DATE OF INTERVIEW:

SIGHT OF EMPTINESS

11th August 2012

METAL DISCOVERY: Why did you choose Thomas Johansson to produce?...or you call him Plec?

RAFA: Plec…that’s his nickname.

(Eduardo Chacón Zúñiga on widening Sight of Emptiness' reputation outside of their home country)

"...in Costa Rica the scene is getting better for sure. It’s still really hard to get out there and tour...I mean, a lot of people don’t know where Costa Rica is so if they don’t know about Costa Rica, they don’t know about bands in Costa Rica."

Sight of Emptiness backstage at Bloodstock Open Air, UK, 11th August 2012

Photograph copyright © 2012 Mark Holmes - www.metal-discovery.com

Interview & Photography by Mark Holmes

RELATED LINKS

Sight of Emptiness Official Website:

SIGHT OF EMPTINESS DISCOGRAPHY

Trust is a Disease (2007)

Albums

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to the Sight of Emptiness guys for their hospitality and time.

Absolution of Humanity (2009)

Sight of Emptiness Official Facebook:

MD: Okay, why did you choose him?

EDUARDO: Actually, for the second album, ‘Absolution of Humanity’, we got a list of people to master the album and we actually got in touch with him, and back in the day in didn’t work out for some reason…it wasn’t a bad reason, it just didn’t work out…we chose Jens Bogren. But, this time, pretty much seven months before we started to record the album, we got in touch with him, kind of explained what the project was and he was like: “You know what, for me, this is a challenge. I’ve never recorded a band from Costa Rica, like even from the area and, for me, it would be a new, good experience to come to your country to produce, record, mix and master the album so, you know what, let’s do it.” And, probably, this is the best thing that has ever happened to us so far.

MD: And a holiday for him as well in Costa Rica!

EDUARDO: Yeah, he loved it! I mean, he was like, “you know what, I don’t wanna go back!”

RAFA: It was either Sight of Emptiness or Las Latinas!

[laughs]

EDUARDO: But, you know what, there was a good chemistry between him and us and that’s one of the things I actually liked most; that it didn’t feel like work at all. It was just going and having fun.

MD: What’s the metal scene like nowadays in Costa Rica and is it still quite rare for a Costa Rican metal band to do international touring like you guys do?

EDUARDO: Well, in Costa Rica the scene is getting better for sure. It’s still really hard to get out there and tour. When you ask us about the label support and what a label can do for you, like for a band like us from Costa Rica…I mean, a lot of people don’t know where Costa Rica is so if they don’t know about Costa Rica, they don’t know about bands in Costa Rica. So the metal scene in the country is getting better but we need support from people who actually know the music industry out there who can take the good bands from a country and export them in order for people to know what’s going on.

MD: So did you return as heroes last time you played Bloodstock …the band that got out of Costa Rica to come and play in the UK?

ROD: Some people are extremely supportive to us and we’re really grateful for that. Some people just don’t care. But a lot of people realise that this is not easy at all. I mean, it’s not that we’re giving anything for free. We’re just given a chance and we’re working really hard to make the most out of it so the people that realise that, they’ve definitely shown great support and we could not be more grateful to them.

MD: Marvellous. And do you have any long term goals for the band or do you concentrate more on the here and now, like what’s happening at the moment?

RAFA: We definitely have goals. We want to get as professional as we can and we want to stretch out our music and reach new levels. Technically speaking, we just want to reach the next level. There is always the next level and we want to be there, that’s it! [laughs]

MD: The next level – the main stage at Bloodstock!

RAFA: That’s it, that’s it!

MD: What’s the most disastrous Spinal Tap moment you’ve had as a band, like on tour or at a gig or…?

[laughs]

EDUARDO: [To his band mates]…are we going to mention the country?

RAFA: Are we gonna mention the country or the date?!

EDUARDO: We went to play in this country and we were stuck at the border, like on the way to the country, for nine hours because they were trying to get five hundred dollars from us. They thought we were going to sell our instruments and then come back in a plane instead of a car! And then, on the way back, we stayed there for six more hours. There was no water…

RAFA: Some people had diarrhoea too!

MD: That’s terrible!

ROD: I wanted to go back. I wanted to cancel the gig and just go back. I was sick and tired of all the waiting. It was so obvious that they wanted to rip us off. We were like, “we’re a touring band, we don’t have that kind of money to begin with so you chose the wrong victims!”

[laughs]

RAFA: That’s the kind of challenges we have managed because the gig was great and we could handle it so that’s the kind of challenge…

ROD: …but we hope that’s something that never happens again!

RAFA: Like last night [at the gig in Cheltenham] we had…in America, we don’t use 220 electricity, we use 110, so we blew up some equipment last night and it was hard!

ROD: None of us are endorsed so it’s really tough when something happens to the equipment that you had to work really hard to buy in the first place.

RAFA: But it all went great so those are the kind of experiences that make you grow up as a musician, as a person, and…

MD: ...it makes you stronger as a band.

RAFA: Yeah, that’s right.

MD: So if you had to sum up in five words how you feel where you’re at with Sight of Emptiness right now, what would those five words be? Actually, you can have one word each…

ANDRÉS: Proud.

STEBAN: Awesome.

EDUARDO: My dream.

ROD: Growth.

RAFA: Challenged.

MD: Marvellous, good closing words from everybody. Thank you so much for your time.

[Collective thanks]