Robex Lundgren virkblogg.

What are your names? / Who plays what?

Ángel A. Díez – Vocals and backing vocals

Alfredo Arold – Guitar and Keyboards and backing vocals

David Aora – Lead guitar and backing vocals

Edu “Dudu” Vázquez – Bass guitar

Jesús Marcos “Chuspy” – Drums and backing vocals

Have any of you played in other bands?

Yes, we did, Jesús played in a Metal band called Damian Lord, David Aira played in a Rock band called Parking Sound and also currently plays with the solo band of the singer Rudy Black, Alfredo was the leader of Everwake (a Metal band in the vein of Lacuna Coil or Poets of the Fall), Dudu has played in a lot of different bands but currently he plays with a Pop-Rock band called Polaroids and I (Ángel) sang with the Power/Thrash band Lake of Souls.

Have you had other previous members? Yes, from 2006 to 2008 we had another guitar players, Raúl Rockatansky and Israel Ballesteros, and for a short period of time in 2008 we had a keyboardist called Darío. But the current formation remains stable since 2010 and that is the one with we have recorded our only two albums.

Where are you from? We are from León, a quiet city in the northwest Spain.

What year did the band form? The core of BE FOR YOU was born in the summer of 2006 but the band as we are (the real BE FOR YOU) was formed in the year 2010 when we recorded our first album “Beyond Love & Compassion”.

What's your style of genre? Well, we call ourselves as Melodic Hard Rock but in our music swim a lot of different influences; Metal, Progressive, AOR, Pop, Funky. Sometimes music is difficult to categorize.

What inspires you? It is hard to detail what inspires us or what are our influences because they are not only in our music but in our perspective too; lyrics, subjects, artwork, etc. And as you’ll guess each of us has a different ones. For example the universe and astronomy is a great inspiration for me and it can be found hidden in our music, hahaha. Focusing in our music the bands that we most mention are Europe, Gotthard, Harem Scarem, Whitesnake, Bon Jovi, Masterplan, HEAT, all that hell of a good stuff, hehehe.

Are you looking for a booking agency, and what are your thoughts around that?

Not by the moment. Now is difficult for us because of our different jobs and because right now we all aren’t living in the same city so we aren’t able to find enough time to gig properly so we are playing here and there when we can do it.

Depending on the results with the audience of this brand new album this situation probably may change and we will have to look for a booking agency. 

Are you looking for a label, and what are your thoughts around that?

We signed a contract a year ago with the Italian label Volcano Records & Promotion and, by now, we are very happy with their work. They are really taking care of us!

What are your songs about? As the main lyric writer in the band I don’t like to focus exclusively in the classic Hard Rock themes (Love, Rock ‘n’ Roll, etc.). We really want to tell something interesting and valued to our listeners, maybe I am more focused in some Metal topics: Environment, feelings (pain, fear, hate, happiness…) and how they affect to us, politics, astronomy and of course classic Hard Rock topics. A part of our new album, “The Things I Never Told You”, spins around all those things that we weren’t be able to tell and how it impacts you in any way.

Who does the composing and writes the lyrics? Mainly me, but Alfredo has written a lyric for this album too (“One with the world”) and we all share our different opinions about the topics we touch.

Do you compose in a certain inviroment? Well, we focus the composition (I have to say that Alfredo is the one with most weight in this field) in the Hard Rock / Melodic Metal way but we don’t build barriers to our music, we like to print our personal touch in the music, so we try different influences and sometimes we try to get out of our comfort zone.

Have you done any covers live? Yes, we do, people like that. Sometimes you can warm up the audience with a good cover at the right time. It depends on the audience to choose one or another song but we usually play “Anytime, Anywhere” (Gotthard), “Keep the Faith” (Bon Jovi) or “Rock you like a Hurricane” (Scorpions). At this time we are thinking about renew some cover, you know, something from HEAT or Harem Scarem.

What are the least and most people to attend one of your gigs? Ok, really we don’t analyse deeply haw are the features of the crowd who come to shows but I can swear that there are people of any kind and that’s cool.

What ages are most of your concert attendants? By now we have a huge range of ages, from the youngsters to the older ones. But the most representation of ages are between the 25 and 50 I think.

Do you always play the same songs live, or do you vary?

No, sometimes we vary two or three songs but the core of the performance are the same songs, you have to take in account that we only have two albums and

it makes easier choose the songs to perform. I think that with the passing of years and the recording of new albums we will vary more because you have much material to choose and work with.

Do you have a regular place you play live often? Not really but we have played a lot in our hometown, León.

Where have you played live this year? We have done some shows in the North of Spain (León, Valladolid, San Sebastián, etc.)

When did you start to sell merchandise, and what do you have for sale? In the very beginning we already started to sell some merchandise, you know; t-shirts, lighters, stickers (those were for free! Hahaha!), Cds and all that stuff (we didn’t reach a KISS’ level of merchandise managing but we were next to, hahaha!). Now we sell our albums and some t-shirts but we are planning to do some new merchandise by the way.

Where can people buy your merchandise? Directly in our concerts and they can get the albums in physical shops (such as MediaMarkt) or ordering in many internet platforms (both digital and physical copy) such as Amazon, iTunes, Rock to Japan (just for Japanese customers), Deezer, etc. They can contact us directly by our social media (Facebook where we have a virtual shop, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube) or by our mail ([email protected]). If they want to listen to our music before buying it they can find it by our YouTube’s channel or in Spotify too. As you see if anyone wants to get some of our stuff they can do it very easily.

What do you think about people downloading music instead of buying records now a days? I think that you can’t run against the present times; nowadays the streaming platforms are kickin’ asses, almost no one buys an original copy of a film or even listen music in a stereo… Young and elder people listen to music in their computers or mobile phones so, as I said, you can’t turn back in time. All of us download music because you can’t buy all the music that you want. If anyone downloads our music? That’s totally fine! Maybe they need their money for more important things or maybe they just don’t want to buy it. For us the point is that people want to listen to our music, no matter where or how, and if they like it we want them to come to our shows, and if they love original CDs they can buy one to listen to it in their stereos. We don’t make a living with our music, we do it because we love it, for earning money we have our own jobs, so if we make money with our music is just to reinvest it in our music again. Finally, I buy original music and films (maybe a lot for the available space in my home, hahaha!) but I have to download it too if I want to taste every product I want to. For the record… Since I have a Premium Spotify account I hardly can manage all the music within my reach… Hahahaha!

How do you think the music industry have changed because of this?

It’s a difficult question to answer because the industry has upside-down because of it. It is no longer the same, the problem is that this change is so big that the

industry is still shocked and they don’t have found the way to adapt to the current times properly. The music business as we knew it in the 80’s and 90’s has died. Now the record selling is not a priority anymore (unless you are a big one, of course) and the importance of live performances has increased a lot (and with it the prices to see some bands on live). We have to change our minds and adapt us to the new times, there are things better than before but worse too… Maybe without this big change I wouldn’t be answering to these questions or maybe you weren’t asking them. Don’t you think so?

What do you think of my work? For us is really important, one of the keys of the formula. We are aware that most of the Metal journalist or bloggers don’t make a living with their efforts and they (you) work for free just because they (you) love music. For an Spanish band like us is really difficult to be known out of our borders, to reach Japan, American countries or Scandinavia (that is your own case) we need two things and even so it still is difficult: 1. Quality in our music 2. People like you that promotes it in their virtual spaces (sometimes these places are bigger other tinier). So, since we are touching this topic, we want to give a BIG THANK YOU for opening up to us the doors of your home.

How do you think and know that this interview will help you in the music business? I think that it is a little big grain of sand to reach new listeners, to get a Swedish representation or something like that. We don’t expect to sell any record or find a club to play there in your country, but this interview is another brick in our wall (as Pink Floid said), the wall that we are building to stand up on its top and reach new horizons.

Do you have any role models or idols? Sincerely not. I mean we there are many people that we respect a lot, that we respect them from the heart, but I wouldn’t call them “models”, much less “idols”. For example, we all respect EUROPE a lot, not only for they terrific music but for the way they choose to work and manage their career. They did fantastic albums in the 80’s (and all of them were different to the other ones) but when they split up and time after gather in 2004 to restart their career as EUROPE they didn’t focused on what the people wanted from them, they just did the music they wanted to do no matter what the others expected from then, not thinking about business just thinking about the music and that is brave and that like us. They respect their audience and I think that they respect themselves so maybe they could be some kind of model in the way they behave.

Why do you think that they exist? I guess that everyone has his/her “models” and “idols” in some way. I got mine. For a band is more difficult because five different people have five different points of view and sometimes it is hard to make them collide. I guess that they exist because everybody needs a beacon or guiding lights for good or bad so everyone collect models or idols that fit them in their searching for success or happiness. For my there is no need of models and idols to succeed in life or for finding happiness but no one is equal to another.

Is it easier to find inspiration from older bands, or bands that are more active today? Inspiration comes from everywhere so you can take it from the older ones and from the new and unknown bands, genius hasn’t age or experience. I believe we can’t generalize about that. We like a lot the classic bands but we love new bands too. They and we (because we belong to these “new bands”) are the future, we can’t hold the Rock scene only with the big classics. We need new and restless blood! There is a lot of raw material out there!

What have been your biggest obstacles? Mmmmmm… This is a difficult one… Hahahaha. I guess that are the same to other bands in our situation. We live in a small city in a country without a huge Hard Rock / Melodic Metal movement so it is difficult to get found by the listeners all over the world. There is a lot (A LOT) of wonderful music available in just one click so we are like a grain of sand in a huge beach. It is hard to distinguish yourself from others and everything seems more ephemeral than years before, so you don’t only need to be found you need to endure too. That is a big deal.

What advice would you give other bands or artists? I think that we are not able to give any advice to anyone, each band, each musician is different and there is not a magical recipe that can fit everybody. Maybe we are in the situation to need more advices from the bigger ones that to give advices to others, hahahaha.

Do you have any new material? Currently we are working on rerecording two songs from our first album, “Beyond Love & Compassion”. Next year 2020 is the 10th anniversary of its release so we want to do something special for it. We will release these song only in digital platforms. And we are working on the next album too that we want to have ready for the ending of 2020 or maybe 2021. You know, sometimes it is hard to calculate these things properly.

What are your web sites? We don’t a web site yet, we are working on it. But people interested on us can find info, music and a lot of stuff in the band’s FB and in our YouTube channel.

Do you have something to add? Yes, something brief. Thank you so much for your interest about us and our music and we’d like that your readers would spend one hour of their lives listening to our music, maybe it would be a good surprise for some of them. Music has no sense if there is no one in the other side to listen to it so our biggest happiness would be to know than some of you like the stuff we do. Cheers, Love and best regards from Spain.