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Blood Ceremony
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Tell us something about the beginning of the band: when does it start, previous bands of the members, etc.
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Blood Ceremony began after the demise of an earlier group that never even left our practice space. We took another stab at creating heavy doom rock when Alia joined Jer (our original drummer), Chris and me in my basement for some jam sessions. We liked the result enough to stick to it and eventually started playing gigs in our hometown, Toronto. Alia is currently studying music in the US and had performed before in a number of jazz and experimental line-ups in the city. Chris and I weren’t in any bands before and basically learned to play guitar by listening to Zeppelin albums! In Blood Ceremony, Alia ended up singing and playing keys as well as the flute, so I think we’ve made good use of her talents.
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You make a kind of music based on some quite clear references, but I believe that in the end you got a very personal sound... what do you think?
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Thank you! I like to think that that beyond the obvious references to Black Sabbath and Jethro Tull in our music, there is a personal sound we add to the mix as well. Our intention has always been to balance doom and heavy rock with the early prog sounds that you hear in Black Widow and Tull records. While making the album, and we were jamming a lot as a band, I think that the sound of Blood Ceremony started to emerge as well and can be heard in songs like “The Rare Lord” and “A Wine of Wizardy” where there is a downer sense of melancholy doom, but with a bit of a ‘Scarborough Fair’ quality.
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Most of the bands in the doom-rock style usually rely on "sheer heaviness", but you seem to prefer the classic roots of these sounds: Black Sabbath, Pentagram, Black Widow... do you feel like the "weird guys" in the doom scene?
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I think that many of the bands in the doom scene probably dig all of the bands you’ve mentioned just as much as traditional ‘80s doom like Vitus and Candlemass so there’s a lot of agreement on that type of music. Besides, there are a lot of other bands mining the same territory such as Graveyard, Jex Thoth and others who are playing an older style in unique ways.
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I've seen you in some festival lineups between a lot of black and death metal bands. How does the audience of this kind of events react to your music?
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The reaction has been positive; and we’ve made some good friends playing with metal bands in our city. What we play is certainly not as sonically dissonant as BM or Thrash metal, but there’s a lot of common ground nonetheless. Also, we’re metal fans as well, so it’s the kind of show we enjoy playing.
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How was your record received by both public and media?
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The people we met while on tour in Europe were enthusiastic about the BC record - we met tons of cool folks who enjoyed the tunes and this makes us look forward to releasing another one. The reviews I’ve read have been mostly positive and encouraging. It’s an honour when people take the time to listen to your music and when they care enough to want to hear more.
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Maybe the inclusion of Alia O'Brien and her flute has been a key point... nobody could expect a rebirth of folk rock in the middle of the doom scene!
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Alia’s flute is a major, if not central, part of our sound. It’s uncommon with rock bands today to have such an active flute player, but in the early ‘70s it was quite common. It allows us to indulge in some folk sounds, and it also works with the heavier, Sabbath-sounding riffs too. We’re fans of the Canterbury prog sound and early ‘70s British folk music equally, so we try to fit echoes of that music into our songs where we can.
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After started to being known worldwide via MySpace how does a nice label like Rise Above gets in touch with you?
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We played a music showcase in New York where we met Lee Dorrian and we decided to release our album with Rise Above. We like the direction the label is taking into prog and early psych sounds, as well as the classic metal bands they have as well. Electric Wizard has always been a favourite and influential band for us, so the move made a lot of sense.
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On Rise Above there is also a great band: Witchcraft... I think you bear some stylistic resemblance with them... what do you think of that band? Do you have plans of touring together?
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We like Witchcraft a lot. We like their classic sound. Where other bands were turning up, Witchcraft were rolling back the distortion a bit and writing great songs. We met them in New York where they headlined the CMJ showcase, where we also got to see Danava, an excellent American band, play. There are no plans to tour together, but anything’s possible, I guess.
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It looks like you give a lot of importance to the staging of your shows... what kind of "paraphernalia" do you use to give power to the band's image?
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We just like to come on strong when we play. We usually use a fog machine to lend a bit of atmosphere and we also try and incorporate movie projections when we can because it adds a bit extra to the performance. We like it to be an experience when we play as opposed to just a live gig.
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When are you planning to tour Europe (and Spain)?
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We recently completed a European tour with Electric Wizard, which unfortunately, didn’t have a stop in Spain. The Wizard is crushing live – so heavy! It was a great experience – and we hope to return for more shows in the near future.
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Your lyrics deal with horror and fantasy themes. Are you all fans of these genres as fiction or do you really like occultism and things like that?
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I think all of us in the band have varied interest in mystical subjects. Personally, I don’t draw a clear distinction between fantasy and the occult. The occult world is one of secret histories, collective imagination, codes, performance and ritual – and much of this is powered by the imagination.
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Your name comes from the title of a 1973 Spanish movie by Jorge Grau...besides that, in the liner notes of the record, Jess Franco is mentioned...
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I could go on all day about how incredible Spanish horror filmmaking is… even today! From the seventies, we of course like the Blind Dead series, Naschy movies like Horror Rises from the Tomb, as well as paranoid, oddball movies like The Bell from Hell. Jess Franco is a favourite – although he struggled a lot with his budgets and most of his movies are heavily flawed, there are scenes in his films that are completely inspired. Jess Franco is a madman. Master of Confusion, our album opening track, was inspired by Franco’s Erotic Rites of Frankenstein. Although it’s a goofy movie, there are some stunning visuals and killer atmosphere throughout the film.
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What can you tell us about the process of recording the album, did you use vintage equipment? Have you recorded all analog?
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The record wasn’t recorded all analog – that just wasn’t in our budget at the time, nor was it within our resources. Before we became involved with Rise Above, I was financing the album recording on my own, and we recorded it in two days, with some mixing done afterwards. We used all analog effects and vintage amplifiers and microphones to get the sounds we were after.
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Among others, you have had Billy Anderson to work on the album...
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Billy Anderson pretty much saved the record. We didn’t work directly with Billy. The album was recorded where we live in Toronto by Pete Hudson with assistance from Christopher Sandes. It was mixed and mastered by Billy, and we spoke to him on the phone a few times about how we’d like it to sound. I think he did a great job with the material. He gave it much more presence than the recording initially had, and also made it a lot heavier sounding without sacrificing the ‘Scarborough Fair’ quality of tracks like ‘A Wine of Wizardry.’ We all love his work with Sleep and Melvins among others, so it was an honour to have him work on our record.
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You album has been released in vinyl, what do you think of the revival of this format in the music business?
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I listen to music on both CD and vinyl, but there’s something about the analog format that is more magical. LPs have unbroken grooves that mimic natural sound waves – there is a magical component to the way you experience and LP that you don’t get with the sterile reproduction of sound on a CD. Aside from the warmer, more natural sound you get larger album artwork with an LP. I’m glad more people are buying and collecting them.
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How do you face the writing process in the band?
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Generally, I come up with the songs and bring them to practice. Often, I’ll just write out a few lyrics for Alia to sing at the time, and then re-work them later. Usually, I’d write the basic song structure on guitar as well as the flute melodies – they would originally be written on the guitar. Alia would come up with all of the faster flute solos that provide the more Tull-influenced moments and organ flourishes on the album. We’d always record the new songs and I’d listen to them and try to imagine how they could be better. Everyone came up with some cool ideas and by the time we had recorded them, we new how we liked them best.
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Are you working on new stuff? When will we see a new Blood Ceremony album?
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There are already a number of new songs written for the next album. Currently, we’re waiting for Alia to return from the US, where she’s studying music. We’ll be ready to record by late summer. We’re aiming for more progressive songs - heavy, but with more light and shade to the overall sound. There will most likely be a European folk track with acoustic guitars and psychedelic fiddle on the new album. But mainly, it will be more heavy riffs and pagan flutes!
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Well, that's all... thank you very much for your time! Anything else you wish to add?
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Yes, thank you very much for the interview. We hope to get back to Europe soon and visit Spain. Hails to everyone who keeps the spirit of psychedelic heavy music alive!
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Interview Antonio Ramírez
Blood Ceremony myspace
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