Guitarist Carlos Lozano of Persefone joins me to discuss the re-issue of the band’s debut album “Truth Inside the Shades”. Read on to learn all the fun details!
George: When did the idea to re-make the new album first come about?
Carlos: I actually remember exactly the day. We played at Karmøygeddon fest in Norway. I think it was like 2 years ago. And we were coming back home and I was in the car with Bobby and Moe talking about the future and I don’t remember who said that. Because making a new album for Persefone is a pretty long and heavy task, we thought it would be nice to revisit the album cos it was the 15th anniversary and re-record everything and make this happen for the fans and the people who never had a chance to listen to the music. That was like 2 years ago, and in the moment it felt like a really good idea, because it would be fast and easy, but no… it wasn’t easy and fast.
G: I thought it was a very cool idea because it’s the only Persefone album that I didn’t really dig into, so having a refreshed version heavily produced like this was really really cool!
C: Yes. We wrote that album in one week, and I don’t really like it myself now, but back then it was our best effort in writing music and we were pretty proud of it. We got to sign with a record label and to play live. Now I’m older and what we were thinking with that music… it’s not really well written, even some ideas in the production were not that good. It was fun because re-recording with Moe it was like ‘That was so cool for us 15 years ago and now it’s so cringe. Let’s try to fix it somehow.’. It will be easier for the fans to listen to it now and it’s a piece of history.
G: Well I’m no expert, but I really enjoyed it, and I actually wanted to ask you, since you’ve evolved so much, are there any moments in this album especially the original, that you thought were really bad.
C: Most of it.
G: Oh God.
C: Yeah, you keep evolving and we use to study a lot as musicians and when you record that, it’s like the internet, you make a video and regret it in the future and you cannot believe that you did it back then. It’s kind of the same. But it’s fun because here in Andorra the album was something else and we were the first metal band and for some people, they really like that and it’s their favorite one. But most of the time when I was re-recording that with Moe we had these nostalgic feelings like “You remember when we wrote that? Yeah we were completely broke and we were trying to make history with music.’. Most of it is immature, it’s many notes and a little bit cringe sometimes.
G: Well you can take it from me that it’s pretty good then.
C: Now it’s better I think. And of course, I sung on the first album, and I hated that part, I didn’t want to do that, but there wasn’t anyone to do that and I wanted to have the band and I did it myself because no one did. I hate my voice, I cannot sing, and Marc did an amazing take on the new one. I love what he did.
G: Yeah, I felt that way too. So now that you brought up what happened with this solo, I wanted to ask you if you aimed to change anything? Because I don’t know the original that well but I felt like some parts were different.
C: Yes, I tried to re-arrange the songs a little bit. Everything that was painful cringe for me, like drums ideas and some bridges. That’s out. I remember I learned to play the whole tone scale at some point, and it was new for me back then, and I fitted that really badly in a song, and in the re-recording I deleted that.
G: Oh so you were excited about what you had learned and wanted it on the album no matter what?
C: No matter what, I was like “I’m a genius musician, I will put this scale on this song.” And that part is horrible so I completely deleted that and did some sextuplets now that I’m a little faster with my guitar and more technical, and we did some ideas that are more complex and there are little surprises here and there.
G: So from the sound of the lead guitar parts, it seemed to me that it had a bit of an Yngwie Malmsteen and Steve Vai feel. So what were your guitar heroes and influences around the time when you wrote it?
C: When it comes to influences, Yngwie has been one of the big influences. Two weeks ago I turned 40 years old and I started playing guitar in the 90s so Malmsteen was big. Not Vai,Steve Vai. He is not like a big influence. I like his playing, I like the guy but he never was an influence. But Malmsteen was, and you can tell because there are some neoclassical stuff on the album and back then that was the shit. I like that, but not anymore for Persefone, but I got to play all that stuff like the harmonic minor again, so I tapped with that influence again and it was fun, cos I have this single coil guitar like Yngwie and I tried to go full neoclassical with some stuff and back then I was really into that and Jason Becker and Marty Friedman and all the classics.
G: So has the re-recording brought back any special memories?
C: Lots of them, especially for Moe and I, because we were kind of alone when we wrote that. We had these moments feeling grateful that we are together many years later as friends, and it was fun and we laughed, and everything that makes you laugh with your friends is a good moment, and with Moe who is like my brother now we have many memories. We kept poking at each other like “You remember when you did this, you are such a bad musician”. It was like producing ourselves again and it was a magic moment back then.
G: Now you already mentioned this. You said that when you wrote the original you wrote it in about a week and a half. Why did you have to do it so fast?
C: The story is really fun. Moe and I started doing the whole band thing when we were 16 years old, and we came to Andorra. And in Spain there were other metal bands and they were doing great. But here in Andorra there weren’t any so we wanted to be the first one. If you hit first you hit twice. So we started making this album, we had one song, and someone told me that there is a black metal band and they are recording an album RIGHT NOW and I was like “No way, we need to do it first”. So we wrote everything and recorded it, and that band didn’t exist anymore. I don’t know what was with that guy, it was a fake thing, but I took it seriously and I was really stressed out to be the first metal band in the country. So we did the album very very fast because we thought there was another band trying to be what we wanted to be. We wanted to be the first, and we were the first and the only apparently. It was stressful cos we worked day jobs and we wrote at night, and I remember that we would start writing at 9 o’clock in the evening and stop at like 5 o’clock in the morning and then go back to the jobs. No sleep, but we wanted to be the first ones, we were like “Those guys are recording right now, we are writing”, but there wasn’t another band, so it was a stupid thing to do.
G: Well, I get you’ve learned your lessons, so how long does producing an album, at least the writing take for the later ones?
C: We did Shin-Ken in one month as well, so that kept repeating. And when I say we ‘did’ I mean we wrote and recorded the album in one month.
G: So you didn’t really learn your lesson…
C: No…
G: Well it still worked out, I mean that album is really good.
C: Yeah, well like with the new album it’s kind of the same, we have the studio booked, and we are fucking late again.
G: Well at least now you know you can pull it off.
C: Hopefully!
G: So looking back in the past, what advice would you give to yourself now?
C: For the first album, nothing, because it had to be that way. It was beautiful, it was stressful but we were so naïve. If I had the opportunity to say something to myself, nothing for that album. For the next albums to myself, not the band, I think that the point of making music is making music, not the business, not the way I look, not the way I talk or the videos. I kind of hate that because I hate to pose. So all my career I was trying to be all about the music, if the music is good nothing else matters at all. But that’s a lie. If you want to grow, you have to pay attention to all the other stuff, and I have learned that now. So that’s good advice, take care of everything. For me it’s a big part about the music but if you want to have a band and reach people you need to take care of everything else.
G: So how has the pandemic affected the production of the album?
C: It was quite good because we had more time.
G: Really?
C: Yes, we were in a rush. I mean this situation is horrible for everyone, that’s it. But if you ask me about the production of the album, we had more time which is good because we were a little bit late. In general, it’s a horrible thing, but musically otherwise it doesn’t affect that much. I mean I like life and the world and I live in the world, and I live as you live, with my responsibilities and everything. When I make music, I try to escape a little bit from that, because music and the message and the spiritual part of life is my world. I cannot live there all the time because I’m a human being, I need to be present here with you and to do my stuff, but when it comes to music, I can afford being in another place. I remember when I started meditation and they explained to me how to do it properly and the correct attitude towards life at that moment is to be sitting in silence, and everything can wait for half an hour. Those are my moments, writing music and meditating, and the pandemic is there, but when I sit down with Moe and Bobby and whatever and we start writing music, there’s nothing else. And that’s a beautiful thing. So, when it comes to the writing process it doesn’t affect us at all, when it comes to the production it’s good cos we have more time, and when it comes to everything else it’s a piece of shit, it’s horrible and I hope it goes away very soon.
G: So once the whole pandemic thing is over and you can start doing shows again, would you consider playing songs from this ‘very bad’ album you just recorded?
C: Not at all. Not even one, because the new album is so fucking amazing, we need to play new songs. I mean, ‘Aathma’ is a good level, but the next songs are like far away when it comes to the writing and everything. Maybe here in Andorra, we can learn the old songs and do one show here in Andorra for the people who know the first album. I had this idea, because we had other members back then so I could contact them again and then maybe do one show, and I can try to sing again and we can have a small show for the heck of nostalgic feelings. But the production of the new shows with Persefone is on another level, everything with the lights and songs and the new album is something else so we cannot mix them at all.
G: Ok, so let’s get into the new stuff! So what is the progress status with the new album.
C: We are really close to finish the songwriting, and then we expect to go record in January and then we expect to go mix it in February. With the songwriting we are still a bit tight with the schedule, but yeah hopefully that will be the right thing to do.
G: Yeah that’s really cool to hear, I’m really looking forward to it.
C: Let’s see. Let’s see. It’s a very guitar oriented album as well. It’s very cinematic, but not full of keyboards like Aathma. It’s guitar and drums, and I hope the drums will be really loud in the mix. Anyway, I cannot wait to have it out.
G: Well I can’t wait to hear it, and all the best producing it. I have one more question. When the whole pandemic thing is over what’s the first thing you’re gonna do?
C: I will hug a lot of people. I will go on the street hugging everyone… like even people I don’t know. I think this pandemic is something interesting because everything teaches you something. The thing I’m having a hard time with is, I want to see people again, because we are human beings and we are supposed to be close to each other, and I want to go to a show as well. I’m not the kind of guy that goes to shows and to mosh, but I kind of want to do that. I like martial arts, so I want to do that again, to fight with someone. I want this contact with people, and of course it also goes with the guys and playing live as well. That’s something you can expect, of course I miss it.
Find Persefone on their social media platforms and Bandcamp!
