INTERVIEW
they want to about our music, but it’s
important to clarify, just in case people go to
our concerts and expect to hear flamenco or
Mexican music. We don’t want them to get
the wrong idea, you know?
11: 11 is more experimental than some of
your past records. The core Rod and Gab
sound is still there, but you’ve also added
stuff like the wah pedal and that riff in
“Logos”—which sounds a little like the
outro on Pantera’s “Floods” or the riff to
Metallica’s “One.”
Sanchez: You know, at the time I thought we
were going a little too far from what the first
album was like. But I kind of regret that we
didn’t experiment just a little more. For the
live shows, though, we’ll use more effects,
such as wah and even some distortion. It
makes sense when you know the people who
go to our live shows, as opposed to those
who just listen to the album. With 11: 11, the
whole approach was totally different than the
ones before it. We were excited that we were
going to work with producer John Leckie
[John Lennon, Radiohead, Pink Floyd], and we
did some demos with him when he arrived.
The demos ended up sounding exactly like
the first album, and we didn’t want to do that.
We also knew that we were going to work
with Colin Richardson mixing, but we wanted
to do it our own way too. We wanted to go
back to the way that we recorded our metal
band in the ’90s, doing things like doubling
our guitars and using other older techniques.
There was a more clinical approach to the
recording, which is what we were after. I think
if we had more time, we would have added
more parts. During the live show, we add
additional parts and textures, though. So in
retrospect, I guess I’m glad we didn’t add
them in the studio, because that saves some
of the tricks for the next album.
A lot of your songs have that sort of
classical-intro style that a lot of ’80s metal
bands used. Which bands or albums
influenced your songwriting in that regard?
Sanchez: We got that from ’80s thrash metal
bands like Metallica. Their intros to songs like
“Battery” or “Fight Fire with Fire” contained
elements that were translated from classical
guitar. When I first started writing metal
songs as a kid, I added that to my composing
skills. If there was one album that made a
huge impact on me in that way, it would be
Testament’s The New Order. That’s how I
became a huge fan of Alex Skolnick. What
fascinated me were these massive pieces of
intricate music before the heavy part came
in. It just seemed so mysterious and well
executed. There are other genres of music
that we blend together and they all have their
own aspects that we like to concentrate on,
but that’s certainly the one for metal.
Quintero: I guess what it really comes down
to is what we think we can play well. We
prefer to keep the sound really tight, which
comes down to this type of structure. That
also really helps people relate with our music,
because it is not a jam-type of music, where
it takes two hours or something like that to
do a solo. I don’t think that we can do that!
[Laughs.] We like to stick to what we do best.
Every song on 11: 11 is dedicated to a
musician. How did those dedications affect
how you wrote the songs?
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