1. Khavar was born a bit from the dissolution of the band The Weeping Willow, why was this project put to an end to give it a continuation in the form of Khavar? Was it necessary for you to make a change of record? What does Khavar bring you? with respect to other projects in which they are involved?
The Weeping Willow was everything i worked for and wanted for many years, it was very hard to keep up with the line up changes and not having a full team backing me up for better sound more records and full support. After many years trying to understand and deal with everyones trips, egos and opinion it became stressful and unproductive, i felt i needed to end the band after playing along Grave death gods of the old school in 2017 some of my members were even late for the gig, many mistakes and it felt like the end of the world on stage, after that i made up my mind and still played a final gig with decapitated in 2018. Khavar is a tight band, where i need to keep working and challenging myself in every song, my bandmates are talented and easy to deal with and after having derek roddy on drums what else you wish for, his a living machine! and i respect and fan of every members individual work.
2. Khavar is a word of Armenian origin that means darkness, why did you choose this name? Does the term darkness define Khavar's musical proposal?
Im Armenian Lebanese and always had the question where is home? i always found comfort in darkness and it felt home, yes our music has lots of dark tunes and mood.
3. Khavar's line-up is made up of a good number of musicians belonging to the extreme scene of Lebanon, can we be talking about a Lebanese super group? Is it very difficult to manage the egos within Khavar?
Yes we can say its a lebanese super group with the most humble and hardworking members, I’ve worked with marco so many years and we never even argued haha, everyone does his thing and it becomes khavar.
4. "In Absence of Light" is Khavar's first album, how was the writing and recording process for this album? What main influences have helped you define the sound of the album?
Well for the first time didn’t plan a style or how heavy or dark it has to be, every song has its own mood and style but somehow its dark and extreme we just let the music take over, not plan and line everything up, lots of music influences most of us and not only metal.
5. The sound of “In Absence of Light” in a simple way can be described as black / death, however there are many other styles clearly present and with prominence in the final result. How would you define the sound of the album for those who still Haven't heard it? Since are all these influences on your sound (progressive, folk, heavy, thrash) due?
We all come from different backgrounds, us we live in the middle east we have this local folk influence for sure and everyone loves and listens to many different styles, i say, if you are into metal and not afraid of experimenting give it a listen and if you think its ur regular black/death band surely its not.
6. Your sound reflects a lot of darkness and your lyrics also have a component of death and destruction. Are these aspects the result of the situation in a country like Lebanon that somehow makes themselves felt in your music?
Growing up in Beirut was not easy and still to this day, imagine being in class as a 9 year old kid with bombs falling around running to the shelter waiting fro the parents to come pic you up when its ceasefire, some people pretend darkness some people live it.Unfortunately this is all we know.
7. The album cover can serve as an example of the above, who designed the cover and what do you intend to transmit with it?
Marco our bassist and designer did it, it represents the August 4 blast that killed more than 200 and injured around 6,000 in seconds, the cloud shapes of a mother crying after losing her family.
,
8. You are a group that has never renounced the possibility of being able to offer concerts. How complicated is it to be able to carry out a concert in your country? Is it difficult to be an extreme metal band in a country like Lebanon ? How is the extreme metal scene in your country?
It is hard to do concerts because of the cost, but we have everything we want in terms of gear and sound, for a while religious people fought us with the government as satanic or whatever bullshit even jailed us for no legal reason, in the end we always managed to play, scene is fine but covid killed it for now lets hope for the best.
9. How did the emergence of Covid-19 affect you as a band? Have you managed to maintain greater contact with your fans thanks to the new situation experienced by Covid?
The bad part we can’t get derek and play a gig since its impossible with the lockdown distancing and the economical problems in lebanon, we keep in touch on social media zoom, instagram and all that sucks but yeah this is the new world now.
10. The album has been self-released in digital format, is there a possibility of it being reissued in physical format? Is there interest from a record label for the reissue of the album?
i would love to have a physical copy we all do but cds and dead and we didn’t try or beg labels for any deal haha, so yeah maybe one day we have a good label.
11. How were your beginnings in music: first albums you bought, first concerts you attended? What did you do in your lives that made you want to be musicians?
when i was 8 my cousin gave me tapes to listen to one of them was slayer reign in blood, black sabbath and testament after that it went on and on, at 12 bought my first electric guitar which i had to work in my fathers factory for the summer and buy it from my own money, never had the chance to see a concert like a big international band we only had local bands playing covers also first gig at 12 when a band covered sepultura i was happy lol, always wanted to play the guitar loud and share it with bunch of people it drove me to start a band and did it also to make a living i worked in the musical instruments business and still do so i don’t have to play for 100$ a night.
12. Which album represents the essence of black metal for you? Which extreme metal album is the most important for you on the Lebanese scene? What recent albums have you acquired?
In the nightside eclipse left a mark on me, we had a local band here called Cimmerian path unfortunately they did one album, cattle decapitation death atlas.
13. Are you working on new songs to give continuity to this first album? Do you have a concert planned?
New song on the way its with derek now when the drums is done the guys will build on it and it would be out on our youtube channel khavarband hopefully in couple of weeks, also writing more songs with no plans to play live now unless cover dies.
14. Thank you very much for the time dedicated to Black Metal Spirit, if you want to add something for Khavar fans this is the place. I hope the questions have been to your liking.
Thank you brothers and sisters keep digging bands like us and make them talk to the world stay dark! KHAVAR!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Azziard / Nirnaeth – Azziard / Nirnaeth (7” Limited to 100 numbered copies on white vinyl) 17,99 €
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario