Sunday, January 31, 2016

Interview with Hordak done by Patrick on 1-31-16

Hello
Here  is  a  new  interview with   Spain's   Hordak  a  band that  plays  Pagan  metal  together   a  very  unique  sound.The  band recently released their  fourth  cd titled  "Padre"  so  if you  are  a  fan  of  well written  and  performed  pagan metal  then  this  is  a  band you  will defintly  want to  hear today.
Regards
Patrick
fiendformetal@live.com





Interview  with   Hordak    done  by   Patrick






1.Hello  when  did you  all  first   meet  each  other? Was  it   long  before   you  formed  the  band  Hordak?  How  did  you  all  choose the  name  Hordak  for the  band name?

Hello there! Here´s Autumn War from Hordak. Winter and me met long before forming Hordak, back in our days of school, so we know each other since we were eight years old more or less. Years later, in 2002, we founded Hordak, when we were seventeen, as a way to explore and develop our musical inquietudes.
Not long after we founded Hordak I met A. Mansilla, for he had a death metal band called Last Deception, together with L. Mansilla and J. Sierra and they needed a guitar player. Few years later they joint Hordak, for we started playing alive. The rest is history.
We chose the name Hordak becaused we liked the name and reminded us of our childhood. Hordak is also the basque for “Hordes”, which is simply amazing.







2.What   is  the  current  line-up  for  the  band? 

The current line-up is formed by:

Autumn War – Vocals, guitars Winter War – Guitars -studio-
A. Mansilla – Guitars
L. Mansilla – Bass guitars
J. Sierra – Drums

We would like to mention that J. Sierra and A. Mansilla are in charge of the recording, mixing and mastering of the albums as sound engineers. So far , they are responsible for “Under The Sign Of The Wilderness” and “Padre”.




3.   Hordak    is  getting  ready  to  release  their  fourth  cd to date  "Padre"   how  long  did  it  take  the  band  to  write  and record  the  music  for this  release?


Concerning the writing, it couldn´t be said how long did exactly take, because there are always some ideas coming and and going, here and there, and sometimes you bring a riff  but it doesn´t work until much later or on the contrary you start writing a song and it´s over by the same day you started with it…Concerning the recording, mixing and mastering, it was a whole different thing because due to our jobs and different personal situations, we recorded during the spring and left the rest for the early autumn…so, about three months I guess for the whole thing.



4.Who  usually  writes  the  lyrics  for the  band what  are  some topics and  subjects the band  writes  about?

It is me, Autumn war, who usually writes the lyrics. The topics I like the most are nature, the Spanish Celtiberian heritage, the cycle of life and death or the eternal turn of the wheel to mention a few. It depends on what music brings to my imagination I write about this or about that. For example, the new album, “Padre”, which is the Spanish for “father”, is dedicated to the sun and every lyric on the album is related to the sun one way or another. The lyric “Father sun – Father Dragon” was written by Lavin Uruksoth from the Cantabrian Pagan Metal band Crystalmoors. He is a good friend of the band and a fantastic singer. He also recorded the vocals for that track and we think that the final result is killer.




5.As  mentioned Padre  is  Hordak's  fourth  release  how  do you  feel  Hordak's  music  has  changed and evolved  over the  years?

It has evolved naturally to a more mature sound and a more elaborated music but the essence is all the same. I guess it is the same with us, as the time passes by, we change and grow up, but in many ways or in the essence, we are the same so, this fact influences the music you create.



6.Has   Hordak  ever   made  a  video  for  any  of their  songs? If  yes  how  did you  like the  experience? How  long  did  it  take the  band  to  shoot the  video?


There is an official videoclip of the song “Spreading the firewings”. The video is a compilation of images recorded during different shows and mixed up as a classic live/official video. We wanted to show how we perform our music alive with Hordak. It was created between Hordak and Nuria Burgos and you can watch it on the net, for example, youtube. It was also included as a multimedia bonus track on the re-released of our first album “War Has Just Begun” by the Russian label GS productions.





7.Are their  any  plans  to  make  a  video  for  any  of the  songs  off  of  Padre? If you  had the  choice  what  song  would  you   like to  see  a  video  done for?

 Nothing for the moment, but we shall see.




8.Does  Hordak  ever  play  live  very  often  or  do you  prefer to  work  in  the  studio?What  have  been  some  of your   most  memorable  shows  to  date?


We like to play live, but the conditions need to be the right ones. Some promoters do excellent jobs but some other not and some people underrate the work you do, the effort you take to prepare a gig and the music you create, there are many things to bear in mind before accepting to play a gig.
Last summer we palyed in Germany for the first time at Barther Open Air festival and was amazing.
Also I remember the show/festival we played back in January of 2007 with Wolfencross, Cyhiriaeth, Foscor and Berserk, for sure, one of our highlights.




9.Are their  any  shows  or  tours  planned  for  2016? If  yes where  are  some  places  the  band  will  be   playing?

 We would like to play as many gigs as possible, but there´s nothing booked for this year yet. Anyway, if conditions are ok, we are glad to play anywhere.





10.Hordak   comes   out  of  Spain's   metal  scene  what  is your  opinion  of  Spain's  metal  scene?

 I am not 100% into it, but I know that is growing fast lately. As long as it enriches the scene is welcome to me.




11.Who  are  your  all-time  favorite  bands  from  Spain?  Are  their   any  new  bands  you  feel  the  readers  should   watch  out  for?

One of our icons have been Nazgul from Madrid, who together with Berserk, Cyhiriaeth, Crystalmoors, Elffor, Numen, Foscor, Wolferncross and some others, where the pioneers of what could be called the first wave of “Celtiberian Pagan Metal”.
We also like many different kinds of music and Spain has very good bands and musicians who we like, not necessarily into metal scene.




12.Besides  Hordak   are  any  of the  members  currently  working  with  other  bands?

Yes, all of us except Winter are involved in a classic Death Metal band called “Last Deception” since 2002. At this moment things are kind of on hold with the band, but we will for sure return.
We recorded a couple of tracks for the third album of the worldwide pagan/folk project called Folkearth some years ago.
A. Mansilla plays bass guitars in a Black Metal band from Madrid called “Frozen Dawn”…A. Mansilla and L . Mansilla play in a band called Gotteron, which musically speaking combines a lot of different musical styles…and I think that´s all




13.Besides  the  new  cd  "Padre"  does the  band  have  any  of their  other releases or  merchandise  available  for the  readers? If   yes  where  can  the  fans  but  it  from?

There are currently available our third album “Under the sign of the wilderness”, a few copies of our first album´s re-release “War has just begun” as well as t-shirts. If anyone should be interested, can get in touch through our e-mail paganbonfires@gmail.com or browse our website www.paganhordak.net
Our merch is also available via Casus Belli Musica, our current label.





14.Thank  you  for taking the  time  to  fill  this   interview  out.Do  you  have  any  final  comments  for the readers?

My pleasure! Thanks very much for your interest and support and thanks to anyone who take the time and interest to read this interview. We are Hordak and we play Celtiberian Pagan Metal. Cheers!