Getting to Know… Overhate | Interview 🎤

In the 303^rd  Q&A in our Getting to Know… series, we get the inside scoop from the Venezuelan rock band, Overhate.

What makes 🎙 Overhate distinct? “By blasting some riff-oriented thrash/death metal up their heads!” Woo! Like our many other Getting to Know Q&As, we get the inside scoop on the Venezuelan rock collective including its genesis, goals, musical influences, and of course, current, and future musical endeavors. So, without further ado, let’s jump right into 🎤 Getting to Know… Overhate: Interview No. 303!

For those who may not be familiar with Overhate, what would you say makes you distinct or unique? How do you rock the audience’s socks off?

🎤 By blasting some riff-oriented thrash/death metal up their heads! That’s basically how that works!

Okay, let’s explore some juicy backstories. How did Overhate form and what were some of the goals or visions you had early on?

🎤 This band was formed in November 2003. Back then, the line-up was entirely different, and I should say the style we used to play was also a bit different from what we play now. Overhate was born out of the ashes of a band that used to be called ‘Mermelada Maker’ and that band used to have a more ‘nu metal’ sound. Then there were line-up changes, and that was when I entered the band. The line-up that was left there consisted of pure extreme metal lovers, so we changed the band’s name and went up full throttle with a progressive thrash metal sound. Then the name OVERHATE was intended to be the title of the debut album, just that a friend of ours suggested that we used for the band’s name, because at the end of the day the band has a very aggressive sound, and that name represented it all.

Let’s talk more about goals.  Have your goals or your perspectives changed since first starting out? What do your aspirations or goals look like now?

🎤 Apart from recording and releasing music, we plan to be a regular touring act. That’d be the only way to build it all. Yes, the goals and the perspectives definitely changed when we started out, but actually as of now, everything changed to what it was when we first started out. Even the way music is consumed definitely changed. At the beginning, everyone has to be Metallica, but then freak the hell out when they see what it takes for that to be achieved lol. At the moment, we’re all in our early 40s, so some goals change because your life changes as well.

Everybody is influenced by somebody else. Whom would you consider some of your biggest musical influences and how are they influential?

🎤 Mine is Kreator. I definitely love that band, and their music had all that I was looking when I was starting out, like aggressiveness and beauty in a blender, and that’s what I saw then. But now my music is more influenced by the experiences that I go through, and there is a lot that can inspire me to write a good song these days.

Ah, the fun stuff.  What’s your craziest tour story or the wackiest thing that’s happened during a performance?  Feel free to be creative.

🎤 There’s been a few, but you know, touring is where a lot of stuff happens. One time we were asked to go visit the island of Margarita, and when we made it there, the promoter took us to a hotel called ‘Hotel Paraiso’ (paradise in English) and it was the nastiest of shitholes I’ve ever seen. The walls in the bathroom had like fungus on it, It was dreadful lol. We moved to an apartment nearby that we rented, and it resulted the floor where we stayed had a couple of other touring bands on the island that night, so the amount of weed and booze was catastrophic. We had the cops visiting, I woke up in the living room so I guess it was excellent! In Canada we got booted from the hotel where the indie week conference took place, they refused to sell us more beer and kicked us out, we filmed that and used it for the intro of the tour diary video of Canada. Things like that always happen it seems.

Up until this point in your career, what would you describe as your favorite song you’ve recorded or performed live? What makes that song special?

🎤 This is an excellent question, because there are a lot of factors that can determine why a song becomes special when you play it live. But then again:

• From our debut album, the song 🎵 “Blind War” became our closer every night, for being a very fast song. We love to play it then as we do now, I believe is the song for the final mosh pit, and the crowd also embraces it as such.
• From the debut album as well, the song 🎵 “Forgiveness”. I think that song help us take off from the beginning, it was the first written with the first lineup we had – it was special.
• From 💿 Relentless is our Strength, the song 🎵 “No change today” and 🎵 “From the shadows” were our two ‘Radio friendly’ songs, they also became crowd favourites then, and we learned that the songs didn’t have to always be 7 minutes long lol. That record has a lot of fine songs to play live that we enjoy, with momentum and crowd sing-along choruses. One of those that stands out is 🎵 “With or against us”, which we always played live ever since.
• From our new album [💿 New Beginnings are Met], 🎵 “God I’ve found”, 🎵 “Realities Collide”, 🎵 “Beneath the Curse” and 🎵 “Crossroad Song” really stand out musically and Lyrically. That is a record where that to us is style-defining and the best one I’ve written so far.

Is there anything else awesome, cool, or left of center the world should know about you? Secret talents or surprising tidbits?  

🎤 I’m a pharmacist if that means something lol.

Closing out, what is Overhate currently working on, promoting that you can share with us or want us to know about? We love secrets, but there’s no pressure.   

🎤 Certainly. There’s a left over from the sessions for 💿 New Beginnings are Met, which we’re releasing as a stand-alone single. It is a 12-minute epic, so this is why it goes alone. Then next year, we’ll start recording our follow-up for New beginnings are met, so you will have new music from us coming, that’s for sure!

 Thank you so much for sharing taking the time to answer these questions, and best of luck moving forward. 

🎤 Thank you for having the band!

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Getting to Know… Overhate: Interview No. 303 [📷: Brent Faulkner, Darkmoon_Art, luis2500gx, The Musical Hype, Overhate, Pixabay, OpenClipart-Vectors]