interview with War Kabinett

Have any of you played in other bands?
Yes, we all have played with other bands.
Dante was the lead singer of Mexican Prog Metal band "The Arkitecht". With this band he recorded the album "Hyperstructure".
Besides this he has performed and recorded with: Glass Mind (Hunting Regrets)
Death Legacy (lead singer) (Death Legacy, The Missing Pieces)
Alberto was the lead guitar in two thrash bands: Tractomotor and Hostile Down.
Luis played with Maldoror and Oblivion Requiem. David has played in several cover bands.
Satoshi was the drummer for a black metal band called Black Hate.
How is it that you started playing music?
We met at our music school and decided to form War Kabinett only as a school project for a school's festival.
After the show we decided to keep playing together and began composing more songs for our first EP. Alberto Joined the band in 2009 after we parted ways with Mauricio, the original guitarist.
What are your names? / Who plays what? / How old are you?
Dante Díaz, 36 - vocals and some guitars Alberto Ruiz, 34 - lead guitar
Luis Sugrales, 38 - guitar
David Gutierrez, 27 - bass
Satoshi Lira, 21 - drums
Have you had other previous members?
Yes:
Iván Lopto - drums from 2006 to 2018
Rodrigo Villaseñor - bass from 2006 to 2015
Jorge Arvizu - drums 2004 - 2005 and several guest appearances until 2018
Mauricio González - guitar 2004 - 2009
Genaro Ochoa - keyboards 2005 - 2011
Did you make music even when you were young? Yes, we all started creating music since we were teenagers. Some of those songs were rewritten and rearranged for our album Made in Mexico.
Where are you from? We are all from Mexico City
What year did the band form? 2004
What's your style of genre?
We call it "Hybrid Symphonic Metal"
It is a blend of several styles running from Power, Speed, Thrash, Death and Black Metal. All combined with orchestral and choral Arrangements.
What inspires you?
Society and it's problems. Mass media manipulation. Social network enslavement. Religious manipulation. Shitty governments and inequality between
social stratification.
How often and where do you reherse?
Once a week during rest periods.
Two or three times a week when we're creating new music or rehearsing for recordings or live performances.
We rehearse in Alberto's home studio.
How have you developed since you started with music?
We have achieved certain great things. We have played in Europe twice, we have been opening act for several bands like Therion, Primal Fear, Sinner, Accept, and more. We have played in the most important festival in Mexico... But we still have a lot to do.
We hope to give a huge step with our next record
to be released in 2019.
Do you have other interests of work outside the band?
We all have other activities and jobs.
Dante has a production company for concerts and pri‐ vate shows. He also sings in choirs, symphonic music and has his own big band where he sings jazz music.
Alberto has a home studio where he works as producer and sound engineer. He also has some business as a salesman.
Luis has also a home studio and works mainly on film and TV dubbing. He also does sound design for advertising companies and stuff related to that.
David works in a medical company that develops prosthetics. And also plays bass with a cover band on weekends.
Satoshi works with cover bands as a formal job outside the band.
Are you looking for a booking agency, and what are your thoughts around that?
Yes, we definitely need one!
We believe that it is impossible to work without it. Especially with our expectations for the new album. We need someone that can take us everywhere and get more and better gigs for us.
Are you looking for a label, and what are your thoughts around that?
Yes. Although these days it is not necessary to
have your music displayed everywhere; it is still very important to have the support of a label. Many things can't be reach unless you have a serious label.
What made you decide to make this music? Metal represents the most reactionary genre I'm music. It is powerful and strong on the musical side, but also on the lyrics. Metal can talk about anything and has no compromises with anyone or anything but the truth. It's the perfect way to protest against injustice and inequality.
What are your songs about? All the issues of contemporary society. Violence, manipulation, bad governments, global warming, economic problems, religion and immigration. And some songs talk about historical events that we consider as iconic moments of humanity, like the nuclear attacks on Japan during WWII, or the conquest of Mexican territories by the Spaniards.
Who does the composing and writes the lyrics?
For our first record Dante wrote 3 songs and wrote the whole lyrics and vocal Arrangements for all 5 songs. Mauricio wrote the music for two of them
In Made in Mexico Dante wrote all the music and lyrics but the rest of the band helped with Arrangements.
For the new record Dante and Alberto have been wor‐ king a lot together on music. And Dante is writing the lyrics. Luis has helped with some Arrangements too.
Have you done any covers live? Yes! We have side project called "Symphonic Rock Experience". It is a show where we play the greatest songs from the most iconic rock bands like The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Queen, The Rolling Stones, Eagles, Led Zeppelin, and many more. All of them in symphonic versions written by Dante.
What language do you sing in? Mostly English but we have some passages in Latin and German.
What are the least and most people to attend one of your gigs? The worst was 10, the best was 5000!
What ages are most of your concert attendants? Between 25 to 34
Do you always play the same songs live, or do you vary? No, we always try to change our setlist.
Do you have a regular place you play live often? No
What was your first gig like? It was a school's festival in a big theater, in front of 2000 people. The audience was conformed by parents, relatives and friends. We only played one song an there were about 20 other bands that played between one and 3 songs. All conformed by students of the same music academy.
What was your latest gig? We played in a small local festival in Mexico City before we decided to stop and start looking for a new drummer and composing for the new album. We're not gonna play too much until we release it.
Have you had to cancel a gig? No
Where have you played live this year? Only in Mexico City
Where do you plan to gig the comming year? Europe and all over Mexico. We will also aim for the US.
When did you start to sell merchandise, and what do you have for sale? Since we start playing. Right now we sell tshirts, hoodies and patches. And CDs of course.
Where can people buy your merchandise? At the moment only through direct contact on our Facebook page. We use PayPal and we ship to every place in the world via regular mail or through services like DHL.
What do you think about people downloading music instead of buying records now a days?
Well it's terrible for big and old bands, but brings great opportunities to newcomers. We think that streaming is a good thing but free and illegal downloading destroys music.
However, sound quality is way much better in CD than any streaming or downloading service. Mp3 or any other compression formats are terrible.
How do you think the music industry have changed because of this? There's a huge offer of bands and solo artists, but only a few get to the audience. People don't listen to full albums anymore. But if you work on your fanbase, you still have the chance to become an important act.
What do you think of my work? Don't know exactly what yo mean but, we guess you refer to press and media. Thus, we think it's very important for music to have people working on spreading music, finding new artists, interviewing them and so on.
We couldn't live without serious media and press.
How do you think and know that this interview will help you in the music business? Well, we hope to get more people to know our music and engage with us. The more people we reach, the more chances we have to play for bigger audiences.
Do you have any role models or idols?
We all have our idols.
Personally (Dante) the most important musicians for me are John Lennon and Freddie Mercury. I consider them my gods!
Why do you think that they exist? Because they are extraordinary. They do or did things like no one else can. They wrote the songs that moved a whole Generation. And they were always looking for more. They were relentless and dedicated. They exist because the world needs people like them.
Is it easier to find inspiration from older bands, or bands that are more active today? We think that you need to be in touch with the past and the present. We all have our heroes from the old days. But we can't expect to be successful by repeating what worked in the past. You have to look around you and learn from other bands like yourself.
What have been your biggest obstacles? Being in a country that has no interest on its local bands. There is not a serious metal scene un Mexico. People are only interested on foreign artists. Thus results in not having labels, agencies, serious media, venues and so on. So we have to aim for other countries, but it's too hard because it's expensive, and competition is brutal.
What advice would you give other bands or artists?
To set up real objectives and work hard on them.
To know exactly what they really want from their bands and how far they want to go.
And to be great! Write cool and interesting music. Not copying other bands. Have great sound and looks.
How do you get psyched for a gig? We see an opportunity in every concert we play, to get new fans. And of course to keep the ones we already have. So we always give everything we have on stage. And we always try to have fun and enjoy the moment.
Do you have any new material? Yes, but it won't be released until 2019.
What are your web sites?
Facebook.com/Warkabinett YouTube.com/Warkabinett
Instagram @Warkabinett
Twitter @Warkabinett Reverbnation.com/Warkabinettofficial
How can people reach?
The best is to write a DM on our Facebook page. We answer everyone everyday.
And for business it's better if you email us to:
What are your plans for the future?
We are going to release a whole Saga divided in 5 albums that are going to be released during the next 8 years.
For each album we expect to play on every possible country. We expect to keep growing and visiting more places with every release.
Immediate plans are, first of all, finding a
booking agent!
Then finish writing the new album, and then start recording and film at least 3 videos for 2019. Then we expect to start touring Europe, Mexico and the US.
Do you have something to add? Just want to thank you for your interest snd support. And to ask people to listen to our music, watch our videos and keep in touch because the new stuff will be great and really impressive.
 

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