Interview With Barbara Black

Music melts into black with the emergence of Barbara Black, a cyclone of southern blues, American rock, gospel and metal

When you mix an attitude that Lemmy himself would sign with a vocal capacity worthy of Myles Kennedy and to that you add a sound that borns from the roots of rock with the power of today’s metal, the result can only be an album not to be missed. That album is Love, Death & Flies, the third album by Bárbara Black, a singer and a band born to rock.

She is an independent artist with a long career, that in 2016 began her singer solo career realising Spiritual Rock. “Shiva” was the song chosen to be in Eurovision by the AEV Festival. Barbara has won several awards as a metal vocalist in Spain such as Best National Female Rock Singer chosen by La Heavy Magazine readers in 2013, 2014, 2018, 2019 and 2020. Barbara Black recently won the Battle Of The Bands on MDR with 32,071 votes, and is currently the Band Of The Month for June 2020! In 2017 she released the album Ad Libitum, and the band went touring in the UK in 2018 and in Spain in 2019. The new álbum Love, Death & Flies is her hardest sound that shows the lyrical influences of Poe, Bécquer and the horror cinema of the 80s. Victorian streets, dark passages and a decadent romanticism drives you to reach the zenith in “Damnified”, a reflection of the band’s approach to wilder southern sounds. You will find one of the most powerful and quality voices that flies through melodies, screaming and opera as well as sharp guitars and a devastating drums.

Greetings From Metalheads Forever Magazine, I’m Keith the Editorial Head, how are you today?

I´m fine thank you!!

Last year you put up your third album “Love, Death & Flies” Can you tell me about the songwriting and production behind this album?

When we started composing we felt we needed more energy in the songs, we had lived a very stressful year and the rehearsals were therapic. Another point we agreed was that once the audience had listened to the songs only at once they could sing the choruses. So we started working with these premises. About the lyrics I really love writing about things that inspire me or that even got me angry, for example about animal rights (Tiger Tamer, Non Human Person) or about gender violence (Vampire Love) or even personal stories such a paranormal experience I lived (Kissed by flames).Talking about the production it is important to mention that we recorded, mixed and mastered at The Cadillac Blood Studios with Andy C. He is a very talented drummer and pianist and he joint forces with our drummer Nitro, so you can imagine how the rhythm section sounds in our album!!

What was the concept behind the album?

“Love, Death & Flies” are the three pillars in which the whole literature is based on. Furthermore these three words are very meaningful for the whole band. The year we composed this album the band we lived an important wedding together, unfortunately we had some personal loses and we lived some funny anecdotes performed by some flies.

Can you tell me about the cover art of the album, about the theme that was put behind it?

The cover was designed by Pilar Hoeresis and it represents these three words in the same concept.

The album has great vocals, powerful music and amazing songwriting, how do you feel about the outcome and how has the reach been so far?

Oh thank you so much, you are very kind! Personally I feel very proud of it, and the whole band agreed. We have worked very hard. And if we talk about the press reviews and public opinions, we have received so many good messages so we are really very happy and grateful.

What are the upcoming plans?

We are booking new dates and preparing our shows. We are thinking about new songs so we will tell you!

Any plans of tour?

Our next shows are:

Dec 11th Sala Covibar (Rivas-Vaciamadrid)

February 5^th Sala Paberse Matao (Valencia)

February 26^th Sala Vizzio (Alcorcón)

March 26^th Sala Hollander (Sevilla)

April 16^th Lady Metal Fest (Athens, Greece)

May 21^st Sala Rockville (Madrid).

And many more to come, stay tuned!!

Can you tell me how Barbara Black started?

Javi (guitar), Nitro (drum) and I used to play in the same music rooms in different bands, and we were very comfortable with and had the same musical interests so finally we decided to start a project together. So we recorded at first an EP “Spiritual Rock” to show people how our project was. Then we tried a crowdfunding for the whole album and luckily we were very supported and people wanted to help us with the first album, so we only have lovely words for all our patrons.

What are some of the great moments that you had over the years?

The moment the gospel choir (All4gospelChoir) recorded my melodies was such a beautiful experienced that I even cried in the studio (Anti Studio). Another brutal moment was in La Riviera venue singing in the tribute for Freddie Mercury with Rock FM, my adrenaline was over the clouds!!

Finally what would be the message for the fans?

Thank you so much for this lovely interview. I hope we can meet our fans in some concert all over the world and we can enjoy together the music. I would like to remember metalheads that they can visit our website www.barbarablackrock.com/store and get our album, t-shirts, facemasks, magnets, mugs…whatever they want!! Supporting your metal artist is a very important thing for our music scene. \m/