The Bilbao band The Wizards returns with a new job, in which they continue investigating within that uncertain place, which they know so well and where they feel so comfortable.
That cross between hard rock and the most classic heavy metal that they have known how to bring to their field, until achieving their own and totally identifiable style, seasoned with an overwhelming literary capacity in the lyrics of their songs, which makes The Wizards one of the essential groups in the Bizkaia rock scene.
First work in five years, after a career in which you had become accustomed to releasing an album every year, or every two years at most. Has this inactivity been noticed when making these new songs?
This inactivity has been totally involuntary; In December 2019, after visiting a lot of places, we decided to stop giving concerts for a few months to be calm, and to be able to calmly make the new songs, with the idea of recording in the summer of 2020. But what happened happened and “the bug” arrived, which in one way or another, screwed us all, and had different repercussions on the band. So, once everything was over, we started working again at the end of 2021, and we gave the first concert in spring, and little by little, the activity has grown until we were able to make this album that we present now. The pause has not been sought, but rather unexpected and totally involuntary, and we have done what we could during this time.
There has also been an important change such as, while on the previous two albums you worked with Dean Rispler, on “The Exit Garden” you have taken charge of the production yourself…
Not having had someone external to give us the vision of our music and help us artistically to get the best out of our songs has not been voluntary either. The pandemic wreaked havoc on an economic level, and when we returned the budget was no longer the same… and thank goodness the label has decidedly opted for us. So it was not voluntary not to have Dean, but we had to optimize the resources, and that has forced Jorge and me to take on this task, improvising with something we had never done, and trying to give your own songs a vision. external. We are happy with the result, we have gone to do something a little more basic, without too many arrangements, since in this there are hardly any keyboards, as other albums had… it is a more raw sound, and we have worried about other things such as, for For example, that the drums were very well produced from the point of view of rhythm. I don’t know if we were right, but any success or error is solely our responsibility.
This time, we also recorded in Slippery Studios, a more secluded but fully functional studio, because before we had been in larger studios, but for this job we saw that we also needed to be focused on the recording, without distractions, returning a little. to the origins, and doing things like when we started.
…Start again, but with the accumulated experience that you already had, which is always easier, right?
Yes, it has been a bit like a reset to see how the pandemic had changed our lives, because it has affected all of us, in some way. And there is that spirit of not wanting to let go of what we have been doing for so long, because we are the same five “winners” as when we started with this. I believe that, like or not like what we do, the chemistry between us is visible, there is a lot of complicity between all of us, and we are like a family, in which there are always discussions, fruits of coexistence, but above all very good moments.
And, in that sense, wasn’t the break good for you to get fresh air after such an intense first few years of racing?
I’m sorry to contradict you, but the only thing it did was stop us at a moment, when we were going with a very interesting upward inertia. We cannot take anything positive from this, beyond the fact that, at least, we have been able to resume activity and we remain active as a band.
As for style, you continue with that mix of hard rock and classic heavy that, however, has its own identity…
It is very difficult to judge your own work in those terms, but I want to think, from what people tell us with certain criteria, that without having invented the wheel, we have something of our own and personal… that if we had wanted to invent something, rest assured that we wouldn’t have started a rock band (laughs).
Do you give a lot of thought to the issue of styles when making songs, or do things already come out naturally at this point?
We have never approached the songs from a style perspective, but rather they come from a succession of riffs, lyrics, a chorus… there has never been a composition system, there is always a spontaneous approach. Whatever comes out comes out without much thought, I’m not telling you that it’s the best way to work, but it’s what has always worked for us, who on the other hand, are also quite chaotic in our personalities (laughs).
And do you think about how it will sound live when composing?
We plan the live shows based on the songs we already have published, there are no conditions when it comes to composing. In fact, many times we have recorded songs that we later found difficult to capture live due to some arrangements that we have included: a keyboard, a synthesizer… very subtle things that could be missed live. In fact, there are some topics that we want to return to because we have never been able to touch on them, precisely for that reason.
Has it been difficult for you to select the presentation songs for the album, before it was published in its entirety?
We didn’t have much to choose from either, the ballad without drums or bass was clearly not, the eight minute one wasn’t a good idea either… so we chose the first one on the album which, in addition, is the one that gives the album its title, then the one we saw for the video clip, because it goes a little outside the usual parameters of The Wizards, such as “Oniros”, and the third is the only one that has been chosen for its duration, “Holy Mountain Mind”, because it is the shortest on the album and the most direct… you see that we have used a criterion that is anything but commercial (laughs).
Has it been important to maintain the support of a powerful label like HR Records in this new stage?
We started working with them after presenting “Full moon Scorpio” in Germany, which was when they asked us to edit the next one, “Rise of the serpent”, and reissue the first two albums. They are very professional, serious and efficient people, who make things very clear for the good and the bad. Furthermore, it is appreciated that in this time that we have been inactive, they have waited for us and continue to support what we do.
In this album, it is curious that there is a song titled “Full moon Scorpio”, which in turn is the title of your second album, where there was no song titled like that, how do you explain this?
(Laughs)… well this is simpler than it may seem. The lyrics talk about the time when we recorded that album. We come from the mud, we continue in the mud and we will die in the mud, and we have always been very punkish in the sense that we carry self-management as our flag in everything we do. But when they released that album, for us it was very important, because we were in a very beautiful time in which we all had the same interests, and there were no obstacles to go for it… it was like a very exciting moment, and we owed each other a song to ourselves that spoke about that. So when Jorge brought these lyrics, we were clear that we had to title the song like that. Of course in life you have to be humble, because although the group has allowed us to get to know a lot of special places and people, we cannot forget that, after that, you have to get up to go work. But yes, we will always defend this project tooth and nail.
Do you take as much care as it seems, from the presentation of the covers and illustrations, to the artistic part of the work?
We have always taken great care of the image of the product, and we like that what people perceive visually is in line with what they hear; That’s why we don’t separate one thing from the other. In all the albums, without being conceptual, there is a concept, even if it is vague, that unifies the songs, which revolve around those ideas, and what is sought is for the graphic art, illustrations, and design to be in line with that emotion. that we try to convey; Then that is achieved sometimes, and other times not, because it is something very subjective, but that is art, right?
Something similar to what happens with the lyrics of The Wizards, that each person can understand them in one way or another, right?
That’s what I would like to think, because that is what makes a letter attractive, and not that they are too obvious. What’s cool is that everyone can make it their own. Being able to reach someone through something you write or play, and have it affect their life in some way, causing something to them, and influencing their psyche, even if it is recreationally, is pure magic.
Finally, how do you face the next gigs with new repertoire?
We have a few concerts lined up to present “The exit garden” in different selected places, and we hope they call us to do more gigs when the album is released, because we are looking forward to there being movement. In a world where stimuli are immediate, if you disappear from the map people forget everything. But now we are here, and we have to start practically from scratch, and as always, we are going to give everything on stage. We are going to have to work hard, because the conditions are not the same, but we have the drive and desire, so here we go.