Moonspell
I Have Been Reading Russian Literature For More Than 30 Years

16.07.2018

Moonspell, the most popular Portuguese metal band in the world, are an embodiment of "Lusitanian metal" for many fans. Although the band’s history goes back more than 20 years, it still has quite a few obscure pages. Moonspell frontman Fernando Ribeiro lit up some of them for our readers, providing some unexpected details that would help to understand the "Portuguese Wolves" better and look at their music from a new perspective. Fernando told us how his love for Russian culture started, what the tattoo on his left hand means and whether he was indeed friends with Type O Negative frontman Peter Steele.

For the first time in the past 10 years the Wolves are going to present a concert release, "Lisboa Under The Spell". It will be out in August. Do you think it’s really possible to reflect the magic of live shows in a video? And what did you mean by saying that this release is a chance to "visit Lisbon through the eyes of Moonspell fans"?

Not anymore but at least no one can blame a band for trying its best, like we did for "Lisboa Under the Spell". As a matter of fact, we could have approached this release as something ordinary in our career but we hate the idea of making something just for the sake of it. So, we invested all the money and all the ideas we had into making something that has to be seen as a whole, starting off with the documentary, going through the show and finally going to bed with my last silly, tired words of artistic nihilism and breakfast. I told our director (Victor Castro), we didn’t want a regular DVD show but something more original and complete, where the band is not always the focus, where the cameras point to other things happening in a show, and so forth.

If there’s magic on that, it will have to be to the fan adding it as I feel we set all the conditions for that on the DVD and our best hope is for the fans to renew their links to us and to be excited to see us next time. That’s what a live release is for, I believe.

As far as visiting Lisbon goes, I meant our crowd over here. People we see here and there, off stage and who gather together to watch us and have their moment as well. Many times I go to a country and have no time to visit it but I feel I have seen it somehow in the eyes and behaviour of people who attend the shows.

Senhor Fernando, it’s great that you are fond of Russia and the Russian culture. You even spent your honeymoon in St Petersburg and Moscow. Thank you for having a soft spot for our country. Where is this feeling coming from, how did you get interested so much in the Russian culture?

It’s more than a soft spot. It’s a true admiration based upon a curiosity I always had for the East of Europe namely Russia. My aunt was a Communist, an affiliate with the Party here in Portugal, and she has been clandestine until 1974, the year of Portugal’s Revolution that ended Salazar’s fascist, five decades’ dictatorship. In the Eighties, there was Cold War and while everyone “rooted” for the West, I was fascinated to discover in my aunt’s archives, anti-American propaganda, soviet Art, books, badges, etc. From there to wanting to know the roots and the soul of such a big country, with a huge history and an alternative political model to what we had in the West, was a small huge step and I discovered Russian literature and never stopped reading Russian authors. From Afanasiev’s children tales to Zamyatin, it’s been more than 30 years from me reading not only the books but also from 2001 on visiting and learning more and more about the Russian endless soul.

For a long time I wanted to ask you this question. Every year (except this year) on the 14th of April you post online some words or pictures in memory of Peter Steele. Have you met him personally? Who was Peter Steele for you – an older colleague, an idol or a really good and close friend?

We stopped posting it because it became vulgar and we just do it here and then, much more not to be seen as cold assholes, than because we think that the late person needs this kind of virtual or viral homage.

Peter Steele was one of my idols and I never crossed the border to something else out of respect. I have been with him, in many places, talked with him, drank wine and did drugs, spoke on the phone occasionally yet that was always personal and I rarely talk about that. I know my place. I don’t want to overreach and say we’re best pals because I was and I still am a fan, first and foremost, and someone who really thinks that with his death a certain kind of music died too.
 
How did your philosophic education influence your music and your art? Is it a reason why you sometimes use Latin in lyrics? Like in "Ataegina": "Devotio Ver Sacrum, Devotio Consecratio, Capittis Amore Dirae". Could you, please, help your fans with translation of these lines?

I always tried to put the best of my elements at work for Moonspell. Studying philosophy has been quite helpful to get rid of our own satanic metal clichés and to embrace, probably, something more structured, non-less artistic but closer to the humanity we want to underline with all our “fiction”. I like Latin a lot but I am just a curious person about it as I never studied it properly and I don’t care at all if declinations or plurals are right or wrong.

Latin is an ornament in our music and lyrics and as fake as an ornament. I never said it was true Latin, it’s made up, cheated for our music, its bits and pieces out together, an artifice of sorts. There’s not really a proper way to check it out anyway, so it’s like a language gap I can bridge through creativity. As far as "Ataegina" goes, the Latin is appropriate since Portugal, the pre, pagan Portugal was under Roman rule and Latin was used even by the folk who cultivated other gods than the Roman pantheon. To the best of my abilities here it goes:

"Devoted and Sacred
Devoted and Consecrated
Listen to what one says"

On the left arm you've got a tattoo "There is no god but man". Is it a quotation or your own opinion? Do you believe in God or in destiny that every person makes for himself or herself? How does your personal view on religion and the fact that Portugal is a very Catholic, maybe even conservative country relate to each other?

It’s not my phrase. It was supposedly coined by Alistair Crowley, an author and an occultist that has been so poorly caricatured and heavily explored by Metal bands, including Moonspell. When I first contacted with Crowley’s work I understood I could not possibly fathom the dimension of it. So, I went through other sources, I even met a Crowleyian roamer in Portugal who traveled to Egypt, etc. to follow the Master’s print, and he tipped me on reading his biography (hagiography, self-written), to take his mystical ramblings with a pinch of salt as many were made to impress the fools and to get their gold; and finally to discover his connections to Portugal via his encounter with Pessoa. With these goals in mind I used Crowley with parsimony in my lyrics ("Hymn to Lucifer" at most), listened to his wax voice recordings from the early XX century and read Somerset Maugham's book "The Magician" which is basically about Crowley and his demand for the moon child.

Out of all this, his best sentence and teaching is that "There is no God but man", a sentence that could easily be from Feuerbach or Nietzsche, had they been so exuberant as Crowley. They were smarter, though. Being raised a Catholic in a lay country, that sometimes has Inquisition flashbacks, having gone through the ritual and the dogma made me understand fully and agree completely with the Crowley sentence I brand on my left arm on top of a very ugly tattoo.
 
Your book of poems is called "Purgatorial". As I noticed, one of the things that you care and worry about is how people treat each other in the modern society. Is poetry for you an introspective way of searching for answers with thoughts and dreams or a way to reflect the rough reality with all its problems?

That observation has left me, over the times, less sensitive to the human connections. In one way I think they are doomed in the universal plan, and I invested in my own network of relations and try to make the difference there. You can’t teach an old world new tricks and if we have the future at our fingertips, our fingers burn with so much written treason and our mouth is bitter with the taste of lost opportunity.

I write poetry to unload. I write everything as a form of unloading to be honest. A shopping list or a love letter might have the same relief effect on me I am afraid.
 
Let me share with you my discovery. I think being a writer is excellent occupation, it’s great to tell people interesting stories and bring joy to the readers. But writing also has another side. To my mind, it is one of not so many ways to have an eternal life. When we are reading poems by Luís Vaz de Camões he is alive for us. Do you agree with such opinion?

I have only to salute you for your discovery, yet I always connected writing much more with the transient pain than with the eternal remembrance. Sure there are books which are timeless, true that words can mean the difference between life and death, but, as a writer, I have smaller plans that have more to do with stepping up from bed in the morning than a ride to eternity.

Could you please tell me more about your record label and publishing house, Alma Mater Books & Records. You seemed to live happily without it, why did you decide that the time was right for this new big undertaking? Do you want to support young musicians or to release your own records or books on Alma Mater? What is your work in Alma Mater Books & Records, what exactly do you do? Do you spend hours listening to demos or do you read dozens of stories and poems that young authors send for your consideration?

First and foremost I think it’s time I start taking a back seat in many things. To do that, I have to understand or at least speculate into the my future. Those are big, heavy thoughts but they are stimulated by such simple passions as book reading. After reading Max Perkins’ biography (Hemingway, Wolfe, Fitzgerald editor) by A.Scott Berg, I was utterly infatuated by the function of the editor, and even though these are different times, I find it rewarding for me to draw a little line on that virtuous circle and start editing myself.

When it comes to books I have my line straight up done and I know exactly what to edit up to 2020, yet I will be always open to be surprised and change my plans. I don’t read dozens of stories or poems, most people who give me stuff to read are simply not ready, but, instead, I know very well some kind of literature, that’s lacking in Portugal and which authors to bet on. I make no bullshit about it.

As far as the record label goes, first it was formed to take good care of Moonspell’s heritage. With all the reedition and old repertoire going through us we are sure that it will be treated with respect and quality instead of going around in the hands of rip off labels, who hate our band but that still want to make a buck or two.

With the success of those releases and with the fact we took over Moonspell distribution and promotion in Portugal, we had great results so we decided not only to expand our horizons and having other records re-released, records that marked an epoch; but also to sign bands who come out exclusively from Portugal and offer an opportunity of bands doing things well, instead of being frustrated like the majority of bands feel in Portugal. We want to change that way of thinking and working and I believe we’re just the right label to do that job. We will be releasing the debut LP of Okkultist (death metal) and Desire’s new album (doom metal). Wish us luck.
 
Senhor Fernando, are you superstitious? In the "I’ll See You in My Dreams" video you turn into a zombie, in the "Lickanthrope" video your character’s head is cut off. In "Everything Invaded" all band members rise from the dead. In "Night Eternal" the Mistress of the Eternal Night turns all the wolves into dust. Aren’t you concerned that staring in the abyss of the dark forces may have negative influence on your life?

I am not superstitious at all. I am respectful and awfully curious about folk legend but that’s about it. I don’t mind having my beheading simulate or my disintegration at the hands of a mistress, like I say to my kid, it’s all make believe. There are other demons and real tales and people we should be careful with and yes the abyss hasn’t stared back or maybe when it did I was wearing sunglasses.

The "Memorial" bonus track "Atlantic" is a pure masterpiece. This song is as deep, soulful, romantic and serious as famous fado "Mar Salgado" is. And the lyrics are as strong as Fernando Pessoa’s poem. What is the idea of this beautiful song? And especially I would like to ask about this song’s absolutely fascinating and unexpected ending. What are these sounds? Dolphins, seagulls, whales? Also with some sounds of ocean waves? How did you manage to record these sounds? Who decided to put these sounds of nature together with keyboards? It is a bit scary and very majestic.

With 900 kms of coast, the Sea will always fascinate the Portuguese. As Spain blocks us the view from Europe, we bet our soul and commended our country’s body to the Sea, so no wonder many of our legends, biggest hopes and the news of our biggest achievements and failures came out wet from the salty waters, like bodies ashore.

"Atlantic" is just a song we rarely remember. Thus we have sympathy for who does, that really helps us to wonder about decisions, why this song is in, and the other is out. Maybe we don’t think it was as beautiful as the fado or as lovely as Pessoa’s poema but I am sure glad you liked it.

Pedro (Paixão, composer and keyboard player – ed.) is the mastermind of all atmosphere in Moonspell. He’s an old school keyboard player and have always mixed and produced his own sounds. Throughout the years, before online access, he collected samples from all kinds of things, from every country in the world, and he for sure made a big sea animals, waves, rock sounds, etc library that he used for "Atlantic".

Moonspell on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/moonspellband/

Interview by Alexandra Prozorova
Photos by Margarita Stefankova
July 4, 2018
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