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We talked with Selv Martone, guitarrist from the heavy metal banda Infinitas. They come from Switzerland and to the people that love heavy metal you should listen to them.
GroundCast: Could you tell to us how the band started?
Piri and I have been playing together in a rock-band since 2005. Additionally we started a project in the metal genre, out of which our true passion evolved.
We wanted to create something extraordinary and invest more time into this project. In 2009 it developed into Infinitas. The rock-band isn’t active anymore, but all members are still close friends.
Since the beginning of Infinitas it was clear to us, that we wanted to have a violin instead of a second guitar, which would be the usual classic metal combo. Also we were looking for a female vocalist with a subtle aggressive sound to her voice.
GroundCast: What are your influences?
Our influences are very broadly spread, here some of the most important ones:
Children of Bodom, Opeth, Wintersun, Iron Maiden, Kreator, Amorphis and Ensiferum.
GroundCast: The band has an EP from 2015 called “Self-Destruction” and full-length called “Civitas Interitus”. Could you describe what changed in the band on these two releases?
Besides our line up, there haven’t been many changes in the band. We have stayed true to our style and “CIVITAS INTERITUS” has been a continuation of what we originally started with “Self-Destruction”.
GroundCast: Talk about the first full-length “Civitas Interitus”. Is it a conceptual album or has something that the band would like to tell with the lyrics and melodies?
Each Infinitas song (beside the Intros and Outros) are named after demons. We decided to go with this concept right from the start. We wanted to have a consistent concept over all our songs, which would still allow us to be flexible. Demons are perfect for this, each demon has different characteristics and we’re able to write about them independently from a certain time period. This gives us the freedom to write about what ever we want to, while our songs still fit together concept wise.
Demons also don’t have to be bad all of the time, in earlier days, demons were equated with „ghosts“, which could be good or evil.
We aren’t cultists oder satanists and we’re religiously neutral.
With „CIVITAS INTERITUS“ we have expanded the concept of demons. „CIVITAS INTERITUS“ is latin for: Town of Destruction. Therefore we have invented a medieval town called „Lunatris“, which gets haunted by demons and destroyed. In our album, we follow the protagonist of our story as he strays through the town and desperately searches for help. He is the last survivor of this terrible night. Each song on the album plays at a different place in the town, which is pictured inside the CD-booklet.
GroundCast: How does work the composition process of the band, do you have a main composer? And how can you compare the composition from the first EP to the first full-length, what do you see as an evolution in your music?
Yes, I’m the main songwriter of the band.
Our process works like this: First I write the parts of all melodic instruments (guitar, recorder, violin, etc.) Then I present the song to the band. From there the joint songwriting takes over. Piri and I work on the drums and experiment a lot in order to find the right beat for our songs. Finally we add the vocals, where I usually give Andrea a free hand, she has an excellent feeling for melodies and always finds something suitable. Andrea, Piri or I write the lyrics.
The songwriting always undergoes some changes. It’s hard to say what has changed there. A lot of songs on “CIVITAS INTERITUS” were already a part of our repertoire as we produced “Self-Destruction”. I think that our new material is individual. Catchy and better complied than our previous compositions.
GroundCast: I did a little research myself and the site metal-archives says that the band was created in 2009. Why did it take 6 years to release the first material?
That’s a good question… What have we been doing all this time? 😊
It seems to be a long time, but we have always been busy. Piri and I founded the band in 2009. In 2010 the line up was completed and in 2011 we were finally ready for the stage. Sadly after one year, our former singer Isabelle left the band. 2013 Andrea joined the band and we started recording “Self-Destruction”. During the production of our EP, which we produced completely by ourselves, we had to learn a lot about the process of making a CD, which also contributed to some delays. At the same time we eagerly continued playing a variety of concerts. In 2015 “Self-Destruction” was released after which we shortly started to work on “CIVITAS INTERITUS” and could implement a lot of the things that we learnt while recording “Self-Destruction”.
GroundCast: When I think about bands from Switzerland, names like Celtic Frost/Triptykon, Eluveitie and Mirrorthrone come to my mind. How is the metal scene there and what do you believe could be better?
Switzerland is a true paradise for metal. There are a lot of extremely talented and great band and the whole scene is very close to each other. On our website, you can find a lot of cool bands from Switzerland: http://www.infinitasband.ch/infinitas-friends.html
GroundCast: How is to be an independent band in Switzerland?
This is a difficult question, as we haven’t got anything to compare with. We don’t know what it’s like to be signed up to a label. As an independent band we do most of the work ourselves which includes: composing, promoting, accounting, selling merchandise, designing flyers, etc. We love this diversity and like having the full control over our baby (Infinitas).
GroundCast: We live in the internet era and you know that people can download almost everything illegally. What do you think about it and what do you think about streaming services as Spotify?
I think nowadays, music is illegally downloaded less than it was ten years ago, at least this is the case in my surroundings. The idea of Spotify and other streaming platforms is great, as you have got access to whatever you want to listen wherever you are. The downside is, that it takes a colossal amount of people to stream your songs until you earn as much with it, as you would with the sale of a CD. I think many people aren’t aware of, how little musicians earn through these streaming-platforms. My recommendation: If you really like a band and want to support them buy their CD or merchandise directly from the band or from the band’s web shop. This way you can be sure that the band will receive most of your money. Also platforms like Bandcamp are great, as they really focus on the benefits of the bands.
GroundCast: Are you involved in any other musical project, related or not with metal?
All of us are involved in other projects besides the band, which haven’t got anything to do with metal, but our main project will always be Infinitas.
GroundCast: What the name Infinitas means to the band, which “power” it has that no other name could fit perfectly with your music?
Infinitas is latin for eternity – and our songs are infinitely long. 😊
No seriously, I think Infinitas expresses our creativity and the timelessness of our music the best.
GroundCast: Do you know any musical projects from Brazil?
Sepultura and Soulfly. Arise is my absolute favorite album from Sepultura.
GroundCast: Thanks for the interview, now the space is yours to say what you want to our readers.
Thank you for this cool interview with such in-depth questions. Also, we’d like to thank the readers from Groundcast, that you’ve read this article through until the end. We would very much appreciate if you’d visit our website (https://infinitasband.ch) or leave a like on our facebook page (https://facebook.com/infinitasband/).
Now close your eyes, sharpen your ears and enjoy our music, hell yeah!