ADifferentShadeOfBlackMetalZine: Gwydion Interview

Friday, July 20, 2018

Gwydion Interview

1.Can you give us an update on what has been going on with the band since the recording of the new album?

First of all thanks for the interview, we are glad to be back! Well we are eager with the launch of the new album, because we expect that it will be very important in the bands career.
We are preparing everything, from stage banner, lyric video, merchandise to the official release party…
There will be lot of surprises and good stuff happening theses days!

2.You have a new album coming out in July, how would you describe the musical sound hat is presented on the recording and also how does it differ from the stuff you have released in the past?

This disc features a more mature sound than the old albums. It is a cliché to say that the last album is better than the predecessor but in this case we identify more with the raw and direct sound of Thirteen! We believe it's an album that captivates most metal fans, from heavy, death, folk to viking. Resuming, "Horn Triskelion" - more folk, "Veteran" - more dark, "Thirteen" the best of the 2 worlds!

3.This is your first album in 5 years, can you tell us a little bit more about what has been going on during that time frame?

It is always good to be back and a huge pleasure to be able to present our work to our fans. Gwydion is back with a new lineup, which brought new insights and influences to Thirteen's end result.
We always hope for the support of our fans in the concerts, because that's what makes us move and continue!

4.The lyrics on the new album cover Viking history and myths, can you tell us a little bit more about your interest in this topic?

Gwydion always had an interest in Viking history and myths! But…that’s not only it! Our band is like story tellers, we like to play and sing for relevant facts of history! Norse, Celtic, Portuguese… you name it, we really like to cover this topics.
Since the bands beginning we always had a great interest for medieval and historical themes. It’s a great joy to hear our fans singing our stories, it really makes us fulfilled.

.The bands name comes from Druidism, how would you compare Celtic Paganism to Nordic Paganism?

Asatru by its very nature is Norse- The Asir are Norse gods- The Celtic deities are much more like the pre Asir Norse Gods - the Vanir.
They are both Indo-European religions and it is fair to say the the Celtic forms are probably the older - but that is oversimplifying it! The Norse beliefs evolved out of ones very much like the Celtic traditions.It then took on influences from more eastern European beliefs via the Teutonic peoples. It is a bit the way Titans represent the older faith - pre-Olympian in Greece.
They have slightly differing focus. Also the Norse beliefs lasted until much more recently and are much better recorded so we know more about them. You would really need to do a lot of reading for the specifics. Celt has become a bit of a dirty word with anthropologists and Historians due to it's over use in recent years...

6.What are some of the best shows that the band has played over the years and also how would you describe your stage performance?

What are some of the best shows that the band has played over the years and also how would you describe your stage performance?
We had a lot of really cool shows all over Europe and each band member has it’s own favorite one for a reason or another, but Horner Fest for example was one to remember for all the fun of playing alongside a huge Viking Age encampment. Another one was Vagos Open Air right here in Portugal with the Horn Triskelion album where we had a massive support from the audience and some ridiculously big mosh pit. We can’t forget the show we shared the stage with Immortal on Ragnarok Aaskereia tour or with Enslaved in GDL also here in Portugal, and probably the best off all, the release of our Veteran album that was a celebration of Metal, friendship and were we were able to put up show that people will remember for a long time. Basically all shows are great because we really, truly have fun doing it as you can see from almost all photos of the band at live performances, we’re always laughing and having fun with each other as well as with the people in the crowd and we think that’s on of the secrets that make people come again and again for one of our shows, we have fun, they have fun and listen to some quality Metal at the process.

7.Do you have any touring or show plans once the new album is released?

No tours for the moment but we have some shows here in Portugal and Spain. We’re still booking the year and doing it slowly and selecting carefully our next steps, we believe that “Thirten” is a great album and so we’re taking things a little bit slower so we can do justice to this work.

8.The new album is coming out on 'Ultraje', can you tell us a little bit more about this label?

Ultraje is Portuguese magazine that had the courage to invest as a label/distributor. Fortunately, people like Joel, Diogo and Cátia, are here to make things happen and make our life a little easier. This is not “bootsucking”, just the plain reality, we don’t have time for everything, work, band etc…
Face it this is the reality.

9.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of viking, folk and black metal?

Well, it's been really interesting to see people's reaction to the band's work, generally we get a very positive feedback and reviews and at the same time a bit of a surprise reaction to the fact that we are a Portuguese band with so much folk influences. It's fun and satisfying to see us being compared to big and well known bands suchlike Ensiferum and Finntroll that are a kind of benchmark for other bands, but we think that Gwydion it's in a class of it's own, with a very unique mix of Viking, Folk, Black, Death and Symphonic elements combined with a very personal experience of each band member, our overall feeling is that other than the more extreme fans of each genre, we can deliver something different that will surprise and satisfy most Metal fans.

10.What is going on with some of the other bands or musical projects these days that some of the band members are a part of?

Some band members have different musical projects. Pedro Correia and Pedro Dias have two bands in common like Invoke (black metal) and Tument (death metal). Pedro Correia plays drums for both bands while Pedro Dias plays guitar and sings in Invoke and is the vocalist in Tument. Pedro Correia has also integrated a recent tribute project to Amon Amarth called Gods of War.

11.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?

The band will most likely stick to its formula of folk/Viking metal and continue to produce heavy songs mixed with cheerful melodies and melodic chorus.

12.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your newer music and also what are you listening to nowadays?

I’s hard to answer to this one, we listen to a lot of bands and each band member has his own influences, but we drink from all styles of Metal and somehow manage to combine things in a way that, at least for us, sounds great and we user bits and pieces from all this genres of Metal to bring to live the feeling we think each song

13.What are some of your non musical interests?

We have a lot of things going on in terms of personal interests, we have gammers, bikers, historical reenactors, a fitness addicted, a blacksmith, computer geeks) and a whole lot of random stuff that brings us together out of the studio where we strengthen our bonds and friendship.

14.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?

First we would like to thank you for this interview that enables us to reach even more Metal fans out there, and second we want to take this opportunity to thank to everyone that helped and supported us both financially and morally for the release of Thirteen, it's been a long way but with the help of everyone we finally did it. We hope that this will be an album that will bring us even more fans and that it will make our older fans happy, so, grab a mug of mead and join us with Thirteen!