New York has always been home to many great metal bands, both signed and unsigned. I can remember when The Gothic Knights and Zandelle were still in their beginning stages. Look at them now...they're both established NY metal bands signed to LMP Records. It makes you wonder who else is out there just waiting to be discovered. I was introduced to Invidia by sheer luck. Bassist Riyaad sent me a copy of their demo for review, and I absolutely LOVED it. After experiencing this band live, it was clear to me that Invidia are destined to be the next big buzz to come out of New York. You want heavy and melodic hooks? You've got 'em! You want aggressive and evil vocals? You've got 'em! You want heart pounding bass and drum? You've got 'em!!! Read on, and learn today all about the band you'll be hearing about tomorrow.
Interview by Anthony
1. Please start out by introducing yourselves...
Riy Edoo - Bass
2. For anyone who has never heard of the band, please describe the sound of Invidia. What makes you stand out from everyone else?
Luke - All over the place Metal, From Heavy to Heavier to Melodic
Riy – It’s sort of melodic death metal. It’s not cheesy melodies or anything; I guess that’s the difference. And on top of that, it’s influenced by so much old-school thrash, and we don’t forget the death metal aspect of ourselves either. We are a death metal band.
Ken - Well I really don't know what other people think we sound like, but I think we sound very Swedish influenced, with a lot of types of metal (except nu of course), some jazz, and we also throw in some classic, and Spanish guitar here and there.
As for what makes us stand out from the rest, I just think we all think very differently about music, and though it can be a pain in the ass to write music at times cause of all the different ideas, for some odd reason it works extremely well. So I guess its sort of a formula.
Riy - I think that fact that we’re all so different is a big one. We all love metal and come together on that, but other than that, everyone has their own thing that they’re really into. D’Andrilli is only about classical. I’m into everything, but jazz is by far my favorite, and Luke is also into everything but blues is really his thing. Ken as well gets into everything, and you can tell in the drumming.
3. How did Invidia form? Who were the original members? What inspired the formation of the band?
Luke - I guess boredom was the greatest inspiration.
4. What are some of your influences, both musically and non-musically?
Riy - Musically, it’s everywhere. I listen to anything, any kind of music really, so I couldn’t even begin to list them. Non-musically, I’m really into politics. It’s good cause Bergin is too. He’s one of the few people I know as liberal as I am, so I always have someone to talk politics with. History is another big one of mine. It even comes into songs sometimes. Just gotta pay attention and look for the subtle hints.
Luke - For me it was Metallica, Guns N' Roses, Sepultura - Beneath the remains stuff. Stuff like that and my older brother being a metal head did help a lot.
Ken - Personally, I'm influenced by lots of Opeth (the new one is extremely good), Death, Dream Theater, Paco Delucia, some Eric Clapton, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Slayer and such. And well I guess my non-musical influences would be cooking, it’s a passion of mine besides music, and in order to cook and have great food as a product, you gotta have good music to go along with it!!!
Luke - We had songs written before we had a full band. When Ken and Wally came into the picture, we filled their parts in and hit the studio to lay it down, mind you that it took us a long time to find Ken and Wally so we were very impatient to get these songs recorded.
Riy - The first demo was only two songs. We recorded it at the Electric Plant Studios in Brooklyn with this guy Vin. For promotion, we basically spent all our money and made tons of copies and handed those things out for free all over.
6. Who designed the artwork for Reflections of The Shattered Glass? How about your logo?
Riy - Reflections was the second CD. The cover idea I thought of and had Spoon draw out for us. It’s the same guy that designed our website. He also did the logo for us.
7. Speaking of Reflections…, I must say: this is an AWESOME album!!! How long did the band take to write all this material? Please give a short meaning to each song on this album…
Riy - Honestly I don’t even remember. The 2nd and 3rd songs were old, and were on the first demo. I guess it took a few months to do the other two songs, only cause we do more partying than practicing sometimes. As soon as they were done they were laid down.
Luke - Reflections was something we wanted as a filler for the demo, used it as an opening track. Rise was a song the whole band jammed out and wrote because we felt like doing a death metal song. Keeping the Faith was one of the first ones we did. Apophasis was written for the sake of doing something more black metal, and Decay of Perception was one of the last ones we did for the demo. We rushed that one to finish it for the demo and to put it on the set list for a show.
Ken - Well first, I wish it was an album, but unfortunately it isn't, just a demo. It didn't take us very long. Putting the little details in took us the most time.
8. How have the fans been reacting to this album? Media? What do you feel draws attention to the band most?
Riy - People generally really like the CD. It was our first real demo I guess. The first was a practice run of sorts. It wasn’t mixed very well, due to financial constraints at the time. Everyone at the time was all in school, so you don’t have all the money in the world to spend on doing a CD. As a whole, the songs are way more intense live. As far as attention goes for the band, I think cause it’s a nice mix. The guitars are relatively thrashy with some melodic bits thrown in. Also I think because in Invidia, the rhythm section is much more interactive than in a typical melodic death metal band, a lot of people are surprised by it. The drums and bass aren’t normal for a melodic death metal band, their typically more laid back, just background music for the guitars. In Invidia, that doesn’t exist.
Luke - As far as fans go, shit I didn’t know we had any, but in general people that hear it like it, if not one song than they'll like another. That’s the beauty of it, no matter what your taste, there’s at least one song you'll like. The media has been kind to us mostly good reviews, got played on the air a couple times, but you know we're a local band, lets just say its fucking hell to get shit out there.
9. What plans do Invidia have for the future? Is a new recording in the works? What can you tell me about it? What new songs, if any, have you performed live so far?
Riy - Actually the new CD is almost done. It’s called Cornerstone of Chaos and it’ll be out really soon. It’s really different from the first one, it’s a progression, and I think 10 times better. The songs are better written, the parts are more thought out, and the songs have good dynamics. It’s six songs, including an intro and an outro track. All of them but the outro have been played live before.
Luke - The new stuff is, well its Invidia. I hate describing music, when you get it, you tell me. How about that? We have played some if not all the songs live already.
Ken - The new demo which is by far the most kick ass shit we've written so far. It has a lot of different sounds to it, more of a death metal feel to it. And no acoustic tracks. These songs are played normally in live performances, but people will really get to know the songs once they're out on CD.
10. Is there a single Invidia song you feel people can relate the band to (like a signature song)? Is there any one song you play every time you perform (my personal favorite is Rise of the Unborn)?
Riy - Keeping the Faith from the 2nd demo, and from the new one Ultimate Justice are constants on the set list as of now.
Luke - I think the songs everyone relates with us are either Rise of the Unborn or Keeping the Faith...
Ken - We try to change it up all the time, but it seems people really love Keeping the Faith, its sort of our "hit" if you would. I really love to play Ille Nocte, one of our new songs, it’s just really fun to play, and very energetic.
11. Has the band ever recorded or performed any cover songs? If so, which ones, and why?
Riy - Never recorded any cover songs, but performed definitely. We did Blinded by Fear by At the Gates and Episode 666 by In Flames for the first few shows.
Luke - Why? Good question well to me it seemed we needed to fill up time.
Riy - We later covered a song from this band Utopia Banished, a local band from Queens. We did they’re song Desolate Winds because we were all really drunk and we thought it would be funny. It was.
Bergin - Yeah, covering Desolate Winds and seeing their faces was awesome, they were standing right in front of us.
12. What made the band decide to use SPOON as its web-designer? How did you hear about this company? Do you feel they are doing a good job with the site? Do you have any plans to post more MP3s or streaming video?
Riy - Spoon created it. I found him through another band’s website I saw he created. He designed it, but is no longer the webmaster. We just got a new one recently, so I don’t know how that’s gonna go yet. There will definitely be more audio on it, video if we can fit it.
13. Since the formation of the band, how do you feel Invidia has progressed, both musically and lyrically?
Riy - Musically, it’s very different. We’re no longer trying to make everything as fast as possible, and put as many riffs as we can fit in a song. The songs make sense now. They’re structured much better. They’re catchy and easier to get into I feel, even if death metal isn’t your thing.
Luke - Musically we have gotten more used to each other and more styles are getting mixed in, like Riy's bass walking on a fretless. I guess it’s more of an outside influence transformed into metal.
Ken - As each month goes by, our musical abilities tend to grow, all of us spend a lot of time with our instruments, unfortunately, since I live in a apartment, I can't really practice all too much, but that’s why I have my trusty practice pad hehehhe, can't live with out it.
Bergin - Lately I’ve been trying to improve my voice, doing higher pitches and holding the scream out longer, which has been working really well. Lyrically, I’ve been putting personal shit in there, in things like The Art of Existence which deals with a friend of mine’s death in February.
Riy - We’ve had a few really cool ones. Dying Fetus, Dysrhythmia, Children of Bodom, Nevermore, Dimmu Borgir, Hypocrisy, just to name some of the bigger ones. Opening for Bodom was great, we got to harass them half the night, and they were funny, really cool about it.
Luke - All the big names were back at L’amour. We got to play with a shit load of good local bands. And as far as memories, let’s say their very blurry, Half a liter of JD on an empty stomach gets you quite tipsy.
Ken - Utopia Banished (fucking awesome band, party animals too!) Eden A.D., Black Harvest, and Exit to Eternity (fucking good band)
Bergin - I love to play out with Utopia Banished, they’re great guys and they make amazing music.
15. Is there any kind of stage-show you put on? What can a fan expect to see at an Invidia show?
Luke - Crazy Stupid Idiotic stunts and accidents.
Riy - We really just try to give people a fun show to go see. There’s no point in going to see a show if a band just stands there. For that, they might as well go listen to it on CD. We change things up a little bit live, we really get into it, and when the people get into it, it’s even better.
Bergin - The shows are always sick, especially when we play at Dillon’s. The crowd screaming back at your is always amazing. I get them into it and to see so many people chanting is awesome. They really get into it, and we always feed off that energy.
Ken - Well actually lately, we've been adding some change to our stage presence, so come to the shows and you shall see the changes we made, Go! WTF are you waiting for??!!! You can also expect to see Lukasz’s ass falling everywhere.
16. What are your thoughts on the NY metal scene today? Do you find it easy to get a gig? What are some of the places you have/will play?
Riy - It’s a bit of a pain getting a worthy gig in the city. It’s easy to play a show anywhere, but to play a show on a good night in a good location where you can get a decent turnout if always hard to get. We’ve played L’amour over here, The Pyramid, Dock Street in Staten Island, and Dillon’s, this spot in the city is by far my favorite. We’re looking forward to playing the Brooklyn Music Terminal, and Metal Kingdom soon.
Luke - The scene isn’t the greatest, there are places to play its just their always very inconvenient to get to or their 21+. Dillon’s is great. Always good shows there 150 plus people at a local show is awesome around here.
Ken - Ehh, its alright, not to many places in NY, well I guess there isn't. I dont really book the shows, what I do know is that they're many new metal places popping up which gets me excited.
Riy - Fuck yea, we’d play shows anywhere. As long as we’re not working, we’re totally up for playing live. As for local bands, we’ve made a lot of friends over the years. I guess our favorites to play with would be Utopia Banished, Exit to Eternity, Devils Island, and Gnosis.
Luke - Utopia Banished is a band we have played a lot with, great band and good friends. Devils Island we played with a couple times too and Gnosis.
18. If you could tour with any band, which band would it be?
Riy - Cryptopsy. ‘Nuff said.
Luke - I would want to tour with like Hate Eternal, that would be sick, Fuck I'd tour with any band that likes to party afterwards.
Bergin - If the Black Dahlia Murder, Arch Enemy, or Amon Amarth would take us on the road, I’d definitely be down.
Ken - MUTHA FUCKIN OPETH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And of course none other than Utopia Banished or shall I say INVIDIA BANISHED HAHAHAHA!!!
19. Have you ever considered shopping your album for a record label? If so, which label would you like to be signed to? Where do you see the band five years from now?
Riy - We’ve been label shopping. We have the interest of some places, and hopefully with the new CD it happens. I’m not looking for anything huge like Century Media or Nuclear Blast, thought that would be amazing, but any label that allowed us to tour. That’s what we need. Not fame, just the CD’s out and to do some tours.
Luke - Yeah we have been shopping for a label, we heard back from Metal Blade but we need another demo. Who knows what is gonna happen. And in five years I want to rule the world.
Ken - This demo coming, we are going to get hardcore with shopping around for labels. 5 years from now, I see the band going through AA lololol, na but seriously, I see us going on a nice states tour with who knows?
20. Thank you, Invidia, for taking the time to do this interview. Please provide information on your website(s), where to purchase CDs and t-shirts, and any final comments you may have, or something you wish to add.
Information can be found at www.invidiatheband.com which is getting a new webmaster soon and also at www.myspace.com/invidia You can get us there directly.
DISCOGRAPHY
REFLECTIONS OF THE SHATTERED GLASS (2004)
LINKS
Lukasz Guniaâ - Guitar
Ken Poveda - Drums
Mike Bergin - Vocals
Mike D’Andrilli - Guitar
Riy - Me and Luke started out together. I was leaving my current band and me and Luke were talking about doing something eventually, so it seemed like the perfect time.
5. Tell me about your first demo. How did you go about the song-writing process? Where was the demo recorded? How did you promote/advertise it?
Ken - Well, I never really like the old demo, the prod was terrible, the guys doing it had no idea what they were doing, and we spent and arm and a leg on it. Our fans really dig it for some odd reason, but hey whatever works. And I think it’s definitely our live energy that draws a lot of attention to people we're pretty nuts on stage.
14. What are some of the bands you’ve shared the stage with? Do you have any significant memories from these shows?
17. Are there any local bands Invidia gigs with? Who are they? Would you ever consider playing shows in New Jersey (this can be arranged…wink, wink)?