BURNING SUNSET – Interview with Daniel

With a more open-minded musical identity, Portugal’s Burning Sunset melds classical instruments and melodic death metal to produce a good ole’ heavy metal hybrid in the grand tradition of bands playing nontraditional metal with nontraditional instruments. Releasing their first EP early this year, Burning Sunset’s “Bruma” contains songs that bring epic choruses, vicious growls, folksy influences, and neck breaking thrash all together in a hyper energized aural cocktail. Answering our questions about everything and anything Portuguese, vocalist/violinist Daniel talks about his band, their gigs, and real life burning sunsets.

Wow. Just Wow. Your music sounds pretty incredible. I’m hearing Melodic Death Metal, Blind Guardian, cheesy folk music, and epic sh*t. How would you describe Burning Sunset’s personality? Music-wise, I mean. Describe the particular way you sound.

Thank you for your comments. The different elements in our songs are basically fragments of our individual personalities. While we consider ourselves a melodic death metal band, underneath this identity is an open-minded progressive structure that combines folk melodies and extreme metal. It’s really the opposition of these elements that creates our sound. Just take one of our songs, and one moment you’ll hear black metal, on another, it evolves into post-rock. Burning Sunset is the embodiment of this fusion.

Are having a violin and a cello really necessary?

It isn’t necessary, but we consider classical instruments the final touch to our sound. Luckily in our hometown we’re surrounded by lots of classical musicians. And since we grew up participating in orchestras, it was just a natural thing to merge those instruments into our music. The band’s background in classical music extends to Ricardo and myself. Ricardo, our cello player, is still getting his degree in cello, while I’ve played violin as a member of orchestras for several years

You aren’t ‘folk’ are you?

If by “folk” you mean the use of traditional instruments, we do incorporate a traditional instrument into our music. We use the Portuguese guitar, which is used in Fado, and our lyrical themes are very Portuguese because they deal with our history and way of living. But in the sense of using musical arrangements of Portuguese folk, we aren’t “folk.”

Did each of you know each other beforehand when Burning Sunset formed a few years ago?

Burning Sunset is the latest stage in the evolution of a grunge/folk band that was created in 1999, when me, David (who plays the Portuguese guitar) and William (a former drummer), were still in college. We met our guitarist and bass player, Nuno and Rui, during a gig and they told us they were interested in becoming part of the project. A year later, Nuno’s brother Ricardo joins the band. The following year a friend of Daniel, Sandro, becomes the drummer. All of us have known each other for years, but the introduction of each member into the band was very natural and gradual.

What kind of background did each member have when they joined Burning Sunset?

David and I had another band and were members of orchestras; Rui and Ricardo created several bands that played everything from screamo to punk and rock; Nuno was an autodidact and Sandro was a member of a metalcore project. We still have our side-projects or solo creations until today. All of us attend University and the way we look at a music career, there are as many dreams as there are risks. We are working hard to be prepared to take a music career’s challenges.

On the band’s first meeting as Burning Sunset, what did you do to break the ice? Did you spend a night out? Go to the pub? Jam some songs?

The first meeting was strange, because it was a bit of a test for us because you don’t want to play badly in front of other musicians. You also have no idea if the new members are good enough to become part of the project or if they share the same goals and tastes as you do. Fortunately, each member of our lineup were quite good and very open-minded. What did we do on our first meeting? We spent the whole afternoon jamming.

Who handles the song writing and composition? And are your songs in Portuguese or English? Sorry, but I couldn’t really tell with all the growling.

I usually handle the lyrics. In our case, the main inspiration comes from Ricardo Pinto’s trilogy “The Stone Dance of the Chameleon.” Composition is done by our guitarists David and Nuno, who provide the riffs, share ideas, jam over it, then go back home and work on them. After the structure is complete all the members come together and the team starts working. Burning Sunset lyrics are inspired by noir movies, fantasy literature, and meditations about grief, vengeance, sadness, and “saudade.” Our songs are written in both English and Portugese. “Clausura” and “Ventos Arrepiados” from the “Bruma” EP are in Portuguese, while “Missing Flora” is in English. To explain our Portuguese songs in depth, “Ventos Arrepiados” translates as “eerie winds” and the phrase embodies all the cinematic feelings that we want to describe through our music. It’s definitely the most emblematic track that we’ve created so far. The title of our new EP itself is Portuguese for “mist.” We chose the word to symbolically represent our trajectory in the metal scene. It connotes the album’s aura and is the main feeling of all the other themes.

Didn’t you do a mini-tour for your new EP in the middle of this year?

Yes, we did. But it started in April and finished in August. It was a very amusing tour. We got to know each other better, learned to deliver a great performance onstage, and evolved as group. The tour itself consisted of playing in some festivals, venues and pubs. One of them was called MetalPoint, another was Art7Menor, and then there was Anesthesia Bar. Metal gigs here usually starts with the audience being friendly and receptive. In our case they were very curious with the instruments we were using but received us enthusiastically with a moshpit! We’re very pleased and proud of that tour, even if in one night we would have 90 people, which is a very good number for a single act in Portugal, and on the next, we could have only three. But even if we make those three appreciate us, we’ll be very happy and feel that our sense of duty has been accomplished.

How much work did the band put into the “Bruma” EP?

All the recording was done by us after work and university classes. Weekends were spent with each other instead of our families. We produced, recorded, and mastered everything on our own. We didn’t get to do gigs very often during this period. We wanted the several parts of the production to be very individual. Nuno, our guitarist, was the one behind most of the studio work. Since time is money, we should be broke by now, especially him. But this was our biggest sacrifice for the band, which was supported by our parents and close friends.

Is “Bruma” going to be the band’s ticket to a label or is Burning Sunset going to remain underground for a while?

We would happily let the whole thing be run by a label. However, we know we can release an album on our own. But we will always be searching for a label. We want “Bruma” to be our presentation card that will get us a deal for an album. At the moment, the whole band will consider the first opportunity that comes our way. If till then, there aren’t any interested labels we’ll release an album the same way as the EP.

Now modesty is the last thing expected for this question: If you could pitch your band to an anonymous and very skeptical metalhead, how would you convince him to try Burning Sunset? Give it all you’ve got, damn it!

We once received a review describing us as a band that “combines Middle Eastern rhythms, American heavy metal and European progressive brutality in such an indigenous way that I’m left speechless.” This is the best pitch we can give metalheads who are curious about our music!

For a band calling itself ‘Burning Sunset,’ are there romantic sunsets in a place like Portugal? How about the beach? Is enjoying a beach by the frigid Atlantic Ocean any fun?

There are very romantic sunsets in Portugal. We’re a country of seashores, beautiful people and very good food. Portugal is currently the number one destination for European tourism. The beach is a magnet for people from all over even if the water is cold. But our name isn’t supposed to be connected with anything romantic. Burning Sunset is actually a metaphor for rebirth. Like the phoenix that’s reborn from the ashes, or the swan that was once an ugly duckling in the fairytale (you can see a swan drawn in our logo), we are a project that everyday, in every gig, and every stretch in the studio, must perform better than our previous level.

Do you watch shows often? Have you caught any European or American bands live recently?

Yes we do. Catching shows is a hobby for all of us. Cheap tickets are also good incentives for us to watch! The last gig that we went to was a festival with Arch Enemy, Anathema and Marduk.

Can you give me a crash course in Portuguese? At least start with the basics, like ‘hello,’ ‘good day,’ ‘where can I watch a concert’? Obrigado!

“Hello” it is very easy, everyone knows how to say it, but aren’t sure of its Portugeuse variant, “Olá.” “Good day” is “Bom dia.”

“Where can I watch a concert” is more difficult, but you can manage: “Onde (where) posso (can) ver (watch) um (one) concerto (concert)?”. And a tip: “Beer” is “Cerveja”!

Unfortunately we’ve run out of time. Why don’t you end this by describing your hometown to our readers. Are there a lot of interesting historical sites in the place you live? How about the night life? Where do you usually hang out?

We live in Aveiro, a town that lies next to the sea. Like Veneza, it has a river passing through it and it’s one of the main ex-libris of European Noveau Art. The nightlife here is getting more interesting, but there aren’t any metal pubs yet. We usually hang out on the margins of the central square, where you’ll find the more underground pubs. And that’s it!

Thank you for the opportunity to be part of Metalcentre.com. It’s a great pleasure to have a conversation with someone who’s from the other side of the world! Hope you like Burning Sunset. Adeus!

www.myspace.com/theburningsunset