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Andorran rock band Persefone has been put into just about every category from extreme progressive rock to technical death metal, but their instrumentation has just as much in common with jazz or classical music as it does with heavier genres of music. The lyrical content on each of their six concept albums deals with different subject matter — the 2006 album Core, for example, tells the story of the Greek goddess for whom the band is named.
Persefone will be playing The Launchpad July 28 as part of Fallujah’s “Flesh Prevails” Tenth Anniversary Tour, and showcasing songs from their newest venture, the Lingua Ignota EP.
The Paper. Spoke with Persefone drummer Sergi Verdeguer about the band’s inspirations and the effect their music has on audiences.
This interview was edited for length and clarity
The Paper.:I’ve heard your music described as “atmospheric prog.” Is that a fair label or genre?
It’s complicated to label music nowadays, so many tags and labels. I would say that [Persefone] would be metal, obviously. But at the same time, our lyrics are so different from a lot of bands, regarding topics of spirituality and self knowledge. I’ve seen some tags lately saying Persephone is like spiritual metal or spiritual music, and I kinda like it. We do metal and prog with orchestral cinematic landscapes.
You’ve been in the band since 2015?
Yeah, so almost ten years. The guys were already my best friends so it has been way longer than 10 years.
Do you play songs from all the albums?
We have six albums, so it’s really hard to play songs from all the albums because some songs are really long. We try to play songs from the last three albums. We feel that the music we released many years ago doesn’t represent the sound of the band anymore. We prefer to play the last release live.
Lingua Ignota means “unknown language,” correct?
Exactly. We try to arrange music and try to have these albums with a concept, so having a title always helps us to write the album and find the right path for the lyrics and the music.
Can you describe the inspiration or the unifying themes behind the new album?
We try to express ourselves with spirituality, method language. It’s like when you feel a connection with everything and you feel like you belong somewhere, but you cannot describe these feelings with words. I would say that this was the main idea, to start pulling the thread, to find inspiration for the lyrics.This language I would say is universal, not just within the earth. You feel you are connected with one and everything without the need for using words.
What are some of your personal inspirations musically?
Everyone has different tastes in the band. We are really good friends and have nice conversations, and that inspires us to write, but everyone studies different music. I mean my favorite band is Radiohead, and it’s not the same style of music, but Carlos [Quintanilla, guitar/vocals] the main writer, even if he likes metal, that will just be a tiny part of the global thing.
What’s your background as a drummer? I hear all kinds of influences, where do you draw inspiration from?
I don’t practice that much. And I know a lot of friends of mine are a lot into it, and they are super dedicated with their instrument playing. Now I teach drums for a living. Persephone’s music is so complicated, and that helped me a lot to mature and refine my playing. I think I’m way more comfortable now playing the songs overall. I think I put a lot more energy when I play live, which wasn’t the case before, because I was too focused on the click track and maybe the performance, and now I’m way more into the feeling, having fun on stage and hitting as hard as I can. But with the drummers, man, I love lots of drummers. Gavin Harrison, Mario Duplantier from Gojira, Jose Pasillas — I like him a lot from Incubus when I was younger — John Otto from Limp Bizkit, fucking legend.
What kind of venues do you prefer to play? Do you like the big stadiums? Do you like the smaller, more intimate venues?
It depends on the crowd, actually, because if the crowd is good, it doesn’t matter if it’s a small venue, or a big one, or a festival. We’ve played in tiny venues and it’s a super sweaty, hot show, and it’s super funny. And then you can play at festivals with thousands of people and there’s too much space between you and the crowd. So it really depends on a lot of things, but usually when the crowd is vibing with the same energy is the best route.
The music we do is so emotional, sometimes there is crying in the crowd. I like crazy people. We played a few months ago and there was moshing on the floor, so it’s funny to see. We like the people to feel something when we play. I understand that the music we do is complicated, and some people are just there to see the musicianship, they want to see us play. But we need to have a response from the other side. I like when the crowd feels something. Good or bad, but something.
Persefone with Falluja, Vulvodynia and Dawn of Ouroboros
7:30 p.m. Sunday, July 28
Launchpad
618 Central Ave. SW
$22
All ages