You can say that they play dark music, but their music can make your soul resurrect, or that their music is coming from the deep past, but their music is also modern. You can also say that this is not music made by humans, but it perfectly applies to them. Some might say that it’s the perfect soundtrack for all those lonely persons whose friends are birds and animals. Sangre De Muerdago (on 10th Anniversary Tour starting today!) music is all these things and more, Sangre De Muerdago music is the moment when the night and the day are meeting before change places.
First of all, I would like to thank you for the interview. My first question is, what made you become a musician?
Thank you Konstatinos.
Well I guess this came from the strong impact that some songs and melodies had on me since I started recognizing them around as a kid, and feeling them and the goosebumps on my arms.
To start playing music was a need and a natural evolution.
Which one is most important for you in a song, lyrics or the music and why?
Both are equally important, sometimes music can work without the lyrics obviously, but when both thins are present in one song, they both should be good, a great song musicwise can be ruined by the lyrics, or enhanced to magnificency. There are those songs where each word seems to have been written in perfect match and harmony with each note.
Have you ever thought of having lyrics in English language, so that more people will understand you?
Not really. Sangre De Muerdago has a couple of songs in Engish actually, there’s a song in English in our demo called ‘Haunted Glow’, that we re-recorded later for our 2nd album. And in this same record there’s a song called ‘The Paths Of Mannaz’ that was written in English too. There’s no reason why that happened, they were just lyrics that happened to be written in English at that moment, and so they stayed like that.
Besides that, I never question my Galician singing, it is just the most natural way for me to put out the feelings and emotions of the music, and if I would sing in English, that would be lost. I basically have a need to sing in Galician..
Listening to lyrics even if I don’t understand them, I feel sad. Sadness for you is a weapon to be stronger or you just express it?
Sadness can be many things. It can be discouraging and empowering, it can hit us in many different ways. I think it is important to be conscious and aware.of what surrounds us.
There’s no way to go around this world without sorrow and sadness when you look at what’s going on around the world. Human behaviour is so devastating that it cannot just be ignored, only a privileged heartless person would go through life like that.
There’s always sadness, there’s always something to digest. And it is up to us the way we deal with it and the possibility to turn this sadness into our fuel to spread love.
Is there a reason that will make you split Sangre De Muerdago, without making you feel sad?
That’s just not going to happen, it’ll always be somewhere.
When Jorge (former member of Sangre De Muerdago) passed in 2009, I made of Sangre a life commitment.
It might be more or less active, it might be that in some years it goes back to be me sitting on the porche of my caravan in the mountains with my instruments, like it was between 2009 and 2011.
But it’ll always be…
What is your goal with Sangre De Muerdago?
Sangre De Muerdago is a portal of enlightment, it’s a means to an end. No goal besides opening that portal.
Which is the happiest moment as a member of the group? Recordings, live, etc?
Those moments of enlightment.
Do you prefer playing live in a strange places or in a scene with bigger audience?
Both situations can be fantastic. It’s all up to the energy, your surrent inner state, and the communion with the audience.
It definitely helps when it is a special location with a great atmosphere and scene. But very simple and intimate performances can be as great too.
How has fado influenced your music?
I believe fado music has influenced Sangre’s undirectly, it is music full of sorrow, that Atlantic sorrow we all share.. But there’s a more direct influence from the Galician folk music or “música popular” as we call it in Galicia.
I imagine (and) pictures when I’m listening to you. If you had to put pictures in your music (apart from pictures of a forest), what kind of pictures you believe represent S.D.M.?
I hope these are pictures of love, enlightment, solidarity, protection, nature, friendship, myth and mystery, humbleness, primal elements, care and fulfillment.
Your music applies to the heart of all people, or only to those who you believe are good and pure inside?
Of course my music applies to everyone. We are all far from perfect.
What is the relation of S.D.M. with Galician folk in your most recent EP?
Definitely the whole vibe and sound, and a couple of melodies are traditional, but mostly it was written by me.
This EP is something I wanted to do since a very long time, this is music we like to play on our own. Galician folk music is an enormous source of ancestral energy, and it was our wish to transport that ancestral energy to the record.
This means no radical change in our sound, since lots of the new material I have written for the next album continues the path we’ve always roamed. But it is definitely my wish to do more releases like this one on the side, in which we explore on the more traditional aspects of folk music, even if the songs would be written by us.
Why did you record this EP at home, and not in a studio?
Why record it in a studio when we could record it at home?
I’m very neanderthal when it comes to computers, but Georg has some good skills on recording and it was our wish to do it that way.
I’m slowly learning my way through music recording and edition, but I’m doing it on my own so everything takes long. Time to time..
I believe it’s very good that your cd’s packaging is very thoughtful. Do you believe that this makes listeners get more into the feelings that you create with music?
Thank you very much for this interview!
I hope so.
Every record is done once, and that’s it before moving on to the next one. It is a personal choice and wish to put all that effort on the packaging. I’m doing almost 100% of that work on my own and there’s a pleasure on it. For me it is like the cherry on top of the cake, a final touch that completes the work that has started time ago when writting the songs themselves.
I hope it helps people to ease their inner trip into our music. We’ve got always a very warm and nice feedback about our art and packaging, especially about the lots of handwork I do. But I primarily do it for the sake of it, and to wrap something I consider precious, in a precious home.
Thank you for the interview!
Konstantinos Pamfiliss
