BW&BK Exclusive: HDK Founder SANDER GOMMANS On Working With Ex-ANGRA Vocalist - "His Voice Stands Out On The Album For Me; I Think The Caipirinha Helped"
January 14, 2009, 15 years ago
In a recent interview with BW&BK; scribe Carl Begai about the new HDK album, System Overload, guitarist Sander Gommans (AFTER FOREVER) commented on working with ex-ANGRA frontman Andre Matos for the song 'Request'. The track features the most aggressive performance of Matos' career to date:
“I think the caipirinha helped," laughs Gommans. "We had quite a few drinks that day. A lot of the time, when a recording works out it’s because of the atmosphere at that moment, and with Andre and all the vocal recordings things were really good. It was a lot of fun, especially with Andre. We had a lot of fun in the studio and he was really wanting to try different things with his voice. It was the only vocals we recorded for HDK at Gate Studios, because he was there recording his solo album. I had a great time because he was making these caipirinhas and doing a really good job of it (laughs). We were listening to the Painkiller album and stuff like that, so it was really cool."
Matos' performance, for the record, is completely off the wall. While his trademark high-end vocals are featured in 'Request', they are mixed as harmonies against an aggressive low range lead vocal.
"It amazes me, too," says Gommans. "It was Amanda’s (Somerville/vocals/lyrics) idea to get him involved because she knew he would be in the studio at that time. I knew his work because there was a period where I listened to a lot of power metal, and I thought ‘okay’, but I actually wanted to have a rough voice on the track. It was so cool to hear Andre doing that kind of stuff because his voice stayed really big, so it was very cool to mix. His voice stands out on the album for me because I like his interpretation of the song."Watch for the full story in BW&BK; #114.
As previously reported, Season Of Mist will release System Overload, the debut album from HDK, on February 23rd in Europe and on April 21st in North America.
Go to this location for BW&BK;'s overview of the album issued back in February 2008.
