Estefania Aledo & V

Mind Driller

Even today, with its commercial success, Industrial Metal and in all its formats still have some rejection from Old Metalheads. But in the wake of the last decade, one very good name appeared in Spain: MIND DRILLER. And now that the sextet is releasing "InBolution", Metal Temple writer Marcos Garcia had the opportunity to talk with them about the new album, their past and their future plans.

By "Metal Mark" Garcia

• March 31, 2021

MIND DRILLER's Estefania Aledo: "The media keeps comparing us to Rammstein

Hi dears. First of all, I want to thank you for the opportunity. As the first question, I'd like to ask you to tell the readers about MIND DRILLER's history. How the things came to you, and how the band was started?

ESTEFI: Hi, thanks for having us. Mind Driller started back in 2011 as a solo studio project of Javier Oriente when his former band "BLOOD" departed ways. Fun fact is that most of us (MD members) knew Javi because we were fans of Blood (they were quite popular in the metal scene in Spain). As I mentioned before, this band was thought to be just a studio project in which Javi wanted some vocals to collaborate with so he contacted V, Daniel and me first. However, when Javi put some of the demos out they were so well welcome that he reconsidered the idea of making Mind Driller a "real band" and started to search for a bassist and a drummer to complete the line-up. A few months later, we published our first LP and initiated our "Red Industrial Tour" and here we are still. It has always been thanks to the people that support us that Mind Driller exists.

Looking on the band's bio, in some moment you worked with Alexander Krull, from ATROCITY and LEAVES EYES on the remastering of "Red Industrial" (2012) and "Zirkus" (2015). What are your impressions about Alex's work? And do you have plans to work with him again in the future? And by the way, are you fully satisfied with what both albums present and what they brought to you in terms of attention of the fans?

"V": With Alex there was always a very good relationship, but because of his way of working, we decided to change for our third album as it was incompatible with the way we wanted to master.
Even so, as I told you, the treatment was always magnificent on his part and it's two albums for we've got a lot of affection because it was a good foundation to be able to get to where we are now.

"Involution", your past album, was produced by you and Raúl Abellán (who did the mixing as well) and with the mastering of Marco D'Agostino. How was to work with them in the studio? And how was the reception of the fans? Can you say that "Involution" took you to another level of recognition?

ESTEFI: Absolutely yes, and it was very comforting because that's exactly what we wanted to achieve with this album. Nevertheless, I have to say that the process was tougher than we expected, of course you know that making an album can be exhausting and sometimes it seems as you can't see the light at the end of the tunnel, and believe me, there were too many setbacks that were quite challenging to overcome during the process of Involution and coming across Raúl Abellán and Marco D'Agostino was one of the best things that could have happened to us. The connection was immediate and that helped us all to get marvelous results (from our point of view, of course). We had heard wonderful words about both of them and that's one of the reasons why we wanted to work together, and it was totally worth it.

As the previous questions state clean, MIND DRILLER have four releases. But "InBolution" (the latest one) seems to be a continuity of "Involution". Am I right? If I'm not, can you tell us the reason for the similarities between the names? And looking on "Involution" and "InBolution" track lists, there are some tracks on the last one that already were released on the first, but on different versions. So we can say that "InBolution" is a kind of studio leftlovers, or in other words, good songs that were left out in the final choice of songs for "Involution"?

"V": Not exactly. Due to this pandemic we were forced to postpone our tour, and we knew that being stopped for so long could be negative, so we decided to give to our fans exclusive material and thus continue to be present. For this, we rescued 2 songs removed from "Involution", to which we added 1 new song, 3 remixes and 3 instrumental versions so that people could sing them at home.
Finally, as we consider this work a "B-Side" of "Involution", we decided to call it "inBolution" (laughs).

Now let's talk about "InBolution", your latest album. The question is simple: what is the idea or concept about the album's name?

ESTEFI: As said before, we had some "leftovers" from Involution and we didn't want to stop so it looked like the perfect time to release them. However, 2 songs weren't satisfying enough so we had to figure out what else we could do and we ended up having this idea of releasing an EP with rare content and new merch. So basically, the main concept was to make like a B-SIDES of Involution and that's why we decided to call the EP after inBolution which I think it's cool because it's like a word game and at the same time sticks with the concept.

On the lyrics: do you have a set of ideas that the themes orbit, or is there a special matter that you like to deal with? And by the way: why a Spanish band uses some German lyrics in some points? Is there an idea behind it?

"V": The truth is that we don't have a generic theme. Normally the singer who begins writing a song is the one who chooses the theme, and usually talks about something that the music suggests to him, we don't choose a general theme for the whole album, we kind of did that in Involution though, but because we had the title of the album on the first place and that led the way in most cases.
As for German language, industrial metal is an original style from Germany and our singer Daniel is much more comfortable singing in this language, it comes naturally to him and I think it's very positive for crossing borders.

One thing is really astonishing on MIND DRILLER's music: it's bombastic and oppressive as many Industrial bands, even having a clear accessible insight; it bears aggressiveness and some melodies that successful names into Industrial Metal names wouldn't use, in fear of losing fans. And as I was hearing "InBolution", it amazes me due to the courage to do what others fear to do. So how is the composition of songs into the band, the dynamics of ideas between you? Of course that you have a characteristic sound, but your music really seems spontaneous.

ESTEFI: Javi plays the main role here (laughs). He's the one in charge of writing the songs, instrumentally speaking, and once the instrumentals are done then Dani, V and I work on the vocal lines. This would be a brief summary of how we compose. Later on, would come other arrangements and we would go deeper into details. We fear nothing, we just want to make music that we would like to listen to without thinking if people are going to like it or not, and the media keeps comparing us to Rammstein, which is funny though, because I think that Mind Driller has more to offer than just a generic layer typical from any industrial metal band.

As I was reviewing the album, a personal question appeared in my mind: why three instrumental songs (the versions of "Prophecy", "Rotten" and "The Last Drop") can be found on "InBolution"?

"V": It's something we've had in our minds for a long time, because our guitarist Javix composes an amazing instrumentation and samplers, but on many occasions the voices cover all that. It's a way that people can really appreciate his great work and at the same time they can use them as karaoke (laughs).

In 2020, unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic came and froze things, and the bands couldn't play live shows anymore. How are things going with you during this hard time? Are you presenting live shows on Facebook or Youtube channel? If yes, leave the links for the fans!

"V": Well, it really has been very difficult, because 2020 was going to be a wonderful year. We had a long tour and we were present at the biggest festivals of our country, and it was very hard to see how everything was being put off. But we believe that all this will pass soon and we know that we have to keep fighting and be prepared when the concerts come back. So far we haven't done any streaming concerts, but we don't drop out that idea, so stay tuned ...

Another one about the pandemic: it seems that things are slowing getting back to normal (except here in Brazil, where I unfortunately live). So how are the plans for you? Another set of shows on France and Germany are being scheduled? And your perspective of things about the pandemic is positive? And by the way: if one of you, members of MIND DRILLER, has lost someone, I'm truly sorry…

ESTEFI: We try to stay as positive as we can which I can assure you is not an easy task (laughs). The pandemic is delaying most of our schedule but we have to be patient and keep working. Anyway, it will come to an end sooner or later and Mind Driller will be ready to kick some asses when the time comes. We are really looking forward to playing in the major festivals in which we were previously confirmed. Fortunately, everyone is okay in our families, we have some relatives with health issues but not because of Covid. The whole world is a mess right know and I hope things get better everywhere including Brazil. We send you good vibes from Spain!

OK, it's premature to speak about a new release as "InBolution" was released just a few months ago, but are there plans for a new album soon? If yes, can you tell us something about it?

ESTEFI: Absolutely! We're very active and there's a new record on the way in which we are currently working but we're not in a hurry at all. What we can tell you so far is that is going to sound aggressive, crazy and dark.

That's all. I truly thank you again for this opportunity. Please, let your message for your fans and our readers.

MD: It's our pleasure, we're very glad to speak with you and we would like to thank you and your readers for your support. If you would like to find out more about us, we kindly invite you to check our social networks (youtube, spotify, facebook, instagram…), we'll be happy to welcome you. Stay safe and enjoy music!

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