O Metal Junkbox, went to Évora to talk to the band's guitarist Above the Ocean, André Vicente.
For those who don't know, this Eborense band won the band competition organized by the Commendation
Music Fest and will take part in the 5th edition of this festival, which features luxury names such as Ihsahn,
Vola, Humanity's Last Breath (premiering in Portugal), The Cost, the band of the well-known El Stepario
Siberian, who is making his stage debut at the Comendatio Music Fest.
Above the Ocean were the band with the most votes in a contest on social media and will be opening the 22nd.
of June, André Vicente tells us a little about the band and its motivations and also
about what's to come at this concert and for the future.
MJ: André, tell me who Above the Ocean are.
AV: Above the Ocean, the current line-up, is me on lead guitar and the main songwriter and producer
also everything we have in the way of electronics, etc., Pedro Santos on rhythm guitar and composition as well,
João Carvalho on drums, André Bagorro on bass and José de Saruga on vocals and yelling and screaming
(laughs).
MJ: How did this project come about? And how long ago?
AV: The current line-up has been around since 2021, but before that the band existed as a concept and a WhatsApp group but never produced anything. At the time it was even called Synestesia, which was the name it initially had. That project was formed by Pedro, and after that, Saruga and João joined, but Above the Ocean, as we know it today, came into existence when Bagorro and I joined and really started working on the songs we have today, and that's the line-up that has survived until now.
MJ: André, tell me a bit about that composition when you and Bagorro joined
band. What were those times like?
AV: So the early stages are always the most complex. Getting the songs to cohere and all of us moving in the same direction and being able to play them. When I joined, we already had songs written by Pedro, and then I added my own personal touch and started writing things from my own influences. And from there, we managed to find a balance between the influences of all of us and we came up with the singles we've released, like "Love Song" and "Therapy", and the other songs we've been playing live. They all came from this fusion that we found between each other's influences.
MJ: You've just spoken about the band's influences. What are the band's main influences? And what
genre influenced the two singles you've released?
AV: Although we classify ourselves mainly as a metalcore and modern metal band, the truth is that we have very varied and wide-ranging influences. Pedro, for example, comes from a school, let's call it that, of Nu-Metal, Slipknot is one of his favorite bands, Saruga is Parkway Drive, Landmarks. I listen to a bit of everything, all the sub-genres of metal, but mainly Modern Metal, that's what I'm most interested in. João is a bit like me, he also drinks a bit of each style and doesn't stick to any specific sub-genre.
Our singles come a little from this whole mix of influences. "Love Song", for example, came from a riff that I already had, but had never developed into anything, and after we went to a concert of "While She Sleeps", I came away inspired by that more electronic influence, of the intros and passages, I got home and made that intro that is part of "Love Song" and from there came all the rest of the music as we know it today. Therapy" was our second single, it had a different composition method, it was our main team effort to date, so it had a bit of each one, so Pedro's riffs, Bagorro's ideas for the bass, and the lead guitar, it came from me before, It was also a riff I'd done and never used for anything, and then, of course, João came along and gave his personal touch to the rhythms, etc., and so "Therapy" ended up being the song that encompasses a bit more of everyone, of our band effort, let's put it that way.
MJ: What about letters? Do you know a bit about the history of lyrics? I know that "Therapy" is a cry for
revolt, which also ends up being a therapeutic cry, so to speak...
AV: That's an excellent question, we have a bit of a lyrical aspect too, it's a bit of a desire to do something good and to show that it's not just shouting for the sake of shouting, and Saruga is excellent in that respect, in drawing a little on his life experience and bringing out those feelings that are sometimes more negative and turning them into something positive. For anyone who listens to "Therapy", it's undoubtedly one of the best examples of this: it's a song about wanting to shout and send out those demons that we all harbor to a certain extent and that eat away at us and bring us down, so it's that need and that cry for emancipation, for "OK! I'm here and I'm stronger than my demons! Come on, we're here to party and make noise".
MJ: Are there any members that are more difficult to work with and compose? (laughs)
AV: Actually, I don't want to point fingers, so as not to look bad, the truth is that we all work very well as a team, and if I had to point the finger, it would be at myself (laughs). In fact, I'm that guy who's more of a perfectionist, and who, especially when it comes to recording, points out all the little mistakes and goes straight into that, "Hey, it's good, but you can do better!", then it's Take and repeat Take. In that respect I'm a bit more itchy, let's put it that way. But in terms of work, I think we all work very well together, we understand each other well and we're all moving in the same direction. Of course, there are times when one person wants a Riff that goes more in one direction and the other goes "Oh, what if it was like this and it was like that", it's normal, but deep down we always find the middle ground and complete each other and that's ideal. There's no one personality that's stronger and stands out.
MJ: Above the Ocean have already played a few concerts around Évora, Lisbon and more
places! As artists, you can also assess and feel the energy of the people around you
to see! How has the audience reacted?
AV: Well, the reaction has been nothing short of spectacular, especially at the first few concerts, we've had a fantastic reaction to our songs and we've even attracted a lot of diverse audiences who are fans of different genres, even within metal, and I think this also has a bit to do with the influences we've managed to pick up and the mix we make within our style of music. We manage to have a bit of groove, weight, melody and also some technique mixed in with the more accessible parts like the choruses, etc.
The reception has been really, really good, people coming up to us and telling us that they didn't believe that things like what we do could be done here in Portugal, in this specific case in the Alentejo. We're a band from a relatively small background and we're very grateful for that, because it's been really motivating for us to see this reaction, to feel the energy that the public gives us.
Also, even on social media, we experience a lot and feel a lot of support, not only from friends, but also from friends of friends and from those who discover us.
MJ: Is there any story or concert that stands out?
AV: It's hard not to think of the concert we gave at the FNAC in Évora as the most caricatured, it had an almost mythical status, that performance (laughs), and to this day, I think we were the most out of the box band to play at that FNAC, at least in terms of style, because on a Saturday afternoon, a band like ours, playing in a shopping center, for families who were there shopping and having the space full, it was, so to speak, quite funny, there's also a story about that concert that I'd rather not reveal. (Laughs)
MJ: Speaking of the Comendatio, it's almost on, it's going to be on June 22nd, I believe.
will be your biggest stage to date. How did the band receive the news of
having been the band with the most votes, tell us a little about the emotions you felt, how
received the news that they had won the competition?
AV: So we've been following the Comendatio (voting) contest, always with some expectation of winning. However, it's one of those things that's never guaranteed, isn't it? (laughs). There was always nervousness: could we do it? Could we not? But when we got the news we were on Live, or were we? (laughs) But yes, when we got the news, we were really happy about it, because we always thought we had the potential to go there, and especially considering our sound, which is more modern, and which fits in perfectly with the style of the festival. So that's it, we were extremely happy when we got the news that we were going to Comendatio, to show our songs to that audience and see what the reaction was.
MJ: So tell me, do you think this concert at Comendatio will change the band, will it bring you back to the fold?
more listeners and fans, and in a way it will make you grow?
AV: We want to believe so. We're going to present our songs to a larger and more varied audience than we've done so far. And what's more, the enthusiasm that this whole concert has generated also makes us want to achieve even more than we have so far. So, without a doubt, I think the concert has a lot of potential to change Above the Ocean for the better.
MJ: I think you're rehearsing a lot for this concert. You feel a bit nervous about playing
on the same stage as Vola, Humanity's Last Breath, on the same day as you. How's that
general anxiety?
AV: We've been rehearsing a lot, yes, and the nervousness, although controlled by the knowledge that we have everything we need to make a good impression, is always felt.
It's still a responsibility to be the opening band of the day, especially when we're playing with bands we're fans of, like Vola, who João (Carvalho, drummer) already wanted to see before the possibility of us playing at the festival even arose.
Humanity's Last Breath, which I particularly like, a lot due to the presence of Buster (guitarist and producer), who is a figure I admire in the modern metal scene.
Even so, I'd say that my expectations and enthusiasm are higher than my anxiety! (laughs).
We're sure of our set and we're going to show the Comendatio Music Fest audience that we have a lot to offer and that we hope to stay on the radar of many future fans who are curious to follow us in what comes next.
MJ: So in terms of future projects, it's going to be important, what's planned? Do you already have
two singles, as we mentioned earlier, is there anything else coming out? A single, an EP,
an album?
AV: We're recording our debut album! After these two singles ("Love Song" and "Therapy"), we have at least two more singles planned, one of which is almost finished, we're still working on it and we hope to release it soon, but mainly it will be our debut album, and we felt the need to put out the songs we've been playing at our concerts and start doing new things, because we've been betting a lot on audiovisuals. Releasing songs, along with video clips, which has all been done by us internally, as a band, and has taken up more time than would be ideal. So we're going to try to speed things up a bit (laughs), so that we can get more music out there instead of releasing singles and videos in trickles, as has been the case so far.
MJ: As you said, you have two singles plus two more planned, but how many songs can we expect?
in your live performances?
AV: Well, if you think about it, we've probably got around seven or eight songs so far, depending on the time of the concert itself. Although it's a funny thing, because in terms of songs, we have lots, and there's a big discrepancy, because fortunately we don't have any problems or difficulties composing, and we even have to make a selection and re-learn how to play some of them many times. As for the album, we're also going to have to make a list of the songs we play most regularly at the moment, because otherwise we'd have enough material to release two and a half albums (laughs), for everything we already have and, in this case, for what's coming next.
MJ: Can we expect any surprise songs on Comendatio? Anything you haven't played before?
AV: Who knows! We've been careful to choose a setlist that fits in with the festival, and one of the songs we're going to play will be the next single, which isn't necessarily new, because we've already played it live and we're excited to see what the reaction of the Comendatio audience will be to our songs.
MJ: Apart from Comendatio, which I think is going to be one of your biggest concerts, you're also going to
play in July at the RCA Club, which is one of Lisbon's mythical venues. You've played in Lisbon before,
in a smaller room, and going to the RCA can also be a good lever, as it's a place where you already
great bands have passed through.
AV: Yes, we're also very excited about going to the RCA, for now, because it's our return to Lisbon, and there it is, as you said, a mythical room, with excellent conditions, we're really excited to return to the capital and give our best again, this time to a bigger audience than the last time we went to Lisbon, and of course also to present more songs, which we didn't have at the time, and receiving the invitation to the RCA and participating in that festival, with international bands as well, was very good and we want to go there and make a good impression.
MJ: So we can say that this summer is going to be a good one for Above the Ocean...
AV: Absolutely! It's certainly going to be our most active summer so far, and we're very grateful to have the opportunity to practically, yes, almost every summer month have a concert booked or lined up, so we can go around spreading our sound to that audience!
MJ: Going back to the singles, "Love Song" has a Lo-Fi Synthwave version, which I had
opportunity to listen, and curiously this song has an intro very similar to the song
"Everything Ends" by the Architects, which I happen to be a big fan of, but your version came out
a few months earlier, how did you react to hearing that excerpt?
AV: (Laughs) Some people have already commented on that! Okay, if it had been the other way around, it would have been more annoying, because we copied the Architects, but ours came out first, but it's still curious, because the Architects ended up being one of our big influences too. This version of "Love Song" also ended up being born out of my playing, more towards the electronic side, and not wanting to reveal too much here, it's possible that there will be more surprises of this kind on the album. In fact, we also make use of electronics, as you can hear in Therapy, which has some heavy sample parts, and we really like to explore aspects, not just metal, but also electronics. But yes, it's a funny story, and I think it's excellent in terms of composition and production, because it's a sign that we're getting there and thinking like the big bands. (Laughs)
MJ: Before this interview, we chatted for a while and ended up talking about your Merch,
and you mentioned that you design your merch. Where do you get your inspiration from?
designs? Merch is very important for bands and yours has had good adherence and this
also helps you to grow.
AV: It's certainly helped us, and as you said, it's one of the ways that bands manage to get some money, apart from concerts, is precisely merchandise, and in terms of inspiration, I'm usually inspired by the lyrical content of the songs or even what they make me feel, so to speak. Of course, having me as a designer, being able to bet on these things within the band, has been an asset for us. We also have Bagorro, who works with video, and who is a great help when it comes to music videos, working together with Diogo Fragoso, who is practically an honorary member of the band, has done an excellent job and so this component that we have, of not just being musicians and being able to be multifaceted, has helped the band a lot.
MJ: Thank you very much André for this time in this beautiful city of Évora.
Artists: Above the Ocean
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