"We Are Going To Be Recording New Material in 2011, We’ve Written About 13 Songs in Preparation For It" Metality.net Interviews A BLESSED AFTERMATH
A BLESSED AFTERMATH are one of Dubai's most impressive new comers. Playing a strong blend of metalcore; influenced by bands like: Parkway Drive and The Ghost Inside. Their sound is a refined mixture of metalcore, leaning more towards a hard hitting hardcore punch to the face. ABA has been delivering their highly energetic shows all across the UAE, in support of 2010's debut self titled album, while quickly gaining a strong following in the process.
Formed in 2009 by Bruno Salonen (Vocals) and Mychal Martinez (Drums); both former members of the now defunct AMONGST SKYSCRAPPERS. A BLESSED AFTERMATH have already shared the stage with a diverse line up of acts, ranging from death metal beasts NERVECELL, and German thrashers HATRED, to heavy metal traditionalists THE CROW MURDER, Kuwait's melodic death metal face crushers VOICE OF THE SOUL and modern metalcore school'ers COAT OF ARMS.
A BLESSED AFTERMATH are currently working on new material for their follow up album. We got a chance to catch up with guitarist George Hughes to talk about the band's new material, their background story, and chest bumps, among many other topics. Here's how it went:
iRoar: Thanks a lot for doing this. A Blessed Aftermath is one of the most promising bands emerging from the UAE scene. How did you guys get together?
George: No problem man! Glad to be part of your blog. A Blessed Aftermath started in late 2009, it was kind of an after result of a band called Amongst Skyscrapers who were quite popular a few years ago and since their disbanding Bruno (Vocals) and Mychal (Drums) wanted to keep playing Hardcore, got Me (George) and Joel on Guitars, and then A Blessed Aftermath was formed. Since then of course we’ve thankfully severed all connections musically with Amongst Skyscrapers, they had their time! Then last year we got Kim Sangwook on Bass, and he has recently been replaced by Keaton Goode. We all got together because (and what I most enjoy about the band) we’re all good friends and we all hang out all the time, I’ve been in bands before where we would only see each other at practice, and it just doesn’t flow as well as being in a band with your homies.
iRoar: Last year saw the release of your debut album. Are you all happy with the end result?
George: It was a big step for us, and the Album release show was absolutely amazing, everyone had a great time and the atmosphere was intense. At the time we were really stoked with the material, but since then we’ve definitely moved on in our sound and our song writing, and there’s actually only two songs that we still play from that CD. And we feel like we could have done a lot better in the recording process, for example our guitar tone let us down quite a bit, mainly cause we had to make do with a shitty amp last minute.How long did the recording process take to wrap up? And will you guys be releasing new material in 2011?
It was actually ridiculously quick, we had all our songs tight and finished completely going into the studio, and we finished the whole CD in 4 days. Also yes, we are going to be recording new material in 2011, we’ve written about 13 songs in preparation for it, a couple will get the cut, and the CD will be around 10-11 songs. It’s gonna be big, we have huge plans for this release, let’s just hope they work out!
iRoar: Your music is a diverse blend of metal meets hardcore (melodic metalcore). What or who are some of your main influences that help develop ABA's sound?
George: Our main influences band-wise, which is pretty noticeable when you listen our music are: The Ghost Inside, Architects, Bring Me The Horizon (New Stuff) and our main influence when we were getting started was Parkway Drive, not so much anymore, in regards to the musical side of things, but they still influence us in regards to their attitude and perseverance. Our new material that we’re planning on putting on the new CD is incredibly different to the kind of songs we were writing for the ‘Self Titled’ CD. We’re trying to steer as far away from Metalcore as possible, mainly because it’s just been done! Plain and simple, of course we still listen to it and like it, for nostalgic reasons, however we feel that if we continue to play Metalcore it would just be overkill. Our new direction is more progressive (pretentious I know), we’re moving towards a more melodic HARDCORE and post-hardcore sound. It’s more chord driven and Punk based, but we’ve still kept some major chuggage and aggression, I’m very happy with our change.
iRoar: Being a highly energetic band. Do you have any pre-show rituals to get you pumped? Like drinking a ton of energy drinks?
George: Well being lucky enough to be picked as a Monster band, It’s hard not to chug energy drinks constantly! However it does make a huge difference, My theory for our shows getting incredibly rowdy is that everyone, including us, are absolutely fucked off their face on caffeine and whatever else is in those cans, and anything that’s loud will sound awesome! As a band though we generally just chest bump… does wonders.
iRoar: Given the chance to pick your next location to tour. Where would you want to go, and why?
George: If we had a choice it would be the UK or the US, mainly because the scenes are so much more developed, for example if we were based in the UK, we would never be playing with Thrash Metal band’s. Unlike Dubai, Individual scenes for each genre have their own culture, and fans of Hardcore can go see a Hardcore show, and not have to worry about some random other band on the bill purely to pull numbers, of course this works vice versa for all genres. This summer we’re hopefully going to go on a UK tour, it’s considerably closer than the US, Mychal and I already underwent a 5 week tour of the UK with our previous band, and Keaton and I are both English so accommodation, transport and getting on shows would be a lot easier than the US.
iRoar: Once again I'd like to thank you for taking the time to do this. Would you like to add anything?
George: No problem man, love doing interviews, let’s people get to know us a little better!
If I could add anything it would just be, keep coming to shows! Especially the All Ages gigs, they are the most important of all! Also don’t get sucked into the fucking Dubai clubbing culture, it’s pretentious, superficial and temperamental. Real music = Real connection + Real emotions and a community that looks out for one another. Whether it’s Hardcore, Jazz, Death Metal, Disney soundtracks, or Neo-classical progressive Korean-Pop (good stuff), just listen and support Real music.
A BLESSED AFTERMATH are currently among the bands running for the Yas Rock Factory competition. First prize winner gets 20,000 AED, while the runner-up gets 5,000 AED. CLICK HERE to vote for A BLESSED AFTERMATH.
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