OneMetal.com INTERVIEW:
Breed77 Talks to OneMetal

Saturday 14th November, 7:00am- As I watch the sun rise over Palma`s marina and the first rays reach out across the horizon, I find myself smiling with a warm glow at the thought of seeing and interviewing an awesome band tonight- unfortunately that warmth isn`t enough to keep the icy temperature from rattling my bones 11 hours later standing outside Newcastle`s Carling Academy where I`m about to get the lowdown on all things Breed77 and their stunning new album- Insects.

Thankfully it`s not long before I`m sitting in the upper front lounge of the tour bus with vocalist Paul Isola and guitarist Danny Felice as they roll a couple of the biggest “herbal” (ahem!!!) cigarettes I`ve seen in a long time!

The mood is (unsurprisingly) calm and chilled out as we get the interview underway:-

OneMetal:The new album “Insects” is a lot heavier than your previous albums- almost harking back to the early days when Breed were starting out- was this a conscious decision or is that just the way things turned out when you started writing?

Paul: I don`t think we were trying to hark back, I personally didn`t notice the similarities to the first album `til way after we finished recording this album. I think the intention was we just wanted to be harder, more exciting- if anything, we thought about pace, the album was written as a live set whereas the previous album (In My Blood) was very, erm, not contrived but too prepared and too different to what live is- we heavied it up alot for the live show and so with “Insects”, when we were selecting the songs for the album, we wanted it to feel like a live set, you know? Start with a bang, end with a bang and have the slower, like, ballads in the middle and so we dropped the mid-tempo stuff and pushed each other to get the best metal/rock performance out of each other to keep it exciting.
I think, in this day and age it`s really important that if you want to make a statement, you dont go out and whisper, you scream and that`s what we`re doing.

OneMetal:And how are you finding the more aggressive vocals now that you`ve started touring the album?

Paul: it`s definitely harder `cause you`re pushing more and more and you`ve still got to sing the other stuff too and it`s challenging but I think, as a musician, you should always be challenged.

OneMetal: it`s always good to push the envelope….

Paul: Yeah yeah, I think the last album vocally was pushed on range and not intensity whereas here it`s just been pushed wherever it needed to go because of where the music was going and it all just came together- there was no masterplan you know? ha ha- breed dont do masterplans!

OneMetal: Also on this album, there seems to be alot more guitar-duelling, swapping solo`s compared to before?

Danny: Yeah, when were composing we wanted to be a bit more technical and complex with the solo`s- In My Blood had a more classical rock sort of feel but this time we wanted a heavier approach.

Myself and Pedro (Caparros- other guitarist) are from the school of Iron Maiden, King Diamond, Judas Priest- I love two guitarists trading solo`s and me and Pedro have two completely different styles that compliment each other really well- also the duelling saves any arguments about who`s going to do the solo ha ha ha!

OneMetal: I noticed that there doesn`t seem to be as much spanish guitar on “Insects” either- was that the intention? Did you feel like you had to move away from that now considering it`s been a major part of the “Breed sound”?

Danny: Well the spanish style playing is still there, it`s just that alot of it is played with a heavy sound, loads of distortion so it isn`t as obvious- there`s a spanish section in the instrumental, “The Temple…..” that`s totally flamenco but with the heavier guitar sound and you don`t notice as much as if it was done on acoustic guitar.

Paul: there`s about four tracks on “Insects” with that sound on there so we still have that element included but without saturating it like on IMB.

OneMetal:You released a full spanish vocal version of “In My Blood”- will you do the same for “Insects”?

Paul: Yes, we`ll be releasing “Insectos” for our latin market and fans later..

OneMetal:Does it have a significant impact on your album sales to do so?

Danny: Absolutely, yes, in Spain and South America although they like hearing the english version, they prefer to have it in spanish so they know what we`re singing and understand the songs a bit more.

OneMetal:Vocally, how difficult is the translation in respect of the confines of the existing vocal melodies?

Paul: Horribly horribly so!!! (laughs) When we write the songs we get the vocal melodies together and I ask everyone to give me words- words that they feel the music is expressing but when translating those words to Spanish, because the phonetics are so different and the accentuations on a word can mean so many things, we end up having to do 3 or 4 drafts of the lyrics to be absolutely sure that they make sense and whilst it can be a chore, it`s something we do for the fans because we are able to do that.

OneMetal:It`s no secret that you guys like to “get high” now and again and for reference, Motley Crue`s Nikki Sixx has been quoted as saying he wrote his best songs when he was “high as a kite”- does it influence the writing process with you at all?

Danny: (laughs) In my defence, the material I wrote for this album was done totally sober- I hadn`t smoked for 2 and 1/2 years and it wasn`t until we were in the studio recording that I started again ha ha- maybe that`s why the songs are heavier, I was more energized!!!

Paul: It`s not a necessity- if something is a necessity it becomes a crutch- it`s more a lifestyle choice rather than a musical one and if it was taken away it wouldn`t affect the music.

OneMetal:So, new album- another new drummer in Oscar Zamora, what`s going on with you guys? you`re getting a reputation like Spinal Tap!!!??

(laughs all round)

Danny: it`s just coincidence…..

Paul: We bury them at the end of every tour..

Danny: Well Pete, who we had before moved back to Gibralta to start a family and made a completely different lifestyle choice, then we got Adam but although technically he was a good drummer, he was never into what we do musically and didn`t live the music like us and then we were fortunate to meet Oscar and he was already a Breed fan and an excellent drummer and it all came together really easy with him.

OneMetal:How do you now see yourselves on a global scale as a band? Is the fanbase still growing and expanding worldwide?

Paul: Well we`re an international band without an international budget but we don`t let that stop us, you know? Some bands will do a UK tour and then you don`t hear of them again until the next UK tour but with us, as soon as we`re finished touring one country, we`re off to another any way we can so that we`re constantly gaining more fans and things are pointing upwards- trust me, we wouldn`t be doing this s*** if things were going downwards.

Danny: yeah, like when we finish this UK tour we`re off to Spain for a series of shows that`ll take us into mid-December and then who knows???

OneMetal:Any plans for the festival circuit next year?? e.g Download??

Paul: yeah, we`ve got people looking and hopefully we`ll be on some festivals next year- because of the set-backs with the album, we`ve been off the scene especially on the UK festival circuit but….

Danny: sorry for interrupting but that`s the thing- I think it`s important to know that we`ve been off the scene so long because we`ve been setting up our own label, it takes time to get the budget, to get the whole works going and we would`ve liked to have got the album done sooner but it wasn`t possible so we had to address the situation and see what we could do- but it`s worked out- it`s working now so we`ll see.

OneMetal:How do you see the future of music going now with so many record labels/distributors etc “going under” and the fact that alot of people are turning to the internet and digital downloads???

Paul: I think it`ll carry on like this for awhile but this is a $billion industry that, one way or another, has got to save it`s ass- they ignored digital for so long that now they`re playing catch-up and the record companies will become different beasts completely.

Danny: I think they`ll come up with another new format- something that works better that will sustain them- we`ve seen it before with tape, then vinyl, then cd`s and everything in between. They`ve got the money and the brains to do it so I think they`ll work very hard because they can`t afford to lose that money.

OneMetal:You end the album “Insects” with a cover of The Cranberries track “Zombie” that you released on your last single “Look At Me Now” back in 2007- what`s the reason behind this?

Paul: Well it`s a very popular song and whilst it`s been available digitally there`s still a hell of a lot of people that just buy albums who maybe don`t have it and we felt it was worthy of being an album track- plus we re-recorded it, added a few things and made it as heavy as possible because it had to close a heavy album.

Danny: We actually have 2 different mixes of the album- the first mix was done by Will (Maya) but because of the time we had available waiting to get the album out we had it remixed by Scott Atkins and feel that he`s given the album an even heavier, more metal sound.

OneMetal:Do you guys keep-up with the music scene and when you`re not touring do you get to go to many shows?

Danny: I do- I currently DJ in the London clubs so I`m always listening to new stuff.

Paul: Yeah we`re following Alice In Chains around the country at the moment on this tour- can`t get f**kin` tickets ANYWHERE!!!!! ha ha. We share music cos we`re all music fans first and foremost- you get into a band because you like some other band before.

Danny: we still get excited about music.

OneMetal:Tonights show is number 4 and the album doesn`t come out for another 2days- has that had an effect on the fans reception to the new album?

Paul: This is about sticking to our guns and going “hey man, you may not know this s*** but this is our new stuff and you`re gonna love it in a couple of months so get listening”- there`s always a transition from one album to another and we`ve been here before, not knowing how things are going to go and not expecting anything but at the same time hoping it`s going to be well received- everything we put out there is in the lap of the gods- we can only wait and see what happens.

Danny: That said, we all truly believe that this is the best album we have ever done- I can say that with hand on heart- it is- whenever we`ve had a vision of what we wanted to achieve, this is it without doubt.

OneMetal:And I certainly agree- it`s an absolute stormer!!! And with that, gentlemen, I`ll leave you in peace to get ready for the show and on behalf of OneMetal.com and all our readers- thank you very much for your time and best of luck for the rest of the tour.

Danny/Paul: Thank you- you`re welcome. See ya later.