[Guglielmo Malusardi]
Think about Hungary and you see his beautiful capital Budapest, divided by his big river, the Danube (Duna for the Hungarians) in two parts Buda and Pest, once separated in two different cities and put together along the years by seven bridges and political agreements. Think about Hungary and see the strongest waterpolo team ever, gold medal in the three last editions of Olympic games: Sidney, Athens and Bejing. Think about Hungary and see the Rubik cube. Think about Hungary and listen to Liszt Ferenc and Bartok Bela (Hungarians always introduce and name themselves, surname first) music, but also hundreds of violins played in folk groups, and last but absolutely not least, electric guitars . Lead by veterans as Tamàs(Thomas) Szekeres and Istvàn (Steve) Alapi, younger guitar players are brilliantly emerging in the music scenario. One of them is Andràs (Andrew) Horvath , guitar player and main composer of progressive metal band Dreyelands. We discuss with Andras, Dreyelands Lion Music debut album Rooms of revelations and much more.
Buy: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/Dreyelands
[Guglielmo Malusardi] Let’s introduce yourself to the readers
[Horvath András] My first musical instrument was the violin. I started to learn that at the age of 7. It was only 3 and a half years but determined my whole life. After a few years break I started to play the guitar in 1993. My father had – and still has – an old Cremona acoustic 6 string – made in the late Czechoslovakia – and he showed me the first chords. I wanted to be educated so I learnt from a few teachers.
I got into progressive metal music at the age of 14-15. At that time I realised that I wanted to do it seriously. A few years later I found my – I can say – master. His name is Tamas Szekeres. He had shown me nearly everything. Now, it depends only on me, how I can use the knowledge.
I played in bands from the very beginning. Mostly in cover bands, but I always wrote original music. Not too much, but constantly.
[Guglielmo Malusardi] Tell us about your main musical sources of inspiration
[Horvath András] My musical taste moves on a very wide palette. My father is an opera-junkie, so I grew up on Mozart, Verdi, Donizetti, etc. My brother was a dancer in a Hungarian folk group, so I listened to a lot of Hungarian, Transylvanian and Slav folk music as a kid. Fortunately my brother also loved rock, blues and jazz, so my very first musical memory is when he put the then fresh Queen LP – Kind of Magic – onto the turntable... [Smiles] I’m a rock guy since then…
I was in Bon Jovi, Europe, Queen, Gary Moore, Deep Purple, Mr. Big, Winger and in the 60s, 70s hard rock as a kid and later in Guns and Roses, Metallica, Nirvana, Pantera, but Pink Floyd, Whitesnake, Dead Can Dance, etc. As I said a few years later I turned to progressive metal music like Dream Theater, Symphony X, Vanden Plas...
After a while I’d liked to know everything about guitar based music, so I extended my interest to a lot of band.
On the other hand I love jazz, funky, soul and disco… [Smiles] Seriously. If Jamiroquai or Incognito put out an album, I run to a record shop to buy that on the first day.
As a guitarist I have many heroes: Slash, John Norum, John Petrucci, Paul Gilbert, Pat Metheny, David Gilmour, Steve Lukather, Andy Timmons, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, and there are a lot more.
Dreyelands rooms of revelation trailer
[Guglielmo Malusardi] How the band took the final shape?
[Horvath András] We are Dreyelands, a progressive metal band. The band formed in 2002. Gergely Springer (bass) and I are friends since our early teenager years and we played in a lot of band together in a lot of genres and wanted to establish a progressive metal band. When Omar Gassama (drummer) joined us we made Dreyelands with other guys. We had a few line-up change in the past and when Zoltan Kas (keyboards) and serbian "vocal phenomenon" Nikola Mijic (vocalist of Alogia, Expedition Delta) joined we were started to make live gigs and writing songs. We recorded our first release, a promotional EP titled 'Can't Hide Away' (released in 2007).
There was also a music video made for the title song of the EP. This video was featured several times on the Headbanger's Ball program of MTV Hungary with the EP receiving great feedback from not only Hungarian but also international press. During 2007 we finished the song writing for the debut album 'Rooms of Revelation' which was recorded in several studios in Hungary and Serbia in 2008 and mixed/mastered by well known Hungarian producer/engineer Barnabás Hidasi at HL-Studio in 2009. After the recordings keyboardist Zoltán Kas left the band and now the band is completed by Gyorgy Nagy (Age of Nemesis) as a session member.
We are playing music based on heavy but melodic progressive metal with a touch of tasty flavour of '80s hard rock and AOR music.
[Guglielmo Malusardi] It’s a pretty lyrically talking, a concept album. Would you like to explain the concept beyond the music?
[Horvath András] Of course. Rooms of Revelation is a journey in a schizophrenic mind. There's a guy who lost his loves after the first fulfilment of their love. He begins his trip in an imaginary house and as he gets on room by room he is getting nearer to the answers and his fate.
[Guglielmo Malusardi] Let’s talk about the composition process
[Horvath András] It’s always different. Mostly I bring riffs, chord structures, half-songs to the rehearsal room and we are working on them together. Of course other guys also writing songs in the band, but I make the most of it. If everybody is satisfied every part of a song, we send it to Nikola who lives in Serbia, a few hundred kilometres away. He makes his vocal parts and sending them back. Then – mostly – our drummer Omar writes the lyrics. That’s it.
[Guglielmo Malusardi] Where did you record?
[Horvath András] We recorded the album in several different studios in Hungary and Serbia.
Drums, bass, vocals and a few of the guitar tracks were recorded in Chainroom Studio, Senta, Serbia. (This studio is owned by our singer Nikola Mijic and his brother Marjan Mijic, who is also a singer.) Synthesizers, programming and most of the raw guitar tracks were recorded at my little home studio. We used re-amping technology for guitars to save a little money. What you hear as the final result is a quite simple rig: a Rivera KnuckleHead 55 with a V30 Laboga cab and a Mesa/Boogie Single Rectifier with an old T75 Marshall cab We used 4 mics: a Shure SM57 and an AKG C414 per cabinet. Reamping were made at Soundmaster Studio, Budapest, Hungary.
We have a live string orchestra on the album. We recorded them in the (in Hungary) legendary P-Studio, Törökbálint, Hungary with engineer Miklós Küronya, who made a lot of heavy metal records from the early ’80s to nowadays.
Mixing and mastering were made by the well known Hungarian producer/engineer Barnabás Hidasi at his HL-Studio, Budapest, Hungary.
[Guglielmo Malusardi] Did you arrive in studio with the compositions pretty done or you jammed together in some case?
[Horvath András] We’ve always arriving with full compositions. It’s simple: unfortunately we don’t have enough money to make experiments on new ideas in the studio, so we’re always have everything to record and we are well prepared for it. Of course a lot of things shaping in the studio but they are only nuances…
[Guglielmo Malusardi] Did you play some part together or everything separately?
We played everything separately. String orchestra played together…
[Guglielmo Malusardi] Let’s introduce Dreyelands members
[Horvath András] Omar Gassama (drummer) – He is a very talented musician. He has rhythm and groove in his blood. I love his playing because I think it’s very unique. He always plays something different what I invented before and it’s always better. [Smiles] Also he is a very good guy personally, and his heart is huge... [Smiles] Sometimes too huge. J
Nikola Mijic (vocalist) – He is the voice for me. He can sing nearly everything I can imagine. He has a great flair for vocal melodies. I’m a big fan of him. [Smiles] Personally he is a great guy too, but very lazy. [Smiles]
György Nagy (keys) – He’s a professional. He knows everything about every technical doodads and he is also a great keyboard player. He can play anything and with the right sound. He is 10 years older, but as infantile as we are.
Gergely Springer – (bass) – A very old friend of mine. A perpetually pessimistic guy. [Smiles] But this is his hidden optimism. [Smiles] He is our Myung: has a lot of strings, not speaking too much – sometimes nerve-breaking laconic –, not moving too much on stage, but he is very creative about bass lines and playing great and accurately.
[Guglielmo Malusardi] What about your solos…Are you part of the “wait wait, let’s record another one” or you usually are satisfied in a couple of takes? Let’s describe your approach…
[Horvath András] First time I always improvise my solos. Looping the backing track and playing to it a lot. During this, better tunes involuntarily stay in my hand and then I start to work them out and learn.
I’m not interested in super human or super perfect playing. I’m not a super-fast shredder. I am satisfied when a solo lives, and I don’t care about leaving a few little mistakes in the final version if it has the soul…
Joe Bonamassa said once that a solo has to be recorded in a maximum of 3 or 4 takes. I quite agree with it. After a few takes there are just notes and not soul.
[Guglielmo Malusardi] Now let’s talk about your lethal mass distortion weapons
[Horvath András] I have a 1994 Washburn MG90 Custom USA, a MusicMan Axis, a USA Fender Stratocaster, a Schecter Blackjack 007 and a Furch acoustic.
My main guitar is the Schecter.
I’m using a Mesa/Boogie 3ch Dual Rectifier with a Laboga Premium V30 4x12 cab for live situations. I have two Furmans (M10LxE and AR2306) in a rack and a few pedals: T-Rex Tonebug OD, T-Rex Replica Delay, Ibanez AF2 (Paul Gilbert) flanger, Morley Bad Horsie2 wah, Morley Little Alligator volume pedal, a Boss NS2 noisegate and Korg Pitchblack tuner. Quite simple. These have very analoge and warm sound. I love them all…
I use Dunlop Delrin .96 picks and D’Addario strings. 10-52 on six strings and 10-59 on 7 strings. For acoustic I use Elixir Phosphor Bronze 12-53.
[Guglielmo Malusardi] Your solid musical formation, provided you the ability to orchestrate a lot of parts…Tell us more
[Horvath András] We are not well-educated composer geniuses. Unfortunately … Everyone has a little background, but music-theory wasn’t our favourite subject. [Smiles] We are experimenting a lot and arguing with ourselves a lot more that we had to learn more on those damned lessons…
On the other hand, there are brilliant metal guitar players, Jeff Loomis to name one, that do not know anything about music ( we say they have big ear…).
[Guglielmo Malusardi] What’s in your opinion the biggest advantages of a extended musical theory knowledge?
[Horvath András] There are a lot of advantages. You can work faster if you know all the coherencies. You can be a professional without this, but it’s unquestionably easier if you can see through the Matrix. I’m sure that there are a lot of MT experts who never wrote a lucid chord structure and we know a lot of “illiterates” who gave us the most important songs of mankind.
As in case of guitarists, I think the first step is be aware of Satriani or Vai or may be Holdsworth, just to name a few guitar colossus, in case of progressive metal band, the biggest peril, is go too close to Dream Theater or Symphony X music…
[Guglielmo Malusardi] Did you think about it composing, or is something that you pay attention just after you record some part and then you listen to it…
[Horvath András] When I compose I’m not thinking on it. We write what we feel. Fortunately we don’t have any pressure to choose which genre we should do. [Smiles] But we are trying to keep away from that bands tunes. I love them all, but very hard to emergence in their shadow. I’ll never understand those people – and there are a lot – who think that progressive metal equals Dream Theater or Symphony X. In their mind every other progressive metal bands are just DT or SX wannabes. It’s quite embarrassing.
Dreyelands - Can't Hide Away (Video)
[Guglielmo Malusardi] Talking about stereotypes, as in case of metal bands from Italy, Spain, Greece there is still a big lack of knowledge and a sort of tendency to relate these countries music to their old typical one, in your case, Gypsy violin music…
[Horvath András] We’d like to play music for everybody in the World. It’s sure that our home country is very important for us, but we don’t want to be a folk metal group, but it’s sure that we will use segments from eastern European folk music sometimes, because we like it.
[Guglielmo Malusardi] Music business, Internet in this case has a double role…Help a lot in terms of have a chance to spread the word bout your music, but also unfortunately, to let people everywhere get music for free, killing actually the music business…As a musician, what’s your opinion? Is there any solution?
[Horvath András] I don’t want to judge on it. It’s sure that the present situation with illegal mp3 sharing could not move on but I know it can not be stopped. But it’s not a newcomer problem:
I bought an old LP in a second-hand shop, you can find a little picture on the rear cover. It’s a skull and cross-bones, where the skull is an audio cassette. The text is: “Home TAPING is killing music... [Smiles] ...and it’s illegal”. The album is from 1983. No comment.
Maybe the solution is in a system where legal downloads can be done through a subscription, where people can pay a fix amount month by month to have unlimited access to download. I think it’s very important to give the customer high quality service, to feel it’s worth to pay.
And CD’s and LP’s will remain for the hard core fans who like objects in its material form like me who have a huge record collection. But it has good points too: there’s a lot more exclusive box sets and limited editions with rare material.
I think that it’s a new and quicker age where musicians and fans have to grow up for the proposition of technical “evolution”. I believe they/we will.
From ’83, there are a lot of band and musician who could make money from music in contempt of “illegal taping”. I think it will be solved sooner or later. Hopefully sooner... [Smiles]
On the other hand if Internet doesn’t exist nobody could get information for example about Dreyelands. So it’s an important but dangerous thing...
Pagan's Mind - United Alliance (by Andras Adam Horvath)
[Guglielmo Malusardi] Do you have some other musical project apart Dreyelands?
Last summer I worked on a classical music record as a co-producer: The string quartet, which played on our album, made a record with a dulcimer player. I worked with her a few years ago and I think I will again. [Smiles]
There is another metal project we planning with a few guys. It’s a bit different than Dreyelands, but it’s not too far. We are in the middle of planning process, so I cannot tell you details about it yet. I hope it comes to existence soon…
[Guglielmo Malusardi] What’s in the Horvath András music agenda for 2011?
[Horvath András] Writing music for the next Dreyelands album. Record and release it as soon as possible… [Smiles] Begin to work with the above mentioned project.
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