DRAGONFLY Interview

“I had a very long time to hear a really very good band in the area of europower with neoclassical elements. The Argentine-Spanish Dragonfly impressed me with “Alma irae” that reached my ears even if it is not officially released yet, like I thought .Even Spanish speakers have all the opportunities to be heard to the rest of Europe and wish all the friends of this kind of music to give them a chance.”

 

 

- Tell us a few things about the history of the band.

 

- The story of the band begins a few years ago in Argentina. The drummer Chris “El Vikingo” Scorna was the band’s founder and for some years the Dragonfly constituted with members from Buenos Aires area. The future of the band in this country was not promising, due to the crisis the country is passing so El Vikingo and the guitar player Ariel Mittica decided to come to Spain and start there something new, keeping the Dragonfly name and playing and some of the old songs. They met Juanba Nadal, bass player and second voice of Outer Heaven to a concert and asked him to sing for Dragonfly. Isauro Aljaro, also an old member of Outer Heaven came on the keyboards, but because a bass player could not be found, Juanba decided to return on the bass and the first voice resumed by Pablo Solano, the singer of Outer Heaven. After the recordings we did in Spain and the mix and mastering done in Argentina we completed our first album “Domine” and won a contract with the big Spanish company Avispa. In “Domine” played guests musicians, Leo Jimenez (Saratoga, Stravaganzza), Adrian Barilari (Rata Blanca, Barilari) and Johnny Ohlin (Dionysus). The good critics for the first Dragonfly album made them to be heard on the metal community of Spain and abroad so Avispa gave us the chance to make a second album. But after some problems with them we decided to terminate our collaboration and started looking for a new company. We started the recordings of the second album like the first we did the recordings in Valencia and travelled to Buenos Aires for the mixing, which was made by the great Martin Toledo. Jose Andrea (Mago de Oz), Mohammed (Mago de Oz) and Miguel Roldan (Logos) played as guests musicians. After the recordings Ariel returned to Argentina to live there and we needed a new guitar player. After some auditions we ended to Alberto Alba, the most bright star on the sky of the Spanish guitar players. It was a perfect addition to Dragonfly, since he has an amazing technique and is a wonderful person. With the new album Dragonfly motivated the interest of new companies. After an unfortunate attempt of collaboration with Two Music Records, which we terminated due to bad cooperation and false promises, we ended up on Pagana Records (company of members from Mago de Oz) and the “Alma irae” will be released now officially on February 2009. We are very pleased with this new contract. Our manager is a member of this company and we feel very comfortable working with him. 

 

-Your last album “Alma irae” really amazed me, it was astonishing. Very improved in relation with your debut record. What is your opinion about the album and the band’s performance?

 

-We are very pleased with the new album, it has a better sound, better performance and better songs, of course this is just our opinion. We are more experienced as individual musicians but also like a band and our songs have more quality in relation with “Domine”. Also our performances on live concerts are improving, we have been heard more powerful and we begun to put and a few fire works on the show.

 

-It has been a while since the record was released. How it was treated by critics and your fans and how are the sales going so far? From where can anyone buy it? It was difficult for me to find information for the band, there is not a distribution and promotion out of Spain?

 

- Our first record had a positive response from critics and fans. The second will be released next February. It was on the internet, not by us, and now a lot of people have been sending us messages and tell us about how they felt listening to the second album. This is crazy because the record has not been out yet!!! It is in fact the record of the year on www.metal-reviews.com, with 97/100 points!!! Really crazy… (now we are totally deaf…). Pagana records will distribute the album to entire Europe, South America and Japan. And soon you will be able to obtain the new album and from the new online shop that we built on our web site. The promotion of the record will begin on February, since as I said that before the album is not officially out yet, but had just been a leakage on the internet a few months ago.

 

- A band that comes to my mind listening to Dragonfly is the Vision Divine. Do you like them? Which bands are your inspirations?

 

-Yes, we like a lot of things. Each one has its own taste and try to mix them in our compositions. Vision Divine is a great band. There are a lot of great bands and musicians in today’s heavy metal world. We listen from classical composers to extreme heavy metal. We like every kind of music.

 

- What I like best in your music are the powerful melodies, so as in the vocals and the guitars. Where do you concentrate when you write a song?

 

- We usually write songs about our lives, our impressions and our personal feelings, so we enjoy a lot when people write to us that they feel what we want to show, our inner selves. 

 

-Your singer has a particular impressive voice. Has he made studies on vocals?

 

-Yes, Pablo has took vocalic technique lessons for some years (ok you enlighten us…).

 

- I suspect your guitar player is a fan of Malmsteen. Which are his influences and the guitar players he admires?

 

- I do not like to compare musicians (probably not even answer to questions about other members, ha ha) but I will tell you that Ariel was very influenced from Malmsteen. The new guitar player Alberto Alva is closer to Vai and Satriani style.

 

-Your lyrics are in Spanish and despite I do not know the language I like the way it sounds. Have you ever thought to sing in English to attract a greater audience? Or at least to have a web site or Myspace so people who speak the English language to have access?

 

- Yes, we work on English speaking recordings and translating our formal site and myspace.

 

-Can you tell us a few things about the “Alma irae” lyrics? A song which separates in lyrics and means something special to you?

 

-Like I have told you we write songs about the real life and true emotions. My song Angeles con una sola ala refers to the way I felt when the relationship ended with my ex. The No lo veran caer talks for people’s tough life when they are forced to leave behind their country to seek for a better life. The 1000 lagrimas is a ballad for the universal over heating and the destruction of the planet from humans. These are some examples.

 

- How was your live activity in 2008? Are you pleased with the number and the quality of your concerts? Do you have scheduled a tour in the future?

 

- We were in quest for a company and had several adversities with some of them, so we did not have many concerts. We will start a tour with the release of “Alma irae” at the start of the year.

 

- Say what ever you like to our readers.

 

- Keep on metal!!!

 

 

 

John Tsavalos

(first publication at "Rock Brigade"fanzine)