Band: AraPacis
Year Formed: 2003
Genre: Hard Rock/Doom/Prog/Classic Metal
Location: Montreal Canada
Members: Lizzie Fyre - Lead Vocals
Jerry Fielden - Guitar, Synths, Back Vocals, Mandolin
Mathieu Roy - Drums
John Yates - Bass, Back Vocals
Official Site
Jerry Fielden - Guitar, Synths, Back Vocals, Mandolin
Mathieu Roy - Drums
John Yates - Bass, Back Vocals
Official Site
Interview Though Email with: Jerry Fielden
Can you give a short history of your band?
"I have been playing in bands since the late 60s and some of my most fun years were in the 70s when I played progressive hard rock, so I talked to two former bandmates from those years and we decided to form a band , which came to life in January 2003. I always intended for it to be female fronted and we went through a lot of lineup changes until it stabilized enough for us to release our first album "So Many Leapers" in 2006. We toured a lot, playing shows with Anvil, Raven and The Agonist and were going to play Europe when the drummer and singer quit at the same time. It was then (January 2007) that Lizzie joined the band and she has been there since, so we played quite a few shows including anotther one with Anvil and started working on our second album "Consequences of Dreams", which took a while, again because of lineup changes but it eventually came out in 2009. We went though a brief break at that point when Lizzie left town, but she returned and we started working on our third album, with drummer Mathieu Roy joining the band in mid-preproduction sessions. We went through several bass players at that point but none of them did the trick, so I ended up playing bass myself on the third album, "Netherworld", which came out in 2012. We've been promoting it since, playing several festivals this summer and other shows coming up as well. We are working on a video project and other things with our new bass player John Yates, who comes from Cincinnati via New York City. We will be starting writing for our fourth album soon."
How does the music the band made on the third album "Netherworld" differ from the music the band made on the first album '‘So Many Leapers’'?
"It's much more aggressive and the production is way better. Obviously the vocals are different and challenging and the drums are much more percussive and modern in style. I still like our first album for its diversity and it is the same with all our albums, we are not stuck to one particular style and like to vary and experiment a lot. But I'm happier with Netherworld as we took our time and worked much harder on our sound in the studio. It was fun to have a couple of guest musicians too (Guy LeBlanc from Camel on keyboards and Regan Toews from McGill University on viola)."
What is the overall theme behind the bands music?
"There are a lot of themes obviously, there is an aspect of humanism vs. religion, love vs. hate, peace vs. war but while those are defining aspects of our view, it's not a monolithic perspective, but a very fragmented one. Expect anything with us, lyrically or musically."
Why did the band choose the name AraPacis?
"I am a huge Roman History fan, and did one of my University degrees specializing in the Roman Empire period, so I thought the Altar of Peace monument (Ara Pacis) in Rome, which was built by the Emperor Augustus around 8 BCE, would be a fitting name. I contracted the syllables to read AraPacis as to not mistake one for the other and make it easier for people to find using Internet searches."
What is the future for the band?
"Right now, we are playing shows and festivals this year to promote Netherworld. As I stated earlier, later on in the Fall, we will be working on a video (and another project that will be sort of a surprise for our fans, something pretty cool.) I'm getting ready to start writing some songs soon for our next album as well, and Lizzie and Matt have already written one each."
"Thanks very much for this interview and cheers to all the readers of Everything Heavy Metal! \m/"
0 comments:
Post a Comment