MATRIARCH Interview for Argyope (2017)

Un des groupes interviewés dans ARGYOPE #10 voudrait voir son interview en ligne en plus du papier, alors voici....reproduction partielle n'est-ce pas...Si vous me dites que vous avez déjà entendu parler de ce groupe, chapeau! Cinq musiciennes, Ara Lopez (guitares, chant), Michelle Baez (claviers), Isabel Conde (basse, chant), Vanessa Urrutia (guitares, chant) et Shamara Irizarry (batterie, chant) se réunissent en 2002 pour fonder BLACK APPLES. Elles sortent la démo éponyme (donc "Black Apples") en 2003, après quoi Michelle Baez et Ara Lopez tireront leurs révérences. Entre temps le groupe s'est rebaptisé MATRIARCH. Il faudra attendre 4 ans pour l'enregistrement et la sortie d'un premier album, autoproduit s'il vous plaît, "Revered Unto Ages", sachant que matriarch a composé des titres comme "Sinful Decadence" en 2004 ou "Profanity" en 2005. Malheureusement le groupe splitte peu après, Matriarch effectuera un dernier concert en 2008 pour la release party. A noter que le morceau "The Damsel Of Death" figure sur la compilation de 2015 "The Distorted Island: Heavy Metal Music and Community in Puerto Rico" qui accompagne le documentaire du même nom. Why and how did you pick "Black Apples" as a name for the band? Is it related to "Snow White" fairy tale, when the evil Queen brings poisoned apples to the heroin? Shamara – I honestly don’t remember how I came up with this name. I came up with it years ago and use it as a nickname in message boards and forums. Then when I started the band we decided to use it temporarily since we didn’t have a name yet. It has nothing to do with the Snow White fairy tale. Which are the band's influences? I suppose Cradle Of Filth, Theatre Of Tragedy (with Liv Kristin), My Dying Bride are some of them, especially with female voice? Isa and Shamara - For musical influences we have to mention Hypocrisy, Darkthrone, Bolt Thrower , Death , My dying bride, Kampfar, Finntroll, Amon Amarth, Kreator, Old Dimmu Borgir, Borknagar. For female voices and band’s with vocalists that inspired us definitely Therion, The Sins of thy Beloved, Tristania, Sinister, Morbid Angel, Opera IX and Cadaveria. Who is in charge of Matriarch artwork and logo? Isa and Shamara - For the logo we had some friends that gave us ideas as well as myself (Isa). We liked one particular logo a friend made for us and we decided to work with that one then that logo was changed a little bit and that’s how the current logo ended. The artwork for the shirts, demo and album cover we all came with the ideas as a group and different people worked on the art. I (Isa) made the drawing for the demo. A girl in Spain made the album cover she did an amazing job and totally describes the concept of the band. So Matriarch released their first album "Revered unto the Ages", independently in 2007, then why did you split the same year? Isa and Shamara - Releasing the album was a good experience after all the hard work we put into it. We were having some differences as a trio during the recording and we were going in a different direction musically. We tried to stick together because we loved the band and playing shows but unfortunately it did not work out. "The Damsel of Death" talks about serial killer Aileen Wuornos, what do Matriarch's lyrics usually deal with? Shamara and Isa - Interesting question. Our Lyrics are all over the place. For example, “Profanity” talks about a man planning to have its way with a woman. There are others like “Sinful Decadence” that talks about the fight between good and evil and some are about women in power.