Location: Rock Cafe / Postojna / Slovenia
Interview date: 04.03.2010
Modern thrash groove core metal crew Heretic stopped by a showcase at the Rock Cafe club in Postojna, where, as part of the Epic RockLine Contest, they laid out their musical outlook, their first EP “From Anger To Pain”, and their wishes and goals for the future. What do these heretics from Slovenske Konjice have to preach? RockLine recently caught it with its own ears….
RockLine: What was your main reason for signing up for the Epic RockLine Contest?
Marko: Honestly, we hadn’t played this end of Slovenia yet, so we jumped at the chance, and I have to admit this place is awesome to play. Besides that, it’s great for hanging out and getting to know the other bands. And of course for picking up new experience.
RockLine: Can you describe your music in more detail? Who writes the songs, the lyrics, the arrangements, how do the tracks come together?
Marko: New ideas get presented at rehearsals. Me and Rok, that’s our guitarist, come in with some idea. We show the basic skeleton of the song to the others, then we test how it works, and if the chemistry is right, we keep shaping the song further. Then “Swed”, that’s our singer, writes the lyrics. After that we dig into the whole thing once more and drill the track until it’s tight.
RockLine: What do your lyrics talk about?
Swed: Yeah, we’re not exactly cheerful in the lyrics. Mostly it’s about manipulation, exploitation, planting lies and untruths. ..
RockLine: How would you describe your sound?
Marko: We’ve always been drawn to Pantera and fascinated by their riffology, if I can call it that. You can hear plenty of Pantera in us. We also find stuff like Lamb Of God really interesting.
RockLine: Where did you record your EP “From Anger To Pain”?
Marko: In a private studio. We recorded it with Tomaž Rebernak. Then we uploaded it to our official MySpace page for easier and better promotion. But we’re already preparing something way better as far as sound quality goes, and we’ll be putting that up on our MySpace soon.
Rockline: Do you think there’s enough interest and support in Slovenia for so-called modern metal, let’s call it metalcore, which is where someone could stick you?
Marko: We’re trying to catch this new wave while staying true to our roots. There’s pretty much no support in Slovenia right now, but things are changing. So we hope that someday it’ll work in favor of this kind of music too.
RockLine: Which label would you most like to sign with?
Marko: Roadrunner Records.
RockLine: From your corner of Styria there’s also Killing Options, who are from Laško. Batina from Prekmurje. Do bands like you stick together?
Marko: We’ve already played with Batina. With Killing Options we’d also been talking about teaming up, but those talks died down recently, because Killing Options went through a pretty turbulent phase. We were also in touch with the Hungarians Conan’s First Date. We got them a show in Slovenia and they returned the favor, but we didn’t manage to make it to Hungary. The invitation to Hungary still stands though.
RockLine: How did the tour go?
Marko: Good. We started gigging in September, and then the shows came pretty much every Friday or Saturday. So one gig a week. Later that all ground to a halt, because they took away our rehearsal space. We’re still without one right now. So we’re practicing at a buddy’s place for the time being, just enough to get ready for the shows. We hope this gets sorted and that we’ll get to play in Ljubljana, on the coast, and then further on in Italy and Austria.
RockLine: And where have you gotten the best crowd reactions so far?
Marko: Maribor.
RockLine: When’s the band’s first album coming out?
Marko: When we get a proper rehearsal space. Of course we’re thinking about an album too. To start with, we’d like to record five or six quality tracks and then shoot a video. Just so you’ve got something in your hands to promote yourself with that doesn’t cost a lot. That goes for the video too. Later we’d go for an album. Once we’ve promoted ourselves well, with gigs too. Gaining experience is what matters.
RockLine: Summer festival season is coming up. Have you applied for any?
Marko: Right now we’re actually struggling with rehearsals, since we have no space, so we haven’t actively gone looking for shows this summer. We’ve signed up for a few contests, like this one in Postojna, and also for example Škisova tržnica, and Gora Rocka.
RocLine: How long has the band been around?
Marko: Heh, tough question. We’ve been through a period of big changes. We swapped drummers, bassists, had trouble with a permanent rehearsal space,… basically something’s always going on, some shake-ups we had to patch up, put everything else on hold for a month or two, and that ate up quite a bit of our energy. But we’ve stuck with it the whole time. Because we love what we do, and especially when we’re on stage the feeling is incredible. And that keeps us going.
interview by: Matevž Ftičar & Aleš Podbrežnik
photos: Mojca Perdih
text edited by: Aleš Podbrežnik
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