Pic courtesy of: Gwydion "Gwydion is a Viking metal band with some black metal ambiences, we leave the opinions for the public in general; we don’t force them to call us this or that"

CR: Why don’t you first introduce yourself and the band?
Daniel: Gwydion is a Portuguese Viking/black metal band that started in 1996. It has suffered some line-up changes through the years until the current formation (Ruben – Vocals, Vitor and Miguel – Guitars, Morg – Bass, Luis Abreu – Drums, and me on Keyboards).

CR: Could you please tell our readers about the music of Gwydion, what do you guys want to achieve or how would you like to be perceived by your fans and the public in general?
Daniel: Gwydion is a Viking metal band with some black metal ambiences, we leave the opinions for the public in general; we don’t force them to call us this or that.
Morg: We just want the fans to enjoy themselves listening to us, and going to our concerts.

CR: How did you guys started to play, and how did the scene in your country receive the band for the first time?
Daniel: We started to play when me, Ruben and Gonçalo were in the same classroom, we all played different instruments and then we asked Vitor (My brother) to rehearse with us. At the beginning we didn’t have a drummer, we used the keyboard to play the drums, it really sucked hehehe, later we invited Miguel to play the drums and Luis to play the bass; this was Gwydion’s first lineup.
We were just another band, like every other, we were trying to define our own musical style, and I think we have improved that through the years.

CR: Can you remember your first gig ever, how was it, and where?
Daniel: Of course I remember because our first concert was really one of the most weird moments we have ever had; we played at one of the local churches, in the mortuary house in a carnival fest, how could we ever forget that hehe. It was really amusing because the audience was completely different from our musical genre.

CR: I read in your web site that you guys are preparing your first full length album, how is or was the recording process of it, how long did it took you guys, where did you record it and what’s the most exciting thing about it? Any title for it?
Daniel: Well, we have concluded the recording phase; we have everything almost done, so the album will be out very soon. It took us since we started with the recordings, about 4 months. The most exciting thing about it it’s that in this album we did everything for ourselves, except the drum recording session, besides that, it was all done in our garage and recorded by us.
Morg: Basically it’s what we can afford, but we’re doing pre-mastering and editing of the songs right now, in Miguel’s house. Probably the title will be ‘Trickster Of Ragnarök’.

CR: Have you been approach by any record label?
Daniel: Well, it has gone 10 years since we first started, no label, just some approaches from Portuguese record labels that don’t longer exist. We always do our things by ourselves, and sincerely we enjoy doing it, the only problem is to spend money in everything. But still, we hope someday to have some interesting record label to help us in our career.
Morg: Probably Spikefarm or Nuclear Blast would be fine… hehehe.

CR: Lest talk about your latest demo tape Augmentation. Why that title? It reminds my of what women are doing these days by increasing their breast size!! (A little joke), but seriously why that title?
Morg: I’m pretty happy that someone realizes the TRUE meaning of the album! It’s all about huge breasts!
Daniel: Aahahah, it could be, but not… we’d chosen that title because we think we have done a great step forward since the First Channeling demo, so that’s the reason of the title, it means “improvement” or something like that.
Morg: Damn! I was pretty satisfied with the other meaning of Augmentation hehehe.

CR: The music, the whole atmosphere of Augmentation is very melancholic and medieval, was there something in particular that you guys wanted to express in this album? You guys released this record all by yourselves right? Was it hard?
Daniel: Augmentation was recorded in a difficult time for us, we had some lineup changes in those times, which caused very influences and mixture from different metal musical genres. We were always very “interested” in medieval atmospheres, and that’s what we are trying to do in our new songs, we are trying to have more Viking and folk songs.
Morg: I’m still thinking in huge medieval breasts!
Daniel: We recorded this demo at a studio, in a whole weekend. I think things could be better if we did it with more time, but like you said it was hard, because we’ve paid everything by ourselves, so it was very difficult to obtain the results we wanted.

CR: There is an atmospheric track on Augmentation as well as an instrumental piece, how do you guys pick what songs should go on the record, and why did you though it was important to have tracks like Augmentation and Tones of Anticipation?
Daniel: We like to have instrumental songs in our demos and albums, I think they give a much richer atmosphere to complete the whole album; they have much sense being there, because they introduce or finalize something. We like when people are listening to our songs they don’t get bored with it, and so I think it’s important to have some “higher and lower pitches” in the whole set of songs.

	Pic courtesy of: Gwydion "I’m pretty happy that someone realizes the TRUE meaning of the album! It’s all about huge breasts!"

CR: Do you guys have any videos for the Augmentation album? Are you planning to record a video for your full length album?
Daniel: We have a mini-video for Untamed Wrath that was never completed, because some stupid guy fooled us and other bands as well, so we only have a minute and a half of the video.
Morg: We’re still finding out where the sucker hided...
Daniel: For now we don’t plan to do a video, but maybe after the release of the album we’ll think about that.

CR: The first time I heard Augmentation it kind of sounded to me like a mix of Symphonic black metal and doom metal; how do people consider the band, I mean do you guys have many black metal fans attending to your gigs or it’s a totally different audience than what you expect?
Morg: Basically our concerts have all kind of people, we don’t target any kind of fans in particular, but yes some of the people attending to our concerts are black/death metal fans. And of course, our friends to support us!

CR: Could you please give us a little more detail or a comment about the song Untamed Wrath (it’s my favorite on Augmentation!)
Morg: Untamed what?! Hehehe
Daniel: First of all, we don’t know how to play that song anymore hehe, we have some people that ask us to play it in our concerts, but we have already a defined set with other songs. Well, Untamed Wrath was the promotional track for “Augmentation”; it’s a very intense and melodic song. I think untamed Wrath was another step in the improvement of our playing skills, we explored different ways to compose it, and I think the final result was good, I’m glad people enjoy it.

CR: I know I said before that Augmentation had a lot of melancholic sounds in it, but there is a song that seems to be more… to be a little “happier” per say, The Great Dome has a mix of some folk sounds and very fast drum work, there are instants that it even sounds a little more like a melodic death metal track than anything else?
Daniel: The Great Dome it’s probably the most complete song of our demos. We really tried in that song to mix a little bit of everything, melancholy, aggression, and folk. The result it’s not perfect but it very satisfying. It’s a song that does very well in live performances.
Morg: Yes, at gigs the ‘fans’ always ask us to play The Great Dome and Time Vortex

CR: Just how important is for you guys, to mix different elements that may belong to other genres to create a song?
Daniel: It’s very important, because we don’t want people to get annoyed with our songs, it’s good to have some different stuff mixed in the songs.
Morg: That’s right, and the band has 6 members, therefore 6 different ways to see and compose the songs. We’re a very democratic band, all members have something to say about the songs, and we combine our tastes in music to create a song.

CR: Could you say that Augmentation possesses the sound that will define Gwydion for the rest of its career?
Morg: Definitely not!
Daniel: No way, it has some musical parts that may resemble to something we are doing now, but in general the new album it’s very different from Augmentation, for better I think hehe.

CR: What about First Channeling, that demo seem a little more influenced by folk sounds and a couple of growls that sound very death metal, what’s the story behind that demo?
Daniel: The First Channeling demo it’s the complete turnaround in Gwydion’s career. 3 Gwydion members went out after Debt to Morrighan and we had to start everything from the beginning for that demo. We started to compose those songs with a completely different lineup, so they are very different from Debt to Morrighan. In that demo we tried to experience what could be our musical line, it’s probably the most “strange” of our demos because we experienced a lot of different things on it.
Morg: I wasn’t in the band back then, but knowing these guys, they we’re probably drunk, that’s why Daniel calls it strange, hehehe.

CR: The use of keyboards gives First Channeling a very symphonic sound, what other instruments would you like to incorporate in future albums, so that they can increase the impact of the Gwydion sound?
Daniel: Well, we use a lot of keyboards in our songs, so it’s difficult to arrange some “gaps” to put another instruments, but personally I would like to use an accordion or another just for experience.
Morg: Yeah, maybe an accordion or bagpipes.

CR: Debt to Morrighan was your first ever demo, and actually it was quite good, but I definitely don’t see a lot of black metal on it more than the vocals; why was that album, faster and a lot groovier than your next two projects?
Daniel: In Debt to Morrighan, basically, we didn’t know how to play hehe, we all started to play as a band in those times, so we tried hard to do something reasonable with our capabilities, and it was a very important step in our progression as musicians.
I think this demo never had a plan associated to it, we composed those songs, and what the hell, let’s record them…just that.

CR: In the song When in Disgrace, the guitars are very interesting, how did you guys compose that song, any particular idea that you wanted to explore in that track?
Daniel: Sincerely, I don’t remember when we composed that song. I think in those times we listened a lot of bands that didn’t have keyboards, so we were getting our influences from that, so we focused in the guitars mixture on this one.

	Pic courtesy of: Gwydion "The toughest part it’s the money itself, we have to use our own money to do something we really like to do, and besides the money it’s the promotion for the demos or albums, we have to collect for ourselves some contacts to promote our work"

CR: If I’m not mistaken all your releases were done by the band, was it hard to get the money for the recordings, the right studio, what’s the toughest part of not being able to have a record label behind the albums? What’s the toughest part of being an independent musician?
Daniel: The toughest part it’s the money itself, we have to use our own money to do something we really like to do, and besides the money it’s the promotion for the demos or albums, we have to collect for ourselves some contacts to promote our work.
Morg: That, and the money we spend promoting our concerts, and also to get 2 cars full of gas to go to our gigs.

CR: Have you ever had one of those gigs were the people just stand around and don’t really get into the music you guys are playing? What do you do when an audience is not reacting the way you would like them to reach?
Daniel: Yeah, that’s very common here in Lisbon, people stand with their arms crossed looking at us trying to see when we fail when we’re playing. What we do? We don’t give a fuck and play the whole set of songs.
Morg: But with a bigger grin on our faces!

CR: What are your main influences, not just in music but in your life?
Daniel: Well in music, we all like different genres of metal, trough death, black, Viking, blah blah. In life in general it depends on each one, personally I enjoy everything related to medieval times, so I think it’s one of my influences.
Morg: I just can say… huge breasted girls. ?

CR: Do all the guys from Gwydion have day jobs or you guys are just musicians?
Daniel: We all have day jobs, metal in Portugal does not feed anyone hehehe, and most of the bands here have to pay everything from their pockets to keep their metal band dream alive.

CR: How’s the scene in Portugal like; how do you see the development of new bands in your country? And what’s the biggest Portugal metal band right now?
Morg: Mainstream metal doesn’t exist, but the underground scene is growing every day.
Daniel: I think we have lots of very good bands here, with a lot of potential but with very few supporters. I don’t think there is a big Portugal metal band right now, I think there are several bands that could be the biggest Portuguese and European metal bands, that’s for sure.

CR: What does “sell out” mean to you?
Morg: Humm, maybe bands who make songs they hate, just for money. We obviously don’t do that, because our main priority is to make songs we like.

CR: For you what’s the ultimate gesture a fan can give you, and what’s the greatest insult?
Daniel: The ultimate gesture a fan can give me is to really be sincere with our songs and band.
Morg: Or maybe buy us a case of beer hehehe.
Daniel: The greatest insult is to speak about things they don’t know and make up some things that are not true.
Morg: And spill our beer!

CR: What’s more important: to have a great album on the market, or to be able to give the best live shows ever?
Daniel: I think both things are very important, a great album will lead people to see our shows, and great shows will lead people to buy our album, so both things are connected.

CR: Are you guys planning any big tour to promote your new album?
Daniel: We plan to do several concerts to promote our new album that’s for sure, and we will try to do a tour if it’s possible, but it’s very difficult to tour when we have to conciliate everyone’s availability, but we will definitely do an effort on that.

CR: Well, thank you for your time, if you have anything to add, please do.
Daniel: Once again, many thanks for the interview, we hope to release our album very soon, stay tuned for that.
Morg: Yeah, thanks for the interview, and stay brutal! Cheers!