It is very easy to feel intimidated when you stand in front of the gigantic-looking Aaron Moniz, drummer and founding member of the Moroccan Melodic Death Metal – Casablanca city – outfit Into The Evernight, but one thing that you are soon to discover is that he is one of the friendliest and most outspoken artists you can ever expect to meet these days.
With a behavior both warm and disarming, he explains the process based on which Into The Evernight‘s music created nowadays and gave an insight into his band’s heavy touring schedule that’s to come in the next few months.
What type of band are you? And what does Into The Evernight mean?
We are a Progressive Melodic Death Metal band.
Into The Evernight is a tribute to one of our major influences and one of the best melodic death metal bands ever, Insomnium. ‘Into The Evernight’ is the title of one of their songs. It is also a metaphor for the type of darkness and the type of horrid lives that we can all leave if we are not conscious of our actions and how we act in this world. Most of our lyrics talk about how to pull yourself out of the depths of darkness and face life’s most difficult challenges, and thus ‘Into The Evernight’ is a statement that refers to a destination that we will never end up in. The darkness and pain that is associated with living life as an unconscious automaton, leading to your own suffering.
Tell us the brief history of your band.
The band started when Mamoun and Aaron – my tattoo artist – insisted that we meet because he thought that we’d get along well. Mamoun and I jammed one night and the chemistry was instant. We rocked out to old At The Gates riffs and played a bit more thrashy stuff and we decided that we needed to start a sick death metal project here in Casa, because there was a serious lack of good Death Metal.
We only found the members to start a sort of a Stoner band. After a few months of jamming with that group, Mamoun was recording a pop-rock band and met Amine, our guitar player, in the studio. He saw how insanely talented he was and talked to him about playing in a Death Metal band. Amine was instantly convinced and our band started as a Trio. Our first Jam session, we wrote our first song ‘Dead Reckoning’ and every jam session that followed was intense, productive and it was exactly the group that we had had the intentions of starting. Wanting to record an album, we began to search for a vocalist. After trying a few people here and there, one of my best friends and local videographer, Fayssal, volunteered to try out for the position. As much as I loved the guy, I had never heard him sing, but he ensured us that he could pull it off. At the end of his first attempt, we were SO surprised that such a brutal scream could come out of such a sweet guy. Within the first two weeks of ever having singing in his life, Fayssal was in such good shape that we recorded the album. So the voice that you hear on the record was Fayssal in his first month of singing ever. And it’s brutal!
And from that moment onward we have been using our jam sessions, and our explosive concerts to make the music that we love, attempt to change the state of Death Metal in Morocco and hopefully share our music with a greater audience in the world.
Who are your musical and non-musical influences?
Our musical influences are so varied that it goes from Hardcore Breaks, to At The Gates speed and chunk, Insonmium’s melodic death influence, to Dream Theatre’s guitar styles, Mors Principium Est’s direction, Gojira’s progressive elements and mix that all in with a bit of thrash speed, a bit of punk’s intensity and raw attitude and whatever other influences that we as musicians can’t leave behind. I would also say that our lyrical writing process is heavily influenced by Fayssal’s ability to create films and my background as an English literature teacher with love for author’s like Dostoyevsky and the great dark classics.
What are your dreams and goals?
Women, money and cars… Just kidding!
We want to play in Europe and other places internationally, we want to continue writing and continue creating the music that moves us and we want to continue in the process of writing our lives into music.
Who writes the songs, what are they about?
Fayssal writes most of the lyrics, and I do the tweaking, editing and some of the linguistic additions and adjustments.
As I stated earlier, our lyrics mostly write about all the unconscious factors that exist in our worlds (corruption, vanity, greed, lust, commercialism and its ability to possess) and how we are the only ones in our lives that can use conscious forces to fight back against them to avoid being sucked into the darkness of Hell.
Describe your show, visually and musically.
Live shows are fun! We have never played for a crowd that stands still, even if we play in a theatre with seats. Although we may not be that most insane band on stage – although I think that we all have our pretty nuts moments – we play with directed intensity and it always leads to a good show. Musically, I would say that Amine KILLS it with his solos even live, Mamoun captures the crowd, I BEAT THE HELL out of the drums and Fayssal growls the demons from his insides and spits in at the crowd for them to choke on and revel in. Come see for yourself.
What do you think about downloading music online?
Do it! Our albums are free! Selling CDs is a thing of the past. Music is about the live show and the experience it makes, not about selling the product. Live it, experience it, and enjoy it.
What’s your outlook on the record industry today in Morocco?
What industry?
What inspires you to do what you do?
Life is the greatest inspiration and motivation. When you write your life, and sublimate that which drives you, you give back to the world in a way that you could not if you were aiming for a certain sound or style. Love for the music is also the glue that keeps us together doing what we do.
What advice would you give to fellow bands?
Three things!
1. PLAY SHOWS! This is my 24th band in the last 15 years in 3 different countries and it has shaped me, my perspectives, my skills and my view on what is important in life.
2. Don’t let anything get in the way:
Money: Borrow something or save up. Parents and culture: Everyone needs to adapt at some point; otherwise we’d still be living in caves, and finally, relationships: People need to respect you for who you are.
3. Don’t try to be something that you are not. Do not aim for a style. Write your music, play what you like.
How does music affect you and the world around you?
Music has been one of the most important guiding factors in all of our lives since we were kids. It helps to guide who we meet, how we express ourselves, what we can give back to the people in our immediate world and to those that listen from abroad. We hope to help kill cancer with our lyrics and spread blood and sweat with our sound all in the name of escaping the factors that bind you and keep you back.
What’s new in the recording of your music?
Our recording Engineer Mamoun himself! Also, the variety of influences all jammed into one song and one album.
What are the biggest obstacles for bands? Any last words?
Reliability and commitment. Don’t be a bitch, work hard so you can play hard.
Interviewed by: Yassine Siyaf
