Today’s questions answered by Halogram’s bassist, Dani Mourinho…
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
Javier and myself are from Galicia in the north of Spain. I currently living in London in the UK, while Javier is still in Spain. Despite the distance we are able to work on this project, all thanks to the magic of internet
How did you meet?
We met back in 1997 in a Rock festival of local bands in Lalin/Galicia. We both were playing in different bands and a few years later we ended up playing in the same band and we toured Spain for about 2 years. After that we played in other bands but we maintained always the contact even when I’ve moved to London.
How long have you been playing as a band?
We started working in Halogram since 2017
Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?
We came out with different options, two of them were HALO and HOLOGRAM, as they were already taken, we decided to mix them out and we liked the sound of it.
What are your influences?
Our influences are classic bands such as Black Sabbath and Deep Purple, Metallica, Iron Maiden, In Flames, Helloween, Angra, Dream Theater, and also more “actual” bands such as Gojira, Periphery, Animals as Leaders, Plini and Intervals.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
We are an instrumental Progressive Metal/Djent band. About what is making us unique it’s a really tough question. I think, each band, despite their influences, they all compose differently and sound different in some way obtaining their own styles. Each musician is unique… so surely, we have not invented anything new, but I think we have our own style….
Do you have any particular lyrical themes?
So far everything that we have released was instrumental. We might include lyrics in future songs, we will do it if we feel that the song needs it. For example; In our latest single “Obsolete Future” we have included a small singing part… We tried different instrumental ideas in that specific part but we couldn’t find anything that worked well. Then we asked a friend to try to add some vocals and when we heard them in the mix we all agreed of that was exactly what we need it to complete the song.
Although we don’t have lyrics; each song has a theme and each listener can interpret it on their own way.
What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?
As the project is still very recent, we didn’t have chance to plan any gigs yet. But we have an idea of what we want to do; something like Porcupine Tree and Tool use to do in their shows combining the music with visuals. When the time is right we will look into that. Then with other bands, between Javier and Myself together we did more than 2 thousand gigs easily!
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
A few years back I was doing a tour supporting the American band “3 Doors Down”. A month before the tour I had an accident and I’ve fractured a toe in my right foot. It was very painful and I barely could walk. The hospital didn’t want to put a foot cast and they just taped 2 toes together and told me to leave them set and heal by their own. I’ve started the tour still in pain but during the actual performance I couldn’t feel anything thanks to the stage adrenaline! I really suffered after the tour, it took about an extra month to heal properly.
What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?
Javier is using the Fractal FX II, Mesa Boogie amps and Ibanez & Jackson guitars. I use Mooer Pedals, TC Electronic amp and Yamaha bass. Also for our recordings we are using the Neural DSP plug ins as they are amazing!!
What are your plans for 2020?
Our plans for this year are to continue writing new songs, try to get to the maximum audience as possible and to grow our fanbase
If you were second on a three-band bill, which band would you love to be supporting and which band would you choose to open for you?
Twelve Foot Ninja and Karnivool in any order!
