Last year, seasoned Spanish Death Metal band, Barbarian Prophecies, released their new album “Horizon”. We had the pleasure of chatting with the band’s vocalist and bass player, Alicia. Enjoy our interview with Alicia as we ask her about the new album and get to know her better!
Hello, Alicia. It’s really wonderful to talk with you. How are you doing today?
Hello, I feel good and grateful for this interview, so thanks for giving me the opportunity to answer these very interesting questions. Here I go!
You released a new album “Horizon” this year. How are you feeling about the way the album was received by your fans?
“Horizon” has been well received and we’re proud that people like and share our work. It’s an album in which we have invested a lot of effort, time and money, and when you get good reviews and positive opinions from people who value all that we do, we feel gratified.
That’s great. How would you describe your sound to someone who hasn’t heard Barbarian Prophecies’ music before?
In its beginnings, it was a black metal band, so if people listen to the older albums or demos, they’ll notice that there’s a big difference between them and the current ones. The band is currently 22 years old and has undergone many changes in its sound since then, so nowadays we can say that Barbarian Prophecies is a melodic death metal band, that it’s still influenced by genres like black metal or many others, even beyond extreme music, so currently is not typecast into classic melodic death metal and I think there could be songs for all tastes, especially in our recent album “Horizon”, which is different from other previous works, with more variety in its songs; atmospheric, faster and shorter ones than in other albums.
Thank you for this wonderful description! If you were to pick one song from “Horizon” to be played on every radio and every station all over the world, which song would you pick and why?
Hard choice. Maybe the song “Horizon” because it’s the one which gave the album its name. It’s a fast, not very long and catchy song, I think it would be fine.
In order to get to know you better and from a different point of view, how about playing some imagination game? I will set a scenario in an alternate universe with new rules and see how you’d react to the different situations. Ready?
Sounds fun! Let’s see how it goes!
In a universe where you are made the queen of a country, what would be the first law you’d make?
There should be a law about a network of mutual support between people who are dedicated to culture in order to promote it without competition and/or prejudice and in favor of collaboration and respect.
In a universe where humans can choose either to be able to teleport from one place to another or travel back and forth in time, which superpower would you pick?
I’d choose teleportation. As a band member, it would be important to be able to save money on trips! Also, that would allow me to save a lot of time, even if I couldn’t go back in it, haha.
The other option is also tempting, although not necessarily to change things (I wouldn’t want to cause a space-time loop or destroy the fabric of the universe), but to be able to relive some meaningful experiences for me.
Though on second thought, if I choose to go back in time now, and later I regret not choosing teleportation, I’d always be in time to go back in time to change my choice… Seems legit!
Wow, that’s really smart! In a universe where you’re the statue of liberty, what object would you be holding instead of a torch?
If I say a microphone it would be a cliché, right? So I’ll say that I’d hold a giant banner in which you could read “support the underground”.
In a universe where money does not exist, but instead, people pay for things by making other people laugh, how rich would you be considered?
I guess I’d have the things I need… I’m not overly ambitious or laughable, but I do like to surround myself with people who I know I can make laugh just the way I am and with whom I can have fun without fear of being judged.
In a universe where the senses of taste and hearing are mixed up together, what food would you imagine Horizon’s music would taste like?
It would probably be an exotic meal, one in which very different flavours are mixed due to the diverse influences that are reflected in the album. It’s hard to pick one food, but I’d say “Horizon” is like pineapple pizza. It’s something that you have to try to know if you like it, even if the combination doesn’t seem ideal. And if it’s not your thing, you can always remove the pineapple and eat the rest… Bon appetit!
In a universe where making magic is real, what would your favourite spell do?
Perhaps one that works for the cables to unravel themselves, or for the stray picks to appear. And thinking bigger; one that makes things effortlessly loaded and unloaded from the van. Those would be fine.
That’s practical. Thank you for playing, Alicia! I hope you enjoyed this!
There are many things you need to do when you release an album other than the music itself. What were your favourite and least favourite parts of the process of releasing “Horizon”?
For the release of an album, it’s necessary to go through a compositional process, the recording, the editing… Fortunately, for this album, we have been able to get the collaboration with different labels that helped us to edit and distribute our album. These labels are Base Record Production, Hecatombe Records, Iron Matron Records and Violence In The Veins. It was especially complex to compose and record this album due to the pandemic caused by covid-19, since in our country, there were travel restrictions and we could hardly rehearse the songs together, in fact, until the moment of recording the album, we hadn’t heard how the songs would be like with the drums included. Also after finishing the recording of the album, our bassist decided to leave the band, so the process had a bittersweet ending.
But if I have to talk about my favorite and least favorite parts of the whole process, I might say that my favorite part of this whole process is when I start to see that it’s taking shape, I mean; when the new song starts to sound good in rehearsals, when you get to hear the song recorded, mixed and mastered for the first time when you get to see the album art design when you get the physical release, and finally, when you received feedback from people who have heard the album. As for my least favorite part, this happens when things don’t go as we expected and when problems or conflicts appear when carrying out the process. Not everything is easy; there may be disagreements, bad decisions, and lack of communication… and that means that the work can slow down, or in the worst case, stop, so the important thing is to focus on the common goal and keep moving forward until we get the best for ourselves and for the project.
Have you ever faced any kind of sexism in your professional or personal life? How would you deal with sexist behaviour and what advice would you give young people around the world who face any kind of discrimination?
Sadly, yes. Sometimes you have to face uncomfortable situations when you’re a woman in a predominantly male environment. Some people have questioned my worth just because I am a woman, or have made me feel the need to show that I deserve the same respect as any man who does the same job as me, but I try to stay away from those people and to stay close to those who appreciate my work and my effort for what it is, and not for what I am or am not. I would tell people who suffer some kind of discrimination to always keep in mind that they are not less because someone makes them feel that way. You must surround yourself with people who believe in you and support you to realize the potential you have and that those other people don’t want you to find out.
Thank you for giving us this interview, Alicia. Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Thanks so much once again for considering Barbarian Prophecies for this interview, I had a good time! Thanks so much also to all people who read and share this interview, that’s the reason why underground music is still alive, so keep supporting the underground! I hope you enjoyed it and greetings from Galicia, Spain!
