MP: Is it a tough thing to play your kind of music in Portugal?

Fernando: Yes, I think it is. People are not too familiar with the market reality in Portugal. I'm not talking about people enjoying the music but about the industry - which is not made for bands like Moonspell. We came from a heavy metal/rock/gothic - whatever you call it - background and there is no other national alternative band as big as us. But we get lots of shit from the press and the promoters here - which is very hard. Because we can play about 100 gigs in Austria, Germany, wherever but in Portugal we play only twice a year. There is still a prejudice against this kind of alternative music.

MP: Where is the problem then?

Fernando: The problem is not the fanbase but the barriers from tv and press. Promotion is really hard here. And because of that there not more people are buying our records or listen to our music. When people see us live, it's the best promotion, but there are hardly any concerts. We are not taken seriously. We just played at two big festivals in Spain, where we were very well received and treated. And we just played a big festival in Portugal with Scarpants and Megadeath and we were treated like shit by the promoter. So we are more concerned about the foreign scene anyway.

MP: In the beginning Moonspell were labeld as blackmetal band whereas gothic tunes dominate your music now. Where do you see yourself?

Fernando: I think what people call black metal is something very debate and disgusting. If Dimmu Borgir call themselves true black metal we never had anything to do with this. Even if you compare the early Moonspell with that, we had nothing to do with it. There is not a strong metal scene anyway in Portugal - of course there are these five to ten bands that try to copy the Norwegian stuff. In my opinion they are going nowhere because there are few bands that do it with quality. Moonspell never had to do with this and we like to see ourselves as a band that is fusing a lot of styles. Personally, when I started to listen to music I listened from heavy metal and alternative to pop. I still have records from bands like Propaganda from my early age at home, so I was basically split between these two things. Now, that we are a more mature band we know better what to do musically and lyrically and we are not only going back to our metal roots but also to our pop roots. That's why "Irreligious" was more into the Sisters of Mercy and the new one will be different. A lot of people are afraid because we like Depeche Mode too... (giggles). With "Irreligious" we came to a point where we can say it's rather original and unique for Moonspell. And from here on we start to build the new album. We have already all tracks and it's very different from what people will expect. At least we don't think we're going softer, we are getting more melodic, some tracks are really aggressive. It is always confusing to answer how the music will develop in the future. What we don 't want to be is an outdated band - we want to be a modern band.

MP: In your lyrics there is a big part about vampires, werworves and women. (Fernando: Yes, especially women! They are very important). And of course religion. Is it difficult to live in an catholic country or is it a constant inspiration for your lyrics?

Fernando: With all issues I touch lyricwise - especially religion - you have to live in a catholic country or be raised as a catholic to understand what religion is about: all the pain, the good tand bad things it brings to man. I was raised as a catholic and in Portugal we never had a split fom the church. There are no others, no protestants, no anglican church, nothing. But when it comes to censorship, I don 't think we are so known for our opinions about religion in Portugal, but for "Opium"...

MP: That was my next question. Your "Opium"-clip was banned from MTV. Was it that offensive? And did it help to sell the song?

Fernando: I don't think that it was too offensive and maybe it helped the selling. Honestly I never watch MTV myself, because it's not representative for modern music. Although there are a few good bands that get airplay. And then they have this philosophy against drugs. I can only say we don't take any drugs, it's just a song named "Opium". What really depresses me is that a band like Nirvana - whith a well-known drug problem - or Alice in Chains are like the bread and butter of MTV, they are always on the air and that are people with serious drug problems. Anyway, doing a videoclip is good from the artistic point of view not only for promotion. We can't reach many TV-channels with our music so indeed it might be the better promotion to have the video censored, because a lot of poeople wanted to check out that particular song and the band behind it. Then Vanessa Warwick (MTV-VJ) got fired because of it - in total it was probabely better not to have the song on MTV... And it was not the only problem we had because of "Opium", some promoters tried to cancel the shows - that much to the freedom of arts. Well, censorship exists and everybody knows that. In modern times I think censorship is a silent one whereas in the past, with dictatorships, all this shit was more straightforward. You almost censor yourself, just trying to get in the business. I haven't done that yet... The only control we have with the band - because we cannot control the people that actually buy the records - is the music and the lyrics. And believe me - if we loose that, we will split up immediately.

MP: Where lies your main market?

Fernando: I think it is this area like Germany, Austria, Netherlands, Belgium. We even sell a lot of records in Portugal, because Portugal is a small market and we had a silver record there, and I think Scandinavia, too. We have quite some followers in Italy and broke into the charts there.

MP: What kind of people are coming to your concerts, is there a kind of core-base?

Fernando: Oh I like it very much that the crowd is very diverse.

MP: As far as I noticed there are coming more women to your shows then to other metal bands...

Fernando: I don't know. We are playing very often with Type O Negative, so the women are not for us. We did their last European Tour with them, and even now filled in some gigs between the summer festivals. They like our music and they like us - and they asked us to support them which is always a pleasure. They are one of my favourite bands but when it comes to women, I'm convinced that 99,9 % goes to Type O Negative and Pete Steele and we get the leftovers. But we won't take it anyway...

MP: Are there songs, you can't stand playing any more, becauce you did them too often?

Fernando: Yes, and usually these are the songs people want to hear at concerts like "Vampiria"... and of course I have to play it. Actually we are very bored with touring now, as we do it since the "Irreligious"-release. After the TON-tour we took a break to compose the next album and are already playing two new songs per set. They don't have names yet - we will figure this out later - this is a way to keep things interesting. We were a little afraid of the summer festivals - we were booked for 22, which is a lot - I think we are one of the bands that is playing most live this summer. And this is a challenge because at festivals at least half of the crowd doesn't know you. And we play also pop- and alternative festivals, not only metal-gigs and have quite good reactions. On the other hand it is challenging for the band to confront us with daylight because we are more into the night with our usual show-environment. We just play the new songs and get a good response. We play "Sacred" from Depeche Mode and songs from both albums, because we still promote them.

MP: If you are touring that intensively, is there any time left for a private life?

Fernando: Not really. You have to transfer all of your interests to a tourbus or a hotel room because we very much believe in what we do and that keeps us going. The band always comes first and it has to. It is tough when it comes to relationships. The keyboardplayer is already married and the rest of us has very steady girlfrieds for 4 - 5 years. When we started with our girlfriends we were nobodies and I 'm very honest I know it's not a good life. My girlfriend is an actor and has a career of her own. She knows the game. It could be the other way - she is very successful and I have to stay home. So I live very intensely during the tour breaks, and make it up for a little time. It's the business and the price you pay.

MP: Well talking about future projects...

Fernando: Yes, actually we were to go in autumn to the studio but we are workoholics and have the new album already done. Not recorded but the preproduction. We will first record the Single that will be out in September and throughout September and October we will record the full album that will come out in November. We plan to do an album per year. Then we will shoot a video although I don't know when, because our schedule is so tight. Are we ready? Good! Then more wine....

MP: Thank you Fernando, cheers!

© MEGALOMANIAC PRODUCTIONS 1997