Interview with Xavier & INERT
1. Hello Xavier... or should I say Hola? You have exiled from the city of Barcelona (Spain) to move 2800 km up to Stockholm now playing Death Metal the very Swedish way manifested in a band called INERT. What made you leave the sunny beaches to trade it for 6 months of utter darkness?
Xavier: I moved because there’s nothing more metal than 5-6 months of utter darkness, hahaha. Jokes aside, my girlfriend and I just wanted a change of pace in our lives. We wanted to experience how it was to live abroad, learn another culture, etc. Choosing Sweden was an easy call since we love Swedish metal and we wanted to live the local scene there.
2. In 2015, INERT was spawned upon this earth in order to create old-school Death Metal; what can you tell me about the creation of the band?
Xavier: INERT started just as project over the Internet between Gustavo and I to have fun in our spare time. We played metal together in Barcelona for many years so we know each other quite well and have very good chemistry when it comes to music. I think that we had been discussing this long-distance band thingy since 2012. Every time we talked it was like, “we should do something together, that would be fun”. And I think it was around 2014 that Gustavo told me, “hey man, I’ve been learning to sing a bit” (he is originally a drummer), “let’s try to do something together, I’ll do the vocals too”. By that time I had been working in some death metal riffs so I put them together and sent him a basic song structure. In a few days he sent me back the song with vocals and it blew my mind. It was “are you fucking kidding me? Is that you who is singing there?”. At that exact moment, INERT was founded as a band.
3. Is there a specific lyrical concept or even general concept you´re following?
Xavier: Lyrics are mainly about our vision of the world. They reflect our thoughts about our current society, religion, or death for instance.
4. As far as I understood, the two of you (Gustavo: Drums and Vocals; Xavier: Guitars) live in seperate locations: Stockholm and Barcelona. Would you consider distance as a positive driving force in the song-writing process?
Xavier: Absolutely, I think that working individually helps us to stay more focused and optimize our writing time. Sometimes sharing ideas in a rehearsal room can lead to a lot of wasted time just sitting there and going over the same idea hundreds of times. Don’t get me wrong, it’s fun to spend hours and hours in the rehearsal place, but as you grow older, time becomes precious. 5. Consequently, will the world witness a live performance of INERT anytime soon?
Xavier: We hope so! As you mentioned, we live in two separate countries so it’s a bit tricky for us to play individual shows here and there. Nevertheless, we would love to arrange a small tour or play in some festivals next year. We’ll try to make it happen for sure!
6. Just recently you unleashed your very first release called „Obliteration of the Self“ which has been made available on CD (50 copies) and digital download. What can you tell me about this EP?
Xavier: As you said, it’s our debut release. We put our soul and shitloads of work in it. First Gustavo recorded the drums at Dalton Studios in Barcelona. We wanted an organic drum sound so we decided to record them in a studio. Actually, drums are the only instrument recorded in a professional studio. Later on I recorded guitars at home in Stockholm. Bass was recorded in Stockholm too by a good friend, Paolo Cito. Vocals were recorded at Gustavo’s place during my Christmas visit to Barcelona. We recorded the vocals “guerrilla style”. We built a vocal booth with cushions and a mic pop filter with wire and stockings, hahaha. There’s a short video proving it in our webpage. Afterwards, we edited everything by ourselves and sent the tracks to Grzegorz Kulawiak (SinMix) for reamping, mixing and mastering. Finally, the cover of the EP was done by a great artist from Singapore, Dedy Badic.
7. Why is it not labeled a demo since there are just three songs on it?
Xavier: Well, for us a demo is something more of a quicker thing. Let’s say “a not completely polished final product” to show labels or promoters your work. In contrast, an EP is just like an album (quality wise) but with fewer songs. We wanted to have just a few songs but with the same production quality we would put in an album. I think we achieved it. In addition, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, an EP is an album with 3 to 5 songs, or less than 30 minutes. So, you see, they agree with us too, hahaha.
8. How was the reaction by the Metal community so far?
Xavier: The reaction has been much better than we expected. People seem to like the EP and we’re getting quite nice reviews from webzines all over the world. Almost all the CDs we printed are gone. 9. For people not familiar with your music yet – how would you describe your style?
Xavier: Raw and filthy death metal, old school to the bone, although we do have some parts that could be categorized as more “modern”. We have also some bluesy stuff here and there, especially in guitar licks and solos. Nevertheless, we have just started, and Obliteration of the Self is our first release, so I think that our music will probably evolve somehow in future recordings.
10. What are the influences that make your sound what it is?
Xavier: Our influences are broad since we listen to a lot of different music (from 70’s prog to death metal). However, the foundations for the sound of INERT are classical OSDM bands such as DISMEMBER, GRAVE or ENTOMBED. In HM-2 we trust!
11. The first EP is in the books... what will the next steps look like?
Xavier: We are already working in our first full-length. It will be released at some point during 2017. You’ve been warned! Hahaha. We would also like to do some live performances during 2017 to promote the new album, either a small tour or some festivals. We don’t know yet, but we really hope that we will be able to arrange something.
