www.TheUnderGrowth.com

Mar de Grises: Regards From The End Of The World
By Necromaster



Mar de Grises was formed through August 2000 to September 2001. How did the band come to form at this time?
Yes, Mar de Grises started back in 2000 in order to fulfil the natural needs of creation and emotional sharing of five guys who
accidentally were musicians with similar musical likes and had some points in common about their vision of life. Music was and
still is the channel; playing live or recording it, is a ritual for us in order to fulfil that need. Doom metal was the selected genre
at first, and definitely we still have that root, but that is now more like a coincidence because we like the genre, but we don’t
really care if the final results are Doom or whatever. In 2002, there was our first official recording: a 40 minute demo that had
quite good acceptance. Then, after signing to Firebox Records, in 2004, emerged The Tatterdemalion Express, our debut album.
It also had excellent reviews and general perception. That motivated us to continue with the good work. In 2005, after some
years working on new compositions and playing gigs all over our country, we made a tour in Europe, where we learned a lot
about the touring life, about our own real personal interests and about ourselves and life as well, having also an unforgettable
time. Now, we hacve reciently released our new album, Draining the Waterheart, and finished a new European tour along with
Saturnus and some parts of the tour with Thurisaz and Ablaze in Hatred. Very nice and intense experience also. We are currently
working on new compositions that will be in a more experimental vein.

Mar De Grises has a unique sound. Mixing many aspects of doom, ambiances, death and progressive elements.
What influences Mar De Grises to create such a mixture?
Our musical likes are quite varied and I think that consciously or unconsciously, in some way, what you like to listen influences
the music you make. Ambient, Death, Doom, and progressive genres are indeed genres that we mostly like and enjoy, so the
influence from their part is present. We just try to maintain all those elements balanced in order to let intensity flow naturally.

Does being from Chile influenced your music in any way?
Definitely yes. This country with its people, landscapes, problems and virtues, is the place that gives us the inspiration we need
to make music. It is the place where we have spent most part of our lives, so it is indeed the place from where many of our
influences and inspirations come.

How did Mar De Grises end up on a Finnish label? (Firebox Records)
Back on 2002, we recorded a rehearsal just to know how the songs were going. The result in terms of sound quality and
interpretation were better than we expected, so we decided to release it as a demo. We sent it to every record label around the
world we thought could be interested. Firebox, being one of our main targets, did, and offered us a deal that satisfied both parties.
Since then, we are quite satisfied with the 6 year relationship that we have had.

Did Mar De Grises take a different approach to writing Draining The Waterheart then on The Tatterdemalion Express?
I feel the development of Draining the Waterheart in those terms is somehow more personal; we don’t work like before. Nowadays,
the “skeletons” of the compositions most of the time are work of one person and then the band participates on the last personal
arrangements and lyrics. Is just the type of life we have right know doesn’t let us too much time for a “band-work”, but still, we
try to rehearse the songs over and over again before having them ready, in order to let them mature naturally and with personal
touches of everyone, just like in the Tatterdemalion album.

Can you walk us through the process MarDe Grises took in writing Draining The Waterheart?
At first, it was a very slow process due to the departure of our former keybordist/vocalist, Marcelo, right after our first European
tour. He was also one of the main composers in the band. We tried to continue with the new compositions, but we took around
two years to find the right replacement. We finally did with Juan. It was just then when the writing process started to have a
more defined form.

Was there any major obstacles in recording and releasing Draining The Waterheart?
Yes there was, as always. The production was made by us and the sound engineer, here in our country. It was a long and hard
process because the sound engineer couldn’t dedicate too much time for this, so we had meetings every two weeks for mixing
and lots of trouble with the hardware. The last day of mastering we spent like 48 hrs awake because we were on the time limit
with our record label, so maybe the production of the album wasn’t as good as we wanted, although the final result is good.

Mar De Grises has toured in many parts of Europe, how was this experience? Any plans to tour North America?
What is planed for the Future of Mar De Grises?
Yes, we had our second tour in Europe, with Saturnus and Thurizas. It was a very interesting, intense, dense, exhausting, and
happy experience; the tour lasted a month, playing almost every day and people were very enthusiastic in most of the gigs. We
got a lot of good comments about the shows and the cds. Yes, the idea is to go to North America in the future. Maybe next year
or in a couple more. It is difficult to get things going in terms of a tour, but still we are working on it.

For now, we plan to play some gigs here in Chile, and start working for new material, hopefully to be released in no more than one
and a half year from now this time. Besides that, just continue playing and making music, at least until the need of doing it disappears.

Well I’d like to thank you for your time. And thanks to the fans and everyone who feels identified with what we honestly make.
Thank you very much. Regards from the end of the world.

Current line up is:
Sergio Alvarez – Guitars
Alejandro Arce – Drums
Rodrigo Gálvez – Bass
Rodrigo Morris – Guitars
Juan Escobar – Voice, Keys & Synth

http://www.mardegrises.com
http://www.myspace.com/mardegrises2

Mar De Grises - Sleep Just One Dawn (live)

Nice interview! I have been thinking of asking bands for interviews latetly but I usually get too drunk and in "regular" party-mode so it never happends... but a friend of 2 friends of mine is the singer of "The Ugly" which is suppost to be this "new swedish black metal sensation", just saw them live yesterday for the second time (first time they opened for Månegarm) and since they're getting alot of "praise" lately maybe I shall try to shout at him for an interview.

Either way, nice to see interviews at the undergrowth!

I haven't done an interview for this site in years. So I wasn't sure if I was going to try again. So here is my first one in a long ass time. I'll be doing more in the future i think. I need to get some reviews done too. Work is sucking up all my time now a days.

If you want to do some interviews for the site, feel free to. I did this one by email. You cold do the same, or over MSN. I hate doing them with audio recording. To much work typing out the interview off the tape. lol