EMQ’s with SANGRE

Hi Everyone. Welcome to our new EMQ’s interview with Los Angeles based Metal band Sangre! Huge thanks to vocalist Henry Sanchez 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?
Henry Sanchez and I am the vocalist/frontman of SANGRE. I’ll give you a quick rundown on our history; we created this band in the summer of 1999 in the city of Pomona, California. We started out playing a few cover songs and a couple originals in backyard parties all over Southern California and soon were performing at local bars and eventually clubs/venues around L.A. & Hollywood. Over the first 5 years there were a number of line-up changes, first drummers, then bassists and guitarists leaving myself as the only original member of the band. We would continue to evolve and move forward and bigger opportunities would present themselves to us via our relentless approach to playing shows and promoting our band in the streets and with the introduction of social media to a nation and worldwide audience. In 2009 we became a Jägermeister sponsored band and immediately began making in impact within the companies music program, earning a slot on the 2010 & 2012 Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival, a direct support slot in 2013 to Latin Grammy Award winning Rock band MOLOTOV on their U.S. Tour, and A slot on Welcome To Rockville 2015 in Jacksonville, Florida. Our band has toured throughout the United States many times, Mexico, and most recently Europe and the UK where we performed at Bloodstock Open Air Festival. We’ve shared the stage with the biggest names in Heavy Metal and are always ready for more.
How did you come up with your band name?
We were brainstorming for a name and weren’t satisfied with anything until our original guitarist’s sister said, “how about Sangre?” And we all looked at each other and knew it was the name we were looking for. A cool sounding name with a ton of meaning behind it! First of all it’s a Spanish word meaning “Blood” and we are all of Mexican descent so it has that connection with us. Secondly the meaning of it runs deep, literally runs deep within every one of us no matter what race you are, what culture you come from, gender, religion, whatever it is that makes us different, BLOOD or SANGRE connects us universally since the beginning of time. No matter how different we are we share that, just like music it can connect us no matter how different we all are.
What country are you from and what is the Metal/Rock scene like there?
We are from California in the United States. Here the scene varies from state to state, but overall there’s always been an underground Metal community everywhere you go. We have a decent number of Music Festivals but they are more Modern/radio Rock heavy with some Metal bands sprinkled in here and there. Nothing like Europe and all the Metal festivals they have over there.
What is your latest release? (Album, EP, Single or Video)
We will be releasing a new album on December 13th 2019 titled, “Mas Fuerte Que La Muerte” (translation is: Stronger Than Death)!
We released an official music video for one of the tracks off that forthcoming album; that song is titled ‘Death March’ and can be seen on our YouTube channel.
http://www.Youtube.com/SangreOfficial
Or direct link to that video:
https://youtu.be/lPk2EepQsNY
Also, that song, along with some older tracks are available via all streaming platforms including Spotify, Google Play, Napster, Deezer etc.…
Who have been your greatest influences?
My greatest influences in Heavy music are Layne Staley (Alice In Chains), Chino Moreno (Deftones), Phil Anselmo (Pantera), Tomas Lindberg (At The Gates), Tom Araya (Slayer), Max Cavalera (Sepultura/Soulfly), Maynard James Keenan (Tool), and Jeff Walker (Carcass).
What first got you into music?
My mom and her constant playing of music around the house for as long as i can remember! I grew up listening to my mom sing along to Motown & Oldies (Mary Wells, Smokey Robinson, Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye, WAR, Tower Of Power, etc.…) I would sing along as well and got into pop and hip hop in the 80’s. In elementary school I joined the school choir by default (my 5th grade teacher was also the choir teacher so she was the first one to show me how to sing properly). Throughout my teenage years I did freestyle rap battles and would eventually get introduced to Classic Rock and Early Metal via schoolmates. Went to my first hardcore show at a local church to see a band that some of my friends played in whose members would go on to perform in bands such as Bleeding Through and No Innocent Victim. Eventually got really into heavier music and taught myself to sing and scream by listening to a solid rotation of Slayer, Black Sabbath, Pantera, Alice In Chains and Tool.
If you could collaborate with a current band or musician who would it be?
Honestly there are too many to name but I would like to rock a track with Cypress Hill. One of my favourite hip hop groups of all time and I befriended Sen Dog a couple years ago while touring with his Rock/Rap fusion group “PowerFlo”. It would be an honour to collaborate with Cypress one day.
If you could play any festival in the world, which would you choose and why?
Well SANGRE has come a long way since our humble beginnings and we’ve had some great opportunities and have played some big festivals but there’s always bigger ones and room to grow our fanbase all over the world. I’ve been super fortunate to have performed all over the world at some of those huge festivals performing in front of thousands but with another band that I perform in and under an alias (which I can’t disclose at this time) but i would really like to get SANGRE to that level and would love for Sangre to perform at Resurrection Fest in Spain, Graspop Metal Meeting or Wacken Open Air in Germany. Those are all huge festivals!
What’s the weirdest gift you have ever received from a fan?
Next question… lol!
If you had one message for your fans, what would it be?
Support local & up and coming bands because we all start somewhere. Every big band was once a local and your support means the world to us!
If you could bring one Metal/Rock star back from the dead, who would it be?
This is a tough question because there are so many whose lives were cut short at a young age but I think I’m gonna say I’d bring back Lynn Strait (Snot). His band was on the brink of exploding and their album “Get Some” is still one of my favourite albums from beginning to end, it’s so underrated. I’m sure he and Snot would’ve become one of the biggest bands in the world had his life not been cut short.
What do you enjoy the most about being a musician? And what do you hate?
I enjoy performing music, creating is cool too but can be a pain in the ass sometimes. It’s that moment though when you finish creating a song is when you get that amazing feeling and then you can’t wait to perform it live and see others reactions to it. What do I hate? Can’t really say I hate it but let’s just say it is frustrating when politics and people with ill intentions do and say things to try and give you or your band a bad name. It’s unfortunate some people focus so much attention on trying to give others a bad name when at the end of the day we are all in the same struggle of trying to achieve something bigger for ourselves and our bands.
If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?
Change it back to how it used to be when album sales actually made you money and record deals mattered. I don’t know man, everything evolves and we just need to learn how to evolve with it to become and stay successful.
Name one of your all-time favourite albums?
Alice in Chains – “Dirt”
What’s best? Vinyl, Cassettes, CD’s or Downloads?
It depends on how you listen to music. At home vinyl is king, best sound quality and great to have those big pieces of art (album covers), CD’s were great sounding and more convenient than cassettes but now days downloads are the easiest to take your music with you anywhere you go.
What’s the best gig that you have played to date?
Personally i got to perform in Japan @ Loud Park Festival which was amazing but that was with my other band, also Wacken was Great!
With SANGRE though our best would have to be the 2010 Rockstar Mayhem Fest although it wasn’t with all the current members it was the situations surrounding the gig is what made it great. Performing at the biggest outdoor venue in our hometown area in front of at that time the biggest crowd we had ever played for and the line-up was amazing aside from us there was Hatebreed, Lamb Of God, Korn, Rob Zombie, Shadows Fall, Chimaira and more! It was an emotional and overall amazing day for me.
If you weren’t a musician, what else would you be doing?
I would probably be working a dismal job but working as an artist on the side because we know how difficult it is to become a successful artist and actually make a career of it.
Which five people would you invite to a dinner party?
Depends on what kind of party we’re talking about lol
What’s next for the band?
As for what is next for SANGRE, we will release the new album December 13th and from there we are planning to do some touring in support of it worldwide if we can make that happen. We are definitely setting our sights high for the next touring cycle!
What Social Media/Website links do you use to get your music out to people?
As many as possible, our official website:
www.SangreMetal.com
Also Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Bandcamp, and all the streaming outlets!
Jaffa Cakes! Are they a cake or a biscuit?
They seem more like a donut to me. Hahaha!
Thank you for your time. Is there anything else that you would like to add?
Thank you for giving me this opportunity and platform to talk about my band, Sangre and our new song and forthcoming album. Also a big thank you to our fans old and new that support a D.I.Y. band like us, YOU ALL keep us pushing for bigger and better things and we can’t wait for you all to hear the new music we’ve created. Cheers!
 
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