It was a great and pleasant
surprise to meet DIOIVO, this Spanish
band emerging from Vigo, Galicia, performs as a duo both in studio and on
stage. I had the chance to talk with Daniel (drums) and Jacobo (vocal, guitars)
after a local gig, and as a result here is a short but interesting interview…a
hard rain´s a-gonna fall…
When and
how did you guys joined forces under the
name DIOIVO?
Daniel - We
had known each other for a long time and we both played in a thrash band
called Rust In Piece, we both played together during the breaks, black metal material that Jacobo had composed, and then in
February-March of this year we decided to focus on DIOIVO
Jacobo - We took part in a musical contest and we composed music for a poem by a
Galician poetess (Rosalia De Castro) we were very satisfied and liked the result, so we decided to go on.
What´s
the meaning of the band name and why did you chose it?
J - "Dioivo"
is one of the more than one hundred words the Galician language has for
refering to the rain. The Rain is a very characteristic element of the Galician weather, besides it is something that fits with our black metal aproach, with folk and nature influences and it is something that we reflect in our lyrics; the defense of the earth, the defense of the galician language, the defense of nature, it was important for us to chose a Galician word, (meaning "Deluge") among many words, we liked and choose that one.
So, it is
important for the band to express the influence of the Galician culture into
the lyrics?
J - Honestly, I don´t like writing too much, it's not my specialty, but it has to be done! so I'm inspired by those themes, the defense of Galician culture, our nature, some
personal ideas...it depends on the mood sometimes, but the priority for us is the music.
Besides the influences of atmospheric and aggresive black metal, I also noticed some influence of (old School) thrash. How do you define your style and which bands
have influenced you?
J - Yes, I
think that especially our sound comes close to melodic black metal, Swedish
bands like Dissection, Sacramentum, Vinterland, Unanimated, but also for
structures and some riffs I take influence of progressive thrash, and also progressive death metal like Cynic and Martyr, the extreme
progressive metal bands are a great reference. We tried to capture several
influences, focusing more on black metal, with guitar and drums only we were looking for a crude and sharp sound.
Have you
considered adding new members to achieve a more full sound or are you content
with the line-up as it currently exists?
D - That idea
was present in the beginning, but as we were playing concerts and after we
recorded the demo our intention is to continue as we are and not add members to
the formation, also a duo is not too common here.
Tell us
about the debut demo and the recording
process.
D - We
started recording the drums around March and April of last year, it was the
easiest and fastest to record, then the vocals and the guitar took us a lot
more time, Jacobo was with the producer Pablo Lopez in his studio, going
continuously working to get the expected result.
J - Yes, we worked on the details to the maximum possible, the
counterproductive thing was then that the producer was quite tired of us
(laughs). There is always some small detail that can be corrected or improved
but in the end, with the resources that we had the result is quite good. At the
moment this is in digital format but we are planning to release it independently
on CD and distribute some copies and see how it goes.
How many shows have you performed so
far? How was the response from the audience?
D - We
started in May of this year, I think we have played around ten concerts, it is
not a very extensive baggage but it´s not bad.
J - We have
played in different places like squatters´ houses, pubs and with different types of
bands; folk, punks... but so far it has gone well.
What´s
the strangest place and the most shocking one that you´ve been?
D - The strangest place when we played was without doubt in a Social centre called Quinta da Carmiña in Vigo, it was surprising in every way, we expected the typical house in
ruins with walls falling into pieces, but wasn´t like that, there was a quite "peculiar" woman running the house, The people were very
hospitable, oh yeah and we had lentils for dinner...
When we were
14 or 15 years old we played in an abandoned school and it was probably the
weirdest place.
J - I
remember that before joining Rust In peace the guys played in a bar with a strange garden
and an association of smokers ...
D- We also
rehearsed in my grandmother's storage room, and it was not soundproof, so it
lasted until we were kicked it out.
Can you unveil the next steps for the band?
D - We will try to do more concerts, we hope to play outside Vigo,
and we´ll try to record another demo or EP with 4 or 5 tracks.
D - we are contacting other bands of the scene,
black metal bands that also sing in Galician and we are working on the possibility to meet them and play
with them, Xerión, Lostregos…
J - Mileth, Noitébrega, Sartegos, there are very good
bands in galicia. Also we are developing a separate project with acoustic guitars but
let´s see how it goes…
D - Well that does not have much to do with DIOIVO but
it's something parallel to the band.
Thanks for your time, anything else you want to
add?
Thanks for the interview and the support.The band have just released "Sempre pola Morte Esperas" a digital single featuring original and alternative version of the song they did for the contest they talked about in the interview, listen to it right here below...
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