Metal Junkbox travelled to Évora to talk to the guitarist of Above the Ocean, André Vicente.
For those who don’t know, this band from Évora won the band competition organised by Comendatio
Music Fest and will be taking part in the 5th edition of this festival, which features luxury names such as Ihsahn, Vola, Humanity’s Last Breath (making their debut in Portugal), The Cost, the band of the well-known El Stepario Siberian, who will be making their stage debut precisely at Comendatio Music Fest.
Above the Ocean were the most voted band in a competition on social media and will open the 22nd
June. André Vicente tells us a little about the band and their motivations, as well as
about what’s to come at this concert and for the future.
MJ: André, tell me who Above the Ocean are.
AV: Above the Ocean, the current line-up, is me on lead guitar and main songwriter and production
also everything we have electronic, etc, Pedro Santos on rhythm guitar and songwriting too, João Carvalho on drums, André Bagorro on bass and José de Saruga on vocals and screaming and bawling (laughs).
MJ: How did this project come about? And how long ago?
AV: The current line-up has been around since 2021, and before that the band existed as a concept and
Whatsapp group but never actually produced anything. At the time it was called Synestesia, was the name that initially existed. That project was formed by Pedro, and after that, Saruga and João joined, but Above the Ocean, as we know it today, came into existence when Bagorro and I joined and really started working on the songs we have now, and that’s the line-up that ended up succeeding until now.
MJ: So, André, tell me a bit about that composition when you and Bagorro joined. What were those times like?
AV: So the early days are always the most complex. Getting some cohesive songs and all of us going in the same direction and being able to play them. When I joined, we already had songs made by Pedro, and then I added my personal stamp and started composing things from my influences. And from there, we managed to find a balance between the influences of all of us and we came up with the singles we’ve released, such as ‘Love Song’ and ‘Therapy’, and the other songs we’ve also been playing live. They all came about
from this fusion that we found between each other’s influences.
MJ: You’ve just spoken about the band’s influences. What are the band’s main influences? And what
genre influenced the two singles you’ve released?
AV: Although we classify ourselves mainly as a metalcore and modern metal band, the truth is that we have very varied and wide-ranging influences. Pedro, for example, comes from a school, let’s call it that, for Nu-Metal, Slipknot is one of his favourite bands, Saruga is Parkway Drive, Landmarks. I listen to a bit of everything, all the sub-genres of metal, but mainly Modern Metal, that’s what I’m most interested in. João is a bit like me, he also drinks a bit of each style and doesn’t stick to any specific sub-genre.
Our singles come a little from this whole mix of influences. ‘Love Song’, for example, came from a riff that I already had, but had never developed into anything, and after we went to a concert of While She Sleeps, I came away inspired by that more electronic influence, of the intros and passages, I got home and made that intro that is part of ‘Love Song’ and from there came all the rest of the music as we know it today. Therapy” was our second single, it had a different composition method, it was our main team effort until today, so it had a bit of each one, so Pedro’s riffs, Bagorro’s ideas for the bass, and the lead guitar, it had already come from me previously, It was also a riff I’d done and never used for anything and then, of course, João came along and gave his personal stamp to the rhythms, etc, and so ‘Therapy’ ended up being the song that encompasses more than a little bit of everyone, of our effort as a band, so to speak.
MJ: What about lyrics? Do you know a bit about the history of lyrics? I know that ‘Therapy’ is a cry of
revolt and that it also ends up being a therapeutic cry, so to speak…
AV: That’s an excellent question, we have a bit of a lyrical side too, it’s a bit
of this desire to do something good and to demonstrate, that it’s not just shouting for the sake of shouting, and Saruga is excellent in this respect, in drawing a little on his life experience, and bringing it out into the open, those feelings that are sometimes more negative and turning them into something positive. For
anyone who listens to ‘Therapy’, it’s undoubtedly one of the best examples of this. It’s a song about having
the desire to shout out and send out those demons that we all harbour to a certain extent and that eat away at us and bring us down, so it’s that need and that cry for emancipation, for “OK! I’m here and I’m stronger than my demons! Come on, we’re here to party and make
noise”.
MJ: Are there any members who are more difficult to work with and compose for? (laughs)
AV: Actually, I don’t want to point fingers, so as not to look bad, the truth is that we all work very well as a team, and if I had to point the finger, it would be at myself (laughs). In fact, I’m that guy who’s more of a perfectionist, and who, especially when it comes to recording, points out all the mistakes and goes straight into that, ‘Hey, it’s good, but you can do better!’, then it’s Take and repeat Take, so in that respect I’m a bit more itchy, let’s put it that way. But in terms of work, I think we all work very well together, one with the other and we understand each other well and we’re all moving in the same direction. Of course, there are times when one wants a Riff, goes more in one direction and the other ‘Oh, what if it was like this and it was like that’, it’s normal but deep down we always find the middle ground and complete each other and that’s ideal. There’s no personality that’s stronger and stands out.
MJ: Above the Ocean has already played a few concerts around Évora, Lisbon and more places! As artists you can also gauge and feel the energy of the people who are watching you! What has the audience reaction been like?
AV: Well, the reaction has been nothing short of spectacular, especially at the first concerts, we’ve had a fantastic reaction to our songs and we’ve even attracted a lot of diverse audiences who are fans of different genres, even within metal, and I think that also has a bit to do with the influences that we’ve managed to fish out, and the mix we make within our style of music. We manage to have a bit of groove, weight, melody, also some technique mixed in with the more accessible parts like the choruses, etc.
The reception has been really, really good, the people who come up to us and tell us that they didn’t believe that things like what we do were made here in Portugal, in this specific case in the Alentejo, we’re a band from a relatively smaller environment and we’re very grateful for that, because it’s really been super motivating for us to see this reaction, to feel this energy that the public that sees us gives. Also, even on social media, we experience a lot and feel a lot of support, not just from friends, but also from friends of friends and those who discover us.
MJ: Is there any story or concert that stands out?
AV: It’s hard not to think of the concert we gave at the FNAC in Évora as the most caricatured, it had an almost mythical status, that performance (laughs), and to this day, I think we were the most out of the box band to play at that FNAC, at least in terms of style, because on a Saturday afternoon, a band like ours, playing in a shopping centre, for families who were shopping there and having the space full, it was quite funny, so to speak, there’s also a story in that concert that I’d rather not reveal. (Laughs)
MJ: Speaking of Comendatio, it’s almost on, it’s going to be on 22 June, I think is going to be your biggest stage yet. How did the band receive the news that you were the most voted band, tell us a bit about the emotions you felt, how did you receive the news that you had won the competition?
AV: So we’ve been following the Comendatio (voting) competition, always with some expectation that we’d win, but it’s one of those things that’s never guaranteed, isn’t it? (laughs). There was always nervousness: could we do it? Could we not? But when we got the news we were on Live, or were we? I’m trying to get my bearings here! (laughs) But yes, when we got the news, we were really happy about it, because we always thought we had the potential to go there, and especially given our sound, which is more modern, and which fits in perfectly with the style of the festival. So that’s it, we were extremely happy when we got the news that we were going to Comendatio, to show our songs, to that audience and see what the reaction is.
MJ: So tell me, André, do you think this gig at Comendatio will change the band, bring you more listeners and fans, and in a way make you grow?
AV: We want to believe so. We’re going to present our songs to a bigger and more varied audience than we’ve had so far and, what’s more, the enthusiasm that this whole concert has generated also makes us want to achieve even more than we have so far. So, without a doubt, I think the concert has a lot of potential to change Above the Ocean for the better.
MJ: I believe you’ve been rehearsing a lot for this concert. You feel a little nervous about playing
on the same stage as Vola, Humanity’s Last Breath, on the same day as you. How’s that anxiety in general?
AV: Yes, we’ve been rehearsing a lot, and although the nervousness is controlled by the knowledge that we have everything we need to do well, it always ends up making itself felt.
It’s still a responsibility to be the opening band, especially playing with bands we’re fans of, like Vola, who João (Carvalho, drummer) already wanted to see before the possibility of playing at the festival even arose.
Humanity’s Last Breath, which I particularly like, a lot due to the presence of Buster (guitarist and producer), who is a figure I admire in the modern metal scene.
Even so, I’d say that the anticipation and enthusiasm are already higher than the anxiety! (laughs) We’re sure of our set and we’re going to show the Comendatio Music Fest audience that we have a lot to offer, and that we hope to stay on the radar of many future fans who are curious to join us for what comes next.
MJ: So in terms of future projects, it’s going to be important, what’s planned? You already have
two singles, as we talked about earlier, is there anything else planned? A single, an EP, an album?
AV: We’re recording our debut album! After these two singles (‘Love Song’ and ‘Therapy’), we have at least two more singles planned, one of them is almost finished, we’re still working on it and we hope to release it soon, but mainly it will be our debut album, and we felt the need to put out the songs we’ve been playing in our concerts, and start doing new things, because we’ve been betting a lot on audiovisuals. Releasing songs, along with video clips, which has all been done, by us internally, as a band, and has taken up more time than would be ideal . So we’re going to try to speed things up a bit (laughs), so that we can get more music out there instead of releasing singles and videos in trickles, as has been the case so far.
MJ: As you said, you have two singles plus two more planned, but how many songs can we expect at your live performances?
AV: Well, if you think about it, we’ve got around seven or eight songs so far, depending on the time of the concert itself. If you look, it’s a funny thing, because in terms of songs, we have a lot, and there’s a big discrepancy, because fortunately we don’t have any problems or difficulties composing, and even we have to make a selection and re-learn how to play some of them many times. As for the album, we’re also going to have to make a selection of the songs we play most regularly at the moment, because otherwise we’d have enough material to release two albums and a half (laughs), for everything we already have and, in this case, for what’s coming next.
MJ: Can we expect any surprise songs on Comendatio? Something you haven’t played before?
AV: Who knows! We’ve been careful to choose a setlist that fits in with the festival, and one of the songs we’re going to play will be the next single, which isn’t necessarily new, because we’ve already played it live and we’re excited to see what the reaction of the Comendatio audience will be to our songs.
MJ: As well as Comendatio, which I think is going to be one of your biggest gigs, you’re also playing in July at the RCA Club, which is one of Lisbon’s mythical venues. You’ve already played in Lisbon, in a smaller venue, and going to the RCA could also be a good lever, as it’s a venue where big bands have played.
AV: Yes, we’re also very excited about going to the RCA, for now, because it’s our return to Lisbon, and there it is, as you said to a mythical room, with excellent conditions, we’re really excited to return to the capital and give our best again, this time, to a bigger audience than the last time we went to Lisbon, and of course also to present more songs, that we didn’t have at the time, and receiving the invitation to the RCA and participating in that festival, with international bands as well, was very good and we want to go there and make a good impression.
MJ: So we can say that this summer is going to be a good one for Above the Ocean…
AV: Absolutely! It’s certainly going to be our most active summer so far, and we’re very grateful to have the opportunity to practically, yes, almost every summer month have a concert booked or lined up, so we can go around spreading our sound to that audience!
MJ: Going back to the singles, ‘Love Song’ has a Lo-Fi Synthwave version, which I had the opportunity to listen to, and interestingly this song has an intro very similar to the song ‘Everything Ends’ by the Architects, who I happen to be a big fan of, however your version came out a few months earlier, how did you react to hearing that excerpt?
AV: (Laughs) A few people have already commented on that! Okay, if it had been the other way round, it would have been more annoying, because we had copied the Architects, but ours came out first, but it’s still curious, because the Architects also end up being one of our great influences. This version of ‘Love Song’ was also born out of my playing, more towards the electronic side, and not wanting to reveal too much here, it’s possible that there will be more surprises of this kind on the album. In fact, we make use of electronics too, as you can hear on Therapy, which has some heavy sample parts, and we really like to explore this aspect, not just metal, but also electronics.
But yes, it’s a funny story, and I think it’s excellent in terms of composition and production, because it’s a sign that we’re getting there and thinking like the big bands. (Laughs)
MJ: Before this interview, we chatted for a while and ended up talking about your Merch,
and you mentioned that you make the designs for your merch. Where do you get the inspiration for these designs? Merch is very important for bands and yours has been well received and that also helps you grow.
AV: It’s definitely helped us, and as you said, it’s one of the ways that bands can get some money, apart from concerts, is precisely merchandise, and in terms of inspiration, I usually get inspired by the lyrical content of the songs or even by what they make me feel, so to speak. Of course, having me as a designer, being able to bet on thesethings within the band, has been an asset for us. We also have Bagorro, who works with video, and who is a great help when it comes to video clips, working together with Diogo Fragoso, who is practically an honorary member of the band, has done an excellent job and so this component that we have, of not just being musicians and being able to be multifaceted, has helped the band a lot.
MJ: Thank you very much André for this time in this beautiful city of Évora.
