SEITA

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ELLEN VAN HEEZEN
WEBSITE: www.myspace.com/seitaofficial
COUNTRY: Brazil STYLE: Metal / Death Metal / Hardcore

THE BAND IS STILL “YOUNG” IN MUSIC YEARS. HOW WOULD YOU SUM UP THE “JOURNEY” THAT THE BAND HAS BEEN ON SINCE MARCH 2008?

DOM MURA: Michel and me started to work end 2006, creating material. We invited Edson to join us in 2007 and when André came into the band the line-up was complete in March 2008. We started to rehearse the songs that we made already and worked on new ones. Then we recorded our MCD (own release) and asked our friend Danny O’Really for mastering and mixing. Right after this we sent it to a lot of magazines/e-zines and got positive reviews of most of them.

We had our first gig end of August 2008 and more gigs followed. The highlights were Zaans Metaal Festival at De Kade/Zaandam, Prilpop in Sevenum, our first performance in Paris and Germany, and coming 11 July we’ll play at Asia Metal Festival in Seoul (South Korea)...

LISTENING TO YOUR SONGS ON MYSPACE THERE SEEMS TO BE A LOT OF BUILT UP RAGE THAT PROVIDES FOR THE INTENSE ENERGY IN YOUR MUSIC. WOULD YOU SAY YOUR MUSIC IS A GOOD OUTLET FOR THE LISTENER TO JUST LET EVERYTHING GO AND TO HEADBANG “EVERYTHING” AWAY?

Both!! If our music has this effect on people, this is great! Our lyrics are based on the power to overcome, the contradiction between life in Brazil and life in Europe or the world in general. There’s a lot going on what we try to express in our songs and if people recognize it and react on it, we did something good.

WHAT ASPECTS OF YOUR MUSIC DO YOU LIKE THE MOST AND WHAT DIRECTION DO YOU SEE YOUR MUSIC TAKING MOVING FORWARD FROM THE “IMPRINT FOREVER” EP?

The attitude and energy are very important in our music, because we express what we feel, but we take care every single day about how to integrate it the right way by giving serious attention to the composition and arrangements of the new songs. We believe thatby doing this our music will evolute, and we’ll be able to redefine our musical identity.

YOU RECORDED THE ‘IMPRINT FOREVER’ EP YOURSELVES AND IT WAS MASTERED BY DANNY O' REALLY (DEICIDE, BIOHAZARD, AND NAPALM DEATH). WAS IT JUST A CASE OF WANTING TO “HIT THE GROUND RUNNING” AND GET THE BAND GOING AS SOON AS POSSIBLE?

Because of our past experiences in other bands we wanted to start with quality since the beginning of SEITA, to make a first good impression and reach our goal to be a professional, authentic band. Michel knew Danny already from his previous band and had a good experience working with him, so we didn’t have to think twice to ask him to join us.

ARE ALL THE MEMBERS IN THE BAND INFLUENCED BY THE SAME TYPE OF MUSIC, AND WHAT WOULD YOU SAY EACH MEMBER BRINGS TO THE BAND THAT MAKES IT WORK TOGETHER WELL AS A UNIT?

DOM MURA: Not all of us have the same music taste. I’m probably the most ‘Metalhead’ in the band keeping an eye on everything new that comes out in the genre, but after years I became more eclectic. Michel is my mate since 15 years ago and we enjoy a lot of the same music. Edson has a wide taste and way to make and enjoy music and André likes rock, heavy, Brazilian music and other kinds of music as well.

We are different characters with different tastes in music, but what unites us is our Brazilian background and the struggle for our position since we put our feet on European ground.

I’VE BEEN ASKING BANDS THIS ONE A LOT LATELY BUT WHAT GEAR AND GUITAR TUNINGS DO YOU USE AND DO YOU HAVE THAT “DREAM INSTRUMENT” THAT YOU WOULD SPEND ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD TO BUY?

We’re simple guys. At this moment top gear is not inside our reach, so we work with basic equipment: Cabinets: Marshall 1960/peavey 6505 - Head Top: Randall/Peavey and 1 Valve King Peavey as step, Hartke Bass Cabinet, Drums: Fischer (Made in Brazil) Cymbals: Sabian, Guitars: Ibanez/esp - Bass Ibanez.

ARE YOU HAPPY WITH THE WAY YOUR LIVE PERFORMANCES HAVE GONE OVER THE LAST YEAR OR SO AND WHAT SHOW WOULD YOU SAY HAS HAD THE BIGGEST IMPACT ON YOU AND MADE YOU BETTER MUSICIANS IN YOUR OPINION?

Until now the Paris show at Le Klub was a highlight. When we arrived we made a short touristic trip to the Eiffel-Tower, relaxed a little. People came in; the place was full with people eager to see this new band (us), a good vibe. And the next moment we played like never before and people were headbanging and going crazy. Our first tour, Beyond the Chaos (with in total 4 Brazilian bands), was a nice experience as well.

LISTENING TO YOUR SONGS ONLINE I CAN JUST IMAGINE HOW “BRUTAL” THEY SOUND LIVE. IS THE STAGE AND PLAYING TO AN AUDIENCE WHAT IT IS REALLY ALL ABOUT FOR YOU GUYS?

It’s the Power to Overcome!! We like to share our music with our audience, in the best case an energetic audience. It’s amazing to hear people singing our lyrics and seeing them headbanging on the music that we created! We’re really proud of our background and we share it with everybody that comes to the shows.

I SEE A FEW VERY POSITIVE LIVE REVIEWS ONLINE ABOUT YOU GUYS, BUT WHAT DO YOU THINK STILL NEEDS TO HAPPEN FOR THE BAND TO OPEN MORE DOORS IN THE INDUSTRY SO YOU CAN PLAY BIGGER AND BETTER SHOWS?

It takes time before people know you, even in internet times. People have a lot of choices and until a big audience knows your band/music it takes months/years. We live in a numbers world, so before a big venue makes you part of their program, they want to be sure that the band attracts a certain quantity of people. We work hard to get ourselves known, so we hope our audience grows and we’ll be able to play at bigger or interesting venues/festivals step by step.

I SEE SEITA IS HEADING TO SOUTH KOREA IN JULY AND THEN PLAYING IN EUROPE FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR. WHAT COUNTRY WOULD YOU SAY HAS BEEN THE MOST “INTERESTING” ONE YOU’VE VISITED SO FAR?

We live in Europe (Amsterdam) and that’s a good location to reach all countries of Europe. We are interested in almost every country that’s willing to let us play and can’t tell exactly what’s the most interesting one. At this moment we really look forward to play in South Korea. Not so many European or Brazilian bands went there yet; it’s a quite new metal-country, so this will be a special experience.

BASED ON THE REACTION YOU’VE RECEIVED FROM AUDIENCES AT SHOWS DO YOU THINK HEAVY MUSIC WILL ALWAYS HAVE ITS PLACE IN THE WORLD EVEN IF IT’S NOT LIKED BY “EVERYONE”?

There’s an audience for every kind of music and there’s fashion in music styles as well. The reaction of audiences so far is good and people come back after seeing us the first time, so probably there is a place for our music and metal in general. Like you said before, heavy music is a perfect outlet to let everything go and if more people discover this, it’s gonna be crowded at metal-gigs and festivals the next years!

YOU GUYS HAVE A VERY COOL MYSPACE, HOW HAVE YOU APPROACHED THE MARKETING ASPECT THAT COMES WITH PLAYING IN A BAND AND BESIDES LIVE SHOWS WHAT CAN WE EXPECT FROM THE BAND IN 2009?

We searched for a talented web designer that could express visually what we stand for, what our music is about and we found Gustavo Sazes (from Brazil as well). He did a great job and created exactly what we were looking for. If a band, their visual identity and music together are strong, the result will be that the right people are reached.

No smart marketing tricks or something are needed then. Marketing can make numbers bigger, but we are who we are and our music is the way it is. 2009 is already successful until now and we will continue to work hard, do gigs and create our first full-length and grow step by step.

ANY COMMENTS/ADVISE OR PEOPLE YOU WOULD LIKE TO THANK?

First of all SEITA would like to thank the projectrfsezine and you (Neil van Zyl) for the opportunity to present ourselves to the South-African audience, to Danny O’Really, who refined our music and understands us. He’s a very nice person to work with, to Ellen van Heezen, our photographer and right hand and last but not least to all people that come to our concerts and believe in us.

Check our sites and become our friend or subscribe:

www.myspace.com/seitaofficial for songs, (live) pics, blogs and merch!
www.youtube.com/seitaofficial for videos!
www.twitter.com/seitaband for recent news!

Thanks,

Dom Mura – Michel – Edson – André
SEITA – Brutal Brazilian Metal from Amsterdam!