INTERVIEW

Today we are pleased to speak to Mortillery, thrash metal band from Edmonton which have just released their first album, "Murder Death Kill" under Napalm Records. Let's check out what lead vocalist Cara McCutchen has to say!

R&MimB: First of all, congratulations for having signed a distribution contract with Napalm Records. How did you achieve such a high result?
Mortillery: Thanks! We're really excited to work with Napalm Records, we did what we recommend all bands to do, we spent some time making sure the production value of our record was really good, then we sent a promo pack to them and after some time they contacted us with a world wide record deal! We couldn't be happier!

R&MimB: Canada is the homeland of speed/thrash bands such as Annihilator, Exciter, or heavy metal like Anvil. Did such bands have an influence on Mortillery?
Mortillery: Most definitely! Annihilator, Razor, Anvil and Exciter are awesome bands and I think you can hear a lot of that in our music, there isn't too many 80's thrash bands from Canada but we are huge fans of the few we do have.

R&MimB: What are the possibilities for a metal band in Canada to reach a steady number of fans and a certain fame level? Is there a favourable scenario for metal bands?
Mortillery: It's really hard because touring now a days is a big part of a band's success, the 2 closest cities to where we live are 3 and 12 hours apart! Now that being said the metal scene here is really strong and shows are always lots of fun, but to reach a major place in fame like you say most bands from Canada have to seek tours overseas to really reach the masses.

R&MimB: How did the line-up changes you had from the band foundation until now influence Mortillery's sound?
Mortillery: A lot we would say, the changes did happen at an early stage of our band, so the new guys really helped to bring together and idea for our sound that we had but didn't really know how to achieve, the fundamental image and sound of Mortillery has always been there but we feel that now we can express those ideas better and it shows in our music.

R&MimB: Who writes the music and the lyrics of your songs?
Mortillery: Most of the time we write the music between the guitars, bass and drums, once we have a good skeleton of a song we record a demo version of it, at that point Cara (lead vocals) works on the lyrics and gets a good structure for her vocals. After we put it all together and work out any problems we may find. Alex G has also written a few songs.

R&MimB: Can you explain us the origin and sense of Mortillery's lyrics?
Mortillery: When Alex writes it's kinda random I guess and mostly from feelings and imagination, describing future wars in a post apocalyptic scenario, Cara writes about all kinds of things. Anywhere from the apocalypse to "cereal killers" and just things that interest her.

R&MimB: We all know that, apart from gothic metal, rock is generally a difficult ground for females. So best congratulations to you, who could stand in a thrash band as a female singer! What are the characteristics of your vocal approach to the songs?
Mortillery: Thank you! To be honest I'm not really sure. I really just write what I think sounds good.

R&MimB: You opened shows for Anvil and Death Angel among others. Would you tell us some stories about these bands, or in any case tell if you gained something from playing with them?
Mortillery: We've opened for Toxic Holocaust and since we have stayed in touch, Joel Grind is a great person with lots of advice for us! Death Angel was amazing, we don't get that many Bay Area thrash bands coming through town so to open for them was a dream come true, great guys, the Anvil show was rad because it was packed and we got
lots of exposure! We feel that we have gained something from every band that we have played with, big or small.

R&MimB: It is worldwide known that the discographic music market has been suffering from the piracy and illegal download disease for the last decade. In your opinion is there any way to fight this phenomenon and let the music label market flourish again?
Mortillery: Hard question! I'm not sure that fighting with technological evolution is really the best way to go, maybe instead bands and labels need to come up with innovative ways to use this so it can become beneficial for everyone involved.

R&MimB: Now a slightly different but more complex question: do you think that culture (and therefore heavy metal) should be achievable to everyone or only to people who have money to buy albums? You'll agree that 15 euros for a cd is some hard task for average-income people. This isn't a simple question, because if you carefully think about that, most of the bands who have been developing their success in the last 7-8 years grew up listening to their music heroes from the past decades, in most cases downloading their albums from the web. So, I think there is a difficult balance between worldwide culture availability and copyright. What's your opinion?
Mortillery: I don't think music should ever be INTENTIONALLY made into something elitist, where for example, only those that can afford it can be a part of it. So much of heavy metal started from the dregs of society, as a reaction to alienation (in many cases financial) and it loses its power if it becomes completely commodified. At the same time, it's understandable that people that make music just want to get paid for their work. That's fair. So maybe the responsibility falls to the listeners and consumers of music: If you can afford it, buy it and support the artists financially. If that is honestly not feasible and you can't afford to buy the music, no problem. Download it if you really want to hear it, but support the music, the scene, the ethos of the genre in some other way. It's like anything else--do what you gotta do but don't consume selfishly.

R&MimB: Now a jump to another topic: heavy metal, thought as a very wide and omnicomprehensive genre (with might include classic metal, extreme metal and lite metal), has been in some way standing still withuot any progress worth of attention for, let's say, 15 years. Do you think there is still the possibility to say something new or are we going to repeat the same things?
Mortillery: I'm not sure about the idea that it's been standing still for 15 years. I remember seeing Dillinger Escape Plan and Hella and being completely blown away by what they were doing because it was really like nothing I'd ever heard before, that sort of fusing metal with what might be thought of as jazz sensibilities. Or take Animals as Leaders and Meshuggah. These bands seem to be drawing heavily on genres well outside of "metal" to make new and exciting metal. Hell, even Linkin Park is throwing some rap into the nu-metal mix. Even when you look at the monoliths of heavy metal, like Iron Maiden, Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, they haven't been doing the same thing over and over again. They're moving on and doing other things musically (sometimes with more or less success), ahem, Metallica. If the standard you are measuring new music against is always what was set in stone 20 years ago with a few monumental albums, you're never going to hear anything new or worthwhile. We, as musicians in general certainly have the option of trying to repeat the same things, but I don't know why anyone would want to do that, unless they were in a tribute
band. I think we all want to hear ourselves and our own unique influences coming out in original music.

R&MimB: Describe us in a few words the standard Mortillery show.
Mortillery: Metal thrashing mad! haha, Loud Fast and raw. A night filled of wild punk infused metal! Sometimes there's mustard stains.

R&MimB: Are the members of the band self-taught or did someone of you go to any music school/institute?
Mortillery: Self taught! were still learning.

R&MimB: What are your forecasts for Mortillery's future career?
Mortillery: If everything works right we should be doing as much touring as possible, we plan to make every effort possible to get our music heard all over the world.

R&MimB: Are you planning to tour in Europe or Italy?
Mortillery: Yes we would like to get over there soon, hopefully the summer of 2013 will see Mortillery in europe!

R&MimB: Would you say something to R&MimB fans?
Mortillery: Thanks so much for this opportunity!!