Witchbreed are a metal band from Lisbon, Portugal consisting of :

Ruby : Vocals
Filipe : Guitar
Dikk : Guitar
Ares : Bass
Hollow : Drums

Since introducing themselves to the world in 2007 courtesy of a year long tour and opening for bands such as Samael in some of the biggest summer fests in Portugal Witchbreed have gone from strength to strength by signing a recording deal with Ascendance Records. Their debut album Heretic Rapture was produced by Waldemar Sorychta (who had also worked with Moonspell and Lacuna Coil in the past) and released in February 2009. With this done, Witchbreed are now looking to bring their "dark energy, furious performance and astonishing vocals of Ruby Roque" to the world.

MySpace : http://www.myspace.com/witchbreed 

(Q)Thank you for taking the time for this interview. First of all who are Witchbreed, and what are the origins of the band?

 

(A)The origins of Witchbreed are rather curious because Dikk and I come from a previous collaboration on another band called Deepskin which we released an album called "Judas" in 2000, when the time came to record Deepskin's sophomore we had a totally different idea and inspiration for the whole record so we decided it would be better to name a different band and get a full line up as our previous project was only about me and Dikk.  By the time we focused on this new creation we had already  written four songs and went on to search for a vocalist that could incarnate the whole idea, hence Ruby got on board, then to complete a full line up Filipe guitars and Tiago on drums (with whom I had played before) joined the band.  Rehearsals and playing live kept us busy for a short time until Ascendance records came into play and we recorded our debut "Heretic Rapture".

 

(Q)Given the fact that the formation of Witchbreed seemed to be an ongoing process, what would you say you were ideally looking for as you built the band up into its current line-up?

 

(A)When we sat down to talk about what kind of people we wanted to share our music and privacy with I must say that an easy going attitude and creative personality were the most fundamental aspects taken in consideration.  More important than the musical skills is definitely the consciousness of team work and spirit of sacrifice.  We have managed to bound since our early days and so far we remain strong and confident about the music we can achieve together.  It has been a long, slow and hard road so far but we have all learned a lot from each other and managed to keep the dream alive.

 

(Q)In sentences of ten words or less, how would each member of the band best be described?

 

(A)Ruby: Heart of gold, untamed reason, owner of a mind twisting logic (the kind only women own...)

Filipe: Sharp thinking, not afraid of making decisions, educated manners and self respect.

Dikk: One of the most complete musicians around, a man of great deeds.

Tiago: Energy and source of group motivation, great sense of humour.

Ares: Wolf hearted misanthropist.   

 

(Q)In 2007 you signed a recording deal with Ascendance Records and worked with Waldemar Sorychta to produce your debut album Heretic Capture, what do you have to say about this experience?

 

(A)It was a milestone; I knew Waldemar was the right man for the job due to my previous experience of working with him back in Germany.  The whole band felt this could be a great lesson for the future and so we welcomed Waldemar into our small world and studio facilities in Portugal. During the pre-production period we had the opportunity to take out the most from the songs and with Waldemar's taste and vision when it comes to dark and exotic atmospheres we were able to get the songs to the point we felt absolutely realised.

 

(Q)When I picked up the album Heretic Rapture up the first thing I noticed was the elaborate and almost demonic artwork which is also evident on your MySpace page, what can you tell us about this?

 

(A)The main idea was to portrait two different worlds, beauty and chaos, innocence and wrath etc. Dualities that command the judgement of values, in all types of societies. But the most interesting thing to me is the definition of each part of any duality, or the analysis of manichaeism, what is usually tolerated and embraced as the right cause for a certain group of people is exactly what is looked upon as offensive and dogmatic by another group. The whole rational process behind this kind of abstract human behaviour is what drives the main idea behind the artwork, when once man used mythos to understand the world and its phenomenon’s now its economics pushing and conditioning our life. 

 

(Q)In a previous interview Ruby Roque described Heretic Rapture as “a very unusual album for a female fronted band”. That suggests to me that Witchbreed are highly motivated to form their own identity with a unique sound, what are your thoughts on this?

 

(A)Yes, although it comes naturally to us to go beyond and push the envelope we do have that in mind because it's very easy to get grinded and confused with anyone else's creations nowadays. Personally I always make a stand to include elements of our most deep identity, even if we play a Blues derived form of music, using our own Portuguese musical tradition will hopefully help to detach us from most of the music around.  We have a natural inclination for the exotic and obscure and that comes out in the songs because it's part of ourselves and we would rather do that than to simply reproduce what has been made so far.  Honestly I think we are still a long way from achieving an absolute state of originality, it's always a work in progress.

  

 

(Q)A description of Heretic Rapture reads as “a solitary scream against the hypocrisy of disbelief and evokes the spirit of resistance in a world now devoid of sense”, on a personal level what do you think of this?

 

(A)Let me put it to you like this, that's the way we feel because we don't have the strength of numbers at our side or a powerful machine behind us.  Right now there's not much interest we generate as band other than the artistic one and we all know that's not enough to make a band get to the top of the game, although that's how it should be, period. This is not a complaint, but rather a self analysis based on our own experience. Nevertheless we do our job, we face the facts and fight hard with all our weapons and there's nothing we can do to change it. Also it's a huge metaphor for the whole world wide madness we get from the media and politics...of all kinds. 

 

(Q)Portugal isn’t exactly famous for its rock / metal bands, with perhaps Moonspell achieving the most notable success by matching the achievement of Metallica and Iron Maiden by reaching #1 in the Portuguese album charts. Do Witchbreed hope to reach and perhaps one day surpass these accomplishments?

 

(A)That's not the present concern for Witchbreed; like I said before I'm truly aware we are a long way from getting the deserved attention and recognition every band seeks.  Every day we work hard and give our best to Witchbreed's music, if such success is to happen then we shouldn't worry too much about it. I would rather concentrate my thoughts and energies in more palpable issues like the music itself. Learning to be self-satisfied and holding on to the pride of our own small artistic achievements, that's what will keep us together, not mattering if we will reproduce the same steps as others.  Remember a Lightning never strikes the same spot twice. 

 

(Q)Witchbreed appear to be developing a strong international following, if you could have your pick of countries to perform in which would it be and why?

 

(A)That's one of the big/small joys that feed our dreams and pride, to get feedback from people even if in small numbers or no matter how scarce that may look it remind us that maybe we can make a difference, maybe what we are doing does matter.  And we should never forget that and should always treasure these little signs of appreciation and support.  Surely I would choose Europe first, maybe the UK, Germany and Spain but all just for pragmatic reasons because I would love to cover all possible countries and reach as many different people as possible, considering I'm a misanthrope I'm not sure how coherent this sounds...

 

(Q)What can people expect to see and hear from Witchbreed in the future?

 

(A)We are working on a video, putting up the first meetings to find the how's, who’s and when's. If all goes as planned we should have the video out during the next months. There are some gigs booked and other dates are being planned, we keep on looking for a chance to tour Europe sometime during this "Heretic Raptvre" period. Other than that just more music to come in the future albums.

 

(Q)Thank you for your time, is there anything else you would like to say which hasn’t been mentioned?

 

(A)Thanks for the smart interview; it feels good for a change to answer to some well put on questions.  Be sure to check out our debut “Heretic Raptvre” and watch out for the video when it’ll come out.

Courtesy of Adam @ Firestorm Promotions
www.myspace.com/firestorm_media