Maria & Francisco - HolyHell

October 19th 2009

A l'occasion de la sortie de leur album eponyme HolyHell, Maria et Francisco ont accepté de repondre à nos questions.
Groupe power metal formé en 2005, le groupe ne doit pas uniquement sa notoriété à la charmante Maria, mais également au fait que les américains bénéficient de la protection de leur célébre producteur Joey De Maio. Maria et Francisco nous présente leur album et reviennent sur le Hellfest 2009.

Fab: Could you introduce yourself for those who don't know HOLY HELL yet?
Maria: We formed HolyHell in 2005, after four rehearsals we went out live on a world tour without a record and received a tremendous response. In 2007 we released the EP Apocalypse which went right into to the German charts without any marketing or promotion, and now in 2009 we just released our self titled debut album "HolyHell" on Magic Circle Music and we are preparing for a World Tour starting this January 2010.

Fab: What do you think about your performance at the HELLFEST 2009? And about this French festival?
Maria: The "HellFest" was amazing. We loved the organization and the stage setup was fantastic. We had a super response from the crowd, which was wonderful because it was the first show we performed with the release of our debut album. So France and the "HellFest" will always be very special for us.
Francisco: It was a wonderful experience and a great honor to play such a big festival with an impressive organization and line-up, for HolyHell being the first time in France we made an immediate connection with the crowd, it was very gratifying to see how at the very early stages of our performance people came together and connected with us.

Fab: You just released three months ago your first full-length album titles "Holy Hell", four years after the band was created, and did some touring instead. Could tell us a little bit about this peculiar thing?
Francisco: HolyHell started as a live band, which for us was a big point of development. The band had the opportunity to get feedback from the crowd and learn and grow from it, which was a turning point for us as musicians and songwriters. We believe we created a strong unit, which is reflected on the album.

Fab: Question for Maria: Lyric wise, what's behind "Holy Hell"? as I read that it could be defined as an apocalyptic concept album
Maria: The concept is powerful melody with heavy music, the lyrics are indicative of this as well; good vs. evil, darkness and light, angels and demons, and so on, it's a timeless and endless subject for me, and something we all connect with as a band.

Fab: A word on the very nice (double page !) fantasy drawing in the booklet ?
Maria: This is a special from Ken Kelley. He was inspired by the band's music and the concept of HolyHell and delivered this magnificent painting.

Fab: A word about your work with Joey De Maio as a producer?
Maria: Joey as our producer resulted in pushing us to do our very best, while allowing the concept of HolyHell to live in it's original intention. When he co-writes or co-arranges it is always to the value of the existing song and not trying to change it, which for us was very important and rewarding to be able to work with someone on this level.
Francisco: We feel very grateful with his guidance; Joey is a great producer who pushed the band as a whole and then each and every band member individually to reach new levels in performance and understanding of music, yet being respectful to our ideas. He was the driving force to reach our top level and more.

Fab: Why the choice of recording in the Galaxy Studios in Belgium?
Francisco: We wanted to take care of every single detail, from the song writing to the recording, mixing and mastering, so knowing of the wonders of Ronald Prent (mix) and Darcy Proper (mastering) and having great past experiences, it was a logical choice to work with them again.

Fab: Maria, how was your first encounter with Joey De Maio, as he is not a "easily impressed" kind of guy.
Maria: I had never met anyone like him. He was mixing the Hell On Stage record and the engineer introduced me to him. I played a demo for him and he talked to me straight without any cushion and I loved this as much as I hated it..….. and I have been learning from this "straight talk" ever since.

Fab: Francisco, do you always play the Moonlight Sonata (N°14, C# - Beethoven) for warming up? What is your musical background (music schools, etc…)?
Francisco: I warm up in all kinds of different ways from playing some concert pieces to just regular scales, arpeggios and exercises, it all depends on the place and the time we have prior the show. Fortunately in some places we have the chance to find grand pianos, so of course I feel totally tempted to jump over them, I can go from Beethoven sonatas, to Scriabin, Chopin, Rachmaninov or even John Cage, I guess is all about the mood and how much the piano speaks to me.
About my background it is totally classical, I joined the conservatory at the age of six, and have three professional degrees in music (classical organ, composition, musical education) and a professional degree in performing arts (theatre performance-direction-production) and in the rock world for the last 10 plus years. I played with the biggest metal band in the country recording five albums, three dvds, three rock operas and so on and of course as of today HolyHell has my heart and soul in it, and I keep playing concert music ("classical") on a regular basis.

Fab: Joe, about your beautifully custom shaped white guitar (with the German cross on it), was it your design idea?
Maria: Joe designed the concept of the Demon Wing with Magic Circle Guitars, and this specific guitar was also designed and made especially for him.
Fab: Did you know that there is an American Black Metal band from El Paso also called Holy Hell?
Francisco: We didn't know but I guess they like the name as much as we do

Fab: Do you have a special ritual before going on stage?
Francisco: If you visit the HolyHell dressing rooms before a show you will see everybody being very focused on warming up, that's something very important for us, from Joe playing incessantly with his backstage gear to Maria and myself doing vocal exercises and so on. We are very serious when it comes to the pre-show preparation. Of course once we are about to jump on stage we come together to link our energy and thoughts and then share the stage with the fans.

Fab: What are your plans for the close future?
Maria: We are about to announce a World tour as special guest to Manowar, this winter will be our last time out with Manowar, and planning to continue on our own in March possibly in France and other countries, so we will keep you posted.

Fab: What are your favourite bands right now?
Francisco: Our range of music taste is very wide so each band member has their own very personal set of preferences, in my case I am very into the classical world listening to all the new talents like Valentina Lisitsa or Evgeny Kissin to the great master and one of my personal favourites Daniel Barenboim all the way to Black Sabbath, Dio, Manowar, Royal Hunt, Dream Theater and so on, so as you can see is a very broad range.

Fab: A last word for the readers of BSPIX?
Maria: We would like to thank you and all of your readers for your time and support. Yours In Metal!
Francisco: Thank you very much for the support. We're looking forward to playing for all of you soon, for HolyHell France is a very special country. We made a very strong connection with all of you, so we can't wait to come back and rock the house.