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THE ARCHIVES
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Morrigan's Pit has closed down as of November 2006. The site and its articles will stay online as an archive until September at least, but probably longer.
The Archives
2002-2006
» CD REVIEWS
» INTERVIEWS
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HERUKA
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Adranos
September 2005
http://www.heruka.it
I was very sceptical about Heruka when I first heard about them but after giving a few listens to this Italian fantasy black metal band, my scepticism went away and I got interested in them. Read on to find our more about Heruka's world, based on history and fantasy.
Let's start with the band's name. You are coming from Silicy, playing black metal but Heruka is a Buddhist deity. Why did you choose such a name for your band?
The truth is that we didn't know about the existence of a Buddhist deity called Heruka when the project was born. Me and Valdemar picked this name from the Sicilian medieval town "Erice" that was called like this by ancient settlers. Erice has been the place in which we got inspired to start writing music. We made a search about its history and we discovered its first name was "Iruka" (it was given this name by its first inhabitants, the "Elimi"). We borrowed this name, transforming it into Heruka to better adapt it to our fantasy themes.
You formed the band together with Valdemar but he left a year later. What happened, why did he leave? Do you keep contact with him?
Valdemar left Heruka project after the release of Doxa Epicurea because he found the best expression of himself in another type of music. Now he is making experiences playing and composing contemporary music for acoustic instruments like classical guitars. I and Valdemar never had some personal problems and still now I see him. He's one of my best friends.
It the booklet of "Leggenda", Moha is mentioned as a guest musician. Did he also also help you with writing the songs (music, lyrics)?
Moha helped me only in recording some guitars. Music and lyrics are my personal works.
Will you keep Heruka as a one-man project or do you try to look for other musicians to join you?
Working alone is a great source of satisfaction because the final result of our work is extremely personal. Nevertheless I have always been searching for someone who was ready to collaborate with me in music composition (because we have a very hard work to do) and I hope I succeeded in it at last.
My biggest "problem" with "Leggenda" was the annoying sound of the drum machine. Was it impossible to find a human drummer for the recording?
I hope that I will have a real drummer for recording in further works and I'm already evaluating some people. This will bring a remarkable improvement in quality.
I guess "Leggenda" is a self-financed mini cd. Have you tried to contact labels with it?
An this moment I'm negotiating promotional matters with several labels. I hope that I will get news soon about this aspect.
Does anyobdy help you with the promotion or you are doing it all on your own?
Also promotion is my personal work.
You chose to play fantasy black metal, which is not a common combination. Fantasy themes are rather connected to power metal while black metal topics mostly deal with ancient myths or religious stuff. So, why did you want to play black metal that has fantasy based lyrics?
I chose black metal because it reflects my personality more than power metal (or other).
Moreover, since I don't believe in any form of divinity or religion, I could not deal with related topics. So I tried to melt typical black metal sound (which I'm crazy for) and unusual black metal lyrics together.
Could you please talk abit about the lyrics of "Leggenda" too? What is the concept between the songs?
"Leggenda"'s lyrics tell about a fantastic travel made by a character whose name is Adranor. Each track in the mini-cd is a step of that travel and describes chronologically succeeding events. Trina-Hoc is nothing more but western Sicily in one of my personal fantastic views. During this travel the protagonist meets various creatures (created by myself and painted on the booklet by my drawer), interacts with them (fighting or acting in some other ways) in order to complete the mission given him by Heruka priests: rescue all the magic weapons of Trina-Hoc. This is a summary of the fantastic "Leggenda" concept. There is also another intrinsic and very personal meaning in the lyrics that remind of my real life experiences.
Where did you get the inspiration to the lyrics of "Leggenda"? Where do you get the inspiration from to write and play black metal?
The long days spent in Erice, my birth place, make me inspired for lyrics writing. A small medieval city rich of green and in which you can breathe a wonderful and sometimes unreal atmosphere. Here I write the stories and start to work on music in an instrumental key (with a simple classic guitar or a flute) and then I keep on making arrangements somewhere else.
If you had to compare Heruka's music to other bands, which bands would you name?
It's really very difficult to be original in this musical field and it's normal that everybody makes comparisons with other bands and sometimes resemblances really exist. The only important thing, as I always think, is to give emotions with the music and this I tried to do with my work. I'm not right person to ask this question.
According to the reviews on your homepage, "Leggenda" got very diverse feedback. How much will these reviews effect you regarding the following Heruka material?
I sent promo cds to various zines, so I knew I couldn't receive only positive reviews. As a result the opinion of every reviewer is strictly personal and it must be accepted however it is. I like taking all criticism with great serenity because we grow and learn a lot of things, especially from negative feedback, as we have the intention to improve ourselves and to avoid past mistakes in future works. Also, I will thank you for your support and the work you have done.
What was the strangest, weirdest opinion you have read about "Leggenda"?
I have never received strange or weird opinions until now.
Have you ever felt that people misunderstood you and your band?
Foreign press has often not understood the real meaning of my works because the lyrics have been totally written in Italian. As a consequence sometimes foreign evaluations were not so good as Italian ones. In any case I will keep lyrics written in my home language because I think it is the most suitable.
If I look at the cd, I see you must have worked a lot with it, building up the world of Trina-Hoc and this whole idea. Since how long have you been working on it?
I have been working on "Leggenda" fully for almost three years even though many ideas had been born before.
Are you into role playing?
No, I never played in a role playing.
In the promo letter you mentioned you are working on a full-length album as well. What can you tell us about that in advance? When shall we expect that?
The concept of "Leggenda" is really a prologue. As a matter of fact, the lyrics (and so the music as well) of future works will match to the vicissitudes told in "eggenda" up to the end of my saga (I think that it will be composed of the mini cd "Leggenda" and two full albums). Full length tracks will be completely new. Only the first one will remind of the last track of "Leggenda". This is due to the chronological sequence of the stories that I narrate in my lyrics. I hope it will be a more mature work.
I guess it can't be easy to play metal at all in Sicily. I mean this part of the world is not famous for having lots of rock or metal bands. How did you started to listen to metal?
I started listening to metal music about 10 years ago. I know that in Sicily we have several really talented bands but often they are not well-promoted (for example there are not too much places for live shows). You need to move to northern Italy or Europe to watch a big festival.
Did you ever have problems because of listening to metal? I mean, how easy or difficult is it to be a metal head in Sicily? For me, your place is still known as a place where people are strongly keeping to their roots and traditions.
Personally I never had problems with listenig to metal. Even if it is partially true that people keep their roots and traditions, though there is a large part of people who like metal.
You also already have performed live. What are your experiences with live gigs?
Unfortunately live shows with Heruka have not been too much until now because of some problems. I hope to bring my music again more often in live shows.
Thank you very much for your time! Anything you would like to add?
I want to thanx you, Katalin, and Morrigans-Pit.org magazine for this interview. I hope that this can help your readers to better know about Heruka's project. STAY BLACK!
submitted by Katalin 22.09.2005
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