A little while ago we stumbled upon the Spanish band Heid which released an EP called ‘Voces de la Tierra Dormida’ a little while ago. Quite a surprising debut. And we like to the big and successful bands, we love to hear what the ‘newbies’ have to say. Time to talk to Heid.

We don’t know much about Heid. Your history seems rather turbulent, can you talk us through the early years?
‘The project starts in summer 2011, when Drakhai and Sergio (ex Pagan Fire) decided to play again the songs composed by Drakhai, together.
In autumn, they both entered in Sons of Midgaard, introduced their songs and changed the name of the band to Heid. With them enters Marta, Sechem’s flutist.
After a show in May 2012, the band decides to divide. Marta, Sergio and Drakhai decide to sing in Spanish and tell about History and traditions of their homeland, Castile.
From that autumn, different musicians have passed by the band and with them they recorded the first demo, called “Heid”, in January. This was released in March, with Drakhai on vocals as they didn’t had any singer in the line-up. On June, Marta leaves the band. The present formation is not closed until August, with that in autumn 2013 they recorded their latest EP “Voces de la Tierra Dormida”.’

When I hear this story is seems to me you have a good opinion in which way the music should develop. Is it difficult to find bandmembers who share this opinion?
‘It is difficult to find people who prefer to bet for an authentic style, to make a research on our land’s musical and mythic tradition, our History… instead of walking the easy way, imitating the big names of the genre and writing about beer.’

A lot of the folk-metalbands in Spain are more melodic-, powermetal or tending towards gothic, Heid is quite different. By which bands is Heid inspired?
‘Inside our country, Numen and Aiumeen Basoa, both from the Basque Country singing in Basque, using traditional instruments from EH as the alboka, the txalaparta.
From abroad Moonsorrow, Metsatöll, Finsterforst, Immortal, Crimfall, Arkona, the sonorities of the Medieval and Renaissance musical legacy, of course the Castilian folklore.’

Do the years in a Vikingmetalband influence your music?
‘Yes. At the beginning we sang about Norse mythology (as in “Mortal es el Hombre”) and some of that stuff is still on our live set list.

Where do the songs on the new EP come from, are these older songs, composed in the ‘early years’ or are they written especially for this EP?
“Golpejar” is the oldest song, and can be found in our 2013 demo. The newest, “La Mano Negra”, is a re-make of an older song and was decided to enter the new EP before it was rehearsed for the first time. “No Habrá Paz” was finished before the first line-up was broken, but not written for violin but for tenor recorder; “Ruido de Batalla” was brought to the band on May 2013 and “El Canto de los Responsos” about three months before.’ This makes it quite a mix of songs of all times, putting Heid’s music in a nice perspective.

Since the two earlier members have this strong opinion, is the writing of songs done by them, or do you write them with the entire band?
‘The songs (music and lyrics) are written by Drakhai, but everyone plays his line with changes and it makes the music richer. For example, the flutes on “La Mano Negra” were much simpler on the original score than the studio version; Ivanez put a lot of dynamics and articulations on the guitar lines; Reuven added virtuosity to the bass part.’

Where do you get the inspiration for the lyrics from?
‘From our passion for the Medieval History, the mythology and especially cooking.’

This debut EP was a very nice one, it got quite a high score in our own review, do you notice it has changed things for the band?
‘Thank you! The first thing we noticed was our Facebook likes increased; on our last show people sang with us the lyrics of our songs, and the place we rehearse in now is full of merch boxes waiting to leave.’

This all sounds very good to me, what are the future plans for Heid?
‘These days we’re planning on hitting the studio with our old stuff (our demo, “Bosque de Nubes” and our first song still not recorded) and bringing it in a split with some Pagan Metal bands from Spain, to close that chapter before starting on the composition process for our first full-length. We are also looking for tour dates in and outside Spain, as the Pax Julia Metal Fest (Beja, PT 11/15/2014).’

Is there anything else you like to say to the readers of Folk-metal.nl?
‘Thank you for reading us, for giving us a chance to show you how we think and live music, listen to our music and let us know what you think.’