Das Album der Chilenen MAR DE GRISES heißt “Draining The Waterheart” und lebt kein Stück vom Exotenbonus. Es gehört vielmehr zum Besten, was die Doom-Szene in den vergangenen Jahren herausgebracht hat. Grund genug, mit Lead-Gitarrero Rodrigo Morris aus Santiago zu plaudern – er kam just zurück von der Europa-Tour.InterviewSo, what’s up with MAR DE GRISES?



I think in those four years before the release of the new album we had a big change in the music and in the way that we worked that; Marcelo left the band and it took us a long time to find a person that could match our needs. We tried with a couple of guys but it didn’t work. Luckily, and in the right moment, Juan entered the band and it has been great since then.
I guess in a way a lot of music was left behind... I mean a lot.



What’s so grey, that you chose this band-name?



The name is more like “Sea of Greys”. The name has different meanings for all of us, for me personally it means our city, the buildings, the problems, the bad emotions, the grey air. And how this affects our hearts, which are sailing there. For other members maybe its like a painting, an emotion, etc... It has a grey blurry meaning actually.



What about working in the studio?
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The production was made by us and Raphael Franca at Pig Power studios, here, in our country. It was a long process because the sound engineer couldn’t dedicate too much time for this, so we had meetings every two weeks for mixing and lots of trouble with the hardware. I guess the last day of mastering we spent like 48 hrs awake because we were on the time limit with our record label, so maybe the production of the album wasn’t that pleasing, although the result is good.



Let us do the music talking….



I guess our music has always been introspective, very free in form and aesthetics and we sometimes try to express more than feelings; maybe ideas, concepts, etc... So we are not really bound to any cliche. Anyway, yes, we like Doom Metal, Death Metal, Electronic, Pop, Avant garde , etc, etc... We try to search, as any good musician should do, our own sound. For me this album is the end of a process, a moment in life, like the apple falling from its tree, and the tree is our search for innocence; the eternal fight between mind and heart.



What means playing Doom foy you. Many “Doomster” are in “reality” funny people with a good sense of humour. So: Why you are playing so depressive music?



I think we are normal people; we like to laugh like everybody and talk a lot. For me our music (maybe it’s doom, maybe not) is just expressive, reflective music, and reactive to our surroundings. We have problems, joys, darkness and light, like everybody. I don’t believe our music to be “depressive”; we just show a part of us.



Tell me something about your lyrics. Why don’t you sing more in Spanish?



The lyrics are just a translation of what Juan or Alejandro (they write them) feel. They don’t have any particular subject that they want to write about. Or maybe they do, but don’t know exactly what is it. I think they just try to maintain honest to their emotions at the moment of writing, at least that is what they feel and want, even if maybe they don’t do it after all.
So, basically, our lyrics can come from any single aspect or element that surrounds us in our daily lives, our experience, but not before having passed across our inner worlds in the form of an emotion or opinion.
As for the language, sometimes we feel that the idea/emotion that we want to express in some lyrics suits better in Spanish and sometimes in English. Or sometimes we just don’t have or know the precise word in English to refer to something that we feel. The language is just the channel and we choose it according just to what I told you, nothing more.




Politics? What do you think about Nazis in metal?



As a band we are not into politics, our lyrics and music doesn’t belong there and we don’t support any side.
About Nazis, personally I think that is plain stupidity. Any idea of racism or free hate to another person is a sign of a primitive mind and blindness of the heart. It is hard to believe for me that there are still Nazis in the world and in music; it is just wrong.





How do you estimate the development of MAR DE GRISES?



I don’t really know if the reactions will be the same as for the first album.
The compositions on the new album are maybe more mature in terms of interpretation and maybe we experimented with different things now more than in the last album. But, after all, I think the essence of our music remains the same; hopefully, people will reach to the core of our soundscapes just to notice that our intentions behind are still the same, even if maybe at first you can’t notice it. That’s why I have the feeling that the opinions about this new material will be as good as in the last one.



. What about touring? And are you happy with the cult-label Firebox?



Yes, we had our second tour in Europe with Saturnus and Thurizas. It was a really great experience; the tour lasted a month, playing almost every day and people were very enthusiastic in most of the gigs. We got a lot of good comments about the shows and the cd’s. So, in the future, we plan to do more shows in Europe and aim at the big festivals maybe (if everything goes well).
We are in Firebox because they got interested in our music, and it was the best deal we could have. It’s far away indeed but things have worked just fine.



Where do you come from exactly? What about your local scene? And the metal-scene in Chile in general?



We all live in Santiago now, but Juan is from Iquique, Sergio is from Rancagua and R. Gálvez is from Viña del Mar, all of them different cities in our country. I believe in Chile there are a lot of people interested in metal but they don’t buy cd’s in the gigs and you can’t charge too much for the ticket because they just won’t buy it... So we don’t have too much money to produce many gigs; in fact we don’t play too much in Chile, and in Santiago there are just a few good venues to play so it’s hard to hire them.



Chile especially: what does this mean for you? And what about things, many people were thinking of: Allende, Chile under Pinochet (you or your family experienced something?), german war-refugees (or war-criminals) found new home in chile, chile is very interesting for tourists because of tradition and high mountains (the “Anden”, Fireland, Easter-Isles….), also the indians are famous (but aren’t they oppressed by the government=), strong catholic religion and something more, tell us something about "your Chile.



Chile is growing fast in many ways and because of that we have lots of problems. Mostly in Santiago (Chile is very centralized in Santiago), there’s a lot of pollution, traffic, people, crime... So when we travel to Europe we see many differences in the way of living. I think that Chile has got a lot of energy, but we’re still growing. We were born under Pinochet’s government so a huge part of the cultural identity was lost because, for instance, all folk music and many artistic expressions were banned, so now I think we are re-inventing again our identity...but that part has been very slowly.
We indeed have very beautiful and interesting landscapes. The majesty of The Andes mountain chain (it is our boundary with Argentina), the spirituality and tradition of the Easter Island… Chile is in general a very varied country in terms of geography: In the north, we have the most arid desert of the world, the Atacama desert; in the south, we have gorgeous forests, rivers and actually lots of rain. So, at least in that aspect Chile is a beautiful and varied country.
So personally I love the nature we have in Chile, the mountains, forest, deserts, but the cities aren’t that nice.
As for the German war criminals, some of the have been caught, some are still free.