Hitwood Interview
By Steven Smith
The latest single “The Scene That You Could See”, has a rich amount of melody and progression. While working on this particular track, what are some new elements you tried to manifest it on the song?
In this particular song I’ve opted for a catchy sound, really melodic, that sometimes sounds like “happy metal” (laugh, ndr). I want it to sound in this way because the song would probably be the outro of the album. “Marea” themes are about loss, desperation, apocalyptic scenarios but “The Scene you could see” had a different tone because it marks the reborn; a new life of “Hitwood” the main character of that storyline.
We do see Hitwood is a group effort with guest vocal appearance of Laurhell (France), Eveline Schmidiger (Switzerland), and Carlos Timaure (Venezuela). With the dynamic of each of the vocal styles, would you say it adds more substance to the band’s overall material?
The main goal of this project is to create a metal community and give more variety as possible to the songs. I think it’s something that could differentiate us from other million Melodic Death Metal bands that are in the world. It create a great interest in the listeners that don’t everknow what would be coming next..
With such great lengths to produce music that reaches across the globe, what are the benefits and obstacles you face when it comes to laying down the tracks on a release?
We Work only online and not in a studio together so is difficult because the interaction part is missing. But I try to semplificate the process by sending all the lyrics already done and a demo vocal line to the singers so they have only to re-interpretate in their own style and this shortens the producing times a lot. But for me it’s a very hard job manage all of this because beside that I have my everyday job so the time literally flies away. The other side of the medal is that the web make it all super fast and with my own organization this turns out to be really fast, if I could only have more time I think that I could release a full album every year, I’m really full of ideas.
What influences will the listener hear more in the material you are working on now? in your own opinion that will grab the attention for someone who hears it for the first time?
What grab the interest of the listeners in my opinion is the fusion of many guitars harmonies that I love to experiment with; these creates really interesting vibes and it’s the first thing that everyone notice. In the past the main influences was by bands like Paradise Lost, In Flames, Alcest, Dark Tranquillity. This time, a band that have inspired me a lot in the last months is Harakiri for The Sky, and you would hear that in the fast tremolo guitar parts carried by extreme sad lyrics. Another bands that influenced the process are for sure Arch Enemy (Apocalyptic Omens could remind you them) and Be’lakor/Insomnium.
The instrumental arrangements are beyond amazing. How long have you been interested in doing a project like this? It must be a great feeling getting the chance to express your music with so many outlets and resources at your fingertips.
The project started in 2007, and the first album has come in 2016. This has taken a lot of time, and initially it was only intended to be an instrumental project. After 2 instrumental albums I search for vocalists to tell a story with the lyrics and then comes the idea of a “metal opera” and in the future I want to expand more this concept. The great thing is that I have no fear of experimenting, and I had no problem in maintain a stable line up because of the way this project is conceived.
What can we expect to see from Hitwood in the near future? Any major changes that you can tell us to keep people on the edge of their seats?
Is a news of these days that “Marea”, our upcoming EP would become a full length because of the number of songs I wrote. The songs would be released track by track then I will release the album that will enclose all of them in a single product. This time we also have a cover that turned out really well, is This Picture by Placebo and we re-invent the song in our way; maybe you wasn’t able to recognize it if the title wasn’t that 🙂 You could expect more emotionally and desperate lyrics, a more darker sound but with a great taste in melody and more guests vocalist to be announced soon.Thanks for the interview and stay tuned on our pages to see what’s coming next.
MHF Magazine/Steven Smith
