Glasya a female fronted Symphonic Metal Band from Portugal
Interview conducted on July 02, 2019
by Dan Locke
Glasya, a Symphonic Metal band featuring 6 members that have a variety of influences and styles in their backgrounds, originated a sound with a wide range, from Classic to Ethnic to the more powerful metal riffs. Project took off composition and pre-production of the original songs while achieving the stability of the current Line-up. In 2018, Glasya showed themselfs to the audience with the their single “Heaven’s Demise”, a single to be featured in a soon to be released full lenght album
Band Members
Eduarda Soeiro – Vocals
Davon Van Dave – Keyboards, Orchestrations
Manuel Pinto – Bass
Hugo Esteves – Guitars
Bruno Prates – Lead Guitars
Bruno Ramos – Drums
Dan Locke: How did you form this band?
Glasya: Glasya was founded by Hugo Esteves, guitar player, who wanted to create a symphonic metal band with dramatic, even cinematic elements to it. An invite to hop aboard was sent to Bruno Ramos, awesome drummer, who brought some gothic influences to the mix, later, Davon Van Dave joined in the Keyboards and Orchestrations department, and at this point, the writing process and work over the songs began in another fresh perspective, he brought a lot of orchestral influences that enriched the compositions and furthermore inspired the creation of yet more songs.
When Eduarda Soeiro got the invite to join the band, we already had some work done. She began to write some lyrics, melodies, and placed her voice in the songs like she felt that the songs needed, the exact way she felted the tunes, taking the band base ideas above and beyond.
Finally, Bruno Prates joined later on as the lead guitar, providing extra melodies to the guitar department and Manuel Pinto, a tremendous bass player, able to create some amazing bass lines, closed the lineup and we felt like…ok… now we can work on the songs and put all the pieces together.
What bands have influenced your band development?
We have a lot of different influences, bands like Nightwish, Epica, Metallica, Dimmu Borgir going to Dream Theater, Cynic, Opeth onto 69 eyes and HIM an and so on, in our line up, you’ll find a diverse, rich and different musical background in each individual. The orchestral sounds are influenced by Hans Zimmer, James Honer and many classic other composers who are icons to us a band.
We create and mold the songs to sound the way we all enjoy.
When we wrote the songs that are now on the album, we tried to insert the influences that each one of us brought to the band and, in that way, make every song special, with some special features and different feels to enjoy.
Supergroup is…
For us, something that works. If you want to create something and you can make it happen with the musicians that are working with you, that’s a supergroup.
Why did you decide to go with guests performers?
We had the idea early on the writing process and after all, was done we felt that it would be amazing to have in our first album, friends from the Portuguese metal scene to give a boost to our storytelling side of the music.
For us, it was an honor to have them in our songs.
Flávio Lino, amazing voice from Deadly Force, gave Glasya theme a new magical and powerful sound.
Inna, is a great violinist in a Orquestra in Lisbon and her performance in Coronation theme is just divine.
Paulo Gonçalves from Rasgo gave the Dying Sun theme power and
Nelson Raposo, gave us a voice of a true king on the Coronation Of The Beggar song. We are thrilled and honored to have them as part of this album and thankful for their help in bringing and extra something more to the songs.
What is traditional/folk Portuguese music?
Folk or traditional music here in Portugal is commonly called “Rancho”.
It’s a style of music played by a lot of people in different cities and villages.
The music is played with traditional instruments and there is a group of people who perform a traditional kind of dance during the songs.
What is Fado sound?
Fado is Portugal… Is the most known Portuguese music. Always played with Portuguese guitar, usually paired with a classical guitar and bass, has a mix of passion and tears, based a lot in our very own Portuguese word “Saudade”, meaning “I Miss…” is a very unique and gorgeous style of music supported by melancholic and heartfelt singers that will move you. It’s a very different, unique, type of music.
What is the difference between Portuguese metal music and American metal music?
We can say that the American metal music scene has been a huge influence in heavy metal and ourselves as a band, for as long as anyone can remember. It’s really only looking at the way of writing that you would distinguish the two. And… Why look for differences, every band strives to find it’s own sound, trying really hard to sound different.
Music is generally created based on one’s lifestyle, society’s inputs, personal battles, government, etc… Music is the one way to get everywhere, no translation required, so, guess the main differences will be “supported”, in a way, by the lifestyles of each single songwriter/band. The metal itself, Portuguese, American, Finnish, Norwegian, will always cling itself to the roots of the people involved.
How do you separate that? We just enjoy the variety of today’s World Metal Scene. So many out there, why worry with the differences, appreciate them instead.
For Portugal, the worldwide metal scene has opened its doors thanks to Moonspell, a huge reference to this day still, but the battles they fought where huge, and we are forever thankful for their perseverance.
Thankfully it’s a lot easier for the bands to show their work these days, and put out music thru differents places, digital supports/platforms, allowing almost instant feedback from around the globe…
You have to work hard obviously, but because how the things run in these days, we believe many artists now have possibilities given that nor Metallica or Moonspell, among so many, had, meaning, gotta work harder!
So, we don’t distinguish, we appreciate all that has been reaching this side of the ocean and enjoyed, learned and turned it to something else, something our own.
Since the band is from Portugal I am going to ask you about other bands from Portugal. And I would love you to tell me something about each band.
We have a lot of amazing artists in different styles, those you mentioned are from many styles of music, none of them really connected directly to ours.
Lio is a Portuguese singer and actress who is now a Belgian and was a pop icon in France and Belgium during the ’80s and has recently (2018) released for the first time a full album, sang in Portuguese, her mother tongue
Mia Rose is a talented Actress/Singer. Being of Portuguese descent, she started as most of the artists these days do, Social Media, You-Tube to be precise and is to this day a well-accomplished singer.
Ana Moura is an exceptional Fado singer and is considered one of the most successful and awarded in the XXI century, and has sold over 1 Million records.
Sara Tavares is a long member of the musical community in Portugal, cherished by many, a World Music Composer, started off winning a singing competition in 1994 and reaching 8th in the Eurovision contest later that year. She sang for the Disney movie “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” Portuguese version which won a Disney award for the best version of the original song. She also won a Portuguese Golden Globe for Best Portuguese Singer in 2000.
Mariza is an outstanding and unique Fado singer, she is currently one of the most recognizable names in the world of Fado having sold over a million records.
Nelly Furtado is a Portuguese descent artist, a world-wide known pop singer and a Grammy winner. Mainly known for her hit “I’m Like a Bird”, to this day remains a reference in Pop and R&B.
The Portuguese Music Scene has a lot to show for don’t you think!
If you were doing a headlining world tour, who would you want for your support group?
Well… that is a complicated question.
There are a lot of bands that we would like to have as a support on a tour… and a tour involves a lot of questions, logistics, and whatnot.
If we take a look into the Portuguese metal scene, there are currently numerous talented bands that we would love to have with us. Some with already some friendly faces from our gigs in common, amazing soundscapes, and we know it wouldn’t be fair to point out anyone.
Do you have any tours in the works?
For now, we are focusing on the Album launch. With the album presentation and concert, with the album in hand, it will be a lot easier to show our worth and play in some festivals and events, so we are dealing with those connections in general and will have updates on the subject always available in our facebook page. www.facebook.com/GlasyaOfficial/
How do you see your band in five years?
In five years, we can only hope we’ve raised the bar. We’ll have a new album and will have even more work done, things that we have had in mind for a while now.
We believe that these are possible, so we’ll fight for them and work hard and show our hard work to you all.
Anything you like to close for your fans?
We would like to thank every single one of them!! We appreciate all of your support and we thank you a lot for that, for every hour you spent behind a wheel or sitting in a train or bus just to see us perform, we are very thankful for the dedication shown. We hope that you keep liking our work as much as we do because it was made with all of our hearts and with a lot of passion for what we are doing and delivering to you.
Thank you all Very Much
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