Live-Metal.Net - Interviews: Hugo Ferreira of Tantric

“The end of one thing led to the beginning of another.” That’s how Hugo Ferreira, the frontman of Tantric and the architect of the band’s new incarnation, describes the last few years. Ferreira survived it all—the collapse of Maverick Records, the departure of the other three original band members—and has brought his band back with a new lineup and an innovative new album, The End Begins. Tantric is on tour now and Ferreira recently called in from the road to discuss the band’s new life, the new album and more with Live-Metal.net’s Greg Maki.

Live-Metal.net: A lot has happened since we last heard from Tantric. So what got you here? What led, first, to the other original members of the band leaving?

Huge Ferreira: Well, what happened was we had recorded a third record together with the original members and shortly after that happened the label had gone out of business. I really think that the other guys just left out of frustration. They were just kind of done with this whole industry. Shortly after that, I went down in my own studio and I started writing this new record, The End Begins, and along the way I met my violin player and my guitar player and drummer and bass player. We rehearsed all the songs together, wrote the new ones collectively as a band and recorded the record, and here we are.

Did you experience that same frustration? Was there ever a time when you thought about not continuing this?

I was definitely frustrated and I was definitely in limbo for a little bit, but I don’t think ever at a point I was ready to give up. I just knew that I had to reconstruct and that it was gonna be difficult. Had to start from scratch again, but I was bound to do that.

I assume the title of the album, The End Begins, must be a reference to what you had to go through to get to this point, right?

Pretty much. It’s definitely kind of like if you had to wrap up everything in a sentence. It was like the end of one thing led to the beginning of another.

The thing that really sets the band apart right now is the violinist [Marcus Ratzenboeck] in the band. How did that happen? Were you looking to add that or did you meet him and decide you needed to do that?

I kind of always had an idea to do something like that and I had known him because he lives in the same town as I did. He was a professor at [the University of Louisville] and played in the orchestra there. Basically, we would hang out a lot and he would come over, and we would mess around with violin ideas and we started messing around with the violin running through full stack amps. We would look at each other and be like, “This sounds really good.” I guess when the time came to reconstruct the band, he was the first one on my list.

My favorite song on the album is definitely “Down & Out.” I really love the way the violin is playing what would be the guitar riff in most other bands’ songs. I’d never really heard anything quite like that.

Yeah, that’s definitely what we wanted to use the violin as, as more of an integral part of the music rather than a supplement. And it many times replaces what would be a lead guitar part or any other type of lead. So yeah, it’s working out really cool. Everybody seems to be liking it.

Have you gone back and reworked the old songs—or at least the old ones that you’re playing live—to incorporate the violin?

Yeah, yeah, we do.

Which have worked out the best that way?

They all worked out really good because Marcus, he’s a really knowledgeable musician. That kind of gives him a big color palette to pick from. So when he plays the old stuff, he created his own part, which kind of ties the old and the new stuff together.

One of my other favorite songs on the album is “Love Song.” It’s got those lyrics that I think everybody can relate to at some point.

Yeah.

Was there something specific that inspired that for you or just kind of a general feeling?

During that time period when I was trying to reconstruct the band, I was also in a personal problem with a relationship that I was in and it was kind of the beginning of the end of that, too. So in this whole record, if I’m not talking about that, I’m talking about the band. There were definitely two things that were going on in my life that were taking over my thought process.

On another song, “The One,” you have Kevin Martin from Candlebox singing with you. How did that come about?

Well, Kevin Martin is on our label, the new Candlebox record, and when I wrote the song, I always wanted two singers and I wanted to use a well-known singer to make a cameo. So he was on the label and it was really convenient and we were all big fans of Candlebox. We asked him to do it, he came out in one day and just nailed it, sounded fantastic. So we’re really happy with that.

You worked on this album again with [producer] Toby Wright, who did the first two albums, too. I guess you must have a good working relationship with him. What does he bring to the album?

He’s like the sixth member of the band. I think that he just knows me so well from doing three records with him and he’s a guy who can really bring out the best in me, personally. I really enjoy working with him. He’s pretty much a savant at what he does. He’s fantastic.

You’re out on tour right now. How’s it going?

It’s going fantastic. A couple little injuries here and there, but nothing bad.

How long did it take the new band to become tight and together as a band?

Really not that long because we’ve all been in bands our whole lives. We just rehearsed for about a month or so, got everything down straight. Every show we play it’s getting tighter and tighter. I think right now we’re putting on a really solid show.

I saw dates are scheduled through the middle of June right now. How long do you plan to be out on the road for this album?

As long as possible. Hopefully we won’t be coming home anytime soon. We definitely love to tour and we love to be on the road.

Tantric had a lot of success, especially with the first album. Now that you’ve got a second life, what expectations and goals do you have for the band?

My goal is ultimately to be as successful as I can with this band and the only expectations that I have are for myself and my fellow band members. The rest is kind of up to God and a little bit of good luck. I definitely think that we have a good record and we’re a solid band, so hopefully we’ll be blessed with some success.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

I would encourage people to go onto the Tantric MySpace and become a friend or member and stuff, and they can get a lot of information about the band that way.