Boston power trio, The Under released their second self-titled EP this June. Singer and guitarist Dan Costa talked with Progarchy about the band’s music, influences, inspiration.

Describe the music of The Under.

I think I would say it’s a metal band with no agenda. We don’t try to conform to a specific style, nor do we set out to incorporate anything particular into our writing. It’s three guys with a healthy music catalog who set out to do some heavy, expressive stuff.

Tell me about the complexities of creating your recently released self-titled EP? 

A lot of the songs were written in the jam space over the last few years, so the arrangements you hear is what we went into the studio with. The recording process itself was not very complex, but writing the songs certainly took some time.

How long did it take you to complete the work on “The Under” EP? 

It took the better part of a year because not long after we started recording we had to recruit a new bassist and we had yet to lay down the bass. Our drummer Randy knocked his parts out in a day and over the next month or so I went back and did the guitars and leads. Then Ben finally joined and over the next few weeks he would learn a tune and then we’d go into the studio to lay down the bass tracks. During that time I was recording the vocals on my own so that I’d have the time to capture the performances I want.

How come there are two releases under the name “The Under”? 

Because the first EP was our recording debut, we thought it was appropriate to self-title it. However, I had my eye on using the artwork that we settled on for the second EP, which came from an old flier. We just thought “why add anything to something that already jumps out at you?”. So we just left it as it was.

What can you tell me about the new songs comparing with 2009′s album “Mercurial”? 

Ultimately, I think all those songs could co-exist on the same recording. Because it often feels like our songs write themselves, you get a similar amount of variation on both discs. I do think the newer songs have a bit more of a bite and a crunch to them that might be lacking on Mercurial. But aside from the fact that we recorded and mastered them in two different locations, the songs all kin to each other.

Give me a snapshot of the topics you explore on the new songs. 

The songs tend to have a philosophical, existentialist slant to them. I think a common theme is the individual versus different types of mechanisms, such as society or time for example. Some tunes express an attitude of triumph while others touch on the despair and anxiety certain institutions can bring.

How would you describe your music to someone who didn’t hear you before? 

I’d probably ask them what they enjoyed listening to and go from there. If I had to do a quick pitch, I’d say we’re a loud, heavy band with a lot of melodic and rhythmic peaks and valleys.

Which bands  influence your work? 

I think as a band we channel a lot classic Rush, Sabbath and Zeppelin but with a strong injection of thrash, punk, jazz, hardcore and indie/experimental rock. ELP, Slayer, Black Flag, Don Caballero, Genesis, Iron Maiden, DRI, Metallica, Carcass, Jeff Buckley can make their influences heard in our music.

Where do you draw inspiration from? 

I think I speak for the other guys in that music has long been a reflex, something you have to do to process the things that go on in the world and in your life. So overall, we’re always inspired to play and write. But for me I would say reading a good book or going to an art museum can certainly get the creativity flowing in new ways.

Name five albums that had huge impact on the musical direction of The Under.

I’m the only one picking these 5 but I’m going to say:

Kill Em All-Metallica

Hemispheres-Rush

Led Zeppelin-Physical Graffiti

Black Sabbath-Black Sabbath

Piece of Mind-Iron Maiden

Where do you see The Under in the future?

We just hope to be writing, recording and playing live as we have been doing. We’re a bit past the whole big rock star thing and more focused on music as art and expression. Trying to write and play a little better than we did yesterday is a very satisfactory goal at the moment.

The Under’s new self-titled EP is available from Bandcamp. Follow the band on Facebook.

What is truly important to you?

http://theprogmind.com/2015/09/04/album-spotlight-porcupine-tree-fear-of-a-blank-planet/

Better Know a Bookseller is a new feature on this blog where we’ll introduce one of our wonderful stockists. Previously we have covered Harvard Book Store, Papercuts J.P., and Skylight Books. Publishing this series is only half the battle, and the booksellers in these stores all over the world really help keep us alive. If you are […]

http://333sound.com/2015/09/09/better-know-a-bookseller-subterranean-books-st-louis/

Hombre Bestia is a band that promotes a broader conscience by painting humans as fundamentally dual beings. Violence, love, war and art are simply some of the consequences of the inner clash between reason and instinct.

Drawing from genres such as progressive rock, metal, alternative, and psychedelic rock; and supported by introspective and social lyrical content, Hombre Bestia’s act is a reflection of constant movement: from the purest silence to the most chaotic noise.

The band from Mexico City will release a new EP titled “Janus” this fall, which will include acoustic versions of songs from the band’s 2013 full-length debut “Claroscuro,” but also previously unreleased tracks. Bassist Alejandro de Buen talks about the band’s beginnings, the new EP, live performances, and more.

Tell me about the band’s beginnings. How did you go about forming the band?

The band was formed by Bruno (Alexei) and Santos around five years ago, taking common musical influences and topics of interest that they had from long ago (they are friends since childhood) as the foundation for the band. Originally, the centerpoint of the band’s lyrical focus was the duality of man, the clash between reason (The Man) and instinct (The Beast).

Little by little the lineup started to adjust itself to include the rest of us, until the whole band had a unified vision of what we wanted to do and how, taking the aforementioned internal clash as a starting point to create our sound and derive our lyrical vision towards a broader perspective.

What does the name of the band mean, and how does it reflect to the music you make?

The name literally translates to Beast Man, and it aims towards reflecting the constant clash, which can be both struggle and synergy, of the forces of reason and instinct that drive us as species.
Musically, we try to balance extremes: tense, heavy and visceral stuff with calm, quiet and very harmonic cuts, so we think the name describes the music quite well. We try to make music that’s both introspective and direct, that speaks to the mind and the gut.

Tell me about the topics you explore in your lyrics.

Dualities are a recurrent topic for us, but we try to go beyond simply that. We try to use this perspective to talk about human nature in general, and to give our lyrics a social twist without falling into common places. We like to talk about society and dreams, and like to aim our lyrics towards working as a wake up call to people, a scream to make you look around yourself and realize the darkness and the light that surround us.

You are about to release a 6-track EP. What was the creative process for this material like? What can we expect from it?

A honest answer would be that it was polarized. There are two previously unrecorded tracks. The first one, Coro del Adios, is brand new, and reflects the most collaborative musical process within the band to date. It really shows a little of everyone. The other is one of the oldest songs in Hombre Bestia’s history (back from the Bruno-and-Santos-only days), but it has evolved a little every time we bring it back, until the point where it sounds more current than the first album. Both tracks flowed quite easily and enjoyably (though both had a slow evolution, the second one being obviously way slower!), but since both were born at such different times for the band, the process felt really different.

The rest of the tracks are acoustic recreations of already released tracks, which were quite fun to make because it took us out of our comfort zone (distortion and soundscapes!) and let us have a fresh way to play songs we’ve been playing non-stop for a long time.

How would you describe your music to someone who didn’t listen to you before?

The keywords contrast, introspection, and viscerality would come to mind. There’s a blend between prog, psychedelic rock, and small hints of metal, I think there’s also a very subtle latin touch somewhere in the mix, and there’s a huge amount of passion and honesty, which I’d say are our two main drivers.

What’s the point of Lalo’s covering his eyes in the video for “Matar Por Ti”? What is the story of the song?

The one covering his eyes is actually Bruno. The song, sometimes misinterpreted as a love song, is not dedicated to a person but to our country. In our case, Mexico which suffers from a lot of political abuse and inequity, and many times the problem is that both people in power and civil society seem to refuse to see this fact and the damage it is doing to all of us, condemning us to stay in this position. The veil over Bruno’s eyes is a way to convey this general refusal to actually see the current situation.

Fake Dreams is the only song on the EP that is sung in English. Do you have plans for releasing more songs in English?

Fake Dream was born in English because of the huge amount of English-spoken musical influences we have. Santos wrote it and it felt great that way, but we have only written music in Spanish since then, having a huge majority of Spanish-speaking followers and currently focusing our act nationally, as well as Spanish being our mother tongue.

We haven’t discussed any plans to write more music in English but I wouldn’t say we are closed to that possibility. If it feels good and honest to do so at some point, I think we could definitely do it again.

You’ve performed live before. What are the reactions from audiences like on your music? Are you satisfied with the reception you receive?

In general we are satisfied. It is not uncommon to see people seem to daze away at our shows, which we really dig because it shows they are really getting into it. When you play a quiet part and notice that the crowd is in utter silence, you know you really have them. Sometimes we would like to see more people reach deeper into the lyrics, but I guess that takes time and more listens.

Are there any plans to present your music to Europeans?

There are few things we would love as much as playing in the Old Continent, though there are no current plans for a European tour (soon, hopefully!). Still, we feel there’s a bigger interest in our style over there, so with this new EP and with future releases, we are trying to push our music to reach European audiences and hopefully get that to get our plans closer to jumping the Atlantic.

Which bands influence your music?

As a band, some well-known names in the progressive scene, such as Riverside, Opeth, Tool, Porcupine Tree, Karnivool, and Steven Wilson; some modern and classic rock legends like Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and Alice in Chains, and some awesome bands from Mexico and the rest of Latin America like La Barranca, Soda Stereo, Caifanes, San Pascualito Rey and Cafe Tacvba. Individually tough, each of us draws from things as distant as Jeff Buckley, Nine Inch Nails, Screaming Headless Torsos, Angra, and Joy Division (it could be a fun exercise to try and guess who’s who!).

Follow Hombre Bestia on Facebook.

Check this out:

Mind. Officially. Blown.

Prog funkers (yeah, you read it right!) from Boston, Sound Struggle are definitely one of my most favourite new bands, and I cannot wait to hear their second studio album “Rise” once it’s out on September 25th. The band has been active since 2012, and in June last year they came up with the full-length self-titled debut album. The six-piece band from the Massachusetts largest city are ready to take on the prog world with “Rise,” and bassist Joe Calderone and singer and guitarist Cameron Rasmussen talked with Progarchy about this.

Tell me about the Sound Struggle beginnings.

Cam: It started with me realizing that at Berklee College of Music it is very hard to be inducted and accepted into a band or other kind of group that has already been rolling for a while, or at all, and if you could you would have to really like the music they were making. That made me start from scratch on my own band that would be exactly what I wanted and would have the people I wanted in it.

The main idea behind what I wanted it to be was a very heavy metal band with improvised solos that have lots of jazz influence. I like to play a lot of jazz and jazz influenced things, so when I solo I like to steal from those influences and the harmonic vocabulary from that. I had some songs already somewhat written and had other ideas that I flushed out onto sheet music scores and charts for different guys to read through when I was finding the first lineup that the band would function with. From that starting point we have evolved to “Rise”!

Funk and prog metal – that’s a really crazy combination. Where did this idea come from and how much of a challenge it is to mix these two genres?

Joe: It’s a really fun combo. Funk and metal were both styles that we were all really interested in and enjoyed listening to and playing. The two styles can be melded different ways too. So I don’t think there is much of a challenge, because were just combining our biggest musical influences into our songs, the influences just happen to be a pretty diverse spectrum of styles.

You are about to release your new album titled “Rise.” What can we expect from the record, and how does it differ from the self-titled debut?

Joe: On the first album the interpretation was very much straight Funk section, and in the same son straight metal section, and they were a bit disconnected. On Rise we really took a more integrated approach, where the funk comes from something like the guitarists doubling thumbing guitar like Victor Wooten, but in a metal context, or possibly using jazz and funk harmony on a metal riff.

Cam: Yes it’s more of a fluid and integrated approach as opposed to the almost bi-polar method of the first album.

What kind of gear did you use to record “Rise”?

Joe: We used whatever we could find. All the guitar and bass, and even some EWI (electronic wind instrument) parts were recorded through a Fractal Axe FX II. I recorded most of the album on my trusty Fender Geddy Lee signature jazz bass, downtuned to A-E-A-D. The guitars were done with a Strandberg Boden OS 7, a custom Carvin 7, a Fender Strat, a Yamaha Nylon String acoustic, and a few other guitars thrown in. Joey loves the sounds on his Motif piano, and you’ll hear a lot of them, but there are also a few soft synths being used too from plugins like Massive. Another change from the last album is the introduction of the EWI. Since we don’t have a full horn section anymore, Mike will switch between a tenor sax and an EWI, and the EWI really expands what he can contribute musically. It’s been a really cool addition to the sound. Joey also engineered the drums to perfection and we used whatever mics the studio had to get a great drum sound.

How does the name of the band reflect on the music you create?

Cam: Well we originally picked Sound Struggle because it was the right mix of serious sounding and comedic value to describe the music we were playing. The “Struggle” is just a funny comment on how we use all of the genres we like in our writing, whereas some people might still say nowadays that you should stick with one genre and that’s it. That doesn’t sound like much fun to me!

What was the toughest moment in the band’s career so far and how did you go about overcoming it?

Cam: The toughest part so far was probably members leaving the band or having to let people go. We have had a few members who we were really happy with, like the first solid lineup that we played our first show with, but a few of them had to leave because they needed jobs elsewhere or went to other colleges. We really miss those guys like. I have also had to kick a bunch of guys out, which is never fun, but if its not working its no fun for anybody.

To overcome it we just did our best to find people who would be killer players and friends at the same time, and when we were short on people we got whatever work we could get done, done, so that we weren’t sitting around waiting for new members. Not having a band makes having a band a really hard thing to do. (laughs)

I have watched all videos you uploaded on YouTube, and it seems that you guys have lots of fun. Does funk make it easy for you?

Joe: Well it’s all fun! We really enjoy playing funk, and we really enjoy playing metal so we’re always having fun. The metal riffs are challenging enough to keep us on our feet, and the improvisational funk sections are just inherently jammable and entertaining to us.

Name five albums that had huge impact on the musical direction of Sound Struggle.

Cam: Probably:

1. Vulgar Display of Power – Pantera
2. Ego – Alex Argento
3. Heavy Metal Be-Bop – The Brecker Brothers
4. Silent Machine – Twelve Foot Ninja
5. The Joy Of Motion – Animals As Leaders

Are you satisfied with where you landed in the music scene?

Cam: Yes, I think we all are! Earlier in the bands history we were wondering if we could market ourselves as a funk band, as well as a metal band, but we pretty much realized that …no. So, though our approach to music hasn’t changed we landed in a metal scene that we all really like!

Where do you see yourself in the future? Can you read your own story?

Cam: Well, every member of this band is a genius to me, and they all do so many things of their own outside of Sound Struggle, I do as well. I have a feeling that we will all support ourselves financially with our other skills while doing Sound Struggle in tandem in the months and years to come, until it becomes a big enough enterprise that we could call it our job.

If that happens sooner, then I’m positive we would be all over it!

What is your favourite beer?

Joe: I’m a sucker for Sam Adams, especially the seasonal stuff. Or anything brewed with chocolate and coffee.

Sound Struggle’s second studio album “Rise” is out on September 25th, stay tuned via Facebook and Bandcamp.