Conteiner Exclusive interview with details of their music and upcoming events

1- Hello and welcome to Metal Music Midwest, first off, thanks for taking the time to do the interview, could you give our readers a brief description of the group? 

Where is the band from?

Thank you. We are basically a guitar / drums / bass trio coming from Bilbao, Basque Country. A formerly heavily industrialized and nowadays service-focused little city located in Northern Iberian peninsula, 120 km from the "French" border. We started back in 2016 and have two releases till date: Conteiner EP (2018) and Light Demolator (2022). All of us have been involved in the underground music circuit for 20+ years: playing in bands, booking DIY gigs, doing some occasional artwork for gig posters and albums...

2- Light Demolator is the band's debut full album, how long did it take to write?

The album composition began in 2019. So it's been almost a couple of years until we entered the recording studio. The pandemic situation, and its consequent lack of live activity in that period helped us to focus ourselves on writing the new LP. So we tried to do our best, not only in terms of songwriting, but also regarding the overall sound itself. We´ve been quite exigent when it comes to getting an expressive and powerful sound in studio, as it was crucial for us to properly reflect our room and live strength on our first full-length. JM Sampedro aka Xanpe (who has also worked with Horn Of The Rhino, Loan, Ama Say, Altarage, Anestesia...) has been in charge of recording, mixing and mastering it.

3- What musical influence inspires the band's compositions?

It is obvious to say our band is mainly riff and thunder-drum based. But we think there should be more nuances and resources to it: for instance, we pay lots of attention to song progressions, we care for dynamics, etc. Listening to our music, anyone could easily conclude we´ve been listening to genres such as noise-rock, sludge, some underground metal and stuff for years. Nevertheless, we are definitely interested in and exposed to other genres like jazz, electronics, progressive rock, avant-garde stuff or even contemporary classical music (styles which we enjoy as much as riff music). Some of us also play in free improv or electronic oriented acts, so some might say we are into a wide range of tunes.

4- The group started in 2018, can you tell us how you all met?

The band was formed in 2016. Iñaki and Unai knew each other from 1999-2000 and always had in mind trying something new, so they began rehearsing as a duo. Then Mikel (the bass player) came in and the trio was completed.

5- The album title is Light Demolator, can you give us details about the content and more in depth meaning to this title?

The term "Demolator" doesn't really exist in English vocabulary but we wanted to include it in the title. The name came out of an internal joke, but we want to make clear we are not a humorous band. We prefer playing in the limits of humour vs. serious situations through our lyrics and we must say we have been influenced by abstraction, horror, sci-fi, the increasing existence absurdity, word sounds themselves, black humour, hallucinatory trails and Tom G. Warrior´s "ughs" when writing them. Those are the main topics we handle.

6- Each member of this project is part of another band, how do you maintain a good balance working together?

We can confirm Conteiner is our main band nowadays, so taking this into account.... Yeah, we rehearse every week. Unai also plays drums for psychedelic band Sotomonte, Iñaki plays the guitar for noise-rockers Meido, and Mikel plays guitar and effects for Orbain Unit and some other free improvisation combos: a duo with Joseba Agirrezabalaga, a trio with cellist Matías Riquelme and sax player Fernando Ulzión...

7- Have you performed any shows in your area? if so, how receptive and supportive are the people to your music?

Till now we´ve mainly played in Basque Country and Spain but we are open to spreading our tentacles over Europe. Overall, people have been receptive and sometimes enthusiastic... even in our area. Which is fine if we take into consideration that people from Bilbao usually tend to hate bands from Bilbao hahaha.

8- Are there any upcoming shows or tours you can tell us about?

Now in autumn we´ve got 4 shows in our closest area. From December on we would like to play all over Spain (and of course, Portugal!). Besides, if we three have common holidays... It would be lovely to tour Europe. Even 7-10 dates would be great. 

9- Thanks for your participation, finally, what is the best way to get a hold of the band, in case someone wants to book or promote the band? 

Any final words?

Thanks to you for letting us spread our word! The easiest way to get in touch with us would be the following: conteinernoise@gmail.com

Bandcamp: https://conteinernoise.bandcamp.com/

Instagram: @conteinernoise

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/0BT2ENIEDUACmeB9MgxgBl?si=ejWOqQvGR2KDgvDkFrhm7w

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