EMQ's

EMQ’s with OVERTOUN

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EMQ’s with OVERTOUN

Hi Everyone. Welcome to our new EMQ’s interview with Santiago, Chile/Boston, USA based Thrash/Groove/Death Metal band Overtoun! Huge thanks to guitarist Matias for taking part!
What is your name, what do you play and can you tell us a little bit about the history of the band?
Hi Rick and friends of Ever Metal, thanks a lot for having us here. This is Matias, guitarist from Overtoun.
We are a Death/Thrash Metal band formed in 2014. The group started in high school as a cover band, when Agustin (drummer) and I met. Both of us wanted to play songs from the 80’s thrash metal era, signing up in a lot of ‘battle of the bands’ competitions and stuff like that. We didn’t have a full time vocalist at the time but a couple of friends that could sing helped us out. I would say that the first official line-up was Agustin, me and Cristobal (bass), a friend of ours that we met from another school. The three of us started to write our first songs and original music.
After high school all of us went to college, and I went to study to Berklee in Boston in 2017. That’s when I met the missing ingredient, Yoav, who is a bass player that was in my same Metal ensemble. Yoav knows a bunch of people in the metal scene, so I asked him to recommend me a death metal singer for the band, and he told me that he could do the job. That’s when we started to record our debut album “Centuries Of Lies”, that was released in 2018.
Early this year we parted ways with Cristobal, and then our new bass player Guillermo joined the band. With him we did our first tour and right now we are in the middle of the recordings of our second album. It has been quite a ride ever since.
How did you come up with your band name?
It’s kind of funny how we came up with the name. One day we were hanging out in my house, it was one of the first rehearsals we had. Obviously we needed a name, something creepy and catchy that had a concept we could work on. We started looking online for the weirdest places in the world, and that’s when the Overtoun Bridge came out. It is a bridge from Scotland where dogs commit suicide. We liked the mystery of the place and how the name sounded, so we took it from there.
What country are you from and what is the Metal/Rock scene like there?
The three of us (Agustin, Guillermo and me) are from Santiago, capital city of Chile. Although Yoav lives in Boston, he is from Mexico City. I would say that the Chilean Metal scene is complicated, right now there are a lot of new and interesting groups that try to do things professionally, however the audience is not really that supportive of local bands. It is quite hard to get noticed and make people come to the shows. There are not big record labels or promoters that get interested in smaller bands. Nevertheless, we know that we have to work harder and harder to get our name out there, and keep improving our art and music, building a fan base and so on. We hope that Chilean Metal also gets recognized abroad, so everyone from the scene gets better opportunities to develop their careers.
What is your latest release? (Album, EP, Single or Video)
Our latest release is the video of ‘Aftermath’, a song from our first album “Centuries Of Lies”, that came up in December last year.
‘Centuries’ was a hard album to make, we had a lot of differences in the creative process that extended the production time, however we moved forward and I think we ended up with a good product, obviously there are a lot of things to improve, but we learned a lot from the process.
I’m glad that people liked the album, we’ve had nothing but great comments and support from international media and local press.
Who have been your greatest influences?
I think that our greatest influence will always be Metallica, Agustin and I have been Metallica fans since middle school and every time they come to Chile we try and go see them live. Also Pantera is a big influence for us, it was very painful to say goodbye to Dime and Vinnie. Death is another influence for the band, and now Guillermo got us into the music of Mudvayne, Jinjer, Arch Enemy, Epica and stuff like that. Yoav also showed us music of Power Trip, Blotted Science, Atheist, etc. I’m really happy for him that he got to be the new bassist for Atheist, he really deserves that gig.
What first got you into music?
For me personally what got me into music was my dad’s CD collection. He had a couple of records from Metallica, Guns ‘n Roses, Pearl Jam and such, and watching their videos online made me pick up the guitar. They all looked so cool and I could feel the connection that the artist had with the audience.
If you could collaborate with a current band or musician who would it be?
We’d be down to collaborate with Jinjer or Gojira, those two are the bands that are kind of spreading Metal all over the world, it would be really nice to do something with them.
If you could play any festival in the world, which would you choose and why?
It would be great to play Wacken Open Air. I think that ever since I started getting into Metal, Wacken was one of those festivals that always came to the picture as the biggest reunion of metalheads. That would be great for us, to share our music for fans from all over the world.
What’s the weirdest gift you have ever received from a fan?
Once when we were on tour, a strange looking man gave us an unpacked bar of chocolate that was melted. It was gross, but we laughed so hard and made up a lot of funny stories from that situation.
If you had one message for your fans, what would it be?
Thanks for all the support you’ve been giving us; without them nothing would be possible, at the end of the day all the music we create belongs to them! See you on the mosh pit!
If you could bring one Metal/Rock star back from the dead, who would it be?
I would bring back Dimebag or Cliff Burton. Both of them made a huge influence in my music, and to see them perform only once would be priceless.
What do you enjoy the most about being a musician? And what do you hate?
The thing I enjoy the most is playing live, there is nothing better than going up to the stage and headbang over the songs. What I hate is the feeling of self doubt that a lot of us have to deal with, it is a hard business so we have to keep our minds clear and do our best.
If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?
Negativity and bringing down the work of other musicians; if we are collaborative and support the work of our colleagues the scene will grow, and that will benefit us all.
Name one of your all-time favourite albums?
Pantera – “Vulgar Display Of Power”
What’s best? Vinyl, Cassettes, CD’s or Downloads?
I’m a vinyl and CD lover, I think there is nothing better than the physical format. I’m a vinyl collector too, at home I have lots of albums from my favourite bands.
What’s the best gig that you have played to date?
I guess it was the last gig of our first tour, we were performing really good and the sound was badass, every now and then we watch videos from that performance, we hope to do that again in the future.
If you weren’t a musician, what else would you be doing?
Maybe astrophysics or geology, I like science a lot. Also I love cooking, maybe something like that would be cool. By the way Agustin cooks really good American-style burgers, haha.
Which five people would you invite to a dinner party?
I would invite the guys in the band and our producer Pancho. We always have fun together and every time we hang out there is good food on the table.
What’s next for the band?
At the moment we are planning live shows for 2020 and the release of our second album titled “This Darkness Feels Alive”. This new album is great, we all loved the process and how the songs turned out. We were recording in Estudio del Sur, the best studio in the country, it was really beautiful and inspiring. I hope you guys can have the new music soon!
What Social Media/Website links do you use to get your music out to people?
www.overtoun.com
https://www.facebook.com/OvertounOfficial/
https://www.instagram.com/overtounofficial/?hl=en
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLi-joj2KFw
https://open.spotify.com/album/5jS0LFRA9jSubanKjZ4EZZ?si=HCqPHhK9Q9Wad8qWB6Yx9g
Jaffa Cakes! Are they a cake or a biscuit?
I’m not from the UK so I had to look it up online, haha. It looks like a biscuit but they say it’s a cake so I’ll go for cake.
Thank you for your time. Is there anything else that you would like to add?
Thanks a lot for the interview! We are really glad to be here and thank you for sharing our music!!
 
 
Disclaimer: This interview is solely the property of Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this interview, unless you have the strict permission of both parties. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.

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