivals?
BARNEY: - Lately we have been extremely busy trying to promote our new album Preaching Venom, in fact we are glad that the album has actually come out finally and we have been getting some killer reviews lately which is really cool. ....
I guess most of the shows that we did already play in and around ....Dubai.... were mainly cause the guys and myself wanted to go out and play to different audiences and really put us to the test of playing night after night no matter where in the world our music can take us. So far so good though, we are currently working on sorting out a tour in 2009 to support the new album and we can’t wait to play our asses off!....
RAMI: - Promoting the album is going well. Last year we toured a lot, and this year (2008) we played more local shows than ever before, as we got busy recording the album and couldn’t really travel much. We released “Preaching Vemon” in April 2008 in the Middle East and ..North Africa.. region. We do our own distribution and promotion for the rest of the world so that’s pretty much fun! We recently just signed a management deal this year both for band management and international bookings for shows and we’re pretty excited to see how things will go.....
"A-C-Z" - Starting as a band, was it hard to promote your music here in UAE? What are the hardships you went thru in order to be recognize across the globe? Did you take it as a challenge when you are being introduced as a band from the ..Middle East..?
BARNEY: - It was more than just hard for us, I mean when we started off it was back in 2000 and back then there was no market out here for metal, CD’s were not available legally and the media would never cover any of the local gigs that used to go on, in any case though we still kept going on and played any damn show we got cause we just really wanted to showcase our music to the fans who share the same interest in metal and playing live was the only way to do that and still remains to be the best thrill ever for us. Ever since Desert Rock though, things started to change in ....Dubai..... Nervecell was known in the underground scene for our endless gigging and when we got selected to play a slot at the 2005 Desert Rock Festival along with Sepultura and Machine Head, people were not only excited to see us on a large scale event/ stage but the fans including us couldn’t even believe this was happening! It was such a relief to see metal music becoming a norm and we are glad that we were a part of that rise…....
We love the fact that people are clueless of what to expect from us when they hear of us as a band from the ..Middle East.., it’s not a challenge at all actually. In fact it gets us even more excited to show them we are just as fuckin metal as any other band out there and representing the ..Middle East.. is a bonus!....
"A-C-Z" - By the way, are you all Emiratis (UAE Nationalities)? Any day jobs or something? What do you usually do when you are not busy with the band?
BARNEY: - Matter of fact none of us are Emirati, Rami is Jordanian, James is half Lebanese/ Syrian and I am half Indian/ Portugese.....
I actually do work a fulltime job (9am to 6pm) 5 days a week in Media and yes it is tuff indeed to have a full time band as well, but hey if there is a will there is a way right…....
When not with the band, it’s either hanging out with my girlfriend, the gym or getting some serious sleep…lol.....
RAMI: - I’m Jordanian, I just finished my post graduate studies (MBA) in June 2008, and I’m not working any full time job yet as I’ve been busy with the band. When I’m free I’m usually hanging out, jamming or doing something band/music related (band work never stops haha).....
"A-C-Z" - In comparison to your “Human Chaos” & “Preaching Venom” album, what are the technicalities that had change? Did you maintain the death metal in it or did the music evolve as well? (Sorry, haven’t check out your 2nd album)
RAMI: - There’s a huge difference between both albums in my opinion both technically and musically, but I would say the sound is still Nervecell. We definitely matured as musicians between the 2 albums (4 years in between), as “Human Chaos” was a sort of a “discovery” for us, or a start lets say, we where looking for our sound. There were a lot of things that we wanted to do but couldn’t really do due to time and technical constraints. First of all we had lots of drummer problems in the past, where we didn’t really have our own drummer, so that did play a role in having some limitations with the drums, so we had to sacrifice a lot during the writing process. “Preaching Venom” is very different than “Human Chaos” but I still think our main style hasn’t changed much, just matured. We took our time writing the new album, in fact I recorded demos for all the songs (drums + guitars) which weren’t the case with “Human Chaos”, just so we can have a clear idea of the direction of the songs and work around them. A lot of challenges for sure, and the results turned out amazing. We planned to record the album in Dubai, the drums with Dave Haley of Psycroptic in Australia, who definitely gave us a lot on the drums, mixed the album in Poland with the Wieslawscy Bros. (Decapitated, Vader) as we loved their previous work giving a great mix and punch to our sound, and I have been always a fan of Alan Douches’ mastering so we got the album mastered by him. Going back and forth with everyone to make sure things are working on schedule was a lot of work for sure. With all the technical efforts put into “Preaching Venom”, I would say the songs are way more diverse, more brutal, with lots of awesome old school death metal elements mixed with new school death metal, melodic, thrashy with lots of groove!...
"A-C-Z" - I notice that there are lots of rock bands here in UAE but not in the genre of metal, grindcore, crust punk, etc. How about you guys, what can you say about the metal scene her in UAE? What do you think is the advantage/uniqueness of M.E. bands from ..USA.., ..Europe.. or Asian bands?
BARNEY: - Unfortunately there is no metal scene here, a lot of people seem to think that for some reason simply because playing in a metal band seems to be the trendy thing lately apparently! The UAE scene in fact today consists of a very diverse scene, we have bands playing all sorts of different genres out here and to be honest I’d rather see that than a bunch of bad metal bands giving the wrong impression about metal music.....
RAMI: - From what I see around me there are a few metal bands that are doing something positive with their music, but on the other hand there’s a lot of posers out there who just wanna do it for the fuck of it and not take it seriously and that pisses me off haha. But again can’t blame those kids who just wanna have fun right? Some bands grow older and stop while others continue and that’s where the poser is differentiated from the real metal fan / musician. Other bands don’t even play metal and continue with what they are doing, and that’s fine, as long as it’s from the heart really! The uniqueness basically comes from the challenge of living in areas in the Middle East where metal is so underground or so unaccepted, just like in our case, there’s not metal scene here in the UAE/Dubai, and to have the energy and passion to write your own metal tunes, that’s challenging!....
"A-C-Z" - Can you give us some productive comments regarding death metal and black metal division? Is the whole segregation productive? Why?
BARNEY: - Well a lot of the black metal bands started playing “black metal” only because they wanted to be different and piss off or scare the death metal bands who were at the time running the scene. I actually like quite a lot of black metal bands myself but it pisses me off when they come across like their all fucking kvult and evil when they actually still live with their mums! ....
I prefer death metal because there is no stage antics or costumes/ make up to go along with it, its just straight up pure aggression with some serious shredding and groove, don’t get me wrong I actually do use a lot of black metal technique in my guitar playing style too…basically long story short black metal would not be anything today if it wasn’t for the church burnings in Norway and the douchebag who blew up his band mates head open and decided to feel hungry while he was at it too…yeah who know who I’m referring to…Fuck it, I said that shit…lol....
RAMI: - In my opinion and as a fan of both genres (black metal to an extent haha), I think death metal is taking the world by storm! Death metal bands are getting better and better, with lots of great bands coming out making the scene stronger and the music itself more challenging and exciting. Its also great to see the kids nowadays understanding what death metal is about, compared to the past where many never knew the difference between death metal and Slipknot haha, but its cool now as I’m seeing kids as young as 13 or 14 and they are fully into Cannibal Corpse, Deicide, Death etc. and that proves a lot. Black metal is black metal, I like some black metal stuff and think the genre has a strong following just like death metal, but black metal will never evolve, maybe bands will find different gimmicks or the music will get washed out (Cradle Of Flith, Satyricon, etc.) and that’s how they gain mass appeal. I hate gimmicks, but you can’t go wrong with good bands (even though they wear stupid corpse paint on their faces) such as Marduk, Mayhem, Dark Funeral etc. as their music is pretty powerful and unique and they’ll always be strong in the scene.....
"A-C-Z" - Just curious, are you a “pay to play” band? Are you hoping to be featured on Mtv? What’s your point of view about UG and Mainstream?
BARNEY: - Until recently yes we are a pay to play band, I can bitch to you about all the sacrifices and debt we have been through too over the years but I’ll spare you and this interview the trouble. The whole MTV thing is not a priority at all...today bands like Nile and Suffocation are seen on MTV and a lot of metal heads took offence to that, I say that’s retarded because by having such extreme bands on MTV it only shows that today metal is everywhere and its continuing to grow whether you like it or not, that’s fucking awesome!!!...
RAMI: - Balancing out with both the underground and the mainstream is the way to go, now I don’t mean “mainstream” as selling out musically, but I mean to promote and market your music in different channels. I mean staying in the underground can do bands harm because that’s what happens to bands with good music who are never known until today, simply because they don’t wanna leave their basement or sell records at gigs. At the same time, you don’t have to win an award on MTV and sell out to be the band you always wanted.
"A-C-Z" - You also been featured by Sam Dunn’s upcoming “Global Metal”, I have his “Metal: a headbanger’s journey” dvd, and for me, I don’t actually agree with some of it, hehe. Anyways, where was the interview held? How did you meet him?
BARNEY: - haha… if you watch Global Metal closely you will see parts of Sam in Dubai in a car, that’s basically me driving him around in my car showing him around at the same time trying to find a nice spot where we could conduct our interview. Anyway long story short we ended up in some open air place where you could see the Dubai skyline in the background (which is what he wanted), it was around Nad Al Sheba to be precise…How we met was simple, he contacted us through our website and we exchanged numbers and kept in touch since, He’s definitely someone who will always be remembered to metal heads the world over.....
RAMI: - Sam and his crew were super cool with us and showed great interest in Nervecell. I really liked Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey and I’m sure Global Metal will kick ass! Its great to see someone like Sam work really hard not only to show the world what metal music is all about, but also educate many people about the different sub-genres in metal.....
"A-C-Z" - I saw your pix along with Dying Fetus, Sepultura, Testament, Suffocation, etc and that’s great. Of all the bandz you shared the stage with, which one totally made an impact for your band?
BARNEY: - Gosh man that’s a tuff one! I really don’t know…there are soo many out there, I guess seeing Sepultura live on TV when I was only like 12 pretty much changed my life and then 10 years later getting to share the stage with those dudes was the peak of my life man, that was way more than just an impact for me!....
RAMI: - That’s the beauty of traveling, playing festivals with bands that influenced you…that’s where you can meet them all! Haha. Sepultura, Machine Head, Testament…those are the bands that I grew up listening to and was a pleasure meeting them by person and to hang out with them....
"A-C-Z" - About the Slovenia Metal Camp, how was the experience playing with great metal bandz across the globe? What can you say about the metal scene in ....Egypt....?
BARNEY: - Metalcamp was easily the best festival Nervecell has played ever, truly paradise which made us feel just at home. Nothing like 5 days of fresh air, the beach and metal music non stop! I recommend it to anyone. I think we met like 20 + bands that we were huge fans of during our stay there, pretty much any metal heads dream holiday for sure.....
to see it, definitely an energetic crowd to play too, we have a lot of fans there and Nervecell would play there again anytime.....
"A-C-Z" - Rather than asking your metal influences, what various music you guys listen to besides metal music? Fine, I would also like to ask your current metal band you are listening to nowadays.
BARNEY: - Currently I’m hooked onto the new Aborted, Krisiun, Hate, and Neuraxis records…got those mofo’s spinning in my car stereo on my way to work and back.....
Its good to keep you awake during ....Dubai.... traffic too!....
RAMI: - You know I wouldn’t be listening to anything else other than metal huh?! Haha. My current playlist is the new Unearth, Iced Earth and a compilation CD I received with my latest Terrorizer magazine!...
"A-C-Z" - You guys are Muslims right? What can you say about the conflict between religion and metal? Do you believe that religion is the major cause of war?
BARNEY: - I’m actually Roman Catholic, James and Rami are Muslims.....
Religion is a way/ path to living ones life under certain beliefs.....
Metal is life.....
Religion is sacred and therefore to say it causes war is stupidity…It’s the jealousy, envy and hatred in us humans that causes war and that’s what our song Human Chaos is all about.....
RAMI: - Yes I’m Muslim and I think metal, wars or anything else shouldn’t come in between religion. My religion is my relationship with God and to have good deeds in my life, and if anything else interfere then that’s wrong. No I don’t believe that religion is the major cause of war, I believe war is there even before any religion. It’s all political.....
"A-C-Z" - Enough said, thanx for your time and sorry for the delay of this shit. So what do you want to say to all Nervecell supporters and NBzine readers who doesn't have a freaking clue about your band? This is your last shoutout guys, ahehe.
BARNEY: - Well first of all if you happen to read this far into the interview you probably like us by now…haha, so thank you for your time first off. ....
We would obviously like to that NBzine for doing such a spectacular job at this and giving independent bands a chance to explain themselves beyond the music and the stereotypes that surround us metal heads. ....
All I can say is to all the Nervecell fans who have heard our stuff, bought our stuff and most importantly believe in us and our music I would just like to say thank you for all your Support and good wishes, we truly appreciate your endless support and we cant wait to fuckin see you all no matter where we play in the near future.....
Stay METAL!....
RAMI: - Thanks a lot for your time NBzine and for the awesome questions! I personally would like to thank you (the reader) too for giving us the chance and of course you can’t really have a full picture of Nervecell yet if haven’t you heard us, so feel free to check our music out on www.nervecell.net or www.myspace.com/nervecell.
Support Nervecell if you like what you hear and buy the new album “Preaching Venom” which is available everywhere online (CM Distro, CD Baby, Amazon.com, iTunes and more). We’d also love to hear your feedback so make sure to drop us a line if you like what you hear! Keep checking our live dates, we might be coming to your country pretty soon!....
Horns up! Cheers and beers!
Band Website: www.nervecell.net & www.myspace.com/nervecell
Band Email: info@nervecell.net
Discography: Human Chaos (2004) & Preaching Venom (2008)
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