Electirkeel – Interview
Country: Spain
Genre: Thrash Metal / Crossover
Interview with: Electirkeel
Interviewer: Speedskullcrusher
Hello! Welcome to Acier Doux . How is the situation? What’s new in the world of Electrikeel ?
Greetings! Thanks a lot for reaching us! We’re so happy to be in Acier Doux! We’ve just finished the scheduled shows for this year, at least until September. We still haven’t announced more upcoming shows for this year but there will definitely be a few more. We could say that right now we’re taking a rest, but that’s not true at all, haha! We are trying not to slow down so we are fully focused on songwriting.
Which things do you think a band should sacrifice in order to succeed? Have you ever sacrificed anything in your life for a better future for your band?
Money and time, definitely! I think there isn’t something more specific, but as an artist, those two things are essential. Music will always ask you money; broken backline or buying new one whenever you need an upgrade, making merchandising, recording an album, travelling… You need to have clear that you will be constantly spending money on your projects. And time, of course, because you need to “sacrifice” your free time to play gigs, to write stuff, for rehearsals… But we do love spending time on our band, so it ain’t no bad thing.
We never sacrificed anything else, at least for now. Some people might think you must leave everything behind in order to success, but that’s a big mistake. Friends and family is always our priority and should be every musician too.
Your music style is old school Thrash Metal. Which are your main influences (Favorite Artists / Bands etc.)
We do love old school thrash metal bands like Exodus, Kreator, Sodom and so, but we are mainly influenced by new wave thrash. Surely our biggest influences are Toxic Holocaust, Vektor, Ghoul, Hellripper, Municipal Waste and Bio-Cancer. Those bands brought a fresh new sound to thrash, and so is our main goal. Apart from those, we also have influences from bands like Death, Melechesh, Chainsaw (Greece), Deathhammer… But also hardcore punk or d-beat bands such as The Casualties, Anti-Cimex, Ewig Frost or Black Breath.
There are one album and one EP in Electrikeel’s discography. How important is it for you to feel yourself a part of the scene?
It is indeed something important. When people consider us as a part of the scene it makes us feel very special and reminds us that there are people that listen to our music and love it. Having a band is sometimes hard to keep on going, but these things make absolutely worth It.
Do you prefer Vinyl, Tape, CD or Digital Format and why is that?
Digital format is nowadays almost mandatory, that’s for sure. Of course making physical copies is a great way for people to support the band. Not many people do listen to the physical records, at least not as much as they used to be a few years ago, so that’s why digital format is a must nowadays. We made CD format release too, mainly cause it’s the cheapest and easiest physical release, but Vinyl buyers are the most “loyal” ones, to be honest. People buy vinyl’s more than CDs, that’s kind of odd, but it’s great too. Ourselves haven’t made vinyl’s yet, mainly because of the price of them, but It is something we have been planning. So, in a near future we will have Electrikeel vinyls. We’re not sure about tapes, we haven’t been asked about them and not sure if it is gaining popularity so far.
Describe your ideal live show as a performance band. Have you already experienced that?
An ideal live show is any show were people can relax, mosh nonstop and have a great time together. If it is ideal show, then we could also say that none of us would mess up! We have experienced nonstop moshing and people having a great time but maybe one of us has messed up playing at some point hahaha!
Is there any funny or weird story from the recordings or from your live shows that you would like to share with us?
We do have some fun stories! At one of our shows a 50-year-old dude was lifted up by the crowd until he reached one of the ceilings beam and then he hanged in there like a koala while everyone was cheering to him. In another gig, a dude who used crutches came to the stage (very drunk) while we were playing, and he began to play air guitar with one of his crutches. In our first gig, while we were playing Holiday In Cambodia, the lights were turned off and our guitar player Asier couldn’t see properly so he missed all the notes at some point of the song. Someone in the crowd recorded that specific moment and posted It in social media, so the day after we listened to it and Asier got traumatized. We don’t play that song live anymore hahaha!
Do you believe that Digital Platforms help Metal Bands? Which, do you think, is the ideal way for a band to promote its work?
Of course they do help! We the artists have to keep in mind that small platforms are just like us; people in a small project that, just like us, need support from each other. Never heard of a small platform that asked for money. They all listen, review, rate and write about our stuff just because they like doing it, and they must be supported. Electrikeel’s promoting way it’s just being active in both social media and live shows because people get interested more in bands that work nonstop. It’s just as simple as trying to make sure people won’t forget about us.
Ok, what are the next plans for Electrikeel ? Something bestializing to announce to the readers? Thanks for the answers
As we said before we are now focused in songwriting and we still can’t give you much detail about how it sounds like but we can say that songs are getting much more complex, that’s for sure. We are trying to stay loyal to our rage-powered thrash metal but trying to add technical elements. We are working very hard; we want this next EP to be a big step in our project! We also have an important announcement to make: We will surely be playing international shows before 2024 comes to an end! We still don’t have a certain date but we had a couple of things going on! Thanks a lot for having us here! It has been a pleasure!
