Los mexicanos The Legion of Hetheria vuelven al ruedo con su cuarta producción discográfica, ‘Awakening’. The album includes Mark Jansen, vocalist of Epica and Mireya Mendoza, of Driven, in the songs "Human Introspection" and "Face The Light", respectively. This recording marks the beginning of a new era for the Mexican band, who will soon be fifteen years old with the same purpose, a young proposal within national rock.
We take the opportunity to chat with Rick Loera about this new material, the motivations for its creation and what awaits the band in the future.
It has been 6 years since the release of your last album until now that Awakening arrives, it is a long period considering the times of music, what happened?
Some claims differences arose from the previous album “Neutra” at the end of 2010 due to the fact that we changed the vocalist several times and that caused problems. We were promoting that album and in 2012 we said "we are going to retire before giving a bad image and lowering our quality, 10 years have passed and things are somewhat strange". But during this supposed break I was still working on music, so talking with my brother we decided that it was time to go back and find new members who had the intention of living from The Legion of Hetheria and retake the concept of composing in English, worrying about the At the same time for understanding the needs of the songs without trying to impress anyone, so we stuck to creating good music. Since we took up the project, everything was extremely honest.
We know that some members of the band changed, how did they live that process?
It was difficult especially because of the question of what if they want to go to the same place as us? Because it is easy for all musicians to say that if and when they see that not everything is rock and roll and that the band is a company that needs their strategy, they do not like it, so when it comes to thinking about who was going to be within the group the first one that came to my mind was Dano Medina who had already played with me and we had a very friendly relationship, then the vocalist who was my student, I thought of Katia because I was not interested in people who were already very rigged and also because in this type of metal the idea that the voices were operatic, throaty and prevailed for a long time, I didn't want that, I wanted something that we could fuse with other styles. Then Fer joined us, we met, we started to ride, it worked and something I can assure you is that all of us who are currently are good people, it is fundamental because the band becomes your second family, now my brother and I are supporting to integrate and clarify to the fans that they are not comparable with the members that were before.
They have incredible collaborations with Mark Jansen and Mireya Mendoza. Why did they choose them and how did they convince them to participate?
The word that sums it up is friendship because I wanted the album to have that vibe, what I propose in Awakening is a return to the basic instincts of protection, that you care about your neighbor and just wanted to give you the feeling that we were not alone. Mark and I were friends before there was Epica and Legion of Hetheria, we exchanged records by courier and from there came a tour that we did in 2004 as co-headliners. At the end of May I told him that I wanted him to sing on the new album, he liked the proposal and it was integrated, everything was very natural and with Mireya the same, just in that song I thought he was missing another texture, something that would give him more dynamism and I thought of another female voice that had a lower tone than Katia's, contrasting but equally expressive, I told Mireya and she accepted, we recorded at home and I love the end result.
The title of your new album makes us think perhaps of an "ideal awakening" I would say as an awareness after listening to the album, is that the intention of these songs?
It effectively proposes that awakening, fighting homophobia, misogyny, racism, phobia towards other religions. What is reflected in the lyrics is really my feeling, in addition to the fact that there is an investigation and this intention of putting a grain of sand to improve what can be improved, in the case of a fan, for example, if it is your family relationship, which look for this support and this communication, not to ignore the problems thinking that what happens in other countries does not affect us. The song “Run From de Storm” directly talks about the war in Syria and the direct message for the people affected is flee, stay away from the storm! and it is narrated through what I imagined when I saw the photos of children full of blood and with empty eyes.
Where did the story for your Reaching Out video come from?
I put together the story, we had no budget so we took great care that the photography was not improvised, the direction was in my charge and the editing was done by Luis Fernando Olguín. He talks about handling loss of any kind, in the video it is not defined if it is a love break, if he died or what happened, it is simply no longer there and that is why when the male character suddenly gets angry, he wants to get rid of that image that is in the photo and its moment of catharsis arrives where the mirror breaks, it is about letting go of what does not allow you to move forward, without forgetting of course why you learn from it, but letting go.
What were the most difficult moments you went through since you formed Legion of Hetheria?
A difficult chapter was when we separated the band in 2012 because before making that decision I felt very lonely, like everything depended on me and I did not have the support of my peers, in addition to the fact that I was becoming an adult. , they were complicated changes, the other was when we planned to rearm the band since my dad detected a tumor in the brain and died just when it started again, he was always very present throughout the logistics of the band and supporting me when He was more young because of it his absence was a very strong blow, although you know that sooner or later it will happen it is very complicated but it makes you grow. In the song "Face the Light" there is a phrase that says "what comes easily is the worst kind of cheat" and it is true because I have lived it, it has cost us a lot of work to release this album, but it is the sign that we did not there is a pretext to throw things of poor quality.
Speaking of the Mexican music scene, what have you done that other bands do not do and that has led you to be a successful band, what makes you different?
In Mexico there are many bands that have been playing for 15 years and have released 15 or 20 records, but to be honest, only 3 sound original to me and the rest is like repetition, we avoid conformity at all costs, you must have a constant hunger to learn because a musician who is not constantly preparing is a musician who will not last. I studied 7 years of opera and then I switched to gospel and jazz, however today I continue studying on my own, when I don't work in technique, I work in orchestration. The problem with the bands in Mexico is that they feel that they are already playing and so they leave it, but if they are not constantly growing they will never realize all the other sounds they are ignoring and if they do not evolve the public will tire, I remember the golden days of all those bands where you went to the López Mateos arena and saw these posters, the great difference is that back then there was no room for a soul and now you ask for a soul to enter. You can not see 20 bands for 60 pesos and think that it will be luxurious, also the team and staff get tired, that the bands suddenly give away their work anywhere that does not do us good, we at the Flying Circus are going to put in a production as if they were going to see any foreign band because the idea is that people get used to the fact that the quality is first class and that they enjoy it. The fact that for a foreign band they pay 600 pesos and for 20 Mexican bands they pay 60 pesos seems an insult to me, it sounds strong and I will be hated by many for saying it, but I really want them to take it with philosophy and know that if they we can support something we do.
Do you have Spanish interpretations planned for your next album?
Yes, but I have realized that Spanish in this type of formula does not work, it would be a disc that is going to be calmer, more focused on organic instrumentation, perhaps acoustic 100%, we are going to use the properties of Spanish because it is a language Romance, if you make a letter that does not speak of love and these beautiful things sound like protest, so they would be more personal topics.
We would like about Awakening. What is your favorite song and why?
Just Awakening because it combines all the elements you find on the album, from the choruses, the guttural voice, the female voice and the reflective theme, with that song you already have a perfect idea of where the album is going, we can say that it sums it up.